2 years

2 years today. many more ahead. 

To New Orleans, with love from China

Everyone likes a parade: the music, the people smiling and cheering, the mayor in the convertible, the marching band. But in New Orleans, the Saint Patrick's day parade has all this and more and it comes all the way from China!

The "'tradition" has it that men get all dressed up (which means wearing polyester!) and ask the girls for kisses in exchange for flowers and shiny necklaces. But it's all plastic. From China. I recognize that it's almost inevitable to buy cheap from China and that it's all in the name of fun. But there were thousands of plastic flowers and plastic beaded necklaces being given away only to end up in landfills. This really is the land of plenty and also the land of wastefulness.  

We only realized the proportions of the whole parade closer to the end when trailers of people threw the weirdest and unexpected things at the crowds that were cheering and asking for more. I'm not only talking about necklaces but cookies, carrots, candy, ramen noodles, plastic toys, plush toys, and my all time favorite... cabbages. Whole green cabbages tossed around. People we spoke to say it's a lot worse during Mardi Gras....

In the end we brought home around 3kg of beaded necklaces, 4 cabbages, and cookies and carrots that we ate on the drive home. We'll probably keep the necklaces for future use like maybe another Burning Man, cause it really choked us to see what it all looks like after the parade goes through town:

atlanta, as seen from an open top car

Last weekend we went for a ride in downtown Atlanta in our very cool convertible and all I did was look up!

green is my favorite colour

For about 3 months now I've changed my diet. I'm not on a diet. Goodness gracious! I've simply changed my eating habits. More raw green vegetables, more fresh fruit, more nuts, less dairy, less meat, less sugar and above all no processed stuff. It's not that I completely turned my back to the "bad stuff", after all I do work in a bakery, but I decided to indulge in more healthier habits. It all started with coffee. I cut off the usual morning coffee with milk and toast for an almond milk smoothie with fruit, nuts, chia and flax meal or just a plain bowl of raw oatmeal porridge (which is delicious by the way!). Soon I found myself blending spinach and kale with a whole bunch of other fruits and vegetable and gobbling down green smoothies and loving it! The energy I get from this new and improved lifestyle is incredible! There is no turning back. 

a tradição do pão em portugal

Pedro returned from a 3 week stay in Portugal and brought back a new addition to my small collection:

"A tradição do pão em Portugal" by the French ethnographer Mouette Barboff  is a beautiful must-have book for all those interested in Portuguese bread. It doesn't have any recipes, sadly, but it is a very thorough research of traditional techniques and styles of bread from the various regions, from seed to table. Inevitably, memories of my grandfather making cornbread exactly the same way as described in the book came back to me. And so I decided to make corn bread today. In reading it I also found out that in some regions there is a tradition in couscous making. I did not know that. 

Four floors of furniture

We went to Savannah last weekend for the first time. It's a beautiful old city with "old money", an english like feel to it, where ghosts exist and men hold the doors for woman at all times. Our interest of all things old and dusty made us walk into this ground level antique shop.

We thought this was just another small antique shop until we climbed up this stair case:

What once used to be living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens are now filled with furniture, frames, toys, photos and weird old things: all 4 floors of it. 

The house seemed to have been abandoned for quite some time and in the midst of it someone filled it up with old furniture for sale but didn't repair the cracks on the floor or seal up broken windows. We explored the whole thing all the way up the creaky flight of stairs to the amazing broken down patio on the top floor. 

Atlanta's winter wonderland

They said it was going to snow. And it did. So everyone got off work early to get home. Everyone.

I left work at 2:15 and instead of heading for the highway because it was completely jammed, I called Pedro and he guided me through smaller roads. It went well until I was about 6km from home and then came to a total stop. It took me 2 hours to ride 3km and I was almost out of gas. But I was the lucky one, I got home and it only took me 4 and half hours! Thousands of people were stranded on the highways. As night came so did the ice which just blocked everything even more. Most just left their cars on the streets and walked to shelters, churches and stores that opened their doors. Others slept in their cars. Pedro went out to see how the highway was and brought home a stranded couple that was considering sleeping in their car.

Photo from the AJC

This is what the street in front of our house looks like: all ice!

One side was closed because of ice.

lession learned!

Don't ever go to the Museum of Modern Art on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
But if you are in New York for the first time for only a few days, then by all means go. But don't complain.

This was Christmas

For Christmas we packed our bags and flew to cold and frosted Toronto to spend the holidays with my sister Helena and Gusto. It was wonderful to be back, to spend time with my sister, to see old friends and to show Pedro around town.

It was blistering cold! Two days into our trip we get a phone call at 7 in the morning: it was my mom calling, very worried, that she had just heard on the news (in Portugal) that Toronto had been hit with an ice storm and thousands of people were without power. Fortunately, the area where Helena lives the ice was only about 1cm think so we were okay.

Being with my sister has always had a bad influence... on my hair! She gave me the "let's do it" attitude and it's the shortest I have ever had it.

Christmas eve was spent baking, cooking and on skype with family back in Portugal. This is has become a new Christmas tradition: family, food, presents and skype. It really does make us feel closer to home. Helena's blog has much better photos of this!

Thank you so much Helena and Gusto for a great Christmas!! We really hope to be back soon. 

(Helena, we forgot to do something very important: steal the mailbox!!!)

Feliz Natal!

To all near and far, friends and family, we wish a very happy Christmas full of love!