Category: foooood

weeknotes, 23/26

have you heard of the let-down effect? basically, your body performs well in high stress situations for a while, and then, after the stressful period is over, it collapses.

that’s what happened on our last week in boston. after the stamp launch and all the meetings and work things were over, our bodies immediately went on strike and we both spent a week in bed, suffering from aches and fevers that wouldn’t go away. 😩 what a waste of our last week! i had such big plans for birdwatching and museum hopping, and ended up watching crappy american tv shows in bed instead…

on the last 2 days of the week, feeling a little better, we managed to gather enough strength for a couple of outings and went to the harvard natural history museum and the mit science museum — both great!

the harvard one had been recommended by our friend clarisse, who told us to check out the “glass flowers” exhibition. so we went… and wow… what a wondrous thing that was! a whole suite of glass flowers and other plant models, all painstakingly made by hand by a german father and son team over their lifetimes. they were so impressive, so beautiful and life-like! and it was impossible to tell they were made of glass — even while we were looking at them, our brains couldn’t quite figure it out. sadly, no pictures allowed, but you can check them out here. if you’re ever in boston, go see them!

we also had time to grab some last meals, this time chipotle and banh mi sandwiches, which we hadn’t had in years.

and then, it was time to send some last postcards with these gorgeous stamps and fly back home.

bye-bye, america!

weeknotes, 22/26

our second week in boston was all about stamps! we attended the boston 2026 world expo, a big event that takes place in the usa every 10 years (in different cities). it’s a huge thing, with postal services, stamp dealers, and all kinds of philatelic associations and collectors coming together to celebrate stamps. usps launched a new stamp every day of the show, and the postcrossing one came out on tuesday!

friends, it was such a beautiful thing. there were speeches, pictures and autographs, but also the opportunity to meet and chat with hundreds of people throughout the week — all kind-hearted and full of beautiful stories about postcrossing. it felt amazing to be there and experience this collective joy for something we’ve been working on for over 20 years – and also to see these beautiful stamps start to make their way around the world. i want to bottle this feeling and remember it when i get frustrated in front of a computer.

we even got to chat with antónio alcalá, the usps art director responsible for many of their amazing stamps. and we met graham and laura (from pixpost and exploring stamps) too and they were both so nice! aaaaaaaaaaah! 😍

but it wasn’t just stamps! we also got a little bit of time to go to a diner with our friend addis from puerto rico, and try some other american staples, like grilled cheese sandwiches, lobster rolls, clam chowder, mac & cheese and dr. pepper!

and! we visited a local post office to see one of their historic new deal murals — something that had been on my bucket list for a while now.

sadly (but not surprisingly), after all the excitement was over we immediately became sick… 🙄 *le sigh*.

foooood weeknotes

weeknotes, 39/25

another mostly quiet week, briefly interrupted by an impromptu trip to the north to take the boy’s mom to do an MRI. she tripped and hit her head, but stubbornly didn’t want to do what the doctor recommended… 🙄 anyway.

other than that, just getting stuff done ahead of world postcard day, preparing blog posts, newsletters, zoom gatherings and writing postcards. i refilled one of my nice fountain pens with permanent ink that i got in sweden in june, so i can write all the cards with it.

i finished both tom lake and every summer after this week… and then realized i shouldn’t have read two books that take place by lakes at the same time, because now they’re all mixed up in my head! i started the summer i turned pretty because lots of people were mentioning the tv adaptation… but found the book so meh that i ended up quitting. still making my way through daisy jones and the six and now also remarkably bright creatures (audio).

the best entertainment of the week though was a youtube movie by brothers quentin & owen reise called listers: a glimpse into extreme birdwatchers. this is the blurb that got me curious about it:

Listers is a must-see, quirky, charming, homemade documentary about two brothers competing to spot the most number of birds in a year – the list. To make it more challenging, they know zero birds on day one, and they have no money so they sleep in their car as they travel the country for a year, and of course they film everything and it turns out they are remarkable nature photographers. The bird footage is award-worthy, but the rest of the film has the vibe of a shaky punk skate video. They constantly mock birdwatching and the obsessiveness of listers, while they become deeply obsessed themselves. This is not about birds; it’s about extreme bird-watchers, and it’s funny, entertaining 2 hours is a master class in obsession and what is possible to learn in one year. This doc has a lot of heart. Streaming on YouTube for free.

the movie was hilarious — birders are a different species. :) it did make me want to get out there and see some birds though… we’re going to miss the birdwatching festival in sagres next week.

because of extraordinary attorney woo, we tried our hand at making gimbap! paulo did a better job than me, as i ended up with deconstructed slices. 😅 to end the week and fortify us for the busy times ahead, we went for some soupy chicken with chickpeas on the hills above tavira, one of our favorites.

books foooood weeknotes

weeknotes, 7/25

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!

foooood in spain

weeknotes, 41/24

madriiiiid! we’re visiting the spanish capital for a few days, and i love that we managed to get here without taking a flight… although it did take the whole day between buses and trains. but we made it!

we’re doing a home swap and staying in a small apartment in the vallecas neighborhood, which feels very “multikulti” and reminds us a lot of our old neighborhood in berlin. it’s missing tempelhof, but it has a hill from which you can see the whole city!

so far, we’ve wandered the city’s avenues to try to get a feeling for it, and also visited the retiro park, which feels huge.

and of course, we’ve been using any opportunity we get to fill our bellies with churros and chocolate! :D

next week: museums and culture!