paulotaylor.net blog

winds of change...

2007-12-18T22:48:00.000+01:00

I've recently moved the blog to this new page: http://www.paulotaylor.net/home/Blog/Blog.html

See you there!

I am'sterdam

2007-11-22T12:50:00.000+01:00

It's "funny" to see how we - humans - work, it's so easy to have the things we have for granted left unappreciated. Friends and loved ones are probably the most common, internet, electricity, running water and I could go for hours...

Lately I realized how lucky I was just for living in this wonderful city which sometimes I admit that I don't give enough importance.
Since I moved to my new apartment I take the metro and walk for about 15 minutes to get to the office and I actually noticed how beautiful this city really is and how privileged I am to be walking on the streets of Amsterdam everyday.
I leave you with some pictures of my day to day walk from home to office. Here are a few:

Time flies

2007-11-05T15:43:00.000+01:00

I can't believe that December is just around the corner and it looks like last Christmas was just yesterday!
There's still so many things I said I wanted to do this year but as I look to this year's calendar it's obvious that I won't make it. At the same time I did achieve a lot of things that I hadn't planned so that's not so bad but what really fascinates me is how fast time has gone by.
In Amsterdam you start noticing the Christmas lights on the streets, the stores with the seasonal decoration, the days are much shorter and it's cold!... I guess it's time for me to start planning this Christmas!

By the way, do you know what day is today? Remember, Remember the 5th of November...

Here it is!

2007-10-31T09:11:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody!
For the curious one that haven't seen my new apartment yet I leave you here with this movie that gives you an idea of how it looks! I hope you guys enjoy it :-)

If you can't see the movie click on this link. I hope you like it!

Growing pains

2007-10-30T17:35:00.000+01:00

Finally things are starting to find some shape! Since I started the process of moving to my new apartment more than two months ago I've been running around from one side to another non-stop. Everything happened at once, new house, new life, new relationship (gone bad!) you name it!

Lately after these last few tormented months I've been able to find some time for myself. I got the chance to realize the things I really miss in life like a nice vacation at the Sun, my old friends that now unfortunately I don't have the chance to see them that often, my family with whom I was used to spend a lot of time, little things in life that I've always been used to and I'm currently deprived of and believe it or not can have a lot of influence in one's (or anyone's) well-being.

Basically I think I've become much more sentimental lately, I even cry with more ease like the other day when I noticed I was crying like a baby watching TV, and that's not very easy! Maybe it's just part of growing up and I guess that when I finally bought a house and became almost established I simply came down to Earth and had a reality check.

Looking back it makes me very proud of what I've achieved until today, but more important shows me what I didn't achieve yet. Unfortunately doesn't show me how to achieve the unachieved (it's part part of life I think...) but it's a good step forward it helps me to put my focus back on track and hopefully in a few years that list will become shorter... and shorter... and shorter... and shorter...

Lucky Number Seven

2007-10-11T17:36:00.000+02:00

History tells that seven is a special number. The bible says that the world was created in 7 days and there are 7 deadly sins. There are 7 days in a week, 7 colors in the rainbow, 7 wonders of the ancient world, 7 seas and the list goes on.

In the end of last September I celebrated seven years since I first landed my feet in Holland. Seven great years if I may add, I had lots of good moments, new opportunities and life changing experiences, loads of new friends with whom I shared most of this.

I spent some of the best times of my life in Amsterdam and it's probably also why I finally decided to buy a house because when I leave Amsterdam I know I'll always have a place in this wonderful city to come back and I'm sure I'll always feel welcome just like it happened in the first time!

Now lets see what this next year has to bring...

I feel green

2007-10-02T15:41:00.000+02:00

Finally I don't have any more ties with the previous apartment I was renting before. I delivered the keys so now I can only focus on getting the new apartment ready which is taking a lot more time than expected.

Still getting used to the new routine, it took me more than a week to find out where the trash bin was which happened to be alongside the storage rooms in the building's basement, an immense maze that can easily compete with the Overlook Hotel garden from The Shinning - The fans know what I'm talking about :-)
The paper and glass recycling bins (which are hard to find in the centre of Amsterdam) are outside right next door so now I can actually do something for the environment and somehow that makes me feel good, a bit friendlier to the environment! How about you, when was the last time you did something for the environment?

First Glance

2007-09-17T11:07:00.000+02:00

Still lots of things are missing in the new apartment but still I've officially moved in!
A couple of chairs are still missing, the pillows for the chill out area should also come soon and the sofa will probably only arrive in two and a half months (!?) but all the rest should be ready.
So I'll leave you here with a few shots so you'll get an idea of how the apartment looks like but remember, it's not ready yet!

The Bar	The Lights
The Bedroom	Living Room

Update

Of course that I can't get tired of mentioning how important was the role of Joana Silleman and Claudia Esteves that took this project with their heart and soul and despite all the issues, delays and everything that comes along with a project like this, in the end, they did a wonderful job and I think you can see it for yourselves - and I'm not saying this because it's just my apartment, although it helps a bit :-)
I can't thank them enough and I leave them here lots of kisses and hugs because they really deserve it! xxx

It's almost time

2007-09-13T14:54:00.000+02:00

I'm having a bit of a nostalgic moment here.
Right now I'm in the process of moving, the house is almost empty and all it's left are the memories that I'll keep while I was living here! It was a hell of a ride, lots of great moments with the best friends I could ever ask for! All I can do is thank all of them for providing me all the wonderful moments we shared together but I also leave here a note, get ready because the next ride is going to be even better!!!!

OK, I'm going to finish the rest of the packing now (not much left) and finally I'm gonna get to see the apartment ready, or maybe tomorrow, I still don't now! Can't wait until I put my eyes on it and start enjoy my brand new home sweet home.

Wish me luck ;-)

Spreek Je Engels?

2007-09-03T00:00:00.000+02:00

According to this article, Amsterdam is still the city in the whole world that has the most variety of nationalities (177) and about 1/3 of its population is not Dutch which makes it quite easy to be an expat in this city.
Without trying to excuse myself, it helps to understand why after all these years I'm still not fluent in Dutch since most of my friends are not Dutch (usually expats themselves), I've always worked in international environments and - of course - I'm also extremely lazy which can also have some influence :-)
I also never had a Dutch girlfriend and I heard that that's the best way to master the language so I guess there's still hope...

Tot later

Weatherman

2007-08-30T10:19:00.000+02:00

Amsterdam, 30th of August 2007 forecast, showers 18C max / 12C min!
Do I need to say anything else?
The other night at home I had to grab something to cover myself with and the central heating was on! Did I mention it's August(?!) how depressing is that?
One thing is for sure, I wouldn't want to be the weatherman in this country, it's probably the most monotonous job in the Netherlands and I wouldn't want to have the reputation the one that brings the bad news every day!

... never go back

2007-08-20T15:31:00.000+02:00

Today I bought my first Apple desktop. It was 2 and a half years ago when I had my first experience with a Apple computer
Back then I bought a laptop, a Powerbook.
A couple of my colleagues were starting to switch from PCs to Macs and didn't want to stay behind so I thought I'd give it a try, since I work with Java which is available for almost any platforms.
So now what happened? I'm stuck with it! I was impressed by the ease of use of the machine itself and the software running on it and since then I bought another laptop, a Macbook.
Between all this time I kept a desktop PC running at home but today I bought its replacement, the new iMac 24''! It's my first Mac desktop and I think that I won't miss my old PC!
Bare in mind that it's also not perfect, I've had my share of crashes and undesired reboots with my Apple laptops, but nothing compared with what I had before with a PC running windows and now thanks to Parallels I can even run Windows my Mac seamlessly (in case of an emergency!) so get I can say bye bye to my PC for good!

There's also of course the design point of view which in my opinion Apple leads in front of all computer manufactors and think that it will blend perfectly with my new house and like what it's happening with the furniture it's going to take a while until it's shipped and delivered but what can I say, waiting 4-6 weeks for this beauty is nothing ;-)

I guess now it's adquate to say "Once You Go Mac, You Never Go Back"...

"Szervusz" Budapest

2007-08-08T00:45:00.000+02:00

Looks like this year I'm not going to Budapest. Although I think I'm going to disappoint some of my friends that are actually going this might be the best decision after all!
It's a real pity though because last time I had a blast specially when we found out by accident that the Sziget festival was just happening, but I've been quite busy with work and my new house and even though I need some time off it's not the right moment.
Actually my initial plan this year was to travel a lot this year but I think I'll have to postpone that at least for now.

One thing is for sure, I still have to spend some days frying under the sun because this year I didn't have any luck with the weather on my previous vacations and there's not many things I love more than sun and beaches. Also the summer in Holland isn't looking good either, only last weekend, with the Gay Pride Parade, we had some sun worth mentioning (which was fantastic by the way) so I really need some days to relax but when the time is right...

New house, new life

2007-07-19T11:35:00.000+02:00

OK, so it's official, all of you can now congratulate me because as of Wednesday I'm a proud owner of an apartment down at the Amstel river.
It wasn't a pretty process, I have to say! The amount of obstacles I had to overcome to get to the point where i signed all the damned documents was very upsetting!
It got to a point where I just wanted to give up on the house and get rid of the whole thing! But I was strong to my intuition and kept fighting for it but could not have done it if it wasn't for a few people that helped me all around the tedious task of getting a mortgage in the country of the Low Lands.

But that's all water under the bridge, it's now time to look forward and think about all the nice things that will come with it, which should be actually quite exciting! I've never really owned a house so finally I get to plan a nice interior design, buy the whole furniture and make it just like I want it to be! Painting, moving all those things that come with the new house can also be a big hassle, but damn it, it's my house and I'll do it with great pleasure!

Then of course comes the expression "New house, new life"!
I guess that includes me and I just hope it's a better life then the one I got now :-)

Back in Time

2007-07-04T21:19:00.000+02:00

Last time I was in Portugal I couldn't notice that my parents had bought a really nice printer with scanner and all that, I have to say that I was very impressed!

Anyway, it was there on top of the desk but not installed of course, guess why they insisted so much for me to go there? :-)

It was obvious that they couldn't install the printer and I never had a printer with scanner so I was very excited and I started to test it. Then I thought how should I test the scanner? Then I remembered, why not scan my old pictures when I was really young? - I thought I was a great idea so I started working on it and this was the result! Enjoy :-)

You'll find more here :-)

Happy Birthday Bernardo & Pedro

2007-06-25T16:42:00.000+02:00

I don't even know where to start, trying to describe these last few weeks that I've been away from the blog.
It was a cocktail of emotions some bad but most of them were actually pretty good, just how I'd like to keep it!

Roland and Tinne got married, the ceremony was very unique like I've never seen and I had a really great time!

I went to Portugal for a week and it was of course great to see my family and long time friends again although the weather was somewhat out of season!
It rained almost every day which is far for normal in June so I was very unlucky regarding that aspect which only left me one thing to do while I was there: eat and drink! :-) even had time to injure myself playing soccer!

