I’m on a plane once again and I close my eyes and look back to the summer that has just ended. I’m a summer person – I suppose due to being born in Mozambique where we had warm weather almost all year long – so I long for Spring and Summer, strongly dislike autumn and really dread the winter months. In April and May I feel that delightful expectation of the summer months to come, and September, even if the …
Tag: Madeira
As I wait to board the plane I think some things never change, such as the gestures, rituals, hopes, feelings, that have always been intrinsically linked to most of the months of August of my life. As coming to Madeira. Holiday rituals Yesterday as I was ironing some clothes to bring with me I recalled it used to be a sort of “pre Madeira ritual”. I did it in Granny’s sunlit kitchen and it made me so happy that …
It was first discovered by Portuguese navigators in 1419. It is said that they were frightened when they had their first glimpse of those green high mountains that rose sharply from the dark blue sea. And then, when the ships approached land, there was no place they could disembark on, because the whole land was covered with trees, an abundant thick forest that came all the way to the sea…and then, because the sailors wanted to settle there and there …
She is going up the subway stairs with her mother. They have been downtown for some Christmas shopping and they are carrying many bags. Outside, the evening is cold, but the smell of roasting nuts – so typical of Lisbon at this time of the year – feels like a warm welcome. In the distance she hears the sounds of the latest Christmas hit “Last Christmas” by Wham. She sings along and her mother cheerfully joins in. They walk home …
There it is. Another month of August is over. No other month leaves me with such a nostalgic feeling of time gone by too quickly. No other month has ever given me this need to hold time prisoner in my hands and make it stop. And it has been like this for a long time. Not back in Mozambique, though. August there was a winter month, even if our winter there was mild for all standards. But since we came …
Just to say these words fills me with a nostalgic feeling of days gone by. Precisely last Monday I was commenting with my younger son: “ First of August…you know, Pedro, my wildest dream is that I could time travel…”. He immediately asked “Mom, which time would you travel to?”. I smiled and replied “Well, I would probably take two different sorts of trips – one to periods I’m very interested in, certainly the Middle Ages…and then I would go …
He was born in 1914, the year of the beginning of the Great World War. His parents had both come to Mozambique from Madeira island – first his father and some years later his mother, who had joined her brother. They met and soon they were married. He was the elder son, being followed by three sisters. His father was a successful businessman. When he was six the whole family took a ship to go on a long holiday to …
I was nine and it was my first day of what was called preparatory school (the fifth year of school). It was all very different from the private, small, primary school I had been to in the last four years. This was a huge state school, as schools in the years before the 1974 revolution were segregated. I had managed to find my way to my classroom and there I was, sitting quietly, waiting for the teacher to arrive. I knew …
Those summer holidays of 83 in Madeira were the strangest of them all. I suppose we could say we were obsessed with the esoteric and the occult. On the first of August I arrived, to stay for about 10 days at Luisa’s house. After that my family would come and I would join them at the Savoy. Luisa’s house was a large, old – from the late 19th century – house with the typical Madeira architecture: yellow walls and green …
Unlike many of my friends, I find New Year’s Eve a very happy occasion and always want to do something very special. I think this must be due to the fact that I spent many New Year’s eves in Madeira, the place to be on this occasion, and famous throughout the word for its New Year’s eve parties and above all for the amazing display of fireworks at midnight, as one year changes into another. When I was a young …
