“we’re home. we’re home. we’re home.” like a mantra, repeated to exhaustion.

– just before the pandemic started, we bought a newer car and left the old one in porto. the plan was to take more public transportation on the south-north-south trips, and then use the old car to move around in between our families in the north. this should help us make these trips more eco-friendly, save money and also allow us to have more relaxed trips without the stress of driving. but then the whole pandemic came around, and it took us 1.5 years to be comfortable riding public transportation on long trips again. we finally did it on this last one, and boy did we save money. :| we scored some €5 flixbus tickets to go from porto to faro, which, even adding the fare for the train to get us to conceição is still several times cheaper than driving a car up. the trip does take longer, but there’s electricity and internet, and i’ve also read more in these 2 rides than i’ve done in ages, so i’m pretty much sold.

– i finished reading blockchain chicken farm, about the surprising ways in which technology is changing rural china, which was interesting — i wish we had a bit more of that rural entrepreneurial spirit around here. started reading ready player one.

– we didn’t even consider these factors when we rented (and then bought) the house, but having access to trains and long-distance buses less than 5mins from the place where we live is amazing.

– other than that, it’s been a pretty crummy week. moving right along!