jusqu ici tout va bien

nas últimas semanas andei com a sensação de estar num comboio a alta velocidade e se algo corresse mal ia descarrilar. algo correu mal e hoje perdi anos de vida. jusqu ici tout va bien. jusqu ici tout va bien, como no filme. não era também para estar às 3 da manhã do dia 31 de dezembro a lutar insanemente com o portal das finanças mas vamos lá, amanhã (hoje!) é dia de festa!
amanhã rumo ao norte a uma aldeia perdida perto de arnamar, cuja localização exacta desconheço ainda. voltarei em 2011*!

bom ano! que 2011 seja bom para todos nós e que em 2011 sejamos bons para todos nós também.
obrigado por aqui passarem!



* ainda tenho a alegria infantil de nos últimos dias do ano dizer "até para o ano", "só nos vemos lá para o ano que vem!" ahhh, pequenas infantilidades felizes.


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it's been some rough last weeks, today was a particulary strange day. tomorrow i'm travelling north to celebrate the new year in some village lost in unknown location. i'll be back in 2011!


happy new year to all! i hope 2011 is good for everybody and that in 2011 we are good for everybody!
thank you so much for your visit.

batata doce

alguém me disse que as batatas doces dão flores muito bonitas. comecei uma experiência que me faz sentir no 7ºano. :)
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someone told me that sweet potatoes give pretty flowers. i started an experiment that makes me feel i'm in 7th grade. :)

how beautiful is this idea?

Maria Alexandra Vettese (mostly known as MAV) photographed the Maine sky and printed the photos directly onto silk scarves. 


From the exhibition site:
Come Darkness, a project curated by Maria Alexandra Vettese, is a yearly homage to winter light and a chance to welcome in the changing season.


I am always bewildered by the arrival of early autumn darkness. I travel around in my normal routines confused for weeks. This year I felt I needed to try harder to understand the transition. Was there some way I could prepare? Without even knowing it I found I was using my camera as a tool to dissect the final hours of illumination. I became fixated on capturing a momentary blanket of light, of all tones and colors, which I could hold and pull up around me when all I see is black. I wanted to feel the light. I needed to see the light. And now I feel ready. Come darkness, here we are again. 
—MAV

prenda de última hora?

que tal uma fotografia única emoldurada?
para os lisboetas consigo entregar a tempo do natal!
escolham qualquer uma da loja!

nota: muito apropriadamente depois deste post! :D hey, se calhar são como eu!

holiday stress

todos os anos é a mesma coisa. odeio compras de natal e evito-as. tenho um orçamento muito limitado que me impede de comprar uma série de coisas giras para a minha família e amigos. falta-me o tempo e principalmente a organização para preparar presentes feitos por mim. este ano é o pior uma vez que tenho trabalhado todos os dias da semana e fins-de-semana e já esgotei o tema dos meus dotes fotográficos transformados em prendas.
eu acredito que o natal é sobre a família e sei que eles entendem que não consiga as prendas que quero. o natal nuca foi muito importante na minha família e eu própria não ligo muito a presentes. a maior parte das coisas que eu quero não se podem comprar, mesmo. quero amor, quero tempo, quero paz de espírito. quanto ao natal, o que eu gosto mesmo é dos dias passados frente à lareira, da conversa e das refeições em conjunto.
e no entanto, quando o dia se começa a aproximar não consigo evitar um sentimento de culpa por ainda não ter presentes e sei que vou querer ter qualquer coisa pronta. vou puxar pela minha imaginação!
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every year i do the same thing. i hate christmas shopping and i avoid it. i have a very limited budget available that keeps me from buying a lot of cool stuff for my family and friends. i lack the time or organization to prepare some nice handmade gifts. this year is the worst as i've been working every day of the week and weekend. and i've explored in the previous years the theme my photographic skill turned into presents.
i always think that christmas is about family and they will understand that really i cannot afford a fancy gift. myself i don't care for presents. most of the things i want you can't really buy them. i want love, i want time, i want peace of mind. as for christmas, i'm really grateful for the couple of days our family spends together, near a fireplace, eating and talking.
nevertheless, as the day approaches is start to feel bad for not having gifts for my family and i know i must think of something!

couchsurfing

here we go again! couchsurfers are in the house!

backup! backup!

dois cliques e apaguei todas as fotografias deste ano. sim, 12 meses de fotos foram puff! pelo ar tecnológico! sim, fui eu que carreguei nos botões.
tinha até meio de agosto guardado num disco externo e consegui salvar bocados de setembro, outubro e dezembro da reciclagem.
no final acho que perdi meio agosto, partes de setembro e outubro e novembro. perdi toda a viagem a berlim (quer dizer que tenho de voltar, certo?).

por isso fica o conselho: backup! cópias de segurança! cópias de segurança!
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two clicks and i erased all my pictures from this year. yes, 12 months of photos went puff! up in the technological air. yes, i pressed the buttons. 
i had until mid august backuped in an external hard drive and i could rescue a bits of october and december from the recycling bin.
i think in the end i lost half of of august, september, parts of october and november. i lost all my berlin trip (i guess i must comeback, right?).


so this is a kind of advice: backup, backup, backup and backup!

frio | cold

eu adoro as nossas janelas velhas de madeira mas não aguento o frio que elas deixam entrar!
nestes dias lisboa tem estado muito fria, cheguei a ver 5ºC! eu sei, eu sei que não é nada comparado com o tempo que está na europa central onde está tudo mesmo gelado. nem neva aqui mas ainda assim é mais frio que o habitual.
eu adoro os dias de frio seco em que o céu está limpo, o sol brilha e nos agasalhamos com um casaco quente.
mas não gosto da chuva e não gosto mesmo que dentro de casa às vezes pareça estar igual a lá fora (ligeiro exagero). a maior parte das casas portuguesas não tem aquecimento central e não têm um isolamento conveniente porque "o tempo é tão bom aqui". esta ideia faz com que muitas vezes se sinta mais frio em portugal que na alemanha, por exemplo.
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i really love our old wooden windows but i can't stand the cold they let in!
these days lisbon is really cold, we've had 5ºC! i know i know it's nothing compared to central europe where it's really freezing! it doesn't even snow here but for us it's special.
i like these cold dry days when the sun is out and you tuck yourself in a warm jacket.
but i don't like the rain and i really don't like that inside our place sometimes feels like outside (slight exageration)! most portuguese homes don't have central heating and lack good windows and insulation because "the weather is so good down here!" so it's not uncommon to actually feel colder in portugal than germany for instance.

these last days

tenho-me entretido a embrulhar os calendários que me encomendaram.
i've been packing the calendars for the sweet people who bought them.





uma camada de papel vegetal em várias cores.
one layer of soft paper in several colors.


mais uma camada de jornais japoneses + etiquetas e muitos carimbos!
another layer of japanese newspaper + tags and lots of stamps!


gostei muito de personalizar 2 embrulhos para os amigos da marta, encalorada lá do outro lado do mundo em buenos aires.
i really enjoyed preparing some special gifts for marta's friends, since she's sweating in buenos aires.

kanpai!

estou a ficar para trás com a minha missão no #reverb10 mas muita actividade recente tem-me impedido de reflectir!
para além da entorse no tornozelo há outra coisa que me tem mantido ocupada...
decidi ganhar coragem e abrir uma loja online para o meu trabalho fotográfico!
decidi calar todas as vozinhas de dúvidas e medos e f.a.z.ê.-.l-o!

portanto sigam-me por aqui... e sejam bem vindos a kanpai!

gostava de vos convidar a visitar a minha loja e, se puderem, enviem-me o vosso feedback! é muito bem vindo e muito desejado.
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i'm a bit behind my mission at #reverb10, but some recent activity has been keeping me from some reflection time!


so beside my sprained ankle something else has been keeping me busy... 
i decided to take the plunge and open an online shop for my photographic work!
i decided to shut all the little voices of self doubt and fear and just do it!


so please, follow me this way... welcome to kanpai!


i would like to invite you to visit my shop and please send me some feedback! i would much appreciate it.

entorse | sprained ankle

decidi ter um momento de patinagem artística numas escadas molhadas e agora tenho uma entorse e um tornozelo inchado. até tive sorte, não é nada de grave, só uns dias de recuperação e umas amigas novas: meia elástica e canadianas.

