the trail

The trail to the beach is the dreamiest place of all. If only there was anything like this in my 'real world'. The horizon is infinite, the landscape changes from desert to forest, sometimes it has water, sometimes it's dry, there are crabs in the mud and birds fishing. But the best of all is the smell of the dunes that fills the air, the combination of those special plants with the sea breeze. Please someone put that in a bottle.

Lhasa

It was extremely shocking and sad to hear of Lhasa de Sela's death today. She died on the first day of the year in Montreal, after battling breast cancer for 21 months. She was 37 years old.

I guess the cliché makes a lot of sense for a musician - that as long as we keep listening to her music she will still be alive between us.

This was probably her best known song and definitely one of my favourites. It never fails to make me travel when I listen to La frontera.

SS - Where in the World?

Do you feel like you belong somewhere? Is this location the place where you live right now, or the place where you grew up in?

Well, for many people it isn't, this special place isn't even remotely close to where they have lived or live now. I'm sure you know people who feel this way: some have found that their home, perhaps their spiritual home, is in India and it's only there that they've felt truly at home. Others are born with a permanent desire to move to Africa. Others have an inexplicable connection to Egypt, without even having been there in the first place. Others feel like they belong in Italy even though nothing in their personal history connects them to this country. I know innumerous people in these conditions and this has made me wonder many times before.

Their longing for these distant (or not so distant) places is apparently of no logical explanation, they have dreamed about these locations from childhood or adolescence, perhaps they've read about them or seen a particular film or documentary, which made their interest grow ever bigger...I'm guessing they didn't come across these sources by sheer coincidence.

This way, I've wondered if this phenomenon was connected to possible past lives. Because I'm not exactly an expert in the subject I tried to look at it from an astrological point of view, through a point in the birth-charts that is called the South Node. The Nodes describe an evolutionary axis of the soul, from a point where we're most comfortable with (the South Node) to a point that is our challenge for evolution in this life (the North Node). And if we look at it from the perspective of Karmic Astrology (the branch of Astrology that relies on Karma and past lives as principles), the South Node could describe our past lives and something along the lines of where our soul has been. And I found we could speculate about where our soul has been, reading a book that connects the South Node sign to various locations around the World (because countries and regions are related to signs too). This way we could perhaps understand why we feel comfortable and at home in places where we've never been before and have no apparent connection to. Just a thought. :)

More Sunday Scribblings.

Any excuse will do to post Klimt's Danae.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

Ah women...what is there to say? 

Just know that you are fantastic and have a great day.

In the meantime, take a few minutes to listen to Isabel Allende's talk on ted.com. It will make you laugh and perhaps cry too, but above all it will tell you that we're not even remotely there yet. If you don't have the time because you're an independent, working woman, well you're half forgiven. Just half because we women demand it all from each other.

New Year miracle

...And at the 9th day of the new year, it SNOWED!

to whom it may concern

Make sure this doesn't happen again next Tuesday. For me. For all of us. Pretty please. ;)

(direct link, if you can't see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aBaX9GPSaQ)

"it's the economy, stupid"

This isn't a post about the financial crisis.

No, I lied. It is, in a way, but in a good way.

As you might recall, I have an Etsy shop and if you know how Etsy works, you know the only currency used there is the US dollar. In the meantime I live my life and pay my bills with Euros, naturally. Well, for a long time after the Euro was created one euro and one dollar were more less even. Until the dollar dropped dramatically this year meaning that, in my store, to get a fair value in Euros I had to ask for a lot more dollars.

A graphic from http://www.taprofessional.com/ showing the evolution of the USD - Euro ratings this Summer.

But this Summer the dollar has recovered some of its value and if that is bad news for some things, it is GREAT NEWS for my store and for buyers. I am now able to review all my prices and come out with excellent price reductions. This isn't a sale, it's a permanent reduction (as long as the dollar-euro ratings allow me to) and some things that cost 40$ dollars now cost 30$.



