what a beautiful month july was!
we attended street performances in town, saw some concerts and nice movies, tried a new japanese place, saw old friends, went north to spend time with family and baby LJ… the days were filled to the brim!
Author: ana
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hoooooome! we returned south this week, to our home sweet home. the main train got delayed by some signal malfunction in alentejo, forcing us to catch the very last train connection home, which meant we had to switch to a bus in fuseta because of the nightly electrification works of the south line. it was a looooong ride, but we made it!
i read a lot on the train, and ended up finishing 3 books this week: wintering, the thursday murder club #1 and contos da montanha. they’re all so different, but all interesting in their own way. i don’t remember if i had ever read anything from miguel torga beyond loose poems, but contos da montanha was a fascinating (and depressing) trip into early 20th century rural portugal, featuring a lot of the stories and vocabulary one hears from their northern grandparents.
in other news, the tomato plants have gone wild and the big surprise is that we now have soybeans! we got the seeds in the netherlands, and i planted them just for fun, but it seems like we can do this! right now they’re tiny, and i’m curious to see if we can grow them to full size and eat a dish of edamame. that would be cool!
summer is the time when we end up seeing friends who are holidaying nearby, and this week we had dinner with 2 different groups of friends and their respective children.
i had forgotten we had booked tickets to david fonseca’s concert, which was this past wednesday! it was a retrospective concert, looking back on his 25 year career, and it was a whole thing, with quirky video effects and lots of dancing and shouting the lyrics of songs that we’re very familiar with. it was so much fun!
so it’s maybe hard to believe that despite all of these things, the week was mostly a quiet one, hiding from the heat and trying to catch up with work. this is the run-up to world postcard day, and there is so much to do. it was go go go!
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weeknotes, 31/24
one week spent with the family, taking parents to doctor appointments, working from the library, running errands and watching the olympics in the in-betweens…
the highlight of the week was baby niece’s birthday party! the parents gathered family and friends in aveiro for a little celebration, and there was a shaun-the-sheep themed cake made by a neighbor, a little swimming pool for the kids, music and lots of food and drinks. and the baby was happy the whole afternoon, despite having skipped her nap!
we gifted her (and the parents) year passes to the local zoo, so they can go with her whenever they want. i hope they like it!
and since we were in aveiro, we spent some hours exploring the city. we still don’t know it very well, but it seems nice at first glance… more explorations required!
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weeknotes, 30/24
another week spent with family, the whole reason for coming up north! little niece was sick for a bit, but recovered in time to spend the weekend with us in celorico again, while her parents attended a wedding. her favorite thing is this downward dog yoga pose:
also, squashing her face against glass doors:
her other grandparents came to spend one day with us, and we had a meeting of four grandparents, all very smitten!
sadly, by the end of the weekend she was feverish again… sigh. toddler’s life is hard.
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weeknotes, 28-29/24
summer is in full swing, and i’m here for it! clear skies, warm nightly breezes, bee-eaters gurgling in the sky…
in the early days of july, there are performances in town every night. our favorites this year were “perceptions“, which was was mesmerizing, and “a viagem” a cute little theater play that takes place in a campervan for an audience of 8. i also enjoyed seeing lavoisier again, and checking out the arabic nights in cacela.
we made a czech mushroom soup called kulajda and it was super nice.
i finished two books. the first was circe, the story of a greek nymph who grows and transforms herself into something different. i really enjoyed it, and by the middle of the book, i was invested in what was going to happen, and what more the gods would throw her way. and i also finished listening to interior chinatown, which was very well read and enjoyable… but different. the format takes a bit more getting used to.
the boy had his third miracle shot, and i ate the first fartura of the summer — always a highlight! :D
later on week 29, we took the train north for the customary 2 weeks of catching up with the family during summer. we kidnapped the little niece for the weekend, and everyone was besotted by her charms — the grandparents especially, but also other little cousins. now that she can crawl and play, she’s like a little doll to them!
to us, she’s just the nicest baby! i hope to always remember how she laughs when the boy tries to (very seriously) teach her to say “paaaauuu-lo!” and her funny crawl-push way of moving around. it feels like she’s on the verge of starting to walk now, but hasn’t quite figured out yet what to do once she stands up. it’s really moving to see all these milestones take place!
