Long time no news. No news, good news. That is the say, but for quite some time that is not what we read on the paper every morning. All around the world the crisis is hitting hard and many of us are going through tough times.
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Maybe by now it is about time to update you of my whereabouts. Last year I spent the last three months of my sabbatical year in Brazil, mainly in São Paulo. That is where I wrote the last posting. Since 1 January I'm back to Europe and since mid January I'm working as a consultant for a Portuguese company in OPorto. After fifteen years, I'm back to the place where I moved to when I left Brazil in 1993
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When I wrote the last posting the turmoil in the world economy was gathering momentum. At that time I may have sounded pessimistic. Now, I think I was quite conservative. So far reality has proved to be a lot worse than we dared to figure out last summer. Maybe the good news is that probably most of us will not experience again such a crisis during our lifetime. No doubt, that the economic cycles still hold and there will be other downturns in the future. However, a crash like the one that we are witnessing will probably not happen again in many decades. Let's just hope that the recession will not turn into a depression.
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This time in Portugal I decided to spend most of the weekends travelling around the country, instead of going back home. I will take the opportunity to visit the places that
I haven't visited when I first lived here. Last weekend Neus, Angela, Gemma and I visited Lisbon. On the photo beside you can see me in the gardens of Queluz Palace, in Sintra. I was very impressed by it, although the building requires some renovation work. However beautiful, it is not my preferred royal palace in Portugal. I think that Mafra is more beautiful and also a lot more interesting. I quite understand why D. João VI preferred Mafra, apart from the fact that he wanted to live far from his wife, Carlota Joaquina, who lived with his mad mother, Queen Maria I, in Queluz.
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Saturday night we had dinner at "Alcântara Café". That is one of my favourite restaurants in Lisbon. I hadn't been there for years. I was a bit worried: I didn't want to disappoint my friends. Quite often a very good restaurant doesn't keep the same service and food level of its early years. In this case I'm glad to say that we had a very good dinner and the service was competent and friendly. We also had a unique opportunity: when we arrived there was a power break in the neighbourhood. The restaurant was lit with dozens of candles spread everywhere. It was a fantastic ambiance that we enjoyed drinking Champagne while waiting for the electricity supply to be re-established.
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Lisbon is worth many visits. For me it was not love at first sight, but every time I go there I like it more and more. And I know I will continue to go there as often as I can.
Wish you enjoy your week,
Maurício
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