Greetings from a hotel room in lovely
#Porto!
Yep, that's right! I'm in Porto!
A couple of months back my partner bought a costly set of front row tickets to see one of my all time favorite bands,
#Wardruna, at Casa Da Musica in Porto.🧙♂️
We took an early morning Uber on not that much sleep and my stomache was raw and warbly even before we got on the train. Train ride was so-so hahah... a bit more turbulent than I'm used to but the highlights included seeing more of what this beautiful country has to offer from the window. Nearly knocked my front teeth out in some luggage obstacle course between wagon 6 and wagon 3 to grab a small glass of juice.😂
When we arrived I wanted to use my feet and so we walked for well over an hour.
Small tangent I guess: I met a guy who looked down on his luck, he asked me for some cash to buy some diapers for his kid. I obliged.
...then arriving at Mel, this quaint Nordic inspired fika-spot in Porto that just happened to be open even though its a holiday today!
After a little snack we took an Uber to our hotel, conveniently placed close to the venue. We were quite beat from the early morning and slightly rough travel so I took a shower and we took a long nap before ordering some Mexican take-away and then we went to the venue.
And what can I say about Wardruna?
I've seen them twice before. Once in Stockholm and once in Gothenburg... and they were possibly even better this time around. Fantastic set, fantastic roster of songs performed. And, as per usual, my eyes were glassy as they performed Helvegen towards the end of the set.
It rained on us as we headed back to the hotel and then we couldn't enter the room because muh app technology so the owner had to sprint over and fiddle about and re-calibrate the lock... did our ancestors starve and struggle only for this to be our new norm 😓
Oh well.. what a day!
Tomorrow: Hotel breakfast and work from the hotel... and I brought the Sony a9000 so I might take some artsy pictures of Porto before heading back on the third. Jonatan out!
Min vän sedan formativa tonår, Anders, blev inklippt i statsägd media nyligen:
https://www.svtplay.se/video/KrQQ99k/ekonomibyran/vart-ar-vi-pa-vag?video=visa&position=740
Han har sin kanal, Anders Tittar, som bara tycks växa i popularitet på DuTuben
https://www.youtube.com/@AndersTittar
Kul att se att det går bra för honom. Han är som gjord för att bli en murrig tokig TV-farbror.
My employment review came in today and it was full of kind words and respect that I don't think I've ever received like that. A little bit moving honestly!
Nordhealth is a cool company so far, definitely.🫡
And because my snus shipment was sent in late last Friday I haven't even received the "UPS tracking" on it or whatever..so it's likely more than 48h from arriving and I'm running out... but my lovely partner in crime joined me for a spontaneous trip to #MaravilhasNordicas to get some #Snus. Yet they delivered so much more though... they finally had renskav! Like... deer kebab shavings(?😅)... AND MANDELKUBB🥹!!!
Oh and Svarta Sara, a very famous delicious cheese from Denmark that I haven't had in years. 🧀🖤
Even did work on the weekend.
But honestly... this is what it looks like for a Senior Developer. Most weeks are calm-ish... EOY goals might be the opposite of that.
Spirits are high at least.
I took a #Showerbeer and went to IKEA for the umpteenth time these past 10 weeks in prep for the move. Signing the papers on friday, woohoo!
Bop Shoebee Do (Shoebody Dowaddy Do)
https://youtu.be/y7g8pE0i-2s?si=Knz7DtGW1Mul7xcm
What a way to finish a friday night!
I worked 12 hours today. Attempting to hit some substantial EOY targets.. might even poke at it further throughout the weekend just to make sure that my team is happy and ready for the new year, you know?
On top of that my in-laws, my beautiful but slightly crazy partner, her cousin Bruno and a friend couple (Nuno, Marina, Mariana) all went to 2001 in Estoril for some drinks and 80s music.
I didn't take a picture, so here's an illustration.
Gin & Tonics and beer.
Then we were finally home again at 03:30AM
And ehr.. I immediately made and went pizza toast.
You know.. tomato paste, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, olive oil, dash of cold water.. mix thoroughly.. then cured cheese and sliced black olives.. lots of butter in the pan and then we're set to sail!
Took a multivitamin and ~7dl of water.
Let's see how bad I am tomorrow
I got my stuff, got a green little paper bag.
Went to the nearby LiDL and bought an oat smoothie and a luxury mix och organic berries. Self-checkout. Walked 10-15 minutes.
And I managed to simply look down at the bag a mere half of a second before it happened.
"It" being the contents of what used to be a paper bag, now closer ressembling shreks feces, falling out from the bottom, hitting the dirty pavement and 7 euros worth of beautiful berries scattering, alongside my meds.
Fuck this day and the horse that it rode in on.
Fuck paper bags that won't hold a 15 minute walk in the rain.
If I had a penny every time you said that,
my name would instill fear among the wealthiest of Saudi Arabia.
I'll be back, we barely got to see it.
But we DID see #Wardruna and I DID eat a yummy authentic #Francesinha... that's always something.
Now I need to gear down and lock in even further with work. December is going to be a crazy month but Nordhealth is a cool company so I even look forward to this bit.
We had ambitious plans to roam around in Porto, but the rain put a damper on those ambitions for the most part.
So no fancy photos!... but!
We did go to Cafe Santiago and I got to try my very first Francesinha!
And it's a hearty dish!😂
Apparently between 1500 and 2200 kcal of hearty!
It has egg, cheese, steak, sausage, another sausage, mortadella, ham.. and it is all in a toast that is then soaked in a top secret sauce that is unique to each establishment.
