Time ...

Has it been seven week's since I've arrived? It must have been because that's what the calendar tells me. It has been a fascinating and loving time; a time of renewal and new directions and new beginnings; a time of missing and sadness, too. Always the Other side of the moon ... A time in which my father passed on; a time in which a friend of old, Jack, left us; and a time in which another friend's life was cruelly ended against everybody's wishes and expectations...

Departing is never a happy business, but I know it will reunite me with Tess and Yarrow and other loved ones and friends Down Under, whom it will be great to see again, which makes me very happy; and I also know that in only three weeks after Friday my love will join me again after making a trek towards the Antipodes ... And I am especially reassured in that Niki and I have made a start of something that we both hope will last forever and a day ...

ROMEO
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my lady, O, it is my love!
O, that she knew she were!
She speaks yet she says nothing: what of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!

...

JULIET
Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

(Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2)

Writing

And another few days have gone by ... time flies ... I've been busy writing. The publishers of Take Shape are breathing down my neck, so I've been pre-occupied moulding units for primary children in order to get Level 6 "out of the way". A long line of readily accessible topics traipse past me on a daily basis such as Evolution (both human and animal), Politics (For 11 year olds? Yes.) , Emergencies (fire, ambulances, police) and Inventions ... and I'm trying to keep it fun, and pleasant and useful as well as age-appropriate for them kiddies ... wond'rous business, this writing business.

Magical music

Saturday night took us to the Castle of São Jorge in the centre of Lisbon, where Lisbon born and bred and now international music sensation Mariza, performed outside on the hilltop. Mareeza is often refered to as the new Amália Rodrigues. The darkening skies of this mellow Lisbon evening threatened to turn into a downpour once or twice but despite a spitter spatter or two, we kept it dry and let Mariza's angelic and accomplished voice and fado lyrics. warm us. A memorable evening of musical delight. Here are some tasters. At the end of the evening she descended from he stage to sing acoustically after which the concert ended on a fantastic climactic high note. A BBC reviewer (not of this particular show) was quite accurate when writing...

"By subtly rearranging the roles of its main instruments (the Spanish and Portuguese guitar, and most crucially the bass) Mariza has changed her fado to satisfy a certain hunger. 'I need rhythm,' she declares. 'I was not happy with the form of fado [as it was] and I was feeling we need that swing to sing fado.' Besides, she likes to dance, though with her penchant for exquisite floor-length designer dresses makes it almost look as if she's levitating over the stage as she does so, rocking back and forth like an otherworldly art deco statue brought to life, with her (new) trademark swimming cap of silver hair, and obsidian necklaces flying." (Jon Lusk)

Hoola fest

On our way back from a Hoola Hoop presentation on Saturday, we stopped off at the home of Sandie, one of the other writers on the project and a friend from IATEFL. We partook in a vertitable food fest in lovely company and with the most lovely fresh and home-made foods, including lots of desserts and a special Hoola cake ... Well done, Hoola girls!

Hoola

Niki's cat, Astrid, felt very comfortable sleeping in the box that brought the first copies of Niki's course Hoola Hoop - the mascotte for which is ... a cat ....

Water

For the canine lovers among us, and just because it has cute factor 100 ... Portugal's contribution to the world of barkers and woofers is: the Portuguese Water Dog. The Portuguese Water Dog apparently is a water-loving, lively but sensible and loyal dog. Affectionate and fun to be around and excellent with children. Awww ...

Sardines

One of the culinary delights that Portugal prides itself in is Sardines. I must admit ... they are scrumptiously delicious. And oh yes, when you eat the tiny variety ... you eat the whole thing, including the heads - quite tasty actually ...

Britt

On Monday, during a flash visit to Holland (literally in on Monday evening and out Tuesday afternoon for a meeting with one of my publishers), I met up with Britt and her mum Hanneke and Anjes in Nuenen, near Eindhoven. We had a lovely dinner at a Mexican restaurant near the Van Gogh square. (As you may recall, Van Gogh was born in the village of Nuenen). Britt was feeling OK but admitted to "working hard" during the day to not be tired which for her, unfortunately, meant lying on the sofa sleeping most of the time. Let's all hope that in the course of this and the next week more information will come from the doctors to help understand and fix what is the matter with her. You looked great Britt, and I enjoyed your company. It will all be well!

At the end of the evening Anjes took me back on her scooter to Eindhoven station. A photo of that fun and memorable event (it's rather windy and your face gets very cold on one of these things) will follow soon!

Language shower

Have you ever drowned in a language shower? Or got caught without a raincoat ...? Last weekend Niki and I spent a few days in Sarzedo where we spent time with Cristina and Carlos, Niki's partners in business, and their children at Cristina's parents' house. From there we had a lovely view of Niki's house, surrounded by scaffolding, clad with a new roof (well, the beginnings of it).

