thingsThisWeek
thingsThisWeek #116
Short, not a lot of stuff happening. But wanted to publish on time.
Friday, no disco in kindergarten, but tinyMovieStar spotted the mom of her best buddy across the street, when we were coming home. She yelled, and soon the boy was at our place, having fun and dinner.
Weekend with cousins at the in-laws. Moss picking, and visiting friends. The Elf showed up! When tinyMovieStar was asked about a name for the Elf, she didn’t even blink: ElFofo. The “cuddly” one. We’ve been having a ton of fun with ElFofo, in fact. Planning the day’s mischief, setting it up when tinyMovieStar goes to sleep, and watching her in the morning. She knows it’s all a lie, but she plays along.
The rest of the week was spent helping movieStar with the translation of a ton of marketing copy (will finish next week), and not much else. The usual: Picking up a few packages, taking the little one to Judo class, and sticking a few stickers.
No work.
We also visited an elementary school where tinyMovieStar might go in the future. Nice one. Rather expensive, but most of the kind are.
Must. Find. Steady. Work.
⭐️ Friday started as another messy day for Micro.blog. Odd that this is where everything (re)started for me, where I met 90% of the people I talk to online, made some real life friends, have other I would love to meet… And now it’s not doing great.
A lot of us have moved on, and are now also on Mastodon/Bluesky. Have been for a while. Conversations happen there, and not on M.b. The hosting part is still somewhat reliable, even though it has the occasional hiccup. But the big feature, the one that tied everything together, is failing a lot. Cross posting.
EchoFeed is amazing, configurable, and reliable. I moved the main blog’s cross posting there as well. Micro.blog now hosts my blog, and nothing else. For how long? Can’t really tell. I need to export everything I published in the past four (five?) years.
🎉 Better than Black Friday the Revolut Gift Bag keeps on giving, and it’s been a thrill!
We had dinner with a cousin who was raving about Perplexity, and how good Perplexity was over other AI assistants. He casually mentioned he had access to the premium version because it was Revolut metal subscriber, or some other paid tier. Back home, I decided to check if my own premium account would also be filled with goodies. Lo and behold, it was!
I’m now a Perplexity user, I have a brand new NordVPN account that will allow me to stop paying for IVPN (even though I love it), and save $60 a year. Perplexity alone is $22 a month. I wouldn’t pay for it, for sure, but it’s nice to have for free. There’s also Uber One, Headspace, and a few other subscriptions thrown in.
📺 Lioness. The Bear. We actually forgot we hadn’t watched season three yet. We’re doing it now.
🍿 Anthony Jeselnick: Bones and All.
thingsThisWeek #115
Stickers!! That was the thing this week. tinyMovieStar writing them, and my own getting here. We are having fun.
🎉 It started with a baby shower, one tradition we imported not so long ago. These were not a thing a couple of years ago, but it feels like they’re mandatory now. It was Saturday, we drove to Cascais. That’s where my brother-in-law lives. As this was a girls-only event, the guys just went to our cousin’s place next door, and made our own thing. We had tinyMovieStar, and another baby, with us. They were also banned from the party. We had a lot of fun.
Afterwards we picked the girls up, and watched the Christmas parade, before dinner in town. When that was done, we followed the path my in-laws took, and spent Sunday with them.
Monday. Nothing to do, nothing to report. Walked around.
Tuesday. Ordered a replacement part for the vacuum cleaner. That was definitely one of the highlights of the day. I also got an email asking about some photos from the islands, for a magazine, so I started getting those ready to send.
Wednesday, most of the day spent digging through the archive. My stickers got delivered, so I started placing them around town, with my tiny helper.
Thursday. Thanksgiving dinner, another one of the imported celebrations. We do not do this. But my father-in-law picked this one up a couple years back, in Miami, of all places. So now we have to do it every single year. Mostly for his entertainment.
I picked up tinyMovieStar from school, took her to judo class, and then we got mom on board, and went to dinner. I did the time math, and we do spend a lot more time together than regular families. We pick the little one up from school earlier than most parents, and she also goes to bed later. I’d say 3/4 hours a day more than what others are able to do. Multiply that by days in a week, and weeks in a month. By the end of the year, that’s a lot! We’re, all of us, pretty happy with this situation.
⭐️ Micro.blog failed again, in the middle of the night. Posts weren’t showing up, crossposting also failing. Vincent took care of it when he woke up, hours before anything would be fixed on the other side of the ocean. Hoping the hosting part will keep on working, I moved the crossposting feature to EchoFeed. I had 10 echos going, now it’s a cool dozen. It works, fast, and support is ALWAYS a toot away, on my timezone. First world problems, of course, but I grew tired. M.b hasn’t been the same since Jean left the gang. Discovery is still a tab on the app, but it goes without update for weeks. I miss the old days. Simpler, fuller.
Anyway, Bluesky and Mastodon are connected, Threads left out for now.
😎 Ongoing project: Fictional characters. A few more were plastered around the neighbourhood.
📸 Testing 65x24. Cool, but not sure it’s a format for me.
📺 Lioness. Showtime is having a decent promotion for a couple of months, so we’re taking advantage. This is the first one we’re watching. Pretty nice. We tried Ibiza Narcos as well, but it’s really bad.
🍿 Surveilled. Equalizer 3. Both cool enough.
thingsThisWeek #114
Busy, with out-of-the-ordinary stuff. Pretty cool week (and an extra day).
🌳 Weekend at the in-laws, but shorter than usual. We had to come back to the city, as both of us had appointments.
🧚♀️ Godmother in town, that means happy tinyMovieStar, happy everyone! I met her with the little one, we went out for an afternoon pizza, and came home to take care of the Christmas tree. A couple of days later she went back to London, and we miss her already. She’ll be back for Christmas!
🎨 The following day I tagged along with a friend, and we met another guy. He’s a graffiti artist. We crossed the river, and they went to work on a wall. Just killing time. It was pretty fun, and a great way to spend some time out of the house. Also, very cool lunch by the river, a delicious chicken katsu sando, and a very competent bacon burger.
📸 The week was going very well. On to the next day: T-Shirt shooting day. Another friend needed a couple of photos, wearing a shirt a sponsor had sent her. Of course I’m on call for these. It’s a 5 minute deal. No money, obviously, but gets me karma points, I’m sure.
Still time for some Christmas shopping, mostly decorations for the tree.
💻 And I finally got the photos edited (over a week to do so), and had another assignment. Things are looking pretty bleak at the newspaper, happy these other things show up, even if one every very once in a while.
🥵 This one was special too. I am getting old, and severely out of shape. I walk all over, but that’s hardly enough.
These days, the hardest exercise I do is walking with tinyMovieStar on my shoulders. She’s almost 22kg (48,5 lb) now. I carry her for long periods of time. She loves it, I love it, and I don’t know how long this will go on. I’m trying to make the most of it.
Anyway, on assignments, it’s usually a pretty calm environment. Gone are the days of fighting my way to photos, stuck in a melee, jousting for a good spot.
This time I had to run up and down many flights of stairs, trying to beat the elevator. Carrying two cameras and a load of lenses. And I did! But must have strained something, my leg muscles are still hurting, days later. 145 minutes of intense workout, according to the Garmin strapped to my wrist.
🧢 Next day I was taking it VERY slow. I visited my friend’s brewery, and got a new hat. I have a photo, but didn’t publish it.
👋🏻 I have also started sticking fictional characters names in the area. Open for suggestions.
I ordered a few stickers with the new avatar I did, and thought I should practice the sticking drill. It’s fun.
📺 The Diplomat. We struggled to find the time, but finished the second season. Damn!
🍿 Deadpool & Wolverine. Did not like. Oddly.
🤓 Still enjoying the Readwise experience. Very much so. This week I subscribed to a Substack blog (?), one I’ve been eyeing for a while. It’s very expensive (for me), but I really wanted to read a few of the paywalled posts. Coughed up the money for a month, and used Readwise’s extension on Orion, macOS and iOS, to add a ton of posts to my inbox. It worked brilliantly.
Shame the thing is on Substack, I’d rather not spend money over there, but this is a one time thing. I promise.
I should/will write a longer post about Reader. I’m really enjoying it. Using it on the laptop is brilliant, and also great on the mobile version.
