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thingsThisWeek #117
We switched things around this weekend, and went to the in-laws right after school, on Friday. movieStar had a Christmas Run (read Walk) on Sunday. We’re doing the same this week, we have a birthday party next Sunday. Busy week with Christmas creeping in.
🤧 Both girls got very mildly sick (sore throat for both, and a very VERY small increase in temperature for the older one). She did not attend the race. I’m not completely convinced she didn’t do something to that thermometer… Anyway, they both felt better soon afterwards, and I’m the one now with a scratchy throat.
🍺 We spent most of the weekend at the in-laws, and went to our friend’s place, where the ongoing beer making project is nearing the end. We bottled the stuff. I’m not too hopeful, but that’s probably because I actually know a brewery owner, and have seen him make his delicious beer often enough to have some doubts about this one. Very VERY different process.
😻 I got to see Gaspar again, my favorite weekend model, and gain a bit more weight. I spend most of the week trying to lose what I put on during these weekends. We also spent a good while looking at old family photos.
🎄 ElFofo is ongoing. I think we (grownups) are having a better time than the little one. I’m sure she’s aware he’s not going back to the North Pole every day, but just plays along. She likes the part of hunting him down, and seeing what he’s up to. We enjoy coming up with ideas (sometimes we get inspiration from others) and setting the Elf up after she’s sleeping.
🖕🏼 Oh! When we got home after the weekend, we found out our building had been graffitied! One of the letters of the tag is between our living room windows, so they were standing in our balcony to do it. Odd, and mildly unsettling. Turns it it’s a pretty famous French crew, but still very ugly, and uncalled for. The neighbours went to the police, but nothing will come of it, of course.
🍕On Monday tinyMovieStar wanted to stay home the whole day. We wanted that as well, but we had work to do. I walked her to kindergarten in the morning, after she said she wanted to go with me, as long as I took my box of stickers. And then we picked her up for lunch, and had wonderful pizza. Back to school after that, for a little while. We all had the most wonderful day.
💈 This was followed by two more days translating the website text (it’s a big website!), and a haircut. My last one of the year.
🧑🏻🍳 The kindergarten Christmas party was on Friday, but we still had to go through Thursday, a very important prep day. Every year the parents have a present for the school. We persuaded my father-in-law to use his unique skills to produce this year’s gift: wooden kitchens (the sink/countertop part), a mud kitchen, where the kids can play with water and stuff. I did have to drive to their place, and load my car with the finished product. My car is the only one with a trunk large enough for this kind of stuff, and it’s not our first time moving stuff. I actually enjoy this, as it’s an opportunity to drive, alone in the car, listening to a podcast or theee. Drove back to the city, and placed the kitchens at the school’s patio, after the kids were gone. Surprise for Friday. The kitchens look amazing, and the kids loved them. The parents loved them. The teachers loved them!
🕺 The Christmas party happened on Friday, today, in the morning. It was raining. We went to the venue, there was a show, singing and dancing, a movie with the kids, and then we all headed to school, and had the traditional Christmas lunch. All the parents, all the kids, all the school’s staff. It’s great, I’ll miss it when tinyMovieStar moves to a new one. We pitch in, bring food, organize stuff, have surprises for the teachers, and it’s as good as these parties get.
🎄 Regarding dinners. Christmas dinners. I have none of the “work” kind. There’s no “company” I work for. I did see an ad on Instagram, a “Christmas Dinner for Freelancers”, but didn’t get curious enough to check what that was all about. We did have dinner with friends, as a family. A couple, a close one. We spent almost a month with them this year, vacationing. We then moved on to the Azores, and the islands, and they went to Spain when we got back. Just like that, months had gone by without meeting them!
📚 Reading books. tinyMovieStar loves them. I love them. But I remember my father, when I was a kid, always with a book in his hands. I still read a lot, but mostly on the phone. That’s what she sees when she looks at me: me, with a phone. I wonder if that will make a difference.
🔒 NordVPN’s iOS app works great, as well as the macOS one, once I managed to find the last compatible version for my old Air. I think I’ll be alright for a year.
🧠 Perplexity is growing on me. After using it daily to speed the translation along (DeepL has nothing to worry about, except it’s crazy cost!), I’ve also been asking some questions a day. The fact that it’s up to date with current events, and provides links that allow me to double check the veracity of the information, is great. I like it. Not enough to justify the Pro cost, but, since it’s free for me, it’s good.