Back in Amsterdam the weather conditions got worse, as if we were in Autumn or something like that while in Portugal the Sun is back which leaves a little smell of frustration in the air :-(

To compensate all this, Martina came to visit me from Croatia and we had a great weekend together and who knows, maybe there's many more are to come!
We went to a couple of parties including Bernardo's and Pedro's double birthday party and what hell of a party that was! It was so nice to be with most of my friends and I had so much fun! It's definitely a weekend I won't forget soon! if only the weather would have helped a bit more it would have been one weekend really close to perfection! I promise I'll put some pictures as soon as they are ready!

Ciao

shhhhhhhhhh!!!

2007-06-07T12:19:00.000+02:00

Wonderful concert at Paradiso yesterday! The idea was all from my ex-girlfriend Aline to whom I still have a profound friendship and hope to keep it like that forever.

Unfortunately the only negative thing about the concert was the audience itself.
I already had the idea that the Dutch are quite noisy, just go to a restaurant and you'll see what I mean, only the Spanish can beat them, but when it comes to concerts I'm not sure anymore!
Bebel plays a very mild kind of music, very chilled out but in several parts of the concert I could barely hear her, the whispering and laughter could surpass her voice! Very indecent! Once in a while you could heard a sporadic "shh!" but that never really had any effect!

I have nothing against the Dutch but if they read the damn audience etiquette the world would be a better place :-)

Tonight it's Roland's bachelor party, he is getting married Saturday so you can imagine what's going to happen! See you soon... if I survive tonight ;-)

Music + boats + food + (2 x drinks) = ...

2007-06-06T17:46:00.000+02:00

I've been pretty busy but I can't omit my feelings about the last Spiegelgracht Concert sponsored by eBuddy!

It was a phenomenal party, everyone that was there enjoyed it and the whole week I've been receiving compliments about the party so we (as eBuddy) should all be proud of this and ourselves to be party of such a wonderful thing!

The boats, the food, the drinks and finally the gathering at our office was a tremendous success and I hope we can top it again really soon!

More pics available here
Update: official pictures here!

Tonight is concert night! Bebel Gilberto is in town and I'm going to see her live tonight!

Cocktail Thieves

2007-05-29T16:29:00.000+02:00

Another great weekend gone by, lots of interesting situations that I most definitely won't forget but I will tell about this peculiar one that happened to me on Vitor's party last Saturday @ The Mansion, a place that is supposed to be all posh!

Edward, a colleague from the office kindly offered me a nice long or colorful cocktail, very sweet in taste, I couldn't have asked for a nicer one at the time.

After a while, with my glass clearly more than half, this "dude" working at the bar collecting empty glasses puts my cocktail on his tray and leaves!
I was indignated so I followed the man until he stopped in the corner of the room and starts drinking from my glass!
Is this normal?! Maybe in The Netherlands but for me this is an outrage! You should have seen the face of this young man when I confronted him with the situation. He didn't know what to say which frankly he couldn't say anything.

Anyway it all got sorted after a while and I got another cocktail but I did find out later that it was his first night at the job!!! Now, who the hell does thing kind of thing (in his/her first day on the job)?

I learned my lesson this weekend, never leave your glass out of sight! I usually have my eyes opened to this situation (that's why I caught him) but now I know I gotta just a little bit extra careful otherwise it will end up being a really expensive night out ;-)

Great party by the way Vitor, congrats!

Home Sweet Home

2007-05-16T18:22:00.000+02:00

It's official, today I signed the contract of the apartment I want to buy!
It's the initial step, still lots of paperwork and mortgage deals to wrap up but only if something goes very wrong then I won't be able to keep this apartment.

As any person that have already bought a house knows it's not an easy decision and my case wasn't any different. There's lots of variables like to choose a house in the center or not, old building or new (not so common in Amsterdam) etc., so I've found one, one that I thought it was meant for me!

It's a house in a nice and quiet neighborhood in Amsterdam (Omval) just in front of the Amstel river in Amsterdam, behind the Amstel Station. So it's not in the heart of the city... so what? It's also not that far away and it has great connections via trams and trains so that's not a big problem for me. Believe me, I've been living in the center of Amsterdam for too long and it's a great danger for your health and your wallet so in the end it's a wise decision :-)

And the most important of all, it's a new building (1997) it actually has concrete separating the apartments unlike the common thin wooden walls we find in buildings in the center of Amsterdam were you can even hear the neighbors farting and more...

I would also call Omval "Little Manhattan". It's one of the areas in Amsterdam that have buildings compared to skyscrapers in Manhattan. There are two huge towers coming out of the ground and they just sit just a few meters from where I live.

So, like someone once said. "Start spreading the news..."

My Almost Niece

2007-05-09T12:19:00.000+02:00

It happened, I'm an almost uncle. David Lopes, my almost brother, and Raquel my almost sister in law are now very happy parents.
Margarida Cardoso Lopes was born on the 4th of May and if it depends on me she will be the most spoiled baby on Earth :-)

Gotta go buy some nice presents for her, in June I'll be in Portugal and I'll have the chance to see them together for the first time!

Once again, congratulations David and Raquel!

Bye bye Sun...

2007-05-07T11:06:00.000+02:00

I've been pretty quiet but that doesn't mirror what actually has been happening around me, I don't even know where to start.

I got myself a new Nokia N95! What a monster device it is, I love the GPS features but the battery... pfff, it's a real pain but I can live with that.
There was Queen's Day of course and what a party it was this year!
My Vespa was stolen once again, this time right in front of my house!
David called the other day in total ecstasy, his daughter was born (on 4th of May I believe) so that makes me an (almost) uncle. I'm still waiting for some pictures, I'm sure I'll have them soon!

And today I'm not feeling very good! The weather is changing again, the rain has come to stay! It not only leaves me a little bit depressed but the sudden change in the atmospheric pressure leaves me with giant headaches (aka migraines).
It's a little bit like what happens when you fly and your ears feel funny, gives you that uncomfortable feeling and sometimes just snap! I feel a little but like that but in my head (!?!) so I think I'm going to relax the rest of the day.

Catch you guys later

Another nomination!

2007-04-19T00:05:00.000+02:00

Once again ebuddy.com was nominated for The Next Web Awards.

For me, just so see ebuddy.com as a nominee is already a great achievement which makes really proud of myself, my partners and the whole ebuddy team!

Under the Social category ebuddy is paired with other big web phenomenons like MySpace, Windows Live Spaces, Facebook, Linked In and even with the new sensation site Twitter.

So ladies and gentleman, start your engines, go vote and may the best one win :-)

What a weekend...

2007-04-17T19:24:00.000+02:00

What a hectic weekend this one!
The summer just sneaked for a couple of days and it was wonderful!

I spent Saturday and Sunday at the Vondel park enjoying the early warm weather, you don't get this very often in the Netherlands so I did the best I could to appreciate it and couldn't have done it with better company actually.
I spent a lot of time with Vitor and his girlfriend (is it safe to call her that Vitor? :-P ) which is always a privilege and Marjolein as well - a sweet sweet woman always with her tough look and her invisible shield up that she thinks it's impenetrable but that actually makes her special, that's probably why she says things like I'm her favorite "waste of time" and I can still like her :-)

Every thing changed now, it's cold again although still sunny but I'm expecting a nice rest of week! I will be desperately waiting for Vitor's Birthday party this Saturday but actually today it's his birthday so I have to go now and meet him for a nice quited dinner with some friends, it's like I told you I suspect that rest of the week is going to be like last weekend, just great! :-)

Happy Birthday Vitor!

Amsterdam vs Las Vegas

2007-04-13T17:40:00.000+02:00

Until today I was living a very dramatic dilemma.
I was appointed to attend a conference in Las Vegas. It's a very important conference from Microsoft and being ebuddy.com a very important player in the MSN domain it would make sense if I, or at least someone in within the company, would be there.
The problem is that this conference clashes with one of the biggest party events in Amsterdam - Queen's Day.

The thing is that I was really counting on going to Las Vegas, I've never been there and from all the stories I heard I wouldn't even be thinking about Amsterdam once i got there. The fact is that the conference is totally sold out so, not even our best connections could arrange us with one single voucher that could enable us to get attend MIX'07.

So I was a bit disappointed but thinking about it why should I?
Some of my best friends are coming to Amsterdam and come from all over the place just to party the whole Queen's Day weekend, they come from Portugal, France, Germany and we are still 2 weeks away from that weekend so I can only expect more people to join :-)

So, not going to the conference in Las Vegas might be a bummer but on the other side it might be that I could also loose a great weekend with the people I most admire and enjoy being with!

After all, I didn't loose a chance to go to Las Vegas, Las Vegas lost a great opportunity to have me as a guest but I not dead yet... if you know what I mean ;-)

Spring is in the air...

2007-04-12T17:30:00.000+02:00

Yes, it's most definitely here and I'm very thankful for that!
The Sun has been shinning almost everyday now and it has been a while since it rained, I can notice that easily, my Vespa is all dirty but see if I care :-)

Spring is also synonymous of love, at last that's what all poetry writers try to tell us, but we all have to admit that it's a fact!

Why? Well, I'm not really sure but Vitor is most definitely a living proof of that.
For him Spring is definitely here. He smiles 100% of the time he is awake, he speaks loud and fast and his eyes are always wide open and all of this because of the new love he found recently, I wish him the best of luck and I hope that someday I'll have the same luck.

Go Vitor!

Taxis in Amsterdam

2007-03-30T13:30:00.000+02:00

According to this website, some new taxis are going to surface in Amsterdam this summer.
Finally some good changes in this city! My biggest criticism to the current taxis is the fact that taxi drivers in Amsterdam can refuse to give you a ride if the distance is too short!
OK, so I admit that sometimes I can be a bit lazy but that's my problem! If I want to go from Central Station to my house (Wetering Circuit) by taxi - which is about 10 EUR - I should be able to do it because I'm paying and the client is always right, but in Amsterdam they just tell you to bugger off and choose another taxi, only in this city I've seen this!

The new taxis will also have a clearer pricing and are supposed to be more environment friendly which are for me also important points and hopefully all the other taxis will follow the good example!

Better only if all taxi became like the Disco Taxi in Amsterdam!
Disco Taxi is like a moving disco, it has all you need inside, a ball of mirrors, great sound system, light effects and even karaoke with a microphone for you to show your singing skills and if you are too shy to do it the taxi driver will do it for you :-)
Can you imagine Amsterdam packed with Disco Taxis? :-)

My Sweet Vespa is Back

2007-03-23T15:37:00.000+01:00

Finally after 3 months I have my Vespa back!

It all started when Vitor borrowed my Vespa to go to his girlfriend's place and it was stolen.

A few weeks later I received a letter saying that the police found it.
After that the problems started, too many complications followed to the point that I personally went to the police station to pick it up and according to the police officer my Vespa wasn't in there anymore because I had already picked it up (!?) although no one could say when or even prove it. The only thing they said was "according to the system you have already picked it up, are you sure you didn't come here before?" - duhhh!!

Anyway, after everything was sorted with the police I asked the store where I bought the Vespa to go an get it and fix while they are at it! And so it was, this Friday I got a phone call from the Vespa store saying that the Vespa was ready to go!

It was a good feeling to ride it again, I missed that (not so nice) smell while cutting traffic in the middle of the traffic jam and the wind blowing on by head although it can be quite cold at this time of the year but now that the Spring is here there's hope that the weather will get a bit better and then I can give my Vespa the proper use!

