Good Will

My boss emailed a guy asking him to come to a meeting this morning.
He replied "I won't be able to attend this meeting".

The irony is in his email signature:

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Where there is a will, there is a way

The Kite Runner

No, not that kite...

Tiago at Coyote Point

Motorcyle happiness is...

This weekend Rita had to work, so I went riding my motorcycle up and down the hills that separate the San Fransisco Bay and Silicon Valley from the Pacific Ocean.

I did 189 miles (304Km) these past two days, on roads with poetic names - if the poet happens to be a motorcycle rider - like Big Basin Way, Stevens Canyon Road, Skyline Boulevard, and Bear Creek Road.

Muir Woods

Last weekend we went to Muir Woods (our first motorbike road trip!).

We were going to do a lazy 1 hour walk, but a wrong turn at a trail junction made us take a harder, 2h hike through the woods. I'm glad we did, because it was really nice! It's amazing how you can totally immersed in nature just 20 minutes outside San Francisco.

The shade from all the huge redwood trees made the whole park a lot cooler than the "outside world".





The explorers:

Rapariguinha do shopping

Durante o Natal eu serei a nova "rapariguinha do shopping". Bem vestida e petulante, ou talvez não...

Sair de casa, contactar com pessoas novas, e ja agora fazer uns tostões para prendinhas de Natal.

Podem me encontrar aqui na loja Arthur Beren. Vai ser só esposas de milionários a comprar sapatos caros. Que chic! Vou encaixar mesmo bem. Eu e os meus sapatos de $40...

Helsinki Complaints Choir

Hairy Otter at the Monterey Aquarium

Aren't they the cutest??

These aren't so cute, but it was great seeing them in the "wild" instead of an aquarium or the zoo.

Dar Graças ou Desgraças?

Asked by an American colleague yesterday:
- "How do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Portugal?"

Books for Children

The Starbucks near my office has a box to collect books for children. This week someone donated The Ultimate Guide to Pregnancy for Lesbians.
I wonder if San Francisco children would also appreciate a copy of bitch?

Impulse

E se um desconhecido te pára no supermercado para te dar um cristal de muito felicidade e boa sorte e tudo e tudo para todo o sempre... isso é Impulse!


E não digas que vens daqui!

Margarita

Excuse me waiter! Could I have a margarita? I'd like the "As Big as Your Head" one, please.

Earthquake

Last night, the earth moved.


We were driving, and thought it was strange that the car was rocking sideways whilst stopped at a traffic light.

Our first Californian earthquake!

Mr. Scary and Mr. Scared

The IKEA experience

Before IKEA:
During IKEA:
The day after IKEA:Now:
Question 1: How many IKEA stuff can you recognize in these pictures?
Question 2: How many of these do you own?
Question 3: How many screw(-up)s does it take to assemble an Expedit bookcase?

Pergunta 1: Quantos produtos do IKEA estao nestas fotografias?
Pergunta 2: Quantos destes produtos existem na tua casa?
Pergunta 3: Quantos parafusos e' preciso ter para montar uma estante Expedit?

Living Green

This weekend in San Francisco: the Wonders of Cannabis Festival!
Rolling contests (one-handed, I heard on the radio today), panel discussions on themes like "Hemp tomorrow" and a performance by Los Marijuanos!

The organization's motto: Rain or shine, come out for a magical time!

Test ride

Yesterday I stopped by California BMW in Mountain View and the salesman let me go for a short ride on one of these:

Very nice, but not as good a ride as I expected. But then I hopped on a F800ST
and it was sweeeeeeet! I want one!
Did I mention my birthday is this weekend?

So you think you've seen it all?

I have 4 words for you: Drive-Thru Flu Shots

Nestum

Comprado numa "grocery store" luso-brasileira em San Mateo, por $3.49 + sales tax:
Já não comia Nestum há muitos anos. O pequeno-almoço de hoje trouxe à memória sabores da minha infância.

A caminho do Oeste

We got here!

Finally, after all the waiting and chasing people around we got the so needed visa. This was Monday. The same day, we booked our flights to London and San Francisco for the following day. So one minute we were planning dinner with friends, and the other we were calling them to say we wouldn't be able to make it as we were flying to San Francisco the next day. They understood... espero eu!

Anyway, if you are flying to the other side of the world (because the world has two sides, the front and the back. Now we're living on the backside... hum...) you should do it in style. So we flew business class, which was great fun, especially for me who had never done it before.



It was like we had our own little room inside the airplane. We must have watched 5 movies during the 11 hours we were flying. How lame are we? I don't care, I loved it!



Because we wanted to enjoy our experience fully, we slept very little and were exhausted by the time we got to San Francisco International (1:30 PM local time). We still had about 10 hours until bedtime; but we didn't make it that long, we crashed in bed around 8PM.
This is all we brought with us to start our new life in California:



The box you see in the front was brought from the US by my parents in 1986, and then I took it to London in 2005. It's so strong, it lasted all these years, and despite its significance, we actually chose it because it was the strongest we could find!
How are we getting along in California? Stay tuned...