What Belgians can learn from Portuguese and vice verse
Now that I live on the sideline of Belgium & Portugal it’s not difficult to see the particularities of each country. When it comes to environmental & school policy or emancipation in Portugal, we still live in the eighties. But life is like in the good old days. In Belgium, over-efficiency gets in the way […]
How I like my women
I never had a lot of girl friends. I always found those friendships hard to maintain… Too complex & confusing. Too intimidating also, and always a minefield. One of the reasons is probably because I was a late bloomer in almost everything. And it’s not that I didn’t try to have girl friends, but I […]
We are the stupid ones
A day with our friends at Matosinhos, the surfspot of Porto. We surf & talk about what changed in our lives since we moved. I try to read, and play something with a three year old that looks like football. After the surf, in the late afternoon we are quite hungry and the women (ha!) […]
“We’re dreamers you and I”
Since I moved to Portugal I actually got a lot closer with a lot of my friends in Belgium. With one of them we decided to open a What’s App conversation with only music. We both love old school hip hop ( Mos Def, Wu Tang, …), groovy tunes, well directed music clips and so […]
Why a long break from F@cebook is a good thing.
Honestly, it took me some time to ban my account from the digital plains. That constant flow of information made me over-stimulated, gave me the feeling of always being tired in my head and prevented me of reading the stack of books that was waiting for me. I got tired of that habit of scrolling […]
Bolhão market in Porto: from unique Portuguese to a generic airport style?
Noon in Porto. Morning clouds evaporate and the sun appears above the hundred year old Bolhão market. I take a seat at a simple table between fresh flowers, the smell of bread and colourful Portuguese souvenirs.Time seems to have frozen here. It wouldn’t surprise me if vendors would sell oehoes & magic wands here. Despite […]
What I learned from turning bad habits into good ones.
How to deal with nasty & new habits While writing a manuscript I told another writer that it was hard for me to focus: that my writing process continued in a very slow, irregular pace. “Do you drink alcohol?” she asked. Well, yes I do. “Try not to drink while writing,” she replied.