thingsThisWeek

Sep 25, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #67

Messy week, plenty of work (too much, maybe?).

👩🏻‍🏫 Adulting-wise, the week started with a PTA meeting at kindergarten. What. A. Long. Meeting. The kindergarten where tinyMovieStar spends her days has a fun story, and I’m not sure I’ve told it before. Back in 74, right after the Revolution, parents occupied the building where the school stands today. Available kindergartens were not enough, and they decided to do something about it. A board was created, and a kindergarten was born. Others did the same, elsewhere. Over the years the others turned into a more regular managerial style, but this one is still managed by the parents. Some are parents of kids who left the school over a decade ago. They just love the model so much, the volunteer their time. It’s really cool.
🍰 We had a birthday party at the park, as another one of the kids at school celebrated her birthday. There’s one every week, as we have over 50 kids at her school. This was a cool one. Since these kids have been here for a couple of years now, parents are also a lot more friendly, and familiar. We enjoy a beer, the kids have a lollipop and some cake. We’ll have to start skipping some, eventually, but we’re still attending. Most parents are really cool too.
🍰 And, trying to keep the party going, a friend also had her birthday celebration, this time at home. Dinner with family (big one), and friends. Plenty of kids as well.
📷 Doing the hospital rounds again for work. This week I had Tuesday, and Wednesday shoots at two different hospitals. Waking up before sunset, well before sunset, off to work, and back home just in time to wake the movieStars up. Next week I’m back at it, a couple more days. These are usually fun. Not brilliant fun, but entertaining. One of the pluses is that there are not a lot of photos to edit when I get back home. Best case scenario I’ll send 15/20 of each session, meaning not a lot of time spent at the computer. Sunday was different, a big conference, with an assortment of events: concerts, theater,… Monday was go out of Lisbon and work day.
📺 The Morning Show, season 3. Slow start. No time.
🏊‍♀️ This was also the week when tinyMovieStar had her first swimming lesson. We walked down the street to the Clube Nacional de Natação, and watched as she walked into the pool. She had a wonderful time. The teacher made sure she felt comfortable, and was always paying attention to her. She missed a couple of classes already, so the other kids were feeling a little more at home. She was named “captain of the team”, and that helped a lot. She spent the entire class looking at mom and dad, giving us thumbs up, and smiling. She loved it. Of course, when night came, she said she didn’t want to go anymore! That’s her thing this month: having fun, and then letting us know she will not do that anymore.
⭐️ Photoblogging Challenge is ongoing. This week’s entries can be found here: 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25. Again, not a perfect week.

Sep 18, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #66

Back in the city, and slowly back to work. Busy week, in the end. Most of the items on this week’s report would need a bit more text. I could not find the time, and mindset, to do it.

✏️ movieStar went back to school, this time for real, no more breaks planned at the moment. She is starting swimming classes as well. She loves school, and the teachers love her back. Her colleagues are nice, smart, and she goes in every day full of confidence. I think she has awesome self-esteem. And super polite so far. Love her more every day. I’m well aware this is what most parents say about their children, but it’s impressive how much I love this girl.
📷 Almost as soon as we got back, I had work to do. A couple emails from the agency I work with/for, and a few more portraits were scheduled. Good, money coming in. One this week, a few on the next one, and another lifestyle shoot for a brunch place. Busy month, all things considered.
🦄 tinyMovieStar’s godmother flew into town, on a quick two day visit. She was attending a show opening, and a quick Rosh Hashanah celebration. I do wish she’d move back to the city, to the country, but it’s hard to compete with London. She would like it as well, I believe.
😪 Attended an homage for a colleague from the newspaper who, very sadly, passed away a couple of years ago. Met a few colleagues from the old newspaper days, people who have retired in the meantime. It was another fun moment of the week, and the photography exhibits on the venue were also cool. Most of them.
👰🏻🤵🏻 Saturday was wedding day. movieStar’s best friend got married. It was raining when we woke up, but things got much better after a while, despite the downpour forecast on all apps. Go figure. We had a wonderful time, as we’re friends with most people who were attending. Lovely day for our dear friends. Relaxed It was a long one, though, that ended with a dinner at a cousin’s place, complete with both of my brothers-in-law.
📺 Finished the Telemarketers thing. Started Spy Ops, Extraordinary Attorney Woo (thanks, @Miraz and @pratik), and one more episode of D.P. as well. It was a slow TV week.
🍿 STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie. Liked it.
⭐️ This week’s entries to the September 2023 Photoblogging Challenge were a mix of old and new. That’s the only way I’ve been able to keep up. Days 13, 14, 15. Miserably failed days 16 and 17, while having fun at the wedding, and crashing a bit on the day after. Will I be able to get back on track?
🛒 Finally added some items to my Vinted account, after making my first purchase. Call me surprised, but I also sold my first item on that first day. Adding more stuff, obviously. The feeling here is a lot more relaxed than on other apps we have available, people seem more polite too.