In the meantime, I've been doing a million and one things including preparing the new season - Autumn. I'll have a few new things in the store soon. It's easy to get lost when I'm trying to juggle so many different balls in the air but I like the variety and it prevents me from getting tired of doing only one thing.

fact

There aren't many odours I like better than the smell of Summer nights. Even when I'm inside I go to the windows and put my nose outside and inhale.

But some days there is an extra bonus: the smell of the soil after a good bit of rain. Ahhh that is pure bliss! And it takes me back to many northern Summers ages ago.

in the air (tonight)

Apologies for the lack of quality of these photos. The sky was simply too clear and white-ish to be able to capture little planes.

These crazy things were doing the opening show for the Red Bull Air Race and they made a right spectacle of themselves all weekend over my skies. Unfortunately the atmospheric condition was terrible for taking photos.

But this is the kind of thing they were doing all over town, making every bird in the area fly around aimlessly trying to figure out where they could be in peace. Well, now they can.

Happy Birthday!

Just a small post to note that it's the 120th anniversary of Fernando Pessoa's birth. Fernando Pessoa was/is Portugal's greatest poet and that is saying a lot, in a country of poets.

He dedicated his whole life to writing, whilst keeping jobs on the side to sustain him economically. The most notable fact about his writing was his like for creating heteronyms. The experts have mentioned there were over 70 of them! He created these characters, gave them names, ideas and a specific writing style and he wrote the poems in their names. Let's call it the many faces of Gemini.

For instance his heteronym Alberto Caeiro was really fond of nature and very connected to the Earth. Ricardo Reis was a neo-classical poet, he inherited the themes from Ancient Greece. Álvaro de Campos is more concerned with issues of the modern times, he's very intense and wants to feel everything intensely. They all had specific private lives and jobs, they even wrote letters to each other.

Pessoa also wrote epic poems: he wrote a collection called Message about the past, present and future of Portugal. Some occultists consider this to be prophetic. Pessoa himself was very interested in Occultism and Astrology, one of his heteronyms was an astrologer, he made birth charts for his greatest heteronyms and made the chart of Portugal too. He was also interested in the philosophical issues of his time, writing essays about specific schools of thought.

He even wrote for advertising. If I'm not mistaken he created the first slogan for Coca-Cola in Portugal.

For this and much more he should always be remembered.

I Am Tired

I am tired, that is clear,
Because, at certain stage, people have to be tired.
Of what I am tired, I don't know:
It would not serve me at all to know
Since the tiredness stays just the same.
The wound hurts as it hurts
And not in function of the cause that produced it.
Yes, I am tired,
And ever so slightly smiling
At the tiredness being only this -
In the body a wish for sleep,
In the soul a desire for not thinking
And, to crown all, a luminous transparency
Of the retrospective understanding ...
And the one luxury of not now having hopes?
I am intelligent: that's all.
I have seen much and understood much of what I have seen.
And there is a certain pleasure even in tiredness this brings us,
That in the end the head does still serve for something.

(24.06.1935)
'Selected Poems' translated from Fernando Pessoa by J.Griffin. (http://pintopc.home.cern.ch/pintopc/www/FPessoa/FPessoa.html)

Link: http://www.disquietude.nl/ - an impressive website with english audio of Pessoa's greatest book and animations. It's not how I usually read him but it's interesting.

Latest update

clouds are gone for now...

Here's the latest update on what goes on in my World these days.

- Football. It's inevitable. First of all, I like it. Second of all, even if I didn't, I'd be surrounded by excited people screaming: Por-tu-gal! Por-tu-gal! everywhere I look. So it's better to embrace it and enjoy it and so far it's going surprisingly well. Lastly, Scolari is going to Chelsea and I can't help but rejoice.

- Summer has arrived and that includes first barbecues, with lots of people, sardines and salad.

- I'm busy preparing for a Craft's fair I'll be attending this weekend.