Oops... We did it again!

2007-03-19T10:18:00.000+01:00

Ebuddy.com keeps being recognized and sometimes even wins some prizes.
This time made it to the Red Herring's top 100 European companies, and only 5 from The Netherlands were nominated next to Joost, Hyves, I-Wood and Polymer Vision. (click here for more info on the Red Herring Magazine)

After the article on July 2006 about ebuddy, we were finally recognized as one of the top companies in Europe.

Now, if you'd tell me a few years ago that I would be the co-founder of a company I'd probably laugh at you! Now ebuddy keeps growing and keeps winning prizes and for me it's still an overwhelming experience.

Of course that all this would never be achieved without my partners, our loyal employees and of course our (30+ million) users because without them ebuddy would be just another website. Thank you all!

Back to reality

2007-03-11T16:49:00.000+01:00

Oh my God... still recovering from this last week!
The first week after vacations is always the most complicated but it was actually a pretty good week, lots of catching up to do, lots of things got done in the office as well and it ended with a night out with the ebuddy.com team Friday night which ended in total lost of control in some cases :-)

It was nice to see everybody together outside the office, since the last time it happened the team grew a lot so that was definitely something positive.

The rest of the weekend was a total waste. What I mean is that it wasn't a very productive one. I stayed home all weekend, although the sun was shinning all the time it was damn cold outside and I'm still not ready for that, not after my vacations in Brazil.
But at least I got my jet-lag sorted, I had lots of rest and I should be ready for another week at full steam!
I wonder how the rest of the ebuddy.com team feels though, I'm not sure if all of them will be fit to work on Monday :-)

A day @ the farm

2007-03-03T16:37:00.000+01:00

I have to say that I'm pretty much a city guy, always have been and probably always will be. Ok, so I don't mind the sea and the beach but countryside is not for me - not to live there anyway!
The funny thing is that my father is the total opposite of me but not only about this - I'm not even white! :-)
When we were in Portugal my parents moved from the big city (Lisbon) to the countryside where he had his little farm while I moved in with a friend of mine and kept living in the city.

Now living in Brazil my father also managed to get himself a farm - this one a little bigger - and today we went to my see the farm, not that I was very excited about it but in the end it was great!
It's amazing to see the difference between the landscape only after half an hour from the beach house.
All of a sudden it's like I'm in the middle of a rain forest, the roads are quite narrow and au naturel (forget about asphalt) and when we got there I had a funny feeling that I can't quite explain.

Surrounded by all that nature all kind of thoughts come in to your mind, specially the fact that to keep the cities (that I so much like) up and running, thousands (if not millions) of acres of vegetation like the one I had just in front of me are being destroyed all the time, specially in Brazil and the Amazonia.

Sometimes you just need to experience and live to actually think about, so when you have the time in your busy and active city life, just for once, stop and think about it...

Back to Salvador

2007-03-01T19:25:00.000+01:00

I've been to Natal and Fortaleza for the last week and it was amazing!!!
Natal was just amazing! I always have fun with Roland and Tinne, we all had a great time between going to the beach, partying all night or simply relaxing in their swimming pool.
By the way, Roland and Tinne thanks for the unforgetable birthday present!!! (no, I'm not gonna tell you what it was!!! :-P)

Fortaleza was also great! I met with Tarcy there and we turned that city upside-down! Lots of situations happened there including partying hard with her mother and uncle, what a crazy family she has!

Now I'm back in Salvador, I'll have to take the most out of it because I have only 3 days left before I go back to the rainy Amsterdam awaiting me :-(

Hello from Salvador

2007-02-18T17:26:00.000+01:00

It has been very quiet here at Salvador, since I started my vacations I've been doing only one thing: absolutely nothing!!! With a beach like that what did you expect?!

I've been saving myself for next week, that's when my real vacations start!
Next week I'm planing to go to Natal a visit Roland and Tinne. After that maybe Fortaleza and meet Tarcy (that's if I can reach her in time!!!) and then Rio de Janeiro to meet David! Hopefully Joana and Otto are still there and I can meet all of them there!

For now I just keep relaxing here, maybe tomorrow I'll go to Carnaval with my Mom and cousin if I have the courage :-)

Catch you later, or you catch me if you can :-P

"Noroc"

2007-02-11T21:32:00.000+01:00

Bucharest was a unique experience to say the least.
First of all I have to thank Bernardo because this was all his idea and the trip was actually his birthday present to me.
Pedro also joined and so the crazy Portuguese guys had a great weekend in Bucharest plus Bernardo's Romanian friends, Diana and Sebastian and consequently all their friends.

I could relate a lot with Romania. To start with, a lot of Romanian words are identical to Portuguese, really amazing! Other words are not that similar like Noroc for example which means Cheers! People are extremely nice there (at least most of the people I've met) and the food is just great!
Also Bucharest reminded me of Lisbon a lot, the weather was amazing (17 degrees when it was supposed to be snowing!), the traffic is chaotic and the clubs close really late.
Speaking of clubs, apparently Bucharest is the capital of minimal electro and progressive house, which I'm now a big fan :-)
Lots of international DJs are invited to play in local clubs which have great sound systems and some are quite big indeed! Kristal was probably my favorite.

Once again I thank Bernardo for this weekend and of course our Romanian friends for being such splendid hosts and for providing us with an unforgettable weekend. I hope I'll have the chance to pay them back although after this weekend they must think that Portuguese people are crazy and probably I won't hear from them for while :-)

Let it snow...

2007-02-08T13:06:00.000+01:00

It's finally snowing in Amsterdam! Not that I'm really happy about it (it's freezing cold, even at the office!!!) but I was getting worried!
Temperatures have been pretty high for this time of the year and 2006 was the warmest year since 1706, can you believe that?

At least now were back to some normality, it's very cold (brrrr!!) and it's snowing and now I'm really glad I'm going to Brazil, I guess I chose the best time to go on vacations but one thing at a time - first Bucharest.
I'm leaving tomorrow, just I checked the weather there, it's not that bad actually, at least it's not snowing!

Tonight dinner is at Aline's place, a bit of French cuisine once in a while doesn't harm anybody :-)

2 days

2007-02-07T13:30:00.000+01:00

Maybe I'm really getting old, or maybe not, but each time I think back to the things that I still want to do, visit or achieve and what I've really accomplished there's still a big gap between them.

So this year - and now that I'm 30 - I've decided that I'm doing something about it.
One of the things that I really want to do is travel and see a lot of places that I still haven't seen.

This week I'm going to Bucharest and next week to Brazil to visit my parents - which isn't that bad - but I want more. I want to keep it like this for a while, travel a lot, see different places!

So I've decided that I still have to go to Portugal and make a huge party with all my friends from Portugal, visit Nuno in Scotland, finally go to Prague, back to Poland, Budapest for the Sziget Festival and now I'm looking for more suggestions, places that I've never been like Australia, India, Tokyo, Vietnam, Peru, Iceland, the options are immense, I just need some tips, what do you think?

I don't know where I will find time and/or money for all this but if I don't set some goals I know that I'll never do it, and sometimes it's nice to dream.

Lets just hope that all this is not just bullshit because it's like we say in Portugal "Life is 2 days and Carnival 3"

You got the picture right? Life is too short and I'm realizing it as I grow old and I have to make something about it because 2 days is really nothing...

What a ride!

2007-02-02T01:35:00.000+01:00

My good old friends left. I promised them the ride of their lives and I know that at least they won't forget this one very soon.
In the meanwhile there was my birthday - a big part of that ride.
The party was great thanks to Vitor, Robert and Tinne for organizing this celebration and all my other friends that were on my party of course.

Unfortunately I can't celebrate all my birthdays like this but I thought that at least one day I would feel like I'm the king of the world! So what better day than the celebration of my 30th birthday? :-)

First I was in a fancy restaurant with most of my close friends there having dinner with me (priceless!), took a state-of-the-art limousine for a ride and went on a raid of clubs and went back to the restaurant, which happens to be a club as well, and carried on with the after-party at my place - by the way, I don't think that my neighbors like me anymore!

David, Claudio, Hugo and Ricardo are now back in Portugal (Finally!!! Nothing personal guys but I don't think that my body could handle another day!!) and now I'm back to work, back to reality!

I've entered a new phase of my life, I'm getting older (but wiser not really!) I have to start being more responsible, maybe buy a house get married and have children, but even if it happens I promise that I will make my best and not stop having fun! And I'm not talking about limos (I wish I could...) but spending times with the people I love, can't have much more fun than that!

Enough of that! Now I'm planning my vacations, I'm might be going to Brazil in time for Carnaval! Finally I'm going to see my parents, they will kill me if I say I'm not going!
Also Roland and Tinne are there - they flew right after my party! I might be joining them in their amazing spot in Natal! I'm dying for it!! :-)

New kids on the block!

2007-01-24T12:01:00.000+01:00

When I was younger I used to be literally brainwashed by my cousin and her sick admiration for the New Kids On The Block, what was at the time the male version of Spice Girls.

This time the story is a bit different, the kids are my best friends in Portugal and block in this case would be the centre of Amsterdam!

Yes that's true my best friends are in town directly from Lisbon to celebrate my 30th birthday this Saturday.

They just called me, I'll meet them in a few minutes at the Central Station and from then on only time will tell what is going to happen.

David, Claudio, Hugo and Ricardo get ready for the ride of your lives :-)

Talk to you later... I hope...

Stormy Week

2007-01-22T01:13:00.000+01:00

It was a very stormy week this last one but still it was a very good one.

The storm was definitely the moment of the week, totally unexpected and chaotic and resulted in a really nice last minute dinner at the office with my colleagues since there were no public transports so we ordered some food from the, now official, ebuddy restaurant Me Gusta just on the other side of the street.

The weekend was also pretty good, I got to spend a lot time with a lot of my friends that haven't seen for a while.
Specially on Saturday where I had the privilege to go to Maria's house to join the Fabada Party with nice food and of course drinks too :-)

Needless to say that Sunday was almost a waste, didn't do much so I was able to recover for what I expect to be a great week!

By the way, the storm also reminded me that I should start planning my vacation to Brazil, I can't handle much more of this weather!

Happy 2007

2007-01-03T00:41:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year Everybody!

I spent a really nice new year's eve surrounded with friends! Unfortunately not all of my friends were there but some of them were better than I was, some in India some in Cape Verde... you know what I mean :-)

Anyway it was a great night and I hope that it's a premonition for this new year of 2007 just ahead of us!
I would be very happy already if it was as good as this late year of 2006, it was a great year full of wonderful moments both in the personal and professional aspects!

As always, each year starts with my birthday but this year is a very special one since I'm turning the 30 barrier! I know it's just psychological because in my heart I'll always be a 9 years old child but this year it's going to require a special celebration.
My friend Vitor is going to prepare me a "surprise" party!
What I mean is that I asked Vitor to use his proved skills for organizing great parties and he will be the one organizing my 30 years old birthday party, I'll just have to sponsor it ;-)
Anyway I want it to be a full surprise so I don't want to know anything about it!
When the day comes I just want him to tell me where and when I have to be and I'm sure that I wont be regretted!