Sep 12, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #65

A day late, spent all day yesterday driving.

🌧️ We postponed our trip, and left a couple of days later. Thankfully, since he’s a friend, our host didn’t ask for his money, even though we cancelled the day before we were supposed to show up. Thanks. Much appreciated.
👀 Tuesday should have been the day when we’d drive down to Castro Marim, and start enjoying our week of beach/pool/Spain day trips, but we were still stuck in the city. So, after we dropped tinyMovieStar off at kindergarten, we just decided to walk around, acting like tourists. We were the only ones speaking Portuguese downtown, as if we were somewhere else. Cool. We walked by places we haven’t been in a while, saw a ton of new shops, found out a lot went out of business (some really quickly), and ended up having a nice Austrian lunch at a place owned by one of tinyMovieStar’s colleagues mom. We love it, and missed the food there. We came home, finished a movie started the day before, and picked the little one up. Awesome day.
✏️ Back to school isn’t easy, for anyone. The little one wants to stay home with us, and play all day with us, and talk all day with us. I kinda want that as well. It’s exhausting, true, but I miss her as soon as I drop her off and have an espresso at the corner kiosk. Caffeine levels stabilized, and I’m already thinking I should pick her up again. Happy we managed to get away from the city for a bit, after only half a week of this suffering. Things can get pretty intense on these first days, even though she’s been at this school for a while now. She loves her teachers, and her colleagues, and talked about them often during August. But, when the time came, she doesn’t seem that thrilled anymore. I know we’ll all get into the groove again, but this week wasn’t great.
🏖 And, finally, we got in the car, and drove south. Day one was ok. We had to pick up the in-laws, as their car broke down thirty minutes after they left home, we all drove to the house, quick visit to the supermarket, and five minutes in the car to VRSA for dinner. Always a pleasure to go back to Vila Real, we have a favorite place there, overlooking the river, and Spain. The following day was spent at the beach, not a lot to say. The water was warm, the wind non-existent, and the sky had a ton of clouds. Awesome day anyway.
🇪🇸 Sevilla day trip. What a ride! The place where we usually stay in the Algarve is right on the border with Spain, so going there is a regular thing. Sevilla is a bit further down the highway, but still pretty close, around 90 mins away. We did not spend as much time as we’d wish to, but still managed to catch a few of the must-see spots, and have a wonderful lunch at a place movieStar wanted to visit. Tasty food. My father-in-law hadn’t been there in decades, so that was cool too. He got to ride the carriage with tinyMovieStar. The rest of us spent that time having coffee. Unlike some of our countrymen, all of us love Spain.
🏖️ Barril is an incredible beach in the Algarve, one I had never been to. You get on a little train to make your way to the beach (walking also possible), and the water was warm and clear. Plenty of places to grab a bite as well. We stayed almost until sundown. Will surely come back to this one.
🚗 There wasn’t a lot of time left in the south. We crossed the border again, had a wonderful lunch at the closest Spanish town, bought a few items, filled the tank, and drove back to the city. It was short, but very nice.
📸 Another week of Micro.blog’s September 2023 Photoblogging Challenge. I have not been able to shoot all of the on the exact day, but I posted photos from last month a couple of times. It is what it is. Days 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, and 12 are now behind us.
📺 Platonic. It was fun. Also finished The Afterparty. Both seasons. I need to find a nicer one next, both these felt a little meh.
🍿 Molly’s Game. Unexpected, we came across it as we scrolled Prime, but really nice find.
🤓 Smallest news of the week: got a Popsocket. Late, and not totally sold on it yet, but I’m trying it.

