I’m sitting watching beautiful footage of sea creatures gliding through the oceans, a multicoloured underwater ballet, whilst above the ballet is the dance of death. The zoo above, out of control, we are the lucky ones living in peace, so far. Here in Wonderland, it’s hot, hotter than usual for the time of year and we were seeking the shade as we made our way to the shops, lucky again. Olivia’s mamma is here, sweet conversation and explorations of language and her story of today’s fantastic adventure, how to make pastel de nata, we are so so lucky.

The leaves are turning brown in the trees, but the warmth doesn’t suit the change of seasons. The streets are full again, the September leaving for the kids back at school and the parents back to work is replaced by the October surge. Even these new tourists didn’t expect this much warmth as they escaped an oncoming autumn in Northern Europe, Stockholm weather (right) now -1°C, Porto weather now (at night) 20°C.

We went to buy a power board and experienced the problem for English speakers trying to learn a language. Olivia spoke to the assistants in the shop in Portuguese, they replied in English, it doesn’t matter how good you are at the language. It’s the same in Sweden, ask for something in perfect Swedish with a trace of an English accent and the reply comes in English. It’s not everyone, of course, some people aren’t so good at English, but others think that they are helping you when we need to learn and then there are those that love the opportunity to speak English, you can’t blame them for that.

We were at the post office today and I wandered close to some desks where a woman asked me if I needed something and the security guard moved across the room. It wasn’t in any way a threatening situation for me, but it made me think how every situation is potentially a risky one if you do anything out of the norm.

Music today has been The Vryll Society – Course Of The Satellite (2018), c/- a recommendation by Anthony Collins who took the original Hanging Out In Heaven album cover shot. It seems that the band’s singer Michael Ellis left the band in 2019, so one wonders where that leads, are they gone already?

Music Of The Daze