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weeknotes, 14-15/24

a couple of slow weeks.

the good news is that the boy’s blood markers have been excellent lately! they’re better than they’ve been in the last year and a half, which is amazing. the boy did take a higher dose of OCS for a while, and is now tapering it off… we’ll see how it goes.

we’ve been keeping to the potato diet, while slowly adding other ingredients to see the reactions. the first was dairy, which was a disastrous reintroduction on the first day, but quickly improved. the second ingredient was chicken — so far, so good. it’s nice to discover these flavors again, one by one. the diet has slowly transformed food from something that was always on my mind, to more of a background thing. i no longer think about going to places with the perspective of eating something there, which was something i’ve always done… it’s weird, but also kind of refreshing.

we’re crocheting carnations in the crafts class, and i’m so pleased with how it’s turning out. i hope i can wear mine proudly on april 25th! speaking of flowers, i bought some tulips at the market, and they made me very happy.

this week, i also installed a watering system on the raised bed, that will hopefully help the garden endure the harsh summer. the system came as a pre-made kit, but was missing some pieces… which made putting the whole thing together a very frustrating experience, with sub-optimal results. :( hopefully we’ll be able to find some more connectors to expand it.

we’ve seen a couple of nice movies these weeks, perfect days by wim wenders (which was so, so beautiful), and at eternity’s gate, about van gogh’s last years. since returning from france, i’ve been curious about his life and work — maybe we’ll go see a few of his paintings on an upcoming trip to the netherlands.

and just today we went to a birdwatching activity in the sapal of castro marim, and ended up seeing a couple of new birds: a red-crested pochard and a pallid swift. swifts are notoriously difficult to tell apart, so it helps to have the experts nearby to point them out. on the way back home, we made a detour to check out a lake that the boy had run by once, and ended up seeing another new bird: a great-spotted cuckoo! we also saw a mama coot with her 2 babies, and the bee-eaters are back in town, their gurgling chirps filling the sky once more! <3

weeknotes

weeknotes, 13/24

there’s not much to report, and yet (or maybe because of that), this was such a nice week.

the chinese classes took a break (easter holidays) and so the pressure to study and prepare also eased. the boy upped his medication and stopped coughing. it rained most days (a welcome change for algarve), and i tried to battle the caterpillars that plague my kale plants. we played a frustratingly difficult (yet hilarious) game of robo rally with friends and i came out last! and we watched oppenheimer at last.

i guess the biggest thing this week was that we started an elimination diet, in the hopes of ruling out food allergies that the boy couldn’t test for. basically, we eat just potatoes for a while, and then slowly re-introduce foods one by one, to measure and see the reactions (if any). this is not our first potato rodeo (just a more extreme form of it), but since i like potatoes, it’s not a big deal — i actually find it rather soothing not having to think what’s for lunch or dinner… it’s potatoes all the way down! :D

algarving weeknotes

weeknotes 12/24

funny, how coming back home is strange in the way we just smoothly slip back into our routines, into the netflix series and songs we were obsessed with before we left — and into the worries too. it’s like taking a week off from life, and then coming back… but everything is still here, still the same.

the first half of the week was overwhelming. chinese classes are going well, but each 2-hour class requires another 2-3 hours of prepping in advance… and to do that twice per week gets really intense. so much so that i didn’t go to the pool at all this week. :( i need to be better at managing my time, the eternal struggle.

the skies have been yellow for days now, and a thin layer of dust makes everything a dull color. the air quality this week has been amazingly poor, and the wheezing boy has been safely hiding inside, blasting the air purifier all-day long. it looks like we’ll get some respite next week, and hopefully some rain too, to wash it all away.

because of insomnia, i finished reading bride (which was quite a bit more explicit than anticipated 😳), and also listening to an artist of the floating world (which featured more post-war political guilt than expected). we also watched a couple of movies, barbie and the man who knew infinity.

the boy found out about some guided tours in a local olive processing factory, and so we went to check it out. we were the only portuguese among all the americans and dutch doing the tour, but it was quite fun to see all the things that go into processing olives for consumption. plus, the tour guide (one of the workers there), besides being super knowledgeable, was really funny too! and at the end, there was a feast of olives for tasting, as well as bread and folar made by her mom. truly, a delight! i want to see it again, once the olive season is in full swing.

weeknotes

weeknotes, 11/24

this week, we escaped to france to spend a few days with friends! it was the most glorious week — the first in years in which i was able to completely disconnect from work, forget which day of the week we were in and just… be.

we saw a diane arbus exhibition, explored arles and a few cute towns in provence, ate an enormous amount of cheese and bread, read (finally finished country driving and also book 3 of the scum villain self-saving system), walked the countryside soaking in the sun… but mostly we spent time with our friends and their adorable 1.5 year old, who demanded our attention quite vehemently. :) it was bliss!

general

weeknotes, 10/24

what a week.

– we saw dune 2 in the cinema, and it was great, all deep rumbling noises and majestic desert landscapes.

– it was an intense week for language learning, with lots of chinese but also french, because i’ve been helping my cousin daniela practice for an upcoming exam. i hope she does well!

– the boy turned 43, and we went on a 15km birthday walk, from faro to quarteira. we’re very close to completing the “walk the algarve coast” objective, with only 60 or so kms left! this stretch was particularly nice, because it was done half through the ludo area (where we saw 2 new ducks!) and half through the beach, on a gorgeous sunny morning.

– i’ve been watching young royals lately, and it made me curious about learning swedish. i don’t want to get sucked into the lure of yet another language, but i kind of like how intriguing it sounds — the long vowels, the deep RRs and just the cadence of it, like a staccato of words. i’ve added it to duolingo, just to see how it goes.

– on sunday we went voting, and as the night went on and the results started coming in, a kind of darkness spread over the region like an oil spill. i feel a little hopeless, but mostly just angry. the future which people around me are trying to build is not the one i imagine for the children i love. the first instinct is to leave… but then, who would do the work that needs to be done for things to improve? i guess it’ll have to be us. 💪