a lisbon-tuesday

Waking up to the distanced drilling from the construction workers a few stories down. The sun is in full force, it's 8.30am and the smell of freshly baked bread is filling the entire hallway as I make my way down the wooden stairs. I head outside, linger on the steps outside the door while the construction worker on the ground yells something in portuguese to the men further up to stop drilling as I need to pass by. He is moisty and dusty, and fires a modest smile while I thank him and take a few steps over the paint buckets, and stroll down the street. When coming back, I'll make myself that smoothie, I'm thinking to myself and turn on Good Life on the ipod.

A hungry, and exceptionally poor, girl

The hungry, and exceptionally poor, girl waited for 4 hours for the money until she turned her bedroom upside down and managed to scramble together 90cents. The hungry, and exceptionally poor, girl ran to the store and bought herself a bag of nothing-but-air baguettes for 85cents. The hungry, and exceptionally poor, girl ate 3 baguettes with butter in less than 2 minutes and now has tummy ache, but is nonetheless satisfied. The not so hungry, but even poorer, girl will make herself the biggest salad on earth tomorrow when her account approves, for right now after a poor weekend of tired pasta and airy baguettes her body is screaming whyyy??? What did I dooo???!!

She will also make a fresh smoothie. And it will be grand.

money makes the world go around (or?)

Eating slimy 30 cent-pasta and inhaling the last drop of sangira in an attempt to numb the fact that I have no money. Or, pardon me, I do have money. 15 cents. Logging into my internet bank account as often as I can blink to see if the salary has arrived. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. And not this time either. I'm gonna go get ready so I can sprint over to the store and buy proper food once the account says "GO!!!!!". This is the most interesting monday so far. While being exceptionally poor money-wise, the wonderful weekend has been spent like this:

easy like a sunday morning

Vanilla crackers, a newly created clothes-thingy, Nick Pitera, reinvention of the wardrobe, sunshine, word documents.. Sunday people!!




8.46 minutes of staring with mouth wide open. I've seen it 18 times in a row.

Part of Your World

This left me completely speachless. What a fantastic Broadway version of The Little Mermaid! She is amazing.

You have 12 minutes

Yesterday a wonderful friend at work said, in a positive sense: "Kim, you're such a hippie". There was some conniption over some girl who got the wrong job position somewhere, and I felt energy was placed on unnecessary stuff.
They said: I cannot believe she got that job, it's awful!
I said: Why waste your energy on her then? Put it on stuff you like instead.

And then I was crowned the person with the best attitude, for my hippie approach, when I was just sitting on my chair wishing that way of thinking would be something natural, and not an exception. I couldn't help but thinking about Sweden, it's much too usual from what I've unfortunately experienced when someone's exceptionally happy or has a smile on their face a little bit too wide than socially normal, people ask what happened. Why does something need to happen in order for people to be happy? I have encountered few, if even that, life lovers. People that genuinely love life, every day. You don't have to be outrageously happy every day, but when something bad happens recognize that life is great overall, and that this is just a slight set-back that will be irrelevant in 5 minutes. Don't ever spend more than 5 minutes on something randomly bad that just happened. After 5minutes you've had time to freak out, calm down, find a "solution" and gotten back on your positive way of thinking. All else is unnecessary waste of your own energy. And besides that, you know what?

That's what I generally live by, and will generally stick to for the rest of my life. Everyday, when my facebook-feed is filled with negativity, I click myself out of there, smile and put some 1Euro honey in my 1Euro tea and acknowledge how generally fucking wonderful life is, every single day. Even when it rains.

please enter, regardless of species

Womanly men in fashion dancing to the beats, a friendly face caressing the rhythms behind the DJ booth, new found souls around a table and a friends playing with a big black Labrador on the floor of the bar. It's how the Thursdays treat you in Lisbon.

you can't get hung over when walking home from a party night looks like this

where words fail, music speaks

Had this overwhelming feeling of absolute happiness while walking up the stairs, under the big tree where we adopted the plant, head to the right, left, right then left again and in to my São Caetano. I'm surrounded by at least 5 different languages on a daily basis and extraordinary people make me fold laughing and my heart jitter. This weekend the word document with the mighty name will be revised and then left alone to grow by itself, to evolve and develop into something I'll realize in 2 weeks when I see it with clear eyes. Distance makes the heart grown fonder... and it opens your eyes a little bit. While waiting I'll look at pretty boys with curly hair and open a new word document, and name it something pretty. It's one of those days when things have pretty names, just naturally.

Thoughts we think

We get affected by everything people say and think, consequently, what is really coming from ourselves? Are there any “own” thoughts, or are all thoughts just recycled? Are there only endless copies swirling around, and no “own” opinions? When we think something about something, how affected are we by what other people think, or what we think other people would think?

Think about that next time you think.

oops

With one hundred thousand degrees outside I cooled down with sangria after work and accidentally got drunk. My world is spinning, every inch of me is covered in sweat and I'm gonna fall asleep to the best episodes of Sex and the City. That's how I celebrate life today.

Portugal, 12 points! Boa Noite!

Goodnight brilliance

Open your eyes

The thought kinda hit me right there over the peach/mango tea, why are people stuck in the ”life is boring”-mentality? Since I moved here I've seen much less of that, which I chose to sum up in the fine conclusion that this is mainly applicable to the country up north. I've experienced enough people up there with this attitude to be able to make a SLIGHT generalization. Why are mondays horrible when they should be awesome for a new week has started? Why are weekends considered better than week days? Why is it nicer to be off work than working? Why do people tend to party their asses off every weekend as if they celebrate being ”free” for a bit? Why is there so disturbingly much focus on shopping and getting more without any form of appreciation for what you already have? Why does it seem like people live for the special moments and not the beauty of the everyday life? Why do people tend to get sad and down when they come back from a vacation, and not happy they've experienced something new? Why is a vacation even better than the normal life?

