Eight am of a lovely spring morning. I’m driving to work and I take the usual route. It’s barely 4 kilometres but almost every street, every corner and every building holds a souvenir of my life, of moments happy or sad, but still important all of them. And I suddenly realise – I who have always looked at Lisbon as the place I had to come to after leaving my native city in Mozambique – that I’m in love with this …
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The three of us were having lunch at a terrace of a Peruvian restaurant downtown, in one of the fashionable quarters of Lisbon. It felt like a summer day: the sky was blue, the sun was hot – in fact it was more than 25 degrees Celsius, uncommon for the beginning of April but still it felt so good…I couldn’t help thinking how different it was from our lunch of a year ago, on a cold, wet, dreary day. … …
Sometimes I wonder if you still think of me, after all these years. I must say – for years I didn’t think much about you. Marriage, motherhood, career, so many things happening at the same time. They all filled my thoughts and it seemed I was always too busy with the present and planning for the future. I don’t know why, but getting older makes you look at the past more often. Maybe it is because life becomes increasingly unsatisfactory …
He is working in the kitchen of his home; outside there is a slight drizzle, in a typical London winter day. For a long time he concentrates on his work, and when he raises his head and casually looks at the television on the wall he sees a too familiar picture: a blue sky over a golden beach and the greyish blue of the Atlantic sea; a subtitle says something about how Portugal has become one of the favourite …
Just when many people think this is a society of “loose morals” and feel young people do not have the same values of old times (ours, for certain!), these very young people teach us a lesson about love and betrayal. Several times I have heard both my boys talk in derogatory terms about people who “betray” each other, namely in romantic relationships. And they always seem shocked when they describe such a situation; I must confess at first I was surprised …
I did my ten minute morning meditation as usual and when I finished I felt happy, ready to face the day ahead. I put on some music on my iPad and sang along while I got dressed and put on some make up. In the car I got a phone call. It was from a colleague from work, someone I like very much. She is a few years younger than me, a great professional but above all an incredible human …
I used to wonder why older people like to get together with their high school or university fellow students after decades, but now I know: it makes us feel younger. A few years ago when we celebrated 25 years of our graduation there was this big event, a dinner that was attended by most of the one hundred students that were part of our year at university. It was so much fun, because in most cases we hadn’t seen each other …
The boys had dreamt of watching a major international rugby match for a long time, both having played rugby since they were seven. Last year I even thought of taking them to see the World Cup, as it was held in Britain, but unfortunately when I considered it it was too late to get tickets, as they were outrageously expensive; we had to abandon the idea and content ourselves with getting Sports TV for the duration of the World Cup …
On the flight to London memories come flooding back from previous visits to this amazing city. I was twelve when I first came to London. We had recently come from Mozambique and, as Mom was living in London, we came to see her. I don’t really remember much of what we did but I do recall Mom taking me to see the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar“. I was absolutely fascinated. I had seen the movie and I knew all the …
On a magazine cover a well known actor says “the most important thing in life is to dream”and I tend to agree. As I read this Christina Perri is singing ” A thousand years” on my iPad, a beautiful song about one love spanning several lifetimes (uncoincidentally, included in the soundtrack of the Twilight saga, that introduced the concept of “good” and romantic vampires). The lyrics of the song remind me of a most romantic (and interesting) book I read …