Monthly Archives: August 2013

A Portuguese phenomenon

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Since arriving in Portugal I have stopped and admired this characteristically Portuguese phenomena. If you look at this chap you will notice that he is nicely dressed. Smart outfit, nice shoes and even though it’s summer, the gentleman is wearing a jacket. But do you see how he’s wearing it? Over his shoulders. I just happened to catch him adjusting it. Which begs the questions? If you’re going to wear a jacket why not just put your arms through the sleeves? Are you that much cooler wearing it this way? Is it some fashion statement? I honestly can not fathom the ‘why’. But regardless of why it’s done, doesn’t it detract from the how annoying it must be to have to balance the jacket on one’s shoulders? I mean it try it right now. It’s a bloody nuisance!

Since we arrived in Portugal I have been tempted to take a picture whenever I see someone doing this, but have felt a bit like a sociologist trying to capture an image of a unique cultural occurrence aware that taking a picture might cause an offense. My respect for people’s privacy has resulted in my only capturing this evidence now when I was able to sneak a shot.

Each time I see this ridiculousness I am reminded of the time we had a costume party and our friend Pete G. came as a Portuguese doctor. Besides carrying liquor in his doctor’s bag, his other brilliant touch was walking around all night with his lab jacket over his shoulder. You really can not be rushed or productive when you wear a jacket over your shoulders like this. It.Can.Not.Be.Done…PERIOD. So does that say something about pompous Portuguese people? Does that reflect on why our institutions and economy are such a mess? I think it may.

As part of my Portuguese language learning I am trying to watch more news in Portuguese. To be honest I never last more than 5 minutes, but alas as I turned the television on the other day I was met with this sight.

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Don’t ask me what this woman was talking about because I could not see past that jacket.

One for the bilingual crowd

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My apologies, but this little story will only be funny to those people who speak both Portuguese and English, sorry.

lana

So Lana sails in Portuguese. Her lessons are in Portuguese, her girlfriend she sails with is Portuguese and her vocabulary for sailing is in Portuguese. She knows the words for the parts of the sailboat in English, but when she tells you about her day, even if she is speaking in English, the vocabulary she uses is Portuguese. So the other day, my very literate child, while telling me about her return to land, instead said when she was ‘coming back to earth’. It was so funny because she is so precise with language, but she kept making this error by literally translating the word as ‘earth’ meaning land. It was a simple mistake, one that if made by anyone else would not elicit a chuckle, but made by this young lady had us all in stitches.

 

It’s that time of year again

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With pear trees bursting with fruit you can image that many farmers need help reaping the fruits of their labor, literally. It’s a job that needs to be done within a set time and takes many hands. So off go college kids, and many adults to pick the pears.

This picture was taken right outside my front door. My cousin, who works our land, dropped off these crates. I’m assuming he’s getting everything ready for a busy upcoming work week.

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The good and bad of summer

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Most days that we go to the beach we go to surf or play in the waves in a beach a bit further from my village. But one day in early August we thought that we might meet up with some friends at the lagoa, aka the lagoon, at our local beach. Even though there is not a wave, we thought the idea of spending the day with friends was great. After checking in on the ocean side of the beach and deciding it was too rough, we went over to the lagoon. Nuno went off with his two teenage mates for a play. Not 5 minutes later, I turn around to see that my baby boy is being carried back by the boys. I quickly ascertained that he had stepped on something. I assumed it had been a spider fish, which I knew to be terribly painful as my niece had suffered one. He was trying to be brave and not cry, but I  told him it was okay to cry as I knew it hurt. Well, the flood gates came open and he howled. I quickly threw him on my back and carried him to the lifeguard station. Just as we near the lifeguard I hear, “Nuno, what’s going on?” I look over wondering who it could possibly be as all his friends are from Cascais which is over an hour away. Low and behold it was one of his girl friends from school. She, her cousin and her granddad just happened to be out riding bikes as the grandparents have a family home on the beach. They stayed with  us to see what was going on.

Low and behold it was not a spider fish, but a sea urchin, or two, that he had stepped on. The poor boy’s foot was littered with spines. So many so that wherever the lifeguard touched Nuno’s foot, it hurt. I figured the best thing to do was to get home and carefully take them out myself while the child was distracted watching the telly.

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Well, before I could run and grab our things, Nuno had an invitation to ‘play’ at his mate’s house. I thought it was just the craziest idea, but the grandfather insisted he go over and have lunch while I got my things, my car and ran to the chemist to get the right tweezers for the job. When I arrived to pick him up he was sitting comfortably in a cushioned chair with his foot soaking and being pampered. Even though he couldn’t run around he was loving being with his friend. This unplanned encounter then led to an invitation to her family birthday party. I couldn’t have been happier. Nuno has had a difficult time this year with some classmates and this little girl is great. A good person to have as a friend. As is he I believe.

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When we finally got home, we did everything we were told to do, and even tried to get a numbing cream the next day, but even doing that, removal proved too painful. Now if it had been one or two I would have held the child and yanked it out, but there were at least 50 spines that went straight into his foot! We encouraged him to try removing them himself, which he did each day with minimal success. So we did something you may balk at. We decided to let them come out on their own. Something I thought would happen naturally over the course of the week. I was wrong.

Life went on as normal, but Nuno still had heaps of spines in his foot. That was until he went to take a this week, two weeks after the fact, to a sailing class. After a day with his foot damp from his boat shoes heaps of the spines came out. Here you can see one of the ones he found in his shoe. It’s crazy to me how bicobig they are.

And here is a picture of his foot with the evidence of the ‘missing’ spines. It was a crazy ordeal, but as someone who likes to see the glass half full, I think it was really great that he got the opportunity to spend some time with a friend and getting to know her amazing family.

 

getting better

Summer

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We had a great summer. It started off with a bang with our trip to Pamplona and continued along at a wonderful pace with family, friends, heaps of beach and pool time, camps, more friends and of course food. Too much food really.

To document it all in one post would be insane, so I will have to retrace our steps. I had hoped to start doing daily posts, but with the absence of stimulants (except for coffee of course) I just couldn’t do it. I am a mere human, unlike some of the crazies from my village who have proven once again that they are a different breed and possibly super human, I need to sleep, and this limits what I can get done on any given day.