🦋 Bluesky has been getting a lot of attention lately. I will not move away from Mastodon, but you can also check my posts at maique.eu. Post are sent there from the source, using Micro.blog’s wonderful crossposting features, and a few more things with EchoFeed. Those two cool services, and Croissant, make it really easy to have a presence, without actually being there. I do reply to all mentions, and browse from time to time.
I also ported the PhotoQuotes bot to Bluesky, meaning you can now get them over there as well.
thingsThisWeek #113
Fully in the city by now, but still trying to get up to speed. Past Halloween, on our way to Christmas. US election. And another week went by without an update. Sorry, again.
🇺🇸 FUCK! Fuck you, USA!
📷 I had my first two assignments since we got back. Thankfully. It’s not east to get work these days, and even more so since I’m freelancing. Mostly waiting for people to call me, and then we go away for months at a time. I’m aware a few people even think we permanently live on the island! We’re also getting to the end of the year, and client’s budgets have been spent.. Anyway, I did get a small shoot, and a nicer, bigger, one. Done.
🍰 movieStar had a birthday. CONGRATULATIONS! We were at the in-laws, so went out to Santarém for lunch. Nice Italian place.
📦 Picking up packages left and right. Clothes for tinyMovieStar mostly. They do grow up fast, yes, but feels like nothing fits her anymore, suddenly. It’s getting colder, and she had nothing to wear, poor thing. And shoes! All her sneakers, and boots, were small from one day to the other.
🚶🏻♂️ Journalist and husband had a layover in town, before flying out to Principe. We joined them, and walked around. Showing them the city, and figuring out what’s new ourselves. Every week a new place pops up!
☕️ Coffee with Ernst. Will there be a show in honor of our departed friend? Next year we’ll have the 10th anniversary, and Ernst (a dutch photographer) tought it would be nice to have a show. We’re figuring out if it’s something we can set up, and how to go about it.
🥁 We were invited to a concert, a couple of friends were playing close to home. Turns out a very old friend of mine was there as well, and I hadn’t seen him in ages!! He lived in Tokyo for a while, than came back but moved to the south of the country, and he’s back now. We’ve know each other since high school!
🥘 Went out for lunch this week, to a new-ish place. A chef from another cool restaurant left, and opened his own spot. Not far from home, but in an area I don’t go often. I was invited by a friend, and what an experience it was. We had a chef with us as well, and that is always better! The place’s name is Cerqueira (Instagram link), and if you’d like to try a traditional Portuguese tasca, with a twist, I can’t recommend this enough. Food was all delicious.
📺 Paolo fromTOKYO. Can’t stop loving the ones where he shows us how people work in Japan. Slow Horses, we finished the whole thing again. All four seasons. The Diplomat is waiting in line.
📰 Trialing Reader, from Readwise. Again. I know I’m not going to pay for it, I just enjoy the experience once in a while. Like renting a nice car from time to time. Subscribed to Readwise’s Reader! Got a nice discount, and jumped in. It is an incredible piece of software, and I’m glad I can finally use it without worrying about the trial ending. I don’t need a lot of the features, but boy do I love software with so many things to play with.
🔎 Murmel. Here’s another piece of software that does something I can use, for a fair price. I signed up. But found a couple of red flags almost immediately: blog hasn’t been updated in a long time. Mastodon presence feels a bit spammy. Very odd. Also couldn’t find a way to subscribe, and that is even odder! The site shows me logged in, but I still get a link to log in again. Emailed them, no reply so far. Sill is an alternative, free for now, but I don’t seem to like it as much. We’ll see, still a few days left on the Murmel trial.
🌐 Panda Pixels is still going, as well as sticker spotter. Finding a lot of new ones, actually.
thingsThisWeek #112
The End, and back. We spent three months away, I guess we had to come back. We’ve been to Menorca, then Chaves for a while, we went to the Azores, and made our way to Príncipe for a month and a half. It was not our longest stay on the island, far from it, but we’d never been there with tinyMovieStar for so long.
She learned how to swim on the island. That is the memory I’ll take with me. I spent hours with her in the pool, and in the ocean. I love her more every day. I’m so proud to be her dad!
