I'm the (Wo)Man Who Loves You

All I can see is black and white
And white and pink with blades of blue
That lay between the words I think on a page
I was meaning to send to
You I couldn't tell if it'd bring my heart
The way I wanted when I started
Writing this letter to you

But if I could you know I would
Just hold your hand and you'd understand
I'm the man who loves you

All I can be is a busy sea
Of spinning wheels and hands that feel for
Stones to throw and feet that run but
Come back home
It made no difference
Ever known, it made no difference
Ever known to me

But if I could you know I would
Just hold your hand and you'd understand
I'm the man who loves you

All I can see is black and white
And white and pink with blades of blue
That lay between the words I think on a page
I was meaning to send to
You I couldn't tell if it'd bring my heart
The way I wanted when I started
Writing this letter to you

But if I could you know I would
Just hold your hand and you'd understand

If I could you know I would
Just hold your hand and you'd understand

If I could you know I would
Just hold your hand and you'd understand

I'm the man who loves you
I'm the man who loves you
I'm the man who loves you
I'm the man who loves you

"In My Time Of Need"

Will you comfort me, in my time of need?
Can you take away the pain of a hurtful deeds?
Cause when we need it most, there's no rain at all
And the dust just settles right there on the feed

Will you say to me a little rains gonna come
When the sky can't offer none to me
Cause I will come for you
When my days are through
And I'll let your smile just off and carry me

Cause when the calm comes down
I take the truck on into town
And buy whatever we can't seem to grow
I work these hands to bleed cause I got mouths to feed
And I got 15 dollars hid above the stove

Will you say to me a little rains gonna come
When the sky can't offer none to me
Cause I will come for you
When my days are through
And I'll let your smile just off and carry me

Cause it ain't like it was on back in those days
When everyone would offer up a hand
These old bones are worn
I've grown tired some
And I know my time is surely gonna come

Will you comfort me in my time of need
Can you take away the pain of hurtful deeds
Cause I will comfort you when my days are through
And I'll let your smile just off and carry me

Lord we married young and stayed where we came from
And gave those children everything we had
Will you stay with me, in my time of need?
Though it seems we had such little time for us

Will you say to me a little rains gonna come
When the sky can't offer none to me
Cause I will come for you
When my days are through
And I'll let your smile just off and carry me

Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker

Lisboa Soundz

Thank God Rock n’ Roll exists, at least for some hours we may forget our tedious lives… Last year I missed Franz Ferdinand and this year I have the chance of seeing them and Mogwai for the first time, can anything could life be any better for a few hours this night? ;)

Auf Achse - Franz Ferdinand

You see her, you can't touch her
You hear her, you can't hold her
You want her, you can't have her
You want to, but she won't let you
You see her, you can't touch her
You hear her, you can't hold her
You want her, you can't have her
You want to, but she won't let you

She's not so special so look what you've done, boy
She's not so special so look what you've done, boy
She's not so special so look what you've done, boy
She's not so special so look what you've done

Now you wish she'd never come back here again
Oh, never come back here again

You see her, you can't touch her
You hear her, you can't hold her
You want her, you can't have her
You want to, but she won't let you

You see her, you can't touch her
You hear her, you can't hold her
You want her, you can't have her
You want to, but she won't let you

She's not so special so look what you've done, boy
She's not so special so look what you've done, boy
She's not so special so look what you've done, boy
She's not so special so look what you've done

Now I'm nailed above you
Gushing from my side
It's with your sins that you have killed me
Thinking of your sins I die
Thinking how you'd let them touch you
How you'd never realise
That I'm ripped and hang forsaken
Knowing never will I rise
AgainYou still see her

Oh, you hear her
You want her
Oh, you want to
You see her
You still hear her
You want her
You still want to

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - 5 STARS

As much as I love to go to the movies, the truth is that I don’t really go too regularly. Rio Maior doesn’t have a movie theater and the closest ones have only very mainstream movies, most that are not worth the cost of gas and of the ticket. Then company isn’t something I’ve very often, I suppose it’s one of the few disadvantages of not having a boyfriend.

In Lisbon I face once again the problem of not having any company to go, but as soon as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory started showing in our movie theaters in Lisbon I went straight away to see the movie, all by myself (something I really loath). But after all it’s the 4th partnership between Tim Burton (one of my favorite directors) and Johnny Depp (my favorite actor ever since I saw Edward Scissorhands and I absolutely loved Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepyhollow (for me one of Tim Burton’s masterpieces) and now Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

You will be astonished visually with all the magnificent sets of the movie; Johnny Depp is amazing, as usual, it’s impossible not to love Will Wonka, despite of the fact that he really doesn’t like people and doesn’t worry about what happens to the misbehaved children, although they deserve their punishments and they are quite hilarious ;) After all if it weren’t for those scenes we wouldn’t have the chance of seeing the little Oompas dancing and singing quite psycadelic songs.

I’ve never had the chance of reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but it’s a most read in my list. From what I’ve read Tim Burton was very faithful to the original book, except that he added some background to Will Wonka so we could better understand the character. You can see that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s minds ran wild, they left their imagination guide them, with imagination as the limit. For me it’s a Oscar nominee film, unfortunately I think neither Johnny Depp neither Tim Burton will finally receive it, but then Hollywood never could see true talent and genius…

Citizen Cane

Johnny Depp, Hollywood's hottest eccentric, meets his match playing Willy Wonka in Tim Burton's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.' How sweet is that?
By Sean Smith
Newsweek

July 4 issue - Playing Willy Wonka is not for the timid. It requires courage, imagination and flawless fashion sense. "I like these heels," Johnny Depp says, pulling up his pant cuff to reveal a sleek boot emblazoned with a swirly W. "I wanted Wonka to be this long, string-beany kind of figure, and give him these unbelievable cha-cha heels." It's late September, on a soundstage outside London, and Depp is taking a break in the inventing room of Wonka's factory. Nearby, director Tim Burton sets up for the scene in which gum-smacking Violet Beauregarde will meet a violet end. "This is our fourth movie together," Depp says. "I'm so honored that he asked me to play Wonka. I just hope I'm in the right arena here. My first concern is always, 'Jesus, I don't want to let Tim down'." Or the rest of the world, for that matter.

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is a movie that divides people even before they've seen it. Stand in any theater lobby near the film's poster—with Depp in his merlot velvet coat and top hat—and the passing comments soon take on a consistent rhythm. For every person who cheers "I can't wait!" another jeers "How dare they?" The 1971 film version of Roald Dahl's classic children's book, starring Gene Wilder, was not a box-office hit, but through television and video it has become a Gen-X fave. On the other hand, the Wilder movie was not quite faithful to Dahl's book, which has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide, and it was made on the cheap by a food company eager to use it as a tool to sell candy bars. "People want to pit the two movies against each other and turn this into 'Celebrity Deathmatch'," says an exasperated Burton. "Like we're wiping out three generations of childhood memories. It's not like we're burning DVDs of the old movie. Anybody who loves it can watch it."

