Category: just life

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algarving foooood in portugal just life

the fish basket

back in berlin, we had a weekly delivery vegetables in a basket. i’ve always liked the concept and it made sense when we lived there… but around here, with a market brimming with fresh stuff practically around the corner (including bio produce), i can’t really justify the indulgence. that said, i do miss one of the aspects that i liked the most about the basket, which was that it removed the choice element, forcing us to improvise and try new things.

enter… fish.

fish is one of those things that took some time to acclimatise once we moved here. we knew we wanted to try eating more of it (hence #54 on the list) and the market is filled with fresh stuff, but frankly, for a beginner, it’s more than a little daunting to pick and choose what to try… so why not leave that choice to the local fishermen and go with whatever they catch that day? i’m a fan of the throw-yourself-to-the-deep-end approach sometimes.

and this is how we now we have a semi-regular fish basket! :) it comes from fuzeta, a seaside parish of olhão around 15km from here. whatever their group of fishermen catches the day before, it’s delivered in less than 24 hours, gutted, sealed in vacuum and covered in ice — and that’s what we’re having throughout the week.

we’ve only had a couple of deliveries so far, but it has been working brilliantly, and the feeling of supporting the local community on their traditional trades is a great one. plus, we’ve also been trying quite a few new species with yummy results. this week: cuttlefish, ray and horse mackerel.

let the adventurous culinary exploration continue! :)

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just life

study with me?

back when we were in berlin, we had something called the early morning study sessions. i’ve written about them before, but in short, everyday we’d meet the same friends at the coffee shop around the corner at 7am, studied for an hour and then went home to continue with the rest of our day.

maybe it was the consistency of it, or perhaps the accountability factor, but every morning when the alarm rang i jumped out of bed thinking “our friends will be waiting, we need to go!“. so we went, and it worked beautifully. i learnt more in those months than i had in a long time, just silently reading and taking notes next to our equally absorbed friends.

i miss this morning ritual terribly. there’s still so much that i want to learn and that i never seem to be able to get to. but there are no nice cafés in the village, our closest friends live 20km away… and i know these are just excuses, but i’ll be the first to admit that my self-motivation was never all that great.

so, keeping in mind this is the age of the internet, i propose an experiment: what if you and i got together on skype bright and early (sometime between 6-8 gmt?), and just quietly learned, researched, crafted or worked on our own projects for a bit? maybe everyday, maybe a day or two per week — whatever suits your schedule.

i know this is not for everyone and maybe it sounds a little crazy… but there must be at least one person out there willing to give it a try, right? in any case, i thought i’d ask. if you’re an early riser and there’s something you’d like to make time to study or learn in the morning, let me know — we’ll see if it works! :)

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just life one second everyday

2017, one second everyday

and here it is, the whole year as a long array of tiny seconds.

so much laughter and silliness, so many friendly faces and new adventures… every single day remarkable and precious.

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just life stationery sundays

happy holidays!

a bit of photoshop silliness for our xmas cards this year. :) have a happy and peaceful holiday!

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in portugal just life

1000 days

a couple of weeks ago, we passed the “1000 days in algarve” milestone, and i stopped to think about it for a bit. here are some scattered thoughts.

reverse culture shock was quite acute in the first year. frustrations ran high because of the house situation, but not just that. being used to the german black & white culture, coming back to flexibly gray portugal felt like a shock. almost 10 years after leaving, we were lost in trying to deal with a grown-up world whose rules we had not really fully experienced as adults before going away.

so it took us a while to reach a sort of balance, an understanding by trial and error. and it forced us to review our ethics code, to understand what we’re ok and not ok with in this society. having different perspectives from having lived all around the world certainly helped shape our rules of conduct, and be more strict about them — even if sometimes it feels like we’re the only idiots in this country not putting all our lunches in the company expenses.

eventually, we learned to let it go and focus on other things instead.

things like the joy of being able to see family and some friends more often. the sun, kissing our tanned, salty skins. the markets, the popular fairs in the small towns, the countryside and the hills beyond the coast. the lagoon with its salt hills and flamingos. all the visitors that our extra room can accommodate. the freshly squeezed orange juice and the toasts made with alentejo bread. the local indie cinema, with its thursday sessions. the nice neighbours who bake us dessert. almond blossoms in january. and the quietness of living in a safe, calm place, at a slow rhythm and without so many distractions.

it’s been good for us, this small-town life. i look forward to the next 1000 days.