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 …
Tag: children
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 …
I had promised the boys we’d make the most of our trip to Maputo to go to Kruger Park, a game reserve in the Transvaal province, South Africa, only about one hundred kilometres away. So after a few days in Maputo we set out from the Polana at around 9 o’clock with a very nice driver, Mr. Fernando. Mozambicans are talkative so soon we were deep in conversation with him, learning more about what happened in Mozambique during the …
These four words inevitably remind me of the first scenes of the Disney movie “The Lion King”, one that I find very special, for several reasons – it tells a story of love, courage and tenacity, it has a beautiful soundtrack – featuring the incredibly powerful song “The circle of life” – it takes place in Africa… or simply because it was the favourite of my son Afonso who loved to watch it while sitting on my lap. Now that I …
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 …
Today I was reading in a magazine how two recent mothers have created a blog where they talk about the “realistic” side of motherhood, leaving behind the “romantic” descriptions that usually describe it as a “blissful state”. Nothing further from the truth, they say. And they go on to describe the horrible nausea they felt in the early stages of pregnancy and their vomiting everywhere and in the less convenient places; their feeling like a bloated whale in the last …
The world has forgotten me. I am old – well, maybe not so old, but I look old, I feel old. I walk slowly, with difficulty; I am always afraid I might fall, so I take careful, short steps, taking my time – after all, why should I hurry? I have all the time in the world, I have nothing to do, and no one is waiting for me. No one cares about what I do, they are all out …
Now that “surrogate motherhood” is being discussed in European countries and raising considerable controversy (only this week the President of the Republic of Portugal vetoed the draft law regulating it in Portugal, considering there had not been enough discussion and ethical questions had not been clarified), I found myself thinking about this very complicated subject, in my opinion, and some stories that I know about people wanting to have children and finding it difficult or even impossible. I know what …
Today I was officially declared by my doctor as being in menopause. I was not surprised, of course. A woman knows her body. During the summer I started feeling those “heat waves” commonly described as a symptom. Not that they happened too often, or were too bad – the problem has been the dizziness I have suffered from in the last two months, and that I associate with it. Or maybe not. As I looked at my doctor I remembered …