january saw a lot of potatoes, a lot of cozying up at home, the lunar new year, and air fryer’s debut!
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weeknotes, 5/23
– my hair is mostly white around the temples these days, so i paint it now and then (usually when there’s some event coming up) and let it run wild the rest of the year. we had a big meeting on the weekend, so earlier in the week, i painted it — this time, pure black. the color looks a little radioactive in its blackness but it gives me some wednesday addams vibes, and i like it! now, if only the hair paint would stop running into every pillowcase and towel, that would be just perfect.
– book #5 of the year was part 2 of joe sacco’s palestine series. still as gut-punching as the previous one, though the stories are so short and disconnected that sometimes you feel like you’re just getting disjointed glimpses, and not really the big picture. i guess reading a more broad book on the topic would help.
– we had a quote for transforming the space around our house into a minimalistic zen garden (aka, covering the floor with little stones), and we’ll probably go ahead with it soon. it’ll be nice to have a clean space that isn’t overgrown with clover and stubborn grass, and the succulents will migrate to a smaller patch in the front of the house. i look forward to the end result.
– it’s tree-planting season and so, off we went to marinha grande to re-forest a bit more of the huge pine forest that burned there in 2017. the weather was perfect, and it felt wonderful to be out there with friends, chatting the whole time and getting those tiny maritime pines planted. the ground there is mostly sand, which makes for really easy digging!
– we spent a couple of days up there with our local friends, before driving back south on sunday. they took us to explore s. pedro de moel, and we ended up having lunch at alcobaça, where the food (and especially the conventual sweets) are to die for.
– the month of letters is on! i started out strong, but failed to write in the days we were up north… no matter — i will try to do better the rest of the month, now that we’re back home and our calendars are free until the end of february.
– less than 50 days to taiwan! :D
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weeknotes, 4/23
– four books in four weeks… who is this person? ? i’ve finished elena ferrante’s my brilliant friend and dove into the second book of the series straight away. i’m kind of invested in the adventures of lila and lenu now — i want to know what they’ll be up to as they go through the teenage years, what’s the deal with lila after marriage, and what will come next.
– we watched after yang, which had some strong black mirror vibes, but was also visually beautiful. we also watched lead me home, a short netflix documentary about the homelessness crisis in california, and i still have so many unanswered questions about it… i can barely grasp the concept of there being over 100k homeless people there.
– i got myself an air fryer! i resisted for a long time, as i really didn’t want to have yet another big bulky appliance taking up space… but in the end, i caved in — and i’m happy i did! we did fries a couple of times, but we’ve also cooked brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, meatballs… it’s like a tiny turbo oven, sitting right there on the countertop, that is 10x easier to clean and a lot faster to heat up than the oven itself. it has given me extra motivation to cook on days that cooking feels like a chore, which feels like an added bonus
– some friends bought a plot of land a couple of streets over from us, and they threw a little party to celebrate it. i’m happy to see them happy and moving closer to us, and i’m also curious as to how the whole “house-making” process will go.
– i’ve had a scratchy throat for a few weeks now, one that didn’t really get worse or better. it didn’t seem bad enough to take anything for it, but at the same time, it wouldn’t go away. having strong déjà vu feelings of numerous childhood tonsillitis (and corresponding penicillin injections), we went to the local hospital and were prescribed some disinfecting mouthwash and some anti-inflammatories. aaaaah, the relief to know it’s nothing serious!
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PR13 LLE, serra e montes
this is what usually happens: i start the year filled with good intentions, and ready to keep good track of our hikes. then, i write about a couple of them, on the blog or on a notebook… but then life gets busy and i miss one or two, and it all goes downhill from there.
then one day, the weather is nice, we pick a trail to walk, and a few kms into it we notice a peculiar vase by the side of the road, or a house that looks vaguely familiar… and wait a minute, haven’t we been here before? ? of course we have.
this is the story of PR13 LLE, which circles around querença in 2 loops, one gentle first part and one in which you climb up and down and then cross the little river three times, stepping on the carefully put stones.
it’s nothing special perhaps, no sweeping views or exotic birds, but it’s still nice, with the almond trees doing their thing, the gurgling of the streams and the tilled olive fields that look like japanese zen gardens…
and then, out of nowhere, a pack of puppies spots you and comes running, demanding to be cuddled!
ahah, this was so much fun! ? i’m very skittish around dogs on the hills, because they’re usually aggressive and bark at any stranger intruding on their territory… but these were such an unexpected pleasure. the highlight of the whole trail!
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weeknotes, 3/23
– the week started with a nice breakfast at the french bakery, which is always a good start of any day. portuguese bakeries and pastry shops in algarve are a disappointment for the most part (there are no good brioche croissants!), but “la baguette” in tavira always delivers on the french goods.
– we’ve now booked all the accommodation for our stay in taiwan, and are still as excited for the trip. 9 weeks to go!
– chinese new year! we didn’t do a bit feast this year… but still, there was fishball soup, dumplings and my favorite corn pancake.
– this weekend was the traditional festa das chouriças in querença, so off we went for a hike and some sausages. it was brilliant, as always, and we even made some new friends… i’ll tell you about them on the next post :)
– it looks like this week’s notes are mostly about food, so here’s one more: we started watching salt fat acid heat on netflix, and it’s been a delight. samin and her appetite for good food, and especially for learning about food with others are a joy to watch. more of this!