So if you are in Amsterdam on Saturday, the 27th of January, and you don't want to loose what I promise to be one of the best birthday parties you've ever been make sure you ask Vitor or send him an email about all the arrangements because I won't be able to help you :-)

That's it for now, a great 2007 for all of you and a very happy birthday to me if you don't mind ;-)

Wonderful Monday

2006-12-19T16:32:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was one of those unexpected situations that are always welcome, things that just happened when I didn't plan anything and it turned out to be an excellent evening spent with my friends.

Rodrigo and Joanne dropped by my place to say goodbye since they are leaving to Goa, India on Thursday (bastards!!!) for three and a half weeks! What I didn't know was that Kevin and Fabrizio where also going to join so in the end was a very nice evening being all together with friends.

Kevin will join Rodrigo and Joanne in India and I was supposed to go there as well but it won't be possible for me which means that I'm staying in Amsterdam for New Year's Eve.
The problem is that I don't really have anything planned for that night, there will be a dinner at Bernardo's place, that's for sure but we are still looking for a nice place to go out and celebrate the upcoming year, what do you people suggest? ;-)

Guess what, maybe it's better not to plan anything and who knows if the 1st of January 2007 won't be another wonderful Monday? :-)

Happy Birthday Roland!

2006-12-13T01:20:00.001+01:00

Christmas is definitely here, everyone I know that works for companies had or will have the respective Christmas Party soon.

Tomorrow, December 13th 2006, it's eBuddy's time. I don't even know what's planned to build up the surprise factor, but as always I'm sure it will be something nice, specially knowing who's behind the arrangements (Go Lissa!) and I still have to buy the "Secret Santa Special" gift! I'll make sure I'll post some pictures of the party!

On the other side it's the birthday party of my good friend Roland and I won't be able to go to his dinner which makes me very unhappy at the same time. Maybe we'll end up meeting later - we are going have lunch together anyway... which reminds me that I still have to buy him a gift too!

Oh boy! tomorrow will be a busy day, there still lots of stuff to do at the office.
Damn! I should go to bed!

Catch you guys later

... and since it's after midnight

Happy Birthday Roland

Update
- now I can disclose it, Roland's girlfriend gave him a trip to Tokyo as a birthday present :-) Have a nice trip!
- pictures ebuddy.com xmas dinner party here.

Fantastic Fantasy

2006-12-11T10:51:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I went to the RAI to see a show from Holiday on Ice called Fantasy thanks to my friend Claudia that works in the company producing the show.

It was in fact a really nice show, I had never seen a musical performance on ice full of ice skaters doing all those breathtaking tricks sometimes even putting their own life at risk!

The combination was perfect, the music selection as also pretty good (better just with a live orchestra), the scenarios were very rich, the wardrobe phenomenal and so were the choreographies! You can really tell that there's a lot of people behind a show like that where everything has to be perfect in a show that takes around 2 hours and a half!

I have to admit that I was a little bit skeptical in the beginning but but soon enough I knew that i wouldn't regret it, it was a wonderful experience and I'm very proud that my good friend Claudia is involved producing such show!

A big hurray for her and I'll be here waiting for the next one :-)

Sempre a bombar!

2006-12-01T12:23:00.000+01:00

Diogo and Tiago, two great friends of mine from Portugal, are in town!
It's amazing how simple things like having your friends around can influence dramatically your state of mind! In this case in the best possible way of course!

I don't expect to have any kind of rest while they are here visiting but I do count on having lots of fun, after all there's nothing better than being surround by friends whatever the circumstances are, right?

Jammin'

2006-11-24T10:38:00.000+01:00

After so much time leaving my musical instinct sleeping unexpectedly it just revealed itself lately. A bit like a bear, hibernating in its cave waiting for the Spring to blossom.
About a month and a half some Knowledje invited me for a jam session to play guitar with some guys and see what happens.
What happened was that there was a good connection between all of us and we decided to take another step forward and start rehearsing more often and so it happened.
After a few weeks we had a couple of songs which we are currently working on thanks to the hard work and dedication of all of us.

Knowledje, Dino and myself are the permanent band members while there are other members like bass players, percussion, back vocal singers, etc. that might be rotating depending on the music.
Anyway we still don't have anything to show you guys but once we do I'll let you know, you should expect something around January, not sooner than that so please be patient ;-)

50 cents?

2006-11-21T02:49:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday I had a really nice hot bath, nowadays it feels really nice, the cold winter is starting to show itself and now I'm living in a house that actually as a bathtub, which is not so common in Amsterdam whether you believe it or not. They are usually tiny with a small shower!

Actually the whole bathroom concept in Amsterdam is a little bit different from everything I've seen before.
You'll have to be really lucky if you have a bathtub. Sometimes you have the actual toilet in a separate and even tinier room - which isn't really a bad idea if you think of it.

But for me what shocks me is the fact that the majority of the bars and clubs in Amsterdam actually charge you (around 0.50 EUR) to use the restrooms and in some cases they don't even look that good!

Anyway, the hot bath felt pretty good, I was listening to some music from my phone and at the same time memories from Budapest and the spas immediately popped into my mind. I think that now every time I have a hot bath I close my eyes and it's like I'm back again in Budapest with my friends enjoying every moment of it and that is priceless!

Oh Gosh! Just look at that, I think this winter is going to be the winter of the hot baths! Roland, get your jacuzzi ready! You may expect some visits pretty soon :-)

Site Of The Year

2006-11-03T00:32:00.000+01:00

As a co-founder and owner of eBuddy I'm very proud the announce that our site was nominated as website of the year 2006 in at least two different contests:

* in the UK

and

* in The Netherlands

You know what to do next ;-)

Thanks you for your support!

Mysterious People

2006-10-31T16:06:00.000+01:00

Life is full of mysteries, who doesn't have them in his/her life?

I have on my hands right now, which is kind of funny because it takes that little piece of boredom in your life and brings something new and exciting - at least that's my case.

But at the same time those mysteries can come back and haunt you! Well it's still not the case but that's always a possibility.

This new mystery is not really something bad but it can go against some common principles and ideas that people have for granted and you can say it would never happen to me until it does and you have to deal with the situation like I am now and we'll see how it will resolve.
What do you think? Will it end good or bad? ;-)

Update

Turns out it ended the best possible way, that's the best I can say, at least nobody got hurt :-)

Auf Wiedersehen

2006-10-31T15:13:00.000+01:00

My good friend and (almost) brother Gledison is leaving Amsterdam in pursuit of his career as chemist.
It was very tough for him has he is Brazilian and he was struggling a lot to keep is working visa up-to-date but finally everything turned out fine!
After a lot of months of hard work and a lot of anxiety attacks everything worked fine for him and he got one of the finest jobs in his area!
There's only one catch, he will be moving to Mannheim, Germany!
We will miss him here in Amsterdam although we all know it's for his best but that won't take away all the time that we had fun! There are moments that I shared with him that I won't forget that easily and I'm sure that we will still be seeing a lot of each other in the future.

I don't think I ever met someone that I found out I had so much in common in so little time, that's also probably why we ended up getting along so well with each other.

For me there will be a pre-Gledison Amsterdam and pos-Gledison Asmterdam, and I can tell you already in advance that the pos-Gledison era is much better! ;-)

Thank you for giving me the chance to be your friend and I hope I'll have the chance to see you in Amsterdam quite often.

I wish you all the best!

Your brother

Parlez vous français?!

2006-10-31T15:03:00.000+01:00

Another picture, another interview! This time to a French magazine, how about that?!

Click here for the full article

Update
The link doesn't seem to work anymore but I swear that there was an article about ebuddy.com! :-)

Uncle Paulo?!

2006-10-20T10:50:00.000+02:00

I may not have brothers or sisters but I do have friends that are almost or even more than that!
One of them is David Lopes, one of my best friends in Portugal!
A few days ago he called me saying that I was finally going to an uncle!
I was really excited about it, mostly because I was really happy for him and Raquel (the mother) but also because this creates a new era! It's the first of my closest friends to have a child and I'm "afraid" that this can actually trigger a chain reaction and everybody starts making little babies!
It's not alarming for me because first I have to find a girlfriend but it's just a feeling, we'll wait and see :-)

Congratulations David and Raquel!

3D Amsterdam

2006-10-13T16:08:00.000+02:00

It's amazing what people can do nowadays with computers! A good example of that is this image made by a person I know from Portugal.
It's 100% computer generated!! How about that?!

Another dinner...

2006-10-13T15:25:00.000+02:00

...but this time at home, which are the best ones for me!
One dinner I forgot to mention (I'm sorry Rebecca) but I was just being too lazy!
Rebecca (this cute English girl) cooked us (Me and Vitor) a great meal last week and for that I thank her oh so very much! The best part is that she promised that she would cook for us again at our place! I love women with initiative, can it get better than that?!

Then yesterday another great dinner with my best friends in Amsterdam! Another perfect combination, good food (thanks to me), excellent wine (specially that second bottle), great desert, great conversation, three great friends and lots of laughter! Now tell me if that's not a really well spent evening?
For me it was great, it's not easy to match that, I'm just thinking why the hell doesn't it happen more often?!

Now that the winter is coming it's definitely the perfect time to start thinking about arranging more of these dinners, I love it, I love it, I love it!!!

Now lets just hope and see if Rebecca puts her hands where her mouth is and gets this dinner going :-)

Laterrrrrrrr!

Dinner at the Italian!

2006-10-11T17:16:00.000+02:00

My day just got better, I'm having dinner with Ju and Mat!
I love those 2, it's like they are made for each other, I wonder if one day I'll find someone like that!

Cabeludo is going to be there, it has been a while since we were all together so I'm looking forward to it!

Bon apettit for you!

"Oh... my God!"

2006-10-02T10:24:00.000+02:00

The title of this post fits exactly to the description of this last weekend!
Raimana Chaves, my friend from Tahiti, came to visit Amsterdam once again! We had the privilege to have his company here so we decided to really do something special, and special it was!

Started how it always used to start when Raimana was still living in Amsterdam, ¿Que Pasa? @ Melkweg! As always our group was the last to leave - some things never change!

Then the real thing came! Saturday, 30 of September 2006 marked exactly the my 6th Anniversary in Amsterdam and of course that I couldn't fail to celebrate this occasion!

Luckily I live with Vitor which has a really good taste for parties, specially when he is the one organizing then so I left it all up to him, he would organize the place and how and when we would make this happen!
Well... he couldn't have done it better! I was surrounded with most of my best friends in Amsterdam!
For me it could have been just that, I would have been the happiest man ever! But no it didn't stop there!
Not only I was with my best friends we had the chance to be what is becoming the best party in Amsterdam and know that most of the people that were there would agree with me!
Casino Royale @ The Mansion was the place to be. The party was amazing, the music was fantastic and I was always surrounded by gorgeous people, what else could I have asked for!

Thanks to everybody that shared this evening with me and a special thanks for Vitor that made this thing happen!

Now I'm really going to start taking it easy in the weekends, the Winter is really showing itself and I have to pull myself together because, according to Vitor, this party is not even close to what is going to be my birthday party in January! It's hard to imagine but if that's really possible then Vitor will be "... my God!" :-)

Update

Pictures are available here

oh oooooh...

