Not around...

I've been really busy lately so no time to do much apart from work, eat and sleep with a couple of things in between.

Blogging has been neglected but not for long.

We had a lovely weekend and hopefully the next one will be ok too, although I so need to sleep a lot - and go to the gym. So nothing exciting to look forward to.

Friday is my dad's birthday. His bday present will be the announcement of our trip to Brazil. Good present. :)

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Tuesday - tick!

Tired? Check!
Hungry? Not anymore!
Sleepy? Check!
Very sleepy? Super check!
*****
Tuesday was ok. Busy but not extremely busy. A bit stressful at the end. My boss forgot her phone in the office and she leaves far away. Trying to help I arrange to meet with a colleague that will meet her tomorrow morning so she could give her the phone. My boss is out of the office until next week, so she really needed it. It was all going fine when I received a phone call from the office while I was already on my train home. It was my boss asking where her mobile was. She went all the way back from wherever she was to get her phone back!! Geez, and the poor woman was until 8.30pm in the office trying to sort out how to recover the phone tonight as she wants to be contactable while driving to the meeting she is going to. One of those situations that you wish you were just quiet. Everything is fine now and she has the phone.
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I found out today - and almost by chance - that friend Lillywhites is back to the bloggers community and has been blogging since June!!! I have to catch up with some readings. And update the list on the right.
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This weekend I have another babyshower (the previous one was for Ben who is now almost 2 months old). This one is Isabella's, Guta's baby, due in November. That reminds me that I still need to buy the present. hmmmm, ok, I have time.
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I'm also going to Hampton Court to cheer for Lillywhites, Superstylish and Co. (yes, I'm trying to give nicknames to all my friends, instead of just giving away their names - it's an exercise).
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Autumn is here. Despite getting darker, there are some few things that only Autumn can bring us: the most beautiful colours you can see. The trees are just soooooooooo beautiful, and the sunsets are red, the sky is a mix of dark blue, red, yellow. And it is still not cold enough to freeze your bones. I think Autumn and Winter are the best seasons of the year. Such a shame that England is colder than the average, otherwise it would be perfect!
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Ok, enough. Bye-bye!

Monday - tick

Monday is done. Bring on Tuesday.

It was hard to wake up this morning. Really hard.

I went out for lunch with the girls and had spaghetti pomodoro (basic
pasta with tomato sauce), which is perfectly allowed in my diet.

I went to the gym tonight and I feel great about myself. But now I'm hungry.

Left the house in such a hurry that I forgot to pack healthy snacks to
eat along the day.

You can tell I'm trying to live a healthier life, huh? After 30's you
kinda need to think a bit about these things - without being too
paranoid - in order to be able to do certain things. I'm thinking
climbing the Kilimanjaro here. Or run to catch the train without
running out of breath.

Other things one should think about:
* Smile and laugh more. Prevent wrinkles. :)
* Drink a lot of water. Makes you wanna pee all the time and it's a
great excuse to strech your legs and have a break from work.
* Keep your back straight. You get taller, you naturally suck your
tummy in and you look confident.
* Be less online and more live action. Otherwise you will forget your
friends' faces, voices, etc. And you don't get to know new people. And
your eyes will hurt. And typing too much can damage your nail polish.
* Drink less alcohol. As well as killing brain cells, it can be quite
expensive. You will save money to buy chocolate (or a new pair of
shoes, depending on your priorities).
* Pay attention to things around you. It's amazing the amount of new
details/strange characters/different angles you can see even if you go
on the same itinerary every single day for 2 years.
* Take more photos. Write more. Life is too busy to expect our poor
little brain to remember everything. Plus it is also really good fun
to see old pics and read old memories.
* Sing. I don't know why. Just do it.

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Back in London and full of plans

Another weekend is gone.
Tomorrow is back to (hard) work. But I don't care.
It's almost the end of another year. Surreal, isn't it? End of September...
The next three months will be quite busy (work, more work, trip to Brazil, Christmas, baby showers, races, shows, house hunting, holiday planning, 2010 resolutions, preparing for winter), which is great. It's good to be busy.
Time to sleep - Mr C has announced.

Probably the last post from Spain

Posts sent via email are just a mess, huh!

Anyway.

Our 6-day holidays are gone. Next: two weeks in Brazil.

And because I'm an anxious person and I can't leave one day after the
other, I'm already thinking about the next trip. Somewhere stupidly
cold? Somewhere amazingly warm? Somewhere far? Close? In January?
February? March?

World Cup is coming, but I don't think we could afford a trip to South
Africa. The tickets will probably be a fortune! And I would want to go
to the beaches, and visit around, while Mr. C would prefer to watch
ALL the matches.

