Flying saucer

I was not that well in the morning but after such a busy afternoon I am surprisingly much better now in the end of the day. Olivia took us in the bus to Oak Hill Park, to discover another big park of London. There was plenty of equipments to explore, some in an army fashion. We had a lovely picnic together, and Olivia after had an unexpected meeting, she met her old friend from nursery, also Polish and also called Olivia. Since, last month she did not came back to the nursery anymore, thus Olivia enjoyed to meet and play again with her old friend. We altogether had a lot of fun playing Frisbee. To be repeat this fun.

We left the park in good time, when started to rain. At home I had more fun with Olivia, for a weeks I did not had so much laugh and did not feel so energetic as this afternoon.

Harvest Season

Wednesday means for me weekly blood tests in Barnet Hospital, to check my general health, I am sure if it would check my mental health, it would pick up few problems, I am feeling constantly tired and down, and I think it is not from the flu that flown over me in the last couple of days. The Liver is also telling me that exists and I do not like to listen complains from him :) I will need to find calmness to arise again.


Olivia and Justyna had a morning in the park, apparently Olivia had a great time with her friend Noah. Even in the afternoon after the nursery she went again to see him in his house. For the second day she comes home and forgot something in Noah's house, Mother was telling that this is a strategy to see him again :)

Yesterday, was so wet that the harvest in our farm needed to be rescheduled, the pees were picked up today, even though little tough in the plate were very tasty. Justyna peeling the pees made me remember so much the days back in the Algarve, when the family, including my grandmother, were sitting down around a tray full of pees, or favas, when it was not almonds. Simple things, are the ones that leave the best taste.

Tempest

The last days were made of contrasts, Last night I could not sleep at all with fever, but fortunately today I am feeling better, Also yesterday it was a sunny day and today we saw again the roads flooded with so much water. I was in bed so I enjoyed to listen the rain outside and the thunders echoing inside my room as the lightning flashing through the windows and myself trying to learn from where they were coming from. Today, I only went out to have a reiki session, and even there the thunders let me puzzled, I was listening a music in the background composed of raining and thunders, so for a while I did not know where it was coming the storm, if from the CD player or from the Zenith in my sky.

Additionally the wet weather leaves us off from watering our vegetables and flowers in the farm.

Summery virus

I am definitely facing a virus that I hope will go away soon, but for now is taking from me all the energies, It is like a battery without energies even to restart. Olivia also hopefully will let us sleep better tonight, as last one she was very restless.

The day looked like a typical day of Sueste in the Algarve, Hot and wet.

I could not enjoy too much the visit of Adriano, Aneta and the small Nikodem because of my headaches and general indisposition. The time is going quickly and the little one has already almost five months.

Going green

This days I had another evidence that the things can get better listening not only what the doctors are telling me to do, but overall giving attention to the alternative therapies. I have been suffer from a fugal inflammation since my fist operation and in the last four months I could not control it, I had a lot of itching and sometimes even I struggled to walk. I tried few creams prescribed by the doctors but the results never been successful, But a week ago Justyna told me to go green here as well, to try Manuka Honey in the place. I have been using this supplement to improve the immune system after the radiotherapy. And actually just two days after I applied the honey it has improved substantially, now it is almost cure. The bees also full deserves to be recognised as one of our best friends.

The weather was fantastic today, finally a Summer day. I was in contra cycle, because normally I am down in rainy days and up in Sunny days, but today I was so tired, I could not enjoy the day, my legs just wanted to be lying down in bed and the head was hacking. I hope it is not any virus.

Viva la Art

Saturday in the Museum had its second edition, is starting to be a classic of the family :) After breakfast we were on the way to the centre. Before, Olivia met in front of the Waterstones the Spot, another classic of books for kids. Art definitely would be around us all day. After a beautiful walk in South Bank taking advantage of the Sun that became stronger in the afternoon we reached our destination, New Modern Art Museum Tade Gallery. The space is big and quick we understood that we could not see all the rooms. Olivia show her skills, few times sat on the floor to draw the pictures. In fact few visits that saw her drawing one work from Cy Twombly, wanted to take a picture of the sketch, as they were saying that her work was better than the original, In reality there is a lot of works in the museum that could have be done by any little Olivia. This Museums always arise questions as Gombrowicz liked to highlight, as What is Art? Why an elite and critics can tell us what is beautiful and should be respected and venerated and others not? For him The Art are over the Human but those critics that says what is good are under the Human Being race, so if possible should be us to judge what is worth to see or not.