2006-09-26T10:16:00.000+02:00

Do you know that feeling when you're coming out your house and you shut the door and then... sh*t!!!!
But it's too late already, the door is closed and I have no wallet and no keys!
It's not a good feeling, I feel naked and and incomplete! Walking around without feeling that lump pressuring the right cheek of my buttocks!

In a blink of an eye everything changes, you start thinking of all possible scenarios!
In the end it's not a big problem, that's what housemates are for but you know what I mean, it's never nice when it happens to you!

Last week it happened to Vitor, my housemate, but I think that he had his wallet!

At least it's not that bad, at least I have my phone with me and living 5 minutes from it work has its advantages :-)
I wonder how the rest of the Tuesday will be, it's wasn't the best start ever but how will it end?
My cousin is coming to visit me tonight, could that have something to do with it?

Catch you later!

Update!

Guess what! I didn't realize it but Vitor was working from home so he was there the whole time!
Very nice, I have my keys and wallet, back to work!

Bye bye Summer...

2006-09-26T01:30:00.000+02:00

It's official, the Autumn is here, after the Summer it was probably one of the coldest days, the sky was grey all the time with rain showers that seem to be always around the corner and it's starting to get dark sooner by the day!

I was saying to Joanne the other day that I wanted to stop going out every weekend and start having some quality time in the comfort of home, if possible in good company to which she responds:

"Summer is always much more hectic than Winter anyhow!"

So I guess it's also a sign, for me the Autumn is settling down and it's probably here to stay!

I guess I'm going to focus a little bit more on myself now, in my work as well and try not to think too much about the weather coming up ahead, I will instead look back to the memories of this last Summer... and what an amazing Summer it was!

Autumn Leaves

The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sun-burned hands I used to hold

Since you went away the days grow long
And soon Ill hear old winters song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall

By Johnny Mercer

Me and my girlfriend

2006-09-21T12:47:00.000+02:00

My fingertips hurt today! It's not the fact that I've been using the keyboard a lot (although I've been working hard lately) but because I was playing guitar yesterday with Cabeludo and his friend Sander (or shall I say Alex?!).

It had been a long period since the last time I played guitar so that was a little bit refreshing to say the least.
Specially because Sander is an expert on Bluegrass, it's a kind of blues and jazz mix with banjos in the middle and it has a very characteristic rhythm, I'm sure it's familiar for most of you.

So it was a really well spent evening with some beers along, playing some blues and hearing Gledison's vocal improvisations that would all eventually end up in "tra-la-la" :-)

I bet that Luciana (my guitar and girlfriend) also enjoyed it! She spent the whole evening screaming and shouting... now tell me what woman in this world doesn't like that! :-)

stand by me

2006-09-19T18:29:00.000+02:00

This is the new stand of ebuddy.com that we'll be using from know on fairs, conferences and events where we'll be attending, isn't it cool?!

Also today there was a local TV network filming the office and making interviews! Fancy no?!

Catch you guys later!

Another of those weekends

2006-09-12T18:22:00.000+02:00

This last weekend was very special one, full of stuff happening around the clock and I could hardly pick up with what was happening!

Friday was the birthday party of a friend Rodrigo, Cabeludo and Paula! All very crazy people so you can imagine how the party must have been! You can actually check it out here but keep it for yourself ;-)

Saturday was even worse, it was an all guys out to celebrate Rodrigo's and Cabeludo's birthdays... if I could only tell you what was going on there...

In the meanwhile the nice weather seemed to be hanging around for a while so it looked like a nice day to go out and relax... NOT!!! It ended up being another very crazy day!
Started with me, Roland, Pepe, Rodrigo and Joanne and in the end I didn't have enough hands to count everybody, it was a really nice day spent with my friends and I loved it!

Lets hope that the weather stays like this for a couple more days since we all know what's going to happen after September, don't you?...

Welkom

2006-09-12T18:06:00.000+02:00

Last Friday I spent some time with my cousin!
She is one of my best friends and we've been getting along since I remember myself.
Now she moved to Holland with her boyfriend Paul (is that a coincidence?!) and she is still settling down trying the get a house for them and a job but things will start to happen for them, I know it and I'll do whatever is possible to help them.

Hopefully we'll have more opportunities to spend some more time with each other!

Welcome Cíntia!

My sweet vacations

2006-09-05T00:32:00.000+02:00

Today I got back from my mini-vacations in Portugal!
It was nice to meet some of my friends and family once again! It's just a pity that I didn't have time to seem them all but it was worth it anyway.

First I spent a few days at Algarve in a town called Armação de Pêra. It used to be a much nicer place but now it's just full of buildings after buildings, it's not the best landscape you'd hope for but the beaches are just amazing so it has that gratifying feeling that makes you forget about it!

I was also there spending time with my best friends so that made it even better, I will remember these days for a long time!

Then it was time to move back to Lisbon to go spend the weekend.
Another chance to meet lots of other friends and also spend some time with my mother and her new Yorkshire puppy - I wonder what my father is going to say about that when he comes back from Brazil :-)

I wonder when I'll com back now. It's always too short but at the same time it's never the same when go back, it always feel different on way or another when I go back to Portugal - some in a good way other not so good - so I wonder how next time it will be. See you then!

Audio Bullys @ Paradiso

2006-08-25T10:19:00.000+02:00

Yesterday it was a day full of events and situations including my mom's birthday, so big Happy Birthday for her - I've actually remembered her birthday this time and called her on time :-)

It was also a very big day in the office, we have we plugged in our brand new platform in San Francisco, California USA that Onno and Edward built while they were staying there.

The 'hotest' moment of the day happened which was actually a very chilly one. Roland took me to the Xtra Cold bar in Amsterdam and that quite a situation!
I never heard about the concept and I was blown away with it. So basically you enter a bar - and quite nice one - and then you ask to go to ice bar and this gentlemen leads you to a nice dressing room where he supplies you with a huge feather jacket with some nice gloves and then opens a huge door - a butcher's fridge kind of door - and one you are inside you stay confined in a -5 degrees Celsius environment where everything - and I mean everything - is made of ice!
The bar was made of ice, the chairs were made of ice, the decoration was all ice, even the damn glasses were huge ice blocks with a hole in the middle, it was quite something!
I do have to say that after a few minutes it was starting to get uncomfortable as I realized with Paula, a Spanish friend of mine that was also there checking out the place for the same time.
Actually the best part of it was when we had to walk out of there! Outside it looked like it was the warmest evening of the year :-)

But the night wasn't over it, it was time for another new experience. Audio Bullys were playing at Paradiso and guess who was there to see them? ;-)
What an amazing show that was, nice music great sound lots of people were the right ingredients for another great show at one of Amsterdam's best venues! Now, after seeing then performing live, they have a new fan, Audio Bullys rock!

Full steam

2006-08-18T13:24:00.000+02:00

The first week in the new office have just gone by!
It's always exciting when something changes in your life, at least when it change for better which was exactly what happened in this case.

The office is much bigger, lots of light and space it even looks like you work more than you did before.
The only issue right now is the alarm! If you are the last one and have to close the office it's a big pain! All doors have to be locked otherwise the alarm won't be on so you'll have to kind of check all the doors of the building (3 stories).
My colleague Yi-Ling called me yesterday desperate saying that she couldn't put the alarm on! Lucky for her that I live 5 minutes from the office :-)

Enjoy the Friday and have a great weekend!

Voor de smaak!

2006-08-15T17:48:00.000+02:00

I'm not even going to try to explain the title of this post because you would have to be in Budapest to understand it, all I can say is that Budapest is full of situations.

So I arrived Friday night, met my "brodis" Rodrigo, Cabeludo and Kevin at the apartment and we went wild until we couldn't handle no more for four days! Just to start, that same evening we went to Rio Club and we drank so much that the only way for me to recover the next day was to force myself into a spa resort - the Gellert Baths - and sweat all the alcohol away in the sauna. Maybe next time one bottle of vodka is good enough for the four of us instead of two :-)

The spa situation was in fact one of the high moments of Budapest! Everyday we could we would go for a spa and cook ourselves in the steamy rooms and warm Turkish baths.

Then the Sziget situation came and never left us. Sziget, a.k.a. The Island, Festival is (I think) the biggest in Europe, a real monster compared to anything else I've seen before!
This was where the real brodi situaties happened like the balloon, the 'kroket' plus a lot more that I'm not even aloud to talk about, they are just too embarrassing but you wouldn't understand it anyway, you'd have to be there :-)

Saturday, Sunday and Monday evening I went to the Festival and have no regrets about it! It was time well spent, having fun with my friends jumping from tent to tent dancing until we couldn't stand up anymore (vum! vum! vum! vum!)

The worst part was to leave the damn place! Monday was our last evening and we had to leave the Festival early (no more leaving-the-festival-at-8-in-the-morning situation) and Monday it was the best day of them all :-(
But when duty calls I have to respond so we basically went from the festival straight to the apartment, grabbed our stuff and run to the airport to fly at 7am! When I got home I only had time for a quick shower and go straight to the office but I even had a productive day so please give me some R E S P E C T!!! I'll make sure I post some photos from Budapest when we gather all the pictures we took together.

In the meanwhile, as I was writing this, I got so many flashbacks, there was some many things to say about this trip, so many things I left out, specially about our Dutch brodi Kevin Mutant (what a situatie!), he will be a different man after Budapest... voor de smaak!

Budapest here I come

2006-08-10T16:32:00.000+02:00

It's all set for tomorrow! The moving of ebuddy.com office is in the first stage where some of the things have already started be moved but tomorrow will be the day where all of the stuff should be moved to the new office! Lucky for us that the new office is located only about 100 meters about from our current office :-)

The next big thing about tomorrow is the Budapest situation. Brothers Rodrigo, Cabeludo and Kevin Mutant are already in Budapest since Wednesday getting acquainted with the city so that when I get there tomorrow evening I'll just have to dive into the spirit and carry on with the Budapest situation with my brothers in crime :-)
They woke me up yesterday at 2am just to say that I really have to go there and fast! So now I really can't wait to see the bastards, anyway it's only one more day... and after that Budapest will never be the same!!!

In the meanwhile, don't forget, if you're in town this Saturday check out Vitor's next party @ club NL.

Dutch weather and women

2006-08-04T12:17:00.000+02:00

Sometimes I feel that Holland is much like a woman!
The weather changes in this country like a woman changes her mood!
One moment it can be really sunny and in a blink of an eye it starts to rain, just like a woman, she can be really nice with you and all of a sudden she start acting very bitchy! ... or does it only happen with me?! ;-)

Dreaming with paradise

2006-08-02T17:40:00.000+02:00

Raimana Chaves, my friend from Tahiti living in France, Paris called me today!
It has been a while since we last been together, we used to be great party mates in Amsterdam until he decided to move back to Paris to move in with his wonderful girlfriend Albane, a perfectly understandable decision if I may add ;-)

He came back from Tahiti, what he considers paradise on Earth, 3 weeks ago and he was speechless about it! Now I really want to go and if possible with him!
He says he is going back to Tahiti in 2 years, maybe then I'll be lucky enough to go with him!