Dahl himself, who died in 1990, did not love the old movie. There were changes to his screenplay that he didn't approve of, but mainly, says his widow, Liccy Dahl, "there was a falling-out over the casting. Roald was desperate for Wonka to be played by an English comedian named Spike Milligan. You may not be old enough to know who Spike Milligan was, but he was an amazing, incredible man." The filmmakers humored Dahl—"'lip service' I think you call it in L.A.," Liccy says—and auditioned Milligan, but cast Wilder instead. The author never quite forgave that slight. After Dahl's death, Liccy took over his estate, and has exercised exacting control over film adaptations of his work. When Warner Bros. first approached her eight or nine years ago about making a new film version of "Charlie," she turned them down. "I'm always a little bit worried about remakes," Liccy says. "I wasn't convinced it was the right thing to do." Armed with script, director and star approval, she put the studio through its paces for years.

For the uninitiated, "Charlie" is the story of Charlie Bucket—a boy with a loving family so poor that they live on cabbage soup—who, along with four other kids, wins a tour of a chocolate factory belonging to the famed, reclusive genius Willy Wonka. Inside is a wondrous new world, with a chocolate river and mysterious little people called Oompa-Loompas. That's not to say that life is sweet. The four other children—Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet and Mike Teavee—are punished in thrillingly bizarre ways for (respectively) gluttony, greed, gum-chewing and obsessive TV-watching. Charlie, meanwhile, is not handsome or rich or smart, but simply honorable. "The whole point of Charlie is that he's not really that special," Burton says. "He's like most of us, who no one would remember from school."

Burton is a visionary in the plain, old dictionary definition of the word: he actually has a vision. His movies—"Batman," "Edward Scissorhands" and "Sleepy Hollow," among them—are utterly distinctive, not just because they're often paeans to eccentric, deeply sensitive loners, but because they're so visually rich and minutely imagined. When Burton took "Charlie" on, he wanted to remain as faithful to Dahl's book as possible (with a few tweaks, of course), and ordered up a new screenplay from John August, who'd just written his film "Big Fish." "I have always been obsessed by 'Charlie'," August says. "In the third grade I actually wrote a fan letter to Dahl, and I got a postcard back from him. I still have it."

Now all Team Charlie needed was a star. Depp had met Liccy Dahl years earlier at a fund-raising dinner held at the country home of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. (Depp had been invited at the last minute by a Warner Bros. executive. "We twisted some arms to get his security check done in two days," says Liccy. "Actually, I wasn't certain they would let him in. He had a slight reputation, you know.") Liccy had also been intrigued by the thought of casting Daniel Day-Lewis or Kevin Spacey. But Depp had a long history with Burton and, after years of being a critical darling but a box-office deadbeat, had suddenly become bankable after "Pirates of the Caribbean." "It was the first time I didn't have to talk a studio into him," Burton says. "It was like he'd landed on the planet for the first time! He's been doing f---ing great work for years, but ... whatever. I guess it's all box office for them." To offer Depp the part, Burton invited him to dinner without telling him why. "I think I let him finish half a sentence," Depp says, laughing, "and I just went, 'I'm in. I'm there.' I hadn't even seen a script."

Now for the tricky part: how was Depp going to play Wonka? No matter what one thinks of the 1971 film, Wilder played the candy man with an avuncular weirdness and a real warmth. Depp, never one to imitate, had to take a different path. First, he and Burton chose to give Wonka a backstory, making him the son of a dentist, who—because he never got to eat sweets—became estranged from his father and obsessed with candy. Over the years, Wonka has become not just reclusive, but almost autistic in his inability to connect with others. "He's not a father figure—he's a mess," Burton says. "There are lots of people who are geniuses in one area, but have complete deficiencies in other areas of their lives."

To build the character, Depp began thinking about the kind of folks who host game shows and children's TV programs. "Not like Captain Kangaroo, but like that guy on the local cable station in Podunk, Idaho," Depp says. "Wonka had sheltered himself from the outside world, and television would have been a good friend to him." Depp also decided to make Wonka a perfectionist and a germ-a-phobe. As for his look, that flawless pale skin, perfect pageboy and slightly feminine air have had some people wondering whether Depp found inspiration in Michael Jackson. "That never crossed my mind," he says. "I never thought about it once, honestly. But it's interesting, people's perceptions."

The trailers for "Charlie" have already given audiences a sense that Depp's Wonka may be a love-it-or-hate-it proposition. That should please Depp, an actor who's beloved precisely because he's a sworn enemy of the obvious and expected. But will audiences be able to warm to a character who, by design, doesn't really warm to anyone? "I remember getting notes on the script that said, 'We have to find a connection between Charlie and Willy Wonka'," Burton says. "No, that's the whole point. Willy Wonka doesn't like children or parents—or people." He laughs. "His journey is from disconnection to connection."

Warner Bros. is betting about $150 million that that journey will connect with families. There's no doubt that the movie's got plenty of eye candy to keep everyone entertained—the first 30 minutes of the film alone are as gorgeous, pointedly funny and transporting as anything Burton's directed. Liccy Dahl is thrilled with the film and says her late husband "would have adored it." She's happy with Depp's performance, too, although she admits she doesn't quite understand the actor's sex appeal. "Women just adore him, don't they?" she says. "I have to be honest, I think he's a little too pretty. Terribly nice, but he's no Robert Mitchum."

In the end, kids will decide the film's fate. If Freddie Highmore, who plays Charlie, is any indication, they'll have no trouble selling tickets. "People say 'Do you like chocolate?' and I say 'It's fantastic!'" says the 13-year-old, who also starred with Depp in "Finding Neverland." "But I think Johnny's even more fantastic than chocolate."
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
© 2005 MSNBC.com

Depp Dish - Newsweek

"Johnny holds forth on Wonka, Bugs Bunny and why being weird works."


SMITH: You've been in the Bahamas shooting two sequels to "Pirates of the Caribbean." How's that going?

DEPP: You know, quite a bit of traveling and a lot of swashbuckling. But it's good for a man to buckle his swash every now and then.

When you made the first "Pirates," your performance worried studio executives. That happened again when Warner Bros. first saw you as Willy Wonka. What gives?
At the beginning of the shoot we weren't getting phone calls from the studio that said, "We're freaked out." And that freaked me out. It's important to try something new each time out of the gate. So I'm kind of glad they were freaked out.

What was the hardest part about figuring out how you were going to play such an iconic character?
Early on, the hardest part was trying to erase any memory I had of the 1971 film with Gene Wilder. And then you go, "Christ, I can't erase it, so I'll just have to make a very, very sharp left turn."

You and director Tim Burton have made several movies together. Did you assume he'd ask you to play Wonka?
I was stunned. Tim and I have had this long relationship, and he's fought some brave and noble battles [to cast Depp in his movies], but I didn't think they would ever come to me for a project this size. I was ecstatic, man. I was doing Snoopy dances.

But after the success of "Pirates," why wouldn't the studio want you for this?

