She was ten. Only a girl, little more than a child, really, but she liked to say she was a “pre-teenager”. She knew she looked older; she was tall, with long legs and her brown eyes shone in her cinnamon skin, tanned by the tropical sun. She had long, straight dark hair that came to the middle of her back and a ready smile. She was full of romantic dreams; in a time without television the evenings were long …
Blog Posts
Queen began their European tour yesterday in Lisbon, and I was one of the very fortunate people who were at Altice Arena – Lisbon’s largest concert hall where the Eurovision song contest final was held this year – for their show. It all began when my friend Gabi, always attentive to musical happenings, called and asked me if I wanted to come to the concert. I immediately said yes, Queen being my favourite band ever together with Supertramp. In my …
Giving life was undoubtedly the most intense and overwhelming experience I’ve lived through as a living being. It’s not easy to describe it with words. Pregnancy It all began when I knew there was life inside of me, after winning the battle against infertility. I was a few days late and was holding my breath and hoping this time it would be for real. It was only a few days after that we had the courage to buy a pregnancy …
May 13 is the date of the first apparitions of Our Lady in Fátima back in 1917 (see my post Our Lady of Fátima) and a special day for all of us believers. Last year Although I have been to Fátima many times, I never went on this day because I don’t like large crowds and prefer to make my prayers when it’s peaceful and quiet. Last year, as it was a very special year – the centenary of the …
It is inevitable. Any wedding brings back the memories of my own, of that long ago day when I was as happy as you are now, as much in love and trusting in the future. Believing that love would last forever. Three decades and many disappointments later I am still a romantic at heart and as such I believe you and your bridegroom will be happy. A happy DNA After all you come from a family of happy marriages …
My friend Luisa’s daughter Carolina was getting married, and Nuno and I went to Madeira for her wedding to her boyfriend of several years. Some weddings are an obligation, some are fun, others are so boring you just want them to be over and a few, a rare few are simply magical. Carolina’s wedding belongs to the last category. And were it not for the fact that the weather was not ideal, it would have been perfect. Still, after some …
The first time he saw them he was happy and proud, for he could see the wonder in their eyes. She looked at him at said “Oh my God, he’s perfect! Just as I had dreamed!” As for the young man, he sat down and sighed “You are right, my darling, and more – he’s sooooo comfortable. He will last us a lifetime. Our lifetime together”. A special sofa To be fair, he was really an amazing sofa. Afterwards …
The 25th of April is the anniversary of the 1974 revolution that put an end to more than four decades of a dictatorship regime in Portugal. It also changed my life and that of my family forever and that’s why even after so many years I still have mixed feelings about it, and get emotional when it is discussed. For me there is a life before that day, a peaceful one, of a happy privileged childhood and endless summer days, …
From childhood I’ve always felt a special bond with Poland, as Granny used to tell me about our Polish ancestors. In fact, her mother’s family name was Polish: Wojciehowski. Granny told me they had come from Poland to South Africa, where her mother has already been born. She also told me about her Polish grandmother, a statuesque lady or 1, 80, and I – also very tall for a Portuguese woman – consoled myself thinking I had taken after her. …
As a faithful reader of Hola magazine for more than thirty years I have been following the ups and downs of the Spanish Royal family, and these last years they have certainly faced more “downs” than “ups”, but even so I was not prepared for the scene in Mallorca Cathedral on Easter Sunday. A bizarre episode As the Royal family – King Felipe, his wife Queen Letizia, their two daughters and emeritus King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia – …