thingsThisWeek

Feb 3, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #39

🏙️ Back in the city. Can’t say I’m too happy. It’s always hard when we return from the island, this time it’s no different. I wouldn’t call it depressing, but it’s definitely not a great feeling.
🥶 It’s COLD! It’s very very very cold! We knew what the situation would be like, but still… it’s COLD!
📺 We’re done with The White Lotus, and what a ride that was! Hopefully there’s more to come, but can’t imagine how they’re pulling it off without you know who. Next on the list is a totally different thing, season 4 of Fauda. Doron is back! Also still watching, very slowly, Treason.
🍿 Watched The Lake House, Rio 2, You People. Not a great week, movie wise.
🎉 Mother-in-law’s birthday party on Sunday. Full house again. Yummy cake, and a lot of time talking about Príncipe. Everyone wanted to know how the little one handled it. She, of course, is always thrilled to hear the stories. Can’t say we hate reliving it as well.
🎩 On the “MrLandlord” front, I’m relaxing a little now. Finding a new tenant, even with the neighbors from hell on the upper floor, wasn’t too hard, and they are moving in as we speak. I met them again at the apartment, and they do love the place. Not knowing if I’d be able to find someone to move in quickly was stressful, glad that seems to be solved. Let’s see for how long.
🎄 As promised, the tree came down. That’s what one has to do after spending a few weeks pretending regular life does not exist. Back to dishwashing, laundry, cooking dinner, kindergarten drop offs and pick ups,… Leaving the tree longer than it should made it VERY dry, and a mess to clean up afterwards. Done, but next year I’ll try to remember the experience, and do it like a normal person: earlier, as in right after Christmas.
🎨 It also means that I’m back at sticker spotting, and I’m sorry to say I haven’t been finding as many new ones as I thought I would. Usually there are dozens of new ones after a couple of weeks, as they tend to get replaced often. Maybe January is a slow month for this activity, less people in the city. Foreigners, I mean. We do have a lot of people leaving stickers all over the place, but the presence of the outsiders makes up a huge percentage of the ones I find.
✏️ Fonts! That’s not something I change often, but since I’ve seen Matt’s post about Atkinson Hyperlegible, I’ve been changing it all over. First I did it for the blog, then Drafts on the iPhone, then also on the laptop and, to top it off, following a tip from Carlo, it’s now being used on my omg.lol profile as well! Also from this same tip I found out bunny.net also has a font directory, one you can use instead of the usual Google Fonts, and it’s even GDPR compliant. Awesome!
📷 Also back at work, on the last day of the week, with another wine-related assignment. I did get a call for a regular one, meaning politics, something I would have loved to shoot. But the time was all wrong, as I had previous arrangements. Sad, in a way, but I’m sure others will come. I do miss the newspaper life from time to time, and this would have been great, after a month away from home, and months away from anything not, at least, wine adjacent. Anyway, as long as money keeps coming in, I guess I shouldn’t really be complaining.

Jan 27, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #38

💰 Money on the island is still a messy thing. There are no ATM to get it, and some people have not been warned about that fact. That should be easy to fix, as most other countries on earth have done so, but somehow it’s not the case here. A real issue when a country is so poor, and so dependent on foreign money.
🏖️ I had a perfect beach day with tinyMovieStar, and a couple of friends. Sunday, movieStar at work, we spent the whole day on the cool Banana Beach, swimming, building sand castles, swimming, having lunch, swimming, having a beer, swimming. It was one of the best moments of the trip.
⏸️ The feeling of life being in Pause while, at the same time, in overdrive. That is something I can only get here. I don’t worry about anything back home, nothing bothers me. And we’re always experiencing life as I feel it should always be: basic, happy, in love. I feel privileged a lot of times, but that feeling is much stronger here. Days seem to go on forever, but filled with excitement, not boredom.
🎉 tinyMovieStar’s first real birthday party (attending one), with lots of kids, happened here. She had chocolate cake (and hates chocolate), she had her first lollipop (and she always refused to try those), and she had tons of sugary juice. The result was not great.
👨🏻‍🏫 Workshop time! A lot less people than expected. As it often happens here, lack of communication was the main culprit. Even so, I believe I got some information across, in the limited time we had. People can’t get away from work with the guests, even if they really wanted. Sad, but somewhat unavoidable.
🏊‍♀️ Before the workshop we had time for out final swim at Margarida Beach. It’s a very small, cosy, beach, next to one of the hotels. We spent a couple of hours having fun at the deserted beach, then walked back to the hotel, had lunch, and João drove me up to Roça, the venue for the workshop. No more beach for us.
🥘 Later in the day we visited Romar for our farewell dinner. We took a few friends along, and fish was grilled. Since Armazém, the place where most people have their meals these days, was closed, the restaurant was packed. So much so that latecomers were greeted with a “Sorry, no more food”. In a way it felt like the old Príncipe, where you really had to plan ahead.
✈️ Morning came, coffee was drank, and Filipa picked us up for the short drive to the airport. Fitting, since she was the one doing the transfer a couple of weeks ago, and also one of the people we always miss the most. We went through the airport formalities, and managed to check in with a couple of friends who were also flying to the big island. That helped with the luggage weight, since they’re only spending a couple of days before going back and had small bags. We didn’t get charged for our heavy bags this way. The tiny plane is not a great experience for some, and one of our friends felt sick for a few hours. movieStar made it mostly ok, the little one suffered a lot with the crazy heat inside.
🌴 Back at Omali, back at the pool, and back at the comfort of the hotel life. Great food, dinner with the friends that came with us, and a late night. The chocolate mousse is still the greatest in the world, and I might have eaten a bit too much. In fact, I always do, as I never know when I’ll be back.
🚗 On our last day in São Tomé we got a car and went south. Jonathan hadn’t seen this island yet, and we didn’t get the chance for a late checkout anyway, as the hotel is full. So, instead of spending the whole day lounging in the pool, we went for a drive. Rain and thunderstorms setting the mood, we went looking for Pico Cão Grande, the most recognizable landmark in the country. Road is ok up to a point, then turns into an adventure. It took us over two hours to get there (60km!), and the cloud cover didn’t make it possible in the end. We drove back, and spent the rest of the day at the pool bar, waiting for our time to go. We got a takeaway pizza, it helped a lot during the long wait at the airport.
⌛️ Our time was up. We boarded our plane, ready for our flight back to Portugal. The girls got their upgrade, I did not. There were two available seats, not three. We had a marvelous time, and tinyMovieStar loved her time there. That was the whole point. She grew up quite a bit, got used to the rougher situations, the lack of her usual food, the amount of new people, overcame her shyness. and had to spend whole days away from movieStar, with me as her only company. She did awesome, and we’re very proud of her. I’m sure we’ll be back.

Jan 22, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #37/3

😊 We found Henry, at last! He’s the one of the few that we haven’t met yet, the man spends his days at his workshop and comes out at night only. Working on his plastic recycling experiences, outside the city. Last night, while walking in a dark street, on our way to an omelette dinner, I mentioned to movieStar that he was still missing. Not a second later we heard a call, “Mr Miguel!”! Henry. How in heaven’s name did he know it was me? The way I walk! While I think it’s a pretty normal way (one feet in front of the other one, and repeat), he knew it was me, even though he couldn’t make out my face, or anything else. It’s just too dark.
🍔 One morning was spent trying to keep tinyMovieStar entertained with mom, always a tricky task, and then Don showed up. She’s still in love with him, so that helped. He’s also a very talented man with crayons, quickly drawing a bird that proved to be a hit with the little one. We then moved to the dining room, and fries were made, especially for him. We had, of course, a burger.
🎩 The Search for the President. The President of the island has changed since we were last here, and we hadn’t met the new one yet. The old one was an old acquaintance, we were on the island for many months, over the years, during his presidency. Visiting journalists would often seek a interview, so we’d meet for professional reasons, as well as in the street, while out and about. And movieStar had been looking for the new one, as an interview had been requested. How do you find the President? You go out to dinner. He enters the restaurant. That was it.
🐠 5AM pick-up time, that I managed to push back to 6AM. Elias, the fisherman, tried to pick me up 2 meters from my house, on the river that runs next to it. We were going fishing. It was low tide, so he couldn’t quite make it. I walked to his place, on the other bank, and got in. Tiny boat. We motored our way to the hotel down the coast, to pick up Don. An hour later we were there, and another hour thirty to get us to the spot where we’d spend a big part of the day, trying to persuade some fish to jump in. I didn’t, and I’m quite happy it turned out that way for me. The look on the ones that weren’t so lucky, struggling to breathe out of the water, is just heartbreaking. Don caught a couple, and the fisherman was doing it non-stop. The good part about it, and there was of course one, was spending so much time in a place I think it’s the best looking one on the island: the Bay of Needles.
🚗 One of these days we went to dinner at one one the new places, but they had nothing we wanted at the time. So we moved to the one next door, also a new spot. As soon as we got it, movieStar spotted a couple of old friends, from high school. We spent the rest of the evening talking to them, helping the get money (the no ATM on the island is still a thing, and setting up a plan for the following morning. They were only staying for a day, and told us they were hiring a guide to drive them around. They had the car already. movieStar offered my services, I would be their designated guide, along with my lovely assistant, tinyMovieStar. We left early in the morning, drove up to THE viewpoint, down to Banana Beach. Spent a long time there, and then up to the pool at Belo Monte, just in time for a snack. The day was done with a drive to Roça Sundy, where they met our friends, and we picked up movieStar. Back to the city. They were happy. We as well.
🏖️ A beach tour was scheduled for the next morning. We were all going this time, along with a French journalist, another one from New York, and a nice retired couple from the UK, living in Portugal. It’s a wonderful thing, where you ride a boat and stop at a couple of beaches, before getting to the last one, my favorite. A lovely grilled fish meal is served there, with plenty of other treats too. The whole thing takes about 6 hours. tinyMovieStar, first time on a small boat for so long, loved it, after the initial 10 minutes of “why the hell is this rocking?”
😢 Don left. We have met some really nice people here, both local and visiting. But this one will be hard to top. We were both sorry to see them go.
✈️ Our days on the island are coming to an end, and we’re still not sure if the airline strike is happening. That’s the big question now.

Jan 18, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #37/2

😎 Sunday was, as it’s supposed to, lazy. We went to the hotel that’s furthest from the city, and spent the whole day lounging around, eating, and talking to our new friends Don and Catherine. tinyMovieStar is so in-love with Don she said she wants to marry him. We came back to the city via the place where we married, and I just had to step off the car and meet Manuel, my best friend there. Of course everyone else started showing up, “Miguel!” was in the air, and it took us a while to get back on the road.
🧸 While we waited for dinner, and for the super handyman Carlitos to fix our hot water issue (it’s been two days with only cold water coming out of the pipes), I finally walked to my godmother’s place to say hi. I knew I’d be in big trouble if I waited any longer. She was aware we were in the city already, of course, one of the kids had ratted me out. The grandkids were all there, with one we’d never met before, as he was born while we were away. Updated her on the news, she did the same. I left, the kids with me. Raquel, Erika, Junior, Ibrahim, Marcos, Fábio, all came to our place, where they met tinyMovieStar. She was asleep when we got home, and really surprised to see all of them playing with her stuff when she woke up. Kids here are the sweetest, though, and have an incredible trick up their sleeves: they clean up after playing!
🎉 We left the house, a kid train following us, and walked around for a bit. Local holiday coming up, so a lot of practicing going on. People are playing music and dancing all over the place. We stopped at a fairground, where dancing was the thing, and tinyMovieStar couldn’t help but join in. Dinner, and back home. Must sleep.
☀️ Sun up very early, and we as well. Time to go to the local cafe, grab one for movieStar, and drive up to Roça. Morning spent doing some video, snack for lunch, afternoon at the pool and sea. The look on tinyMovieStar’s face when she gets in the water. She can’t pick between sand and water. The water is just too warm, so impossible to leave. This is turning into a nice routine.
🥘 We finally found the time to go and have dinner with my godmother. She owns the restaurant where I had my first meal on the island, one that was a reference, and a spot you had to visit, but somehow was left behind. There are a few new venues in the city, finding a decent meal is easier to find now, but she could have kept that place THE one. It feels great to see her, and share a meal with our family, but can’t shake the sadness to see the place so empty. tinyMovieStar spent the whole time playing, getting her hair done, and just having fun. We spent our time talking to her and her daughters, there was a lot of catching up to do.
🤬 There is one person on the island that’s not very nice. A expat, new hire in the company. I’m not wasting my time talking about him, just letting everyone know that paradise is not always perfect. Done.
🍺 One of the awesome things of such a small place, if you enjoy small places, is the community feeling. Everyone is going through life in pretty much the same way, at the same pace. Of course some have an easier life, but everyone is on the same boat. Life/work separation is tough here, as you find each one of your colleagues on the street when you leave work. Thankfully we all get along fine, and have know each other for a long time. It’s a pleasure, as far as I’m concerned, and I’m not even part of the company. Or, maybe, that’s why.
📷 Seems like I have work to do, after all. The owner of the new restaurant called me out a few nights ago, when we were about to leave. He’s knew in town, having moved over from Angola. He’d heard I was a photographer, and wondered if I’d mind taking a photo of his family, as he wanted a nice one, and photographers are hard to find here. Of course, I’m thrilled to do it. They are a nice family, and tinyMovieStar was already in playing buddies terms when he popped the question. Also, it’s not really work, I’m not charging him a cent, of course. Also pro bono, I’ll try a small workshop with some of the company’s employees, a rerun of the mobile photography workshop from a month ago, tropical edition this time.
✈️ Still keeping an eye on the news regarding the strike. There’s one negative thing about this, one alone. If we do get stranded, it’s on the big island, not here. Still ok with it, but here would be so much better. Fingers crossed.