That didn't even cross my mind. I just don't think in those terms, you know? I'm so used to living the way I've been living—I do what I do, and people get it or they don't. All the little films I've done that were perceived by Hollywood as these obscure, weird things, I always thought could appeal to a larger audience. I mean, box office is such a mystery to me that I can't... you know... I have enough —trouble doing my own gig.

Still, it must have felt good to have your work seen and loved by so many people.

I had never experienced anything like that—where you meet a 75-year-old woman who had seen "Pirates" and somehow related to the character, and then five minutes later you meet a 6-year-old who says, "Oh, you're Captain Jack!" What a rush. What a gift. That's the challenge with Wonka, too—to be, in a sense, like Bugs Bunny. I find it magical that a 3-year-old can be mesmerized by Bugs, but so can a 40-year-old or an 80-year-old. It's a great challenge to see if you can appeal to that huge an age range.

Years ago, when you first became famous on the TV show "21 Jump Street," Hollywood wanted to make you into the next pretty-boy star, and you rebelled.

I was not a dummy. That show put me on the map, and I realized the opportunity that I had been given, but I couldn't... I just couldn't be what they wanted me to be. It ran against every cell in my body. It was killing me. I had to say, "F—- it. I'm going to go in this direction, and if I fail, I fail."

Since you and Tim have been friends for so many years, I'd imagine that the two of you must be able to complete each other's sentences.

Oh, yeah. Tim will say, "And then we went, and there was that, you know, whatever, so what could I do?" And I go, "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean." [Laughs]

When you're working together, do you ever think, "This is too weird, even for us"?

Definitely. Things get weirder and weirder, then one of you says, "Let's try that!" And then you look at each other and go, "I don't know, man, maybe not."

Did your kids come to the "Charlie" set?

They went crazy. They tried on the hat and the glasses and wanted to play with the candy cane. They loved seeing the giant chocolate waterfall. Every day it felt like walking onto the set of "The Wizard of Oz."

Has the studio talked to you about doing "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator"?

No, but it should be done. There's a lot more fun stuff in there, and I'm certainly game.

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

One of my favorite directors, the great genius called Tim Burton! Isn’t it obvious in this photo? All geniuses have a little of a mad man in themselves, as well as a child ;)

I know it’s an obsession but who can resist to this jaw line, those lips, especially with a smile on them, those auburn eyes, so much madness and with so good damn style? ;)

The mad man responsible for the rather psycadelic music of the movie: Danny Elfman, but Oompas wouldn’t have worked as true Oompas without it.

Freddie Highmore, a young actor to definitely follow his career, at least from what I’ve seen in Finding Neverland and now Charlie and the Charlie Factory.

Once again Portugal is suffering the mistakes of year after year of neglect, not only by the owners of abandoned propreties but in a big part due to the incompetence of government after government! Our land is completely dry (we've hardly had rain since last August, the last time Portugal had sucha severe draught was about 60 years ago)!

Too little for so many fires...

Impotence and exhausting, just 2 of the strongest feelings living in the heart of every fireman of Portugal...

Houses have been burnt...

and lives have been lost... It's just a pity that those who have set the fires didn't burn alive instead of poor innocent people who were just trying to save their lifes even when it was impossible to save their most precious belongings (even if your house is not worth your life, but seeing it burning down and not being able to do anything must feel like you are losing everything)...

Although my house has loads of houses in my neighbourhood it still beats Lisbon in a bit of green just next door with birds singing everyday and stealing food from mine ;)

Mitsy has already recovered from her drastic haircut, as you can see she is once again all fluffy ;)

Paredes de Coura

The best summer festival this year in Portugal, just ended in the beautiful Paredes de Coura (http://www.paredesdecoura.com) if you don’t believe it just take a look at the bands that performed there:

Monday (15th August): Sons and Daughters, Trailer Trash, Zig Zag Warriors

Tuesday (16th August): MXPX, Death from Above 1979 (the newspapers said it was an excellent concert), !!! (considered the best of the night), Kaiser Chiefs (the vocalist did so much exercise ;) that he twisted an ankle and continued the rest of the concert dancing but full of pain), The Bravery and Foo Fighters

Wednesday (17th August): The Future Heads, Hot Hot Heat, The Arcade Fire (some considered it the best concert of the whole festival some were expecting another thing, because many times a single doesn’t resume a band), The Roots, QOTSA and Pixies (for many fans the concert of the festival)

Thursday (18th August): The National, Killing Joke, Juliette and the Licks, Vincent Gallo and the great Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (I suppose from what I’ve heard the best concert of the day)

And me? I had to work, so I missed some more great bands this year…

But next weekend I’m going to have Franz Ferdinand and Bunnyranch so let’s rock n’ roll!!! And on the 20th of November Sigur Rós and Jonh Cale on the 5th of October!

Damaia...

Last Thursday I was told I’ve to leave Amadora’s bank agency to go to Damaia’s one (2 train station stops before Amadora) for all I can guess, 1 month and some days… All would be fair and well if the part of Damaia I’m going to wasn’t worse than the area that I was in Amadora. I keep on saying that they just don’t send me to Cova da Moura (kind of a Bronx in NYC) because, naturally, there are no banks operating in that neighborhood…

Oh, well… The good news are that I’ve finally managed to find a room in Sete Rios, the area I really wanted to live, for reasons only I know ;) But it’s a great area, quiet, full of families, students and old people, hardly any insecurity, the train, subway and buses, less than a 5 minute walk away and in my favorite subway line (the blue one). I’m moving in on the 1st of September and I’m going to live with a teacher and a nurse.

So this week I can finally start to find some information on Spanish classes and swimming pools, although I think I’ll wait a while before enrolling either as hope is the last to die and I would rather prefer to live in Montijo or Oeiras and have there my classes ;) Well better saying I would really prefer to keep on living in Sete Rios, but if I get to work in Oeiras or Montijo gas would make that option impossible to afford…

No posts for so long...

Yeah, I know it’s been a long time and now I’ve hardly anytime to say all that has happened!
Last weekend I was in Sudoeste, the biggest summer festival in Portugal (although not with the best set line this year, as the fact that I saw nearly all the concerts in the secondary stage and not the main stage proves)! Well as I didn’t take any photos here goes the link to my favorite blog http://eunaovoulermais.blogspot.com

I was able to see some great concerts, but as they were mainly in the secondary stage I found them too short :( Anyway, LCD Soundsystem, Peaches, Josh Rouse, Devendra Bahart, Wraygunn, The Kills are all highly recommended so if you have a chance to see them don’t miss them! And Peaches is my kind of woman Hell to Man and their Pussy Sexuality that can’t Handle a True Woman and let’s Rock n’ Roll ;)

