Good News!!

I take back everything I said in the last posting! The week ended in a very good way!

Maria Calleja just got selected for DHL position in Brussels! I am SO happy for her! :)
If I wasnt in the office I would be jumping around everywhere in the room!

We became friends through AIESEC and also had plenty of similar interests , such as basketball and other stuff (eheheh :) And we were also looking for a traineeship at the same time ( I guess we never applied for the same, so no competition, eheh)

And now she got it! CONGRATULATIONS Maria!!

Week balance

Not a very good week.. :(

Got sick, argued until tears droped with my mother, argued with my brother, realized I am not going to get some money I was expecting from the company because of stupid reasons ( but still to be argued!), didnt speak with my father, stupid journalists making stupid articles without even knowing both sides make me think once again about this country's people and hypocrasy, didnt receive news from David, etc...

However, managed to go to one of my favourite restaurants in Lisbon - Cosmos in Docas, saw the Biggests Christmas tree in Europe (talking about hypocrasy, here is a good example), bought this really nice turquoise sweater (yes auntie, I am changing my dressing colour patterns) for a really cheap price, got assigned to 2 really cool projects (strategy map and strategic reflection workshop), ate a package of Maltesers all by myself (God Bless who invented Maltesers), spent quality time with my grandparents, won 2 arguements with Hugo (which is not bad considerering that he always wants to win all the arguements/discussions he starts with all of his friends), and finally started to read my new book.

More.. I got the sample cover of my Annual Report from the Design Company.. And it is really cool! (I'll try to upload it this wkd)

Humm.. now that I think about it I guess that I cannot really say it was a bad week. lets change it and call it "even week", then (Although I dont have a clue if this actually means something in English)...

Mondays...

99% of the people I know hate Mondays.
And I am definitely part of those figures too! :P

Urgh! It was really hard to wake up and really wanted to stay the entire day at home, not doing anything...

But, good things also happen on Mondays! :) Arrived at the office, opened my email inbox and read this email from Ellie!! It was so nice! Thanks for making me smile! :)

I am so glad we will be meeting up in London! I can't wait for our afternoon tea in "Jesus Paradise - London branch" eheh! ;) together with Naaz and Marios!

See you soon girlzzz!

Music for my ears!!

Everyone knows how much I enjoy listening to music, right?!
I still remember crazy AIESEC MC Office days when we all started dancing to the sound of Beyonce's song, having Pedro (the only guy in the MC) looking to us as "poor girls".. :)

Now I am working in a Open Space office, connected by glass door to the "partners" office.. so, the habit of listening to music and working at the same time had to be broken! :(

Luckily that was just temporary!! I am listening to Beyonce right now, on the radio, with HEADPHONES! :) Ok, I only use one because I need the other ear just in case someone asks me something but who cares?!

I can now work an listen to music at the same time!

Basic?!! I know, but it keeps me smiling! I bet my creativity and productivity levels will increase a lot! ;)

Eheheh.. I am so stupidly happy!

Some words about friendship...

Sometimes… you have to make tough decisions. Such as letting a friendship go.
I always say that friendship is a 2 way meaning concept.. You need to act as a friend to be considered one. So if someone shows it cares for you, you should, in your own way, return it back.

So, if you don't call, you don't write, you don't drop a msn message to say hi, probably the friendship links will get smaller and smaller.
If that is the case, why keep that person listed as a "friend"?

Better drop it, hein? Many of the people I know wouldn’t even care about the issue.. To some extent I agree with them.. You cannot force someone to be your friend or to care for you, so just cut the friendship ties and don't waste any time on it.

Well, I guess I am too much of a believer.. And once I become friend with someone it is very difficult for me to let go...

Today I learned that this is not always a naive decision. Today I kept someone's friendship instead of letting go… I am glad I did it and I am glad that all the clouds around that relationship are finally cleared...

Isn't it nice when something good happens in your life, especially if it is something you were not expecting? :)

Beginning of the week's Thought

As I browse some blogs.. As I talk to my friends and same aged colleagues.. I realize that although distant from eachother (or not) many of my acquaintances and friends seem to share the same moment in life...