At least now I have tried it!
We also stuck with our comedic tradition of doing face masks.
Today we have to go home. Not that stoked about the train ride to be honest 😮💨
Yep, that's right! I'm in Porto!
A couple of months back my partner bought a costly set of front row tickets to see one of my all time favorite bands, #Wardruna, at Casa Da Musica in Porto.🧙♂️
We took an early morning Uber on not that much sleep and my stomache was raw and warbly even before we got on the train. Train ride was so-so hahah... a bit more turbulent than I'm used to but the highlights included seeing more of what this beautiful country has to offer from the window. Nearly knocked my front teeth out in some luggage obstacle course between wagon 6 and wagon 3 to grab a small glass of juice.😂
When we arrived I wanted to use my feet and so we walked for well over an hour.
Small tangent I guess: I met a guy who looked down on his luck, he asked me for some cash to buy some diapers for his kid. I obliged.
...then arriving at Mel, this quaint Nordic inspired fika-spot in Porto that just happened to be open even though its a holiday today!
After a little snack we took an Uber to our hotel, conveniently placed close to the venue. We were quite beat from the early morning and slightly rough travel so I took a shower and we took a long nap before ordering some Mexican take-away and then we went to the venue.
And what can I say about Wardruna?
I've seen them twice before. Once in Stockholm and once in Gothenburg... and they were possibly even better this time around. Fantastic set, fantastic roster of songs performed. And, as per usual, my eyes were glassy as they performed Helvegen towards the end of the set.
It rained on us as we headed back to the hotel and then we couldn't enter the room because muh app technology so the owner had to sprint over and fiddle about and re-calibrate the lock... did our ancestors starve and struggle only for this to be our new norm 😓
Oh well.. what a day!
Tomorrow: Hotel breakfast and work from the hotel... and I brought the Sony a9000 so I might take some artsy pictures of Porto before heading back on the third. Jonatan out!
Here's another one of my creations.
I wanted to be able to quickly "scrobble", e.g. log my listening history to Listenbrainz...so I made yet another Lua CLI app with Gemini AI and the Listenbrainz AI.
I call it Demel
https://github.com/dotMavriQ/Demel
* Friday afternoon I busted my proverbial behind at work until 18:30 and then immediately showered, took a Shower Beer, got dressed somewhat respectably and then headed to The Den in Oeiras to meet a friend I hadn't met in many many years. My very good friend Fares. He's responsible for pushing me into my professional career and we always have fascinating discussions and he has a lovely attitude towards people. He brought his newly wedded wife Sosi and they're a match made in heaven as far as I'm concerned... and I'm happy to now call her a friend as well! And Margarida joined too!
* Food was good! I had some croquetes, curry madras and an oreo dessert that was kinda cool!
* We decided that the night was young and went to a pub called The Beer Hunter where I bought some CR&F aguardente for Fares to try.. we got warm behind the ears at least. And then a 73 year old Tuga started rambling lovingly about how he loves Sweden, Olof Palme, wants peace and love in the world... it was kinda endearing but also funny!
* Got home at 02:20
* Woke up around 09:30 today, I'm a lightweight these days I guess.. so.. ibuprofen... and me and @dotmargui settled on watching a Pokemon movie because I'm a grown adult that watches cartoons to unwind.
* Lunch for ourselves so I tried Hummusbar... and like... It was ok! Above 5/10.. maybe Sweden spoiled me too much with middle-eastern cuisine.. tahini sauce was ok tho!
* Margaridas parents came back from Fatima so I whipped up mushroom omelettes and carrot soup for everyone
* and now I am to clean and play some Worms Armageddon on the Switch 😎
"You can't be dumb AND lazy" / NeetCodeIO
is really a paraphrase of
"If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough" / Roger Alan Wade
There's lots of things happening with work, but it's all good!
Feeling very positive about the executive decisions and plans I'm putting in place. Love the place, love the people... and now I'm trying to get my old friend Harish from my former job to possibly do some hours of heavy lifting for us too, which would be really cool!
I did things during the weekend!
More precisely, our friend Benedita invited us over to Covilhã, where she's from and her parents invited us into their beautiful home. And it was just super-homely and it felt like I was kicking it with a bunch of people I had also grown up with. There was a bit of a Thanksgiving Theme as Benny had spent some time in the US so there was turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce... and a bunch of amazing Portuguese food as well!
Oh and on the homestretch we had some troubles due to the weather as we were leaving the mountain range... but we managed to make it out alive and we even had time to buy some lovely cheese and I bought regional honey with the honeycomb in it and a jalapeño hot sauce from Bandido that is lovely!
So a big thank you to Benedita, her family and her friends for inviting us to spend the weekend with her in Covilhã!
But always look on the bright side of life!
There's comedic value to be found, rest assured
Today I had a good but busy day at work, building tools to gain standardized website insights.. great fun!
And then I walked to the store...on my way back I even tried a soda made from salvaged fruit.. kind of a ginger bug type thing? Refreshing and tasty. and bought taco wraps as me and my partner agreed on #TacoFredag.
Now my hunger is satiated and then some... might be a movie night! ... if my partner doesn't fall asleep in the next 30 minutes that is
Retrouver, le soleil
Qui nous manque
Qui va brûler toutes nos peines
Le soleil
qui nous hante
Oh, reviens soleil, soleil
AND, my dear family, more specifically my mother, sent me this lovely gift-package with niceties she crafted herself, a local spice mix I'm excited about and the Skaraborgian Fox, which my dad gave me, of course.😅