February 2nd.
Today´s post is my simple tribute to Yemanja.
Odoia
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Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Happy New Year!
I´d like to wish a Happy New Year to all Night Clicks visitors and fellow bloggers I´ve meet trough EC and on the Blogosphere.
Lately, I haven´t blog-hoped much but I remember you all.
Hope the New Year brings us more of what we really need.
Health, Peace & Love.
Cheers xxx
Back Home
Hello everyone,
After ten days away, me and my daughter are back home.
My trip went well. There were many cars on the roads so I had to be extra careful with my driving. I love driving so making these short (+/-750 km) trips is a way to distract myself.
I enjoy the views, stop once in a while and this time I really wished I had a good camera to take pictures of the views and share them in my blogs :(
On a positive note, I received a new cellphone as Christmas gift and it has a camera. Cellphone pictures have less quality but they´re better than nothing. I still have to read the cellphone instructions to learn well how to use it well. A new gadget for a not that geek person needs a learning period :)
Moving on, my mother is going well, already crossed the 70 years mark but is independent and her health conditions allows her to take care of her self. I often think about her future and my role in it.
This Christmas, I also had the chance to talk on the phone to my uncle X and cousin M. I still have family from my mother side and these two live in France. It was nice to catch up a bit with family I hadn´t talked with for over a decade...a belonging somewhere feeling.
So, I´m back home with the wish to prepare a simple New Year´s celebration for us. I´ll cook a nice homemade dinner and around midnight we will go out to see the fireworks and city celebrations and after, back home.
See you soon xx
After ten days away, me and my daughter are back home.
My trip went well. There were many cars on the roads so I had to be extra careful with my driving. I love driving so making these short (+/-750 km) trips is a way to distract myself.
I enjoy the views, stop once in a while and this time I really wished I had a good camera to take pictures of the views and share them in my blogs :(
On a positive note, I received a new cellphone as Christmas gift and it has a camera. Cellphone pictures have less quality but they´re better than nothing. I still have to read the cellphone instructions to learn well how to use it well. A new gadget for a not that geek person needs a learning period :)
Moving on, my mother is going well, already crossed the 70 years mark but is independent and her health conditions allows her to take care of her self. I often think about her future and my role in it.
This Christmas, I also had the chance to talk on the phone to my uncle X and cousin M. I still have family from my mother side and these two live in France. It was nice to catch up a bit with family I hadn´t talked with for over a decade...a belonging somewhere feeling.
So, I´m back home with the wish to prepare a simple New Year´s celebration for us. I´ll cook a nice homemade dinner and around midnight we will go out to see the fireworks and city celebrations and after, back home.
See you soon xx
Happy Christmas
My Christmas Greetings to all Night Clicks readers and visitors.
Wish you all the best xx
Come Back Summer, Will Ya?
Bob Dylan says in one of his songs..."Times are changing"...
We should all realize that our "Mother Earth" is changing and so is the weather..and this last one at a "worrying" speed.
The weather became more unstable as we all have had the chance to verify with our own eyes in the last decade´s events. What happened in Japan and is happening right now in Africa says it all.
Well, the recent riots here in Europe are worrying too, they had immediate impact on European finances but that´s a topic for a whole new post.
So... I was all excited that I was going to have another wonderful weekend at the beach..such as the beach in the above picture, located in Montegordo - Algarve, and now the weather started acting out on us. In our corner of the globe it is raining pots in plain Summer´s peak, August. It´s almost 30ºC, seems more like a tropical weather now than a Mediterranean one.
So..no sun, no tan, no beach. We will spend the weekend at home enjoying some good quality family time, in our case, cooking too :)
Hope you have a great one!
See ya xx
Happy Easter
I´d like to wish all Night Clicks visitors and followers a Peaceful Easter.
We will spend a few days back in my hometown and I´m not taking my Pc with me.
Once in a while, an Internet hiatus feels good. You know me, I pause now and then but always return :)
Hope to be back next week.
xxx
Love Day
Any day is a good day to Love.
St. Valentine´s day is a good occasion for extra Love :)
Happy Valentine´s Day Everyone!!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year Everyone!
I spent New Year´s Eve eating and drinking with my friend M. After midnight, I had a good time watching the fire and "7Eventy 7Even" concert in Faro´s downtown. Their singer is amazing...although they play covers, I enjoyed every bit of it.