Jan 15, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #37/1

💺 Flying to the other island. Still feeling sick. A pill didn’t help. I did make it through with the extra luggage, at a cost of €40. Arrived at the airport with plenty of time to deal with it, and it was faster than expected. More time left to sit in the waiting room, while a huge C130 revved up its engines just outside the windows. Not the nicest music when your head is hurting.
🏝️ Getting to the airport in Príncipe is another experience I can’t easily put into words. The airport is tiny, and we’ve been there dozens of times. We know everyone who works there. Everyone. They’re always the same. We have picked up, and dropped off, countless guests and friends. The airport plays a very important “public square” role on the island. It’s where you get the news, see who’s coming and going, pick up parcels that are sent from the big island,… Some weeks required daily visits, so we’d be there, talking with the staff, and everyone else, while we waited for airplane. If you have nothing to do, you’ll go to the airport when the plane is coming. This time, stepping out of the tiny aircraft, after almost four years, almost brought tears to my eyes. I was still going down the stairs, and “Miguel!” was already being shouted from all over. Handshakes and hugs all the way to the main building. At the end of it, tinyMovieStar waited, and ran to my arms. Not supposed to, but they opened the door for her. Everyone, obviously, knew they were there, they’d seen them on the morning flight, and they had the same enthusiastic welcome. Probably even more so, a baby is sure to impress.
🍼 tinyMovieStar is having a blast! She’s meeting new people every day. Doing new things daily. Before I arrived they went to Roça Sundy, and she helped the kids there with their work, cracking nuts open. Kids here are not used to white toddlers, as not many make their way here. So they keep touching her skin, and hair, and she’s ok with it. If someone tried that back home, she’d go crazy! She’s not one to enjoy being touched or held, if it’s not someone she really knows. For a loooong time. She been in the river, washing her crocs, while the women wash their clothes. Everyone is thrilled to meet her, and she feels the same. Unless they have missing teeth. If they do, she’ll just say it’s scary, and turn away. We try to talk to her, telling her they are our friends, but it’s not working.
🥘 There are a few new places in town. One would be reason to throw a party, but we’ve heard a couple opened since our last time here. We visited the bigger of those, and the food is really nice. Great venue as well. Unsurprisingly, by the time our food was ready, we had a handful of friends there already, more tables being added to accommodate everyone. This was not arranged. It just happens, when you know a lot of people, and there’s only so many places where they can be. Every time a new person would come along, tinyMovieStar would be all over it, dragging another chair to the table, telling us it was for our friend, so they could sit close to us.
🤫 The quietness of Príncipe (unless it’s Friday). It’s really hard to convey how small the city is. It’s been dubbed “The Smallest Capital City in The World” for a reason, right? It’s small. Add to that the fact that light goes out every night, and it feels you’re alone in the middle of a forest. You can hear the dogs (plenty of those around), the odd motorcycle going by, but not much else. I sleep like a baby. The baby is also sleeping like a baby! Sun is up at 5:30AM, we get up an hour later, maybe, and there’s still a few hours after that with no power. No internet. I write.
🥰 Friday is, also here, party day. Bars (small ones), and restaurants (few of them), catering to the local community, fill up and serve plenty of drinks. By local I also mean the expats living here. You have to be a little “local” to live here. A few have been lured by the promise of working in paradise, and left soon after, when they figure this kind of paradise doesn’t suit them. If you stay for a while, people will accept you, there’s respect going both ways. It’s not easy. And many who were born here can’t wait to get away. Those you stay, local or not, are part of similar teams. Obviously not the same, the standard of living is still very much different, but… Time goes by slowly, a day feel like a few back to back, but, for those who love it, it’s magical. I have never been to a place where I’ve felt more detached from the rest of the world. I love it. The party, though, ends at midnight.
🌑 The darkness. Public illumination is not everywhere, so plenty of dark streets at night. We can hear the chanting at a church that’s not too close. You can’t see them, but they are there. Walking at night is an odd experience too, as people will call out your name, and you can’t see them yet. You hear someone playing music, sounds like a group, move towards the sound, and there’s maybe 20 people there. Musicians and others just dancing around. We stay for a while, another friend finds us, one we hadn’t seen before, but knew we had arrived.
🏖️ The Beach. We also made our way to the beach. THE beach. The one where we met, the one where I proposed. This beach has a lot of memories for us, for our friends. And, now, maybe some will stick with tinyMovieStar. She loved it. At first she wanted to play in the sand but, when she dipped her feet in the water, and figured this was the warmest she had ever found, she was sold on the idea. It was hard to talk her into leaving. The weather wasn’t even that great, cloudy, we could hear a thunderstorm getting closer, but that didn’t stop us from having fun. Incredible couple of hours.

Note: I’m posting this one as 37/1, because so much has happened already, the full week would probably be too long… more later.

Jan 13, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek #36

🏝️ The week (for this purpose weeks start on Saturdays, btw) begins with our minds on the trip, as it’s getting close and we will be on our way, and there, further down these notes. Still a lot to decide, pack, take care, and the days are counting down pretty fast.
🤮 First time for me, poor tinyMovieStar puked all over me this week. She was feeling not so great for a couple of days, so never mind me. Night fever, and coughing a lot. Feeling great during the day. Odd. Thankfully she was fine the day before we flew out.
📺 Watching Treason. We also had the opportunity to re-watch the Shrek saga. The White Lotus thing is ongoing.
📦 Packing. Packing. Packing. A two week stay on the island requires as much packing as is we were actually moving to another country, for good. Everything must go.
📷 Of course I still had to be asked for some photos on the day before we leave, what I’d like to call “Quiet Packing Day”. Went out, got the photos, edited them, sent them, and then I could go back to packing the whole house into a small bag. Ufff…
🤧 Flying with a cold is not fun, but what could I do? On the plus side: Executive! And what a difference that makes on such long flights. War Dogs on the screen. Big screen. tinyMovieStar asleep most of the flight, at least the first leg, to Accra. She had an incredible comfy bed, and still thought it was better to have a nap sitting on her mom’s lap. Clever girl.
🤩 Sir Don. Damn. I can now, forever, say “we picked him up in Accra, and flew in with him”. It sounds like something that would only happen in a movie. Amazing company at dinner time, as expected. movieStar was right, we did get along brilliantly. He also made magic tricks to entertain tinyMovieStar, and she now says “I like playing with uncle Don”.
☀️ We did make it to the island, as you’ve gathered, but now we must hop on to the other one. My flight is the afternoon one, and the girls have tickets for the morning. That means they’ll go early in the morning, and I’m left with most of the luggage, probably there will be some fee that I must pay. I’m also finding out later if I have a slight fever or not, maybe they won’t even let me in!
⏳ All of these will be disclosed on the next report, I’m sending this one now, while I have access to the internet. See you on the other side.

