Mono-what?!

Another one of those episodes happened to me.
The sister of my business partner is a columnist and writes articles to one of those women magazines (Sex-in-the-City kind of style) read by 300.000 people in The Netherlands.
He told me about it one day when apparently she wrote an article about what men have on their refrigerator and took him as an example :-)
Since a couple of months, she has a desk here at the office that she uses to write her articles and today she was short on people to write her next article and guess to whom did she turned to? Yes, obviously Paulo came to the rescue, which at the time it seemed like a good idea until I found out the subject of the article: Monogamy!
Now I couldn't step back, so we went for a walk just in front of the office in one of the many canals is Amsterdam.
It was kind of weird being who she is and asking me all those (not so politically correct) questions. But the answers were always accurate and in the end of the interview we found out that we have the same impression about the opposite sex - which isn't the best one in the world ;-)
There was also a photographer (very cute) taking pictures (which I kindly asked for copies) so in a couple of months there should be an article on that magazine with this interview and a couple of pictures.
The other guineapig was my other business partner that just got back from vacations, I wonder how it was with him :-)

Operation Junk

So it's final, I'm moving to the new apartment in April.
It sounds like it's a good plan, the house is at Tweede Weteringdwarsstraat pretty close to the office, also pretty close to restaurants and bars and clubs... hmmm, maybe it's not such a good idea after all, specially since I'm having Vitor as room mate! Wow, maybe it's a real bad idea actually! Oh well, the harm is done now there's no way back :-)

Anyway, I'm already preparing mentally for the actual moving. I'm not counting on having lots of stuff to move though, I think I'm dumping almos everything to the trash.
To tell you the truth I've already started that operation which I code named it "Junk".
It's a very appropriate name indeed because of the amount of useless stuff I found in my current apartment. Boxes containing things I couldn't ever imagine like old keyboards that I have never used, old hardware that I don't even know where it came from, old rugs, clothes that I never wore in the past 5 years, I even found old chocolate tablet from an ex-Polish girlfriend! Actually the chocolate was pretty good, strawberry flavoured! (have I hever mentioned that I love strawberries?!)

So that's it, I've already started dumping some junk away but I still have to find out about the clothes, I think there's an institution that collects clothes and food to distribute amongst people that need it more than I do.
Hopefully I'll just end up with a couple of bags and the moving won't be that hard, of course that in the real world things are never that easy, but it's always nice to dream.

I'll be enjoying my chocolate now, catch you later!

D-Day for the Apartment

Lots of things have been happening lately! While I'm still trying to get back to the real world after my vacations, I've finished the last round of apartments to rent.
I could write so much just about that episode. It involves a huge hangover from me (partying at Paradiso) a and an injured real estate broker (playing soccer), oh man I laughed so hard that day!
Anyway today it's the decision day, we (me and Vitor) are probably going to have a new rented apartment pretty soon.
In the meanwhile more parties have been going on! Wednesday was the concert at Paradiso (remember the hangover?!) and Friday was the 80's party at Arena.
Saturday, a whole different story. We started in the afternoon at the tapas restaurant Me Gusta. Vitor, Bernardo and
MC Knowledge (also from Portugal - born in Cabo Verde) were there. Suzy joined after a while and I don't think I have ever drunk so many sangria! Carlos, the owner of the restaurant gave us the bad news, we were still behind the record which was set by 1 guys and 3 Brazilian girls (?!) but I could drink anymore, not if I wanted to stand on my feet after that.
Later on I went out with Knowledge. We met some of his friends, which was quite amusing since most of them were actually from Angola where I was born as well so that was quite interesting to say the least.
Sunday was purely a day to rest, despite the intentions of Knowledge to go out to Sugar Factory. I was strong enough and stayed home getting ready for the week ahead, specially for Thursday, Sara Tavares is playing in some kind of informal concert for the press and friends and guess who's going ;-)

Cold Memories

It has been exactly one week since I came back from my vacations.
It's hard to think that it's sunny and warm in Brazil and here in Amsterdam it snows and the temperature timidly goes above 0C.

