WP Daily Prompt Feb 01, 2023

What do you complain about the most?

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope! I’m doing well enough at the moment!

Thought I’d take the time to post on today’s WP Prompt, since I’m pretty damn prone to complaining about a lot of things. I have to admit I’m a somewhat grumpy human “bean”.

And anyone who knows me knows that the thing I have been complaining about the most is work. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy working, and I generally like my job. What I really struggle with is dealing with people’s mistakes and/or irresponsibility affecting my ability to do my own job.

With a new job inside the same company now, I believe and hope this will improve, even though we’re still in the process of well, defining the process. We’ll see. I’ve only just started in full today, so maybe I’ll check back in a month or so and share my impressions.

For now, I have to admit I’m relieved to have a job that has a process at all, instead of the mess my old position was. We’ll see.

Have you posted for today’s prompt? I’d love to read it!

See you on the next!

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A stroll down memory lane

Hello, my darlings! How are you all? Doing well, I hope!

I’m doing just fine myself, dealing with a very hot summer, and trying my hand at a new job – I’ll probably talk more about it on a dedicated post.

Today, I was talking to my friend about memories, and this came out, so I thought I’d share it. It was just one of those memories that hit you like a freight train sometimes.

One of the fondest memories I have of my grandpa is that he’d wake up at like 5 am on Saturdays, go out, buy bread and the newspaper, and then let himself in our home, a 30 minute walk from his own. By the time we’d wake up, he would have quietly made breakfast and be sitting there patiently reading his paper so he could have breakfast with us and then head back home. He did that for years, until he got too sick to keep on doing it. It drove my grandmother crazy, but he loved it. And so did we.

Just typing this makes me a little misty-eyed. My grandpa wasn’t a perfect man. He was a grumpy old retired police officer, he was as stubborn as one can be, and he had a gambling problem, yes. But he was also an intensely loving grandpa for us kids, and had embraced my father (his stepson) as his son, to the point where all you had to do to piss him off was to call my dad his stepson.

I don’t know why I’m sharing this. I guess after a certain age, you become nostalgic.

What about you all? What leads you down memory lane? Please share!

See you on the next!

Folklore – Dom Sebastião, the Portuguese King Arthur?

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope! I’m alive, and still getting used to this whole 2023 thing. I’m also still sorting out my job situation, but everything will eventually fall into place, I hope.

With that out of the way, I thought I’d share a tiny tidbit of folklore I have always been fond of. I first heard of it in Literature classes, and it was all so fascinating I thought I’d share it. So sit down and grab your favorite beverage.

Dom Sebastião (Dom was a title commonly used for noblemen in the Portuguese language, mostly for king and princes – nowadays it’s still used for Catholic bishops and abbots) was the King of Portugal from 1557 to 1578, when he vanished during the battle of Alcácer Quibir, in Morocco. He was an only child, and his father died before he was born, meaning his birth and survival were extremely important for the country.

He rose to the throne at the age of 14, despite having rights to it from the age of three when his grandfather, the king, passed away. Dom Sebastião wasn’t particularly well versed in the art of war, but he felt he had to go to Morocco in order to protect Portuguese interests in the country against the encroaching Turkish armies.

It all came to a head on August 4th, 1578, when the battle of Alcácer Quibir came to pass, and the Portuguese army was defeated. That included the death of disappearing of Dom Sebastião. He was last seen alive refusing to surrender. His last recorded words were “Royal freedom shall only be lost with the loss of one’s life”. Once those words were said, the Turkish army went on the attack and Dom Sebastião was surrounded until he could no longer be seen, meaning there were no actual Portuguese witnesses to the moment of his death.

Some bodies have been found and given as Dom Sebastião’s body, but there was never actual proof of identity, thus giving rise to the legend of Dom Sebastião as “the sleeping king”, a Messianic figure who shall rise to aid Portugal in its darkest hour.

A fun fact is that in Brazil, at the end of the 19th century, a group of dissidents with a strong religious component, during the War of Canudos (I can talk about this one in the future if you think it’s interesting), believed Dom Sebastião would come to their aid and help them re-establish a Monarchy here.

There is a lot more historical stuff, but who cares about that? Just kidding, but I wanted to share the folklore part. I may talk more about Portuguese and Brazilian history at some point.

That’s all for today! See you all soon!

WP Daily Prompt December 28, 2022

Have you ever been in an automobile accident?

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope! I’m doing well enough for now, still struggling, but working on improving my overall health!