Note: This particular update has our final days on the island, a lot of scattered notes. Sorry about the messy text, but it’s either this way, or the never-published-way. I’ll be back on track, hopefully.
🏝️ Friday!
Quite a long day today. In the morning we had our breakfast and then we moved to Romar for a slice of cake that tinyMovieStar baked the day before. We then went to the airport to get the tickets for the local flight. We got them and, again, they did not have change for us. We went and visited Francisco, the architect at his place and finally got to see his amazing house. Made of wood, but instead of following the traditional building techniques and designs, he designed his own place. So, it’s an incredible house. Really, really, really good one.
Ice-cream. Eggs are back, so are the omelettes, with malagueta and fries.
Saturday we went to Bom Bom, enjoyed the beach, and spent a long time in the pool.
South Africans in town. Awesome people! Terra Prometida, then Francisco’s place again. Omelette for dinner. Best ever. For real.
Sunday, zee Germans have arrived. Last group, then we leave.
Monday was all about underwater photos, and going to “the end of the beach”. tinyMovieStar wanted to take me there. We went. Photos turned out great.
Also, dancing in the street. There’s a grocery shop that has a very powerful set of speakers, and they set them just outside when business is mostly done for the day. People gather and dance a bit. We did as well. Fun.
Tuesday. It was a very (VERY!) rainy day, so we went hiking with the Germans. I wasn’t supposed to, but Joel said he’d go if I did, and vice-versa. We were silly. We got soaking wet. Never had I been so wet in my long life.
Wednesday, final day.
Rain, still. Dinner with family.
Thursday, we’re out! movieStar on the first flight to the big island, and the two of us a bit later.
I will miss Joel. A lot.
Leaving 45 minutes before time. Luckily we were early to the airport.
We got to the big island, movieStar waiting for us at the airport with the driver. We moved to the hotel, had lunch, a swim, and the little one complained about a headache. She had a fever! We were a bit scared, so off we went, a visit to clinic was needed.
Amazing Cuban doctor.
Car Rental is simple here. No contract, no driver’s license check, nothing. Just pay up, and get a key.
Flight home. Upgraded (thank you, Gu!). This time in a VERY comfortable A321LRneo. It was brilliant. Two movies, see below.
We played so much UNO!
🏙️ Back in the city. School. Dinner with friends who visited on the island. Then lunch with others. Back to mom&dad, back to in-laws.
Missing watch showed up. I did not take it in the first place. I should trust myself more.
Rain. And cold.
Weeks getting accustomed to life in the city. Still not feeling it.
🧰 Car in shop. Needed work, still not perfect. It’s getting old.
📝 No reply yet from job application, too many people applied.
💾 Found an old HD with a ton of photos, from the newspaper days, and personal stuff. Enjoying the trip back in time. Will probably post more in the coming days/weeks.
📺 Bad Monkey (the end), and Slow Horses (the end, and back to the start, we’re rewatching the whole thing). English Teacher, and Rogue Heroes added to list. Finished them all.
🍿 Perfect Days. Probably my favorite film this year. Maybe even my favorite for much longer. I then tried to follow up with Asteroid City, but was too tired, and getting bored to death after 10 minutes. Gave up. Not sure I’ll even go back, and give it another try.
🐼 Panda Pixels moved. This sort of project/site, meant as a pop up that stuck around for a little longer, can, in my mind, move around. It’s supposed to be shared on social media, I don’t think anyone will go back in time, on the site.
With that in mind, I moved this one to Scribbles. I changed the background color, and off it went.
💀 Omnivore died. Botsin.space is dying. My PhotoQuotes bot moved. I should have done it a while back, as Adam always has our backs!
📈 Got a new watch, a new-in-box Garmin Instinct 2 Solar. Mostly for the brilliant screen, but enjoying the stats as well. It still fails to measure my heartbeats properly, but it seems to work better than the Apple Watch.
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.
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.
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.
thingsThisWeek #107
Hey hey, we’re back in Principe, after a short stay in the bigger island.
🏝️ Trouble started as soon as we landed, but not before an epic welcome from the immigration officer.
