Short news

Time does fly...
Work seems (is) endless and the last few weeks have been intense. Firing people for example is never a pleasant task... However, little by little, some files seem to be solved or, at least, are on the good track although there's still a lot to be done. Paso a paso, my supervisor says...
First desperate measures at the office - I had to put a sign on my door saying "Closed, except for A or B" (A & B being the top priority files). :-s
Nevertheless, people still knock and knock until I answer a not willing at all "Yes?" and someone shows a apologetic face with a 'I only need a minute' or 'I know you're very busy but...' or 'Sorry, I really need your opinion/feedback/signature'. Signatures are Ok, but everything else never takes a minute... Grrrrr!!!
Desperate measures again - me and my team went to work yesterday. Such a bliss to work with nobody in the office, no telephone ringing... Too bad it can't be like that more often. But the door will be definitely closed for the rest of the week or until we finish the audit.

At home... the translation is still ongoing (I can't even explain it to myself anymore), so I still haven't seen my friends over here nor have been out much. My colleagues went to the Oktoberfest in Taybeh today and I'm here, in front of the computer. Each one has what s/he deserves... :)
I did however go out for dinner yesterday - I really needed a break. Everybody seemed to have plans (normal...) so, after watching the Bourne Ultimatum (my feedback here) with the boss and la mamma, me and the boss went out for dinner at the Lotus & Olive Garden. The vegetarian lasagna was OK, the Corona tasted wonderful (!!) and it was lovely to be outside in the garden (sorry, couldn't find any pics of the garden).
Ah... and la mamma had cooked a delicious fig pie in the afternoon! yummy!... :)

Oh... I almost forgot the usual travel notes:
- Reema is back and so is the good food :) (will have to go back to kitcheree when I'm back home);
- the weather is getting cooler, it's often cloudy in the morning, pretty windy most days, guess the Summer is bidding farewell. So I might go to the Dead Sea next week :) (or else I won't be able to go at all! :-s ).

Saídas da semana

Porque a vida não é só trabalho...
(sim, dar aulas de yoga também é trabalho... embora muito agradável :))

Terça: Jantar tardio e boa conversa no Noobai, que vista espectacular!! Não me canso...
É visitadíssimo, pelo que percebo após uma busca no Google. http://feelthat.blogspot.com/2006/03/noobai-with-me.html Gostei destas fotos.

Quinta: Passeio nocturno (até à hora da Cinderela, que sexta é dia de trabalho), tentando ver parte da Luzboa. Giro e refrescante... soube-me pela vida! Lisboa com pouca gente é uma maravilha :) Que me desculpem os que acham que é fixação, mas o rapaz do café (há hábitos que não se perdem) era bem giro! ;)

Sei que a produção literária e de tontices anda escassa mas, por hoje, fechei a loja. Boa semana, meus queridos.

Madrid, May 23, 2006

00h30, No man's land café - I don't know if the management has changed but the deco did. The 2 ugly paintings on the wall are gone, replaced by 2 twin paintings of a teapot. The bottle shelves aren't new but, at least, they look cleaner.
Perhaps they just did some Spring cleaning.
Ah! The two unfriendly waitresses were replaced by two faster, friendly & chubby waiters on their 50s.
The tortilla pincho wasn't great, so I guess the cook didn't change.

05h45 am (Spanish time), Mendez Alvaro station - I ask my 'traditional' breakfast: a toast and a thick, rich chocolate, that I delightfully eat with a teaspoon. :) I need to be prepared for the 'battles' at the employment centre and the Tax Dept. And I won't be having lunch before 2pm.

1pm - I'm astonished at how quickly I've managed to do everything!... Bank and stop at ACH included. Nice... :)

2pm - Lunch with Esme and Carole. At Tanin, super-fast as usual.

3pm - With all the due respect, I felt like St. Peter, sort of... 3 times asked if I wanted to go 1,5 months to Jerusalem, 3 times I said no. Not that I don't want to go, but I can't go... I hope to start with my flat's rehab works this week and haven't got anybody to replace me at the Yoga classes. Plus Siri Prakash is coming and I can't just leave her stranded...
Anyway, there will be other missions. And I will go to Jerusalem on holidays, at some point, some time, some day.

