Yesterday I went to a wedding. It was the wedding of the daughter of a fellow worker, someone I consider a friend, but even so I was surprised at the invitation. Very few people from the office were invited, but it’s true that the bride’s mother and I share a bond that has lasted for quite a few years. So, I said yes, even if the prospect of a wedding is not exactly something that I relish. The last wedding …
Tag: summer
I have taken up running of late and I run on the streets that cross the pine forest. There are many villas there, on each side of each street, but as I run deeper into the forest there are more trees and less houses. It’s quiet, but there is always someone there, either running like me, or walking the dogs; or simply a car passing by. At daytime it’s pleasant to run or simply walk there, the smell …
Things have changed so much, no wonder we are all saying this is a very different summer from all the others we have lived through. Even though we can go to the beach, and to restaurants (preferably with terraces), and sit outside watching the sunset while sipping a mojito orcaipirinha, something that we’ve been doing for years, there’s always that feeling that something is not quite right, especially when you have to put on your mask to get …
There are moments that linger in your mind for a long, long time, images so strong that time does not erase them. Two girls sitting outside on a terrace on a late April afternoon that felt like summer, eating an ice cream and celebrating a birthday. I often remember that day. I wonder why I consider it so special. After all, it was not a great party or celebration – just the two of us sitting together as we …
We all have a very special place in our hearts; it may be the house where the whole family used to get together for those seemingly endless holidays of long ago; it may be the beach where we started going in our childhood and where we still meet the same friends and acquaintances, summer after summer, spending hours talking of our respective lives during the rest of the year; or it may be the hotel where we have spent the …
He looks out of the window of the train that takes him across Europe and feels the bittersweet taste that invariably invades him when he thinks of her. At first, he tries to shake it off – no melancholy thoughts allowed on this much dreamt of trip. He looks at his friend sitting beside him and notices he’s fallen asleep. He turns to the window and, leaning on his chair, closes his eyes. Memories of her instantly overtake him. …
The month is June and she is spending a few days on the Algarve as she has done for almost as long as she can remember. She loves these first days on the beach, even if the wind still blows a little bit more than it should and the water temperature chills her bones when she dives in. She feels the warm sand under her feet and looks at the sea before her, at the waves that softly wash onto …
There are moments in life when painful decisions have to be made and you have to learn to accept them and move on. An example is when, due to circumstances in your life, you have to part with a house or apartment you’re attached to. My first house I experienced this very early in my life when we had to leave our beloved house in Mozambique. We knew we’d be leaving the country anyway, but due to the feeling …
If you have followed me for some time you know by now that I love summer in all its manifestations – even the heat doesn’t bother me. Unlike many Portuguese, who show up with black shadows under their eyes due to lack of sleep on hot summer nights, the heat suits me – in fact it is the cold that makes me want to hibernate and only wake up after the long dark months are over. However, as much …
Wednesday evening of the strangest summer I can remember. Are we really in July or have we set the calendar wrong? – we ask ourselves one grey morning after another. Last year it was the tragedy of the wildfires – now sadly replicated in Greece – and now there is even a joke on internet about someone asking our prime minister – highly criticised last year because his government was anything but effective regarding the fires – how he plans …
