Category: weeknotes

a busy week, sunny and warm throughout. it feels like summer is here to stay now, no turning back. did a couple of zombie runs, an art class and a couple of chinese classes. stopped to admire the bursts of color that the season brings.

i finished listening to peter hessler’s book about egypt (the buried: an archeology of the egyptian revolution), and what a mammoth it was, the full 17 hours of it. but the result is a book that is about so much more than the revolution — it’s a snapshot of a land at a crossroads, deciding how it’s going to move forward. it didn’t make me want to visit it, but i feel like i understand the country a tiny bit better now.

one of the highlights of the week was the knife grinder that passed on our street, playing his tune on a loud pan flute on sunday morning. i ran out the door with a random kitchen knife to get it sharpened, not because i needed it but just because i want this to continue. sometimes i feel like the world is sliding towards a neutral homogenous mix — same brunch and ramen and third-wave coffee places everywhere. i like those too, but i want the bits that are typically ours to exist as well — i want to hear this whistly sound echoing up and down the street for many years to come.

also, we started watching the murderbot series on apple TV! they only put out one episode per week, which is infuriating (and probably a good way to make people hold on to their subscriptions)… but it’s so good! in my head, i always pictured murderbot as female, but i think alexander skarsgård does a great job portraying it too. i can’t wait for more episodes!

a week in tuscany, working and exploring! we saw many churches and towers, enjoyed walked the streets of these yellow and red tinted towns and slurped many a pasta and pizza and gelato, as one does. ended up visiting exactly zero museums, but both the big cities and the small countryside hamlets were brilliant. and though it rained a bit, there was still plenty of sunshine and warmth to enjoy.

the theme of the holidays seems to have been “lao gan ma” though, as we consumed an inordinate amount of the stuff with all kinds of veggies at home. our friends have been really into asian supermarkets lately, and we visited a few throughout our stay, bringing home lots of strange delights to try.

one of the nice discoveries of the trip was this wafer from montecatini, unbelievably light and crispy and filled with sweet almonds. yum!

the week started with a huge energy blackout on monday. we were at the boy’s parents in the countryside, and spent half of the day without electricity, phone or internet. it felt weird, refreshing and also a bit worrisome — especially the part about not knowing whether the website was up or down and having no way of checking. so we read, listened to the birds, tuned into the news on a battery-powered radio, talked and puttered around uselessly on our laptops, slowly draining their battery.

interestingly, some months ago we had watched a video on practical engineering about re-starting power grids and remembered how complicated it was. so we just waited, grateful for modern infrastructure and all the people working on it, grateful that we were not stuck in elevators and did not need need refrigerated medicine at that moment.

being with laura this week meant we got the opportunity to give her one of the best children books’ discoveries in a long time: rotraut susanne berner’s “wimmelbooks” — books with lots of stories and no words.

it’s been such a joy to discover children’s books through her eyes! i hope she’ll be a reader one day. :)

later in the week, we took a flight to italy, to spend some time with our friends who live here. we picked a place in tuscany up in the hills around pistoia, where there’s quiet all around us and the views are just breathtaking:

we spent the weekend exploring the nearby cities of pistoia and florence, in awe of the many tones of yellow in the buildings, and at the churches and towers at every corner.

while i’m looking forward to exploring tuscany, the best part is just spending time with our friends. the older i get, the more i realize friendships need time together and active nurturing, if they are to be kept — it’s too easy to just be lazy and not keep in contact… and then regret it later. my dream is to find a big place for us to retire with friends when we’re old, living and doing things together, supporting each other, inviting other friends to join us. we’ll see! :)

a week split between south and north. the weather in algarve was amazing. i wore shorts and a t-shirt for the first time this year, which is always the moment i think of as the official start of summer.

we drew hands in art class, in all sorts of positions, in pencil, pen and ink. they all looked funky in the moment, but now i like them — they grew on me.

my parents were around this week and dad found a goldfinch nest in our olive tree! i had noticed a pair of goldfinches flying away every time i walked by the tree, but now i can actually see the nest. how cool! i hope soon we’ll see some babies there as well.

it was 25 of april and my carnations bloomed just in time! <3

on sunday, i ran the 10k in aveiro, without stopping and without dying! i did my best impersonation of a japanese grandpa, shuffling through the streets at a steady slow pace — the slowest i could go without walking — and it felt ok! i managed to do the whole thing at that comfortable pace, taking the time to look around and get myself acquainted with aveiro. meanwhile, other friends and family ran the 10k at a faster or slower speed, the boy and my brother did the half-marathon and another friend surprised everyone by doing the marathon! it was a nice family affair, that i look forward to repeating at some point. :)

the week started with a 6km run through the rain in manta rota, and then a 19km hike a few days later, between lagoa and albufeira. this was the last hike of the “walk-the-whole-algarve-coast” project: we’ve now walked all the way from vila real de santo antónio to sagres, and from sagres to porto covo too, which is pretty neat. :) it took us a few years, but we did it! it’s the perfect season for hiking here too — the views and the nature are just beautiful.

now we’re looking for some other long-distance paths to do! we kind of like coastal paths… so maybe this one in menorca? if you have tips or suggestions, let us know!

my parents are in town for some days, and we took them to see the easter procession in são brás, which we had never seen ourselves.

reading-wise, yu hua’s boy in the twilight was a disappointment, the stories too violent and non-sensical (and yet somehow, so chinese?). i’m giving him another chance though, with a non-fiction book about 10 chinese words that seems more promising. i finished listening to john green’s everything is tuberculosis, and although most of the stories and context were familiar already, it was still very enjoyable to listen to — especially narrated by john himself.

after months of the boy watching short clips from suits suggested to him by youtube, we finally started properly watching the series. :) it’s light and fun so far, but i’m not sure we’re going to make it through 9 seasons… ?