It was a great day, We did so much that almost looks impossible to fit all in one single day. We visited the Borough Market for the first time, something that I wanted for a long time. We were dazzled with the quality of the food displayed. We really need to return with more time. There was also time to go and enjoy the concert and another exhibition in the Royal National Theatre, And last surprise in the end was the beach, at least with sand to play.

Which one is the Original, first or the second?

Dancing in the rain

Olivia was off all day in activities, Rhyme and story time, ballet and playing with instruments. She looks like under some magic spell, just wants to dance, either at home or in the streets. So different from few months ago.

In the afternoon I went to Camden to meet Vasco and a friend from where once I lived, in Cruz de Pau in Portugal. It has been a long time I have not seen her, I even did not know her daughter. Great to see that they all are well. This days are still full of Sun and rain.

War with slugs

It is a shame but there is also fights that we need to be prepared to lose, not everything can be won, and the last lost battle in my home was against the Slugs, Our small plantation of lettuces and cauliflowers have been lost, eaten by those crawling animals. Today, I lost the patience of waiting for some good leaves from the lettuces and I cut them out, and I ate the rode samples left by them, Just to send a sign to the slugs, that there is a persistent Man in this side. Not all was lost.

At the same time we faced the truth about our lettuces, incredibly we had our neighbour and friend Sue knocking on the door offering us fava beans from her own plantation. She even did not know how much we love broad beans. We were left so happy.

This afternoon I had the last lesson from this term of the Art class, Fortunately the course will still run next year and I should be invited to enroll. Nevertheless, in the next weeks I will miss the classes. For the farewell was wonderful to have a tea together, almost all the classmates came and even Justyna and Olivia joined Us.

Ravi Shankar

Everyday we learn a bit more, today I learnt more about a legend that I confess I was not aware of but now going through the youtube I understand why Ravi Shankar is so respected and has so many fans. We are sitting down in the front of the computer and enjoying listening him. Nevertheless, I will never forgive myself for not knowing this legend, No excuses, Not good enough :)

The evening was in a good spirit in the company of Shubhi and Tom, but today we also had the pleasure of meet Anita. The food made by her was divine, thank you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYlPcbNAPH8&feature=fvsr

Solstice

Today is the longest day of our lives at least for a year, You can show bad face because from here is downhill until Christmas :) I promised to myself to look for Life in a different perspective, only about today and the present, but I am sorry, often this less white perspectives arises in my mind. It is better to not fight the way how I am, just accept it.

The Cherry Lodge Cancer Care is taking a big part in our family well being, this afternoon I went for my Reiki session and in simultaneous Justyna had a yoga, Both after we met outside of the Charity much more relax and happy. I fall asleep few times while in the session, which shows how much drifted away from this World I was.

This evening I hope we still have time to watch a movie, the last two days we were very lucky with the movies we watched, it was the musical Chico & Rita firstly and last night Little white lies.

Composting World

We already had this idea in our minds for quite a long time, but now encouraged by our visits to the countryside centre near us the idea went out from our minds and forward to the ground, We had today our first steps in the Composting World. We want to reduce the amount of waste that we drop in the normal bin and in the green bin that the borough collects, in this way we will have in our garden a system of composting bins to recycle our own waste. This idea become even more a priority after we started our diet, because big part of our debris are now vegetables. The good thing with the recycling all our stuff is also the advantage of using back the composting in our garden, in the flowers, and in our small allotment :)

So the first step was to build up our natural wooden bin, and that is done and working. The next step will be the worm composting, in fact we have already one, given kindly by a neighbour, a nice Wormery. I was already picking up worms yesterday to populate the wormery but today I found out that to decompose domestic waste we will need a special worms, the Tiger worms, and again a friend which has plenty of those kind of worms will spare me an hundred worms to turn my wormery business dream to reality.

I am now trying to understand more about this little creatures that like any other in the planet exists for numerous reasons. I confess in my egocentric and Useful Human kind philosophy, the worms are great and should exist because in many ways are helpful for the Human kind. But ahead, I am studying more about the Tiger worms, what they like mostly to eat, the better temperature, this in order to stay happy and decompose our waste as quick as possible. So, a perfect symbioses.

Best Dad

I need to thank God for give me the chance to wake up as I did today, having my little love telling me happy Dad's day and giving me a beautiful postcard. It was since ever my dream to be a father, but not at any dream I could believe how marvellous it would be to be a father.

