Tag: LJ

weeknotes, 35/24

the big thing this week was that, in addition to our friends and their dogs, we also had my brother, his wife and baby LJ in the house! ? they needed a place to stay while taking care of other family stuff in faro, and prices in algarve are predictably off the roof during summer… so they ended up staying with us for a few days.

baby niece is still her delightful self, now with the addition of a few gimmicks that she’s been learning, like the sound a few animals make, where her tongue and nose are, how to say she’s had enough food… and paulo’s name! the boy has been so consistent trying to teach her his name, that she suddenly started saying it — well, a version of it that sounds like “pau-ummmmm”. it’s adorable!

i’ve also finished a few books here and there, a mix of things. i enjoyed the thursday murder club (about a group people in a nursing home that solve murders!), contos da montanha (the vocabulary is beautiful, the words just straight out of my grandma’s kitchen), all creatures great and small and a thousand splendid suns. this last one, about the lives of 2 women in afghanistan in the years since the revolution, was a punch in the gut, every page filled with heartbreak… i’m not sure how i managed to finish it, but i definitely needed some lighter literature after that.

weeknotes

weeknotes, 31/24

one week spent with the family, taking parents to doctor appointments, working from the library, running errands and watching the olympics in the in-betweens…

the highlight of the week was baby niece’s birthday party! the parents gathered family and friends in aveiro for a little celebration, and there was a shaun-the-sheep themed cake made by a neighbor, a little swimming pool for the kids, music and lots of food and drinks. and the baby was happy the whole afternoon, despite having skipped her nap!

we gifted her (and the parents) year passes to the local zoo, so they can go with her whenever they want. i hope they like it!

and since we were in aveiro, we spent some hours exploring the city. we still don’t know it very well, but it seems nice at first glance… more explorations required!

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!

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!

weeknotes

weeknotes, 6/24

a week spent with family up in the north. this time, i brought the swimming suit and tried to keep up with exercise and moving. i swam in my childhood pool where i first learnt to swim — it seems so much smaller now! also swam in oliveira de azeméis, on a municipal pool with excellent lockers and a weird arrangement: the bigger tank is 25m long on all lanes, except for 2 of them which extend to 50m… but only on wednesdays. ? the rest of the time the big lanes are broken in the middle with a gate of sorts. so strange!

it’s been a week of rain, the sun shining briefly between showers. i got soaked walking outside, and couldn’t remember the last time my legs and feet got this wet from the rain.

still making my way through country driving, but peppering it with other lighter reads. this week, the princess and the grilled cheese sandwich and the prince and the dressmaker. both cute graphic novels, involving gender topics and lots of dresses.

being in porto, we took the opportunity to visit a proper bookshop and get some books for the tiny niece, all recommended by friends with kids. my parents read all the books i purchased and decided their favourites were Michael Grejniec’s “A taste of the moon” and Luísa Ducla Soares “Os ovos misteriosos”. :) the kid seems to approve of it too!