Animal Mummies

In 1888 an Egyptian farmer digging in the sand near the village of Istabl Antar uncovered a mass grave. The bodies weren't human. They were feline—ancient cats that had been mummified and buried in pits in staggering numbers. "Not one or two here and there," reported the English Illustrated Magazine, "but […] hundreds of thousands, […] ten to twenty cats deep." Some of the linen-wrapped cats still looked presentable, and a few even had gilded faces. Village children peddled the best specimens to tourists for change; the rest were sold in bulk as fertilizer. One ship hauled about 180,000, weighing some 38,000 pounds, to Liverpool to be spread on the fields of England.


An amazing article in November’s National Geographic Magazine. The rest of the article is here.

Lisbon's Heart

In Luis de Camões Square, in downtown Lisbon, there is this adorable heart. The lights change with the touch of a hand.

Sweet.

Little boat

Little boat in Lisbon's river Tagus.

100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do

Have you ever been to a restaurant alone where the waiter said something like “Are you waiting for someone?” and felt like replying “Thank you so much for that sweet reminder that I came alone to a restaurant today, but NO, I CAME ALONE”?

Have you ever been to a restaurant where the waiter took “an empty plate from one guest while others are still eating the same course”? So have I.

Ever felt like the service wasn’t quite up to what you were expecting?

Well, I discovered this sweet entry in a blog called: “100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do”, by Bruce Buschel, in a blog from the The New York Times. Need I say anything else? Part One here and Part Two here.

A must read.

Chilly Sara

It’s been so cold lately I can actually feel my nose and ears!

Son of a Bitch!

Check ou the name of this blog (not the address, the NAME!)

It seriously pissed me off!

Critic kills Lust

In last week’s culinary review of Time Out Magazine, this precious gem appeared. I am sorry, but it is only in Portuguese but, if you are thinking about learning a new language, you could always choose Portuguese as it will be worth .

It starts off with a warning: “As melhores coisas deste restaurante semi-novo vimo-las logo no primeiro minuto: um bom poiso com vista para a rua da Escola Politécnica, habitado por empregados simpáticos. Se lhe parece uma boa descrição não leia mais, porque a partir daqui... foi sempre a descer.” [The best of this semi-new restaurant were seen in the first minute: a good location overviewing Rua da Escola Politécnica, served with friendly employees. If this sounds like a good description, read no more, because it all went downhill from here.” ]

And after he it goes deeper than Hell. Seriously.

This literary genious – only a genious could waste/spend his time destroying a restaurant with an intelligent, humours and immaginative review - wrote the following: “a massa que envolvia [as bochechas de porco] era qualquer coisa parecida com aquelas que se compram numa loja dos chineses. E não estou a dizer loja de comida chinesa.” ["the dough envolving them [the pork cheeks] looked like something you would buy at a Chinese store. And I am not talking about a Chinese food store."]

Tiago Rio, I LOVE YOU!

No rubber band chopticks

Last week, I went to a japanese restaurant – Origami sushihouse– with some people from work.

I’ve only have sushi once before and didn’t like, but this time I LOVED IT. Truly good. Great atmosphere, service, and food, except form the music, which was everything but Japanese. I think it “matched” the TV, broadcasting some music channel.

But the best thing, really, was that I ate with the Japanese chopsticks, as you can see from the photo. I didn’t need to use the ones with the rubber band on the end, no sir, nor the typical knife and fork, like the waitress kindly told us she could bring. My foot, she would! I ate like a Japanese!

My plate and chopsticks!

Chocolate for the soul

I found a new blog about books. It's called Chocolate para a alma [chocolate for the soul], and they have a fabulous tagline: "reading doesn't fatten". It's a very literal translation, I know, but I don't feel inspired to bo better.

I'll be following them closely, for sure

What you inherit from your mother

I inherited my genes from two people: my parents. Mother and father. The eyes, the hair colour, the hair, skin lightness, ... like most people. However, George Clooney's charater, Ryan Bingham, in 'Up in the air' movie got something else. He got the quote of the year.

"I'm like my mother, I stereotype. It's faster."

GENIUS!!

Watch the clip here, near the 1 minute mark.

I loved NY last weekend

Last weekend I went to the movies and saw the belated “New York I Love You”. I’ve been waiting to see this movie for quite some time now, and last weekend, I finally saw it. The verdict: worth seeing.

“New York I love you” is a movie I’ve mentioned before in this blog, many months ago. It all began with a French movie called “Paris Je T’aime” and this one is now an American version. Well, sort of.

The concept is the same: mini love stories which take place in the different parts of the city, written, directed and started by different actors. The conception is different. While in Paris, we had separate love stories, each told one after the other, in NY, you see parts of each love story spread throughout the movie. You don’t have 8-minute stories, but maybe 2 or 3 minutes of one story, followed by the same amount of time of another love segment.

At first, I felt somewhat disappointed that the NY didn’t follow the Paris scheme, but after a few minutes, I realized that the movie had a certain rhythm that the Paris didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I love Paris and NY is equally charming, but only after seeing NY did I realise that, by breaking the stories into segments, the story ended up being more coherent (It may seen strange, but it isn’t, trust me) because the characters all sort of meet each other. Like the Six degrees of separation theory (look it up). For example, the not-spontaneous guy bumps into the one night stand guy, the girl from the one night stand meets the pharmacist, the pharmacist knows the boys from the prom segment, the video camera girl knows the sex flirt guy, the man who can’t communicate with his wife sees the sex flirt guy, the sex worker (yes, there is one) meets the camera girl... they are all connected. The stories and the people. Which reminds me...

