photography
Construction Site & Carris
The whole city looks like a construction site. It’s incredible the amount of work that’s going on all over the place.
I guess it’s good for a part of the economy, as a lot of people are able to keep their jobs and provide for their families, but I remember reading somewhere that construction workers were being infected in bulk. Even today it’s easy for find them unmasked, clogging the sidewalks, blowing smoke into our faces.
There’s noise everywhere, there’s dust everywhere, there’s chaos for pedestrians everywhere.
Try to find a single street with no building site, and you have your work cut out for you.
We found a lot of these sites today as well, as we do every day.
Moving on…
On our way back I remembered I had a voucher for a drink at Starbucks, so decided we’d walk by, redeem that for a delicious White Mocha Frappuccino, and try to go up Calçada da Glória on the elevator. It’s a very steep one, and tinyMovieStar never rode the elevator.
The Frappuccino was great.
(A tip, though: don’t try this when carrying a forward facing baby! It was hell!)
The Rossio/Restauradores area is a big hit with the baby. There are fountains with water, and buses going by, the National Theater is beautiful, there’s plenty to keep her entertained.
On to the elevator…
We have tried it before, but we’d always arrive there when the next departure is too far off, and there’s no way I’d be able to keep the little one calm standing around waiting for that.
Today the scheduled time was three minutes away. Great.
I stood outside, waiting. The time arrived, I was lucky to have a note, an actual bank note in my wallet (cards not allowed), and tried to hand it over to the driver. No way!
“You must pay cash, but exact amount only, my friend.”
Coins! In 2021! My friend!
These assholes (if I may) charge 3.80€ for a ridiculous short ride, and have no change!
The things are usually packed with tourists, willing to pay the exorbitant price, because they have no idea it’s so overpriced, and want to try a local thing.
These days it’s hard to find a tourist, the darn thing left with one single passenger. They don’t care, of course, it’s not like they’ll get more money if more people use the service, right ? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
We walked up the hill again, it’s good for us anyway, and soon we were home again. Happy.
Word!
Today @burk wrote a post about a project he thought of, one that is a brilliant idea.
See for yourself: 1000 Words
“Hell, yeah, I’m in!” was my first thought (and second!). I waited until I had some time to go through the archive and find a suitable photo.
Guess what? Seems like I’m a fan of having text on my photos or, better, have photos of text.
Finding photos of single words proved trickier, but still a few after a thorough search. Are expressions allowed ?
Of course I had to turn this into a photo heavy post, sorry about the loading time.
I will pick one to upload and take part of the cool project Jason came up with, as some of them don’t seem to tick (“check” for you, @jean 😉) all the boxes.
We spoke about this before, when we were in the middle of the Photoblogging Challenges, but I was reminded again: during all these years I’ve photographed a LOT of different things! It’s natural, but still surprising when I go through the photos.
Before the Walk
Good thing I was already a Nijntje fan before tinyMovieStar came along…
Memory Lane
We changed the route again, and walked the wide streets of the business area around Marquês do Pombal.
Went by movieStar’s office, but also walked by two of my old newsrooms. The building where I landed my first job in the newspaper business, now turned into a fancy apartment complex. Close by is one of the spots where Público had an office. We had a few over the years.
That first one, a newspaper over 130 years old when I joined in 1995, has moved on many years ago, to the outskirts of the city. In the meantime they fired most people, stopped having a daily printed edition, got back to a daily printed edition, but the sales are still tiny. Not good.
The building is a landmark, so the new owners kept the facade, and turned the whole thing into luxury condos.
This area has taller buildings, as tall as they come in the city. We’re not a skyscraper town.
Lots of people out and about, but still nowhere close to the old numbers, but plenty of cars, buses and scooters.
The back streets are littered with empty businesses. You can tell some are paused, but a lot seem to be gone forever. They catered to the throngs of salarymen, but those are nowhere to be seen at the moment.
Just yesterday we found out our darling Cerveteca, a place where we spent a lot of time, and had a ton of fun, is looking for a new location, unable to afford the current one.
It will take a long time for this place to look the same, if it ever does.
Quick One
The day flew by!
Picked up the car from the mechanic, back home just in time to catch the movieStars leaving for the morning walk. Off to Estrela Garden, the bigger one around here, and some more walking practice for the little one with her wonderful instructor: mom.
Nap and afternoon walk, while mom stayed home for work.
I’ve said it before, but say it again: I will miss these moments dearly when they’re gone, and try to enjoy every single minute of our walks. Talking to her, even though she can’t understand a word of what I’m saying, getting to know her, watching her grow and learn, it’s just mind blowing, and we truly feel blessed for being able to spend so much time with her.
We’re lucky to have a Covid-baby!
The jacket that led us into a quest, trying to find a hat with their logo on it.
We couldn’t. Sold out.
We did have a great coffee at their place in Hanoi.
🇻🇳🧢
Waiting
One day tinyMovieStar will have her own Blunnies.
One More
Time for another, smaller, walk.
Time to meet the others, the ones also walking with babies, or dogs. They are our daily companions, we nod or talk a bit.
It’s mostly a lone activity, but we already have a couple of walking buddies, we stop and share a couple of minutes before moving on. Always moving on.
Time for another face-licking from a baby dog, and we were near the end of our walk for today.
Tomorrow we’ll do it again. Probably we’ll skip the morning one, as I have to get the car from the mechanic. I’ll miss walking, and I’ll miss tinyMovieStar’s company.
Ulysses goes to Japan
Trying new things, a little like visiting new places.
Sometimes you love them, others not so much.
You can always go back.
🇯🇵 💻
Afternoon
The afternoon part of the walking detail is usually shorter or, at least, slower. I’m not getting any younger, and keeping up with the two movieStars (tiny and regular sized) takes a hefty toll.
We were almost home when the regular sized one finished work and joined us for another hour of promenading. We went to a nearby garden, tinyMovieStar put on a cute pair of shoes (she never wore any before) and walked funny for a while, much like a dog with shoes.
We were joined by Nuno, a constant presence in our lives, and a great one at that.
On the way home we got a bag of strawberries from the stall in the corner. They smell delicious.
I’ll cook some quick carbonara for dinner, and that’s it. Another day in the bag.