Now I want to go to Paris too and pay him a visit! Paris can get pretty wild sometimes as well :-)

e-moving.com :-)

2006-08-02T13:58:00.000+02:00

As I told you before ebuddy.com (a.k.a www.e-messenger.net) is moving the office to a new builder. A bigger and much nicer building just 100 meters from the current office which is great news for me because it means that it will still be only 5 minutes within walking distance from my home, isn't that great? ;-)

One of the rooms	The meeting room
The garden in the backyard

Because of the moving I will miss a weekend in Hungary with my friends but still it's for a good reason and I know they'll understand ;-)

Joanne's Weekend

2006-08-02T11:21:00.000+02:00

A lot of stuff have been happening these last few days.

A funny episode was Friday when I went out with some of my colleagues. It was a damn nice party at Panama but unfortunately I don't remember all of it like my colleague Edward. The first thing he told me was that he was glad that he was leaving Amsterdam because he couldn't handle it! What he didn't know was that the Saturday there was an even better party!
It was Joanne's birthday party on a canal boat, with nice music and lots of drinks (Thank you sweetie!)
The party then moved to The Mansion (a.k.a. The Sauna) for Vitor's party where I met the always lovely Laise and her beautiful friend!

The rest of the week was pretty much the same, work work work!
Oh, we are actually going to move the office from my company to a new building so those are exciting times!

Beachy Weekend

2006-07-26T10:29:00.000+02:00

Last weekend was a really "beachy" one indeed!
Friday I went to meet Claudia and Carla at Blijburg after work and it was still fun as the sun was still high and there was enough time for some laughs and a few beers!
I've been going to the beach almost weekend, (from my experience) it's not every time that you get such a nice weather in Holland so I'm just trying to get the most out of it so I had already plans to go to Saturday to the beach.

Well, it wasn't the best plan, I have to admit, because around 2pm the weather started to change a lot and a few drops of rain started to fall but still, stubborn as a I am, I've decide to go to the beach with Gledison and meet some other people that were there already.
When we got to Blijburg everybody was heading the other direction leaving the beach and needless to say that 5 minutes after we got there the storm had arrived!
We went inside to the bars in the area and we still had lots of fun. Eventually the storm went away and we still had the chance to go outside so it wasn't a complete waste for sure.

Sunday we had a better plan, first because we knew it wasn't going to rain and second because we were going to a beach party @ Bloemendaal and what a party that was!
The weather was perfect, not too warm not too cold, the party took place at BLM9 and it was amazing. In the beginning it wasn't that crowded but all of a sudden it got much better, the music as great (Don Diablo was performing there) the sunset was on the spot and lots of beautiful people, what other better way to end a Sunday? ;-)

Today it's barbecue time again @ Westerpark, I'm sure it's going to be at least as nice as the last one! Who wants to join?

Barbecueable?!

2006-07-18T11:51:00.000+02:00

Another situation took place yesterday.
A very large group of people (some of them are now my new friends) from undiscriminated nationalities joined together of another barbecue party, this time at Westerpark and there was an extra component... soccer!
When we go out to the park or the beach there's always someone playing with a ball and we all stare dying to get a piece of it! Well this time I remembered to bring my own ball, the official ball of the 2004 Euro Cup code named Roteiro.
I don't think I remember the last time I played soccer just with some friends relaxing in park but now that I'm thinking... why didn't I do that before since I know I always enjoy it!?
Anyway the most important was that everyone had a lot of fun (I hope) and I think that the top moment was when the ladies joined the men to a soccer match, it's always nice to see everyone enjoying themselves.

The barbecue itself was also very good, some people had some bright ideas to bring their barbecue tools, even those disposable ones that I wasn't even aware you could buy them, it's very handy indeed.
Some were not so handy, like Cabeludo's dry ice that he brought from his lab and froze everyone's beers, but Rodrigo had some fun playing around with the ice and making some special effects just like in the movies!

In the end I ate so much that I was actually glad that we played all that soccer to burn the excessive food :-)
There was all kind of different ("barbecuable") food for all tastes, enough drinks for everybody and it lasted until midnight (for me) but I wasn't the last one to leave, there's always a few members of the resistance that always refuse to leave! "Olé!" for them!

I survived!

2006-07-17T17:31:00.000+02:00

It was tough but I got home safely after a mad weekend at Dance Valley.
I can't say what was the best part of the whole event, all I know was that I had a blast!

You shouldn't go there if you don't like dance music because that's all you gonna get! I surely didn't mind because I like all kinds of music so I felt pretty comfortable the whole time!
Even before we got inside we were already being bombed with music from the valley and it only stopped 2 days after day, there wasn't a single place inside the venue where you couldn't hear to some kind of music, or shall I say dance music!
Night and day, 24 hours there would always be some place where there was a speaking spitting out beats right into your brains!
Even in the camping site, the Night Tent would always be having some DJ ready for some action, all I know was that when I went to sleep there was music playing and when I woke up the damn music was still playing! Unbelievable!

Maybe the most wicked experience was the Silent Disco! In this tent it would be given to you a special headphone that you would have to use it to hear the music that was playing. There were 2 DJs mixing at the same time and this headphone had a button that would chose the channel so if you got bored of DJ 1 you could always listen to DJ 2.

When you had the headphones on you it was kind of weird but you'd be dancing to the rhythm, the problem was when you took the headphones off, you'd only hear the steps of the people dancing and people singing off key. It was also weird when you saw 2 people next to each other dancing to completely different rhythms when listening to different DJs, it was quite an experience indeed!

Sunday I was completely tired but I still had enough energy to go to the beach and meet with the group for a "brother situation". Always nice to spend time with my friends which at the same time have been pretty much my family and spending time with them is never too much!

Tonight it's barbecue time again!
A big group if going to to meet at Westerpark! I wonder how that is going to end, just hope I get safe at home again, it has been my only goal these last few days :-)

Catch you later!

Ready (or not!) for Dance Valley...

2006-07-13T16:06:00.000+02:00

I'm actually not that ready for Dance Valley.
I've been quite busy at the office and still have some stuff to buy for tomorrow before Dance Valley starts.
It's going to be 2 days so I'll be camping there, can't really remember the last time I went camping and somehow I'm quite thrilled about it.

I'll be going to Dance Valley with my new friends Sandra a Christy (maybe I'm thrilled about that :-)) and I'm sure we will all have tons of fun, it's a widely known festival with lots of good DJs so it will be quite a party.

I'll let you know all about it when I get back!

Catch you later!

Parties on!

2006-07-10T16:38:00.000+02:00

Another great weekend has gone by! Luckily the weather helped on this one!
Friday after the conference DJ Robert Feelgood called Vitor to invite us to go to a cruise on his boat in the canals of Amsterdam. We bought some drinks and we made our own little party, it was a very nice evening and I hope we'll have the chance to repeat it in the near future.

But Saturday was the real boat party! Lokesh from KiSS-Events was organizing the Kiss Boat Party and what as party that was!
Around 60 people were on the boat and it was quite amazing! People from all over the globe were there! I had the chance to be with lots of my friends and even, by coincidence, had the chance to meet people that I haven't seen for years!
There was also a DJ on board with a nice sound system and also lots of drinks! The perfect ingredients for a afternoon well spent!
After that the boat there was a get together at the Cafe Werck will all of the people at the party!

Then Portugal lost 3-1 against Germany in the World Cup but that didn't really affect me because after the game I went straight to Vitor's party 2 Club NL and we all had a blast!

The next day was more calm, the weather also wasn't that good so I went with some friends to Westerpark for some drinks and then we watched the World Cup finals at the Cafe Sports in Leidseplein! After the game the Italians were partying like crazy as expected and Leidseplein was some much packed that I couldn't take my Vespa home, it just stayed parked there. Maybe it's not such a bad idea to leave it there actually, it's so close to home and it's always crowded and maybe the wheel of my Vespa won't get stolen anymore :-)

The Next Web

2006-07-06T11:59:00.000+02:00

The Next Web Conference is a conference about the next generation of sites and services on the web, also mentioned as Web 2.0, which is taking place tomorrow the 7th of July 2006.

The cool think about this conference is that this one is in Europe (there are not that many in the Old Continent) and more specific in Amsterdam but what makes it even cooler is the fact that eBuddy - founded by me and my partners - will be one of the featured sponsors. How cool is that?

I'm not sure if I'm going to attend it but I know that my roommate Vitor will be there! You should have seen his face when I told him that my company was sponsoring the event :-)

Maybe he will get some inspiration for the next party he is organizing at Club NL, the next edition of "MY NAME IS ON THE LIST".

bye bye

2006-07-06T11:26:00.000+02:00

Oh well, you can't win them all can you?
Even though Portugal lost the game with France in the semi-final with a solitary goal scored by a penalty kick it was actually pretty good to achieve what Portugal achieved and all the Portuguese should be very proud, I know I am!

But it's not all bad news, I got the new front wheel from my Vespa fixed thanks to the help of my brother Gledison. For those who didn't know, the front wheel of my Vespa was stolen the other day - the price to pay to own a Vespa in the centre of Amsterdam without a garage. (Mental note - find a safe place close to home where I can leave my Vespa)

Sensational

2006-07-04T16:52:00.000+02:00

I think that the guys from ID&T chose the best name for the Sensation party because in fact it gives you a unique feeling, something you've never felt until you experiment it.

The Arena stadium was already packed when I got there (around 12:00am) and it was already pumping hard!

It was quite nice and I most definitely want to go there again, it was a time well spent! I was there with some friends and we all were quite excited and enjoying the most out of it, maybe too much actually :-)

The party went on until 7am and around 8 in the morning I was in bed!
I was pretty tired because that Saturday - if you're not remembered - Portugal played against England and we won!

I saw the game with plenty of other friends of mine and it was a blast! Not only because we won but simply because it was a afternoon well spent!
We all went to the APA (Associação Portuguesa de Amesterdão) where there was a barbecue going on and I ate the first sardines of the year and also a lot of meat (Oh gosh! I missed those bifanas!).

Sunday the weather was still gorgeous and I spent the whole day at the beach!
Another day well spent with my friends, what else can I ask for?
Now lets just hope that it will keep like this for a while!

Enjoy the nice weather!

Ready for tomorrow

2006-06-30T11:44:00.000+02:00

There's a big day coming tomorrow.
Portugal will play against England and Brazil against France and if Portugal and Brazil win they will be playing together in the semi-finals and that's something that doesn't happen very often :-)

The finishing touch it's the Party after that! Tomorrow - the 1st of July 2006 - there's going to be another edition of Sensation White. It's a theme party at the Arena stadium with 40.000 people all dressed in white (I bought my clothes today). Check the photos on the website and you'll see what I'm talking about.

It's going to be my first time but I know for a fact that it's going to be something out of this world! It's not every time that you get the chance to join the biggest indoor dance event in the world is it?
So even if Portugal looses I know it's going to be a nice day but imagine if Portugal and Brazil win! I not even sure if I'm going to be in shape to go to the damn party(!!!) and in case that happens how do you think I'm going to end up?!
Oh gosh! I think it's better not to think about it, tomorrow I'll be going with the flow and we'll see what happens.

Today I'm going to a concert in Paradiso to see Gotan Project!
I hope it's going to be a good one, they usually don't let me down.

neeeeeeeext!!!

