Visitors - Portugal

I am very lucky, my cousin Rodrigo with Vovo came to visit for a week - I had loads of fun playing in the garden and in the house - ball games, lego, football kickers...We also went to a 'bonfire' evening near Wezembeek.

Happy 80th Birthday Ti'pah

It was so lovely to be in England to celebrate Ti'pah's 80th birthday. I arrived friday night with Papá and with vovó and vovô from Porto.

Mamã was already there helping out a little. Ti'pah had 40 people to a party for drinks, lunch that was lots of fun. Ti'pah was sooooo happy. We carried on celebrating into the evening and the next day with family.

Lauren, me, A.Mel, Mamã and A.Vicky/Helena gave a small speech...

Love you very much - Tiago

 

Norway

Mamã's dream was to see the Northern Lights, so off we went to Northern part of Norway. We flew to Bergen and enjoyed going up the steep cable car, walking in the snow on the mountain, visiting a few churches/museums before we caught the Hutigruten boat and off along the coastline from Bergn to Tromsø. We had so much fun, ice cold and then sun and then cold again, crossed the Artic circle, visited museums at the stopover points, including the excellent Rockheim museum in Trondheim, WWII museum in Svolvaer open at 9pm :-), seeing all the cod fish drying out at night (and smelling)...climbing to see the view over  Alesund  and also a 'whistle tour' of aviation museum in Bodø - all great memories. We even saw the Northern lights one night for 15 minutes - first very difficult to see, we all got in our beds and then a call on the tannoy that on our side of the boat you could see them and yes, wonderful clear for 10 minutes...

Mamã enjoyed just standing/sitting out on the deck watching the landscape of the mountains, scurries (1000 of them). Boat was comfortable, organized, food fine too.

In Tromsø we visited the seals, saw old ships, learnt about all the Northern artic explorations and hunting. Stuffed Polar bears were everywhere, even one visible in an ordinary office...We went on a coach to hunt the northern lights and drove all the way to the Finnish border - yes we saw them through the clouds, dancing - wonderful.

We also went on a Sami reindeer sledge evening - learnt to throw a lasso at a (non-moving) reindeer horn, took a slow sledge ride where Papá got turned upside down and headbutted by a reindeer - very scarey, but luckliy a minor cut and bruising. We had dinner and ate reindeer as well as learnt about their clothing and way of life.

I wore my ski troussers and jacket all day and just went diving into any pile of snow on the side of the road. I loved to slide on my small sledge down every road. We went by bus to the middle of the island and with our small sledges went down the hills, having so much fun :-)

A very enjoyable, happy holiday.

 

Light and Sound Show Ghent

We walked kms around Ghent following like 'cattle' to go around the Light and Sound show in Ghent. After a miserable complaining start as I did not want to eat the healthy soup, pasta with pine nuts etc...I actually started enjoying the shows along the route. There were a few very entertaining picture shows on buildings with music/light where the best was on this church in the photos - I loved it - we watched it twice and I had to be dragged away when the 3rd time was showing :-) as it was past 11pm...

Art and Allowance

I love to draw, which I am sure I've told you before.... So I've started drawing better people. Tonight I asked my mama to sit very still and I drew her face...she was not too impressed when I started showing all her marks, spots, fine hairs on the face so I used quite some rubber :-) Anyway here it is...


 Also I am showing here the language I invented...cool. Using my love of maths, I calculated my allowance to 18 years old and beyond. I am not so sure this money is coming my way - behaviour or absent minded parents to calculate and give me every week...which one?

Me

I am now 36.5 kg and have 37 size shoes and close to 140 cm....yep I am a heavy boned, tall kid with nicely sized feet :-) I have a lovely smile :-) I love to read....french, english, portuguese: Tintin, Gameover, Spirou and Fantasio, any comic book, Paddington, history books/stories from old testament...I would eat bread all day long if allowed, then popcorn (the sweet one, how did we not find one in the supermarket, only butter or salted) and to drink 7up (not sprite), coke light, aquarius. I will eat fruit and veg. I will not eat octopus, mushrooms (unless it's mixed in bolognaise etc), shrimps, salad when it's purple and too leafy green. Other favourites burger and chips, sphagetti bolognaise, macaroni cheese and ham, chicken with apple compote...I do eat what my parents cook everyday but I do like these treats.

I am pretty good at drawing...

Winter cold and Snow

Yes, it snowed in Brussels....and on a weekend...so out I went with Papá and made snowmen...yeeepeeeee :-)

I built 4 snowmen from the tiny one hour snow in our back garden...I got some help from papá...then the next day we drove to the Ardennes to find 5 cm of snow and go sledging. I loved it...feet up in the air and off I go...wizzing around, partly backwards, partly sideways and sometimes normal :-) I adjusted a small ramp for a millisecond freedom in the air... We were there 2.5 hours and the last ones to leave. After we had a great meal in a place called Le Ferme du Helivy where the bread was yummy - home made.