Wednesday in Portugal

Yesterday's four hour summer afternoon work party turned into about 10 hours of hanging out with work colleagues/friends for me (it was such a beautiful summer's day, the drinks were so refreshing, the company so scintillating, the food so delicious, I didn't want to go home!) so my entry about Wednesday in Portugal while "Tapping Into The Flow" two weeks ago was delayed until now. Here are the highlights:

Morning workshop session:

MaryAnn and Teesha discuss MA's journal

A very focused Maxine

followed by lunch at an Italian restaurant in the marina in Cascais, where I enjoyed a fabulous risotto.

Walked past a beautiful cove at low tide (not me in the bikini):

then visited a Count's house, where Jane took a very cool photo with her spinner camera in the courtyard:

and where I snuck a few photos inside contrary to strict instructions from the staff person working there (couldn't resist the stunning marquetry on this cupboard!)

Next was a visit to the Paula Rego Museum - unusual architectural design outside (saw these sorts of chimney/pyramid thingys on several buildings in Portugal, don't understand the appeal myself):

Taylor plays tour guide

all but one room empty inside, as they were in the middle of changing the exhibits, but the museum shop kept us entertained.

Outside, this nice doggie wanted to follow us home, I was sad to leave him behind.

We wandered more picturesque, narrow streets

Linda

until we found ourselves at a sidewalk flea market of sorts,

Morag checking out the merchandise

where I bought a Portuguese version of Puss in Boots.

Late afternoon workshop session,

Teresa, Taylor, Jane and Elisabeth conferring

followed by a visit to Guincho Beach, which we all LOVED - we danced in the waves and took lots of goofy pictures of each other:

We had a light dinner at Muxacho, a restaurant overlooking the ocean, with a very cool outdoor pool and furniture made out of trees. 

We watched the sun set and wrote in our journals and took a taxi ride home along the coast in the dark, pleasantly exhausted after another jam-packed day of drama and delight.

Laurie journaling

Tracy in the rainbow

Heroes

In each of our lives, if we're lucky, we meet people who inspire us.  Here are two such people in my life, Karyn and Jane:

Karyn has been suffering from a liver disease for the past few years that has been getting steadily worse, to the point where she needed a transplant.  Jane, a friend from the cottage, volunteered to be tested to see if she was a match.  Good news, she was. 

So today, Jane is donating about half of her liver to Karyn.  In about a year's time, Jane's remaining liver will have regenerated itself and be back to its normal size.  For Karyn, if her body accepts the transplant, it means getting back to a normal life with a functioning, healthy liver.

I admire both these ladies so much.  For their bravery and their friendship, their willingness to endure what needs to be done to make things better and for their good humour throughout it all.  Jane's generosity for a friend is truly inspiring.

Please add them both to your thoughts and prayers today, in the hope that all goes well and both will healthy and recovered as soon as possible.

Tuesday in Lisbon

Teesha had told us a journalling idea the day before, to write down 10 words at the end of a day to help you remember the highlights of what you did that day.  I've included my list from the Tuesday we experienced two weeks ago in Portugal throughout the text of this blog.

We were out the door by 8 a.m. to walk to the train station to (1) take the train into (2) Lisbon. 

Once we arrived in Lisbon, we jumped in taxis and headed to this (3) flea market, held under the shadow of a church dome:

It was not the best flea market I have ever been to, lots more used clothing and current junk than vintage or antique items and some vendors who seemed disgusted with the fact that I couldn't speak Portuguese enough to barter with them, but nevertheless there were some amazing finds to be had. I know because I found one of them, a plastic bag filled with old passports, identity cards, school report cards and the like.  It seemed an expensive purchase for 22 euros (approx $30 Cdn/US) but when I asked if I could have just one of the passports (to do a passport journal that Teesha showed us how to make), he wanted to charge me 5 euros for just the one item. Suddenly the bag full of ephemera, including 3 passports, 18 slides, some old stamps, a couple of dozen old B&W photographs and twenty or so little ID booklets seemed quite reasonable in price, so of course I had to get it!  (and later shared some of the contents with my classmates).

After the flea market and a quick bathroom visit, we started walking through various streets and alleyways of Lisbon.  Lots of uphill and down, cobblestones underfoot. 

notice the woman on the left, hanging out her window to watch us pass by
after we asked her for directions

I love this photo I took of Maxine standing in the middle of a street taking a picture of an approaching trolley car - she looks so determined, it makes me smile every time I see it!

