There are moments in life when painful decisions have to be made and you have to learn to accept them and move on. An example is when, due to circumstances in your life, you have to part with a house or apartment you’re attached to. My first house I experienced this very early in my life when we had to leave our beloved house in Mozambique. We knew we’d be leaving the country anyway, but due to the feeling …
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Love knows no boundaries; it is an energy so strong that it crosses time and space, connecting different dimensions. And I mean love of all kinds, not just romantic love but also love between parents and children, among friends…love may be stronger or weaker, unconditional or not, but it is always a very special emotion, making the world go round. When you lose someone you love and who loves you very much you feel devastated, lost; you feel desperately …
A year ago my friend Gabi turned 50 and she was planning a big party with her family and friends, when suddenly she had terrible news: she had breast cancer. Naturally she had no heart for the party so she cancelled it. Now this would be a huge blow for anyone, but when you have had kidney problems for many years, begun dialysis at forty, had a kidney transplant only to have that same kidney removed a mere two …
I’m driving – not exactly driving home for Christmas, as in the beautiful song by Chris Rea, but on one of the many errands I have to do during this busy season. As usual at this time of the year I put on Christmas songs, the inevitable Last Christmas by Wham and Chris Rea’s as well – and I sing along. The weather is fine – one of those sunny crisp cold (but not too much) winter days that make …
It was a December Saturday, precisely forty years ago. It was dusk, as it is now, and we were standing by the window looking at the blue sky slowly darkening outside. We were opening our hearts to each other and finally there was a moment when you told me you loved me, and I no longer saw the fading light but millions of fireworks exploding in the sky. A slow song began to play and you grabbed my hand and …
He sits outside and gestures for the waiter to bring him his usual espresso coffee and sparkling water. The café’s terrace if full of tourists – of course at this time of the year the island is even more crowded than in the summer, because of the mild temperatures and the brilliant celebrations of New Year’s Eve…even so, he enjoys sitting here on sunlit days, feeling the sun warm on his face and gazing at the blue sky and not …
Long ago Christmases were a magical time. Our eyes opened in wonder with the lights and gifts around the Christmas tree; we sat on the floor around Granny as she made the Nativity crib and we helped her by giving her figure after piece until the last one, the shining star that she put on the stable’s roof. Then she would tell us, year after year, how Jesus was born and how he was visited by three kings with gifts, …
My first business trip was to Brussels, twenty seven years ago. Last week, as I boarded a plane there after countless business trips over the years, it felt like a lifetime ago. It was in the first years of my career, when I was fighting my way up the corporate ladder and held a fairly modest position of legal advisor in the company I worked for. So far my business trips had been domestic ones, but I dreamt of …
An avid reader since my early years, I naturally began – as I suppose everyone does – with fairy tales and went on to read every book I managed to get my hands on, from romantic stories to crime novels such as Agatha Christie’s and the adventures of a charming thief called Arsène Lupin (yes, very French!); from my father’s collection about UFOs and other forms of extraterrestrial life to my grandfather’s Portuguese classics such as Eça de Queiroz; at …
Forbes magazine called it “the best technology conference in the planet”. I can’t confirm this, as I don’t usually go to technology events, but I can say without any doubt Web Summit is a very, very good event. It was held in Lisbon last week for the second time; I had registered many months ago so I found myself one more of the crowd heading to Altice Arena and the FIL Pavilions in the Lisbon quarter of Parque das …