Now the down part of my life, I’ve just ended two months of training at CGD (the biggest retail bank in Portugal) and unfortunately the more I get to see how an agency works and how difficult it is to climb the institutional ladder the more depressed I get… At the bright side, at least I know I was right; the last place in earth I want to work in my field is in a bank! If you want a job that makes more stupid everyday, working in a bank agency is the right choice, for the next months I’ll have to endure 7 hours standing per day doing stupid, tedious tasks, where the most interesting part of the job is helping and listening to customers (mainly old people that don’t know how to do certain operations at the ATM’s or actualizing their extract little books – Portuguese know what I’m talking of). Then if I’m lucky I’ll start to open and close bank accounts and if I’m even unluckier I’ll do cashier work and pay from my own pocket every time I’m short of money at the end of the day…

What’s worse is that as I see the other tasks that the other people perform in the agency I fell more desperate as basically they only do prints of information they have available in the intranet, already prepared centrally, ready to print and send the customers prints with their current address and identification numbers so that the regions decide whether or not to approve a certain operation. Can you imagine 45 years of doing prints for the rest of your life, no effort made, specially intellectually, somebody has already thought and decided for you, so your main task is selling banking products to customers, for laughable rewards and on top of all I get to earn in the first 2 years some meager 800 euros per month while living in Lisbon and wasting at least 300 euros in accommodation (and that doesn’t include food and transportation, never mind entertainment or education or sports). So I won’t be able to do big savings, I’m doing the sacrifice of working for working for a job I despise…

I still don’t have a place to live in Lisbon, maybe only for October, and if I waited for my employer to tell me where I was going to stay, not even then I would know as the told me this week to basically fuck off and that they couldn’t see what was the problem of me not knowing where I was going to work in the next months, so that I could find a room in the area. Basically I found a room for October and if they send me too far I will tell them to fuck off as I’m a human being not a bloody number or piece of shit that they can trample. You know what’s worse they told me there were no vacancies close to my hometown and the following day I find out that there was at least one!

So please light up some candles and pray for me, so that I can land with a job in P&G or Diageo, otherwise… ;)

Finally the day came!

Although hardly only a few people appeared (shame on the people who say they are Paulo’s friends, because they proved just how much he means to them and it’s revolting after witnessing how much he supported and gave himself to those supposed friends), it was a magical night, at least for me!

Seeing him doing his DJ set with that little sparkle in his eyes and that certain smile in his lips is was well worth it! The music was extraordinary, but after all one of my dreams is opening a bar and having him as the resident DJ, finally I would start to enjoy music, in my favorite bar, with my favorite DJ playing! He has always had a fantastic taste in music and I know no other with so much passion for music and so much knowledge about it!

In that aspect he has always been my master, even if sometimes he doesn’t introduce me to some bands/music but we find out that a certain song we heard and enjoyed is enjoyed by both of us! Some people think I follow he’s tastes blindly, as if it was impossible that two friends could enjoy the same music, be moved by the same tune! The ones who criticize are the ones that don’t know the power of a great guitar players or songwriter or musician, they have never felt tears dropping of pure happiness or sadness when you hear some songs or how amazing is seeing some of your favorite bands playing for you, right in front of you and totally devoted to the music/performance that so much moves all the nerves of our body and ultimately, if they are really good our heart and passion…

It’s a passion we share, although his passion his much bigger and he at least tries to play a guitar (everyday better and better)! So it was a magical night listening to the music he choose, seeing him changing the CD’s and above all seeing him fulfilling a long time dream!

The night was only ruined by the lack of so called friends, although I know that those that showed up were much appreciated, but I’m still revolted that long time so called friends didn’t appear… And of course the other guy who was sharing the DJ set also ruined completely the show as he got drunk and didn’t give a dam to those that were watching their performance or even to the owner of the bar were they played!

Congratulations anyway, I hope you weren’t disappointed, I know I wasn’t!

Paulo and his Number One Fan! 

For You!



Sorry about the "," it was black (doing a little cheating so there was not to much space between sentences however the man who did the print fixed the spaces and changed everything to red) ;) 

Não se esqueçam! É já na próxima sexta-feira ;) 

Once again al-Qaeda...

"They are trying to use the slaughter of innocent people to cow us, to frighten us out of doing the things that we want to do"
Tony Blair

Unfortunately, al-Qaeda has strike again, once again my heart aches because the world isn’t able to destroy those that have destroyed so many lives and left behind so much pain! As much as I try I can’t understand why? Why kill innocent people? Why?

We and when I say We I mean all of us and not only the heads of all the governments in the world, must do something to destroy this monster… We cannot keep on feeding feelings of hatred and racism; we cannot keep on repelling those that have as their only wish to give a better quality of life of their families!

We must end with this stupid contradiction of wanting to end poverty in the world and at the same time wanting to have all foreigners expelled from our country or that, for example, our agriculture keeps on being protected from international products (harming millions of Africans and other people in developing countries)!

At the same time we cannot expect total forgiveness of the developing countries’ debt, because many, if not most of the African countries, have corrupt rulers who have used the money, with which they indebted their country, to enrich themselves, starving their population, killing them with AIDS (as none of that money was used to disseminate and protect their population) and by arming militias that protect them by killing innocent people in a very barbaric manner…

I want a better world to raise my children, I can’t understand evil, I can’t understand how a human being can be evil! Just the thought of harming another human being makes me highly nauseous… Sometimes I think that the method used in the Electrical Orange (at least that is the literal translation of the book’s name in Portuguese) would be the perfect solution, because maybe sometimes some people don’t deserve to have the freedom of will, if their nature is so evil, they don’t deserve to choose whether or not to kill and harm innocent people…

One thing I’m sure of nobody deserves what happened, no matter what your governments do, we are not our government and even if our government takes the course of goodness and justice, it will be worthless if the people, those that have elected those governments, don’t change their own minds, opinions and beliefs. We have the power to change the world, we have the power of our number and if we unite our governments will have to satisfy our demands for a better world, a world were I won’t have to live in fear of not seeing, once again, the face and the smile of those that I love most!

And for those who have never understood why I defend Blair and Bush sometimes, I once again say it’s who I’m, always trying to be fair, always trying to understand both sides and never be an extremist! Today, I’ll criticize Bush, because I have always loathed him although I think he took some good decisions. It was highly disgusting to see Bush speaking of freedom and fighting for human rights when everybody knows what USA has done at Guatanamo!

Yes, terrorist don’t deserve mercy when they can’t show any mercy for the loved ones we have lost, but one of the cores of our society, of our beliefs is that everybody is innocent until proven guilty, sometimes the proofs are there, unmistakably in front of our eyes, but when those proofs have been hidden and we must investigate to find them if they exist, we should not treat the suspect as a terrorist, we should respected human rights because maybe we are facing an innocent, not a guilty. Fighting terrorism doesn’t justify everything, even if it’s al-Qaeda.

For Londoners here goes my wish of strength and hope, specially for those who have lost loved ones, we must show our strength so al-Qaeda doesn’t win, we can’t succumb to their attempt of making us live with a permanent feeling of fear and terror, we must show them that we’re stronger than them! I know it’s so much easier when I live in a “corner of heaven” and I’ve lost none of my loved ones, but for me fighting for freedom and a better world for our children is worth it all…

It's kind of ironic that now that Blair and Bush were proposing to forgive the debt of the least corrupt developing countries, this happens, not even when they are doing something right al-Qaeda stops, what moral does it have to demand what it demands?