Sep 4, 2023 ∞

Final week of August, a month that should have been mostly vacation, but took a different turn this year. No week at the village, no week at the Algarve (we’re doing that next week, in September). It was not an easy month. We are super thankful to my in-laws, as they helped us with this loooong one.

🍎 We moved back to the in-laws, after one night in the city. We’ll have plenty of those soon enough. It’s quieter in the countryside now, cousins all left. We spent the rest of the week there, and then moved to the city again. Friday was “back to school” day for tinyMovieStar. We also missed our place, and have only a couple of days before we travel to the Algarve for a week of R&R. August was mostly spent over there, in the countryside, ever since we drove down from the music festival. Three weeks. That’s a long time. We did have a great time, though. tinyMovieStar got to pick apples and figs at a friend’s orchard, play around with cousins, spend time with her grandma&grandpa, go to the pool… Life in the countryside does have advantages. We are very fortunate to have this available, and so close to the city too.
🇨🇭 Still on tinyMovieStar (can’t get enough of this one), for the past month the little one has been super into flags. She knows a ton of them by heart now, and, although she has no grasp of where the countries are, or what they actually are, she does remember the links between some of them. We have a couple of books now, with all the flags in the world, and we keep going back to those. Neighbours are “friends”, and she wants to visit all the countries, so she can find out what language they speak there, and how the local boys&girls look like. Awesome. So, instead of walking to school on her first day, we had to drive there. She wanted to see the Swiss flag she discovered the other day, “a real one, not paper”. We drove by the Zurich insurance company on the way.
🎉 We, finally, drove back to the city, just in time for kindergarten day one. tinyMovieStar a bit scared. She’s moving up in class, and changing teachers. Her friends are still the same, but she was, understandably, apprehensive. One day only, and on to Party Weekend. That’s how this one will be remembered. Two birthday parties! On Friday a cousin was celebrating his 10th anniversary, and two days later another one was also turning a decade old. Fun times, for sure, but very exhausting.
💸 Purchased App Tamer license. It really helps my old Air, I’ve been trying to, well, tame the fans, but couldn’t quit the processes that fired it up. They would always come back. This works.
🔐 1Password subscription renewal time this week as well. I’m on the family plan, with a 50% discount for another year. I like it, and have been using 1P for many years, but… For the first time I thought I need to find a replacement. I loved it, but, since the update to v8, it just doesn’t seem to work as reliably, as snappy, as perfectly. It was smooth, but not anymore. I could go with Bitwarden, Proton Pass (I got the lifetime $1/month Plus plan on launch day), or something else. I would just need to figure out movieStar’s situation. Proton Pass seems rather nice already, and a ton of new stuff seems to be coming in the near future. I started using it as a quick, and easy, way to have a few passwords available when I’m playing with Linux, and it has grown on me.
💻 Edited and sent last week’s small assignment. Also sent a couple of receipts, as we need more money for our week down south. August is normally a slow work month, this time it was no different. I have one thing scheduled for September already, but had to say no to a request, as we’re not in the city. Not great.
📸 We are a few days into Micro.blog’s September 2023 Photoblogging Challenge. Time to see a lot of cool photos, and figure out what to post every day. Prompts have been getting harder with every edition of the challenge, and I’ve been trying to shoot for it, instead of just going to the archive and pick something that fits. Not sure if it was a wise move. So far these are the ones I submitted. Day 01, 02, 03, and 04.
📺 Finished the Ghosn limited series. The Guardian has a great review, I agree with it 100%. Watched The Big Conn. The world is full of incredible stories. Love non-fiction. Also Platonic. Fun.
🍿 House of Gucci, Sing 2, Hail, Caesar!. It’s been a while since we’ve had such a movie-filled week! Felt good to sit through this with movieStar (and the tiny one for Sing, of course).
🌧️ It was also the “Hello, rain” week. Not a particularly brilliant timing, I must say, as we’re moving out of the city for some beach days early next week. We will probably spend the first day, on the road, with rain. And we’re going to Seville the following morning, so… darn. movieStar is getting a bit worried, as they rain seems to be here all week. Far from perfect. If we’re unable to go to the beach, and miss the opportunity for some pool days, I know someone who’s going to be pissed!

