That's where I'll be tomorrow. Will be back wednesday!

Our playback group had been invited to perform at the prison of Alcoentre as part of a workshop one our members was giving there.
I had all these images of jails from american movies, but as one of the ladies told me, our reality is totally different. The building was all painted white and yellow, the classroom where we performed was really cozy and the prisoners were wearing normal clothing. Sure, it is a low security prison and we saw only the nicest part of the jail.
The prisoners behaved themselves and were quite nice guys actually, makes one wonder how they beecame criminals and what type of crime they had comitted.
The perfomance went quite well, they even opened up enough to tell a story about their life there at the end. And I think I will always remember the moment when I was playing a guy who was getting stung by bees and I screamed. I later was told that at that moment several faces showed up at the window and the guard peered into the room just to check everything was OK.

Had a great friday evening.
Met up with these french girls from hospitality club who were spending a few
days in Lisbon. I was a bit nervous but they happened to enjoy dancing to
african music so we went to see the new space from Kretcheu and my dearest
M. joined us later. The band was great though they stopped playing really
early. There weren't too many people (probably because of the rain) but we
actually danced a lot. The few men who were there kept asking us to dance.
Ended the night at Ribeira, only maybe 10 people left dancing on the floor,
strange atmosphere. By that time I was so tired I could hardly follow my
partner. My legs wouldn't obey.

Phone call this morning at 7 am.
Had to be bad news. Especially after seeing all those missed calls from
Mozambique on my cell phone.
My uncle died saturday morning at 8 am.
RIP

We are supposed to bring a popular song for singing class on friday, something that has to do with us. So I thought, why not bring one of the songs from my childhood? plus my voice sounds much better when I speak french than in portuguese.
And I rediscovered this lovely song.

Singing class last week felt like laughter yoga. We exercized our diaphragm laughing and I exercised it more than anyone as they found out my laughter was contagious so each time somebody had trouble laughing I had to go close to tehm and start laughing. I must say I left in a very good mood. And amazingly my abs were not hurting the next morning.

internet dating... I really don't get it. after a one minute chat they want to use you as a n erotic line hostess. or am I being prudish?

I think I need some more hollidays.
Hollidays just vegging out (as if!).
Monday evening I forgot my ATM card in the machine and I only realized I
didn't have it in the evening of the next day. Luckily when I went to the
bank to cancel my card the next morning they confirmed it had been captured
by the machine so I recovered it at lunch time.
And I must thank by bridge teacher, because he spontaneously lent me some
money that tuesday evening and he's only seen me 3 times. There are still
nice people in this world.

Playback season has started again, and we are finally doing the performance
for the prisoners in november, but there is only a slight problem: we have
nowhere to rehearse. Yet ( think positive and all that).
We had to quit the last palce because it was getting too expensive and a
place that sounded promising is not available anymore, the others we
contacted are not free on thursdays or are expensive and far away.
I was supposed to meet somebody this evening but they post poned it till
tomorrow and we are supposed to rehearse tomorrrow.
But that's not going to stop us is that?
We might just rehearse in A's garage.
No lights, but we'll just bring camping gear.

The show must go on!

Don't laugh, but I took a bridge lesson last thursday.
I met R. for coffee and she was going to try this bridge class at the Lisbon bridge center. You don't pay the first lesson and I didn't fel like going home so I just tagged along. I had played bridge once with one of my mother's former colleagues but the only thong I remembered was that there was a dummy player (dead person in portuguese, much more suggestive). And it just reminded me of Agatha Christie, don't know why.
The bridge center does look like a gentleman's club with those green cloths on the tables, a restaurant, a bar, a lounge place... And, as the teacher told us, a magnificent view to the Corte Ingles (and I swear the guy was not joking).
And I know some of you are going to gloat, but I may very well take the course. It was actually quite fun. And it is only 8 weeks, so it still gives me some free time.

People seemed a little bit hard at first in Crimea.  Closed up faces, not a smile, we kept wondering if we had done anything wrong. At the hotel at firs the owner did not want to fill the pool because he was worried about having to clean it everyday, but then he finally filled it but put on that sign somebody told me meant swimming was not allowed.
But then, once you gave them a chance, it was amazing how people opened up to you.it was surprising nevertheless
We had this long walk to get to beach each morning and on either side there were people selling slippers, hats,air matresses and berries, always with a grumpy face. So the dutch group decided to start saying good afternoon to everybody as they walked by. People answered back, giggling and sudeenly this woman comes after us, wants to take a picture with us, to dance with us, and then she looks at me and her face melts down.
And then she hugs me and kisses me. On the cheek, but still... And she starts crying, telling us some story in russian from which we only understood there was something about a baby and a party. Then she introduces her husband, they offer us wine, and the woman looks at me and says :"I love you!" She wouldn't let go.
True, she was a little tipsy, but it is amazing the reactions that can be triggered just by saying hello to somebody.