As usual we started the Sunday going to the church, I confess that today I expected a word or a small souvenir for all the fathers in the church as he does in the Mums day but the priest neglected all of us, I could not believe. After, I reflected about that and I think the problem is with myself, because of having the stigma of being Egocentric and be jealous :) I do need to go more often to the church.

In the Summer are always plenty of parties and festivals, It is true that this festivals could happen as well in the Winter, because the rain in this country is wide spread through all the year, Anyway we went for a very wet park party near us, There were Theatre with the classic Punch and Judy which Olivia did not fall in love with, a Dogs show, popular games for kids and a lot of music to entertain, today Olivia was difficult to be entertained. The weather is not lifting her mood as well as ours. Better days are coming.

Day of the Museum

The day was promising to be as any other one, full of good things but also full of boredom, with this persistent rain blocking us indoors and closed in ourselves, Then it was with a stroke of genius that me and Justyna glimpsed a solution to clear out the clouds from the sky, How could we have a different Day? It was in this spirit that born the idea of the Day of the Museum, it will be on the Saturday. The first day of this cycle started with a visit to the British Museum, of the British Empire :)

We had a big picnic, our favourite rooms were the ones about Living and Dying as well as an exhibition room with a huge collection of clocks from all the Times.

We did not look as Londoners in London but as tourists.

Nothing is gained and nothing is lost

It gives always a deep and good sensation when we are involve in the rescue of any Living Being, The two beans of this story were part of a big full pan of beans that were left inside the water to sprout and thereafter to be eaten, but for some reason the couple of beans instead of ending up in the pressure cooker I found those beans in the sink, On time I took them away and I have been nursing them and today it was the day to put them in the ground. As Lavoisier told us Nothing is gained and nothing is lost.

If the two beans went to the ground however their cousins, the favas came to our plates, I love Fava beans, but here in London rarely we found them, so today was a feast to eat them, reminds also the meals in Portugal which my mother does.

Olivia in the morning had her second ballet dance lesson, She enjoyed very much according to what mummy told me, just a shame that after all day she was so moody.

Misses chapati

Thursday means Art class, today we did a basic exercise but I did enjoy a lot and I will repeat it at home, it is just drawing a page of a newspaper crumpled, giving the sensation of the shading and the letters going in different directions. Shamefully, this was the penultimate lesson, the Art lessons should not have holidays. But the good thing is that the classes apparently are already guaranteed to run in the next year.

In the afternoon we met our friends Veena and Krishna, It has been a while since last time. We had a great afternoon, with a lot of good food, the diet was off for one day. Olivia was mad of happiness, she was also back to her art of cooking chapati, it is not surprising having the best teacher-Veena.

Negotiating table

There is no place, no situation where it is not necessary to negotiate with Olivia, She is never totally happy with what she has and we offer her :) Always wants something more, If it is time for lunch, she will tell us just one more book, If I offered to do a jigsaw with her, she will ask me to do two. So it is in this dialectic, giving and receiving where I am living, and I confess that my negotiation skills are very primary, often Olivia wins in the table of negotiations. And she knows this my fragility.

This afternoon I gave again more blood for the weekly blood tests, hopefully all keeps showing well.

To finished the day I was thinking to watch the lunar eclipse in the evening, but I should have thought about the weather, as usual the sky presents too much cloudy to be possible to see whatever in the zenith, so this will be postponed again to a next opportunity.

Little bird

It is so much comforting to see Olivia going to the nursery, She is so happy when we leave her there, she just gives a kiss, turns her back and disappears inside, mixing up with the other little ones. The same when we pick up her, she comes out from her World very happy and full of mysteries, never tells what did happen during the time in school, She never remembers. Today I had a gift, a ginger bread from Olivia, She told me that my hair is similar to the one in her draw, good to now that.

In the afternoon I had also the Reiki session, today I almost arrived late, this because when I open the door I came across with a little bird which dropped from the nest, At first we did not know what to do with this little creature lost, a big responsibility, for a while I even thought to nurse him at home and wait to see him flying away, but Justyna read a site which helped us to do the right choice, I just left him where I found, It was a good choice after seeing the mother come around him to give him food, Also he moved to another corner probably more secure, I am trying to not check too often if he is still there, in order to not scare them. I hope the nature will sort it out in the best way. The Reiki therapist was telling me that this bird is probably carrying some message for me, hopefully I did the right thing and he will not be upset with me.