Aug 28, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #63

This week started on a Tuesday, a very hot August day. Temperature reaching 41C at my in-laws. It would turn colder later in the week.

🧸 movieStar still working from home, so I’m taking care of tinyMovieStar most of the day, with grandma and grandpa helping. A lot. We spent most of the week at my in-laws, with a couple of cousins staying with the aunt of lives next door. The houses are arranged in a way that it feels like they’re one, with connecting patios. We move back and forth a lot.
📷 True to form, I got a call about an assignment due next day, a small one, in Lisbon. We’re about an hour away, but of course I said yes. It’s August, a very slow work month, always happy to make a buck. Rode to town on my father-in-law’s Harley, on what was probably the hottest day of the god damn year. I wanted to get back to the countryside as fast as possible, and driving to the city (and deal with traffic and parking) was not part of my plan. Turns out it was for nothing, and I had to go back a second time.
🛵 That second trip to the city felt great. The assignment wasn’t very exciting, a simple affair. But it allowed me to ride for almost three hours again, and that’s awesome. This was Scooter Week for me, and happy about it. Colder weather too, it felt incredible! The following morning movieStar ran out of her special oath flakes, and I had to ride to two different towns to find them. Again, a pleasure. Everything feels better when you’re riding there.
🎂 THE party! Auntie had a birthday this week, a party was arranged. Loads of food, as usual with this particular aunt (she does all the cooking, even on her birthday - three main dishes, four desserts), and loads of family. All her daughters and sons came back home. That is not usual, as one daughter has to fly back from Helsinki, and another from London. Almost all her grandchildren also attended. One was missing, busy in LA. tinyMovieStar met a few new cousins, thrilled to find out she has an almost endless supply of those! It was a monster party, and we were still very tired the following day, eating leftovers.
🌡️ tinyMovieStar had a temperature spike, probably due to excitement levels being high all week. A lot to handle. Or, maybe, a growth spurt. She seems taller, again. Over a meter by now.
🌴 Weekend came, and went. The two younger cousins that were staying with us left after Sunday lunch, one back home, the other back to England. We took that as a sign, and drove back to the city. Had dinner with my parents. August is almost done with, tinyMovieStar starts school on Friday. She will also go on Monday, and then it’s off to the south, and the beach. She’ll miss the first few days. Truth be told, that’s all we can think about already. It was a very odd August.
👀 Another unfortunate side-effect of spending so little time in the city, while spending so much time with the girls, is that sticker spotting ends up being almost non-existent. There are no stickers in the village where my in-laws live. Hopefully I’ll get back to it soon.
📺 Afterparty, The Bear (we finished season 2, and immediately started watching season 1 again), Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn.
🎙️ The weekly episodes of Spy Valley, and Um Espião no Kremlin, on top of the usual podcast list. I’ve been listening to a lot less of these at the moment. No time for podcasts, I’m sorry to say.