Remember those mosaic tiles I told you about yesterday? There were plenty of examples on various buildings we saw on our travels that day:

Delinquent that I am,
I tried to pry a piece of tile off this building but to no avail

Lots of decorations left over from a weekend celebration of the sardine festival:

That's right, I said sardine festival.  Here's the poster to prove it:

After a few minutes to enjoy this scenic lookout over Lisbon - here is the fab four - me, Taylor, Laurie and Linda:

being photographed by (4) the newly christened "Danjah" (formerly known as Jane) Davenport:

- we next visited the Museum of Portuguese Decorative Arts, which gave us the opportunity to see artisans doing woodworking, carving, book binding, metalsmithing and (5) tassle and ribbon making. It was quite fascinating and again, stunning to see how labour intensive all of these skills are.

After walking a few more blocks through more narrow, cobblestoned streets, we arrived at the restaurant where we had lunch, located within a circus school. We had a table on the second floor, overlooking the harbour.  By this time, it was mid afternoon and we were all hungry, hot and tired but the (6) to-die-for ravioli soon made me feel much better!

We took taxis back to the studio in Estoril in time for a late afternoon 3 hour session in the studio with Teesha and Tracy, where we were joined by (7) Morag - our Scottish classmate, who had just arrived from London after being unavoidably detained.  Afterwards, we had a delicious dinner at the restaurant next door where we sampled the famous Portuguese (8) bacalhau (codfish) dish for the first time and during which (9) Linda spilled beer all over me, which gave us an excuse to do laundry in the (10) cute little washing machine in our kitchen when we got home that night!

Which led to the case of the missing black pants when the newly washed capris I had hung out on the line to dry just outside the second storey window shown on the left in the above photo mysteriously "disappeared" the next day (not to worry, I did eventually find them - they had blown off the line in the wind!)...ah yes, we did have adventures in Portugal!!

The Workshop Begins

The first day of the "Tapping Into The Flow" workshop with Teesha and Tracy Moore in Portugal began two weeks ago today with a delivery of fresh bread and rolls and a copy of our itinerary for the day.  Here's Linda holding the bag she found on our doorstep (kind of like getting tree mail on Survivor, left for us by a lovely lady named Rosa). 

We took taxis almost everywhere we went.  Here is Maxine, Laurie, Taylor and Linda waiting outside our accommodations for the cabs to arrive on that first morning:

Our first stop was the tile factory, where we were shown how ceramic tiles are made.  We also left the tiles we had painted the night before there to be fired, to be picked up later in the week.

It was quite fascinating to see the process and to realize how labour intensive it is.  They also had a large collection of very valuable, very beautiful antique tiles which have been recovered from old buildings before they were torn down.  Here we are being shown how the mosaics patterns are numbered on the back so they can be re-assembled easily. 

This handsome young man demonstrated various steps in the process, including the use of this machine to polish off the rough edges on the tile.

Once our tour of the tile factory was finished, we headed to the studio (a 5-10 minute drive from our accommodations) for our first workshop session.  We started by painting the pages of our journals and binding them together.

Tracy and Teesha

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch.  We were invited to lunch at the home of a clay artist named Cuca who lives a few doors down the street from the studio.  It was a beautiful, warm sunny day and we sat outside on her patio and enjoyed a traditional Portuguese stew, followed by a lemony rice pudding for dessert, followed by a quite delicious (but potent!) cherry liqueur served in chocolate shot glasses - yum!  Here you see Steve and MaryAnn measuring out portions verrry carefully!

Later, Cuca showed us her studio and gave us a demonstration of how to make a chicken out of clay, after which she surprised us by giving us each a finished piece to take home.  A very talented, very generous lady.

Cuca, Maxine and MaryAnn

After lunch, we went back to work in the studio, adding borders to our journal pages.  Here are some of my classmates, engrossed in a lesson (and looking a little sleepy after that liqueur!):

and here's what one of my pages in progress looked like:

When our afternoon workshop session ended, we visited a couple of stores looking for art supplies and then took cabs to the beachfront in Cascais:

and walked along the promenade to the restaurant where we had dinner, served by the adorable Rodrigo (shown here with Jane and Elisabeth) on only his 3rd day on the job.

We continued walking along the promenade back to Estoril and home to bed after a very long but lovely day filled with adventure, excitement and new experiences with new friends.
P.S. Guess what?? This is my 1,000th blog post - amazing!!  Thanks for reading along and sharing this experience with me.