Finally a well earned weekend...

Classes/training finished 2 hours late, as usual, on top of all on a Friday and this time I didn’t have my usual healing at the end of the day (although it has as a consequence very few hours of sleep and people asking me why I’m so pale ;) But without this certain spiritual healing I couldn’t do this…

Now happy stuff, I bought this week nearly all the albums I still didn’t have of Beck (only One Foot in the Grave wasn’t at site, but 45 euros was a total madness on only one day and with no salary to smooth stuff) and here comes the really sad thing! Yes, once again! Tomorrow Mr. Beck is performing at Festival da Ilha do Ermal and tomorrow, or better saying, today is Sunday and Ilha do Ermal is about 5 hours, by car, from Lisbon! Unfortunately, Beck will start most probably at 1 o’clock in the morning and I’ve training at 9 o’clock in the morning so as you can guess there won’t be any Beck for me… :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

Although I still doubt it, because somehow Beck as forgotten that he’s playing there because if you check his site you can see that his last gig is at Spain (http://www.beck.com/tour/index.php) not Portugal and the webmaster never forgets to put our country down… But that is wild dreaming, as well as dreaming that he’ll come soon to Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon… My only fear is that tomorrow he’ll see so few people at the festival that he may think that we no longer enjoy him and that it’s not worth coming back… It’s the second concert I miss in a row and what’s hard is knowing I could have gone to the last, but sometimes you just have to do some huge sacrifices… Maybe I’ll grab one of these days a plane to London, with my best friend, and see him there, preferably at a small club! Oh, well dreaming does no harm, does it? Here goes his new video (http://www.beck.com/news) and I really hope people enjoy the one of the best concerts of their life in a few hours, I can only be there in spirit and hoping that my favorite radio (http://www.antena3.pt/) can transmit the concert, hopefully all the concert…

With loads of technical problems but at least it’s a post...

Ok, so for those who visit this blog regularly and I know they are very few, not even a certain person does so, and here is the latest news about me.

Well as you can read some posts below I started a job recruitment process on the 15th of June and after doing IQ tests and a job interview that day, I had to do another job interview the following day for the same company. The company was CGD, witch is the biggest bank in Portugal (it’s still public and all the public employees where forced, until some years ago, to open an account at CGD).

This all to say that on the 17th of June I answered a phone call in the morning which ended up being from CGD. They wanted to know if I wanted to sign a one-year contract with them and it was to start on the 20th of June that is 2 days after! And this all happened last week! As the job is being a cashier and who ever knows me well knows that (after my previous job experience at Caldas da Rainha, which only had my colleague as a very positive aspect) the worst thing I could ever possibly imagine me doing is being behind a balcony selling credit cards and insurance, specially to Portuguese who are already full of debt (they are using 117 or 115% of their salary). After all if it was selling stuff people actually needed…

On top of all I received an offer from Vodafone, but I had to refuse it although the internship was in the marketing department, but 600 euros, that would be only 470 or less euros per month after paying taxes and a highly unstable and fragile job position (no contract signed, it would be kind of a free lance job but with all the obligations of a employee and none of the benefits), would make it impossible for me to live in Lisbon and have money to eat at the end of the month.

I took the hardest decision of my life; I gave up all my dreams, because unless I can get a job soon in marketing it will be better to give up, as afterwards for all the marketing positions available in the future I will lack the most important job characteristic: marketing experience… I’ve given up my dream of working in development projects in Africa, now marketing, so goodbye professional realization, as another dream would be opening my own company but in Portugal that would mean bankruptcy at that takes all the fun of it…

On the bright side, I’m a women and, at least I think so, fertile, so if I can at least fulfill my dream of being a mother and I can feed my children then will have reached happiness!

Ok, now the job at CGD. Well I’ve started classes this Monday, just talking about the bank, how it works, what to do when the agency is robbed, which banking products and services exist, how the financial markets and the banking sector works (loads of the theoretical stuff are a revision from university, but then the bank procedures are not so I’ve to learn that). My colleagues are very nice, some more then others, and it has been tiring but fun, but only because of them and I’ll end up learning lot’s of stuff about banks, for example how they con and deceive us ;)

I’m still hoping I’ll be able to get into P&G as a marketing assistant, but only in a few weeks I’ll find out…

Updates only next weekend

But I can say it's because of a job offer I accepted and because I don't have net at my cousin's house...

Change of plans...

Sorry but I have 2 interviews, one tomorrow, the other on Friday, in Lisbon, so blogging will have to be left for the weekend, when I return from Lisbon (I think staying in Lisbon for the next 2 days will be cheaper for my dear car, poor thing it has worked a lot this week ;)

Just a quickie...

Tomorrow yet more IQ tests for yet another Job process (in this case the biggest bank in Portugal, but for a job as a cashier) and then helping my father so hopefully you’ll have some more news tomorrow/Thursday, I promise ;)

After all I've a higher IQ than I thought I had ;)

That’s it I passed to the second phase of yesterday’s job recruitment process! I kind of think, it is more a question of practice at so many job recruitment processes, as I had already done some of those exercises at other recruitment processes. Oh, well, that means I’ll get lost once again on Monday (if you ever drive in Porto you will understand why I’ll probably get lost twice ;)

The company is Lactogal and it's the leader in dairy products here in Portugal.

More of the same and getting lost ;)

Yesterday guess where I went? Ya, you got it right: yet another job recruitment process. This time it was only IQ tests but this time it had a twist and I’m not talking of the sets of drawings in which you have to guess the picture that is missing ;)

The twist was that it was in Vila do Conde, Oporto and guess you got lost on the way! Me, of course, but until you drive in Porto without having any knowledge of the city nor having a map recorded in your brain you would easily do the same has I did. My father’s GPS didn’t work until I got to Porto, and that was only when I got to Porto for the second time, as Porto has no road signs pointing to Vila do Conde so I was looking for roads I remember seeing in Auto Route the previous day. As IC1 is a road that nearly crosses the whole country, it was not a good guiding point and on top of all I couldn’t find a sign pointing to the airport, so I ended up going to IC2 to get to IC1 (which I didn’t find) and suddenly I’m starting to see signs for A29 – Espinho (if you see the Portuguese map, you can see that first you have Espinho, then Porto and then Vila do Conde, so I was going backwards).