Aug 22, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #62

🏡 After a few days with the in-laws, we drove back to the city. We missed our home. Sleeping in our beds. Showering in our own bathroom. We left again, soon, but felt really good.
📺 Bear. End of Acapulco (when in heaven’s name will we get season 3?? Hate cliffhangers!). Afterparty, Telemarketers, and Platonic.
📷 Had a couple of assignments on the same day, ones that included a lot of driving around the Alentejo. Hot. As usual around this time of the year, it’s impossible to drive a bit without smelling burnt wood. Forest fires are, sadly, so common around here. Truck on fire too on the highway as well. Crazy. Spent what felt like the whole day in the car, as locations were scattered around the area, with loads of driving time between them. Still, I do miss the days when this was my main occupation, I love shooting proper newspaper assignments.
🦆 We spent a couple of hours at Gulbenkian’s garden. We wanted to go there for so long, and somehow it never happened. It’s beautiful, close to home, and we had fun. I even got bitten by a duck!
🏖️ For the weekend, we drove to Setubal, and took the catamaran to Troia. A friend has an apartment there, and invited us to spend a couple of days. The movieStars love the beach, so off we went. Sadly, the father of the girl inviting us is not a very happy person, he’s quite bitter, and he was also there. I spent way too much time with him. That took a toll. Other than that, lovely days. Beach is fine there, water cold as usual. It’s a beautiful part of the country, and quite busy during the summer months. Got to watch a movie outdoors, have a nice food truck meal (with huge lines), and Bolas de Berlin on the beach. Yay.
🥵 Not a lot else happening, so we just did a full 360, and are back at the in-laws. It’s super hot now (40+C), we’re mostly staying home, trying to survive.

Aug 14, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #60/#61

It took me a while to get through this one. Busy couple of weeks, lots of traveling, working, playing, living. Heavily edited for brevity. Also used a photo I already posted, but I love it. This little human is getting cooler every day, and I am enjoying watching the whole thing develop a lot more than I thought I would. Fingers crossed I don’t screw this up, as she’s doing great so far!

😇 We’re in half-vacation mode. At the in-laws, and moving around, with movieStar on her laptop all day. I’m taking care of the little one, with HUGE help from mother-in-law. In return I’m helping her taking care of my father-in-law…
🏃‍♂️ The Pope came, and went. We moved out of the city, as things got crazy. There is no way to host over a million people in a city as big/small as Lisbon, and not have a chaotic time. Loads of people we know did the same: moved out. We followed the event at a distance, mostly through social media. As most of my colleagues were banned from taking time off during the event, Instagram was flooded with photos. Theirs, and from the many protests that happened. A lot of those as well.
🎸 N2 music festival. The usual stress that comes from having to work LOOOOONG days, while trying to keep both movieStars company, and entertained. Juggling too many balls. It was, in a (much used over here) word, awesome. We had a blast, saw some really nice concerts, met old friends, also some older ones we hadn’t seen in a long while. Had great food too. The city is home to us, and we don’t feel so welcome in many other places. It’s another level of hospitality. tinyMovieStar also got her first haircut. I love traveling with the girls, and got plenty of that these weeks. Hotel living is something we excel at (who doesn’t??), and not having to cook every day is a blessing. We get to spend even more hours together, and our mood is much happier because of that.
🥵 Both in Chaves, as back home, it’s crazy hot. Temperatures have been on the rise, and the fire season has begun.
🏖️ We had an epic beach day. We’re going to our usual spot in September, a month later than what we usually do, so we’re keeping ourselves entertained locally until then. movieStar is working from home this month, we’re visiting beaches that are close by. Plenty of those around. tinyMovieStar LOVES being on holiday. “Is today cartoon watching day?”
🏦 As promised, got a new bank account. At an old school bank, and at very old school branch. Love it. Decided to open the account at my in-laws village, on the farmers cooperative bank. The bank is modernizing quickly, but still manages to keep a very old school vibe that I love. It’s also the bank with the most branches in the country, as there’s one in every small sized town. “Aren’t you movieStar’s husband”?, asked the branch manager, someone I had never met. “Well, yes, yes I am”. Small village life.
📱 Prices on our mobile carriers keep going up, but some new players have showed up. They are mostly sub-brands of the bigger players, and offer quality service for a cheaper price. 2023 is the year of the change, so I decided to cancel my decades long Vodafone subscription, and move to WOO (a NOS company). So far no complaints, and roughly half the cost. I will probably go for a bigger plan soon, but still cheaper than the old one. Kept the same number, but the new one was actually kinda cool. Can’t afford to change numbers, too much is tied to the old one.
📺 D.P., new season is out. Acapulco. Gemstones, Lasso. No time for more, we’re going.
🍿 The Beanie Bubble. Awesome cast, great story, not so great movie. Entertaining, but felt like tapping the fast forward a few times. Operation Chromite got the same FF treatment. Air. All these, of course, after getting back from the festival. No time for that up north.

