Categories
general

weeknotes, 28-29/24

summer is in full swing, and i’m here for it! clear skies, warm nightly breezes, bee-eaters gurgling in the sky…

in the early days of july, there are performances in town every night. our favorites this year were “perceptions“, which was was mesmerizing, and “a viagem” a cute little theater play that takes place in a campervan for an audience of 8. i also enjoyed seeing lavoisier again, and checking out the arabic nights in cacela.

we made a czech mushroom soup called kulajda and it was super nice.

i finished two books. the first was circe, the story of a greek nymph who grows and transforms herself into something different. i really enjoyed it, and by the middle of the book, i was invested in what was going to happen, and what more the gods would throw her way. and i also finished listening to interior chinatown, which was very well read and enjoyable… but different. the format takes a bit more getting used to.

the boy had his third miracle shot, and i ate the first fartura of the summer — always a highlight! :D

later on week 29, we took the train north for the customary 2 weeks of catching up with the family during summer. we kidnapped the little niece for the weekend, and everyone was besotted by her charms — the grandparents especially, but also other little cousins. now that she can crawl and play, she’s like a little doll to them!

to us, she’s just the nicest baby! i hope to always remember how she laughs when the boy tries to (very seriously) teach her to say “paaaauuu-lo!” and her funny crawl-push way of moving around. it feels like she’s on the verge of starting to walk now, but hasn’t quite figured out yet what to do once she stands up. it’s really moving to see all these milestones take place!

Categories
weeknotes

weeknotes 27/24

a hot week spent mostly at home, catching up with work, eating tiny tomatoes from the garden and not much else! :) i guess we needed some time to reset and rest, after last week’s excitement.

i cut my hair really short, which feels like something i do every few years. i hate dealing with hair, and when it’s long, it’s just a huge hassle every time i have to wash it (and particularly in the swimming pool). short hair is so much easier!


we had pizza night, and saw good will hunting. i’ve been making my way through circe and enjoying the ride through greek mythology. it’s the time of the year in which there are street performances in town every night, and yesterday we watched desanuda with some ice-cream. feels like summer has really arrived now, and we’re here for it!

Categories
one second everyday

june 2024 — one second everyday

june was a full month! the parents were here, we met with friends, voted, got a new bike, saw baby niece, celebrated 42, went to lisbon for a week…

Categories
weeknotes

weeknotes 26/24

we spent week 26 on a houseswap in lisbon, mostly catching up with friends, visiting bookshops and filling our bellies with good food. it was brilliant! we were spoiled for choice, and ended up going out everyday to try some exotic dish, or check out a bookstore, bakery or chocolate shop that we had previously bookmarked.

right now, i think i love our quiet southern corner too much to consider living in a big city again… but these escapades feel like much needed field trips into a different dimension. the people! the metro! the diversity! stuff happening everywhere! whoa! it’s almost too much.

the bookshops were very nice and particularly it’s a book, which has just illustrated books! kids’ books are my soft spot, and it’s amazing to be able to look through the books before buying them (as opposed to getting them online, which is why i have to do back home). needless to say, we brought home quite a few to gift to little niece, when the time comes.

we also saw rodrigo leão’s concert, our initial reason to go to lisbon. it was a soothing show, with voices and tunes that we are so familiar with, songs that we used to have on repeat 20 years ago.

sadly, i got covid at some point… four years after the start of the pandemic, the virus finally got to us. it wasn’t that bad though, just some fever, throat pain and malaise. a lot of napping! we watched the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, and i read half of sally rooney’s normal people from our host’s bookcase… now i need to find the book in the library to read the rest!

Categories
just life weeknotes

weeknotes, 24-25/24

the most exciting thing these weeks was probably bike upgrade. i’ve taken it on several rides, and it’s just pure joy!

because it’s the end of the school year, the chinese teacher thought it would be a good idea to do an exam on the last week of the course, and it was a disaster. i don’t know if she realizes the only reason i do ok in the classes is because i spend hours preparing for each of them, meticulously looking up every word in the lesson that i might not know. 😅 anyway, the class is now over, and in the summer ahead i want to try to focus on speaking practice, because i feel it’s the area where i am less good at. i can read ok at a basic level, and i understand when people are explaining things to me… but speaking is a whole other beast.

speaking of chinese, this week we were watching the 3 body problem on netflix, and i understood this screen that showed up!

i guess most of the time i don’t feel like i’ve been doing much progress at all in this language learning journey, because the process is just 99% work and frustration… but then, 1% of the time something like this pops up and it feels like magic!

also these weeks, the boy had the second shot of the miracle injection™, and it was my birthday too! i turned 42, had brunch with my brother, and then kidnapped niece LJ for 24 hours, so we could kiss those chubby cheeks to our heart’s content. 🥰

she’s still the most chilled baby ever, and loves tomatoes with a passion but can’t quite manage the tiny ones yet… more for me! :D our tiny raised bed in the backyard is now entering tomato season, and i’ve planted some soy beans after the last peas were gone. hoping to have some edamame at some point!