I wish all Night Clicks visitors and friends the best for 2011..and much success for my fellow bloggers!
I´m using the postcard image above, which I found online, across all my blogs...
My message for 2011 is: "Don´t Destroy Nature"
Hugs & Peace to all!
xxx
Merry Christmas!
To all Night Clicks visitors, followers and EC fellow bloggers:
Merry, Merry Christmas!
Peace, Health & Love :)
Funfair & Wintertime
The yearly "St. Iria" funfair was in town and we had a blast!
And now that I have my camera back I can post pictures and all :)
When I was a kid, I really loved the funfair. I remember spending hours begging my mother, which didn´t enjoy it as much, to let me go... alone :)
Now, I enjoy going to the funfair with my daughter and see her have a good time like I used to have.
The funfair is an expensive place, enough to blow my Entertainment budget for the month (for example, each ride can cost 2.50/3.00 Euros), but it´s worth the money.
Going to the funfair is one of those times when the kid inside me comes out to play with the kid outside me :)
My mother came to visit us and we all went to the funfair, 3 generation of women in our small family together to have fun :) My mother seems to have more fun now with her granddaughter than when I was a kid. I remember why...she was always busy. Times have changed, she´s now retired, and so have we. We get along much better now but sometimes I still have to cut her conversations or pretend I haven´t heard a word of her annoying criticism.
Wintertime is arriving but we´re still having Autumn weather. Soon, we´ll have to rewind our clocks to winter hours.
I don´t like cold and rainy winter days at all, except when I can stay home warm and cosy. Winter hasn´t arrived yet but I can tell it´s going to be a long & cold one...
See you soon :)
Mother´s Day
Today, in Portugal, we celebrate "Mother´s Day".
Mother´s are special everyday... but once there´s a special day for them why not use the occasion to give her an extra hug, an extra kiss or spend some quality time with her.
The picture above shows the gifts my daughter made at school for Mother´s Day with her teacher´s help. It´s a soap with glitter hand-painted flowers and a postcard with a flower´s shape. The postcard has a special message too, it says:
"Mother: As you know, the honey is sweet and sweet is good. Your heart is as good as the honey and I´ve always loved you.
You are simply: Kind, Beautiful, Fantastic, Wonderful, Pretty and Intelligent."
Happy Mother´s Day!
Thinking About Summer Vacations
The hot weather arrived and the last couple days have been so hot (23ºC) that we´re already thinking about ice-creams, beach and swimming pool. It´s time to take my swimming suit and towels out of the closet...next weekend we´ll go swimming for the first time this year.
It´s been so long since my last summer vacations abroad that I almost don´t remember... From 2002 to 2009, I only worked part-time while studying at University and taking care of the family. For our honeymoon, we thought about visiting one European country but that never happened. Instead of using the money we received in our wedding to travel, we bought a Land Rover jeep. After, we never had enough money to travel abroad and we spent all our summer vacations here in Algarve.
Well, Algarve is a great traveling destination...in summer it´s filled with tourists but what we really wanted was to go elsewhere, catch a flight and visit some European capitals.
In April 2009, I started working at the hospital and had no summer vacations. Once again, I spent my days off in local beaches. This year, for the first in many, I think I´ll have a chance to travel. I already started saving money, a sort of summer vacations fund for me and my daughter.
I´ve been researching online to learn more about Europe´s best destinations. I also started checking prices because I know that if I book my trip ahead I can get a good discount. I even checked hotels in Rome, Madrid and London. I haven´t decided yet which city I will visit but one thing is for sure, I won´t go alone, my daughter will go with me. Once this will be her first plane travel, I don´t want to go very far from home...I´m tempted to chose a destination like south Spain islands.
I´ve been talking to my daughter about this possibility and she´s already excited with this idea for Summer vacations. She would like to stay in a hotel with swimming pool and have dinner out every day. She said she doesn´t want to see me always cooking like I do at home. It´s like all work and no fun. She´s a little VIP, but I recognize she has good taste and knows well the vacation concept, lol. Now, I only hope I can save enough money in the months to come to make our little dream come true.
It´s been so long since my last summer vacations abroad that I almost don´t remember... From 2002 to 2009, I only worked part-time while studying at University and taking care of the family. For our honeymoon, we thought about visiting one European country but that never happened. Instead of using the money we received in our wedding to travel, we bought a Land Rover jeep. After, we never had enough money to travel abroad and we spent all our summer vacations here in Algarve.