Jul 28, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #59

The week we spent wishing the week would end. Also, not a lot of free time, so it’s mostly topics, and not a lot more. Sorry. Spent my nights watching tv shows.

💸 Mortgage is paid. No more mortgage payments. Done. Happy. This is the biggest news of the week. I could just stop there, and be done.
🧂 Work at the salt flats. Saturday away from the movieStars, and extended family. It was a cool event, I think, but not a lot of people showed up. The ones that did had fun. And the organisers were really nice people too, so not a bad way to spend the day, all things considered. By the end of it I was exhausted, lots of walking around with the cameras, and the heat was a nuisance. Also, as the girls were having fun at the beach with the family, and kept sending news of how awesome their day was, I wanted it to end a bit sooner, but it was not to be.
😢 Sunday, saying goodbye to grandma, and uncle. Both are traveling next week, and so are we. tinyMovieStar is a bit of a drama queen when it comes to goodbyes. I am too.
📺 Afterparty, following a tip. Quite fun. A couple more from Acapulco. The usual weekly episodes of The Righteous Gemstones, and Hijack. Ted Lasso too.
🍷 Wine country again, for the newspaper. Alorna is a well known name in the wine industry. They’ve been doing it since 1723, and I had never visited. Great assignment, lovely photos, cool lunch and, surprisingly, they even had beer!
🎉 Family dinner, with mom & dad, brother & sister in law. Thanking the mortgage help. tinyMovieStar, of course, believes, as she should, that it was all arranged for her. School pick up, park, tea, home, dinner. Everything revolves around her anyway, I guess she’s right.
🦜 Parrot OS, Manjaro, Zorin, Debian. More later. Still keeping my Live USB Kali one, it works beautifully.
🤒 The little one had a bit of fever for a couple of days. Nothing else. Might be the heat, might be missing school already (teacher thinks so). She fine otherwise.
💈 Haircut, getting ready for the trip north, and the festival. We’re going!

