SAL, Pimenta e Ferreira Rocha

Or, law firms in Mozambique

First, I should explain my title. One piece of work I've done in the office was a briefing on the different law firms in Mozambique. I'm quite easily amused and so found it hilarious that one was called SAL (salt), one was called Pimenta (pepper). and one was called Ferreira Rocha (Smith Rock - two surnames, but it sounds to me like Ferrero Rocher chocolates...)

Oranges on a tree in a park... definitely not something you'd see in the UK

Anyway, now I've got that out of the way, time to update you on my week! Again, it's been dominated by work and food, with the odd gym class and rowing session thrown in. There isn't much to report from either the first or the latter two - in brief, a struggle with Lisbon traffic on Monday meant my 15 minute bus journey took 50 and I missed most of the erg session, Wednesday brought a tank session (i.e. rowing from a concrete boat-like structure in a tank of water, for the uninitiated), and on Saturday we finally made it out in a crew of 4, which was great fun. The gym classes at work are fun and surprisingly good exercise...

Mouth full of cake + coffee in hand = happy Carly

Onto the exciting thing, i.e. food, which is a pretty effective summary of my weekend post-rowing. On Saturday afternoon I had arranged to meet a Brazilian journalist, who had come to the  book club and wanted to find out why English people might be interesting in Portuguese literature, in a pastelaria (café) in Campo de Ourique. Then I went to meet Carly (I saw the oranges above in the Jardim de Estrela on the way) and we went to another pastelaria in Rato (pictured), before wandering the streets a bit. I also found a copy of a Portuguese book that I've been looking for for ages because it's nearly impossible to find, so that was satisfying. We then ended up going to Park, which is a bar at the top of a multi-storey car park - highly recommended by various people, with excellent views. Then we made the spontaneous decision to go to a Goan restaurant called Cantinho do Paz, which I think my parents had mentioned as somewhere they used to go... In any case, it was delicious (if a little extravagant compared to our normal budget) and I survived a curry that the waitress told me was 'quite spicy'...

Cake, Compal. Not the Goan restaurant.

At church this morning Carly and I met Janice, who has just arrived in Portugal from Australia, and is staying for five months studying. We had a good chat over coffee then Janice agreed to come with us to the Museu Nacional do Traje (national costume/fashion museum), way up the metro - after a spot of lunch, of course. We enjoyed looking round both that museum and the Museu Nacional do Teatro - no prizes for guessing what that's about. They were both full of interesting things. And yes, we had another stop for refreshments in the café afterwards...

Flapper fashions

Old underwear

We headed back towards the centre of town and walked around the Marquês de Pombal area for a while, showing Janice where to find things and generally trying to be helpful. Eventually we decided it was dinner time... instead of another meal out, we picked up some groceries and went back to Carly's to cook. I don't think Janice will mind me writing this here, but Carly and I both thought it was sweet that she was surprised that cooking food at home can be so cheap and easy! All in all we had a great day together and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Janice later.

Oooh museum things

These blogs seem to get shorter and less interesting every time, but I hope you've enjoyed hearing my news. Whether or not there's something more entertaining next week, I will probably end up writing about it all here again. :-)

Thank you for reading!