🦆 I’d been looking at Mountain Duck for a while, but couldn’t justify the license price. I know I’m not going to use it enough for the (fair) price, so I was hoping for a discount. Enter Lou Plummer, with his linkage.lol blog. Lou shared a post on social.lol, as he does, and I learned about Bundle Hunt. They had Mountain Duck for $7, a pretty good discount, down from the usual $39. Immediate purchase.
👾 There’s a lot of cool stuff on every edition of the hiro report. This time it had a link to a collection of camera apps. I got two of them. Mood camera, meh. Some of the photos look ok, I guess, but still can’t beat my usual workflow: Camera.app + Lightroom. That’s it. And BitCam. Fun. And fun is good.
🕹️ Monument Valley 3 is here. Glad my Netflix subscription is on. I wouldn’t be playing it if it was only available on Arcade.
📺 The Bear. Lioness.
🍿 Nutcrackers. Thelma the Unicorn. Polar Express. Yes, Christmas is getting close.
📚 Readewise’s Reader is a pretty decent ebook reader as well.
thingsThisWeek #111
Week with no guests. Week with tinyMovieStar by my side all day long, while mom works at the office. Exhausting week. We spent most of the week in town.
🏝️ Started with a very regular Friday. We went out for dinner. We met friends. We ate. We drank.
It had a morning, afternoon, and evening. As most do.
I also spotted a sticker, something out of the ordinary here. There are stickers, but they are all on motorcycles, as the last posts confirm. That’s it for sticker spotting. I’ve almost stopped posting altogether, as even I am bored with them.
Then the storm came! A huge one, complete with thunder, for hours. The whole night. Thunder. Rain. We woke up multiple times. Storms here are very different, or feel very different. They feel more primal. Also, the fact that there’s no light at all during the night, with the power being cut off, turns the night into a very silent thing. No one is up, not a single radio on, nothing. Just the forest sounds, and the storm, with lightning. It’s beautiful.
When morning finally came, I went out looking for a special kind of banana. tinyMovieStar loves those apple bananas, but they’re not always available. Some stalls have them once in a while, and they’re impossible to find at the market, unless you get there before 6AM. I’m not going anywhere before 6AM. Sometimes, when we’re driving around (and we did not this week), we find them being sold on the side of the road, out of the city. Cheaper too.
Before that, I needed money. So I got some more. It involves sending some euros to a Portuguese account.
Found the bananas, and awesome Joel while at it. He invited me for a beer. Why not? It was almost noon already.
Back home for a little while, and then we took the little one to Book Club. Nice initiative by one of movieStar’s colleagues. For kids. On the way, more photos.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at home, and then I went out for take away.
One of the new restaurants in town is a pizza/burger place. It’s very close to home, in the same spot one of our friends used to have a clothing/accessories boutique, mainly catering to tourists. Of course, she went under, since tourists aren’t nearly enough to support these shops. She employed a couple of people, they produced the items with African themed fabrics, purchased locally. Another very cool handicrafts store also closed after being opened for only a little while. Sad, but predictable.
Anyway, burgers and pizza are new here, and every kid in town is begging their parents to take them there. The restaurant is very fairly priced, and always packed. A success story. Cater to local, not tourists.
Sunday arrived, and with it the damn church bells. I couldn’t go back to sleep after that, and no way to have coffee at home.
This Sunday was a little different, as it was Cup Final day. I got to spend a couple of hours with the nice guys from Porto Real, the best team on the island. They did, in the end, lose the game. They were, understandably, sad. The friend who invited me over (one of the players), was very disappointed, and messaged me later, apologizing for inviting me for such a sad show. He felt embarrassed, and it didn’t matter how many times I told him I had a great time, and still loved it.
In the evening we finally got to have some ice-cream. The shop is, normally, closed. When it opens, there’s no ice-cream. This time we were lucky and they did have vanilla, and were open for business. Had a caipirinha next.
Caipirinha: 1.2€. Ice-Cream: 1€. Decent.
Monday morning… La La La La La …
Belo Monte visit. Pool, and overpriced lunch. It was a national holiday, movieStar was almost having a day off. Nice dinner at Cruz, the spot where we are having most dinners.