Last message that I received came from the Hospital, the nurse called me to tell me that they saw the results from the last blood tests and they are very good, For now I do not need to worry about how the body is dealing with the radiotherapy.

A thousand

Today there is a big reason to celebrate, I confess that when I started it I never thought to come until here, absolutely everything has happened through this millennial journey, There was lines when I felt surely on the top of the World, some others I felt low as nobody, and probably also to not be here to witness all this. I am speaking about this blog, Today is the 1,000th post of the Licoes para a vida. There was only a couple of days when I considered to stop writing, this after the surgeries when I dreamt about been cured, but even there I realised how much this ceremony of writing in the end of each day become part of my routine and my Life. And probably a therapy. I think it will be also interesting for Olivia to one day read and understand where she come from and where she has been. In the end of the day the Life of this blog almost confuses with the Life of Olivia, both they born with only a month difference.

Festival goes on

The Festival still goes on in front of our eyes, The life is going busy, a friend was telling me, Busy? I do not know if it is the right word, but we are busy of happiness and good time. We found us today enjoying two charity events, In the morning we took the cakes baked by Us (better by the princesses) to the stalls in the Spires shooping Centre, Today was the day of the Cherry Lodge Cancer Care charity, They had been helping me so much since last year and now it was my turn to give them something, It was funny morning to see all the Spires full of stalls rising money for them, and of course our friends Shubhi and Tom could not miss this event.

In the afternoon we went for another event, now organised by the Barnet Countryside Centre, plently of activities for children and adults all related with the wild life and also a lot of music, Olivia and Justyna were the stars, dancing in the stage

At home Olivia still had time to have her second lesson of writing, She is now so interest in the letters and words that I found a game in the board to practice.

Cherry Lodge

Olivia is slightly better from her breathing problems, hopefully she will sleep much better this night as well as us :) She acknowledge her condition of been sick and now is sleeping with mother leaving me downstairs alone in the sofa bed :)

We are very greatful to the institution Cherry Lodge Cancer Care for their constant support, and now is time to ourselves to give a bit from us as well, Tomorrow we are taking some cakes for a fair that rises money for them.

Dia de Portugal

It was worth for everyone our retreat in Vasco's house, We all come home more rested, tired of playing and having fun, Only Olivia also caught some bug. Definitely, we need to look for more days out like these, to change routines and air. Today we went to Portobello Market, had a Pastel de Nata in the Cafe Lisboa, and met finally Eliza and her soon. For more than 4 years I have not seen her. The rest was just to enjoy the walk through the most picturesque market in London.

Break

I never thought but the Art lessons still can surprise me, as today we had our first day into the watercolour paint, I never tried before that field but it was lovely and supreme the experience, I cannot wait for the next lesson to learn more about the art.

In the afternoon we travelled for one day Holidays, finally we come down to Nothing Hill to have a break from our home and have a night out in Vasco's house. Olivia was so happy to see Vasco again, we played all the possibles games, and myself I am mastering in the chairs game. But the highest point was the dinner cooked by Vasco, I am still full as I could not resist.

Going wild

I was thinking why the days are passing so quickly, Am I too busy? Too happy? Are the days shorter? Nothing of this. It must be another reason that I cannot see. Morning rushing between Cherry Lodge Cancer to have my reiki session and the Hospital to do the weekly blood tests. The last week results were OK. The only thing that it has been difficult to control is a rash in my skin. I need to confess that I am often more childish than Olivia, If I play with a new toy I must have it straight away, Yesterday we all had a good time playing with the chairs miniature game, and today I could not relax until I found the same game in the charity shop. The charities are great institutions here in UK, we can find almost everything for good prices plus recycling and on the top the money ends up in good pockets.Lastly, only to tell you that I am nursing two beans in a cup, It is such a small thing but it is with a lot of happiness and love that I see them sprouting and soon they will go to the ground :)

The image it was a decade ago, when n I was going wild through the Portuguese shore.

Life always perfect

One of those days when all went perfect, From morning until evening I had a feeling of well being, No worries with whatever, getting back to old habits, like meditating. Thinking again, or sure as if everything will be alright as usual. Just trusting again in the destiny, because in the end of the day the Life is always perfect, was not our interference minimum. The day was to celebrate our friend Tom's birthday, The evening together was perfect, food, the chair game that Olivia but not only loved, but special the company of each other. Memorable evening.