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in germany in portugal in the uk one second everyday

one second everyday — october 2015

so, october!

once the boy recovered the use of his legs, we jumped to london for a few days. we hugged our friends and their babies, chased after dogs in the park, ate lots of good food and then, too soon, it was time to come back home and catch up on everything: work, laundry, gardening… speaking of which, we planted an olive tree and some passionfruit and bougainvillea vines — fingers crossed they’ll survive our black thumbs! towards the end of the month, we did our annual trip to bielefeld to catch up with friends and for some postcard-writing time as well. and then, we came back home and hosted our canadian friend lynda, on one of the last legs of her month-long trip around europe.

it was a good, full month… but now we’re glad to be home-sweet-home, with no trips on the horizon! :)

Post author By ana
Post date November 12, 2015
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analogue wednesdays in germany

analogue wednesday #53

berlin, mid-september 2015.

algarving analogue wednesdays in portugal

analogue wednesday #52

a curious cat in cacela velha.

ps – oh hey look! we’ve just crossed a full whole year of this series! :)

algarving foooood in portugal

abatanado

not being able to drink milk has made me crave a longer caffeinated drink to replace my beloved meia de leite, one that i can warm my hands on and take my time drinking. espressos are nice, but a bit too short. so over the years, i’ve turned to americanos or long black coffees, to scratch my itch.

when we moved back to portugal though, i thought my days of americanos were over. the portuguese are a bit set in their ways, and the right way to drink coffee is always an espresso — period. that is what “a coffee” is, around here. so imagine my surprise when, a few months after moving here (and already resigned to my fate), i heard someone ahead of me in the café ask for something that sounded funny… and receiving exactly what i wanted! a looooong-expresso-on-a-tea-mug kind of drink! :D

i pointed to the other lady’s cup and said “i want that as well… what do you call it?“, and the barista explained it was an a-ba-ta-na-do. oh, happy happy day! it existed! it had a name! :D

look at all that caffeinated beauty! next to it, the boy’s espresso looks tiny in comparison:

i don’t remember anyone mentioning abatanados in the north of the country, but everyone seems to know them here in the south, which suits me fine! it has become my #1 coffee drink, when outside of the house, and i’m really happy to have inadvertently stumbled on it! *glup* :)

Post author By ana
Post date October 19, 2015
No Comments on abatanado

in germany

the berlin marathon

so, as i was saying a couple of posts ago, the boy who runs ran the whole berlin marathon in 3 hours and 12 minutes, which was brilliant! he says he was disappointed he didn’t make his target time of 3:10… but what’s 2 minutes anyway? pffff….

here he is, in the customary before and after photos:

tasked with the delivery of energy gels at regular intervals, i was too scared to miss paulo in the crowd of runners to take any photos while it was ongoing… but luckily, a number of our friends showed up to cheer him on and record the day! our friends anke and sabine were in town, and enthusiastically helped energise our athlete with the banner anke had done for postcrossing’s 10th anniversary! sabine took these photos as paulo zoomed by:

and our friends filipe and cecilia made this beautiful animated gif of him passing by hermannplatz, which somehow still manages to make me a little teary eyed, even after a few weeks…

awww, right? i got 2 quick kisses throughout the race, and one high-five towards the end! :D paulo says the last 10km were particularly hard, and next time, i shall plan to see him at more regular intervals in that part of the race… that is, if he ever does it again! (he’s undecided at this point…)

i almost missed him going through the brandenburg gate due to a very delayed s-bahn ride… but got out of the station and up on a bench juuuust in time to see him run by! uff! he did it, he really did! :D

words cannot describe how proud i am of the boy… not just for finishing his first marathon with a super quick time, but also for all the effort he put into it, especially training in the southern mediterranean summer. this race was months in the making — but he set his mind to it, and, as always, pulled it through with flying colors!

i’m very, very thankful of our friends as well, who braved the chill to root for paulo and all the other racers — you were brilliant! and last but not least, berlin itself was magic. the atmosphere during the marathon here is always electric, you can feel it in the banners, the confetti, the bands playing by the road, the hoots and bravos, the relentless clapping and cheering… berliners are proud of their tradition of cheering the last runner as enthusiastically as the first one that passed by. they take it to heart, and i think it helps all the runners who pass by and smile at the strangers cheering them on… with a little extra spring in their step.