Jan 6, 2023 ∞

thingsThisWeek 35

🌞 Hello, 2023. Dinner with friends, stayed up late, slept in, drove to in-laws. Nothing else. I do not like NYE, for a long time now, and it’s usually followed by a miserable Jan 1st, when we have to deal with a whole day of trying to handle things while extremely tired and suffering from lack of sleep. This year, I’m happy to say, the same thing happened. Glad it’s over. On to the rest of the year.
💻 This year starts with me using IRC again ¯_(ツ)_/¯ omg.lol has a server going, bye was kind enough to provide an account at their The Lounge install, and I’m there. I was using Igloo as IRC client, but I’m not used to the _you only see stuff that happens when you’re online routine anymore, and The Lounge solves that. Also, since I suppose a few others aren’t that used to IRC as well, a Discord server was also launched, and now we can use both, as they are mirroring everything. It’s not perfect, but I guess it works.
📺 The White Lotus, second chance. We’re loving it, after almost giving up on episode 1. Glad we stuck with it. Season 1 is done, we’re now on Season 2 of the show. We didn’t get too far, both fell asleep while trying to talk tinyMovieStar into it. A few times this week.
🏝️ The preparations are still ongoing for the upcoming trip to the island. While I’m a little nervous about this one, I’m very much looking forward to it. Still a ton to do, but we’ll go in the end. I miss the people, the island, but I’m anxious about doing it with tinyMovieStar. We had a good routine there, both of us working, both of us together the whole time, and that will be no more. I’ll be left with the little one most of the day, in a place that really isn’t prepared for little ones. Many (all?) of the food items we’re used to are not available (someone paid €20 this week for a bar of butter!); there is no support network from family; there are no cafes/restaurants where we can go for food, or even a toilet when we’re out and about; the transport situation is dire, with no taxis, or buses, or anything remotely appropriate… We’ll be stuck in the very little city, away from the beach, and away from everything that could make things a little easier. Anyway, glad to go. Also, almost 7 hours on a plane will certainly be a challenge for our baby girl.
📜 The passport situation is solved. We have our travel documents.
💬 On the Mastodon front, I’ve decided that it’s not worth to keep my instance alive. It’s been very fun, and I cannot thank Vincent enough for setting it up, and putting up with me. At this point in time, though, I’m really REALLY trying to cut down costs, and there were also a couple of things I missed from my times at social.lol. I had kept both mrBatsu and the stickerspotter accounts there, and now I moved my main one back to the original place.
😴 It was also a strange week when it comes to sleep. The little one would go to bed, with us, we’d fall asleep way too early, then wake up in the middle of the night, unable to fall back asleep. When that routine changed, she had a fever, and we couldn’t sleep again.
📚 Still trying to get going with Unreasonable Behavior by Don McCullin. Books.app letting me know I’m at 2%. Brilliant. I have 5 days to finish it, somehow I don’t think I’ll make it.

Note: next week’s thingsThisWeek will be posted, if everything goes according to plan, from the island. Probably still on the bigger one, so we should have no issues with access to a reliable Internet connection. Still…

