To plimrn: Hi Pat

[xuaxo]

I have news that the area of the <a href="http://www.trekearth.com/workshops/660413/photo101763.htm" target=_blank>old pier</a> (click for old picture), in the centre of my photo is being modernized; I wish they don't modernize too much.
About Brazil independence, maybe you'd like to know a little more than I wrote in the note.
When Napoleon was on the way to invade Portugal, the royal family (i.e. the Portuguese Government) moved to Brazil (then a Portuguese colony) in 1807 and it was created there the United Kingdom of Portugal and Brazil. In the early 1820s the royal family returns to Portugal, leaving Dom Pedro as Regent-Prince (in practice, the representative of Portugal in Brazil). After some pressures, Dom Pedro sided with the pro-independence movement.
In August 1822 Dom Pedro goes to São Paulo because it was a revolt there. While he was to be away, he appoints his wife, Dona Leopoldina, with powers of chief of government (chief of the Council of State and Interim Regent-Princess). Meanwhile, she got news that it was going to happen a Portuguese action against the independence movement. Without time to wait for Pedro's return, Leopoldina organizes a meeting of the Council of State on September 2, 1822, and, using her interim powers, signs the Independence decree, declaring Brazil separated from Portugal. After that, Leopoldina sends a letter to Pedro and demands that he proclaimes the independence. A famous phrase of the letter is: "The fruit is ready, harvest it now before it becomes rotten".
The messenger with the letter meets Pedro on September 7, 1822, on the banks of Ipiranga river. He had to decide promptly, so he declared "Independence or death!", which would became famous as the "O grito do Ipiranga" ("The Cry of Ipiranga"). Dom Pedro becomes the first Emperor of Brazil, proclaimed on October 12 and crowned on December 1; and Dona Leopoldina becomes Empress Consort of Brazil. [For a while, when Dom Pedro returned to Portugal, she was also Queen Consort of Portugal.] September 7 is now Brazil's Independence Day.
If this story sounds like a soap opera, you are not too far from that. The Brazilians are very good at making TV soap operas, and, of course, they did already at least one featuring the story of Dom Pedro and Dona Leopoldina. A spicy ingredient is that Pedro was well known by his amorous affairs, before, during and after marriage to Leopoldina, and she knew it, of course.
F