Categories
in the netherlands

fishey contest!

last week troia, my little yellow guppy (a guppy is a tiny little species of aquarium fish) passed away.
porca was not feeling so good anymore, all alone… so friends around here decided to get him some company.
four guppies and a second hand aquarium later, i have 5 happy little fish, joyfully swimming all day long. problem is, they don’t have names… so the survey is open on the comments. what names do you suggest for the four new fishes? give it your best shot!

plus, there will a little something for the winner(s) :P what are you waiting for?

ps – i dont know much about their personality yet. one is black with blue reflections on the scales, one is half black half white, one is orange with purple dots and one is yellow, with white dots. the yellow one is faithfully followed by porca the whole day. :| they’re all tiny and lovely.

Categories
just life music

hazy cosmic jive

Didnt know what time it was the lights were low
I leaned back on my radio
Some cat was layin down some rock n roll lotta soul, he said
Then the loud sound did seem to fade
Came back like a slow voice on a wave of phase
That weren’t no d.j. that was hazy cosmic jive

There’s a starman waiting in the sky
He’d like to come and meet us
But he thinks he’d blow our minds

There’s a starman waiting in the sky
He’s told us not to blow it
Cause he knows its all worthwhile

He told me:
Let the children lose it
Let the children use it
Let all the children boogie

…
starman, david bowie on the itunes.

it’s all worthwhile, oh yes it is. :)

ps – sing along, look for a starman in the sky and wave your heads to the music.

Categories
in the netherlands

i own the company!


featuring ana and her workplace, from the bevrijdingsdag (liberation day) festival, in the city park. warm days, blue skies, green grass and music in the air… feels like summer :D

Categories
in the netherlands

dear people,

 

if you have to pick a time of the year to come around, do it on the 30th april. spring is well settled in, lots of flowers to look at and then boom! queen’s day. it was celebrated last saturday (hence on the 29th, because sunday is not a very good day to party – everybody know that) and was great – lots of people in the streets dressed in orange, concerts in the city’s main square, and the best of all, the free market. imagine all kinds of people selling all kinds of stuff in the streets. from kids to grown-ups, from junk to amazing treasures, food, drinks or just playing music. amazing! why don’t we have such a thing in portugal?!

well, me, joy, heye, nurcan, lulu and levi found a free spot on the sidewalk to lay our wallets in the beggining of the afternoon and we were imediatly flooded by curious looks and interesting comments. the boys stayed in the middle of the street, chatting and subtly diverging people towards us. the girls (from portugal, thailand, china and turkey) smiled and showed the wallets. lulu spent the afternoon trying to say “portemonnaie!” and her cute chinese accent made people laugh and approach us.

we had all kinds of costumers, from little kids (who had probably just finished selling their old toys somewhere else) to grandma’s, couples in love, crafty chicks, even mothers who would come and let all of their 5 kids choose their favourite one. we even had people coming back for more to offer to loved onesn or telling us about which milk they drink everyday, how it was such a nice idea. we made a website (www.pantominas.com) about the project and some general instructions to make wallets and we slipped it into them.

it was perfect – three hours later, only a few wallets were left from the initial 160, and we came back home tired and happy to the bones.

nurcan even got a xmas themed present from the lady selling stuff next to us, just because “we attracted so many costumers”. :D



(this last picture was taken by a dutch guy :| a very tall specimen.)

Categories
in the netherlands

anjierrevolutie

yesterday was 25th of april, the freedom day in portugal, the day we regained independence from a ditactorship, through an almost bloodless revolution – the carnation revolution, called “revolução dos cravos” in portuguese, or “anjierrevolutie”, in dutch.

i wanted to celebrate, i wanted to make it memorable, so i came early to work and put a red carnation on each table of my department along with an explanation of the day. what for? i hoped i could enlighten people here on portugal’s history a little bit. give them a taste of what has been going on in my little sunny southern country, beyond the yearly forest fires that make it to dutch paper’s frontpages.
or at least, maybe a flower could just brighten up someone’s day. it was worth the shot.

well, i got huge feedback, both through emails and personal thanking. i was surprised to find out that some people even remembered the day because they had heard about it on the radio, 32 years ago. they remembered salazar, spínola, mário soares… and i learnt that yesterday was the day to remember the southern moluccas people, as well. south moluccas are a part of indonesia, a former colony of the netherlands, which tried to state their own repulic on this day, in 1950, but were re-integrated in indonesia later that year. the netherlands withdrew their support to the south moluccas after a series of terror attacks related to their subsequent attempts to gain independence (more about south moluccas here).

i’m happy to see that today, one day after, everybody still keeps their red carnations on their tables, in little white plastic cups.
it feels good to know that at least 60 people remembered the day here, that maybe they even told something to their wifes or kids in the evening. that it wasn’t just another day :)

viva a revolução!