I’m here today because today’s WP Daily Prompt is something I do have an answer to, and the answer is yes.

You can see the prompt right on top of the post, but it asks: Have you ever been in an automobile accident?

I have. I was 11, so it happened almost 30 years ago, but I still remember it. It happened at my mom’s home town. My cousin took us all to a drive somewhere (can’t remember where), and the roads there were… well, not good is a huge understatement. And, as it was considered pretty normal years ago, nobody was wearing a seat belt.

All I can remember is us hitting a bump on the road, and then the car started flipping a few times, until it landed upside down. The smell of dirt and blood hit my nose, and my cousin, the driver, was unconscious behind the wheel. My brother and I, around 13 and 11 respectively, panicked in different ways, since the one adult present couldn’t do anything. I started punching the glass on my side since all the windows were stuck. My brother eventually managed to open one enough that we could get out of the car, and then proceeded to try and flip the car back to its right position.

We were lucky that a truck driver spotted us and stopped to help. I don’t remember much more about it, but I still have the scars on my right hand from my repeatedly punching the glass.

And this is how I have developed claustrophobia and an irrational fear of driving.

I think that’s all for today! See you on the next!

The Joaquina’s Beach legend (not quite exciting)

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope! I’m doing well enough to pop up here, so things are getting better! And today, I finally bring the post I have been owing you all for quite some time!

I’ll start off with a double apology. 50% for taking so long to post, and 50% because the legend isn’t very exciting. Without further ado, here goes the legend I got from a surfboard at Joaquina’s Beach, Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Legend has it that Joaquina was one of the women who lived in one of the beaches east of the Santa Catarina Island. She used to teach other local women to make all kinds of household items with intertwined thread, and also used to feed the local fishermen who came to her home.

According to the legend, she would have been swallowed by the waves of the sea where she lived.

It is said that around 1850 she used to work sitting at the rocks at the coast of that deserted and nameless beach. One day, she was distracted by the magic of the place and didn’t realize time was going by and the tide was swelling. She was then taken by the sea along with her laces, which enabled her to float away until she disappeared.

This story is told by the lacemakers of the region and by someone they claim is Joaquina’s descendant, though there is no documented proof. The story allegedly refers to Joaquina Rosa de Oliveira Costa, daughter to the second Barons of Laguna, Jesuíno de Lamego Costa and Leonor Auta de Oliveira. The Baron was a senator for Santa Catarina when Brazil was still an empire, and the family owned lands near where is not Joaquina’s Beach. Joaquina Rosa married Antonio Gomes de Mattos, Jr., who died in 1893 and is considered the patron of Brazilian Naval industry.

Sorry again, it was a bit disappointing! I’ll go back to bringing some more interesting parts of our folklore soon!

See you all on the next!

Physical health, mental health, and the art of not giving a shit

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? well, I hope! I definitely hope you’re doing much better than I am. And this is what I’m going to talk about now. This might get a little bit long, so sit down, grab a drink or a snack, and I’m sorry if this post is a bit depressing.

Well, like pretty much a lot of other people, I haven’t taken good care of my health since the pandemic. More specifically, I spent all this time not bothering to get a check up, and, I must confess, not taking good care of my diet. A part of it was pure laziness, with the other part being chalkd up to the bout of depression I had to battle during this time, leaving me willing to do pretty much nothing.

I’m still fairly depressed, but with things opening back up in my city, I decided it was time to see a doctor and get that check-up to see how things were doing.

The first doctor I went to wasn’t that good. He diagnosed me with a hernia and told me I’d need surgery. Neither of those things were confirmed by exams and a second opinion.

I finally found a better doctor, and she had me take a bunch of tests, including repeating the abdominal ultrasound to confirm or discard the hernia. Which, again, was not there.

As for the rest, well… blood sugar is extremely high, as well as my cholesterol, a vitamin D deficiency, a thyroid nodule. Got out of her office with four medications, and some referrals to other doctors, and you know what’s worse?

I didn’t care at the moment. Not one bit. I had just heard that my health is extremely debilitated, to the point where it might cause things like losing my eyesight, having to amputate limbs or even, you know, death. And it still took me a while to start caring.

I’m slowly starting to care, but everything is still pretty weird. The next day, I had a freaking meltdown at home and told my boss I wanted to resign effective immediately. I haven’t done it yet. My boss gave me shorter hours and a more flexible schedule so I can take care of my health.

Things are still pretty much the same when it comes to me being overwhelmed… but we’ll see.

I’m just really stressed right now, and unsure of what I’ll do.