Dec 30, 2022 ∞

thingsThisWeek 34

🎄 We made it! We made it to the other side of Christmas! Not before a lot of packing, another batch of cookies (told you!), and a whole day of cartoons. We then went to my parents, had dinner with them, and my brother’s family. Gifts were exchanged. tinyMovieStar was overwhelmed with the whole thing. We were as well. The whole thing is exhausting. We get to meet the family, and spend days together, but we do it pretty much every weekend. This is basically the same, but with presents, and a lot of food.
🧁 Too. Much. Food. For days!
🇺🇦 Miguel, my best friend, is back in Ukraine, and he’s already sharing stuff on his Instagram, complete with Stories. Also on the paper’s site.
📰 Just before leaving for Ukraine he subscribed to the Washington Posta. and was offered another one to give away. I got that one. So far I’m really enjoying the gift. Great app too.
💻 This was also the week when I finally managed to set The Monitor up. Fun times. Props to Adam for everything he keeps doing with omg.lol. Another feature he launched is the referral program, where we get free time for every new member we referred. I thought about turning my free time into gift codes, and did another giveaway.
🍿 We watched a few movies this week: The Queen, Shrek the Halls, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. And we also had time for an incredible Portugues show, available on HBO, Causa Própria. Incredibly good, that’s how I’d rate it.
🇸🇹 We’re going! movieStar has bought the tickets already, and we’re now entering the preparation part of the trip. Only two weeks left, and a ton of things to take care. I don’t even have a passport at the moment, it expired while covid restrictions lasted. tinyMovieStar is about to have her first one too! It’s going to be a very different trip altogether, not even remotely similar to any of the previous ones. I won’t be working, I’ll be on daddy duty 24/7, and our favorite hotel, the one that would make our life a little easier, is undergoing maintenance, closed. The island can be challenging to start with, and going there with a toddler is just adding another layer of messiness. Still looking forward to it. We’re meeting our dear friends again, after 5 years apart!
🏡 Also time to start finding a new tenant, as my friend who’s staying at our place finally got tired of the stupid neighbors upstairs. A suit has been filed, but things take so long over here, she’ll just leave. This will be a huge headache for us.

Dec 23, 2022 ∞

thingsThisWeek #33

🤧 Common Cold. The whole week with a stuffy nose. Certainly not the way I wanted to end the year, and hopefully I will not, but it’s been more than a week now. No headache anymore, no scratchy throat, but the nose is still not ready.
🍪 Another batch of cookies was baked during this week’s visit to the in-laws. They were delicious again. tinyMovieStar LOVES baking, and she loves routines, so I guess we’ll have these cookie sessions for a long time. Not complaining.
📅 One thing the little one does not have: patience. A cousin gave her a Paw Patrol advent calendar, and she wouldn’t stop until she found Skye. Of course it was hiding behind door number 24. The fun lasted around 10 minutes.
🎨 A photo show opened on Saturday, one where I have a photo. There are 66 of us, each presenting one photo. We weren’t able to make it to the opening, as changing our routines can be a challenge. We just had lunch with my parents, and then drove to meet movieStar’s family. As usual. I wouldn’t mind attending these events, sometimes, but when the day actually gets here I can’t seem to find the energy to do it, with all the juggling that’s needed for that.
🎄 xMas party at the kindergarten. It was a lovely mess. We gathered at the gallery where the event was taking place, after driving the girls there, and getting the car back home again. It was a great party, but a bit chaotic, as expected. Getting so many kids, and parents, behaving properly for that long is not easy. Still, loads of fun, with music, dance, short movies, and a lunch with the whole group. The school is awesome, we’re lucky.
🎅🏼 Driving around during this season is an exercise in patience. Traffic here is usually manageable, at least for someone like me, as I don’t do it often. When December arrives though, everyone seems to turn into a crazy driver. Crawling speed crazy, not Speedy Gonzales crazy.
📺 Finished Harry and Meghan. Done. Meh. Started watching The Recruit, alone. A little boring. Our most watched show, probably of the whole year, and still very much on repeat: Bluey.
👮‍♀️ Neighbor Trouble. That’s sad, and crazy, but our neighbors from the old place seem to have finally lost it. They have behaved erratically before, but this week one of them turned violent, and broke into our place, kicking the door in. With my friend who’s living there inside! Police were called, but he had left already, so not a lot else to do but file a complaint, that will probably take years to get anywhere. And I did get to pay a visit to the local police station the following morning. Yay.
🌳 We moved out of the city for Christmas, a couple of days before the actual date. It’s quieter, and tinyMovieStar gets a few extra days with grandma & grandpa, the dog, the cat, and some of the cousins. Feels more Christmas-y as well. The countryside, and the fully decked out house, add a lot to the season.

