{maique}

A day late, spent all day yesterday driving.

• 🌧️ We postponed our trip, and left a couple of days later. Thankfully, since he’s a friend, our host didn’t ask for his money, even though we cancelled the day before we were supposed to show up. Thanks. Much appreciated.

• 👀 Tuesday should have been the day when we’d drive down to Castro Marim, and start enjoying our week of beach/pool/Spain day trips, but we were still stuck in the city. So, after we dropped tinyMovieStar off at kindergarten, we just decided to walk around, acting like tourists. We were the only ones speaking Portuguese downtown, as if we were somewhere else. Cool. We walked by places we haven’t been in a while, saw a ton of new shops, found out a lot went out of business (some really quickly), and ended up having a nice Austrian lunch at a place owned by one of tinyMovieStar’s colleagues mom. We love it, and missed the food there. We came home, finished a movie started the day before, and picked the little one up. Awesome day.

• ✏️ Back to school isn’t easy, for anyone. The little one wants to stay home with us, and play all day with us, and talk all day with us. I kinda want that as well. It’s exhausting, true, but I miss her as soon as I drop her off and have an espresso at the corner kiosk. Caffeine levels stabilized, and I’m already thinking I should pick her up again. Happy we managed to get away from the city for a bit, after only half a week of this suffering. Things can get pretty intense on these first days, even though she’s been at this school for a while now. She loves her teachers, and her colleagues, and talked about them often during August. But, when the time came, she doesn’t seem that thrilled anymore. I know we’ll all get into the groove again, but this week wasn’t great.

• 🏖 And, finally, we got in the car, and drove south. Day one was ok. We had to pick up the in-laws, as their car broke down thirty minutes after they left home, we all drove to the house, quick visit to the supermarket, and five minutes in the car to VRSA for dinner. Always a pleasure to go back to Vila Real, we have a favorite place there, overlooking the river, and Spain. The following day was spent at the beach, not a lot to say. The water was warm, the wind non-existent, and the sky had a ton of clouds. Awesome day anyway.

• 🇪🇸 Sevilla day trip. What a ride! The place where we usually stay in the Algarve is right on the border with Spain, so going there is a regular thing. Sevilla is a bit further down the highway, but still pretty close, around 90 mins away. We did not spend as much time as we’d wish to, but still managed to catch a few of the must-see spots, and have a wonderful lunch at a place movieStar wanted to visit. Tasty food. My father-in-law hadn’t been there in decades, so that was cool too. He got to ride the carriage with tinyMovieStar. The rest of us spent that time having coffee. Unlike some of our countrymen, all of us love Spain.

• 🏖️ Barril is an incredible beach in the Algarve, one I had never been to. You get on a little train to make your way to the beach (walking also possible), and the water was warm and clear. Plenty of places to grab a bite as well. We stayed almost until sundown. Will surely come back to this one.

• 🚗 There wasn’t a lot of time left in the south. We crossed the border again, had a wonderful lunch at the closest Spanish town, bought a few items, filled the tank, and drove back to the city. It was short, but very nice.

• 📸 Another week of Micro.blog’s September 2023 Photoblogging Challenge. I have not been able to shoot all of the on the exact day, but I posted photos from last month a couple of times. It is what it is. Days 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, and 12 are now behind us.

• 📺 Platonic. It was fun. Also finished The Afterparty. Both seasons. I need to find a nicer one next, both these felt a little meh.

• 🍿 Molly’s Game. Unexpected, we came across it as we scrolled Prime, but really nice find.

• 🤓 Smallest news of the week: got a Popsocket. Late, and not totally sold on it yet, but I’m trying it.