Days without guests/journalists are mostly all equal: movieStar at the office, and the rest of the family alone all day. Since there’s only one cafe, no library, no movie theater, no beach in the city, only one decent mini market, we’re a bit stuck. We struggle to find different ways to keep the little one entertained. I struggle to find ways to keep me entertained.
Then there were no eggs on the island. Thankfully that one was solved after a day. At the same time, another rainbow. Mood on the island sways with these little events.
This was also the day I rode Francisco’s Chinese motorcycle, in the night, after dinner. Small ride, but I’ll do it again. Francisco is a good friend, the architect who is almost permanently on the island, tasked with implementing the vision of the chief architect, who visits once or twice a year. We have dinner with him almost every day. He’s usually driving his pickup truck, but also owns this cheap motorcycle.
I also got a haircut, on a rainy day. The day was a bit depressing, but it ended on a good note. One of our favorite restaurants is now open, after more than a month with closed doors. tinyMovieStar helped bake a yummy orange cake for dessert.
More journalists are coming, and then we’re off. By this time next week we’ll be flying back to Portugal, after a day in São Tomé. It’s been six weeks since we left, and we’ve been mostly away since July. We’re all missing home, but we’ll miss this place. A lot. We always do. This time around even tinyMovieStar will miss it. She’s old enough to remember all the things she experienced in a month and a half.
☕️ My buyMeACoffee account saw a LOT of action last week. I’m very grateful. It was very strange, but very welcome.
💸 Purchased some Envijon presets. Not many, not expensive. They look good. Also, there’s a black market for those, I found out! Someone will source dozens of these, and sell them at a discount.
📹 I thought about setting up another blog, for short video clips. I did. Not sure how long I’ll be able to keep motion.maique.eu alive. Editing, reducing file size, endless upload attempts with under par internet, … it’s all too much trouble. Some hate it, but Instagram, both Stories and Reels, are great for that. I gave Ghost a shot, and the videos look amazing over there, just not sure I want another bill. I have Bear, and Pika, for a year, and both are very poor at handling this. Very small maximum file size means a couple of seconds of video only. I ended up with Scribbles. Still a super service.
🍿 Wolfs. Meh. I love the guys, and that made it tolerable.
📺 I watched every available episode of Bad Monkey**, and I’m now waiting for the weekly releases. Same with Slow Horses, of course.
📚 Arriving Today, by Christopher Mims. I should enjoy this one. I am liking this one.
📱 New apps on the block: World Clock Widgets. The awesome OK Video. And Croissant, another app I don’t need, but that didn’t stop me from subscribing.
📚 Done with the Prologue, and I know I’m going to love this one already.
thingsThisWeek #110
Busy week, long week. We had adventures. It was a very good one. Felt like two weeks.
🏝️ Friday took us to Praia das Burras, again. Also to Belo Monte, and Picão, but that’s not the important bit. We needed to get drone footage from a fishing village, and Burras is the nicest one around.
The guys have been dealing with issues when it comes to flying the drone. The island is so small, most of it falls under the “No Fly” zone, as the airport is somewhat centrally located, on the north side.
Kinda silly this forbids drones from flying all day, as the airport gets 2/3 flights a day. Anyway…
We did manage in the end, using my phone, but I was stuck with a dead missQ. Batteries were not charged the night before, as I’d fallen asleep from tiredness. Almost no photos as a result!
We came back to town a few hours later, had an omelette with fries (yes, Mira-Rio got some fries, for now!), and spent the rest of the day with the girls.
We were back at Mira-Rio soon, for an impromptu dinner party, with some colleagues. Everyone is so busy with their daily life, sometimes it’s hard to meet them. We hadn’t seen our next door neighbor for over a week, as she leaves too early in the morning, and gets back when we’re already asleep.
Dinner was great, and fun. The team is multi-national, and we had a Zimbabwean, a South African, an Indian, and four Portuguese at the table. We’ve known everyone for years, so it’s always a pleasure when we meet them.
We went back home, and slept. Unaware of the incredible day that was coming next.
Film crew on their last day in town. They were doing city shots, drone and regular (non airborne) stuff, in the morning.
There’s a barber right next to Mira-Rio, and he wasn’t too busy. Took advantage, and took care of my hair while they were setting up the drone, and getting some footage near by.
We then moved to Picão, a very nice hamlet. On the way to the place where the movieStars were. We were meeting them, so the guys could enjoy a last dip in the ocean. They were here for a week, and this would be their second time in the water! We spend a lot of time at the beach, and not nearly enough in the water.
