Andorinha

Cakes and Gigs

Little blog break turned into big blogging break, it seems! I'm still here though, though if by "here" you mean in Manchester, I'm leaving the cold and rain for almost a month starting tomorrow!

We've still been trying to organise as much as we can from here so we don't run around like headless chickens when we get to Portugal. I have the contact of a wedding cake-er (I know, but its funnier to call them that), and spent some enjoyable hours ooh-ing, aaah-ing and blaaargh-ing to pictures of cakes a couple of days ago (even Mr. Cisco joined in the fun) and we now have a pretty good idea of what we want.

I've also designed the invitations (we'll still have to see if they'll turn out cheaper than getting them from that fantastic place I had mentioned before), but because (at least in Portugal) those who pay are the ones who invite, our parents' names are on the invites. Now, Mother never reverted back to her maiden name when she divorced Father, which means that when I sent the invitation to Father he pretty much went white, since my Stepmother is also Mrs. Paulino de Noronha now. Good grief. This will be..difficult. Wish me luck!

Had a really fun night out yesterday - it was too long since we had been to a proper old-fashioned gig. We went with our lovely downstairs neighbours, the fantastic people who look after Crowley when we're not here - my plants always do a Jack-and-the-beanstalk thing with Lisa taking care of them, and the cat wobbles to greet us when we're away for 3 weeks! It was a lot of fun just being out of the house, talking and drinking beer and listening to good music.

Which means, of course, that the last thing I feel like doing today is packing the bags and cleaning the flat and getting everything ready for tomorrow.

Dang.

I'll stop talking about this soon, I promise

I'm very, very excited right now.

So, err, after realizing that the Albatroz was probably too small for our needs, me and Cisco took to the web to try and find alternatives, and, boy, there are a lot of beautiful boutique hotels in Lisbon. Unfortunately, however, most of them are so small that they don't even have a dining room, nevermind a restaurant. Ho hum.

There is, however, one. Ever watched Wim Wender's Lisbon Story? If not, you should. If you have, this particular hotel is THAT house. The one where Phillip stays. Restored. That's the view from the terrace up there.

If we get it, it'll be...a dream. A place that's so incredible "us" it's hard to believe. We have to book an appointment to go take a look at the banquet rooms, but if we like them, that's it - we'll stop looking! It's not, as one would say, cheap. But I prefer to maybe cut back on other things (I'm having problems asking my parents for money at 25, although I know they're expecting to pay for it). Things like designing my own invitations. The cardstock might not be as good, but the design will be all ours. And the Swallows theme will be even more adequate, while looking at the Tejo and the White City.

Now I need to think about entrance music. Maybe some Fado? Heh.

New Shop!

Finally! The Luna Parc has new items on the Etsy Shop!

(These make brilliantly unique Christmas gifts, by the way)
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After the whole thing about our wedding being so small, Mr. Cisco decided we should, really, invite Uncles, Aunts and Cousins, which means that we just doubled the number of guests, from 25 to 50. This makes things a little less personal, and me a bit more afraid to make it as quirky as I want it to be, but I'll just carry on. A very nice girl pointed the way today to a company that makes great Invitations, so now I'm a bit torn because I originally wanted to design them myself. Cisco really likes some of them, but not the ones with swallows, which is what I wanted all along. So, I don't know.

The photographer I really wanted kindly refused due to lack of experience, but referred me to a couple of others, and they look great (the example I saw of their wedding photography had a guy I went to High School with. Portugal really is a tiny, tiny village.)

Oh, and music. What about the music? (Cisco apparently wants the Stooges, I want Jean-Baptiste Lully. This is going to be fun!)

Anyway, buy a pendant! Help me pay for my wedding shoes! (they're only £25, I'm cheap but broke like that..)

Natal

We're a bit short on money this year, so present shopping has been a little tricky. I've bought some small little fun things for some friends and family, made things for others, and am still scratching my head with some!

The fashion for charity gifts hasn't really reached Portugal yet. Or big, huge, charity organisations. It's a strange dichotomy. Catholicism is all about the Good Deeds, as opposed to just Faith (though I'm aware the biggest emphasis on just Faith is mostly evangelical, and not generally Protestant. Don't get me started on Chick's Tracts, that men makes me want to throw up.) The biggest Charity in Portugal is the Holy House of Mercy, who owns and gets all the revenues from the Lottery, etc, and a few more, mostly to do with children.

But we do like our Christmas presents, yes we do. Stig, my Swedish Stepfather, always get a bit shocked at the amount of presents we give each other, and we always get shocked that his grandchildren only get one or two. I mean, as a kid, I got at least 20! And I only have a small family; Cisco told me once how his cousins got all the Barbies and Barbie accessories that had come out that year from all their Uncles and Aunts.

I think it's because Portugal was so "poor but dignified" during the Fascist regime. The Portuguese all learnt to take care of each other, to be as generous as they could with one's family and neighbours. There is a very famous Fado (traditional Lisbon music) called a Portuguese Home, about how there's always some bread and wine on the table, and if someone comes to the door he or she will sit at the table and partake with the rest of the family. The home is poor, but clean, with freshly painted walls, the smell of rosemary, golden grapes and roses on the windowsill, and a St. Joseph painted on the tiles. It's love, bread, wine, caldo verde, and tenderness.