During those few days in de Serre I was completely and almost all the time showered in language … the fastest and loudest Portuguese imaginable, often spoken by at least five people at the same time at the tops of their voices. Serious chat, village gossip, jokes aplenty, lots of raucous laughter - an endless rifle range of words and sound.

Did I understand most, or all, of what was bandied around the breakfast/lunch and dinner table ...? No, I can't say that I did. It's fascinating, and at the same time humbling, daunting and exhausting, to experience that. You do try to follow what is being said and, at times, you have to admit defeat and just switch off, just float on a sea of sound until a helpline is being thrown at you, in the form of a word, a phrase which you do understand (“Do you understand?’) to get back on board and sail another few miles till the next shipwreck.

This is not easy when you're used to freely and spontaneously contributing to conversations; when you want to avidly learn and know about new people and places; when you do know what they are on about and have an opinion but can’t express it …

I do understand and can distinguish more and more words and phrases as time has gone by, despite the incessant and exotic buzzing of strings of Portuguese words and phrases that seem to have no beginning or end. (Somebody this week compared it to some of the Slavic languages in that sense, lots of sibilants, lots of elision (leaving out or stringing together two or more sounds within or between words).

I was, by the end of the weekend, able to venture a 'Possu mais agua, se fas favor' (to loud applause) but, by Jove, it sometimes makes you feel as if you're in the middle of the ocean with very little water to drink and nothing to repair the leaking raft with...

Niki was a star is tirelessly dragging me back on board with little translations and summaries. Cristina was a great support in 'translating' her father's contributions, Carlos (who claims his English is not very good) helped by speaking to me in English most of the time); Mr Ovidu's incessant and incomprehensible jokes cracked at the speed of light (while uproariously laughing at them himself) which I did, of course, not understand most of the time, were charming. He recounted a story where he himself was in a similar situation and the only thing he could say to his partners in talk was ‘Hello!’ ‘Yes!’ It became a bit of a running joke for me to say those words when he was rattling off another litany of sound at me and I glazed over because I didn’t understand … I’m glad I’ve sort of gone past that stage now a little bit …

One day I will no doubt master this new and inviting language ...

Laatste loodjes ...

This is NOT what Anjes is doing right now! In fact, she's is in the last few weeks of her first year at her two-year quest to become a Beautician. She's extremely busy, because she is keen to complete the course in two rather than three years. I'm convinced she'll be able to do so, but let's all send good thoughts to give her the stamina to sit out those last few weeks and get it done! Go Anjes!

Ruin ...

This weekend Niki and I will be traipsing to de Serre de Estrella where, in the village of Sarzedo, Niki has bought a house, well, a ruin which she is doing up over time. For the moment it's without a roof, as a new roof is being built onto the ancient walls. More about the visit later.

What it looks like now ... The view of the Serre... What it may look like one day...

Language school

As some of you might already know, Niki, with two business partners, runs a language school called Language Project in Loures, one of Lisbon's suburbs. Through the school 'Language', as it is known here, caters for English lessons to a large number of primary schools in the area. They employ teachers to go out there and teach English. They also run courses at the school itself - amongst other things to prepare students for Cambridge English exams (one of Niki's other jobs is that of being a Cambridge examiner / teamleader) but they offer French and many other languages, too. Here are a few photos of the school, just to give you an idea.

Strawbs

Hmmm, mmm ... what an experience. Fresh, home-made strawberry Jam. Niki's a bit of a jam-maker, I found out and the proud result can be seen on the photos ... yum! 1 kilo of strawberries and 1 kilo of sugar plus 72 hours of patience is all it takes ... oh yeah, and a bit of boiling in between ... Nice one!

Kaasschaaf

It's a small world! Mieke (and John) and Anjes met up in Amsterdam on Monday. It was a good opportunity, as Mieke was passing through on her way to a conference in Croatia, for them two girls to have a good old chinwag over a cuppa of some sort. Reports were they had a great time and even ended up in the HEMA where the hunt for a Kaasschaaf was on ...

Anjes is keeping tabs on her friend Britt who has not been well at all for quite a long time now, so we're all keeping our fingers crossed and sending good thoughts and hugs so she feels better and recuperates before setting off to Australia in July.

In the meantime I'm speaking with Tess and Yarrow almost every day and we're trying to install Skype or Messenger on Ton and Ellen's iMac: as non-Macca's will be able to appreciate, Apples prove to be notoriously difficult or obstreperous in any process, but nevertheless, chatting through Skype works well, too. I think I might send the Apple guy to do it for them...

Tess and Yarrow are going well (Tess had 34 out of 35 for her science test), although Tess' maths teacher apparently keeps shouting at her (and others?); Yarrow was recounting the misadventures of a friend of hers whose fingers got broken by a cricket ball that hit her ... ouch!

Sugar ...