Anyway, the girls were were going to the beach with a friend, and their car broke down. They took refuge at a nearby hotel (the only one besides the ones movieStar works for), and spent their time at the pool, while mechanical help was on the way.
We kept shooting. Soon it was raining again. We finished doing our stuff, and joined them at Belo Monte for lunch. The rain kept falling.
And so did two tourists, on a rental motorcycle, just pulling out of the parking. The roads here are mostly mud, some clay. Very VERY tricky.
The beach we were going to, after getting some food, is called Banana beach. It has an extremely steep slope to get there. If it’s too wet, you can’t go. It was. We risked going down anyway.
Had a wonderful time at the beach, even with the rain. By now it was just us guys (video crew and myself), the awesome Joel driving the Land Cruiser, and both girls (my tinyMovieStar and her buddy Raquel). movieStar back at work.
Sunset was getting close and Joel said we should go, he didn’t want to navigate that hill climb in the dark. We got dressed, and climbed aboard the Toyota.
Off we went. And back down. The jeep couldn’t make it. Second try. Same result. We stepped out, grabbed our gear, and started on foot. Joel would try again, this time faster, and we would get back in at the top of the slope. Nothing changed.
We were about to climb the whole messy hill on foot, and call in for help, when a man shows up and said there’s another path, connecting that beach to another one, Praia Burra. Sandy road, but doable, he told us.
He joined us in the car, and we left. It was almost dark by then.
It didn’t take us long to be stuck.
We couldn’t get the car free, so I just said we should go on foot to Burra (the fishermen village), and call for help there. Cell coverage is pretty bad in that area, and I hate to hike in the night. Huge land crabs come out, and having the two girls with us would make that a very hard walk.
Off we went. All gear with us. Walking through the palm tree forest, and then on the beach.
We had spent the previous two days at that particular fishing community, and we love it. It is one of the places we like best. People know us pretty well by now, but were still surprised to see us show up at that time, from the beach, not from the road.
A group of ten was quickly gathered, and sent back to the car, they’d try to help Joel get unstuck.
We sat down, got a beer, some cookies for the girls, and I made the call. The car needed to be towed, and we needed another one to pick us up. tinyMovieStar was already speaking to the fishermen, and some village girls braiding the extremely long hair Chris has.
In no time our drive had arrived, and we were transported to the hotel where movieStar waited for us.
Sunday came next.. No activity, just babysitting my daughter and her inseparable friend. Then beer and caipirinhas at her parent’s, late in the evening.
Monday saw the arrival of two new journalists. We (father and daughter) stayed home in the morning, and joined them for lunch. In the afternoon we went to Bom Bom, and shot a few photos for them, before jumping in the pool with tinyMovieStar. And back to the city.
We were lucky, and got a beautiful sunset. Not that common here.
Dinner in town. We had an omelette (yes, another one!) at Mira-Rio, and then ran into Francisco on the way home. He is an old friend as well, Portuguese architect working over here, and was looking for some fish. He found it. Flying fish, with rice, and banana fries.
First time we stopped at this particular place for food. tinyMovieStar said something about sausages, and the nice lady owner said she’d make some for her the following day.
The next day, a Tuesday, felt like a Thursday. We’re tired, very much so, by now. It has been too long, with no day off. We’re pushing it.
Lunch at Juditinha, the usual delicious fish. I was with the little one at home all day long. Left the house to do some grocery shopping, try to find ice-cream, pay for the visa extension, and top up my local number. Those took 15 mins, as everything is so close.
We went back to Maria for the promised sausages, they were delicious. Will go again.
Wednesday arrived. Already thinking about Monday, it’s a national holiday, everyone will have to rest. Probably even movieStar.
Day at home with awesome daughter, with a little time walking around. There are two places on the island where you can get an ice-cream. Soft serve. We went to both of them, waiting for them to open, four times. They never did.
We bought some fabric, and walked to a tailor. Ordered a dress and a skirt for the little princess.
And then a surprise. A rainbow. Something not usual here. And it was one of the best rainbows we have ever seen. It ended in the bay, in front of the forest. The sky was magical. This place is incredible, despite everything. We are very privileged to be able to call this island home, from time to time.
We went to bed with a smile in our faces.