Well, Algarve is a great traveling destination...in summer it´s filled with tourists but what we really wanted was to go elsewhere, catch a flight and visit some European capitals.
In April 2009, I started working at the hospital and had no summer vacations. Once again, I spent my days off in local beaches. This year, for the first in many, I think I´ll have a chance to travel. I already started saving money, a sort of summer vacations fund for me and my daughter.
I´ve been researching online to learn more about Europe´s best destinations. I also started checking prices because I know that if I book my trip ahead I can get a good discount. I even checked hotels in Rome, Madrid and London. I haven´t decided yet which city I will visit but one thing is for sure, I won´t go alone, my daughter will go with me. Once this will be her first plane travel, I don´t want to go very far from home...I´m tempted to chose a destination like south Spain islands.
I´ve been talking to my daughter about this possibility and she´s already excited with this idea for Summer vacations. She would like to stay in a hotel with swimming pool and have dinner out every day. She said she doesn´t want to see me always cooking like I do at home. It´s like all work and no fun. She´s a little VIP, but I recognize she has good taste and knows well the vacation concept, lol. Now, I only hope I can save enough money in the months to come to make our little dream come true.
Happy Easter!
I´d like to wish all Night Clicks visitors and readers a Peaceful & Happy Easter.
Portuguese Easter follows Christian traditions such as processions and church festivities. Many Portuguese use Easter holidays to travel and visit family or friends.
In Easter, it´s usual to see many Spanish tourists visiting Portugal.
As I mentioned in a recent post, I´m having mini Easter vacations and I´ll spend my three days off at home doing some of the things I enjoy most and other house chores such as a small Spring cleaning.
Spring always brings me a renovation spirit. Yesterday, I bought one of the flowers in the picture above to decorate my flat´s entrance. We call these flowers "Gerberas" and along with Roses, Narcissus and Orchids they´re my favorite flowers.
Happy Easter everyone!
Image:http://fashionbubbles.com
Happy New Year
I´d like to wish all Night Clicks visitors, fellow bloggers, friends and EC Droppers a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!
I wish 2010 brings you all the best. For me, the best is good health, peace of mind and love. Keep smiling!
The countdown will start soon...Ready to party?
I am!
See you soon :)
Image: a2zindianews
My Christmas
Hello everyone. Hope you´re all having good holidays & a peaceful time now that 2010 is approaching. I´ve been offline for a few days...As usual, due to my home-chores, my job and Christmas celebration.
Surprisingly, I had three days off in a row (23, 24, 25) and I used them to go shopping with my daughter, spent quality time with her, had plenty rest and now I´m back to my usual chores.
I spent Christmas eve alone with Nina, my dear furfriend. My daughter went to S. mother´s home and I spent a good part of the night cooking traditional Portuguese Christmas sweets. I had dinner alone, watched a bit of TV, including a wonderful Christmas Circus and Concert and went to bed very late, around 6.00 am.
I also spent most of 25th at home alone. It was the first year I spent Christmas alone...but in compensation my daughter will be with me for New Year´s celebration. I won´t lie, it wasn´t easy to be all alone (specially because I wasn´t used to it) but we had arranged things this way since late May. I always keep my word and my daughter enjoys spending Christmas eve with her cousins. Next year, she´ll be with me for Christmas and with S. for New Year.
I received a few presents, specially from me to myself, lol. After all, it wasn´t that bad because despite being alone I had fun. Well, I always do, don´t I?
I had planned to blog but instead I cooked Christmas sweets. This way, time passed even faster. When I noticed it was already 25th morning. The cold and all the rain outside made my flat even more cosy.
Since kid, and because my family is very small, I always enjoyed New Year more than Christmas.
Today, I started preparing my New Year´s celebration. I will be cooking again and I´d like to go downtown to see the fireworks and a concert. A simple plan to welcome 2010.
And you? Are you ready for New Year´s celebration?
Surprisingly, I had three days off in a row (23, 24, 25) and I used them to go shopping with my daughter, spent quality time with her, had plenty rest and now I´m back to my usual chores.
I spent Christmas eve alone with Nina, my dear furfriend. My daughter went to S. mother´s home and I spent a good part of the night cooking traditional Portuguese Christmas sweets. I had dinner alone, watched a bit of TV, including a wonderful Christmas Circus and Concert and went to bed very late, around 6.00 am.
