Skip to main content

A different day. | Saturday craft market and fish by the beach.

Driving towards town I was looking forward to a different day. Having seen the less good sides of the city and learnt about some of the deep challenges, it was exciting to also get to see some of the beauty and the positive parts of this place. After a few stops to take photos of the beach and sea, we arrived at the crafts market. A market in an organised area designed to meet any and all needs for souvenirs a tourist might have.

There was so much stuff and very persistent vendors who kept calling me "amiga Brasileira" because of my accent. I found many lovely things, and left wishing I had brought more cash, while at the same time thankful that I didn't. I'd rather spend money sowing into people then stuff. But it was great to see the beautiful crafts in wood and fabric that these skilled people had made. A beautiful expression of their culture.

It was a real treat to sit down at a table with a white table cloth for lunch. I had a seafood kebab with prawns and squid and fish, and it was delicious. Finishing it off with my favourite dessert pudim (like a flan or caramel pudding) made it the perfect meal. We sat overlooking the beach, and not having walked in real beach sand (the base is sandy; sandy roads, but a different kind of sand), I put my feet in just to feel it. I love the sea and it was so refreshing to look out at the vast horizon. In some way the sea connects the world, and standing there it was an expression of nations connected.

A lovely day with lovely people, and a heart full from seeing beauty.

Popular posts from this blog

Packing...again.

I just folded the last load of laundry and I’m almost packed. Off to the airport at 5am tomorrow morning, heading off to Amsterdam. I’m excited, a bit nervous, and wondering what it’ll be like. It’s been a good week at home with lots of quality time with family, especially the little nieces and nephew. I’m glad I’ll see them in April again. Well, not much to write and packing to be done and a bit of sleep would probably be a good idea too. Next time I write it’ll be from Amsterdam....

Single-tasking September: The art of single-tasking.

To change habits and ways of life, the motivation for change has to be strong, and the benefits outweigh the effort it takes to make the change.  For so long it’s seemed like the ability to multitask has been regarded as a great skill, but is it really a good thing? Recovering from burn-out, one of the effects I noticed was that it was harder to concentrate, and especially tricky trying to focus on many things at once. I’d try to multitask, only to realise that all tasks suffered from lack of capacity to complete any one of them. The challenge is that the habit of always doing many things at once goes deep, and when I tried to focus on just one thing, I found that it was actually really difficult.  As I did a little google search on the matter, I found it seems like multitasking isn’t as healthy as once thought, and that it doesn’t help productivity. Some even referred to it as “switch tasking”, in the sense that the brain isn’t doing many things at once, but shifting rapidly...

Snapshots of life...

Life. What is life anyway? And what does it mean to live life to the full? A little reflection there. One thing I do know is that I am alive and that the days seem to pass by quicker then I would like them to. The month of July has literally flown by... I can’t believe this weekend it’ll already be August. Where did July go? It’s been an eventful month. Last week was my birthday and I felt very loved and valued. Going for a Brazilian BBQ with some friends in a week or so and I am very excited!! I really hope it’s authentic and good, or I think I will most certainly be a tad disappointed. I also got given a car, almost on the day of my birthday. A good friend of mine got given another car and so she gave me her old one. It took a week and a bit for the garage to fix it up and pass it in the inspection, and getting it licensed in my name and getting insurance wasn’t totally straightforward, but I now have it. And it feels so freeing and lovely when I’m driving my own car!!! It’s a golden...