It’s raining outside. More: it’s stormy. Rather than a May afternoon, it looks like we are back in January or February…I’ve just come back from my son Pedro’s rugby match where, alongside with other dedicated rugby mums and dads I stood firm during 80 minutes trying to protect ourselves from the rain, the cold and the wind, while we watched our sons play. Pedro has been playing for ten years, so all the parents know one another quite well. As …
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Last Thursday I went to Madrid for some meetings and as usual a few weeks before I sent a WhatsApp to my friend Rosario, who lives there, asking her if she would be free for dinner. Getting together It is a habit of many years now. From the first time I went to Madrid for work after our first meeting in Paris in 93, we invariably get together when I go there – which I often do – and, …
I strongly believe one should know how to be alone; in fact I think it’s important to spend time alone, “with ourselves”. Do not mistake me: I’m a gregarious person. All my life I’ve been an extrovert, a communicator, I never had any trouble making new friends and I really like meeting new people; I love getting together with my friends and talk for hours on end; I love spending time with my boys and I love the time I …
Dear Mom, Today I would like us to travel back in time together – one of the things we love most – and remember some of the most cherished moments we have shared. My first memories of you are those of a smiling, vibrant, charming and elegant young woman, always impeccable and full of life. You were very young when I was born, only 23. As was usual then, you had only been married for a year and you already …
This month I have read two books, very different from each other but both very good. The first one by Richard Zimmler, called “The Seventh Gate”, that I read in its Portuguese version (edited by “Porto Editora”); the second one, I read in its original version, Spanish (as far as I know it’s not translated into English yet, but it seems the title will be “Five points”). It is called “Cinco Esquinas” and it’s the latest book by Nobel Prize …
I first saw this sentence in a magnet. It showed a woman with a desperate look, as if she were asking the world to give her some respite – I found it very relevant and I bought it. It has been on my fridge ever since, and whenever I have a glimpse of it it invariably makes me smile. It is a fact that many of us women think we’re invincible. Worse, we think we are super women and we …
I first met my wise friend more than twenty years ago, when I changed jobs and he became my boss. In fact I met him before starting my new job. My name had been put forward by a board member of the company – in fact the person my friend worked for – and it was only natural that he should meet the person he would be working with before I joined the company. During our first interview I could …
I first read this book during the summer holidays of 93. I was undergoing the treatment for my endometriosis, hoping that I might get pregnant and the hormones I was taking left me very much on edge (one of the side effects, among some nastier ones), so we had decided on a quiet holiday by ourselves, in a somewhat secluded place, and we found that in the dam of Montargil, in the Alentejo region. By then it was not easy to …
Granny had a peculiar expression when she wanted to say someone was aging well (whatever that means!). She said: ” She – or he – is growing old gracefully”. This expression is in itself an example of how our society treats elderly people with a certain arrogance. To “age well”? Have we ever heard anybody, referring to a teenager, say he or she is “growing up well”? I don’t think so. But I know exactly what Granny meant, and what …
It’s 3 am and I’m at the hospital with my elder son Afonso. It doesn’t matter how old our children are…when they are sick it’s always the same anguish, as when they were small and we spent the night by their bed checking their fever every hour… This evening as I arrived home he told me his tummy was not right, he had the usual symptoms (!) and was feeling feverish. I fetched our thermometer – that fortunately hasn’t been …