Author: ana

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weeknotes

weeknotes, 35/24

the big thing this week was that, in addition to our friends and their dogs, we also had my brother, his wife and baby LJ in the house! 😅 they needed a place to stay while taking care of other family stuff in faro, and prices in algarve are predictably off the roof during summer… so they ended up staying with us for a few days.

baby niece is still her delightful self, now with the addition of a few gimmicks that she’s been learning, like the sound a few animals make, where her tongue and nose are, how to say she’s had enough food… and paulo’s name! the boy has been so consistent trying to teach her his name, that she suddenly started saying it — well, a version of it that sounds like “pau-ummmmm”. it’s adorable!

i’ve also finished a few books here and there, a mix of things. i enjoyed the thursday murder club (about a group people in a nursing home that solve murders!), contos da montanha (the vocabulary is beautiful, the words just straight out of my grandma’s kitchen), all creatures great and small and a thousand splendid suns. this last one, about the lives of 2 women in afghanistan in the years since the revolution, was a punch in the gut, every page filled with heartbreak… i’m not sure how i managed to finish it, but i definitely needed some lighter literature after that.

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just life weeknotes

weeknotes, 34/24

the big news this week is that i got us an inflatable swimming pool. it was cheap, but it’s surprisingly roomy for a couple of adults. the boy is not a big fan of it, but i love it! taking a dip in the middle of a scorching day is just bliss!

this week we went to quinta do lago, to check out a trail our friends are fond of. we saw a lot of birds, including a few new species like little bitterns and black-headed weavers. our bird count is now up to 149 different species — not bad!

in turn, we took them to a local japanese place that opened this year that we really like, and they became fans of it as well. they do a bit of everything, but the bubble tea and the egg waffles in particular were a big hit.

also this week, our friend J discovered sugarless jello, a game changer for her as a diabetic. apparently, jello is not something kids eat in austria… who knew?! jello is so familiar to us, such a beloved childhood dessert, that it’s mind-boggling to think there are grown-ups out there that never tried it. so she went on a spree and bought all the flavors in the supermarket. 2024’s summer shall be known as the summer of the jello!

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just life weeknotes

weeknotes, 33/24

what a nice week. our friends and our dogs arrived, and they’ll be spending some weeks here with us. i’ve been stocking up on all the dog cuddling time!

our friends gifted me a pocket thermal printer — the cutest thing! i’ve been printing little pictures and to-do lists on it, and it gives me a lot of joy.

the boy had his first injection at home! after doing a few of these at the hospital, he can now pick them to do at home. soon he should be able to pick a few of them at a time, so that we don’t have to go to faro once a month.

the yearly outdoor cinema festival took place in tavira, and we saw 2 movies: miyazaki’s the boy and the heron, and nanni moretti’s a brighter tomorrow. the first was pretty, but also confusing and a bit unsettling… the latter was just a joy, a love letter to cinema itself, featuring all of moretti’s quirkinesses. note to self: make sure you have a nap before these night sessions… 😅

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one second everyday

july 2024 — one second everyday

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!

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just life weeknotes

weeknotes, 32/24

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!