Powerboats

The beach was fab, got 2 amazing beach days, those on which you spend the whole day laying at the sun and getting burnt...fast. I got my long awaited tan in 2 days! Now I'm finally proud, I look decent!

Saturday was a bit crap, but interesting enough as the Powerboats World Championship was happening in town and I love all the buzz, noise and atmosphere of these events. Noise was a big thing, as even listening to your loud music on your headphones, you could still hear every single vibration of these big boys on the water. We are talking LOUD. And since they were very close to the shoreline and the helis kept pursuing them, you can't say we had a quiet and relaxing beach day. But it was fun seeing these huge boats ripping the sea, flying almost. The helicopters also did a performance on the beach, touching almost the sea and spiraling up and down. All was really cool and I took plenty of pics which obviously have nothing to do with the pros you can find here. 'The Switch' was my favourite, as it glided fiercely in black. The 'King of Shaves' won the Evolution class though...

And the second leg of the Championship to be competed today was apparentely canceled due to strong winds...It seems that I came back to Madrid at the best time!

Beach!

And tomorrow I'll be in Portimão. Hurraayyy!

Paintings

Taking advantage of my Dad's renewed inspirational creativity, just as he's starting his oil and acrylic painting lessons at the Academy (Mum prefers Hydrogymnastics, Yoga and Chinese Filosophy), I bought 2 canvas and some oil colours and left my Dad a request: paint me 2 nice and colourful geometrical figures. I'm thinking on the lines of Kandisnki, one of my favourite painters, because he used splashes and splashes of colour and I like that. My Excel sheets are colourful, I wear nice colours, my room is colourful, therefore we must respect that in my art! I'll have 2 great canvas, you'll see!

Sardines and Dali

Last night got to go to the movies to see Goodbye Bafana, which we liked. Apparentely, Mandela never confirmed his friendship with Mr Gregory, the prison officer which is the central character of this movie. Any case, I like Joseph Fiennes!

Today, we went to Dali's exhibition in this Palace which is almost totally renovated, after years of negligence. Such was the damaged incurred by years of abandon, that some of the frescos were unsaved, meaning the restaurateurs couldn't make up what they originally were and left empty walls instead.It was built at the begining of the 18th century and at the top of its 4 towers we can see the family's symbol, the dolphin.In 1910 it was considered National Heritage, but faced almost a century before some renovation work got under way, work that took 3 years. It's now being prepared to accomodate another Pousada de Portugal (historical buildings transformed into charming hotels, usually monasteries, convents and palaces). - I have to say that the palace impressed me more than the 285 pictures, drawings and sculptures of Dali...Obviously, I'm not such a fan.

We then went for lunch at a cosy restaurant at a small fishing village overlooking Porto.

I had grilled sardines,

which were simply delicious, and finished off this great lunch with a view with a sensational chocolate mousse, one of my all time favourites.

Now, must pack my bags for my 'cross country' travel tomorrow. I leave at 05.50 am and get to Portimão at 12.00 am... Oh dear!

Dentists and other stuff...

And yet another visit to the dentist and my wallet gradually shrinking...Damn dentists! Besides making you hurt physically, they also impose pain on you financially!

Anyways, got my train ticket to the radiant south for some last days of suntaning activity before relunctantly going back to work and Autumn. We are already in the romantic season of the chestnuts, new wine and ... jackets! That I don't miss at all.

Yesterday with Pedro we went for tea at the beach terrace, because it was a bit cold to have a chilled drink. Not that it was cold cold, but a cup of tea was a nice solution. On the way, we got our first roasted chestnuts from the street vendors - but we were a bit let down by the cold and not so sweet little thingies...Maybe next time.

We then had a fantastic steak at a friend's place overlooking the river Douro and Oporto.

Ah, and today I bought another Nick Hornby book - About a Boy.

Soft Cell - Tainted Love

Isn't this a classic??

Modern Classics...

are back!

Yesterday on the Biography channel, I saw a documentary about the life of the great Eileen Gray, architect and designer of furniture and ornamental objects. She took inspiration from Le Corbusier, one of the massive architecture names. The thing that stuck with me was her modernism and futurism of her pieces. If you look at the Bibendum chair (inspired and named after the Michelin man)

or the Nonconformist chair

you wouldn't guess they'd be designed in the early thirties.

She also designed E-1027, a fantastic-looking house on the Med with an unparalel view to Monaco. Besides the house, she designed all furniture, like this table,

Breakfast table (to be inserted besides the bed)

gardens and a "sun pool", where one could tan in confortable sofas...

She was so ahead of her time, and like most great artists, recognition of her work was only attained after her death.

In 1968, the E-1027 table (above) and the Bibendum chair went back to production after a complimentary magazine article quickly grew into an unexpected hit. The interest of Yves Sant Laurent complemented the mythification of her image among collectors of 'modern classics' and the general public.
Check her work out, it's worth it.

Bichinho and blog

A funny fact: this blog's visitors number goes hand in hand with the number of kms of my Bichinho. Cool, no?

Go figure...

Solu Music - Fade

"Always there when I close my eyes...never fade, yeh yeh!!"

I really miss dancing, go out and dance the night away like when we were teenagers and we had the whole world to conquer :)
And what best than dancing after a day at the beach?!

Windy beaches

The windy beaches at home...they might be windy, but beautiful nonetheless...

Another day

We spent the day today talking with our new french boss who seems ok, but the last one also seemed fine! The other was italian, don't know if that suggests something...

Our new boss kept telling that he's the new 'Chef d'orchestre' and all I could do was to imagine him with the baton, setting the rhythm...

Anyway, since I have absolutely nothing else of interest to tell you, I better dedicate my time to pack my bags and to relax...although I'm a bit frantic today, after I drank an expresso in 2 seconds after lunch - you see, I'm not used to expressos anymore and the ones I take now really take an effect! Better go!

One day left to go home, can't wait!!!

2 weeks of bliss!

Thelma Houston - Don't Leave Me This Way

State of mind these days... hahaha

Injustice # 2

...is when you find exactly what you were looking for ages and that thing is about to disappear from sight.

That's unfair! (sniff sniff)

Did she do it?

And we thought...

...that we had heard everything!

Last night on the news, Portugal was referred (big event, I thought, no news ever come from Portugal, at least on Spanish tv). Preparing myself for some quality news, thinking it might be something related to Maddie, my surprise was huge when they mentioned that there's a big (hhihihihihi, you'll understand why soon) fuss between the Catholic Church, the diocese of Braga - the most religious city in Portugal - and the mayor, as this statue of an old bishop of the city

is the center of controversy because of the baton, which according to the mayor is not elegant and inappropriate.

Judge by yourselves and don't make any jokes!!!!

Injustice

Oddly enough, just realised that a few of my recent visitors reached my blog through "I lick your icecream and lollipop" words...

It's not fair! I can't be reachable just by that! I can't believe it :=)

Bags for all!

A girl's dream: an array of designer handbags to choose from at a fraction of the price - but only for a few days use. That's the new thing nowadays, to rent a bag for an important meeting, for a business trip, for a party... In Bag de Lux we can choose their selective bags and rent them either for 3 days, from 25€ up to a month for 90€, depending, of course, of the real value of the bag.

This is democratisation of luxury and I like it :)