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! :)
december at last! after the responsibility of the 150 years celebrations was behind us, we could finally breathe and take a few days off…
… which we spent hiking the west coast! glorious sunny days for the most part, gorgeous trails and just a feeling of simple happiness that comes from sore legs and being out in nature. we’re hoping to complete the trail in early 2020, as soon as we can string together a few more days of good weather. other than that, we saw our first ballet, waited in vain for your christmas postcards to arrive (sigh), and then gave up and drove north in the middle of a storm. the rest of the month was mostly happy family time. :)
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
october 1st was the day we had been working for for months, the day in which postcards celebrated their 150th anniversary. hurray! the day itself was ok, and in the following weeks lots of events took place a bit all around the world. we flew back home from bern later that day, happy and proud.
the rest of the month we’ve saved a bird stuck in our kitchen exhaust, hiked and played boardgames with friends, knitted a new pair of socks and continued to learn chinese, participated in the town hall’s budget meeting, went to the yearly postcrossing meeting in bielefeld… and bought a new* car!
the old focus turned 19 this year, and driving a diesel car had started to feel a bit “dirty”. for a long time, we had our eyes on 100% electrical cars, but the logistics of going north with an electric car can be a little tricky in an emergency… so we opted for a middle ground solution: a plug-in car that runs on both! the 30km electric autonomy is enough to get to town and back a couple of times, which is what we need for the big majority of our trips and the gas engine is there for the rest. we’ve only done a couple hundred kms with it, but so far so good. next step: solar panels! :D
* well, second-hand, but new to us :)