Sumiu

Sometimes I feel like I live in a weird science fiction novel.

The verb sumir in Portuguese means to disappear or vanish and is most commonly expressed in the third person past tense sumiu, meaning Where did you go? Where did it go? or Whatever happened to you/it? [As an aside, I love how one word can sum up a whole variety of sentences in English]. Anyway, back to the tale. Tonight, when I headed out to my newly established Tuesday night badminton match, I ended up circling around and around and around [yes, three times and lots of voltinhas or returns] looking for the entrance to the court. I had made it to the court quite fine a mere seven days earlier and couldn't understand why I couldn't find it this time around. There was only one possible explanation - sumiu. It had obviously disappeared. After the third round, I finaly stopped, asked for directions and was pointed in the right direction. Turns out that it had not disappeared, but that in fact, I had missed a turn. A turn that I have no recollection of from last week even though everything else was crystal clear in my memory....