I also spent most of 25th at home alone. It was the first year I spent Christmas alone...but in compensation my daughter will be with me for New Year´s celebration. I won´t lie, it wasn´t easy to be all alone (specially because I wasn´t used to it) but we had arranged things this way since late May. I always keep my word and my daughter enjoys spending Christmas eve with her cousins. Next year, she´ll be with me for Christmas and with S. for New Year.
I received a few presents, specially from me to myself, lol. After all, it wasn´t that bad because despite being alone I had fun. Well, I always do, don´t I?
I had planned to blog but instead I cooked Christmas sweets. This way, time passed even faster. When I noticed it was already 25th morning. The cold and all the rain outside made my flat even more cosy.
Since kid, and because my family is very small, I always enjoyed New Year more than Christmas.
Today, I started preparing my New Year´s celebration. I will be cooking again and I´d like to go downtown to see the fireworks and a concert. A simple plan to welcome 2010.
And you? Are you ready for New Year´s celebration?
Share Your Halloween Funny Stories
In my country Halloween is not typically celebrated but, thanks to TV, we have imported some traditions from countries like US.
Nowadays, many kids get dressed and play trick or treat. Many schools have adopted Halloween as a day to have fun, just like Carnival.
This year, my daughter is making Halloween masks in school.
The best Halloween story I can remember happened with my daughter. Last year, we bought her a witch costume and she played trick or treat with some friends in our neighborhood buildings. They only got tired of playing trick or treat a couple hours later.
When my daughter returned home she brought a supermarket bag half filled of stuff. I was surprised to see the bag so full. She putted the bag in our kitchen table and started telling me how things went while knocking on our neighbor´s doors.
It was amazing, some neighbors gave her candies or chocolates, others money and a few didn´t even opened their doors to my daughter and her friends. My daughter and her friends have nine years in average and although they looked quite frightening in their Halloween costumes they´re nothing but kids. The most amazing thing was when my daughter took a packet of rice out of the bag. She said an old laddie opened her apartment´s door and commented "Poor kids, they must be starving". The lady gave them a couple packet of cookies, bread and a packet of rice, which ended up in my daughter´s bag because no other kid wanted it.
This Halloween, If you´d like to have fun you can Buy Halloween Costumes Online or in a Halloween Store Near You and go out play trick or treat with your kids. In my country is guaranteed fun once you never know how your neighbors will react.
If you have a story like mine, you can share it at Jack's Quest. Visit http://quest.halloweenadventure.com to learn how to join this contest and see "Jack's Quest". By the way... if you´d like to vote for my story click the button below:
Nowadays, many kids get dressed and play trick or treat. Many schools have adopted Halloween as a day to have fun, just like Carnival.
This year, my daughter is making Halloween masks in school.
The best Halloween story I can remember happened with my daughter. Last year, we bought her a witch costume and she played trick or treat with some friends in our neighborhood buildings. They only got tired of playing trick or treat a couple hours later.
When my daughter returned home she brought a supermarket bag half filled of stuff. I was surprised to see the bag so full. She putted the bag in our kitchen table and started telling me how things went while knocking on our neighbor´s doors.
It was amazing, some neighbors gave her candies or chocolates, others money and a few didn´t even opened their doors to my daughter and her friends. My daughter and her friends have nine years in average and although they looked quite frightening in their Halloween costumes they´re nothing but kids. The most amazing thing was when my daughter took a packet of rice out of the bag. She said an old laddie opened her apartment´s door and commented "Poor kids, they must be starving". The lady gave them a couple packet of cookies, bread and a packet of rice, which ended up in my daughter´s bag because no other kid wanted it.
This Halloween, If you´d like to have fun you can Buy Halloween Costumes Online or in a Halloween Store Near You and go out play trick or treat with your kids. In my country is guaranteed fun once you never know how your neighbors will react.
If you have a story like mine, you can share it at Jack's Quest. Visit http://quest.halloweenadventure.com to learn how to join this contest and see "Jack's Quest". By the way... if you´d like to vote for my story click the button below:
Summer Camps
Both me and my daughter love water. My daughter is the type of kid that goes to the beach or swimming pool and never gets out of the water since the moment we arrive there. Now that summer vacations are here, she wants to go to the beach everyday but because I´m working in shifts that isn´t possible. I try to go with her to the swimming pool, at least, once a week and every Sunday she goes to the beach with my ex but for her that isn´t enough.
