This year marked our very first Christmas and New Year's Eve/Day in Portugal. We had lovely holidays, sharing Christmas Eve with our "Portuguese family" and Christmas week with a series of Zoom, Skype, and WhatsApp get togethers with family and friends so far away. Thank goodness for the Internet. It does help close the distance so wonderfully.
Here is Christmas Eve with our "Portuguese family." What delicious food we had - a traditional Xmas Eve Portuguese meal! And wonderful company as always. Our hostess took the picture, so, alas you can't see her. The woman to your right is her mother. The young woman is her daughter. And across the table from the daughte ris her husband. They are such terrific friends.
We also indulged in binge reading, since Covid kept us more indoors than out ("outdoors" being reserved for our daily walks.) As a result, for a while I will be sharing reviews of some of the books we read - most of them mysteries, and many on this blog related to Sherlock Holmes since his major era was the Victorian Era.
But first I have to share with you a charming children's book that you can back in a Kickstarter Project:
Sherlock Cat and the Missing Mousie. I had the opportunity ro read an advance copy, and it's just delightful!
The book is already up on Amazon and you can pre-order if you wish, but it won't be released until March. Once it does come out, I'll review it here as well as on Amazon.
And here is the link to the Kickstarter project if you are interested.
A more serious review of a "thriller" type book (i.e. dead bodies and the hunt for a killer) will be on my Fourth Wish blog tomorrow.
I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season. I will look forward to reading your posts and catching up on your news. Any good reads you discovered, please share.
Take care and stay well.
9 comments:
Happy New Year and thank you for your visit to my blog today, Elizabeth. Your holiday looks like it was warm, wonderful and filled with love and family. (We're still waiting for family Christmas for Covid to simmer down a bit). I love the term "binge reading!" I'm remembering that one.
Hi, Jeanie, I certainly understand your waiting for Covid to fizzle before family get-togethers. Our "Portuguese family" make us a very small circle and are part of our "bubble." We avoid larger gatherings. Sigh.
What a lovely holiday you seem to have had with your new Portuguese family. Looks like life is good,. That sounds like a cute book. Love the title.
Like Jeanie, I still can't get my "get out of town" muscle to move. Covid may be everywhere, so it isn't quite rational. But the added layer of hassle at every step of travel will keep me home. Good for you that you aren't waiting for anything, like the official All Safe.
I am so glad you and Rajan are having such a great time. I'm curious, do you have to buy all these books or does your library there have books in English? If you have to buy them, does the local bookstore carry books in English, or do you have to order them by mail. I'm glad you are able to get what you need, whatever the way. Thanks for the post.
Good morning, Elizabeth (and Meow to Bleubeard), having good friends to visit really does help with the fact that we are so far from family and friends back in the U.S. We also did a lot of Skyping, Zooming, and WhatsApp-ing with friends and family. (These are the times I love technoogy.) I hope you had good holidays, too.
Hi, Mirka. Thanks for stopping by. Actually, we are waiting for the "all clear" also. We aren't going anywhere out of town, wouldn't dream of flying anywhere, and our outings are mainly just the two of us taking walks and stopping for a glass of wine at a very secluded table distant from everyone. (Our "Portuguese family" made for a very small "bubble" on Xmas Eve.) Since Omicron is on the rise in Portugal (although it seems to have "peaked"), we even have deferred out Portuguese lessons for a few weeks because it's hard to maintain the meter-and-a-half social distancing from our teacher at the same table. But . . . "This, too will pass." One just as to be patient. Thank goodness for books!
Bom Dia, Rosi! To answer your questions: I can order some of these books through Amazon.es and avoid customs, so I've ordered a few that way. Also, there are two local bookstores we like that do have sections in English, and we've purchased a couple at them. Also, our favorite bookstore (Centesima Pagina) has ordered a couple of books for us at a good price, and ordering through them also avoids a customs fee for us. As for the library, they have an English section — mostly famous books in English: Steinbeck, classics, etc. But the selection is rather limited. Thanks for coming by. Miss you! Miss the writing groups, too, both of them. (But, of course, I was missing them before the move, thanks to Covid. Sigh.)
I'm glad to know you have access to good books!
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