Home Away From Home

Yes, something had to happen to keep me away from here for this long. I had been behaving so well blogging more and more and now what? Very simple, Francesco was born! In a day full of emotions, tears of joy and setbacks Francesco greeted me with his wide open eyes and his calm ways (at least for now). Everyone struggles to point Mum and Dad’s features in him but all I care about is himself. He has long been waited for in this world and I was proud to follow closely his first 4 days. Now, I have to limit myself to technology and hope Patricia likes to skype to make sure I see him growing, crying, moving and smiling. It will be a month until I see him again, precisely a month from the 12th of November and I will miss experiencing his first triumphs to win my sister’s heart. He has barely been here and I miss him already!

I guess some people found it weird that I had not posted anything about the big event of the moment yet. Obama! And here I am, in what was a couple of days ago center of the world. After endless months of listening to comes and goings of the American political world, I had tried to keep away from election day. Avoided election parties, had a quiet dinner with the girls and left behind the polls projections. I could not go any far sharing the table with i-phone owners and finding out about Pennsylvania and eventually about Ohio. And that is when it happened. The moment I left the restaurant no one new and the moment I got home and switched on the tv it said “Obama elected present of the USA” And that is when it came to me. After the defeat speech came Obama. And he was brilliant. Looking at the faces crying staring and listening I realized this was a milestone in history, just like the man on the moon and the fall of the wall of Berlin. The land of opportunity finally gave through sens...

Today, once again (as if I am famous or something) I was live on national radio. A new programme about Youth and it seems I was their first guest. It is called “Fantastic Generation” and it aims at bringing testimonials of young Portuguese doing something (arguably) fantastic around the world. Well, I did indeed have a lot going on in a lot of places: Vienna, Berlin, London, Maputo, Boston and who knows what else further. It is funny how I will always remember how my mum told me to go abroad and I was so against it. And how my dad said it was ok if I did not want to take Morgan Stanley’s offer… And how certain I was that I wanted to do this IB thing that I had never wanted before… Life turns out to be in many ways unexpected and until today has not let me down. I guess that is my piece of fantastic in the world, follow what I believe and hope it will turn out for the best. I am hoping to hear many more stories of people alike around the world and see that it was not just me wanting ...

I know, it has been a while, but the week before getting myself to London was insane and this week in London has had a lot going on and I could not find a lot of time to sit by the computer yet. I am still in the London side of the world, amazingly enough I truly belief it is colder here than in Boston. Interviews and Coffee Chats are going ok though rather inconclusive. I guess that was expected. I had a great breakfast this morning though, and I am not talking about food. Sitting in a room with about 20 people that think the way I do and work in a sector that I have been struggling to understand was really good. It got my brain travelling and imagining all the things I could and wish I was doing. The result is that now I have all these business cards and pages filled with notes and it means blogging may not be a priority for quite some time… But I am alive and kicking! Oh, and the baby is kicking too!! It was Patricia’s birthday yesterday, happy birthday!!!!

It’s Friday afternoon and after 45 minutes of my Hanon Virtuoso Pianist exercises I gave in to the sleepiness and hit the bed for an extended power nap. Silent phone and well deep in my duvet, I woke up 2 and a half hours later with a couple of missed calls, one from Teeba. As I try to call her back, I find her in my sofa sleeping… Yes, confusing, especially if you consider I was totally asleep still. It seems the piano was not working. Given I had just played it was very hard to believe but in fact the piano was now echoing electrical sounds throughout the house. Three days old piano not working was enough to make me be in rage about the unfairness of the subject before one of my only weekends in Boston. It seems once again I did not trust the stars, the angels or whatever you want to call it. After some hours back and forward and some (not always) friendly interactions with the personnel we brought home a brand new Yahama P85, rather than the used Korg one, better sound, better qua...

After all the talk, the Piano is finally here. Yesterday, me and Teeba went straight from the airport to the store next to Berkeley College (where else to buy a music instrument) and put a down payment for a Korg digital piano. It has the benefits of a piano and a keyboard all in one, it feels like a piano, it sounds like a piano, but it is smaller than one and you can use headphones. The latter are utterly convenient for me given I have not played at all in a year and the 3 years before were dedicated to computer keyboards rather than piano keyboards… I do not have all my note sheets here, which is unfortunate but hope to get them from home soon. And tomorrow Teeba is coming to play. We decided to do it together so we would incentivize each other to play (yes, the cost factor was an issue too). So pictures tomorrowwwwwwww. Time to sleep! I am happy that I finally am learning how to prioritize.

Me and Teebs took off on Tuesday, anticipating a fun weekend and some warm weather. It is easier to be better weather than Boston but we never imagined the 35ºC (we don’t do Fahrenheit) that would greet us. If you think landing at midnight would deter us from enjoying the first night in Miami, you are wrong. The impeccable sound system in the room lead the way for a quick make up and no later than 1.30 we were at Mansion. We met Teeba’s friends and had one of the most fun nights in a long time… Pictures? Not available, hehe We started our tanning mission on Friday and we had no clue where the announced storms were. We kept the warm up for the weekend and had a (too) expensive dinner at Forge, thinking the restaurant would turn out in a club. It never did so we ended up at Mint, another one in Teeba’s endless list of clubs we were supposed to visit in our 5 nights in Miami The girls arrived Saturday and that is when my trip diary is interrupted by big blanks. I am not allowed to tell an...