2006-06-26T14:12:00.000+02:00

The weekend ended in ecstasy! Portugal defeated Holland in the Last 16 round of World Cup 2006 in Germany.
It wasn't the best game to watch but in the end Portugal beat Holland 1-0 and that's what counts.
It also saved me from a lot of trouble with my Dutch friends and colleagues!
I watch the game in a bar in Westerpark (West Pacific) where they had 2 big screens for the event.
Carla and her friends were there but we managed to meet them only in the second half! The place was packed with Dutchies, as one would expect, but it was easy to spot us, we were the loud little group in the corner shouting for Portugal all the time!
If it was a fair game or not it's not for me to say but what matters is that we were all celebrating, Dutch people included, and it turned out to be quite a nice party.
Next mission is England, everything is possible now!

A day to remember

2006-06-26T13:26:00.000+02:00

I don't think I'll forget this last Saturday for a long while!
Claudia decided to make a surprise for her boyfriend since it was his birthday.
The surprise was to spend a day in a spa resort and it was amazing.
The problem was to find the place, we were a little bit lost for some time but we manage to sort it out but next time Claudia will not be the co-pilot!

It was my first time in a spa resort but it was one with style :-)
A five stars facility with nice people and good infrastructures. We tried almost everything like sauna, pool, jacuzzi, solarium, hidro massage, you name it!
In the end what matters in the fact that we all had a lot of fun just just being together and chilling out.
The weird part was being naked almost all the time but you get used to it and from now on I always want to have dinner in a restaurant just with my robe on, that was quite an experience :-)
We left the resort after 10pm and headed back to Amsterdam. Vitor was once again organizing one of his famous parties @ The Mansion.
Once again he didn't let me down, the party was pretty crowded full of nice people and good music, lets just hope that the air conditioning works better next time, but hey... the girls were almos naked so I can't really complain :-)

After party was @ Escape (no more after parties at home) and lasted until late in the morning but I was almost dead before the end of it so I left earlier! After a day like this there's not much I could do, my body was asking for a bed since I left the spa!

The most important was that Pedro (the birthday guy) had a great day and, from what I heard, lots of friend of mine have many reasons not to forget this Saturday, it was a day full of emotions ;-)

Evil Friday

2006-06-26T11:06:00.000+02:00

Friday I bought my ticket to Dance Valley. it's going to be my first time there, I just hope the weather helps a little bit.
It was a relatively good day so me and some friends started the night in Vondelpark. After a few drinks we went to the "q pasa?" party @ Melkweg and then after-party at home which is probably going to be the last one!
The neighbour downstairs wasn't very happy with all the noise and threatened to call the landlord and tell her all about it to throw us out of the apartment. So this means that I will not be playing guitar too early in the morning, Vitor is not allowed to sing the blues anymore (even without music!!) and Rodrigo will not fall asleep with is helmet on his head again!
I guess now you can see why the neighbors complained ;-)

extra ticket?

2006-06-22T09:47:00.000+02:00

Yesterday it was again one of those days...

It started out with an early SMS in the morning from my friend Zuzana!
She lives in Belgium and she was coming to Amsterdam with 2 other friends from Latvia. The ladies were going to see a Robbie Williams concert and there was an extra ticket around so they invited me to go with them, how could I decline that?!

At first I was a little bit reluctant to the invite. Me in a concert with 3 hysterical girls jumping all the time and shouting for Robbie in my ears. It was a risk I had to take but in the end it was nothing like that, they were all very nice and friendly and it turned out to be a very well spent day.

But first there was time to watch the Portugal-Mexico World Cup match which Portugal won 2-1!
The girls met me at the Sport Cafe and still had time to show them around the city, basic stuff :-) and then we went to the Arena where the concert was going to take place.

I have to say that I'm really not such a big fan of Robbie Williams but at the same time he is in fact a real entertainer. The show itself was pretty good and it turns out that I know more songs that I initially thought I would recognize!

Maybe the best of the whole show for me was the opening band! Basement Jaxx played the first part and they also put up a good show as they always do. The repertoire might not have change much in the last few years but it's always a pleasure to listen to them again.

The Amterdam Arena itself is also an excellent venue to host these kind of events! It's where the Sensation party - the biggest indoor event in the world - takes place and I'm still have hope to go there this year see it with my own eyes.

Happy Birthday Juliana

2006-06-19T11:23:00.000+02:00

This weekend started really well! Friday it was Juliana's birthday party and I simply had one of the best times with most of my friends!
It started out at Vondelpark at the Blue Tea House and moved on to Melkweg and from then on it went wilder then ever as some would say. The after party was at home and lasted until 8am.

Then Saturday Portugal's match took place and since we won (2-0) we started celebrating really soon, I would even say too soon and it had its consequences.
During and after the game we had too many beers and too many shots! Specially after the first goal and it was downhill from then on!

After the game it was time to prepare for the evening. I was going to meet Christina and her friends in the Vondelpark again. She was having a picnic with 7 other girlfriends of her so how could I miss that? :-)

After some drinks we all went to the Zebra Lounge where Vitor had arranged a table for us on the upper floor and once we got there it was party all the time.
I think that Vitor won't forget this party for a long time :-)

As usual there was an after party, this time at Gledison's place. I still had enough strength to play a little bit of guitar but that was it, I was exhausted and with a huge headache (weird no?!) and couldn't take it anymore so I pulled out to the pits and went home because I really needed to rest.

Sunday was a real Sunday, I didn't leave home just stayed home watching movies and soccer and chilling out despite the good weather blazing outside.
Now it's raining again but hopefully it will get better by the weekend because Vitor his having another of his parties at The Mansion and guess who's on the guest list? ;-)

Trip to Cologne

2006-06-13T02:17:00.000+02:00

It's not every day that I can see Angola playing against Portugal in a World Cup event. Since I didn't have a ticket to watch it in the stadium the least I could do was to try to watch it from the closest possible place and where closer than the city itself where the stadium is? So that's what happened I've decided to go watch the match Angola vs Portugal in Cologne, Germany.

If you're wondering why this game is so important to me, well it's because I have very strong bonds with both countries. I was born in Angola and raised in Portugal since I was 3 months old so I felt compelled to go watch the match.
Nuno Sacramento is going with me, he is probably my oldest friend, he is from Mozambique and lives in Utrecht. Bernardo is already there, he and his cousin have tickets for the match but we are going to meet them first in the morning.
I went straight from partying the day before to the train and Nuno jumped on board in Utrecht.

First thing we did in Cologne was to eat sausages and drink beer and we kept doing it for the rest of the day.
The city full of Portuguese and Angolans, it was like walking in the streets of Lisbon you could listen to Portuguese all the time, just amazing
The whole day was great, we ate a lot and drank even more. There was even time for a little soccer game with some Americans from Wyoming. I had a blast indeed and learned that playing soccer when you're drunk might not be the best idea in the world. All I know was that after a quick nap in the grass I felt my sore leg hurting really bad, someone must have kicked me hard in the leg but at the time the alcohol transformed me in superman and apparently nothing could hurt me.

Luckily we were already pretty close to where we were going to watch the game, in a super giant Phillips screen right in the heart of the city.
The match itself wasn't splendid but Portugal won 1-0 which works fine for me! The outcome wasn't really the most important but being there feeling the atmosphere was what counted the most.
I was completely tired by the end of the day but we were still going to meet Bernardo and his cousin to celebrate the victory together. Of course that first we got lost to find our way to Bernardo's hotel. The plan was to sneak into his room and spend the night there but first we went out for some drinks.
You could see lots of people, from all nationalities, on the streets drinking outside and enjoying the lovely weather that we were all blessed with, it's amazing how soccer can bring so many different people together.

In the end we tried to find a decent place opened to shake some ass but It turns out that we were not that lucky and we decided to go back to the hotel and call it a day only to find out the bar at the hotel was booming with life with a nice live band playing some classics from all sort of decades. Ironically that's where we ended up the day after searching for a nice place for hours.

Sleeping at the hotel was probably not the best idea, we had to sleep on the floor (it was a single bed room) and the air co wasn't really working but in the end it was better than nothing, and for that we have to thank Bernardo.
The next day after Bernardo's check out there was time for some more sausages and beers and by the end of the afternoon I was back in Amsterdam ready for another week full of soccer matches to watch :-)

My little dilemma

2006-06-13T00:57:00.000+02:00

Summer is here but who lives in Amsterdam knows that it doesn't last much so people try to take the best advantage out of it and so Saturday I went to Blijburg beach again.
Last time it wasn't very warm but this day it was hot! I even think I got myself a light tan.
As always it starts only with a couple of people and when you look back there's a group of dozen people or more goofing around with each other.
The next thing I know is that everybody is going to Hotel Arena because there's supposed to be a nice party going on that day so from the beach I went straight to Rodrigo's place, took him back to the central station on my Vespa and then straight home to get myself ready to party.
Couldn't complain when I got to Hotel Arena, it turns out that there was only girls going out! In the end it was me Tarcy, Christina, Pernille then Joana, Paula, Maria and her friend (which I don't know how to spell) joined us there! Claudia (who works there) and Carla (another crazy Portuguese girl) also were there and it was a very very crazy night!
After Hotel Arena it was time for the after party then a very very tough decision had to be made. Sunday morning I was going to Germany to watch the World Cup soccer match Angola vs Portugal. This meant that I had to go and leave a bunch of beautiful ladies to move on straight to the central station and catch the train to Cologne where the match was going to be.
It was very very hard to decide but at the same time I couldn't let my friends down, we had this planned already before so I had to be strong.
The train was at 7am so there was only time to get my passport at home and carry on with my Vespa in the red line on the streets of Amsterdam.
I was there on time but I desperately needed to sleep, which was something I didn't do much. Nuno caught the train in Utrecht, we were heading to Cologne to meet Bernardo who was there since Friday already and the real trip started.

My 15 minutes of fame

2006-06-09T17:51:00.000+02:00

I was astonished when yesterday David called me from Portugal to tell me the news. A Portuguese magazine (Sábado) has published an article about me!
Of course I knew about the interview, I had a nice talk with Rita Duarte - a journalist friend of mine - when I was in Portugal on my way to Brazil. I remember that day, it was very sunny and we had the interview outdoors in CCB, right in the heart of Lisbon.
Rita (or Ritinha as we call her) is some sort of freelance journalist and said that she was going to try to sell the interview but that was a few months time ago and apparently last Thursday it went out.
Today I had lots of friends and family calling me and sending me emails and messages even from people that I haven't met in years.
Having an article about me in a magazine is something I thought it would never happen so for me it's a very important occasion and I would like to share it with the world.
I would like to thank Ritinha and Paulo her boyfriend and photografer, for the very work and most of all for the fun we had while doing this!
Catch you guys later!

Good luck Vitor!

2006-06-06T10:23:00.000+02:00

Vitor - my best friend and roommate - is going to be operated today in the OLVG Hospital in Amsterdam.
It's nothing alarming, he has been having a problem since November which prevents him to have a normal diet but he has been under treatment which included other surgeries.
Hopefully today it will be the last time he will have to be cut and if all goes according to plans Vitor will be back home on the same day and he can leave all this behind him.
Looking at the bright side, at least he can enjoy that feeling he so much enjoys when the anesthesia starts to kick in ;-)

Once again, good luck Vitor!

