Projects

I think I’ve always been quite relaxed and never considered myself very determined, but all the changes in my life during the last year and a half have made me realise that I have to start taking charge of my destiny, and that if I don’t do now the things that I’ve always dreamt of, maybe I’ll never have the chance again. After years of lethargy, I seem to have suddenly woken up (or that’s how it feels to me, compared to my old life), and new projects and new plans for the future keep appearing everywhere... And then I think, isn’t that what keeps us alive?

Workwise, I work and live in Porto now, and I think it’s quite a nice city, however, I haven’t spent here a whole year yet and I’m already thinking this weather is not for me, and it’s not the endless months of rain and wind that bother me, it’s the relentless sunshine and heat that are getting on my nerves... So the idea is that, in a year’s time, when my financial situation is a bit better, I’m going to try to transfer somewhere in the north of Europe. My plan is to try my luck with Bremen. Another option would be a hypothetical promotion. If there were any openings in the future I would definitely be applying... more money plus the chance of travelling for real and not just landing at some remote airport on a 25 min. turnaround and more money doesn’t sound bad at all.


On the other hand, I’ve also been quite busy making plans of what to do with my spare time. Being close to home allows me to take part in some band rehearsals and play a bit of bagpipes from time to time, which is really cool. But the thing that’s been most exciting lately is my trip to Hamburg this October. It’s not to everyone’s taste, in fact I can’t think of anyone who would spend their holidays doing a German course, but to me it sounds quite good. I have plenty of free time, so I don’t really need a holiday to relax, I want to do something, see new places, learn new things...

However, those who know me well will also know that I also have veeery lazy days like today. I woke up, managed to force myself through a 35 minute video workout (that’s something I’ll need to explain some other day), had a shower, cooked some lunch, and after watching a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory and go through a whole week’s worth of ironing I decided to make some brownies (which will be my treat to whoever has the bad luck of doing a 12 h shift with me tomorrow), and after all this frantic activity I’ll finish it off with a nice cup of tea and a book. Exhausting, right?

Do they look good? Well, they taste even better ;) I copied the recipe many years ago from a packet of Nestlé fondant chocolate and it goes like this:

Ingredients:
• 200 gr. fondant chocolate
• 200 gr. sugar
• 200 gr. flour
• 125 gr. butter
• 3 eggs
• 200 gr. roughly chopped walnuts
Preparation:
Melt the chocolate and the butter in bain marie. Beat the eggs with the sugar and then add the melted chocolate and butter. Fold in the flour. Stir in the chopped walnuts. Pour into a rectangular oven dish and bake for 25 min. at 180º C.
Very simple and very yummy. If this inspires you to do some baking, enjoy!