Of course, by this time I was panicking as I had lost already 40 minutes trying to make the GPS work during the way and I only had 20 minutes to get to Vila do Conde at time, I really wanted to phone a certain person, but I ended up getting calm and phoning my Daddy as he had Auto Route in his computer and he is an Ace in traffic orientation. With my father’s directions I got back to the motorway in direction to Porto (not without getting again into the motorway in direction to Espinho, not my fault, as write after the roundabout you had a curve and straight away 2 signs on a fork one pointing to Porto and the other to Espinho, so I had a 5o% chance of getting it right, but I didn’t and there was too much traffic even if I wanted to violate law – Portuguese know what I mean ;)

As soon as I get to Porto, for the second time, the GPS finally decides that I’m no longer at Rio Maior but at Porto and starts giving me directions to Vila do Conde. So never mind what my Daddy told me and just follow the lady’s directions ;)

Well the tests were hard and I didn’t manage to end them in such a short period of time (except the verbal one, which I always find rather easy), so I wasted a gas tank and money at the motorways’ entrances (there are hardly any ones free of charge in our country), but I visited my grandparents so it wasn’t a completely waste of time and money ;)

P.S. – I really must put some songs up and some photos, as this blog must be getting very boring for you, only job interviews and misadventures ;)

P.P.S. – But that will have to wait as I’m helping out my father to do a Access database for Treasury Management (that is my father has done the most and corrected some of the stuff I’ve been doing, as mainly I’ve been coping what he already has done to complete the database).

Finito!!! :D

Well I’ve already finished Vodafone’s challenge so wish me all the best of luck, as I’m really starting to have little options or opportunities… On top of all every time you switch the TV on to the news you get even worse news than the previous day. I know our countries need urgent reforms and I know what is being done is too little, but we are already in our 4 year and a half of recession and crisis and I’m only seeing the poorer and the middle class paying for the incompetence of our last 3 governments (and the one that is now ruling is also highly incompetent, although I still have some hope in my professor as Finance Minister)…

In the end it means more unemployment and for me and some of my friends that is really bad news as it means grabbing anything or putting your life at a full stop and hoping your parents won’t get out of job, otherwise… And sabbatical years right after finishing your degree is not well seen by employers even if they are forced sabbatical years…

But I really have high hopes and it is for the department I most like, so maybe I’ll have good news in the following days :)

Another Job Interview, thoughts on it and shopping :(

Well today I got up at 6 am to arrive at Lisbon about 8 am and catch jam traffic as usual ;) But I got in time for my job interview at Ernst & Young where we did some team work and in the end the dreadful job interview. I’m really bad at “selling” myself, although with so many job interviews I’m finding it easier to just chute the first adjectives I can think of, preferably, those that I think the company is looking for, because it’s so hard to state one’s qualities, I really can’t think of many… In fact, I can stay the whole day just pointing my shortcomings, but if I did so I would never get a job… After talking with my best friend, I think recruiters should change their recruiting process and interview our best friends, after all they are the most fit to say which are our real qualities and state those shortcomings that wouldn’t harm us in a job interview! I’m sure of one thing I could “sell” my best friend to any company, because I’m completely sure about his qualities and his competence!

So after a joyful morning pretending I’m in a consulting firm and a job interview I was prepared to wait for my best friend (now that he’s doing exams I don’t even have weekends to see him), be with him and then doing something I really hate: doing shopping for me, specially when it suits ;)

But eventually after looking in about 5 shops and getting very, very, sore feet due to the bloody shoes (I really need to invest in a pair of Dr. Martens Mary Jane’s) I was wearing - and just whishing I had my Dr. Marten boots – I found a red blazer, 2 red trousers and a red t-shirt, besides a red casual dress and wonders of wonders a black skirt! I actually bought a skirt for work, of course it’s long enough to nearly reach my ankles and thus cover my whole legs ;)

So no swimming today, but yesterday I managed to do 1250 meters (and this morning, besides my arms, my legs were also complaining ;)

Tomorrow I’m going to help my father so I really don’t know if there will be time for swimming before 9:30 pm :(

Challenges and back to swimming ;)

Not much in the last couple of days, although the weekend was really great but until I finish doing Vodafone’s challenge I don’t want to get lost and unfortunately a certain site my best friend showed me has been doing such ;p

I started swimming again today and my first exercise was doing 1000 meters without stopping to get my base pace, which I accomplished with some cheating ;) as you can see:

500 meters in 12 minutes
1 minute rest
200 meters in 4 minutes
1 minute rest
200 meters in 4 minutes
1 minute rest
100 meters of cool down swimming (which I normally never do slowly enough)

Base pace: 2 minutes and 20 seconds per 100 meters

I really suck I know, but that is way I’ve decided I must really regain my physical fitness and now that I’m unemployed I can go to the pool during the mornings/afternoons and not at 9 pm!

Before and...

...after! I had a problem with Hello, but finally I can show you what happened to Mitsy last week! Poor thing she was so frightened when she arrived from the vet! It was the first time her hair was shaved, but she had so many knots that there was no other alternative ;)

Algumas das ideias mais marcantes para mim...

até agora (ainda estou a meio) do livro de José Gil, Portugal, Hoje: O Medo de Existir, Relógio D'Água Editores, 7ª Edição, Março 2005. Recomendo vivamente o livro, é excelente e o Sr. José Gil foi considerado com um dos 20 maiores pensadores vivos, por isso expandam a vossa mente e criem novas perspectivas da vossa realidade!

"(...) muito se herdou e se mantém das antigas inércias e mentalidades da época da ditadura: desde o medo, que sobrevive com outras formas, à «irresponsabilidade» que predomina ainda nos comportamentos dos portugueses. (...) no tempo de Salazar «nada acontecia» por excelência. Atolada num mal difuso e omnipresente a existência individual não chegava sequer a vir à tona da vida. E o que era uma vida, nesse tempo? Aquilo que ditava o ideal moral do Salazarismo: uma sucessão de actos obscuros, com tanto mais valor quanto se faziam modestos, humildes, despercebidos... Onde inscrevê-los, senão na eternidade muda das almas, segundo a visão católica própria de Salazar?
Nisso como em tantos outros aspectos, o Portugal de hoje prolonga o antigo regime. A não-inscrição não data de agora, é um velho hábito que vem sobretudo da recusa imposta ao indivíduo de se inscrever. Porque inscrever implica acção, afirmação, decisão com as quais o indivíduo conquista autonomia e sentido para a sua existência. Foi o Salazarismo que nos ensinou a irresponsabilidade - reduzindo-nos a crianças, crianças grandes, adultos infantilizados." Páginas 16-17

Esta última frase nunca poderia ser mais verdadeira, é o perfeito exemplo da mentalidade do deixar tudo para a última hora e a do "outro": a sida, os acidentes rodoviários, as gravidezes inesperadas, os preservativos rasgados ou furados, a hepatite, etc. acontecem sempre aos outros, nunca a nós ou a culpa é sempre dos outros, nunca nossa. São puramente incapazes de assumir as suas responsabilidades, o que explica, em parte, as taxas de infectados e mortes nas estradas no país.