Jul 21, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #58

🧸 Pijama Party for the little one on Friday, I thought I had managed to escape this one, so I went out and had a beer with my best friend, the one I was supposed to be driving north with for work. And then we had another beer. And a couple more. We got hungry. Went to the nicest pizza place in the area, like we always do. We are very predictable. I then went home, got ready to sleep, and got a call from the movieStars. Party turned into a mess, as the other girl was acting like a little diva. I went and picked them up. tinyMovieStar had told her mum “Maybe we should go home and sleep in our beds”.
🌴 Pool Day on Saturday. Friends (I’ll just say this because the exact relationship would take forever to explain) invited us to visit their new place. They live in a really nice spot, and sold their previous house on the spot to someone who walked by and made an offer. They took the money, built another one, one street over. It’s a lovely place, they are a cool family. The house looked a bit like a showroom, but there is a pool there, and tinyMovieStar is our boss. We went. Great lunch too. Delicious food.
🌳 We drove back to my in-law’s place, a very fun drive in itself, with a couple of stops along the way. That’s when we found out the car was leaking diesel. Next morning, a few cousins joined us for Sunday lunch, a fun weekly event. Some of them we hadn’t seen for months.
📝 Monday came. We’ve been postponing filling out the forms for tinyMovieStar enrollment in kindergarten next year. She’s in, mind you, it’s just that we have to find SO much paperwork! This Monday, a slow work day, I decided to take care of it. Took forever, but it’s done.
🚙 Our sweet car (Bogas) was left behind on Sunday, and we drove my father-in-law’s Beetle back to the city. That one is nicknamed Waterlily. tinyMovieStar named it, and does not love riding on this one. She was cool with it this time. We told her Bogas had to see a doctor. The verdict came a day later. The issue was in a filter, it was replaced. Total cost: 35EUR. I was as surprised as you probably are, to find out there are still things that can be done to a vehicle that cost this. Impressed.
📺 A few more episodes of Ted Lasso, Jack Ryan is done with. Hijack (sorry, Alex!), and The Righteous Gemstones, ongoing. Giving Acapulco season 2 a try.
🍿 The Greatest Beer Run Ever. Meh movie, and only found out it was based on a true story after the movie was over.
💻 App Tamer was suggested to me on Mastodon, after I complained about the 24/7 fan noise that comes with two Photos.app being always on. It works! It’s been years since I started trying to shut them down, and the solution has been found.
✂️ Head Lice! Took them long enough, but tinyMovieStar has finally caught them. Now taking care of it, as we enter another weekend. I’m working all day Saturday, so will miss part of the fun.

Jul 13, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #57

🧺 Friends who live in Denmark came to town, so the gang (this is movieStar’s gang from her Paris days, mind you) got together for their yearly picnic, complete with a lot of kids. It was FUN.
🌳 Weekend fun. Water balloons. We had big plans, but did absolutely nothing instead. Strawberry pie.
🎹 Chaves trip. The N2 festival is getting close. There’s always an unveiling day, when the lineup is presented to the media. I usually make the trip up, spend the night, and back down again. It’s a rough day, as Chaves is all the way up, next to the Spanish border. A lot of driving. This time I decided to take the bus. Flixbus does not stop in the city, so I had to take the regular bus. Damn, that is one very boring ride. And, most crucially, a very long one to take on a bus with no toilet. Trying to balance your water intake so you don’t dehydrate, but also taking a chance with overdoing it, and then having to hold it for hours. Not easy. Not at all. One of the buses had no USB plugs, or sockets, and the other one had both. Same company, same route, very different experience. Both had Wi-Fi, but one almost unusable, and the other one allowing movies to be streamed. Anyway…. Once I got there, though, it was really nice. Meeting the gang is always a thrill. We met, had a party, had meals, had beers, had laughs. Slept, repeated, and back to Lisbon on another ride from hell.
📺 Smartless On Tour, episode 2. Jack Ryan, ongoing. Hijack, ongoing. The Righteous Gemstones, ongoing. Ted Lasso, season 3. Finally.
🍿 Bolt, this time in English, as tinyMovieStar quickly lost interest. Sleeping Beauty, also without her after a couple of minutes, as she found something a lot more interesting to do. The Out-Laws. Meh.
🐉 Kali and stuff. Not a lot more to say. Except the fact that I’ve been dealing with web apps, and not minding it a lot.
🦺 Beta time! I jumped it, and installed iOS 17 Beta on the iPhone, and the corresponding watchOS on dickTracy. More about this later, I’m sure. Just started using it, too early for thoughts.
🏦 I had to visit the bank again, as the clerk that I spoke with before incredibly missed the need for a document. In fact, the only document that was needed. Anyway, I went to a different branch, this nice new clerk figured out what was missing last Thursday. I went online and requested said document. A couple of days later I had it. Got on an electric scooter, and we filed the request again. Hopefully this time things will work out. I’ll then be able to close that account, and move my banking needs to the farmer’s bank.

{micro maique}