A coffee company in Portugal has asked coffee drinkers to come up with catchy statements which they then print on sugar sachets. Now, the coffee brand is, coincidentally, called 'Nicola' which is Niki's 'real' name ... Some of the phrases are quite appropriate in our case ...
See if you can match these to the sachettes ...

One day I'll travel 300 kilometers to be with you.
One day I'll kiss you in the middle of something you say.
One day I'll dance with you in the middle of the street.
One day I'll dance until I drop
One day I'll ask for your name.

Festas!

Saturday night we ventured into town by metro (always an experience). We met up with friends and went into the Alfama, which is the only part of Lisbon that wasn't destroyed by the earthquake of 1755. It's a typical area with narrow streets, calcada Portugesa (a kind of small handlaid cobbled stones), steps that lead you nowhere and everywhere. At every corner there are little 'brasas' where people are grilling sardines and meat. So, we ate sardines and chorizo and drank sangria while just around the corner live typical music was playing. This is a particular music for this time of year, characterised by play on words, repetitive choruses, rhythms and melodies. They're about saints, Lisbon, love, fancying people. Either you like it or you don't, but they are reminiscent of the folk sessions on the Zeedijk in Amsterdam (for those folkies who remember those ...) at the Portuguese restaurant. An example .... sing along!

Beach ...

On Saturday we visited a windswept beach just outside of Lisbon, near the beautiful town of Sintra, with Niki's friend Susanna. Unfortunately the sun had largely disappeared but it was still worthwhile to get out of the city into the country and to the coast.

Birthday dinner

For my birthday Niki took me to a restaurant overlooking the city. It was an Argentinian restaurant where they served lush steaks, so you can imagine I enjoyed myself ... After dinner we strolled over to a place called the Chinese Pavillion which is a cafe packed with shelves and display cabinets packed with lots of collectables and ornaments - dolls, model earoplanes, helmets, maps, toys etc etc, all a bit with a military flavour but very unusual and 'gezellig' nevertheless. They also served teas from all over the world, so I enjoyed a pot of Nepalese tea (yum!).

Portuguese music

David Fonseca

Mariza

Rita Redshoes

Croatia

What a traveling lot we are ... Mieke and John have left for Croatia, where Mieke will be attending a conference and John, I believe, will be entertaining himself while Mieke conferences, with the help of Denise (and Irena?). Sounds like a lovely venture and I hope you will both enjoy the experience. Tess and Yarrow - I just understood from Ongel that you have installed yourselves in The Bedroom Downstairs, so I hope you are going to enjoy your week with your grandparents - don't eat all the biscuits will you, save some for me! Have you got Chicco there, too?

The English language

Well, I couldn't withhold this little post here, what with English being my 'business' ...

You may have seen the buzz in the news this week about the fact that the English language had reached a vocabulary of one million words. According to the Global Language Monitor the English language generates a new word approximately every 98 minutes, or 14.7 every day. You can have the chance to add your very own words to this total by visiting the Open Dictionary from Macmillan. Is there a word or phrase which you have read or heard recently, and which you think should go into the dictionary? Just write a short definition, and add an example from the text where you came across it, if possible, and Macmillan will do the rest.

For an interesting background article on this topic, go here.

Public holidays

This week is a Portuguese public holiday fest. Yesterday was Day of Portugal; today is Corpus Christi (it's a Catholic country, Portugal) and Saturday is St Antonio Day (only for Lisbon); Friday night there are markets and festas in Lisbon.

You might think that Portugal Day is something similar to Australia Day, where people go out in the streets in droves and celebrate their country and pride of country, but no - the Portuguese seem to be decidely 'understated' that way. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that European countries are generally much, much older than relatively 'new' countries like Australia and the United States and don't feel the urge to declare their 'belonging' and status that much. Because of their long histories I guess European countries, despite increased migration of the past few decades, are much more homogenous than countries like the US and Australia, so there is no real felt need to 'gather the flock together' because the flock is already a unity. Like the Australian aboriginal people, I guess, people in Europe already have a much more deeply-grounded historical sense of country and belonging.

The only time Portuguese flags come out, according to Niki, who's been here for 17 years, is when the football's on ...

Europe-trotting

Well ... 3 countries in five days (see the arrows)! I sound like an American tourist doing Europe in 7 days ... Since last Friday I have traveled from Lisbon, Portugal to Roosendaal and Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to Ljubljana, Slovenia via Pula and Zagreb, Croatia, and then back to Portugal.

Back in Lisbon

Niki stayed in Lisbon. One of her jobs is being a Cambridge examiner and team leader - she 'does' English tests with people who want to sit the Cambridge PET, KET, CAE, FCE and other exams. She has to travel to a British Council exam centre, sometimes in Lisbon but also in other cities in Portugal and make sure all the candidates get to sit (and hopefully pass!) their exams. Unfortunately these exams are always on weekends or public holidays ...