Woke up the next morning, and spent most of the morning at home. movieStar had to say goodbye to the two journalists, so we headed to Bom Bom. I shot a bit more, and then we swam in the ocean, in the pool, and had lunch. I waited for the low tide, and waded my way to the islet, where the restaurant used to be. It is now empty.
Some fishermen were doing their thing on a rock.
tinyMovieStar is swimming much better too. She couldn’t do it when we got here, and she does now. She learned how to swim at Bom Bom. Where her father (that would be me) proposed to her mom. This hotel takes up a lot of space in our lives.
We got back to the city, and had our double dinner again. I head to Mira-Rio, where I’ll find Mitch (the engineer responsible for everything mechanical on the team), and talk to him through an omelette with fries. He’s retiring this year, and you can imagine the stories he has to share. Them I’ll join the girls at Maria, where they’ll be having delicious fish.
It’s getting harder to find the local beer. That’s not fun. Hopefully they’ll fix the factory soon, as we’re not fans of drinking Portuguese and Spanish beer here.
☕️ Hell of a week for coffee! I’m so grateful for all the support, and this week was a good one. Individual coffee offers, and even a new One a Month Club membership! Thank you all, you are too kind.
📺 Bad Monkey, Slow Horses. Almost done with the first one, and would have finished the other one if the episodes were all available already.
📚 Finished Spook Street, and got the next one: London Rules.
✍🏼 Of course I couldn’t avoid it. I got a subscription to Pika. I have absolutely no idea what it will be for, but I’ve done it anyway. There’s not much there, but there is a guestbook. The guys at Good Enough have a few cool services, and I’ve been using Letterbird for free. This felt like a good way to support them.
📚 Finished reading: Spook Street by Mick Herron.
thingsThisWeek #109
Still here, on the island. This one started on a Friday 13th, and jinxed the whole week. Lost a watch, fried a charger, and broke my glasses. Things had to improve after that. Thankfully, they did.
🏝️ We enjoyed the final day of Brazilian musicians on the island, with one scavenger hunt. We needed to find a specific local musician. Of course, being such a small island, the hunt was over pretty quick. We got to the general area we were told he lived in, and were talking to him not five minutes later. Got to hear him sing, and play. A few minutes of chatting, and we were off to the next stop.
We drove to Terreiro Velho, but Cláudio, the chocolate man, wasn’t there. He’ll be on the island soon, though, so we’ll probably visit again.
Home of the best chocolate in the world.
Seems like his Roça is being renovated, which is very welcome news. We shot a couple of photos on his property, and soon we were gone.
I had absolutely no food until 8pm. And drank a couple of beers, and a taste of schnapps. Not too wise, but really did not find the time to eat. A lot of things going on.
Having tinyMovieStar with us, while both of us have to work, is not easy. There is no babysitter, and we have to run back and forth a lot, juggling the days away. Later in the week Raquel (an 8 year old friend) would visit, and tinyMovieStar did the same, went to her place for dinner.
The day ended with a private concert at the hotel, after dinner. Before that there was time for a last meet with musicians, well after sunset.
Of course, being Friday 13th, the charger for missQ stopped working. Blew up. I’m Leica-less for a month now. Merde! (More on this later, less merde, with a stroke of luck).
Following day, another mess. Not a single photo taken until close to sunset. And I only did the one because it would feel immensely strange to go without photos for a day.
I stayed home with the little one all day, but we did end up getting a ride with the staff jeep, and went to Bom Bom for a swim.
Broken glasses. Bam.
New day, new group of people: HTSI photographer on the island, and a video crew as well.
First day with the whole gang had a great way to start. Julian, the FT photographer, also owns a Q, and said he could leave his charger behind. I’ll make sure he gets it back when we go back home. I wasn’t expecting this, but he is a very nice person.
We later found out the did set photography on a show that we enjoyed a lot, and inspired movieStar to start planning our 2018 trip to Asia. Fancy that!
We drove to the airport, to pick up the video guys. I waited at the baker across the street, but no bread came before we had to leave. The boy there kept saying “in two minutes”, but thirty had already came and gone. We left.
Drove to Roça, they dropped their (multiple) bags, and we drove the other way around, heading to Bom Bom. On the way, we tried the baker again. He had bread already. And a Black Sabbath t-shirt. Julian asked for a photo. We all did that one.