- The football cannot disguise the fact that this country is in shambles. Last week it was the fishermen who were on strike, now it's the transportation veihicles. This means that most gas stations are now out of fuel, supermarkets are out of fresh items and one person has been killed when hit by a truck. I've lost count of the number of strikes and demonstrations there were in the last few years but they're too many.

- I gave up coffee last week. I didn't think I could do that but it has been a piece of cake, simply because I seem to have gone off it one day. I am strange.

My life on TV - part 1

It's not my fault that I grew up when the TV age was in full bloom. Not my fault that there were a lot of interesting (good/bad) TV series that are part of my childhood memories. I'm doing a little report on that, starting with some of the earliest shows I remember.

This one always played after the news on weekdays. I have to say I enjoyed the intro more than the rest, I thought it was a bit goofy - why did Alf always mess up?


I didn't watch this show (or don't remember watching) but this intro and the song got recorded in mymind until today. My mother really liked this.


This was one of my favourite, I laughed and laughed...'don't be ridiculous!'


This was another show that I didn't watch back then. Many many years later I eventually did on re-runs.



Who doesn't remember this intro?


This is one of my favourites. I must have watched this intro a thousand times because I watched this in different occasions. The first time this was on was during a tv show where you had to phone in to choose what programme they would play next. Then I watched everything when I was about 8, and then again when I was 19 or so. It never stopped making sense and being funny.


Oh a classic! This (along with MacGyver) used to be on on Saturday afternoons and my cousins were always watching and even though I didn't like it, I had to watch it too.


Oh and this one was the BEST!!!



Hope you didn't have an 80s overdose. Sorry about that. Will be back with fresher things later on for part 2. Oh and feel free to share your own life on tv...

notice anything odd?

Temperature forecast for tomorrow (maximum temperatures)

Frankfurt - 28º

Vienna - 29º

Paris- 23º

London - 20º

Madrid - 22º

Stockholm - 27º

Budapest - 29º

Moscow - 20º

Rome - 28º

Athens - 29º

Warsaw - 26º

Zagreb - 28º

Porto - 18º

Source: http://www.euronews.eu/

speaking of...

---Aquarius. I did a test on "What Philosophy do you follow?" and my result was Utilitarianism, which sounds awful but it's really nice. I came to the conclusion that it's completely Aquarian - the greater good!

How about you? Tell me!

What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Utilitarianism Your life is guided by the principles of Utilitarianism: You seek the greatest good for the greatest number. “The said truth is that it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.” --Jeremy Bentham “Whenever the general disposition of the people is such, that each individual regards those only of his interests which are selfish, and does not dwell on, or concern himself for, his share of the general interest, in such a state of things, good government is impossible.” --John Stuart Mill More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page... --------------------------------------------------------------- Also, if you're interested in philosophy and religion, this is a really great quiz. Not only does it tell you what religion you should follow according to your beliefs but it also makes you think a lot about these issues. It links to great summaries of what each faith involves. It's great! Here. Another great quiz.

Domesticity

Gillian from Indigo Blue posted a few shots of her home, suggesting we did the same. Since home is where I've been spending the majority of my time, it seems fitting to post a few images of domesticity. This first one shows an old box of belgian chocolates called, yes, Guylian. So Guylian/Gillian was in my house all along and I didn't know it. Inside the box some crafty materials.

I've been working on some bookmarks with scraps of paper. They're supposed to be for other people but I'm too in love with some to be able to give them away.

On the bedside: Pride and Prejudice and music. No wonder I don't fall asleep until 3 or 4...

My Hopper calendar for April. Love that painting :)

This is the scarf I'm knitting at the moment. It's wonderfully soft, white and gold and I'm adding an angel wing. I love it!

Have you noticed how easy it is to pile up things? These are magazines from the time I bought one every month. I'm sure I stopped buying them about 6 years ago but I still have piles and piles like this one...

How about you? Would you like to share some domesticity (clutter and all)?

when metaphors come out and play

This afternoon I looked out of the window and saw a colourful bird (a real one, made with flesh, bones and feathers!) in a balcony near mine. I'm not an expert but it looked like a lovebird (like the ones of the image). It was singing a little and obviously not where it should be - ditch the metaphors now, this type of bird belongs in a cage!

