Home Away From Home

The prospect of spending the next 16 hours in not one but two airplanes is never an appealing one. But as I board my Lisbon Dubai Emirates flight suddenly the anxiety fades. There are so many mitigating factors. The smile on everyone is contagious! My seat has space and my screen is impressively larg. I only get annoyed by all the announcements in the beginning of the flight but that is only because I want to see the cameras.  As we take off i watch the beauty of the front camera as we speed through the skys. But it is really the under plane camera that makes it all a notch above. One of those mments worthy of a picture we see the landscape below us marked only by the shadow of the airplane. We are excited to try and recognise the places we pass by and I am already excited to think of how beautiful the landing back in Lisbon will be.  After my short take-off nap, which I have since I joined banking in 2004 and never left me, only to get interrupted by vague attempts to keep my...

I gave up on french fries for Lent. Not a big thing for most people, a hell of a big thing for me. A lot of people still find it weird that you would give up on something. And then others turn and say "well I gave up on chocolate". Chocolate would have been easy for me, I must admit. It feels a bit thing for many people but I am not a sweet tooth. Bread and french fries were the big things left on my list, and I must admit I don't feel I should punish others from my own sacrifice, so bread was out of the question. I was certain to be unbearable, unsociable and a real pain if I gave up on bread. So I chose french fries. I never thought I would but on Ash wednesday as it came to my mind I knew it had to be. Does God ask me to give up on anything? No, not at all. Religion, as most things in life, is a choice. My faith is aligned with my values, the religion I chose to follow is as well, most of the times, but not at all times. It has been 12 years since I started giving ...

As we used our last energy to drag dinner to the table, wine was in order. A hug after we put C to bed gave us strength to have a dinner for 2 before we surrendered to a day of early rise (for me), playdates, yoga, more playdates and an end of day with a restless toddler.  We have a wine subscription which sends us random wines which has helped us discover a few new good wines (and others not so good). I rejected south african as we will spend 5 days in South Africa next week so we were goong for zaustralian, as we are not going there anytime soon. Suddenly we see a Portuguese wine in the mix and easily decided to give it a try. Valoroso was a top choice for dinner. Unexpectedly from the Setubal region, as I would not have willingly ordered it deom a wine menu. Full body and flavoured but surprisingly not too strong. Or so I thought as it boasts a 14.5% volume label hidden in back. No wonder I am getting so numb. Yoga and now this...  It was an excellent companion to our lamb ...

Today I changed the colour of my blog. Yesterday i changed the style. It was the first time I wrote about something external (e.g. not me) without worrying about who might be bothered by it. The authors talk inspired me to just write and be less worried on who to please or displease, more likely the latter.  For no good reason, as this was not even a topic at the talk.  Because of my work I tend to avoid talking about anything work related, but figured that is probably a bit of an extremist view of what I could actually be doing. Since my very first op ed to the Financial News (which I had hoped would not be the last) got censored, I read and re-read the policy to see the limits of what I can do.  But then again, I am not really talking about work. I am not really bothering clients or colleagues. I am just writing and most likely no-one is reading. And so if I feel like taking a view, I just might.  This blog has been a lot about thoughts in life and feelings...

Yesterday, I went to a Harvard Alumin talk on 'making a living in the book writing businss'. It is part of a series of talks, the first was about writing on the side of your everyday life, the second was about publishing and this one for those people that actually want to make a living out of it. I clearly missed all the past ones, as I missed most things in the last 12 months, but as part of my rediscovery of my values, I decided this was something I wanted to go to. It was 3 doors down, there is not much closer it could get.  I want to get my notes out but th tube is jammed, so I need to write out of recolllection. This is weak at times but either that or probably another 6 months without touching this blog. I have not written since Paris, that was a long haul. I blame T, as I have been emailing things I would potentially have written down, so she is using up my inspirarion. But maybe one day those thoughts will make their way here as well. But back to the talk. I want to pas...