This is all quite fascist, of course. Keep the people happy and content with having no money, but proud of it, and their homes, and their generosity. It's always about getting the poor to help the poor (that's what I also think of Live 8, but anyway). But still, it's a nice sentiment.  And while people will stop on the streets to help each other, and give a lot of themselves in every situation, institutional charity has yet to be properly established. There are Swatches for sale every year whose proceeds go towards taking care of ill children, and some other initiatives, but we really need more!

Which leads me to the point of this post. Don't we all have too much stuff? Do we need more? Not really.

So, some presents this year are coming courtesy of Oxfam Unwrapped,  WWF, and World Vision

Anybody doing the same?

Checklist

I sort of knew this would happen; I sort of could see it a mile away!

When Cisco first asked me to marry him, everything was going to be kept simple, and small, and the less hassle the better. Well, it's still small, but I've since started thinking about everything that needs to be decided and, well, simple no more!

It is fun. A whole lot of fun! Yesterday I spent hours on Messenger with my Godmother (or Maid of Honour, or whatever it is in English, and, by the way, isn't she fabulous?) trawling the Web (alright, Ebay, really) for a dress, shoes, and a wig.

That's the dress, right there (alright, a version of it), the shoes are too fabulous to be revealed just yet (she found them, of course), and a wig... well, because it's my wedding, and I want my hair exactly as I want it, which would never happen with this thick, overabundant black mass that grows out of my head. So a wig it is!

My godparents are both make-up artists, so I win at that!

I've sent an e-mail to a fantastic photographer, still awaiting an answer; we have sort of decided on a place (somewhere on one of the Albatroz locations, which are all in Cascais, home); we're less sure of a time, though I'm trying to convince Cisco to push it to May - we can fly down for Easter at the beginning of April, then go again in May, with a little more time and less family commitments; I want to design the cards - a small set of invitations (it's a tiny wedding, but invitations are nice), and a much larger set to mail to everyone who was not invited, inviting them to our house (!) Is this a Portuguese thing? Those, of course, need to be printed and mailed. Then there's the legal stuff that needs to be taken care of no less than a month and no more than three months before - we'll need our parents' help in this, so that means signing documents and getting them authenticated, etc.  We need to make the arrangements for our honeymoon, think what I want for a bouquet, purchase the rings, a suit for Cisco, choose the food...

Simple, uh?

Still, fun.

Cough Cough Cough

Still coughing up a storm, but had a lovely weekend with bestest friend Adam coming over. A nice chicken cacciatore was enjoyed by all, as well as prolific playing of Guitar Hero II!

Now I just have to make up for not writing m thesis in the last couple of days, due to aforementioned coughing, plus sniffling and generally feeling crappy. Special tea helps, though! If any of you is feeling poorly, here's Aunt Vanda's Recipe:

Peel of one lemon
Couple of slices of fresh ginger
Plenty of honey
Shot of whisky
Boiling water

Take before bed. It helps a lot! (and works very well with most people, I just have the worst immune system in the world.)

Finally have the Paraphernalia blog up (sort of) and ventured into the murky depths of Myspace. Yes, I know. Bah, humbug!

Not much else to say for today - many things to do, and as I'm so easily overwhelmed, I'm not doing any of them, but blogging instead. Ha! I'll post photos of the Xmas ornaments for the swap tomorrow, and hopefully update the Etsy shop around Wednesday.

See you soon!

Namorados

Oh dear. I have the flu! I can't have the flu! I have a thesis to write, shops to update, and friends to feed and entertain over the weekend! Not to mention shopping, cleaning, and mailing to do.

The Gods hate me. Gah.

I caught it from Cisco, of course, and it's a pain. Today we were planning to go to the belated launch party for the book there in the picture (buy it!), published by my fantastic ex-supervisor (and Cisco's current one) Alan Williams. He's also very ruggedly handsome. So, um, yeah. Cisco is thinking of inviting him to be his Godfather (Best Man), which would be nice. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be doing PhDs, or have scholarships, which is what is allowing us to get married in the first place. So, it would be very appropriate.

While going to Portugal made us ill and very tired, it also gave us the opportunity to renew our dinner set, and we flew back with twelve plates in our bags. They are supermarket bought, but special nonetheless - they are printed with motifs taken from Lenços de Namorados (Sweetheart Scarves, I guess). The beautiful image there is a photo I stole (obrigada) from the lovely Rosa Pomar. These are now antiques, and priced as such. They are all beautifully embroidered, with little verses, flowers and birds, and usually very much misspelt, which only adds to the charm. They were made by peasant girls and given to their boyfriends at the turn of the last century, who would wear them as acceptance of their love (or not, if they were interested in another.) They tell stories of loved ones that are sailing the seas, or in the army somewhere, and of sending their love in the wings of little birds, or keys to their hearts.

They're really quite lovely! Must pick up more items from the set during Christmas, I guess.