august had a lot of friends and family in it, but also events and things happening! it feels like the month burst its seams in all the good ways, and recharged our batteries for a long time.
Category: weeknotes
the big news this week is that i got us an inflatable swimming pool. it was cheap, but it’s surprisingly roomy for a couple of adults. the boy is not a big fan of it, but i love it! taking a dip in the middle of a scorching day is just bliss!
this week we went to quinta do lago, to check out a trail our friends are fond of. we saw a lot of birds, including a few new species like little bitterns and black-headed weavers. our bird count is now up to 149 different species — not bad!
in turn, we took them to a local japanese place that opened this year that we really like, and they became fans of it as well. they do a bit of everything, but the bubble tea and the egg waffles in particular were a big hit.
also this week, our friend J discovered sugarless jello, a game changer for her as a diabetic. apparently, jello is not something kids eat in austria… who knew?! jello is so familiar to us, such a beloved childhood dessert, that it’s mind-boggling to think there are grown-ups out there that never tried it. so she went on a spree and bought all the flavors in the supermarket. 2024’s summer shall be known as the summer of the jello!
what a nice week. our friends and our dogs arrived, and they’ll be spending some weeks here with us. i’ve been stocking up on all the dog cuddling time!
our friends gifted me a pocket thermal printer — the cutest thing! i’ve been printing little pictures and to-do lists on it, and it gives me a lot of joy.
the boy had his first injection at home! after doing a few of these at the hospital, he can now pick them to do at home. soon he should be able to pick a few of them at a time, so that we don’t have to go to faro once a month.
the yearly outdoor cinema festival took place in tavira, and we saw 2 movies: miyazaki’s the boy and the heron, and nanni moretti’s a brighter tomorrow. the first was pretty, but also confusing and a bit unsettling… the latter was just a joy, a love letter to cinema itself, featuring all of moretti’s quirkinesses. note to self: make sure you have a nap before these night sessions… 😅
hoooooome! we returned south this week, to our home sweet home. the main train got delayed by some signal malfunction in alentejo, forcing us to catch the very last train connection home, which meant we had to switch to a bus in fuseta because of the nightly electrification works of the south line. it was a looooong ride, but we made it!
i read a lot on the train, and ended up finishing 3 books this week: wintering, the thursday murder club #1 and contos da montanha. they’re all so different, but all interesting in their own way. i don’t remember if i had ever read anything from miguel torga beyond loose poems, but contos da montanha was a fascinating (and depressing) trip into early 20th century rural portugal, featuring a lot of the stories and vocabulary one hears from their northern grandparents.
in other news, the tomato plants have gone wild and the big surprise is that we now have soybeans! we got the seeds in the netherlands, and i planted them just for fun, but it seems like we can do this! right now they’re tiny, and i’m curious to see if we can grow them to full size and eat a dish of edamame. that would be cool!
summer is the time when we end up seeing friends who are holidaying nearby, and this week we had dinner with 2 different groups of friends and their respective children.
i had forgotten we had booked tickets to david fonseca’s concert, which was this past wednesday! it was a retrospective concert, looking back on his 25 year career, and it was a whole thing, with quirky video effects and lots of dancing and shouting the lyrics of songs that we’re very familiar with. it was so much fun!
so it’s maybe hard to believe that despite all of these things, the week was mostly a quiet one, hiding from the heat and trying to catch up with work. this is the run-up to world postcard day, and there is so much to do. it was go go go!
Categories
weeknotes, 31/24
one week spent with the family, taking parents to doctor appointments, working from the library, running errands and watching the olympics in the in-betweens…
the highlight of the week was baby niece’s birthday party! the parents gathered family and friends in aveiro for a little celebration, and there was a shaun-the-sheep themed cake made by a neighbor, a little swimming pool for the kids, music and lots of food and drinks. and the baby was happy the whole afternoon, despite having skipped her nap!
we gifted her (and the parents) year passes to the local zoo, so they can go with her whenever they want. i hope they like it!
and since we were in aveiro, we spent some hours exploring the city. we still don’t know it very well, but it seems nice at first glance… more explorations required!