"(...) a lentidão da «aprendizagem da democracia» (...) pelo povo português. (...) refiro-me ao medo, à passividade, à aceitação sem revolta do que o poder propõe ao povo. Como se, tal como antigamente, a força da indignação, a reacção ao que tantas vezes aparece como intolerável, escandaloso, infame na sociedade portuguesa (tolerado, aceite, querido talvez pela maneira como as leis e regras democráticas se concretizam na sociedade, quer dizer no húmus das relações humanas) se voltasse para dentro num queixume infindável quanto à «república das bananas» ou «a trampa» que decididamente constituiria e essência eterna de Portugal, em vez de se exteriorizar em acção." páginas 39-40

Exemplo disso é a passividade do povo perante a incompetência dos últimos governos, povo que se deixa deslumbrar por Expo's, Euro's e afins e que deixa que a corrupção e incompetência os governe até à falência.

"Porque o 25 de Abril não conseguiu abolir a divisão instruído/sem instrução (concordo totalmente, daí que em Portugal um licenciado é logo o Sr. Doutor ou o Sr. Engenheiro, dono de toda a verdade e sabedoria e se ele diz que é assim, é porque é assim, afinal de contas estudou, mas infelizmente os livros não ensinam a viver e por vezes os "sem instrução" tem tanto para ensinar) que correspondia mais ou menos ao par poder-saber/pobreza-ignorância do tempo do Salazarismo. Porque na sociedade portuguesa actual, o medo, a reverência, o respeito temeroso, a passividade perante as instituições e os homens supostos deterem e dispensarem o poder-saber não foram ainda quebrados por novas forças de expressão da liberdade." página 40

E aqui homenagear Estaline como um herói não é uma expressão da liberdade, mas mais uma vez o exemplo da passividade da sociedade portuguesa perante as instituições e os "homens poder-saber".

The Kills Session - BBC Collective

Yet some more jewels ;)

Love is a deserter live at BBC

The good ones live at BBC

Interview with the Kills

The good ones' video - I still haven't decided if I like or not the video, it remembers me too much of snakes ;)

Dead road 7 track

Ticketman track

And you will also need Real Player

Beck Session - Radio One - BBC Collective

Just some small little jewels you can find in the net

E-pro Live at Radio One

Black Tambourine Live at Radio One

Broken Drum Live at Radio One

Get Real Paid Live at Radio One

E-pro's video

This Summer's Hit: E-pro

You will need
Real Player

Resignation letters

This morning I went and give my boss and the employment center (that was co-financing my internship) my resignation letters, so supposedly from the 31st of May I’ll be officially unemployed :) Officially, because I’m already at home as my boss didn’t want me to work the remaining days.

Today I said goodbye to my co-workers, the oldest one even hugged me, such a sweet lady :)

I will really miss the other girl who was doing the internship with me, but as she lives really close to my hometown we will still see each other! I just hate the fact that I made her lie for me, without her knowledge, to my boss saying I went to accompany my mother to doctors, when most of the times I was going to job interviews… I really regret doing so, but my parents really wanted me to keep the job… Anyway at least 2 or 3 times she did tell the truth, as there were sometimes I really had to take my mother to see a doctor due to her back aches.

The best part was really arriving home and going to bed again ;)

Once again "Glorioso SLB" ;)

Photo by Paulo Amorim - Lusa

Here are some photos of the party I missed, but I lived 5 years with the both stadiums as a view and they didn't win, as soon as I return to my parents' house they win and I miss the huge party :(

Photo by Paulo Amorim - Lusa

The heroes

Photo by Paulo Amorim - Lusa

The winning team parading through the streets of Lisbon, from the airport to the stadium, way after 2 am

Photo by Andre Kosters - Lusa

The party at Marques de Pombal, the main central square in Lisbon!

Another job interview and quitting my current job :D

Today I went to do tests at P&G, but I really don’t know if I was lucky, they were more difficult than the ones I did last Friday at Galp. But hope is the last thing to die ;)

As doing these tests meant getting to my job only at 3 pm and I was really sick and tired of missing half days every time I wanted to go to a job interview and being forced to always invent lies to my boss, I decided to inform him I wanted to quit the internship!

It was the best thing I ever did! I was getting everyday more and more unmotivated to get up and go to a work where I hardly had anything to do, were I would never stay even if my boss wanted and even if the salary was attractive! I only had more 2 months of internship to do but that would mean not going to work more times to go to job interviews and being forced to lie not only to my boss but to my co-worker, which was horrible as she is such a nice girl and has always been honest to me! Lying like this was making me very guilty as it was totally against me ethics!

My father reacted better then I expected, as the main reason why I kept working was because he was making some pressure for me not to quit as the salary was quite good. Otherwise, oh boy, I would have quit a long time ago! Money isn’t everything in live, job satisfaction is the most important factor for me and having hardly anything to do, starting to feel completely stagnated and with the sense you are not learning anything and you won’t ever learn much in that place… Then being in a place where your boss talks about loads of projects and how he intends to expand and so on… But then seeing the months pass by (nearly 8 months) and nothing has changed due to lack of decision taking of your boss, working nearly 7 months sharing a computer with your co-worker starts to get on your nerves and throw you down!

So I was really glad when I told my boss I wanted to quit was to most freeing thing I’ve done in the last months and I came all the way back home with a smile on my face!!!

So know here I’m once again unemployed, about 1800 euros poorer but happy :)

Glorioso SLB

SLB, SLB, SLB, Glorioso SLB, Glorioso SLB!!! 11 years after, we are once again champions!!! 6 million Portuguese and some more benfiquistas (our club is considered one of the 10 mystical football clubs by FIFA because there are about 14 millions benfiquistas all around the world) won't sleep tonight, but I've a job interview tomorrow so there will only be 6 million less one ;) For those wondering, Sport Lisboa e Benfica (SLB) is the biggest and best ;) football team in Portugal!

Sweet red dreams ;)

Another case of injustice...

Our government has started a huge inspection operation aiming shops and restaurants owned by Chinese. That is fair; as if they want to do business in a country they should obey the laws of that country. However the truth is that this operation only happened due to pressure from Portuguese retailers and restaurants and here comes the unfairness: the same people who in most cases don't obey Portuguese laws!

In fact if our government went and check the Portuguese shops and restaurants that are next to the Chinese ones it would receive even more money in fines and I can say that hardly any restaurant in the country would remain open. Laws don't only apply to foreigners; it's only fair that Portuguese should also obey them. Closing down foreign businesses because they do the same thing as Portuguese owners isn't fair, it's highly disgusting in a country that should be tolerant. It seems that Portuguese have forgotten quite fast that they also had to leave Portugal looking for a better life for those that they loved.

I know Chinese constitute a threat too many Portuguese businesses, but Portuguese have also done nothing to prepare themselves. China has a competitive advantage in cheap labor, something that used to be a competitive advantage of Portugal, but it was obvious it would never be sustainable in the long term and what did Portuguese do? They bought luxurious cars and houses with the money they received from EU instead of investing in the modernization of their businesses and then buy the cars and houses with the profits they would eventually receive.