We got our bags, and walked to passport control, where we were supposed to ask for a provisional work visa, and not the regular tourist one. We get 15 days with no visa, but are staying longer, and would probably work (movieStar for sure, that’s why she’s here). We’re doing things by the book.
I expected things to take a while.
The officer was very accommodating, asked what company we were working for, and directed me (girls had left for bathroom) to the immigration office. There was a HUGE policeman there, who picked up our passports, and said: “I’ve heard a lot about you, sir”!
I was surprised, very much so. This is not the smaller island, where everyone knows us, but the big one. He continued “Aren’t you coming to take some photos”?
“Ah!! Rosa spoke to you”, I replied, after a short moment. It had to be that. It was that! Rosa is the HR officer at he company. And he laughed!
The girls arrived at that time, and movieStar stood there for a second, wondering why we were both laughing already.
Welcome to São Tomé.
Trouble came right after that, as movieStar got her phone out of airplane mode.
There are two companies flying to the small island. The state owned one, with daily flights, and another one, with twice a week connections.
This second one is newer, and in the past everyone was stuck with the state airline. It fails. Often.
The plane is small, and always full. And it does fail a lot. We had tickets on both companies, as we couldn’t find seats for the three of us on the same flight. movieStar would fly out on the first morning (flag airline), and we’d join her the following day (private company), after a relaxing day by the pool.
My wife’s plane had a mechanical issue on one of the wheels. We knew this much before coming over, and our fingers were crossed. They could fix that while we flew in. Sure.
Of course they did not, and are now expecting a full week of no flights. People are stuck at both islands!
Adding to the mess, we’re here because one of the hotels is opening, after years of renovation work. Lots of (quite important) press is coming. They have no way to get to the island, if this mess isn’t sorted.
I, and tinyMovieStar, looked at giving away our tickets, and stay on the big island for a week, while MovieStar would try to go ahead without us.
Or not!
Woke up the following morning and, as it usually happens, things miraculously got fixed while we slept. The state owned company chartered another plane, from an Angolan airline, to fly the stranded passengers back and forth.
We had trouble boarding, obviously, as a computer kept acting up, and our bags were over the weight limit. Worked out in the end.
We ended up flying over after one day of R&R in São Tomé, at the lovely Omali, AND we stayed 5 days at the refurbished BomBom, the nicest hotel on the small island. Working, but still…
Back at Bom Bom, now that Bom Bom is back. First day was ok. I had to shoot a bit.
Happy I got those photos straight away, as the weather turned, and shooting was pretty much done. We spent the rest of the time just lounging around, mostly at the pool, with the occasional dip in the ocean.
tinyMovieStar is improving SO quickly, she now swims a whole length of the pool, and jumps into the deep end without fear. Love her!
I helped test new cocktails, and drank some more of my favorite beer from the island.
Slept with sound of waves crashing, five meters from our door.
Swimming in the sea as soon as I wake up is one of my favorite things to do here.
On the fifth day we finally left the hotel. First a ride to the airport, dropping people off, and picking people up. Then over to the city, finally.
We got in pretty late already, with just enough time to run around town trying to find butter, get some supplies, have dinner at the very expensive Armazém (in fact everything is wildly expensive here, as this is an island’s island, and prices go up accordingly).
First night spent with rain, the usual power outage, and music from the bars outside.
I also managed to take care of the local SIM card, and I’m now connected. Not so important when we’re staying at the hotels, but very much so when we’re living in the city.
And that’s it for our first week. Bring on the next one!
🗺️ As I usually do around here, I’m trying my best to update OpenStreetMap. New places popping up, others closed for years, double POI, you name it. Let’s see how much I can get done.
🔐 A 1Password / Bitwarden war is going on, for me. I would love to drop the expensive 1P sub, and replace it with a decently priced Bitwarden Pro plan, but the looks of Bitwarden kill me!
I have been adding Passkeys to 1P, left and right, trying to persuade me that it’s worth it. Of course you can do the same in Bitwarden, but my brain can ignore that.
🗞️ New Reeder is out.
🤮 I deleted my Twitter account. Finally. Wasn’t using it, just kept it around to help save the username. The hell with it.
♻️ {micro maique} is now {maique}. Take that. Why? Felt nicer.