Still recovering from the trip. Amazing how a 2 hour time difference can mess with you. Plus the days at the black sea were full of emotion I was dying to share. And the few days i spent in Kiev afterwards were not enough to get back to normal life.
Crimea was lovely, luckily the village we stayed in was not too touristic, it was a small village and there were just a few russian tourists.
But that brought a few disavantages: mainly the toilet situation. At one point we realized most of our conversations were about toilets and our bodily functions. I didn't mind so much the toilets being a hole on the floor, I'm still fit and was used to these in the old parisian cafés, but no doors on the stalls?! Luckily I never had to share a public bathroom with anybody else.
In the big cities, though the toilets do have doors. Amazing the things we take for granted.
People seemed very surprised when I told them I was going to ukraine for holiidays, like it is a really weird holliday destination, and I couldn't even find a Ukraine guidebook at the bookstore. And some told me "Kiev??? There must be nothing there!". As if.

finally got my reservation for the hostel in kiev. had to calll them. resevations from the site don't seem to work too well.

- Ukraine? You're spending holidays in Ukraine? Why Ukraine???
- Well, you know, dad, I'm in this theater group, remember the workshop I
attended in the UK last year? This year it's ukraine.
- Theater? In Ukraine? But... What language ist it going to be in???
- English (he must really think I'm stupid). It's an international meetup.
- So do you have the contacts of the place you'll be staying at?
- Well, not of the hotel yet, they booked for me and will pick me up at the
airport.
- But do you trust these people?
(No wonder i turned out to be so anxious, I guess he is already pcituring me
being abducted and ending up pole dancing in a sleazy bar)
-Well, the person I took the workshop with last year is attending and so are
people my friend J. has met in april, so I guess it's safe.
Anyway, i can't help feeling anxious. I am always terrified I will forget
some very important thing, like my passport or tickets.
I guess it is part of the reason I'm still going to work tomorrow and also
because i will be so much closer from the airport.
Can't wait to see the black sea!

Once more life has gotten in the way of ljing.
I spent all last week evenings doing a storytelling workshop.
Never thought it would be so physical, we ran and jumped around and only in the last 2 days did we actually get to tell stories. The idea was to unleash our inner madness (so you can imagine how much fun it was) and also to give us tools to feel confident on stage, under pressure. Some of my colleagues had an amazing ability to improvise stories,
And then the big finale: telling stories in front of an audience.
Without having prepared anything.
As it happened, not many friends showed up, but still I was trembling like a leaf when i finally stepped up to tell my story. But once I got going, I really enjoyed it.
Marco later told me that he was going to call a few others to tell stories with me but he had to change the videotape and I just started my story.
And yes, I'm hooked.
Already checking out the  storytelling events all around the country.
Got to find out when the next full moon is, to try to go to the storytelling event in Evora.

A bit of our perfomance in andanças. I am kind of hidden because I'm close to the drummers. I kept hopping from the music to the dancing.

Leaving tomorrow morning, still a few things to pack.
Got myself a self inflatable mat and a camping pillow so I shjould sleep decently this year.
Should rest now, but still feeling edgy.
Never quite manage to rest before a trip.
Andanças, here I come!

esta tarde os palhaços da minha turma de clown vão saír à rua. Ver o que acontece :)

Day started off really bad. Meeting was at nine so we could be at O Bando's around ten. but we spent 45 minutes waiting for each other. Headed for the bridge and P. is stopped by the police. Since his car hadn't been inspected in at least 2 years, he risked to have his car impounded.
Then C., with all the commotion, forgets his key in the ignition and the car doors lock themselves. Had to go home to get another key from his parents while P. stood under the sun, watching the car .
Finally we only managed to gather everybody at noon. So instead of climbing the mountains as planned, G. just gave us a guided tour of the premises. After lunch he gave us our assignment: we were supposed to choose a spot in the surroundings and prepare a performance about what we are as artists in this stage of our lives.Then we walked under a blazing sun for about 2 hours and still had to show the others our performances.
I almost cried when we did the warm up before our performance. It was just standing in a circle, feeling the wind on our skin, the sun, the others, and do silly runs inside the circle. And seeing the others just running around like if they were little children just moved me so deeply. And all the performances were so strong.
Anyway, even typing requires too much energy right now.
Actually, just sitting up straight demands too much energy.

Already took a shower and checked myself for ticks so I'm just going to veg out on the couch for a while before going to bed.

So our performance was canceled on saturday, so i decided to help some colleagues from our clown's class who were organizing an event on the beach. They were organizing a ping pong, no, sorry, table tennis tournament and promoting the lisbon table tennis association. There was also a gym promoting activities and we were helping by calling out people to participate, the four of us with our red nose.
Sure, I could have stayed home and slept but that would have been quite out of character, wouldn't it?
But I took a very long nap in the afternoon. Plus I got to go to the beach for the first time this year.
here we are:

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