The solution is not to close Chinese businesses in our country based on the fact that they don't obey our law, as I can tell you loads of places where Portuguese sell counteract products and have cockroaches in their restaurants (at the very least), so law should be fair and close down all of those who don't obey Portuguese laws: including Portuguese owned businesses.
What I think that the world should do is take the advantage of the fact that Chinese want to get into the world trade (and benefit from it) and pressure it to finish with the violation of Human Rights in their country, not only of civilians but also of the conditions in which its population has to work (long hours for hardly any money or none at all), as well as implementing environmental friendly policies. This would of course mean work better paid for Chinese and less emigration as well as less competitive prices in the world market and more fairness in the world trade (the same applies to protectionist policies of the richest countries which only hurt poor countries, such as Latin and African ones).

O Avante - Portuguese Communist Party's official newspaper

I was so chocked to read these articles in DN (http://www.dn.pt/), one of the most read newspapers in Portugal, on Monday. It seems that our Portuguese Communist Party decided to compliment Stalin, saying he was a great man; a hero and implying that the "20 million deaths" he was accused of (by his own party, by the way) were excusable (with the "" saying more that it's not true, it was only a conspiracy against their hero).

I know we live in a free country and everybody is entitled to his or her own opinion, but for me that only applies when your opinions/actions don't cause any harm to nobody. Freedom does not mean you can say whatever you want and that you can do whatever you want, freedom is being free yes but respecting those that surround you and their own freedom, and it must be a responsible freedom.

I shiver when I read these news and think of the kids that read this stuff. What are we trying to do erase history? Stalin was one of the worst monsters who ever lived in the world, he was has bad as Hitler, he just was intelligent enough not to invade other countries and to kill all those who were against him, even those of his party.

20 million victims cannot be forgotten, nor the families and friends who lost them, millions who survived gulags and concentration camps, who had to survive the pain of losing family and friends. History cannot be erased like this, people must never forget the atrocities committed by Hitler, Stalin and such other monsters, and they must never forget how evil human beings can be.

Yes Russia was a great ally during the Second World War but that doesn’t excuse Stalin and what happened in Russia and the regions under Russia's control. Helping to win a war against Nazis is no excuse for becoming a Nazi!

And I can't believe that Portuguese don't go out to the streets and force this idiotic editor to resign and chuck him and his journalists out of the country, because defending monsters is something our country should be ashamed of!!! What I find quite amusing is the fact that Portuguese had no problems to manifest against George Bush and the Iraq war, but don't have the balls to do some justice in their own country!!! What do you want? A country who has forgotten the examples of the past, allowing that the same atrocities occur again?

In name of the Portuguese I apologize to the families and friends of the 20 million people who perished under Stalin's rule. Normal Portuguese don't worship monsters! And we don't want to live in a country where Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin's lovers can write barbaric stuff and influence our children's minds!!!

I'm starting to understand what a Polish friend of mine said about Germany's news coverage of the Second World War or the Chinese when Japan "forgot" to put in Japanese history books the atrocities committed by them in the past.

More job interviews

Well for those wondering, KPMG dispensed me as I must have failed the math’s tests.. Meanwhile, I’ll have some more tests at Ernst & Young on Monday morning (1st phase of the recruiting process), but I’m still hoping that I’ll receive a phone call from Vodafone saying they want me next week or next month, as it is a internship in marketing. P&G sent me an email saying they were sorry but their internship in human resources was only for students who are ending their course now (first time I was dispensed from a job interview because I had too much experience ;)

And I’m still waiting for an answer from Galp and Nike. Anyway, I don’t know whether my boss won’t fire me on Monday, because this month it will be the 4th or 5th time I go to a doctor or accompany my mother to the hospital (that is, I go to a job interview without him knowing). But if that happens I’ll be relieved as I’m really hating the fact that I’ve to lie to go to job interviews, even if it’s my boss’s fault that working in his company his boring, tedious and I’m tired of hearing promises about having a computer only for me or more work or having more products and projects introduced into the company. Sincerely I think I’ll be with out a job at the end of the internship and that will be in the begging of August, which means, that I’ll have to wait until January or June, again, to land with a job at a good company.

My wish list is frightening

I have only been adding CDs and I think I passed today the barrier of 80 CDs and I know there are still loads of CDs missing :((( I really must start to buy some, otherwise the list will only grow. I guess I will have to print the list as soon as I receive my next pay check (unless I'll end up needing the money to pay room rent if I land with a job in Lisbon). Music will end up making me bankrupt but I never had enough money to buy it, so now my CD collection is nearly 15 years late :(((

Old hand washing tank

You can't see very well, but it was the best I could find ;) Maybe someday I'll have a camera , when I see one of these as they are becoming quite rare, and I'll be able to post a better photo. This one is located in Azeitão, Portugal.

Palácio Nacional de Queluz and the Grupo Coral de Queluz - 08/05/2005

On the same Sunday as the Mamma Mia! Show I went with my mother to Palácio Nacional de Queluz to see a friend of mine perform in a choral group called Grupo Coral de Queluz. We only went to one of the rooms of the palace; I suppose it used to be a ballroom and it was beautiful.

We got there late so we missed the first 2 songs of my friend’s choral group but we were still in time to see the Jograis (people who sing/recite poetry) who were singing/reciting poetry, mainly poetry about the 25th of April which was the day that Portugal had a more or less pacific revolution (only a few people died in Portugal, in the old colonies there were still a lot of Portuguese who died) that ended the dictatorship regime in which the country was living. I’ve always found it hard to follow recited poetry, I really enjoy more reading the poetry to myself and absorb it that way, the message is much clearer to me. My mother didn’t enjoy the poetry as her level of Portuguese isn’t the best and even my friend told me that their performance was too big as they asked the Jograis to sing only for 20 minutes (they were the guests) but they nearly sang for 1 hour.

After the Jograis left the stage, we had the chance to enjoy my friend’s performance. I can’t say if she sang well as she was singing with the rest of the choral group, but as it seemed that nobody was singing badly I think she must have sang quite well. They repertoire was quite nice, beautiful Portuguese traditional songs and some were even accompanied by a piano, so it was a nice way too pass my afternoon.

After the concert we went and see the place where the choral group rehearses. It used to be a place were people, in the old days, washed their clothes by hand and I think you can only find these kind of places in Portugal, a few are still being used by older people. I remember going to the river, with my granny, when I arrived in Portugal, to wash clothes, but when I went with my granny it was to a natural washing place by the river (she didn’t enjoy the one which had been built, before the river and only my granpa gave bath to his dogs there). Maybe I can get a photo as I can’t describe this place to those who have never seen such a place.

Anyway they used the old hand washing place and covered it to build the rehearsal place and it is now quite a cozy place to be. Afterwards we went to have some a slice of cake with tea/coffee which my friend insisted paying so thanks once again for the lovely concert and of course the cake and coffee ;)

For those who live in Portugal I recommend a visit to Palácio Nacional de Queluz (as you can see in the picture it also has a beautiful garden that I must check, as I didn’t have time to do so) and to go and see my friend in one of her concerts (you can find a calendar with the scheduled concerts in this link http://grupocoraldequeluz.no.sapo.pt/agenda.htm).
Palácio Nacional de Queluz