The first time they set eyes on each other had been some two months before, during her first days at the company, when she had raised her head from her work only to see a dashing young man come in and suddenly she was bewitched by the warmest golden brown eyes she had ever seen; she, who had always been partial to blue eyes, not brown, simply stared at him for some seconds, and he stared back. During that second …
Images
I have read much about Scotland and have travelled there twice, so I feel I am well acquainted with its folklore, but I have recently learned about a new legend of the Highlands, that of the “water demon”, or, in Gaelic, each- uisge. This creature is described as a water horse that appears on the shores of lochs (Scottish lakes) and whispers in order to attract its victims. When mounted by humans, it takes them into the water and devours …
When I saw Blade Runner (by Ridley Scott) back in 1982, 2019 was almost forty years away, and at 19 no one seriously thinks of how it will be in our fifties – what a nightmare it would be! In fact, it has often been said that man’s worst nightmare would be to know his future, the date of his death; still, we keep “peeping” into the future and trying to guess, if not that fateful day, at least a …
I look at the window. Outside it’s raining, it’s pouring. I remember these were the first words in a long forgotten song by Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer “No more tears (enough is enough)”. They go on singing about their boring love life and how they had dreamed to find the perfect lover, who in the end turned out to be like any other man. Doesn’t that happen to all of us at a certain time of our lives, I …
As I drive back home I am disheartened. Again I have been visiting you, and again you have been complaining incessantly during the whole time I was there. For several times I tried to change subjects, talk to you about things that used to interest you, about life out here, about funny happenings, some stories about my friends, others about our past, my work, the boys…but nothing seemed interesting enough to distract you from the innumerable list of misfortunes your …
I love the quietness of a Sunday morning. Like today. It’s winter, if not at its peak, certainly at its worst. Outside it’s raining, even stormy, and I wake up late – what luxury- and I enjoy the warmth under my duvet and allow myself to daydream. “All is well in my world”, as in one of my favourite Louise Hay’s cards. The boys are home, safe and sound after a rugby afternoon and night out. They must have come …
Pygmalion is a figure from Greek mythology, a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved, which then came to life. It is also the title of a play by George Bernard Shaw, first presented on the stage in 1913, that tells the story of a professor who takes upon himself the task of “carving” his own creation, by educating a Cockney working class girl and transform her in such a way that she might pass as …
Thank you. Even at this point – when I don’t know if what we have is ending – thank you for having been in my life, thank you for so many things. Thank you for making me believe in love after the long desert of the last years of my marriage. Thank you for making me feel like a teenager in love again in my mature years. Thank you for making me feel loved, appreciated, beautiful, attractive, passionate, loving, young, …
I’m putting the dishes in the dishwasher and I hear some piano notes. My son Afonso is playing. I smile and I think of a time, long ago, when he was five and asked to take piano lessons at nursery school. We bought him that small piano as he had to practice every day at home. Which he did. His teacher had said he was very good at it and he played a song at the school’s Christmas party …
My friend Guida called inviting me for her birthday party the following Saturday. As things go, my friends tend to celebrate their birthdays less and less. I guess we are all getting old but I do miss some fun in my life, so I was happy to say yes I’d be there; especially when she told me the party’s theme would be “the eighties” so we’d all be expected to show up dressed in something related to that happiest of all …