We had a great time,
Beach boat ride to the beaches. We were supposed to visit the Bay of Needles, but the weather was so bad we had to delay the departure. When it cleared up a bit, it was too late for that one, so we ended up going the other way. It was very nice, and I got to visit Praia Boi. It’s my favorite beach in the world.
There was no cell network and, as a result, no wi-fi as well, for the whole day. Woke up the following morning with the same issue. Network comes on, you try to send a message, it hangs. A minute later, it’s gone. Can’t call, can’t message, can’t browse. Or upload. This is even worse than having no power. At least, when that happens, we still have the cell network in operation, the internet helping us kill time.
Went to sleep, expecting a full day to start as soon as we woke up. And, boy, did we get it!
Had the most delicious talk with a gentleman, while I waited to be picked up. 83 years old, started talking to me as soon as I sat down on the bench, next to him. People are always surprised when they learn I’ve been coming here regularly. He remembers the colonial times very well. Going to school (still remembers all the rivers from Portugal, Angola, and Mozambique), started working at 14, long life of hard work, and now retired. I hope I get to see him again, but he lives well off the beaten track, and was in town to get his pension, and pay some bills.
My drive showed up immediately afterwards, and we moved to a fisherman’s village. I acted as fixer/translator, and soon we were shooting. I made what will probably be my favorite photo from this whole trip. Then it started raining, heavily. We got VERY wet.
Talking to the fishermen, laughing with the guys. Really nice bunch we have, with the two American video guys, the British photographer, and Joel driving us around.
And, newsflash, video takes forever! We spent hours at the beach, then moved to a lookout point, where we shot some more. We were already running late, we had a boat to catch but still needed to have lunch. A quick tandoori chicken toast at the hotel, with a beer, and we left for the hotel by the sea, boat was already waiting for too long.
The captain was not too keen to take us. He was afraid we might take a while to shoot, into the night, and the cell network wasn’t working. No way to get help if something happened. We went anyway.
Flying! We were soaking wet from the waves flying over the boat in under a minute.
OMG. Blood!! Both video guys have sustained injuries, cuts on their fingers, when trying to remove the battery of a drone who wouldn’t quit. On a boat. Rocking with the waves. Not nice.
We raced back to the hotel, after emergency treatment was provided by the captain. Good thing the company trains all staff in First Response. All of them.
I then had another day at home, cooking, taking care of two girls, then off to Bom Bom for final hours of the day. We all went to dinner at Sheira, with Manuel and Joel. A local restaurant. By now we had two Canadians with us, the party getting bigger.
Julian left the following morning, his charger now with me. Batteries are charged. missQ is back.
First place the camera visited? São Joaquim, and O Que Daniel in the morning. São Joaquim is the poorest Roça on the island, I think. And so far from the city. Takes almost an hour to get there, on the awfully bad road. Beautiful landscape, of course, and lovely warm people when you get there. But they live so isolated from everyone else.
We spent a while, then moved to the next stop, and were ready to eat lunch at 2:30PM. We had endured hours of back breaking roads, had removed trees from the way, and had forgotten our water bottles at home. We were starved, and dehydrated.
Didn’t do much later, as the sun was about to set when we finished lunch.
Another day, another fishing village. This time it was Praia das Burras. We had sailed past it in one of our boat rides. We went by car this time.
Awesome hours at Praia das Burras, a fishermen’s village. Gentle people, fun people.
Women were getting ready to party, as this is the day that celebrates the San Tomean women. Men were having beer. We did as well.
We watched them as the fishing boats were coming back, danced with them, had a few good laughs, and then left.
Drove back to the city, and went to Mira-Rio. movieStar had been there earlier, with the little one, and they had fries! It was almost 3PM, and I had skipped breakfast. I could not miss the fries, first time I saw them in almost a month.
📺 Still watching, drip by drip, Slow Horses. Also started Bad Monkey, as I needed something to keep me busy while patiently waiting for the new episodes of the other show. Watched a couple of episodes, and believe I’ll watch a few more.
📚 Almost done with Spook Street. Liked it, but now I kinda know what’s going to happen on Slow Horses.
📱 First week with iOS 18. Still have to explore a bunch (everything). I’ve been testing Passwords, downloaded Email Me, is anyone using this one? I kinda like getting things by email. I could use Drafts for pretty much the same, but this one lets me send images and voice notes. Kinda neat.
thingsThisWeek #108
Still in Principe. SOOO much rain these days. Hours on end. Torrential. Makes things much harder. And frequent power outages, more than usual.