Around the clock

2006-06-06T01:27:00.000+02:00

This weekend was again one of those to remember at least for a long while.
It was a long weekend in The Netherlands since Monday was a national holiday so I had plenty of time to party.

Friday started with dinner at Bernardo's new apartment and I already foresee lots of parties on his terrace! Then party @ Melkweg, the traditional "¿Que Pasa?" party with lots of Latin music. We met Carla and her new roommate from Korea and I have to say that I was very well impressed with the lady ;-)

Saturday I went to Blijburg, an artificial beach in Amsterdam, with Claudia, Vitor and his father that is staying over in our place for a couple of weeks.
Then there was the Super Natural party at Sugar Factory which ended in an after party at a Gledison's place where we ended playing Blues until 10 in the morning. After that, and still not happy, we went to search a real after party which we didn't really find so we decided to go play some pool to pass some time and played until 12, do you think that's normal?! Right, me neither!
I did try to sleep but everyone seemed to want a piece of me that day so I decided to meet some friends at the Vondelpark and try to rest there, which seemed like a good idea until the sun went away and it started to get really chilly.

Later, and innocently, I accepted an invitation for a dinner at Joana's place that eventually became a party and didn't seem to have an end. All of a sudden, the house was full of people and pretty loud music.
All I know is that, still without sleeping, I've ended up in Club NL for the "I Love Sundays" party, and what a party that was! Lots of nice people and music to match! Then, as if I wasn't tired enough, it was time to moved on to the next party at club Exit.

So it's now Monday morning and after the last club Maria (a crazy Spanish girl) offered her place to host the next after party! All I thought at the time was that since I hadn't sleep until then, a couple more hours wouldn't harm anybody right?
Maria has a very nice apartment at Keizergracht and we took the best advantage out of it, again lots of booze and loud music.

Finally around 10am I finally decided to call it a day! My body was begging for some rest which was exactly what happened. Monday was a total relaxed day, it helped me to recover after almost 3 days without sleeping.

In the meanwhile I had lots of time to enjoy my new motorbike while I was going to all these places riding on my Vespa. I love, I love it, I love it!

Now lets just hope that the next few weekends will be more easy on the body (and mind) because, after all, I'm not Superman.

My First Vespa

2006-06-01T23:33:00.000+02:00

I was sick almost all week, I guess that Poland had something to do with. I was feeling a bit better but today I had some great news, my Vespa was ready to pick up! I got the call late in the afternoon and as soon as I could I went to get it! It's my first Vespa (or motorbike for that matter) and I was quite excited about it! It took me a while to get used to it but it turns out to be pretty easy to manage, after some meter I was already feeling like a pro!
It was then time to meet with Vitor, Rodrigo and Cebeludo for our traditional soup meeting and I've decided to surprise them with the new bike.
I still have to pick up the helmet, the one I'm using now I borrowed from the store but hopefully the helmets will be available next week. By then I'll be able to give you a ride if you dare to seat on the my back and me on the wheels ;-)

Nasdrovia @ Wroclaw

2006-05-30T22:10:00.000+02:00

As I expected Poland was just an awesome experience but I guess that the best part was the people I was there with!
Nuno I know him since ages ago so I knew what to expect but Rodrigo and Gledison were quite a revelation, very ++ which didn't surprise me at all.

Everybody was there for the same reason, to have fun and take the best out of this trip that each of us deserved so much.

This road trip started Wednesday, 14th May 2006 at 3am. Rodrigo had picked up the car hours before and we went straight to the Dortmund airport, then we flew to Wroclaw in Poland where we stayed for 4 nights in 2 different hotels.
The first hotel was a bit from the centrum but the last one was the Qubus Hotel (if I'm not mistaken) pretty close to the center, also known as the market area.

That's where you find the best places to go out and needless to say that the only part I knew from the city was the way from the market to the hotel :-)
Daytona and Radio Bar are only some of the clubs you can find but there were plenty more I just can't remember the names of all of them. You can find nice places to eat, to shop, to drink, to dance you name it!

Sergio Castillo was our connection there, it's a good friend of Rodrigo and now I can say that he is my friend as well. He showed us around, told us how things work there, what places to go and things to do and not to do. He was our guide in the night scene, he knows the place upside down. He likes it so much that he left all he had in Sevilla and moved to Wroclaw and started his own business there. He is now my brother too! I totally understand him and I don't blame him at all, I had so much fun with my "brodis" that all I want is to go back whenever I remember that place!

But life goes on, I have the pictures so that I can always remember that special moment and I'm already planning the next one. Rodrigo mentioned Odessa, Ukraine in September to which I replied "why not?", what do you think? ;-)

Poland here we go

2006-05-23T19:29:00.000+02:00

It's Tuesday evening and I'm almost ready to go to Poland, I mean, I don't even have my suitcase ready but I'm almost done with my duties. All I have to to do now is to go home and get myself ready for the trip.

Me, Nuno, Rodrigo and Cabeludo are going to Wroclaw, in southwestern Poland. First we're driving to Dortmund, Germany and then we're flying to Wroclaw. It's supposed to be a nice city according to Rodrigo who claims to have been there 5 times. He was the one organizing most of the trip and the hotels, 5 stars for the brother!

I'll tell you all about it later, right now I'm moving on to prepare myself, at 3am I'll have to meet the guys and them we move on to Germany!

You guys have a nice time and I'll see you back soon!

To Wasp or not to Wasp

2006-05-15T17:09:00.000+02:00

Lots of exciting things have been happening lately but one that stands out from all the others is the fact that I'm made a reservation for a brand new Piaggio Vespa 50 LX2.

I had that idea on the back of my head for a long time and all I needed was a little spark to awake the monster and so it happened. Rodrigo Melo (a guy very ++) has one and he started to talk about it, that it was cool and that I should have one as well and that was it, as soon as I had the chance I went to the store to buy one.

I'm a very impulsive person, sometimes I have these crazy ideas on my mind and if I don't act upon them they will vanish in time but this time I went for it. The following Saturday I went to the Vespa store, pretty close to the Museumplein, with Vitor and I just went wild and ordered one for me!

The most difficult part was to choose the color but I went for the black LX2 50 which was better for the city (or so I was told). Another good thing about these new Vespas is that they can be fully customized with the colors, the fabric, you name it.
So I also decided to go for the back snake skin seat which, I have to say, looks pretty slick.

The bad part about this whole thing is that I have to wait 2 to 3 weeks until the Vespa gets delivered but I have the feeling that it's definitely going to be worth the wait and if anybody want to have a ride just drop me a note :-)

Insane week

2006-05-02T17:06:00.000+02:00

Oh my God! Last week was one of the most insane ever in Amsterdam!
My friends came from Portugal ready to party and I had to keep up! It was quite a mission, going out every single say from Wednesday afternoon until Monday morning.

In the meanwhile there was the Queen's Day Weekend, and what a massive party that was in Amsterdam! It was just out of this world, it seems that it's getting better every year!
All I know is that I don't remember partying so much like this in a long time.
It was great to have David, Diogo and Raquel in town, I had tons of fun with them and I wouldn't mind if all Queen's Day were like this year.
Great parties were going on! It started with the Queen's Night party in front of the office at e-messenger.net. Althought quite cold, the atmosphere was there, it was a great setup with a boat, a DJ and free drinks ;-)
The next day it was even harder. We started partying at 2pm, there were parties everywhere, I know that I ended up in Rembrantplein and Waterlooplein where great parties where going on! After that it was party time in some clubs until the morning.

In the meanwhile Vitor finally moved in to the new apartment so now it's official, a new Era has emerged, and nothing is going to be like it was before :-)

It's time to move (on)

2006-04-24T10:57:00.000+02:00

Sorry guys, I've been away from my blog but hopefully I'll start catching up.
Since I moved to the new apartment things have changed a bit. Actually I didn't finish moving, this is the last week of the month and I still have to move stuff from the old house... I know, my bad! I've been so lazy.
I don't even have my cable sorted out so there's still no TV and no Internet and in a weird way it has been a nice experience, nowadays I thought I couldn't survive so much time offline but I was wrong. Lots of music and Xbox 360 make a perfect alternative :-)

In the meanwhile, the weekends have been very tough! So many things have happened that I don't even remember it all! Three weekends three great parties thanks to Vitor as always.
He organized a party at club NL, then it was his birthday at Zebra Lounge and then again another party at The Mansion, and what a party that was! For some reason I enjoyed this last one a lot more but I'm not gonna tell you why :-P

Now the time has come, I have to finish moving all my stuff before Wednesday!
My very good friend David is coming to Amsterdam from Portugal and by that time I want to have everything worked out, not to mention that Queen's Day is almost knocking at the door! Another big weekend, another BIG party!

Dude, Where's My Car?

2006-04-11T15:49:00.000+02:00

The center of Amsterdam is quite an expensive place to park your car if you don't have a parking permit, it's like 3 EUR per hour.
Since I live in the center and it takes about 5 years to get a parking permit and have a car, I've decided to park the car outside the center where I don't have to pay anything.

The other day I realized that it had been a while since I last saw the "damn" car so, while I was buying some stuff for my new rented apartment, I decided to stop by the parking lot where I last left my car, just near the center of Amsterdam (Sparklerweg).
Me and Vitor, my partner in crime, looked for the car in the parking lot and there was no signs of it, nada, niente! The car was gone, outta there!

Not that it was a very big surprise, the car was old and had the right rear wheel punctured, but what was amazing was that I didn't know anything about it, who took it, where is it, does the police have it stacked at some dump or it was just stolen?

Oh well, I still don't know if I should get angry or happy about it. The truth is that I didn't use it that often since I started to work in Amsterdam again so they might have just made me a favor.
But at the same time it reminds of very good times I've spent with it, riding the roads with the top down and feeling the wind right in your head!

If you never drove a convertible, you should at least try it once. Just go for a road trip with yours friends or family and you'll have an experience you'll never forget :-)

My name was on the list

2006-04-03T18:54:00.000+02:00

Oh my gosh! These last few days have been pretty hectic!
First I started the moving operation to the new apartment! Friday I got the keys and started moving some of the stuff to the new house. It's getting there but I still have until the end of the month to finish everything so no hurries.
Then that evening it was party, party, party! It was the best way to celebrate the occasion.

But if I want to talk about partying I have to talk about Saturday. "My Name Is On The List" was a party organized/promoted by Vitor, my very good friend and new room mate.
Like the name says, you had to be on the list to get in the party at club NL.
The party was just amazing, I had tons of fun! The place is very nice although it can get pretty busy at the dance floor. The music was awesome as well (if you like dance/house music) and it had all the ingredients to be a great party and it was!
I saw people I hadn't seen in ages, met some nice people too and maybe I'll have the chance to go out on a date soon again, do you think she will call? ;-)
Anyway thanks Vitor, for sure it was a great party, everybody is talking about it and I wish we'll have the chance to have a couple more like this one, Good Luck!

Sunday was definitely more relaxed but still I went to bed pretty late so this week I promised to take it slow... ehrrr, did I mentioned I had my fingers crossed? :P

Ahahahah, catch you later!

Mono-what?!

2006-03-28T16:12:00.000+02:00

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

2006-03-23T22:03:00.000+01:00

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

2006-03-20T16:34:00.000+01:00

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 ;-)