Arriving in Portugal

Two weeks ago today, I arrived in Portugal.  The flight got in to Lisbon at 6 a.m.  and dawn was just breaking as we landed.  When I got off the plane, I immediately went to the washroom to use the facilities and brush my teeth, wishing I could take a shower to wash off that "I've been in an airplane for too long" feeling.  Imagine my surprise to come out of the washroom to find myself as the very last person behind hundreds in the customs lineup - yikes!  The lineup to go through passport control moved incredibly slowly, as there were only two customs officials working at that early hour, it took about an hour and a half to get through, during which time I had time for an extensive chat with a lovely man and his teenage daughter standing in front of me.  They were travelling from Florida to Norway by way of Newark and Lisbon - sadly, no contact info was exchanged so I will probably never see either of them again but it certainly helped to pass the time in a very pleasant manner. 

By the time I was finished, I had to go searching for my luggage, as the baggage carousels had long since been updated to reflect more recent flight numbers.  Once I found my bag, I headed outside and took a taxi to Estoril, about a half hour drive away.  When I arrived at Margarida's place, she showed me around the apartment I would be sharing with four other women and then left me to my own devices.  As none of my other roommates had arrived yet, I had breakfast, followed by a leisurely nap and a shower, and then headed out to explore the neighbourhood.

I walked down to the beach and then strolled back, enjoying the sun and warm temperature (which was 28 degrees Celsius, according to the Hello Kitty sign on the nearby casino grounds - whaaat???) and taking photos.

That evening, we all met in the garden of Margarida's place, having arrived from our various origins.  Everyone starting chatting and getting to know one another right away, enjoying a sampling of "tawny" port wine and several delicious snacks provided for us by our hostess and her husband Paolo. 

The conversation seemed to flow effortlessly and we all made fast friends.  Margarida had set up an party game for us where we had to answer trivia questions about Portugal, the questions were posted on trees and branches scattered about the garden.  I answered the most correctly and won a hand embroidered apron.  As the lucky winner, I also had to wear a blue wig, carry a large wooden spoon and a plate of styrofoam food.  Not exactly sure why?! :)

Next on the agenda was a lesson in ceramic tile painting.  We all headed downstairs where a room had been set up for us to paint the tiles.  The traditional colours are blue on white tiles and we were encouraged to stick with that format.  I chose a cat stencil for my tile.  We took them in to a tile factory the next morning to be fired and got them back later in the week, here's how mine turned out:

By the time we were done painting the tiles, it was quite late in the evening and we were all tuckered out.  Time for bed, so we would be rested to start the workshop with Teesha and Tracy bright and early the next morning!

Leaving for Portugal

Two weeks ago today, I headed off to Portugal.  When my flight to Newark was cancelled the night before, I had gone home and went to bed early.  I slept in and had a leisurely morning, since I was already packed and ready to go.  Either Gus didn't want me to leave or he wanted to come along with me.

There were no delays with my flights this time around, everything went smoothly, although the lineup to go through US customs was the longest I have ever experienced. I was excited to be able to see my apartment building from the plane - it's the middle one, gold in colour, towards the top of the photo below.  I often see planes flying overhead when I'm driving or walking near my building and wonder where they are headed, now I know!

We also flew right over downtown Toronto as we headed south.  Of course, it's hard to get a clear photo through the double panes of plexiglass or acrylic that they use for airplane windows but that didn't stop me from trying. You can see the island airport, the CN Tower and the Skydome (I still don't want to have to call it the Rogers Centre) in the picture below.

As we flew into Newark, New Jersey, we followed the Hudson River and had a clear view of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, which was pretty exciting.  Sadly, I was seated on the opposite side of the plane so my attempts to get a photo were unsuccessful but I saw her again in an airport gift shop.  :)

I had a seat booked on both the flights to Lisbon showing on this board, but cancelled the second one when it was confirmed that the earlier flight would be leaving on time.

The flight with TAP Portugal was really good, in a brand new, sparkling clean airplane. 

There was a mostly full moon shining outside my window for most of the flight, which was quite magical to see.  Before I knew it, we were arriving in Lisbon!

Happy Canada Day 2011

Wishing all of my fellow Canadians a happy and safe Canada Day!

Photo courtesy of jubileequeencruises.ca

Will you be tuning in to the CBC to watch the celebrations in our nation's capital of Ottawa today?  I'm guessing that a lot of people who normally wouldn't, will be watching this year to catch a glimpse of their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (a.k.a. Wills and Kate) as they are scheduled to attend the festivities, having arrived in Canada yesterday for a week long trip.

Photo courtesy of zazzle.ca

I'm off to the cottage for a few days of fun in the sun by the lake, including our annual cottagers picnic tomorrow afternoon.  Don't expect to see Wills and Kate there but you never know. Surely there are a few items on their itinerary that will be unplanned and unexpected, perhaps a quick visit to cottage country is on the books?