🏝️ National Holiday on Friday, then came the weekend. That means extra loud music in the evening. Now that we’re living in the city, right behind the church, this is something we have to deal with. The hotel was too quiet, this is a tad loud. Still prefer the city.
We finally visited family, my godmother, and extended gang. Girls were at summer camp, but they came over for the afternoon. They, as they do, became regulars at our place, whenever we’re in town. Playing with tinyMovieStar, keeping us company, taking care of us. One is about to turn 18, the other is 8.
Just going around town, lazily shooting stuff.
There’s ~a new~ one pizza place in town, and it’s right next to our place. Not brilliant pizza, but edible. Also does burgers.
We’ve been eating a lot of fish. Brilliant at the hotels, of course, but the best one is found at Juditinha, in the city. Best fish I ever had. With banana crisps, crunchy, dry.
The city feels a lot different this time. More like São Tomé. And that is not a good thing. A lot of people moving in from the bigger island. That is also not a good thing.
Things must move forward, of course. But this is destroying its charm, in a way. Too many cars. Lots of speeding. It’s always stupid, obviously, but even crazier on such a small town, with so many kids just running around with no parental supervision.
We’re experiencing a higher number of power outages. Instead of it coming back at 6AM/7AM, as usual, sometimes it does not. Or we get it for a couple of hours, and then it’s gone again.
We had a whole day without it. Having lunch (and dinner) at Rosita’s Rosa Pāo, without light during both meals.
Rosita. This was the first place I had a meal on the island, 10 years ago. She would later become my godmother. Grandma of a ton of kids, including both girls I mentioned earlier. Had dinner without electricity as well.
Sunday was hard. Most of the day spent at home. No car means no beach, and everything is closed. Not that there’s a lot during the week, of course, but “nothing” is hard.
We went out for a little while, but the humidity is UP THERE, and it’s a pain to be out and about. Thankfully there’s air con at home, and the power was on the whole day.
Bakers are fun here. I had to wait an hour for bread. They told us they’d have it ready at noon, but took them an extra hour to have it. Painful, the waiting outside, but bread is very good when you finally get your hands on it.
We even found out about a (much better) bread, but it’s closer to the airport. I’ll go there when we’re picking someone up, or dropping them off. Still hot, made on a classic, wood-powered oven.
We went back to Roça (multiple times), the place where we were married. The place where our friends lived. I say lived because, after many many years, they have finally been relocated to Terra Prometida (Promised Land).
The hotel feels empty. And sad. And silent.
The chapel is crumbling, falling apart.
The hotel, physically, as lovely as ever. I just think it lost its soul.
Then Melgas. Blood sucking bastards! tinyMovieStar had dozens of bites. We had to visit the hospital, get a pill, and some drops the following day,
That’s when we visited the new place the nurse is building (airbnb, restaurant, disco), and went with him to the day care center. We walked home.
Afternoon at home, with torrential rain outside. It’s hard to keep tinyMovieStar entertained over here. Not a lot to do, visit, enjoy. If we’re at the hotels, easy. But outside that, it’s just a very poor place, she doesn’t love it as much as we do. We got a visit from the girls, who spent the afternoon with us, she had a play date.
Also, finally, visited Terra Prometida (The Promised Land). On the day our musician friends arrived. Airport, Roça.
People seem happy with the new place. It’s huge! Instead of being all together under a couple of roofs, in the old Roça grounds, each family has its own house now, with a little land to grow something. I’ll have to go again, of course, and get some photos.
Saw trees. Surprising, right?
We listened to a performance by the batuqueiras. And that was that, power was out again. There’s no diesel on the island for full days with electricity.
The musicians that are now on the island are making this a very cool couple of days. Going around meeting the local talent, hearing them play and sing. Fun project, fun people.
Fun fact: one of them is the father of one of tinyMovieStar’s best little friends from kindergarten. That’s how the bigger movieStar thought about the whole project.
Shooting a lot of video (with phone) for this one.
🤦🏻♂️ Lost a watch. Totally my fault. One of the 2100 series G-Shock. I liked it. Might have to get a new one.
🎙️ Voicenotes still going. Strong. Recording every single day.
📺 Slow Horses. Forgot to add this to the previous edition. Boy, am I happy this one is back. Cowboy Cartel. Maybe I’ll even watch episode 2, the first one left me wondering how good this story will turn out to be.
