ENG
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The 21 day challenge
No one wakes up one morning and casually decides to go run a marathon. “See you later babe.” “Where you off to?” “Oh, just run a marathon. I’ll be back in time for lunch. See you later.” “Ok bye babe. Have fun.” “Love you.” “Love you.” Does this sound like a completely and utterly ridiculous conversation, not to mention, extremely unlikely? Yes. Yes, it does. And you know why? Because in the realm of things that can actually happen, this, friends, is probably not one of them. You can most certainly wake up one morning and decide that you want to start training to run a…
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Motherhood
Things have been challenging lately. Diana has finally moved in with me. After a 5 year wait, I finally have my baby back. Adjusting to our new life together hasn’t been without difficulties on both sides. I went from being responsible only for myself to having to adjust to being effectively a “new mother” for the second time to the same child. And not to a new-born, but to a 9-year old on a full-time basis with no family around to help. Diana had to adjust to a different household and a new country. Lately, I’ve been feeling a bit low and feeling that I’m failing as parent because…
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When a stranger is a friend
I must have one of those faces that people look at me and know I can keep a secret. Which is actually true. I can and I do, especially when it comes to my friends. This year I went back home to Portugal for Christmas and returned on the 31st. It was 11:58pm when I walked in through the front door. On the plane, I was sat next to a man who started talking to me. He had one of those bubbly personalities and was actually making me laugh. As a nervous flyer, the distraction was greatly appreciated and welcomed. My daughter was sitting by the…
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Sliding Doors
Have I ever told you about how I suddenly landed in Bristol when my destination was Shanghai? No? Well, I’m about to. This was a key moment in my life. A proper sliding doors moment that literally, changed the course of my life forever and brought me to where I am now. Early 2013, I applied for an MBA with an American University that has several campuses around the world. One of them was Shanghai. I went through the admissions process and after a few months, received the confirmation that I got accepted. I had to study for an exam called GMAT but as I was working full…
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Mortgage – Part II (ENG)
Here is the second part of this story as I previously (tried) to start talking about my part-time job, and then got carried away about all the issues relating to the housing market and taxes. I will do my very best to keep focused this time. Going back just a little bit in time, when I first moved to Bristol, my first job was in a pub as a barmaid in the city centre. I worked countless hours earning minimum wage (£6.19/per hour at the time) but it was good fun and met a lot of people which helped to forget the fact that I was all alone in a foreign…
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Mortgage – Part I (ENG)
After two years of no letters, I’m now writing two days in a row. Let’s see if I can keep up with regular posts. As I said yesterday, I promised that I would write in relation to the part-time I got recently as I’m saving money to buy a house. Firstly, it’s important to state that buying a house doesn’t come cheap in the UK, especially in Bristol. Just last year, the house prices have risen a ridiculous 6.7%, meaning that Bristol is just behind London and Cambridge when it comes to increases in house prices. This means that the average price of a house is now around £220,000.00 (yes,…