Why don't people appreciate the everyday life?! If you can't stand mondays, change your life. You're not stuck in your own life, you have a choice, make your life exciting and fun. It makes me sad when people complain about stuff that can be changed, because it means they haven't realized the wonderfulness of the simple things in life. You should wake up with a smile, grateful you even have the opportunity to do so. Honestly, please open your eyes and realize what you have, if you're not happy with your life; change it.

Carrie, Lali did do this

Lisbon summer heat

Got woken up by the sunshine dancing around loudly in the room, put on some Motown Papa Was a Rolling Stone, read a few blogs, watched the new Ray William Johnson episode and loved life a little bit. You should always start loving life before breakfast, you'll digest the day better. Today I'll park myself by the fountain to work on some stuff in the sunshine with I came to dance, dance, dance, dance in my headphones.

Lazy doggy in Portuguese summer heat



Where I'll spend the majority of my day working

in this creative mind nothing goes unheard

Bringing tea, crackers and sangria into the bubble where all creativity is let lose. Would you mind if I disappeared for a while? Tell me can you hear my voice, loud and clear above the noise? See you on the other side.

Hiking in Monsanto

At 10AM, amongst aloe vera plants and happy faces we hiked for 4 hours, until our legs folded like spaghetti. We met horses, stopped traffic, fed ducks with digestive crackers and almost shed a little tear when spotting IKEA from above.

One might say that makes a perfect Saturday.

Let's

Herregud!!! The beginning?! How magical?!

and you'll live happily. I promise.

polyvoreimg.com

cozy

Glancing on flights to Sweden, if I wouldn't have been brain-numbingly sleepy I would have peed my pants with excitement. I'm peeing my pants with excitement on the inside? This day will be sweet and calm, rainy and not as fast-paced as yesterday. Yesterday required a crash helmet, today requires uggs. And I will be nom-noming on digestives all day (or digestibes as mexian Bearize would've said) while telling England that they need to scan all of their household purchases.

Don't forget to love people today kids, and eat your broccoli!

Hiya

AY CARAMBA! I feel like this day was 5 days long. The british women weren't very compliant today, and after a call causing a minor mental breakdown from my part, I left for portuguese class, in which we got to sound like animals for an hour with Anabela. Touché! Now I'm sitting here, feeling numb smiling for myself (at myself?). And it's raining ants on me from the crack in the ceiling. Awww!! Come to mama?

oh tuesday

Monsoon-rain. I adore the sound of rain on the roof, and thank heaven we live on the top floor. Wonderful wonderful Tuesday: Coffee, dance my way over to work in the rain and laugh at the mascara stripes down my cheeks, speak a little portuguese, talk a little with England, go home and spend the night in my bubble. Home is where the heart is.

that regular Monday.

Up 7am. Writing until 10am. Prepping for work 10-11.30am. Work 12-9pm. Writing from 11-12.pm. Greetings from awesomeness! Tired as a freak, but it's worth it. Always. I love Monday.

I've been searching for some..

Lying in bed with coffee and my word-document, and am planning to do so for the next 2 hours. McFly have taken over my entire weekend. And I give in.

The ballad of consequences

When it got a wee bit too hot to concentrate, I took a writing-break, had some icecream and dived into my childhood for a moment. Overwhelmed, emotional, with shivers down my spine I got soaked up in Lars Winnerbäck's Balladen om Konsekvenser over and over. This swedish phenomenon sums up my early teenage years.



With a few beezes through the window, break-time is over and I'll lock myself in my bubble for a few hours of creativity. Love

love what you live

My alarm clock is the exotic birds at Chinas embassy. My gym is running in the harbor. My therapist is Rio Tejo. At work I'm closest surrounded by english, italian, portuguese, german and I wake up with a smile every single day.
I love my life because I chose to leave what I didn't love. Pretty please open your eyes and think about what you love. . . and then work your way towards it. As simple as that.

boa tarde

Lisbon is extra beautiful today, sometimes she just is. It's like she stands a bit taller when people are wearing sandals and the birds are singing a different melody. Arrived home to a sweaty (but not less happy) roomie getting ready for her nightly adventures with the vodka bottle under her arm. After sending her off, almost like a wife waves her husband goodbye when he's going into war, I settled down with chocolate from Pingo Doce, juice and Girls Next Door. Tomorrow will be filled with sunkissed skin, writing and drinking beer


(the sweatiest lady in town)

. . . . and I just realized I ate the last piece of chocolate without even noticing, and slightly regret not enjoying it. It's ok, I'll get another one tomorrow.

Beijinhos!

Lost and found

Friendships were seemingly lost, then put on hold, waiting to be found again. I'll wait until the end of time for a friend I know is worth the wait, yet any friend would be worth the wait, otherwise they would not be friends, only nice people you like to spend time with occasionally. Meanwhile, I'll just have my early morning breeze walks in Jardim da Estrela and let life inspire me to create.

See you in the AM.

there you are

It's a shame you haven't realized you have the whole world. The tough part is deciding where you wanna go and what you wanna do..who you wanna be(come). The beautiful part is the fact that you have a choice, do you know how many people there are in the world simply hoping to wake up the next day? And there you are, limiting yourself.

step into my office

The morning was spent in Jardim da Estrela, this is where my magic happens nowadays. 8am every day.