🍿 The Instigators. Enjoyed the movie. That’s pretty good these days.
📚 I’ve added Spook Street, part of the Slow Horses series, by Mick Herron, to the list of books I’m reading. I just couldn’t wait for the weekly episodes. Almost done with the books.
📢 Cleaned up my Shoutouts account. Added a couple of new suggestions, and deleted a handful. This is a very cool service, another great idea by Vincent Ritter. Check it out if you’re not familiar with it, and you can see it in action at the bottom of every page/post on maique.eu.
🎙️ Must take a look at Spake. Another service from the good folks at Neatnik (hey, Adam!), makers of fun software, and delicious services. For now it’s free for anyone holding an omg.lol account. If you don’t have one, you’re missing out.
📚 That’s what you get from waking up with the rooster yapping outside. Not even 9AM, and have done some serious reading already. Nice.
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Back in the city, for a little while, and off we went again. This post was published when we’re already in Africa! Definitely a very strange week, there’s not a lot to share. We were too tired to do anything worth recording, and mostly dealt with the trip’s preparation.
💨 Spent half a day in Lisbon, straight from the Azores, then moved to the in-laws. Car wouldn’t work, so used one of my father’s. I’ll have to deal with that when we’re back.
We (the little one and I) rested, while the older girl had meeting after meeting. Three days of this routine.
We then moved back home, and had to deal with the trip: barber, bookstore, dentist. Packing. Checking in. Returning the car to my father. We had a very busy, and very stressful, couple of days.
On the night before the flight, only the little one got some sleep. We had to wake up early, and kept doing double takes, trying to figure out if something was going to be left behind.
I got up at 3AM, to add another lens to the backpack. Then back to sleep. Then awake again, for no special reason.
And on to the airport we went.
💺 I inherited a cousin when I got married. Well, I inherited a few, but one is worth mentioning today. He’s an airline captain, at the company we flew this time (and, truth be told, whenever we can). We get upgraded to executive when there are empty seats, and that’s always good. We did on this flight. Better food, always nice. Another (very) good thing about the upgrade: never a line to use the loo.
The plane is a small A320, not the most glamorous of planes. The flight seems endless, and the fact that we must stop for 90 minutes in Accra is just a shame. There’s a direct one, but only once a week. Bigger plane too for that one.
🇸🇹 I’ve said it before, but trips to this island are special, in the sense that there’s next to nothing there. We have to take everything we need with us. There are no shops on the island, except grocery stores, and handicraft shops, and other assorted establishments, of no practical use for us. And there’s no way I’ll be able to find a cable, or a card reader, or a battery. There’s also no ATM for our cards, so we’re always taking a lot more cash than we’d like.
All this. while also trying to keep the total weight of our luggage as low as possible, since there’s an allowance of 15kg (33lbs?) per person on the internal flight to Principe. Yeah. My camera gear alone is close to that.
I never got on that flight without being charged for the extra weight. It’s been 9 years now since I first came, the local airline has made a ton of money from my flights! The flight, in case you’re wondering, costs an insane amount anyway: close to 250€ for a 35-minute hop.
💸 Purchased a few more presets, just because they were cheap. Will probably keep using the same old dozen, but I’ve seen a couple on this pack that look very cool. And it is very hard to resist a well designed ad, and $9 for a few hundred presets.
🍿 The Union. What a load of nonsense. SOOOO predictable, from start to finish. Free Guy, a little better. Enjoyed this one.
📱 Settled on Castro again, for all my podcast needs. I missed the playfulness, and it seems to be working. Please don’t screw this up, new owners.
📝 Wrote a longer post, concerning blogging workflows. Everyone seemed to be doing it, and the posts were inspiring enough to get me to write my own.
📚 The book I picked up just before the trip was my entertainment during the flight. The airplane has no other means of keeping you busy, even on an 8 hour flight (please fix this, TAP, it’s not acceptable). Loving the stories, and theories, about the horrific 1755 Lisbon earthquake.
⌚️ Worth noting this is the first time I’m spending time in STP without the Explorer. I’m still wearing the 5000U, that’s why. After Menorca, Chaves, the Azores, it’s now time for the Japanese to visit Africa as well. It’s a comfortable watch, the feature set is perfect for traveling, and it’s awesome to know it will be able to handle everything. The other one did as well (it’s built like a tank), but one always worries a little.