He’s got it!!! (2)

Posted on December 19, 2007
Filed Under The English People and I | Leave a Comment

Ooops, this also means we are stuck in MK now… :o

Things that I miss…

Posted on December 19, 2007
Filed Under General, Merry Christmas, Portugal, The English People and I | Leave a Comment

This time of the year:

The beautiful Christmas lights on the streets,

The music on the streets,

The smell of chestnuts on the streets,

The view of the river or the sea.

I know those things exist in England as well, but not in Milton Keynes… (and Lisboa, the river Tejo and Baixa can’t be replaced)

Cuscos

Posted on December 18, 2007
Filed Under The English People and I | 2 Comments

Que esta gente tem vidinhas muito tristes e tem que se meter na vida dos outros ja sabemos.

O que ainda me surpreende e o ‘a vontade’ com que olham por cima do ombros para ler as mensagens dos telemoveis dos outros e vao atras mexer no correio para ver os destinatarios.

Ainda por cima nao e so um!

Isto ainda me surpreende!

P.S- E sao homens!

Christmas crackers

Posted on December 17, 2007
Filed Under Merry Christmas, The English People and I | Leave a Comment

Following the first few posts of this weblog in which I talk a bit about differences in tradition between England and Portugal, I decided to explain what they are.

As everyone in England knows them I’ll write it in Portuguese. For those who don’t, chech Wikipedia.

Nao sabia da existência destas Christmas crackers antes de me mudar para aqui. Ao que parece so existem em Inglaterra e nos restantes países da Commonwealth (segundo me disseram nem nos EUA as conhecem).

E algo de muito tradicional aqui e é coisa que nunca falta numa mesa de Natal. Achei por bem partilhar :)

crackers.jpg

Ora bem, as Christmas crackers sao, basicamente, um tubinho de cartão embrulhado em jeito de rebuçado gigante com coisas la dentro. O dito tubinho esta armadilhado com uma espécie de raspinha de Carnaval. Duas pessoas puxam, uma de cada lado, ate que se ouve o ‘crack’ da raspinha, o tubo rasga-se e o conteúdo sai a voar pelos ares. O que geralmente acontece é haver uma em cada lugar numa mesa, todos agarram numa, cruzam os braços de forma a partilhar com as pessoas sentadas de ambos os lados e todos puxam ao mesmo tempo. E ‘crack’ la vai tudo pelo ar e todos riem e ficam muito contentes. Depois inspecciona-se o conteúdo e os sorrisos desaparecem, dando lugar a descontentamento e revirares de olhos :p.

Dentro da dita esta nada mais nada menos que um chapéu de papel muito colorido em forma de coroa, que todos usam ate ao fim do jantar (há alguns resistentes em que me incluo pois alem de não ser pratico a comer é, na minha modesta opinião, um bocado ridículo), um pequeno brinquedo de que ate os Kinder Surpresa teriam vergonha, e a pior piada que se puder imaginar, do género ‘porque e que a galinha atravessou a estrada’.

Enfim, eu acho giro (a parte do crack). E algo diferente, muito tradicional e próprio daqui. So e pena que não se possa levar nos aviões por causa da raspinha. Ate me admira que os senhores da higiene e segurança não as tenham já proibido com medo que o conteúdo acerte no olho de alguém…;)

1st December 1640

Posted on December 6, 2007
Filed Under Portugal, The English People and I | 3 Comments

I didn’t mention it on the day but here it is now. This is another very important holiday in Portugal. It’s the anniversary of the Restauracao da Independencia (Restoration of the Independence translated literally).

It so happens that due to some succession problems we were under the rule of Spanish kings for 60 years! This is the day we kicked them out for the last time! Again we accomplished that with the help of our old allies the English.

It seems like the English played such an important role in our past like the Portuguese do in English football today :p

reastau1.jpg

Here is the monument to that fantastic day.


I was wrong

Posted on December 6, 2007
Filed Under The English People and I | 1 Comment

“Yes you are right, Health and Safety is very important in this country. But it’s only the second most important. The first is money! And that wins all” (Russ)

That’s why the situation was not making sense to me in a country that is the biggest pain about health and safety. Some things are global. Some countries are just more hypocrite than others…

Free food

Posted on December 5, 2007
Filed Under The English People and I | 1 Comment

One of the good things of working on a University when there are special occasions

Birmingham

Posted on December 5, 2007
Filed Under The English People and I | 2 Comments

Last Saturday I went on one of the OU’s day organised trips to a German Christmas market in Birmingham. It was my first visit to the second biggest city in England (other than just the train station).

Unfortunately we only had a day and it was meant to be for shopping so there wasn’t much time to see the city. The market was between the City Hall and the big Bullring Shopping Centre. It was so crowded that you could barely walk, much less be able to see anything. We managed to do some shopping and see some of the German stands but the queues were so big that I didn’t have the patience to buy what I was really interested in: The food ;)

The little I could see about the city was nice. Anything with a bit of history (more than 40 years) is good.

We were nackered by the end of the day though :s But we had a very nice day with our friends and the trip ended up being very cheap so definitely something to repeat.  :)

I can’t help it

Posted on October 31, 2007
Filed Under General, The English People and I | Leave a Comment

But I still get surprised by the amount of hypocrisy of some people. Are there any limits? I’m speechless.:s

Things that annoy me

Posted on October 11, 2007
Filed Under General, The English People and I | Leave a Comment

People putting their nose into other people’s business when it’s nothing to do with them. Last time I checked I’m not a child or an idiot! Nor are my friends!



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