Afternoon - A beer at Comercial, tea and chocolate cake at Teteria de la Abuela, pizza at Plaza 2 de Mayo with the usual suspects (Esme, Paula & Teresa). Guys, next time, I'll write a week before I arrive letting you know I'll be in Madrid. Sorry...

11pm - Back on the bus for another 8 hours of travelling. Don't ask me why, I just wanted to be back to Portugal quickly and get on with things over here.

Still and even though I only stayed one day this time, the shock is huge... I didn't realize but I missed Madrid a lot, the streets, the movement, a different lifestyle. Can't quite compare Setúbal with Madrid, it isn't 'comparable'.
Since Wednesday, I've spend most of my spare mental time on sort of a digestive process, weighing the consequences of my professional/living choices. I definitely must go out more often.

Cool Sunday

Allow me to take you back a few days to January 8th…

I had had a long, long week of work, including the start of the hand-over with my replacement – yeeess!!! :) (Well, it was just on Saturday but one day is better than nothing, right?)

Went to bed on Saturday decided to go against my usual and deeply buried habits of sleeping until late and roaming around the house in my pyjamas most of the day without doing anything very productive. As I didn’t hear the alarm (what’s new?...), I only woke up around 12pm but feeling a new woman :)
Determined to be ‘dynamic’ for once, I put my book on my brand new bag (gift from Marivic on the staff Xmas dinner), and went out for a brunch at the mall garden. Had a tonic and some lovely “Spinakpita” (sort of small rolled crepes with cheese and spinaches, pretty good) and watched the Filipino families on their Sunday favourite promenade – window-shopping and strolling around the mall: father, mother, 2-3 children or more and, most of the time, the maid (or maids). You can’t miss them, they’re dressed like nurses and carry a small towel on the shoulder to wipe the kids’ faces, noses, hands, whatever needs to be wiped, as soon as it does.
I do try not to be prejudiced, nothing against having a maid, but it does amaze me to see them working on Sunday, ‘part’ of the family. Some families even have 2 maids… I suppose it’s essential if you have more than 2 kids, as one maid only has 2 hands. Right?

When the mosquitoes kept on biting me in spite of the mosquito lotion – what is it about my blood anyway?? -, I was forced to abandon my garden viewpoint on the Global Café and go to Max Brenner’s.
Now, Max Brenner is the place you don’t want to go if you’re trying to get fit, its Chocolate by the bald man, a total perdition place. I try not to go there very often…
‘Résultat des courses’ (NT. in short, result): some 1400 calories, under the disguise of a DELICIOUS layered-chocolate-cake topped with raspberry sauce, with nuts and custard on the side, accompanied by a Mexican Mocha Chocolate served on a hug-mug (as you would imagine that’s a mug that you hug). Halfway through the chocolate ‘mug’, I decided it was just too much chocolate to have in just one hour and finished the cake with a big glass of water :) And suddenly remembered I didn’t even use to like chocolate when I was a kid, I was always a tea and coffee person. The fault of R & R who, though they don’t know each other, have made me addicted to chocolate cakes!

The book was, of course, Oryx and Crake. I know I can be quite imposing with my readings… well, at least I only speak of the books I do like. Or mostly. Anyway... Oryx and Crake is a great book that got me thinking about quite a few important things. Plus it’s very well written and makes you addicted. Yes, ok, I’m also an easily addicted-to person. (Will you stop interrupting me, please? I’m trying to write here.)
I’ll leave you with one of my favourite ‘concepts’ on the book: are you a word person or numbers person? Which one are you?
Most of you tortured souls… you’re a words person, stranded on a Universe ‘that changes all the time’, just because of the tone a word was pronounced or the punctuation used on an e-mail, permanently haunted with “what did he really meant by that?”. Numbers people think they have it all figured out, but don't really get what’s going on, though they’re convinced they do. Nevertheless, they do produce useful things. And a number of dangerous stuff too.
I can easily place some of you.
Then… you have the erratic ones – which one am I? What is really important after all? “What is really?” Crake would say… The lost ‘sheep’, who oscillate between words and numbers, torn between one world and another, repeating to themselves that they should belong to one of the sides, if they want to fit in. If only they could... Right?
Artists? They’re words person. There are many ways of ‘wording things’.