Oh well, I might just go for my skating lessons instead...

Tomorrow waky-waky time is 6am. Sweet!

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Mixed feelings

It's the first time I come to Spain and I'm not totally in love with
the place. My main complain about Costa del Sol is that the area
doesn't look like Spain. There's no personality. Somebody probably
thought: useless piece of land + sun all day round and warm weather
(err, for British standards at least) + build a bunch of block of
flats (who cares if they are ugly?) and voila: loads of tourists
spending their money in the area.

And what is interesting is that you don't see British tourists
anywhere. The beaches are empty and the few tourists are Spanish. They
are all in their villas' swimming pools during the day and in the pubs
during the night. Fair enough, the villas are amazing and the beaches
aren't beatiful, so can't really blame them. I haven't been to a
villa, but from the outside they look like those mansions from the
films!

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Day trip to Malaga: done

As I said below, Malaga is not as bad as I thought. Actually the
Alcabaza and the Castillo de Gibralfaro were quite interesting. I'll
post pictures later.

So, although I don't recommend a whole trip to Costa del Sol (if you
are looking for beaches, I'm sure you will find somewhere nicer), I do
recommend a day trip to Malaga as part of a bigger trip to Spain,
including Granada and other cities nearby.

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Malaga

Today is Thursday and we finally decided to visit Malaga. We came to
Malaga but we are in fact staying in a place called Manilva. So far we
went to Marbella and Gibraltar (and of course Manilva and now Malaga).

Malaga is not as bad as I thought. It's not great either, but it's ok
and have some nice sites. Like the place we are at the moment: half
way through to the Castillo de Gibraltaro and Alcazaba. Alcazaba
vaguely (VAGUELY) reminds me of the Alhambra in Granada. Alhambra is
nicer and bigger. The views up here are nice and it is interesting to
see a Bullring in the middle of the centre surrounded by tall
buildings.

The colour of the sea is ok, but I'm still not convinced about the
southern Spanish coast. Especially after visiting Greece and Sardinia.
But then again, I suppose it's better than Brighton in England or the
Botafogo beach/Guanabara Bay in Rio.

Weatherwise the sun is very hot, but it's quite windy. Without the sun
it can even be chilly(ok, for Rio standards). And it rained everyday,
ate least for 30 min. Not the end of the world, but we had to leave
the beach on day because the rain was too strong. Not complaining,
it's still better than in the UK.

Gotta go, another half way up to go - my calves are in pain because of
yesterday's walk but that's life!

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From Spain, on a faulty phone

Not sure what has happen but gmail on the phone is not working
properly. It has merged Mr. C emails with mine.

So this is just a test.

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On the plane!

Holidays, here we go!!!!

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Just complementing the previous post

When I was here on Monday, I had to wait 1h30 because de stupid doctor
deleted my name from the system and I was never called for my BOOKED
appointment. This time there was no sorry - the lady just put my name
back and said that the doctor would be calling me now.

Tsc, this is public system for you. In Brazil is not any better, but I
had private healthcare all my life so it was a bit better.

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Some things still surprises me...

... Like how bad the service in this country can be.

I was at the clinic on Monday and the doctor asked me to do a blood
test. I checked with the recepcionists dates and times and she said
that there was a walk in centre from 10.30am and I should get here by
9.30am. I'm obedient, so here I was at 9.30am (after getting home at
2am). Now the "new" receptionist said "there's no walk in today".
What?! She seems like she doesn't know what your are doing, so now she
decided that I have to wait until 10 and then go there to get a
number.

People in this country really like to waste other people's time. And
they say please and thank you to make it sound like they are nice.

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I'm in Shepherd's Bush,

Cold and lonely and bored. So what do I see around? People of all
sorts waiting for the same train. Just across the platform is
Westfield, one of the biggest shopping malls in Europe (at least it
was supposed to be when the construction started about 10 years ago).
House of Fraser mega store is on this side. First time I went to house
of fraser was two, three weeks ago. I'm scared of mega stores in the
UK - they seem very expensive and I get stressed with very expensive
things. Especially because very expensive things are made in China,
Pakistan, Vietnam, ..., like the cheap stuff.

Oooh, ambulance. Not good.

The train is still not here. The panel says arrive in 0 minutes for 2
minutes now. The panel can't count.

Still hungry, cold and bored. And the train is here, only 5 min late.
So much for British punctuality.

P.S.: some stupid tourists put their bikes (3) by the door and we
couldn't open it. *sigh* better keep my thoughts in my head.

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Actually...

The train is delayed by 3 minutes already. Damn.