The NY has many, many stories, like the music composer, the bride to be, the once-famous singer, the divorced parents juggling time with heir daughter, the painter and the muse, the thief, the pretty girl and the professor, the old couple on the day of their wedding anniversary... hum... the one with a girl complaining her boyfriend isn’t spontaneous, the one night stand boy and girl version of a second ‘date’, the couple that can’t communicate, the one with guy meets girl on the street and flirts with her using extremely explicit sex language and so on and so forth. And the one with the girl with the camera. And the boy and girl at prom night. Many great love stories.

But, I have to be honest, at times, i got the feeling that the movie was more about loneliness and failure to connect that about love itself. In many stories, they emphasize how lonely people are. And silent, too. They don’t communicate with other people and many times, we only get to know what they are thinking because we can hear what they think! Yes, some of the characters narrate their thoughts or ideas.

For example, when I say that some of the characters are lonely, I am thinking about the musician. For most of his story, he is alone, sleeping, trying to write, going for coffee, and the only apparent relationship he has is with an assistance (we assume) over the phone, who sends him things and tries to help him finish his work on time. Of the one night stand couple. Most of their story is about them going to meet each other for a second time, on the metro, taxi, walking, while remembering what their last ‘encounter’ was like.

They are alone with their thoughts and we are invited to come into their lives for 7 to 8 minutes. We learn to fall in love with their stories, characters, and situations and their will probably be an “Aaahhhh” at the end of the screening. I’ll definitely buy the DVD once it gets out.

Invisible quotes

“Não, estou a falar dos corpos dos outros homens. Não sinto o menor desejo de tocar neles, não sinto o menor desejo de ver os outros homens nus. Para dizer a verdade, muitas vezes pergunto-me por que raio é que as mulheres se sentirão atraídas pelos homens. Se eu fosse mulher, o mais certo era ser lésbica.”

“Pergunta-se se as palavras não serão um elemento essencial do sexo, se falar não será afinal uma forma mais subtil de tocar, se as imagens que rodopiam nas nossas cabeças não serão tão importantes como os corpos que abraçamos.”

Invisível, Paul Auster, tradução de José Vieira de Lima

Santa Claus is coming to town

Christmas is coming and, as usual, people go crazy thinking of what to buy other people. After 8-hours of daily work, some people still manage to drag themselves to mall and whatnots to buy Christmas gifts.

However, it is a good idea to know in advance what is it that you are going to buy, otherwise when you drag yourself aimlessly through the stores you’ll fell like screaming at the woman in front of you carrying 5 different bags that has just (accidentally) hit you with one of them as she rushs through the book store.

So, this year, here’s a tip: PLAN AHEAD.

The wind doesn’t seem to inviting? The idea of having your feet and the bottom of your trousers wet doesn’t charm you? No? So here’s tip # 2: STAY HOME. Go on-line and browse through some of the Christmas suggestions that The New York Times, New York Magazine or FNAC have for you. Use the ideas they have and adapt them so you liking.

And to kick off the Christmas season in a good spirit, here are some of my suggestions for possible Christmas gifts you can give (me or other people): books, umbrellas, socks, trips, massages, a day at the spa, iPods, Mad Men Season 1 DVD, magazine subscription, Photoshop, new cell phone, gift cards, car, house, pets, gloves, funny handkerchiefs, cooking utensils, IKEA vouchers, theatre tickets, cookbooks, bracelets, Jimmy Choo’s, sunny weather, jumping ropes, photography books, key chains, mugs, chocolates, bookends, hair pins, place mats, shower gels, false eyelashes, board games, flowers, hair dryers, lipsticks, comfy slippers, Nespresso coffe machines,... get the idea?

13th

Today is Friday 13th. Nothing bad happened to me. So far.

Except that tonight there will be no Mad Men on tv, but a 24-hour marathon of "24". Darn!

Surprise at Work

Back to work, already.

But today I had a surprise: I arrived to find out that I had been transferred to the translations section of the room! I think I will be diving into translations full time, now!

Here’s hoping...!

Have a good week!

A Fact a Day Keeps Boredom Away

A friend of mine just e-mailed me this amazing website. It's called "Learn Something Everyday" and the name is pretty much self-explanatory.

The website presents one fact per day and they are really funny and informative. They have small windows with bright, eye-catching colours with funny pictures and the fact of the day. Today's fact is:

Worth visiting.

House Hunting

I took two weeks off to relax and go house hunting. If anyone hears of good bargains in Lisbon, shoot me an e-mail.

Asthmatics in Lamborghinis

Last night, I was watching tv when I stumbled across TOP GEAR. Man, I haven’t seen that program in a while!

10 minutes in, they start talking about the new Lamborghini and the tall man, the one with giant legs and curly hair used one of the best metaphors I have ever heard! He said that the air conditioning of the [previously released] Lamborghinis was like “an asthmatic breathing at you through a straw”. GENIOUS!

I can’t actually remember the correct phrase – to you, at you ? - but the “asthmatic breaking through a straw” was brilliant, right?

Hungry Hippos

An amazing video with photographs of the feeding time in the Lisbon Zoo. A must see, here.

Ok, the hippos are not in the video, but the name is funny.

Genius in a Bottle

Genious in a bottle!

In Portuguese here.

In English here.