Night time is quiet here in Alcácer do Sal. I sit here now and the only sound that disturbs the quiet is the podcast that my wife is listening to downstairs and the crickets outside. Otherwise there is no sound…oh, the roof cracks and creaks occasionally as it cools down from a day of sun shining on it.
With the quietness comes a stillness as well. Nights are still and quiet.
This time in the evening rests me. I sit here reading, jotting down notes, sitting and reflecting.
📰 I came across a British Sunday newspaper while out today, the FT Weekend for the curious. I love a Sunday newspaper but rarely see one these days (living in Hawaii, the weekend is almost over for most of the world by the time that we wake up). Being here in Portugal increases my chances of finding one, and today I found a source.
So this evening I’m sitting under a light with the paper spread around me. I’ll probably still be dipping into it at week’s end.
I’m a happy chap tonight.
The clean up, stage two. I noticed as the washing machines started turning, that another level of stress felt released from my body. Finally being able to clean the mop up towels.
Process Zero and Music
Process Zero is a feature of the iPhone camera app Halide. My understanding of Process Zero is that it removes the processing that Apple apply to the photos that iPhones take. The result of Process Zero has been described as more film like, unprocessed.
This morning I sat in our living room drinking my coffee, reading the news. Occasionally I would look up and sit silently, looking out of the window at day’s emerging light. There was no noise, no disturbance. Just me, the silence around me, and the thoughts going through my head.
A little later I put on a music playlist that my wife and I quite often listen to on a Sunday morning…and with that the mood of the room changed for me. My body dropped into a relaxed space. My Sunday morning space. Suddenly the unprocessed space became processed. My raw, unfiltered thoughts became coloured by the images, sensations and feelings that the music engendered for me.
The filtered space is appropriate at times, and at times I believe so is the raw, unfiltered mind. Through becoming familiar with my own mind, making friends with it, I find that the world becomes a more manageable place. That takes time though, something that I am working on. So when the mind needs to take a rest from itself, I apply some filters - music, a book, family and friends.
A Day of Extremes
If there is a movie buff in the family, it is my wife. I enjoy watching a good film, but my wife, loves movies and the movie industry. So when she heard that the Tribeca Film Festival would be holding a two day event in Lisbon while we were in Portugal, it became an immediate fixture on our calendar.
Yesterday - Friday, 18th October - was to be the day that we attended. We would see two movies, bookended at either end of the day with interviews with Robert De Niro and Whoopi Goldberg.
However, the World, Universe, God, Karma, Luck or however you see our lives being orchestrated, had other plans.
We were up early and making good time, in fact just about to shut up the house, when I noticed a puddle of dirty water in one of the showers. I checked the other one. Same problem. Then there was water coming out from behind a toilet, a drain access point by the toilet, another one under the stairs.
Towels were deployed in large quantities (ie most of the towels that we owned) to try and mop up the mess. I ran out to the local hardware store to procure a plunger, some gloves and a couple of other tools, all with the hope that we could dislodge whatever was causing this water incursion. Nothing worked.
We contacted our local, and very good plumber. He dropped whatever he was doing and came over. By the time that he arrived the puddles in the showers had miraculously receded and the water had stopped entering elsewhere. Our plumber was baffled and called the local municipal water. He suspected a blockage in the main sewer and would return when the municipal guy showed up.
A half hour window turned into an hour and already we had canceled a meet up with an old Maui friend who was in Lisbon for work. The initial talk at the Tribeca Festival Lisboa with Robert De Niro, was now also on the cards.
The municipal worker opened the drain in front of our house. I’ll spare too many details, but it wasn’t pretty to look at…or smell! A combination of lazy workmanship by whoever remodeled our house (they’d tip concrete into the drain, partially blocking the outlet), and former guests putting stuff down the drain that should not have been there, had caused an outlet blockage, thus the back up into the house. The municipal workers will be out again this coming week to break up and clear away the concrete.
That done and with many “Thank yous,” we closed up the house with minimal cleaning up, and got on the road.
Once in Lisbon, we checked into our hotel and caught an Uber across town to the Festival,…and that is where we spent the rest of the day. Sadly we did miss Robert De Niro’s talk, but we saw two films and a wonderful, inspiring, closing interview with Whoopi Goldberg.
An Uber back across town, a light meal and then back to the hotel to rest. What a day of extremes.
We have considered going to the Festival again today, the second and final day. This would include the closing film, which includes De Niro in its cast and a talk by the Tribeca Film Festival founders, Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro, but we have a house that needs airing and cleaning. We have juggled various permutations, but we decided on heading home.
I finish writing this late Saturday night. The clean up has been done and the house feels fresher. Tomorrow we’ll take the big pile of towels to the launderette. The final part of the clean up will then be done.
I love stepping from the noise and hustle of the street, into the silence and calm of a bookshop. This evening it was Livraria da Travessa.
As my wife just said to me as she frantically mopped up a potential stain after spilling a drink on the couch,
“I’m pleased that I did it and not you.”
Me too! 😉
🚿 Well I didn’t ask for that, but I got a proper drenching getting out of the car. It was like being in a car wash. Water from all sides and a river rushing down the road to clean my shoes!
🌧️ There has been a Severe Weather Warning hovering over us since this morning, and now it appears to have arrived. With that said, the severity of that warning is changing rapidly. The forecast thunderstorms have currently disappeared and it now looks as though we’ll have moderate rainfall into the night. Though even there it is now no longer lasting until the early hours.
I’ll take my weather app as a guide, and my gazing to the skies as the more accurate assessment of current conditions, and what might be coming.
Always worth a visit, though warmer days than today are better recommended. This was taken over the weekend.
👋 Olá Lisboa. Olá Príncipe Real.
In Lisbon for the day with Maui friends. Saying goodbye to them tonight as they head home.
Well we arrived in Alcácer do Sal late at night yesterday, and it turned out to be the last day of a weekend festival. Alcácer does festivals well.
Cars crawled to the venue, also on the route to our house.
The festival is the Feira Nova De Outubro 2024. I am not clear what it was celebrating, but there were markets, food stalls a plenty and music. Even well into the third and final night of the festival, it was busy.