Visiting Oma and going walkies

In Roosendaal I visted Oma Centa and met up with Anjes, who came up on Sunday morning. We did lots of sitting around and talking and Anjes and I walked many a mile on Sunday to town, to Oma's, to the cinema (to find out there were no movies) and back and forth. At some stage we even 'took a stroll' from Oma's house to The Dentist ... Yes, unfortunately and, as always, on the weekend dental problems forced me to go see a Very Grumpy Dentist who had his practice in the street of (what I remember as) my first dentist who gave me a life-long Trauma Of Things Dental and Dentists ...

The nice thing was that the walk took Anjes and I through the old neighborhoods in Roosendaal where I grew up and used to live; past some of the schools I attended; past a church where Opa Centa had frequently performed with his choir, past places and spaces where I spent many an hour playing and straying... The sun was shining which made The Trek quite enjoyable, despite me leading us to the Wrong Side of Town :). We got there and, yes, the dentist was as grumpy as he had sounded on the phone (well, serves me well for disturbing his no doubt well-deserved Sunday Peace) but at least he sorted the problem.

The Duke's Forrest

From Roosendaal this short sojourn into Europe took me to the beautiful town of Den Bosch for a two-day meeting with a team of about 15-20 people, writers and publishers, who will all be involved in a new project called Realtime. This project will keep me busy for the next 3 years or so (well, part of the time) while we build a completely new English course for high school learners in Holland. On Monday night the whole team went on a Cooking Event (see keizerculinair.nl) where we cooked the most wonderful finger food for each other, in pairs and teams and got to know each other really well.

Ljubljana

After the two-day workshop, I had to hurry back to Schiphol to catch a flight to Slovenia. Slovenia? Yes, Slovenia - a country of green hills and friendly people, next to Croatia, close to Italy, where I met at 7.30 in the morning with a friendly editor and a publisher in the pretty capital Ljubljana (can you say it?)

I will be writing a three-part series of course books for them , that will be published in Slovenia and will then be made available for the whole Eastern European region, including countries like Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary and Greece. Very exciting and fun!

Rain, rain ...

Ah! And today the first rain since I've arrived here in Lisboa ... dark gloomy skies and wetness falling out of the sky. I'm sure it's nothing compared to the endless rain in the Northern Rivers, but it's refreshing in a way, coolling things down. The sound of rain on stone and concrete is different though to the sound of rain on grass, mud and a colourbond roof.

Setting off to Holland today to be with mum and Anjes. Will be staying at a futuristic hotel at Schiphol tonight: I will arrive so late (23:15) and have to be in Utrecht so early the next morning, that there's no use traveling on to friends' places in Amsterdam or to mum in Roosendaal. Check out the rooms ... Star Trek Inc.!

Circus

As some of you will know, Tess and Yarrow participate in weekly Circus Skills at the Byron Bay Circus Arts school. They're loving the exercise and the skill it requires. Recently, Tess did a performance, and so did Yarrow (but unfortunately we have no movie of that). Tess is the girls in the shadows at the back, but she was the 'leader' of the troupe and the other kids hanging from the silks were following her lead. I've tried this ... and couldn't even get off the ground ... it's hard, very hard ... but they seem to do it effortlessly ...

Lisbon calling ...

Contact in cyberspace seems to have become the norm for me rather than the exception ... as Niki recently said, refering to a song (On the other side of the moon) which my friend and music buddy Peter arranged and produced most, most beautifully (for our next CD!) and which I wrote the lyrics for and sang, that "maybe it is always so for you that you have somebody on the other side of the moon." It does make for an unusual way of life, but complicated at times ...

A few times a week I cyber with Tess and Yarrow - like this morning when Niki and I both said hi and chatted with them about Life, love and the universe (ormore specifically, : dinner, school, music lessons, homework, friends and other such things :-) It's quite fun, really, but I do wish the sound quality was better ... but it's great to see them girlses and the happy mayhem at 308, usually at or around dinner time ...

While weather in the Northern Rivers stays wet and wobbly, here in Portugal it's another sunny day. Uneventful in the sense that it's another writing filled day for me - but tomorrow I'm setting off for Holland again for a few days to see mum and spend time with Anjes, start off the new Dutch project, as well as pop over to Slovenia to try and get a new project in the bag.

Never a dull moment

The other side of the moon, (c) Hans Mol/Peter Rechsteiner, 2009. No unauthorized use of any kind allowed.

How well ...

A bit of buddhist wisdom, which has helped me a lot in the past to deal with loss, and which I hope will help my sisters, mum, children and other loved ones, to deal with the loss of Pa / Opa, and I quote (you'll find this in many places, it's not from one particular source):

"In the end only three things matter: how fully you have lived, how deeply you have loved and how well you have learned to let go…"