I tried to attract it with grapes and leaving the windows open because I know it won't survive out there in the open, but no success. Now it's raining a fair bit and the bird is nowhere to be seen. I'm worried because the probability of it finding its way home seems close to zero. If someone doesn't catch it, that's it.

Poor birdie :(

And how odd that the bird looked like the imaginary birds I was writing about previously. Be careful with the metaphors you use.

On other notes, I have a spanish neighbour. Enough said. No, seriously, he's loud. He lives alone but he makes a lot of noise, he's always whistling and listening to REM. And he sings too.

ahhhhhhh

I watched this film at the weekend...




Delightful, as one would say back then. It really made me laugh, except for the screams. There is always a lot of screams in old films. Women are always hysterical and Men are always composed and strong. ha.

On other notes:
I'm living without any HOT WATER! The boiler needs replacing. The house is a mess. Help!

dark spots

map from http://www.state.gov/

Darfur, Tibet, Iraq (bloodiest than ever before)...the list goes on and on. Sadly our little World (I don't mean 'little' with irony, it really isn't that big) is still full of dark spots where basic human rights are absent. Perhaps the worldwide spread of the Media and new ways of communicating and informing are helping us be more aware of what is going on but there are still many things that are very hidden.

Zimbabwe is having Presidential elections this weekend and the international observers will not be allowed to be in the country at that time. A few years ago Zimbabwe was one of the most prosperous countries in Africa: rich production, health care, black and white population living together. One day everything started going downhill.

Today I've seen a journalistic piece from Sky News, where the reporter posed as a tourist to get into the darkest spots of Zimbabwe, places where people rumagged through the litter trying to find something valuable. Unemployment has reached 80% of the population. Life expectancy for women is 34 years old!! 37 or so for men. (the lowest in the World) It was particularly frightening to see a children's graveyard with very recent graves, or the grave of a young woman born in the same year as me. The health system has collapsed and only people with money receive a more or less adequate treatment. They didn't get into detail about the AIDS numbers but I imagine it must be an horrendous figure.

Money meanwhile is worth nothing. The reporter went into a supermarket with almost completely empty shelves and then she grabbed some sort of tin that cost 38 MILLION Zimbabwean Dollars! I can't imagine what gas must cost...

It seems that this tragedy started with some terrible governing measures by a man named Robert Mugabe. It is frightening to see what one man can do. And right now the real question is: will he manipulate the voting or will the people of Zimbabwe get the free election that they deserve?

Source: Sky News
Watch the report here.

Springtime!

Can you feel it? I hope you can, especially if you've had a freezing grey Winter.
This is a busy time in terms of events: the Vernal Equinox today (aka Spring), tomorrow it's the Full Moon and Good Friday and then Easter. But today is a new beginning with the Equinox, we're entering Aries and that means the beginning of a new astrological year. I have a clear sense of deja-vu saying this, so I probably wrote exactly the same thing last year. It feels like yesterday but let's not go into that.

I wanted to post something colourful and I remembered this video, which Niall will certainly enjoy. It's one of my favourite Nineties pop videos.

"Confide in me" - are you that kind of person that people confide on? Do you find yourself constantly being told other people's secrets? To tell you the truth I'm not sure whether or not others confide in me! That must mean they don't. At least I don't remember anyone coming to me saying: "I HAVE to tell you something!!" or... "I've never told anyone about this before...". I believe it's a question of building trust and making other people feel comfortable, but there are some people who seem like secret-magnets. The kind of people you tell things to when you least expect, they seem to inspire some fundamental safety that makes us blurt out truths without thinking twice. Has this happened to you?

I don't know why, but suddenly I feel like asking questions. I'm enjoying the interactivity.

devil mood cooks...

It's Father's Day here in Portugal. I baked a cake for my Dad. It's an apple cake. It turned out well, I was pleased. Want a piece?