Dec 16, 2022 ∞

thingsThisWeek #32

🎄 There’s no other way to start the weekly report: Christmas preparations are very much ongoing! movieStar’s parents are going full force, we went out foraging for pine cones (fireplace needs them), and moss. It’s a yearly event. Christmas villages need moss, of course, and there is only one place where it can come from: the top of the closest mountain. So, off we wen… Oh! No, not really, we didn’t! World Cup day, so no one goes out into the fields looking for pine cones and moss. Also, we lost, so no more World Cup for us. Sad about the moss, don’t care about the rest.
🇲🇦 Congratulations, Morocco. Well done.
🍪 We tried baking something while at my in-laws. I’ll start by saying both of them are great cooks, and my mother-in-law is a great baker as well. On the other hand, my father-in-law has a LOT of trouble following the most basic of recipes, he loves to improvise, driving us mad while he’s doing it. He can get away with a lot while cooking, but baking is not that forgiving. We ended up with something not even remotely similar to our goal and, while trying to fix it, he managed to burn the whole batch. It was hilarious! tinyMovieStar, her mom, and her mom got together, and saved the day with an incredible oven full of cookies, and other delicious treats. That leads us to…
🐻 The Bear. Again. movieStar missed it when I first saw it, but the way I talked about the show made her want to watch it. So we did. She loved it, I enjoyed it again, and now this one is on our “We Watched it Together” list.
🤣 tinyMovieStar, and the sense of humor she’s developing. It’s just the best. The way she talks back, the looks she now throws our way, everything about this little girl is incredible. The other day we were picking her up from kindergarten, and her teacher told us “Today at lunch time I can tell with absolute certainty she was making fun of me”. Yeah. We know.
📷 Out for an assignment for the paper on Monday, and again on Thursday. Never knowing when I’m working can be a little stressful, even though I’m ok most of the time. It does feel good to get out of the house once in a while, and do what I’m trained to do, instead of the stuff I’m shooting these days. The second day included a long drive there and back, with no colleague tagging along, plenty of time to catch up on podcasts that were on the list. The photos are very much unremarkable, and was feeling pretty sick the whole time, but still great to be out and about.
💻 The weblog feature of omg.lol keeps evolving, and it’s pretty stable already. I have tweaked the css a bit, and my page is up. Still have no clue if/how I’ll use it for. I’d like the homepage to pull quotes from my quote bot, but I’m doing it manually for now, until I figure out if there is a way to automate it. Predictably, I wanted a domain to go with it, and tinyMovieStar was the one that came up with it! So, for better or worse, sidor.life… lives!
📺 The White Lotus. So many were mentioning it, we started watching this one as well. One episode so far. Meh.
🛶 The rain won’t stop, and the city is a mess. We’re safe, but a lot are not. People have their homes flooded, others are unable to enter the city for work, and chaos is everywhere. According to the experts this has been the worst day in recorded history as far as rain is concerned. It has never rained this much in the city. If this was a few years ago, I’d be all over the place, shooting like a mad man. This time around, I almost feel no desire to go look at how things are. Maybe my journalistic instinct is slowly dying. I just want to stay home with the movieStars, and watch the news unfold from a distance.
🧑🏻‍💻 One of the consequences of the weather was our home internet access going down for over 24 hours. Minor issue when compared to what others were, and are, going through, sure, but a nuisance. Especially when we’re asked to work from home, when schools have limited staff, and work still has to be done. Our provider acted miserably during this whole process, so we’re planning a move. A few perks if we do as well, so sounds like a sure thing. Did not want to deal with it during the holiday season, but…
🤒 Throat, muscle pain, and headaches (mild ones). Also something on the eyes. Still baffled by how frequently I’m sick these days. Friday, still going.
🎨 Tattoo Day! Again! After over two years without an idea, or a tattoo, I’m on a roll! After getting my bandaid tattoo, I got another one this week. There was no way to miss this one, as my best friend was having one, and I’m the one who helped set things up. So, he did it. And I did as well.