this week, i finished the 2 long reads i had started at the end of january, the seven husbands of evelyn hugo and midnight in chernobyl. the former was just so-so but the latter was amazing — an astonishingly thorough, in-depth breakdown of the disaster and its many ramifications. i feel like going back and watching hbo’s chernobyl series again, to put a face to these characters i’ve become so familiar with.

and speaking of books, i signed up for portugal’s own new digital lending program biblioled and got my first audiobook! for now, the selection is not extensive (and the books can’t be sent to kindles) but the regional library has quite a few audiobooks from the fundação francisco manuel dos santos, which are usually good. i’ve picked one about palliative care to give it a try.

this week included art class, the return of chinese classes, swimming, running… it’s like everyday had a bit of something different in it. spring is in the air all around us, with the countryside exploding in bermuda buttercups and the almond trees hanging on to their last blooms…

we went to noélia on valentine’s day, and also enjoyed a nice lunch out on this week’s mini winter festival, in town.

it’s 10 weeks until the “maratona da europa” in aveiro. the boy and my brother registered for the half-marathon, and me and my sister-in-law signed up for the 10k. right now, i can run around 3.5kms… will i be able to make it to 10? i’m not too confident, but i think so. i’m currently running while following along to the abel town saga on the zombies, run! app, which is a kind of audio story in which you’re a runner, running errands in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. the story unfolds as you go, with different characters, audio effects and things that you pick up along the way. it’s kind of cute, and the zombies are not that scary!

and last but not least, good news!

the level at our local dam is at the highest it’s been in a long time — higher than i remember ever seeing it! it’s kind of magic seeing the local stream with water again, after so long. let’s see if the kingfishers will return too!