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my foot decided to slip on a wet stone staircase and now i have a sprained ankle. did some exams and nothing is broken so i'm very happy and hopefully totally ok in a couple of days.

it's raining outside

é verdade que a internet consegue mostrar-nos um mundo maravilhoso sem sair de casa! eu sei, eu sei e já o disse aqui, às vezes é tanta coisa que sou sugada para um mundo maravilhoso e esqueço-me do tempo, de comer, do resto da vida!
de qualquer maneira, hoje saltitei entre sites e descobri coisas bonitas que quero partilhar: pelos comentários do blog fine little day segui até ao bazar da sufragista, gostei muito e encontrei este video lindo da joana linda (a música é do nick nicotine). para além dos vídeos (e do nome invulgar - sempre me perguntei se será mesmo nome artístico ou não!) a joana tira fotografias excelentes (já tinha vista uma vez na pecha kucha). a música é boa e tinha ouvido falar pela primeira vez do nick nicotine a semana passada no ipsilon, um tipo interessante. saltei para o flickr da joana linda para ficar a saber de uma nova galeria - pickpocket gallery -onde tenho de ir ver esta exposição.

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internet can be wonderful! i know i know, and  i've said it before, sometimes i'm sucked itno a whirl of amazement and forget about time, food or the rest of life!

anyway today I toured some sites and found nice things I want to share: through the comments in fine little day i followed sufragista, which I enjoyed a lot and found this beautiful video by joana linda (music from nick nicotine). beside the videos, joana takes excellent photos (had seen her once in pecha kucha).

it's a nice music, and i heard about nick nicotine last week on ipsilon, very interesting guy. jumping to joana linda's flickr i get to know about the pickpocket gallery where i  must go asap to see this exhibition.

December 5 – Let Go

What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why?
(Author: Alice Bradley)

Hmmm... this is a hard one. Maybe I could say I let go some fears. Fear of not being good enough, fear of deception, fear of making a fool of myself. At least I tried, and I'm still trying, because I am a work in progress.

December 4 – Wonder

How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?
(Author: Jeffrey Davis)

photography. travelling. love. music. and photography.
sure hope to keep doing it next year, and improving it.

December 3 – Moment

Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).
(Author: Ali Edwards)

The moment i read this question i was taken back to March 17th. This was the day we got on that bus that took us from Argentina to Chile. And this was the day we cross the Andes. Crossing this amazing mountains is an astonishing experience and one moment i will cherish forever. I don't know what made me feel so amazingly alive maybe it was the greatness of the landscape, or the amazing road design (all sss) or the beautiful soundtrack i choose. I don't know. At some point I felt some trouble breathing and some diziness and remember thinking that it all that beauty combined afecting my body.
At the border I chatted with a dutch woman who told me that my diziness it was probably due to the altitude, not the beauty. But I didn't believe her. Still don't.

December 2 - Writing

What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?
(Author: Leo Babauta)


I'm definitely doing LOTS of things that don´t contribute to my writing as I'm not writing at all! I used to write much more, this blog was actually a place for my reflections and opinions on several things. Then somewhere along the way I stopped writing... The main reason why is that I can no longer find some quiet time to let my thoughts float and organize them in a text. I work everyday in an open space being constantly interrupted. When I get home at night my head is still buzzing from all the stress. Maybe there's something here I could work on. Allow me some free time, some free space to... write. I'll need to think more on this.


Update: Internet of course! everyday i get sucked in the miriad of wonderful blogs and websites and news and techstuff and when I look time has flown! definitely a must do thing: reduce time online! (cannot eliminate it! there's too much good stuff out there :))

December 1 - One Word

Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?
(Author: Gwen Bell)


geee, what a start! encapsulating the year in one word... 
for 2010 i choose the word expectation.
i kind of went through the year expecting things to change. fighting each battle, winning some, loosing others and at some point i seem to have lost my focus. it feels i was expecting for something that never came. a famous portuguese singer has a great line about this feeling, "it's like waiting for the train in the bus stop" ("como à espera do comboio na paragem do autocarro").

for 2011 i would love to be confidence.
i expect 2011 to be a very challenging year but hopefully a great one and i want to end it being a better and braver person. i really want to embrace what's coming with confidence.

reflecting on the year

i've decided to join in this idea and reflect about the year that is finishing.
the general ideal is that everyday you receive a prompt that will make you reflect and you should respond to the prompt in any way you desire. then you can share it in twitter, delicious or flickr.
i'm excited to do this, hopefully will bring some muche needed insight and will give me some ground for the challenging next year! i have no idea how i will handle it everyday but will definitely try!

You are more than welcome to join the more than 1,000 people reflecting...

tonight we fly

yes, tonight we fly. the divine comedy live here in lisbon :)

i would love...

image copyright by ulrika kullenberg.

... to have a table that fits exactly under a big window, so i could seat on the side and look outside.

visit thelovely mackpär blog by ulrika kullenber.
see also her beautiful connection to tokyo in the hello hiki! blog.