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Sleepy, hungry and cold

This is how I'm feeling at the moment. Just spent a couple of hours in
the "beauty saloon" and I'm waiting for one of the trains home - 20min
wait. Then I have to catch another one. Things that you do to look
pretty.

Today was supposed to be sunny and warm, but something went really wrong.

Tomorrow is party day. Not looking forward to it. I need a good night
of sleep instead of a party.

Friday is my last day! YEY!! Saturday we are flying to Spain and
hopefully we will have some time of peace and quiet by the beach. :)
just a week, but it's better than nothing.

Hmmm, 4 more min and my train will be here.

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Like in the movies

Sometimes I wished life could be rewinded and fast forwarded. Not to
change what happened or to sneak peek what's in the future, but to
recap or explain the past and skip the present. Some days are so
unnecessary that can just be deleted or ignored.

At the moment, I wish I could say "a week later..." and blog from a
beach in Malaga. Instead I'm blogged on a packed boiling train from
London Bridge to Charing Cross. Exciting.

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Oh boy, no good

I'm hungry already!
This never happens if I sleep the whole weekend.

Just in case I disappear for the week or so

Next week is going to be pretty busy for us (me?). I have an evening event on Thursday, so Wednesday evening will be to get "fixed" for the event (meaning: have my hair and nails done). I'll try to fit gym on a couple of days of the week and I might leave work late as I need to organise things for the following week.

In case you don't remember, we are flying to Malaga on the 12th and back in a week. We deserve this break.

And another weekend is gone...

While Cipri is talking to his mum & dad, let's update the blog quickly.

My friend from Brazil is here since Tuesday - I couldn't do much with her because I had to be in the office really early and left work quite late. On Thursday we went to a pub nearby to have dinner and chat a bit, on Friday we went for a walk at the centre and Saturday we went to West London to have lunch with some friends - I also tried loads of Mari's and Lelei's cool dresses. We also watched one of the old 007 and had pizza to wrap up the day. Today was pretty busy too - we went to the gym, had lunch in a Malaysian restaurant, went to the cinema (to watch the newest Almodovar's film), stopped quickly at the National Portrait Gallery and got back home. Now it's back home to relax and get ready for tomorrow.

Not a morning person

Although I love enjoying the day at its most, I'm really not a morning
person. I'm normally very slow and grumpy until, say, 10am, when my
biological clock wakes my brain up.

Today I had to wake up at 6.15am (normal days @ 7), so you can imagine
that I am not a happy person this morning. Especially when going to
bed at midnight. And having weird dreams with flooded house (probably
influence of the heavy rain that was pouring down all night long). And
on top of that, I'm on my way to a different town for a whole day long
meeting. Very exciting. Not.

Have a good Thursday everybody!

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Momentary lapse of memory

I'm always in those situations in which I have something to write
about on the blog, I'm thinking "hmm, that would do a nice post" and
when I have the opportunity to write, where's 'it'?

And now is one of those moments. And yet I keep writing although I
have no clue what I'm going to write about.

Ok, so back to useless randomness. I'm on the train from London Bridge
to Charing Cross. Every working day is the same thing. I'm slightly
later than usual, but still the same route. I decided to go to the end
of this long train to walk a bit more. And get on an emptier carriage.
It's raining. Sort of. And cold. The train is warm at least. Still I'm
planning to walk from Charing X to work (about 20 min walking fast).

Walking makes me calm down. And think about nothing or nothing
important at least. And I can also check on people and things and have
stuff to write on the blog. Of course, I'll forget about them, but at
least I'll think about stuff.

Very random stuff: there's a lady with the sausage dog on the train.
The dog is SO old that is has grey hair. It makes me think about why I
don't have pets. I don't deal well with death. And pets will probably
die before you, unless you are 80 years old and get a puppy.

That's it. There was something else but my brain works faster than my hands.

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Short week

Today is Wednesday but it feels like Tuesday. It's a great feeling
especially when you are feeling stressed and you can't help wishing
the week is over already.

A friend of mine arrived yesterday - everything went really smoothly:
I went to the gym, caught the train on time, arrived at the station 2
minutes before her, and she was there safe and sound. Lucky her, she
will travel around for 3 months! T-H-R-E-E! She went to Prague,
Reading, now is in London for a couple of weeks, then US (California,
florida and... Forgot the other place), then Paris, then back to
Brazil. Not bad, eh? Well, I'm going to Spain in two weeks. :) It's
good too, c'ommon. Sunny, nice people, beaches.

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you know that winter is coming when...

You cannot get up in the mornings so easily because is still dark and
cold outside.

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