See you on the next, hopefully for a more upbeat update!

I’m still here…

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope!

I just stopped by to touch base and explain I am still here.

I’ve been dealing with some physical and mental health issues, and those have me really tired and trying to figure things out. I’ll still be here, though, and I’ll still post the legend I promised and some other things I have planned, such as a few image prompts.

If there is anything else you’d like to see me post, I’ll be happy to! Please take care, and be kind to yourselves and others! See you on the next!

There’s no place like home

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope! I’m fine, and finally back home from my vacation. I actually got home Friday at night, but I was way too tired to do pretty much anything other than resting. I’ll be going back to work tomorrow, and I haven’t even fully unpacked yet. I’ll get there.

Now that I’m home, I can sum up what went on during my days away in a much better way. I’ll probably do the legend I mentioned later on, but I’ll do my best not to keep you waiting for too long, I promise!

Day 1, Sunday the 23rd, we didn’t do much more than travel . We woke up early and took a cab after breakfast to the Salvador airport (SSA). Our first flight was to Guarulhos (GRU) and then we took another one to Navegantes (NVT) and then the transfer to Balneário Camboriú, the city where we stayed for the duration of our time there. We only went out to eat something and do some necessary shopping, and then we all went to bed to wake up early the next morning.

Day 2, Monday the 24th, we went to do the city tour. We visited the aquarium, with all kinds of animals – turtles, penguins, an octopus, jellyfish, otters, and even sharks. We then went to the car museum and the Pirate Adventure. Next up, we took the cable car and crossed to the beach on the other side, where we stopped for lunch and then made our way back to the hotel.

Day 3, Tuesday the 25th would originally be a free day, but we chose to book a visit to two cities. The first city was Nova Trento, of Italian colonization. We went to a winery first, run by the Girola family. We got to do a tasting, and their wine is delicious. We didn’t buy any, because we didn’t want to have to deal with bringing it all home. We went to a Catholic sanctuary next. I am not a Catholic, or religious at all, but I can share the local lore about the saint the sanctuary is dedicated to later. We then had lunch and moved on to a city called Brusque. It’s a shopping hub for clothing and shoes, but I didn’t see anything that special there. We all bought something at the shoe store, and nothing at the clothing mall. From there, we all went back to our hotels.

Day 4, Wednesday the 26th, we went to two cities as well, Blumenau, where we have the Brazilian Oktoberfest, where we visited the Biergarten, the city hall and the German Village, where they hold the main events of the Oktoberfest, for lunch. Pomerode is a town of Pomeranian colonization, but it didn’t really see much of it, sadly.

Day 5, Thursday the 27th was our last full day in the state we went to visit. Our day was spent in Florianópolis, the capital city. We visited the public market, did some shopping at the farmer’s market and then moved on to Joaquina Beach for lunch – a really delicious grilled halibut – and some time spent at the beach before we went back to the hotel. It was a long day, and I wish we’d had more time at the markets, but it was overall a decent day.

Last day, the way home. We woke up early, had breakfast and waited for the bus to the NVT airport. The flight to Congonhas (CGH) was very short and everything ran smoothly. The flight back to SSA was a very different story. We were supposed to board the flight at 16:10 and take off at 16:40. By the time we were supposed to be taking off, we were at the third gate and still waiting for our plane to touch down. Once it did, the flight was smooth enough, even though we went through some turbulence mid-flight. We got to SSA at around 19:10 and got a cab home. It was a very exhausting day, but it wasn’t too bad.

I’ll be resuming the normal posting schedule soon!

Day five and last: an assortment of pictures

I am Floripa sign. Floripa is the popular name for the city we visited today, Florianópolis.

Hello, everyone! How are you all? Doing well, I hope!

Today was our final day here in the state of Santa Catarina. We’ll be going back home tomorrow.

We went to see the capital of the state, Florianópolis. The name is derived from the once ruler Floriano Peixoto, who ironically never set foot in the city.

The highlights were the Hercilio Luz Bridge, the city market, and the Joaquina Beach, whose name is derived from a local legend. I have it in Portuguese, but I have yet to translate it so I can post it here, in case it interests you all.

Today was another very long day, so I’ll get some rest and post more later! See you all soon!

Day 4.2: something I forgot edition

As it happens, I forgot to share this lovely baby we saw at the place we went to for lunch. This is Beethoven, and he’s just 20 months old and already weighing in at eighty kilos (around 176 pounds). Such a tiny little puppy, and very friendly. See you soon!