Anyway I'm back with my life, I've already saw a lot of people that I've also missed since I went on vacations and things are leveling now. I'm trying to enjoy the best that Amsterdam has to give and I will eventually let Brazil behind my back. The best way to do this is to go out with friends, the best ones of possible, and that's exactly what I did! Thursday and Friday I went wild but the weekend itself was soft, it was too damn cold so I just decided to spend some intimate time with my couch, listening to the CDs I brought from Brazil.
I bought the CDs in the same store as last year and I did it for one single reason, the music dealer on that store is amazing. He knows all about music, in particular Brazilian music, and has a way with costumers that makes you wanna buy thousands of CDs on the spot. He reads you has you step in the store and before you blink an eye you have your hands full of CDs that are actually good and (at least in my case) just the kind of music you like or the style you're looking for. I think I'm always going to buy music there when I'm in Brazil!

Since I'm a bit nostalgic, this Wednesday I'm going to Paradiso. There's a Brazilian Party with a band from Brazil Grupo Revelação and Electro Coco another Brazilian band formed here in The Netherlands.
It will surely bring some memories from my vacations and hopefully it will lift my mood up. I'll need it because the next day it's booked to see some more apartments with Vitor, round two will start.

Round one

I'm still suffering from severe jet lag syndrome.
It's the 2nd night in a row that I spend in front on the TV watching Animal Planet until 4am. How sad can that be?

Today I went to see some apartments for rent, it was the first round of apartments.
The plan is to move in with Vitor. I'm still not sure it's a good idea, if things are pretty wild already and we don't live together yet, then after the move it will most definitely be a lot "worse".
Oh well, we'll try to make it work the best we can, it should be lots of fun, we just have to find the right apartment and go with the flow.

On another note, Benfica won against Liverpool 0-2. Now I believe that everything is possible in soccer. Maybe the next thing is watching Benfica as UEFA Champions League Champion and Portugal World Cup Winner! The bets are on the table :-)

Back to work

It wasn't that bad the fact that I had to go back to Lisbon earlier from Brazil. I ended up having nice time (as always) with my friends.
Friday at Cláudio's place in Bairro Alto we had a really nice dinner that ended up in the worst possible way - drinking tequila shots! Sometimes I wonder, will I ever grow up?! Well, It's kind of hard since David Lopes (another best friend of mine) was there as well. I know these guys since ages ago and I guess that when I'm with them I always feel like I'm just a teenager.




Saturday I finally sorted out my passport, it should be fixed next week. I had a nice afternoon with my Mom to catch up, we had lunch and we went to the movies. I told her all the stories (that she was allowed) from Brazil.
In the evening it was time to go out and party. I met up with Great, he played keyboards in our band (a story for another time) and we went wild until 8am with his girlfriend and her sister. The final stop was at the Lux, you should try it once.




The next day started as very depressing, it was my last day of my vacations! First I had a nice steak at Portugália and then went out to a Brazilian bar with live music.
I think it was a way to end this vacation: in Lisbon with Bia, Jolas and Manú - my loyal partner of the party time - with a Brazilian twist.
I went straight to the airport since the flight was at 5:50am so I didn't get the chance sleep. Then came the bad news, the flight was delayed on the ground because the destination airport (Schiphol) suffered a snow storm and it was going through a cleaning operation.
It was a wake up call to the harsh reality that awaited me and there was nothing I could do. I tried to sleep but not with much success and then, when approaching for the landing, I could see only white (from the snow) and a strong will to cry hit me from the sky but there was nothing I could do I had face it! The cold hit me as I left the place and then I knew I was home. Less than a week ago I was under a 32C Sun, now the temperature barely raises above zero and I think I'm already cooking a cold, I fell it's coming.

In the afternoon I was in the office and left at almost midnight, just the day you'd want to have after your vacations! But it's all for a good cause, there's lots of work ahead which is good, it will take my mind off the miserable weather that is haunting this damned country, when is the summer coming? I miss Brazil already...

Going to Lisbon Soon(er)

My flight from Salvador to Lisbon was cancelled. Luckily I check my emails quite often and I got an email message saying exactly that about the flight.
I rushed to the phone and called the airliner to reschedule the flight, initially set for Saturday afternoon, only to find out that I had just two options, Sunday which wouldn't be possible since I wouldn't make it to the flight from Lisbon to Amsterdam and the other only option would be Thursday afternoon.

Let me remind you that this is the Carnival period, probably the busiest time of the year, so I had to stick with whatever was available if I wanted to fly to Lisbon in time for the Amsterdam flight so I'll lose 2 precious days in Brazil.

But if look at it through the bright side it's actually a good thing, it means that I'm staying a few days with my friends in Lisbon which is not such a bad thing! I can tell them all about my experiences in Brazil and make then jealous about my Sun tan :-)

It's only one more day, and I plan to take the most out of it. Catch you later!