Os advogados são todos mafiosos

Or, lawyers are all in the Mafia*

Yep, according to one of the rowers, I'm in with the wrong crowd.

Lisbon, from the other side (see below)

I've had another good week in lovely Lisbon. There's very little to report from work (I go to work, work, maybe do a gym class, have lunch, work, and come home), but I have a few other things of interest to tell you about. Oh, one thing from work - I was introduced to the top boss, who is Very Important and also related to an ex-politican/political pundit who I've seen on TV. Exciting times.

On Thursday evening I went as planned to the Livraria Ler in Campo de Ourique, where I met Nicki, for the book club. There were a lot more people than had been there last time (well over 20). We had about half an hour discussing the book, O Meu Irmão, before Afonso Reis Cabral, the author himself, arrived to answer our questions and generally chat. The evening finished with port, which tends to improve everything**, although in this case the evening was already excellent so didn't particularly need the improving effects of port. Afonso was really interesting and fun to talk to. He also seemed ridiculously young (23!) to have such an amazing novel published. I still haven't quite finished reading it, but fully intend to in the next few days. It's an interesting story so far, though, and I can see why it won a prize, the Prémio Leya.

The book - it's signed inside!

The other fun things occurred at the weekend. On Saturday as usual I went to the rowing club, and was pleased to have a very sunny session on the river. This almost made up for the fact that Monday's training had been a surprise 60 minute erg. This is because the Leisure section are preparing for a 37km trip up the Tejo in March. I'll let you know how that goes...

Wandering through the streets

After rowing yesterday I got the 15E tram (one of the modern ones) into the centre so I could visit the post office, then picnicked in the Parque Eduardo, narrowly avoiding having my chouriço stolen by a dog. After a couple of hours getting things organised at home (and doing laundry) I went to meet Carly and we got the metro to Cais do Sodré, then the ferry to Cacilhas, on the other side of the river, and the bus up to the Cristo Rei statue. It wasn't just an attempt to use as many modes of transport in one day as possible... we were mainly there to take in the view and watch the sunset. We both took far too many photos as the sky got dark and the lights went on. After wandering around on that side of the river, we crossed back over, had some soup, and went home.



Did I mention I like taking photos of the bridge?

Sticking with my weekend normal routine, I did very little this morning until church - yet another new locum chaplain has arrived. Carly, Feyikemi and I then had the pleasure of being inducted into how to prepare/clean up the tea and coffee after the service, because we've been put on the rota. Hopefully next time we won't all get in each other's way; this time there were quite a lot of people all trying to do everything at the same time.

After the three of us (eventually) left, we went down to the Praça do Comércio and continued on to a nearby comfy spot of grass where we could enjoy the sunshine. Doosuur, another friend, also met us there. It was unbelievably warm today for January; as so often though, it felt far colder out of the sun. After a while we went to find food in a branch of Padaria Portuguesa, then wandered up Avenida de Liberdade trying to decide what to do. After we'd said bye to Doosuur, the other three of us ended up going to another café, A Leitaria, which I've walked past quite a lot. It always smells excellent and is full of people, so I had high expectations - it turned out to be quite nice, in a hipster sort of way.

Enjoying the sunshine

That was pretty much it - since then I have enjoyed dinner with Luísa, Elena and Luís at home, watched a bit of a political TV programme, and talked to people in England (hi!). I'm feeling well prepared for the next few days - they are due to be sunny too, which means nothing can be too bad.

Thanks for reading!

A final sunset photo, with the Sintra hills visible

* Please note that I don't subscribe to this view (or at least, after a total of 9 days in the office, I haven't seen any evidence of the Mafia). Anyway, in Portuguese 'mafioso' can mean generally criminal or unscrupulous, so don't take it too literally. Nevertheless, the sentiment may raise questions about the legal profession here...

** This is a light-hearted comment and not to be taken at face value. Don't worry, I haven't developed a port habit. Post-lunch coffee, on the other hand, is a different story.