One thing she would love but never went to are Summer Camps. She´s old enough to spend some days in a summer camp but I don´t know many here. When summer began, I saw a poster of a summer camp in Tavira. This was a summer camp only dedicated to water sports but it was in a distant town and a bit expensive for my pocket.
If there was a summer camp here in Faro, I would send her there for a few days. I´m sure she would have a fun time and the opportunity to socialize with new friends. When I was her age, I used to go to summer camps too. I remember having so much fun there, I can say those were the best summers of my childhood.
4th July
I´d like to wish a happy 4th July to all my fellow bloggers that celebrate it :)
This date is special to me too, it´s my mother´s birthday.
Although our relation is strange, and she´s my antikarma, I love her. There´s only one mother in this life and F. is mine :)
My mother lives 300 Km away from me. Recently, she was sick and spent some weeks here with us. When she started feeling better, she returned home. I wasn´t able to convince her to stay. She missed her friends and decided to return to my hometown. Can´t blame her, I love my hometown too.
Today, I phoned my mother to wish her a happy birthday. As usual she was in a bad mood, I think she´s got a sort of "Distimia", poor dear. Her life is a major lesson to me and no thanks but I don´t want to be like her when I grow up, lol.
Anyway, happy birthday mom. I wish you all the best!
I´m doing another blogging night, I won´t have enough sleep again. Tomorow, I´ll do a morning shift but I don´t care. Today, I had enough sleep and tomorow after work I can rest too. My daughter is going to the beach with my ex and I can make a little nap :)
See you soon.
illustration Credits: http://www.photosearch.com
Day Off at the Beach
Now that school´s summer vacations are arriving, I promissed my daughter we would start going to the beach more often.
Today I had a day off and decided to keep my promisse, otherwise I would have to put up with her complains all day.
We did a nice program toguether. We woke up late, had breakfast, bought some groceries and came back home for lunch. After lunch, we went to Faro´s island beach. At sunset, we drove back to Faro and had a nice dinner in our favorite Chinese restaurant.
We love doing things toguether and after all the weird schedules and night shifts I´ve been doing in the past months we deserve leisure time.
This summer I won´t have any vacations so I have to make the most out of my days off.
My daughter´s dream vacation is going to Disney World or Isla Mágica. I would be happy if I could spend a week at Palma de Maiorca but staying at Windsor Hills would be so cool.
Maybe next year we will be able to go somewhere outside Algarve. We already started saving money for next year´s summer vacations.
See you soon.
Today I had a day off and decided to keep my promisse, otherwise I would have to put up with her complains all day.
We did a nice program toguether. We woke up late, had breakfast, bought some groceries and came back home for lunch. After lunch, we went to Faro´s island beach. At sunset, we drove back to Faro and had a nice dinner in our favorite Chinese restaurant.
We love doing things toguether and after all the weird schedules and night shifts I´ve been doing in the past months we deserve leisure time.
This summer I won´t have any vacations so I have to make the most out of my days off.
My daughter´s dream vacation is going to Disney World or Isla Mágica. I would be happy if I could spend a week at Palma de Maiorca but staying at Windsor Hills would be so cool.
Maybe next year we will be able to go somewhere outside Algarve. We already started saving money for next year´s summer vacations.
See you soon.
Costumes & Popular Saints
June is the month of Portuguese "Popular Saints". This is an old tradition, we celebrate S. Pedro, S. António and S. João. We celebrate this popular saints with a type of street parades we call "Marchas".
In each city that celebrates the Saints, there´s an organized parade. People get dressed in special Costumes made only for this occasion and streets are decorated with paper crafts. In some cities there´s a competition among different neighborhoods. For this contests, each neighborhood creates a special song and costume.
In my country, popular Saints is a very special occasion, the major cities' contests are broadcast live on TV. When I was younger I used to participate in this festivals doing paper flowers to decorate the streets. It was so much fun.
In each city that celebrates the Saints, there´s an organized parade. People get dressed in special Costumes made only for this occasion and streets are decorated with paper crafts. In some cities there´s a competition among different neighborhoods. For this contests, each neighborhood creates a special song and costume.
In my country, popular Saints is a very special occasion, the major cities' contests are broadcast live on TV. When I was younger I used to participate in this festivals doing paper flowers to decorate the streets. It was so much fun.
