The Portuguese consulate in London is closed on English holidays AND Portuguese! Nice place to work…

It makes it very difficult for foreign people to learn how to spell in English when you have 300 different ways of spelling the same name!

Not to mention that some names are good for boys and girls which can be rather embarrassing for me. I usually get it wrong

That said, I’m sure Portuguese has some of these problems as well – it is a very complicated language to learn.

Because there is not much I can do to help around the house I decided that I should at least do something useful and do the… cooking

People who know me know I’m a disaster in the kitchen and that I hate cooking but since it’s about the only thing I can do that doesn’t require too much effort I decided to give it a go.

As I don’t know how to cook and have to follow a recipe I thought it’s best to follow a Portuguese recipe (without veg cos Russ doesn’t like them). Something with chicken which we had defrosting. So I went with the chicken rice in the oven recipe and also use the Portuguese chorico my dad sent me.

One hour later (and a few rest breaks) it was done. I am happy to say that it really tastes like home! Mmmm! Unfortunately for Russ this means it is a taste he is not very used to but considering we have enough for a couple of days, he’ll have time to get used to it

Maybe it’s because I have a cold but it’s really tasty, I’m impressed

Happy Cat

As if it wasn’t enough that I felt useless because the pregnancy is preventing me from doing everything that needs to be done, I decided to get ill. It’s not a very common thing in me. I get 2 or 3 colds in a year and they only last for a couple of days. Not this one tough

I’ve been feeling miserable for 4 days now and no signs of getting better. I sleep even less than I did because of the blocked nose, sneezing and bleeding from my nose and there is nothing I can do about it. The only thing I can have is paracetamol which never worked for me anyway.

Just last night I couldn’t sleep after 3am so I had to get up and try to get some rest on the sofa so that Russ could get some sleep. A flea wouldn’t find this sofa comfortable and with my big bump and runny nose I can tell you rest is not a thing you can do on it.

So more pressure on Russ to get things done. He’s been very good though and the fact that I lost my appetite alerted him to the fact that I might be really ill and he makes lovely honey and lemon hot drinks

Because I can’t do anything for more than 5 min without having to sit down an rest, my frustration is turning to bad temper. I hate being sick!!!!

Anyway share a thought for Russ hat has to deal with a pregnant, ill, bad tempered woman and to all the business work and house stuff by himself. Besides I decided that tonight I won’t be he one sleeping on the sofa, seems fair to me…

I still get shocked by some people’s behaviour. Maybe it’s just my impression but I have been faced with some very unpleasant behaviour in this country. Maybe I was just lucky to never see it in Portugal or my general group of acquaintances were just very special.

Two examples:

When I was waiting for an ultrasound at the hospital the waiting room was packed with pregnant women and their partners. I was lucky that there was one seat left and Russ just stood next to me. One heavily pregnant woman came in with her partner and she was clearly tired and uncomfortable and looking around desperate for a seat.

NONE OF THE MEN GOT UP AND OFFERED HER A SEAT! How is this possible???

It was only after she stood there for ages, got out and then came back and stood again for ages that a young man got up and asked her to sit down. Even though I was tired as well (and very big) I was about to get up and give her my own seat (not without making a loud remark that would get some faces red). This is unbelievable in any country but especially in the country famous worldwide by it’s gentlemen’s politeness!

On a less shocking note but that I had to endure for longer, on a restaurant table a conversation was going on between 3 women and a man. They worked at the same place and the man was the boss in some department. The women looked like a pack of wolves surrounding the lamb and asking him all kinds of confidential questions about work. The one that excited them the most was interrogating him on who would be fired next (not them of course as they weren’t in the same department). They started naming people asking if they were next, saying who they would think should be next and the guy just tried to be polite and was obviously uncomfortable not wanting to give away anything. My only comment to Russ was how can people find so much pleasure on gossiping about who will lose their jobs next? Specially in this current climate! There are some very small people in this world.

I just hope that when I get back to work I don’t have to put up with this kind of behaviour. Or that I never need a seat anywhere while I’m pregnant.