Category: Writing challenges

The power of the ping-pong ball

These last months, I have been feeling sluggish and exhausted, always waking up tired. I mentioned it to a doctor and she told me to make an appointment with a pneumologist who is also a sleep specialist, as a proper sleep appointment takes ages to get.

So I had to sleep on night with bands around my chest and waist, an oxygen meter on my finger and a plastic tube in my nose (I was surprisingly able to sleep with all these contraptions).

Monday I showed the doctor the results and sure enough, I have sleep apnea, albeit light, and luckily for me, just when I am sleeping on my back.

But I asked myself, how can I control that if I am asleep?

That’s when a ping-pong ball comes in handy. Or a pool noodle, for that matter. You just attach the ball to the back of your pyjamas, or you wear a belt where you have slid a bit of the pool noodle to make sleeping on back really uncomfortable and you end up getting back on your side.

And it is amazing how much more alert I feel. Don’t need one hour to get out of bed anymore

Posted as part of Six word Saturdays

Microblog Mondays- a tragic past

On the last Saturday of September urban sketchers in several cities of Portugal draw heritage places about the same yearly theme.

Lately I try to go to different cities each year and this year it was Alpiarça, where we drew the Casa dos Patudos

The house, which has a collection of 8000 art pieces, was the residence of one of the founders of the Portuguese Republic, José Relvas, who donated the house to the city.

But the house has a tragic history. The owner had 3 children, but none survived. Two of them died from typhoid, and the third one, oh boy, he killed himself shooting himself in the heart, the day before he was supposed to meet his assigned bride.

Till today, according to José Relvas wishes, the son’s room has been left closed and untouched, and both their desks are left as if they were working there and are supplied with fresh flowers.

Trying “selfie therapy”. Feels so awkward…

I love to offer myself something I don’t really need for my birthday and since as a premium member of Domestika I get a credit each month for a course, I treated myself to a course that teaches you how to make selfies and video selfies.

Now I love self portraits, but I am really bad at selfies, always look terrible or awkward. So I thought, why not? It doesn’t even feel like I have to pay for it.

So one of the exercises, after having tried different angles to find out which ones you like better, is to make selfies every day, just to get used to it.

So I tried it yesterday when I was having lunch at my usual place, trying one of the poses the teacher had demonstrated .

And I felt so silly… Like a really self absorbed person… But at the same time, I am really enjoying the course, because there is a lot that applies to photography in general.

And my selfies are improving.

Posted as part of Six Word Saturdays

How does one become a falconer???

That was the question that must have been growing in my mind the whole day until it suddenly crossed my lips.

Spent the whole day at an urban sketching meetup at the Falcoaria Real in Salvaterra de Magos and we had the pleasure of watching a falconry demonstration.

But it is something so niche, how do you even consider it?

So in this case, the falconer had a regular job, and one day as he was driving he saw 2 people transporting falcons in a car, and he was so surprised that you could actually own these birds that he had to stop the car and talk to them. And that’s where his love of birds of prey started.

So he got training, and some birds, and at one point he quit his day job and fully dedicated himself to falconry.

Other six word stories here

Carries a stool? A sketcher, surely!

I was walking up a very steep hill this morning in Torres Vedras, on my way to a sketching meetup when a car stops next to me and the driver asks me if I was going to the meetup and if I wanted a ride.

We didn’t know each other, but she saw me walking uphill with my foldable stool on my shoulder, which is a big tell. Of course, some urban sketchers enjoy drawing standing up, sometimes leaning on a wall, but most of us carry a foldable stool or a foldable chair so we can draw more comfortably.

And really, how common is it for non sketchers to walk on the street with a foldable stool on their shoulder?

Posted as part of Six word Saturdays

Heritage sketching at the carnival museum

Ok, it is actually called Center of arts and creativity, but the permanent collection is all about Carnival, as it is a big thing in Torres Vedras.

One of the parts I enjoyed the most was listening to interviews of people who were involved in the celebrations ever since they were little, because all the family was involved. Didn’t have time to listen to all of them though, neither to watch the videos of the crafters who make the sculptures for the parade.

Every year there is this event at the end of September called a(riscar) o património (heritage sketching) included in the European cultural heritage days. And I have started to spend this day outside Lisbon. This year I chose Torres Vedras, as I have spent many happy moments there back when life was still normal.

At the beginning, part of me was thinking: “you’re crazy, getting up at 6 a.m on a Saturday to go drawing!” But it paid off. Another wonderfully spent day.

Other six word stories here