Author: ana

a really nice week… ah, how i craved this quiet time at home! now that the AC is fixed, i don’t even mind the heat that much — between that and the little pool, i can survive these temperatures without a problem. it helps that we don’t really need to get out of the house during daytime and can become night owls, mostly going out once the sun sets. the little pool has been hitting 30C regularly… it’s like having a jacuzzi without having to warm up the water!

we have gone out a few times though, mostly to meet friends for ice-cream and see movies at the outdoor cinema in town at night. this week, we caught 2 movies: the room next door (a somber almodover movie about friendship and euthanasia) and the marching band (a slightly more light-hearted drama, filled with music). the cinema festival is now over, and it will be missed. we also ate a fartura, one of the few of this summer!

the 10-0 work day cycle continues, and i’m enjoying its rhythm. the 10 hour days are intense and demanding, and with food and gym thrown in, there’s barely time for anything else… but that’s ok, because i know the next day is a zero-hour day, and that’s just pure bliss: i putter around, read, write, cook, work on life admin stuff, get bored… everything rights itself and gets back on track slowly.

at home, i replaced the headband and earpads of my headphones and they look shiny new. and i also sold the portable AC that my brother lent us while ours was being replaced. it feels really good to pass stuff along to new owners, or fix old things. less crap in the world!

and i finished listening to project hail mary, and it was a blast all the way through. the story was good, the writing and topics suit me and the voice actor who narrated it was really engaging. i heard it in every pocket of time i had (while cooking, cleaning, riding my bike or working out at the gym) until it was over. now i’m a bit at a loss as to what to read next…

and now, july!

well, july is the month where the town is most alive with outdoor events at night, and we attended quite a few! we celebrated postcrossing’s 20th anniversary (and launched a product) and then the second half of the month was once again spent in the north, to celebrate family’s birthdays. july was the closing of an intense three-month period with a lot of trips — now we’re ready to settle a bit and not move much! :)

juuuuune!

june started in sweden and the aland islands for a work thing, but then we were back and the second half of the month was all family, all the time! it was a little exhausting, but i’m glad we got so much time with little niece. also, my mom celebrated her 70th birthday, and i turned 43!

these last few months have been quite intense, and i didn’t have much time to sit down quietly and do these videos… but now it’s time to catch up!

may was go-go-go! we stepped onto 3 different countries (5 if you count some layovers)! ? it’s way too much moving around, but we got to see family, explore tuscany with friends, and then jump over to stockholm where we saw yet more friends. :) there was a lot of touristing around, and a lot of enjoying art, good food and sunny days.

a quiet week at home, catching up and doing house things. it fills me with a quiet kind of joy, to be here, without many plans or much else going on for the rest of the month. this is the month where friends usually visit the region on their holidays, so we get to meet them for ice-cream or a meal. it feels good.

so we worked, i lifted heavy stuff at the gym (and did some sauna too!) and then the AC people finally came and replaced the broken ACs. things looked good, until one of them started dripping water after a while… ? so, maybe we’ll need to fix that too at some point. for now, we’re doing a good job of ignoring the problem.

we saw the trailer to project hail mary a while ago, and this week a friend mentioned the audiobook to me. i’m in a bit of a reading slump at the moment, not really feeling like finishing anything i started… so i gave it a go and holy cow, the narration is amazing! the book feels like a mix of cinematic scenes and stream-of-consciousness rambling inside someone’s head, and ray porter (the voice actor) brings it all to life in a way that is blowing me away. i just want to keep listening to it all the time!

this week we’ve also experimented with a 10 hour work day. i’m a fan of trying things out in regards to work schedules, and seeing what works. we’ve previously tried working in cycles of 2 days (one for 8 hours, one for 2 hours), and this 10 hour work day is a kind of more extreme version of that. the benefit though, is that if you can make it, every other day becomes a free day! it can become a bit inflexible though, because you really cannot schedule much else on these full work days… but we’re giving it a try when we can, and see how it goes.

towards end the week, the full moon shone like a big biscuit in the sky and we watched “the new year that never came” on the outdoor cinema that takes place every summer in tavira. the movie was a tragicomedy that runs parallel to the romanian revolution. it was interesting, though i was very tired… night sessions are hard for people with insomnia.