january was full of mundane, unhurried days — not a bad thing in our book.
we did lots of planning, worked, played, met up with friends and appreciated the peace and quiet of the beginning of the year… and also complained ad nauseam about the lack of heating in portuguese houses. *insert exasperated emoji*
seeing the whole year in a few minutes always makes me a bit teary-eyed.
2019 had lots of highlights: hiking in nice places, going back to asia, lots of good food and boardgame nights, family and friends staying over, discovering new local farms, picking up on chinese, tons of passionfruits, a new car, the 150 years of postcards and the exhibition at UPU… and no major health problems (apart from the annoying persistent tendinitis).
there’s a few things i’d like to do better in 2020, starting by this blog which has been somewhat neglected. so here’s to a new year filled with adventures… and many posts to tell those stories! :)
the past few months quickly slid into one another, and now it’s the end of the year and i’m playing catch-up on these videos. here is november then.
november was made of friends and games, the local participatory budget, knitting and tree planting, lots of postcard sorting for the 150th anniversary, movies, chinese courses and a few cultural trips to faro. it was a good one.
ps: before you ask, i’m not pregnant! i had a rough time inserting a IUD, and after a few tries the doctor was so relieved to have finally succeeded, she decided to take a picture. i thought it was really funny. :’D
september was all #150yearsofpostcards, all the time. we tested, drafted, printed, packed and flew to switzerland to set up the exhibition at the UPU. the work was so intense that i can barely remember what happened then earlier in the month… everything feels like a looooong time ago. glad we have these seconds to remember!
so we also played games with friends, hosted family and test-drove the phev car that is likely to replace our old diesel one. this is also the month when the mediterranean diet fair happens, tavira’s highlight event with entertainment and food for days. and switzerland was as nice as it promised to be! i hope we can go back some day to properly explore its mountains and lakes.
august went by in a blaze of hot days, spent mostly indoors sheltering from the heat.
we worked on the 150 years of postcards project, which will soon come to a close. right now though, we’re in that intense phase that wakes me up in the middle of the night stressing about letter spacing and airport logistics, and makes me wonder why we do these things… but then, i read the messages on all the postcards that have been landing on our mailbox lately, and yeah — this is why.
after dark when temperatures dropped, we ventured outside to meet friends old and new, went to concerts and local fairs, babysat, and i picked up on my chinese studies — more on that in a future post. :)