More on London life

My cousin Joao has just been visiting for the last 12 days. Less busy than previous visits as I've started work and am still adapting to this 8 hours out of my day when I'm not free thing. Saturday 11th usual thing of two parties in the same day - Robin's birthday drinks in a lovely pub in Mornington Crescent, then national stereotypes fancy dress party at Pedro, Patricia and Maggie's house in Lily Close. Pics will be up soon. Sunday 12th lovely capoeira roda in Hyde Park on what proved to be the last summer day. The Klezfest was also going on and it was amazing to see so many people dancing in a circle. Bought back fond memories of Andancas, the Portuguese dance festival which I have been missing for the last years. Monday collected my PhD degree from the University of London - shall I frame it, or loose it in the middle of the untidy paper piles in my room? Also went to a gallery on Architecture right in the centre of London. Work started on Tuesday 14th and after that have been exhausted all the time obviously, working hard at managing to get by on 8hrs sleep a night. More on my new job soon. Wednesday lovely dinner with Kathy at Brown's, a place one imagines is the same since the 1st world war. I'm sure this where the heroes meet in a lot of English novels. Saturday 18th went to the Brasilian Love Affair at the Notting Hill Arts Club, great as usual. Have used my by now considerable internet research skills to track down a song I heard that I loved, check out the artist, she's great! Sunday went to see I'm a real photographer at the Photographer's Gallery, whic exceeded expectations, and the Ikebana exhibition at the British Museum, which was tiny and not a patch on the V&A one a few years ago. And managed to fit in a swing dance lesson. Probably the hardest dance I have tried to learn so far - besides the complicated, off-beat steps and twirls, the expression the more advanced dancers gave to make it look good was amazing! My cousin's visit finished yesterday with a stroll around Hoxton and dinner at a Vietnamese in Kingsland Rd. Still feel a bit guilty as for 12 days in London this was very little!

More stuff- have created a blog (don't laugh) for my friends who are travelling around the world. Will put up the link on the right-hand side soon, meanwhile take a peek.

Meanwhile the Guardian has come out with another memorable titbit, this time on dating. All my Portuguese friends who ask me what the hell is the weird Anglo-Saxon habit, here are some excerpts:

" Many years of effort and billions of pounds have been wasted putting men on the moon, curing diseases and inventing turkey bacon, when what scientists should have been turning their minds and money is to find a way of circumventing the need for dating, defined in the Oxford English Dicitionary as a 'tortuous and inefficient method of trawling for potential mates, preceded by a mixture of optimisim and nausea, characterised by rapidly decreasing optimism and succeeded by sick apprehension that he won't (or will) call'. Dating may be the reason we don't rule the world. Nothing saps a girl's will or zest for life like it. [...] Post-date behaviour is simple enough. You go about your business, adamantly refusing to fulfil the stereotype of sad, single woman sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring and just as adamantly refusing to admit that, however hard you try, however demanding your job or thrilling your social life may be, 10% of your brain will be tracking the silent minutes as they pass. For the first 24 hours, this will be accompanied by the ceaseless internal whispering 'Is he going to call? Is he going to call?' For the second 24 hours, this is replaced by 'Why hasn't he called? Why hasn't he called?' After that, by the way of light relief, you get to move on to 'What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me?' [...]
by Stephane Kardos

And with my priorites in the right order again, the future events in the Dana are finally up. They are looking very interesting, and as soon as mine are sorted (climate change and nightmares) will let you know!