5th October

Posted on October 7, 2007
Filed Under Portugal, The English People and I | Leave a Comment

Friday was the 5th of October. Doesn’t say much to the English but it’s an important day for the Portuguese. 5th of October 1910 was the day we ended the Monarchy in Portugal and we became a Republic.

But England had it’s influence on it. The British Ultimatum was one of the events that were the last drop against the Monarchy and after most of the royal family was killed, the remaining prince (which was only king for a very short period) ran away to England.

So on the 5th of October we also got a new flag and a new National Anthem. It’s lyrics reflect the revolutionary atmosphere of the time against the English and the Monarchy. But we are all friends now :)

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If you want to know more the is something on wikipedia about it. It is in Portuguese though. You can ask google to translate it but I can tell you it does a very poor job.

Cinema-The heartbreak kid

Posted on October 7, 2007
Filed Under Cinema | 2 Comments

This is the film we went to see yesterday. I’m glad I have a card and didn’t have to pay for it. It had some funny moments but mostly I found it quite disturbing. Definitely not my kind of film. Especially went the ‘hero’ is a bastard.

Damn them!

Posted on October 7, 2007
Filed Under General | 3 Comments

Yesterday, after a very pleasant day of shopping and cinema with Jemma, we get to the car and the window is broken! In the car park next to the shopping centre! The little F**** broke the window, opened the glove compartment and stole nothing because there was nothing to steal!!! There are no CCTVs there and no one saw anything. Well someone saw the broken window and called the police which was looking for us. Grrrrrrrr!!!

Call Russ, call the police again no get a crime number, call the insurance company, and the damage is £70!

I hope they get run over by a lorry!!:@

I got a bike!!!

Posted on October 5, 2007
Filed Under General | 3 Comments

I bought a bike! Really cheap and nice!!!

I call it Biclas (read beeclas). It’s green.

Now all I have to do is learn how to ride it :o

I’ll provide some entertainment to my neighbours, I can tell you that much!

Busy, busy, busy

Posted on October 4, 2007
Filed Under General | 3 Comments

I’ve not had much time to write as the lab has been my second home!

Lots of work to do with lots of people and never enough time. That is what you get for being away for so long :P

There have been some social events as well. It’s the week when the new students start and there are lots of gatherings and free food! :D

Evenings in the pub, quizes, all good stuff.

Russ is a lot better as well so things are slowly getting back to normal.

Busy but happy :D

I intend to write something about my last trip to Portugal but I’m waitting for Russ to download the pictures (hint, hint).

Now off to another welcome-to-new-students-free-food-and-drink-event :p Eh eh eh

Go Dawn!!!

Posted on September 27, 2007
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Go Dawn!!

Dear me! How many times did I write ‘building blocks of the inner solar system’ in posters, presentations, abstracts,… And how many headaches did Vesta give me… and will give me until the end of my PhD?

Better finish my PhD in the next 8 years then :P

Nations of the World

Posted on September 27, 2007
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WHEN are you going to do something about Burma???

Are you waiting for China to decide what to do???? Are you joking????

How many people have to die???

NHS Vs Servico Nacional de Saude (2)

Posted on September 27, 2007
Filed Under General, Portugal, The English People and I | 2 Comments

STILL wondering which one is worst

House keeping

Posted on September 27, 2007
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I’ve been tidying the weblog just by adding categories. Thought that as I write mostly about my travelling it should have it’s own category. And of course Portugal deserves a category of its own :D

Mallorca (2)

Posted on September 26, 2007
Filed Under General, Travelling | 2 Comments

Finally a bit of time to write and to copy the pictures from my phone. There aren’t many but enough to have an idea :)

It all started with only a couple of hours sleep, waking up at 4 am to go to the airport. The only thing slightly interesting about the flight was that the landing was one of the worst I ever experienced. Some people even screamed :s

About Mallorca, what can I say? It’s lovely! We stayed in a cheap hotel 200m from the beach. The hotel wasn’t very nice, but that clos to a beautiful Mediterranean beach, I would sleep on a tent!

The purpose of the trip was to teach some of the OU students at the observatory. Almost all of the PhD students do that at some point working as demonstrators. Of course that dealing with telescope (which I’ve never done before) we worked at night. Each working night consisted of 14 hours work. A lot! And working at night it was a bit difficult to get the sleep pattern right. Especially when I’d just got used to English hours after Arizona. But we had about 2 days with a few extra hours free to relax or, in my case, go to the beach :d

Besides the main domes, where the offices are, the observatory has 6 or 8 (can’t remember) smaller domes for teaching purposes where you can do photometry, spectroscopy, etc, and a planetarium.

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The other thing I found out the observatory has is fig trees(!!!) as i said before. I had some happy times sneaking out to the trees :p

Even though the working hours are long, it is a pleasure to work there. Not only because you’re working with telescopes and observing the stars and leaning where they are but also because the students are great. They are there because they want to learn and in fact pay to be there so they are very interested and willing. They are all eagger to learn which, if you are teaching, is very rewarding. they were all very nice people :)

The food, well the food was great as well! ost of the meals were given at the observatory. They had a Mallorcan cook cooking all the food for us every night and it was delicious. It was much like food from Portugal and I had the opportunity of eating a lot of stuff I miss so much and don’t have the opportunity to eat in England. I hate lots!! There was squid, octopus, and even tripe!!! I had tripe just the way it’s cooked in Portugal!!! HMMM!!

In the afternoon before going to the observatory I had lunch/breakfast at restaurants and cafes around the beach. They were not expensive at all and I ate fish and shell fish every day of the week :D People were very friendly especially after they knew I was Portuguese and altough they all speak English and I was with English people they simply spoke Spanish to me.

I managed to go a couple of times to the beach get some sun bathing and swim in the sea. It was gorgeous! Nice weather,warm waters,… fantastic! I would only get out of the water after I got wrinkly hands :P

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In summary, even though I was working long hours and not getting much sleep, I felt like I was on holiday. I felt really happy there and it was excellent to charge my batteries! Come back a changed person I would even say.

(of course that as soon as I get to England I get ill :s but lets not talk about that and I’ll keep the smile on my face)

And after all this, I even get payed to do it!!!Couldn’t ask for more. Except ask to go back :)



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