The moment that represents the end of a cycle.. and, at the same time, should represent the beginning of a new one. However, most of us are still not sure of what lies beyond...

That is why this thought brings some confort into my smile and into my journey:
"Not all who wander are lost."
J. R. R. Tolkien

What a good week!

Wow! What an INTENSE week!
I just love it when I feel like this.. ideas and thoughts are jumping up and down all over my head!

Really nice week... Just wish I had time to write everything down in the weekend but it looks it is going to be a pretty busy one too!

1. I am going to have my Christmas shopping in London! Yuppi! Finally we bought the tickets (after trying around 70!!! times) and everything is falling into a travel plan... finally! I am so excited about it! I have already been to London, but never during this season period..

2. Decided, with a friend of mine, that 23 and 24 are the perfect ages to start an "extra income" business... So we are now looking for business opportunities.. Already made some business plan drafts and we will be making some visits this weekend. Not easy though... we want to find something in which we can make money but still keep our current jobs (meaning, something that is lucrative but that doesnt need us to work! ;)

3. Girls dinner on Wednesday! It was so great! :)

4. As a result from a funny coincidence, this AIESEC alumni that I really admire called me with a job offer! I am very glad with my current job, still eagering to go abroad on a traineeship, but I will meet up with him and get to know his ideas.. Probably not now, but he would be a great person to work with... Besides, situations like this are always good for ego purposes.

Well, lots of "potencial" in the week, lets see how it will be fulfilled in the following ones...

Christmas is on its way..

It is true.. I know it is a cliché but the fact is that I really enjoy Christmas. Although I, normally, just start "living" it around the 24th :) I like Christmas good will environment.

But, starting Chistmas season in October?! That is too much even from me! Yes, it is true.. Lisbon christmas lighting is on since October 1st.. and all shopping places are already full with santas, and related items!

...3 months before!! What is next, Easter Bunny appearing right after New Year's Eve? Halloween masks in the shops in June?!

Give me a break!

Ancestors, grandparents, parents and their children

Why talk about it?

Well, I started thinking about it because the 1st of November in Portugal is also called all saints day or "deceased" day... It is the day in which you praise to the dead and, as rural portuguese tradition says, you spend your day going to cemeteries, visiting your ancestors graveyards and putting some flowers.

Honestly I only did this two or three time during my childhood... But, strange as it seems I enjoyed.. All this because I always got to know my ancestors and managed to hear a little bit of their life histories, normally told by my grandmothers..

So, when my grandmother (from my father side) asked me, on Sunday, If I would like to go with her to her village, I couldn't say no... I havent been there for years and I never spend there my holidays so only occasional visits brought me to Abrantes, Liteiros, Torres Novas... And it was so nice!! I got to know every corner where my grandmother used to ride her bike, the places where she fell in love (and met my grandfather) heard about the stories of my great great grandfather being this big man in the village, having a big farm and plenty of workers, the story of the 1st car in the village, electricity, aeroplanes and many other fantastic stories..

Most of all I heard about her relationship with her parents and grandparents, my grandfather relationship with his parents... And, of course, I talked about mine :) and their relationship with their kinds (meaning my father and my uncle).
It is funny to see how there can be so many perspectives for the same event.. and it is really interesting to see how deep and complex family relationships are.. I always joke about it saying that I come from a disfunctional family but the truth is that each is time you are talking to a mother/father of someone (this being my grandfather, aunt, or even my own mum and dad) you can easily see that they believe that they have made their best in order to educate their child in the best possible way... More interesting than that is that, in most cases, if you talk to the son/daughter they normally say that it is the other way around... that something was missing in their education.

Now that my parents are separated I can see this paradox even clearer... And I can see that the major problem in my disfunctional family :) is that, although we all love eachother deeply, we are really proud individuals, most of the time forgetting that our perspective of the same event might not be the only one and that, inclusively, it might be wrong...

Flexibility and humbleness is something that is lacking and that I just wish I could bring back... Sometimes is too late for others.

But I am definitely learning with all this lessons...

PS- It is funny, just realized that I was going to put "1st of November" as the title of this posting.. Curious as it might same, previous posts also started with 1st :)

Me