My niece

Meet Katherine Margaret - born June 29th, daughter to proud (and possibly exhausted) Lynne and Derek, niece to yours truly (who can take none of the credit!). Wow. Congratulations for the millionth time to you both.

Stats for those who can interpret them: 3678g / 8lb 1.7oz, 52.1cm / 20.5 inches
It feels a lot more real seeing a photo now, although of course reality will come when I can hold her. And that will be just one point in her life/growth, I expect every time I meet her I'll be meeting a new person. The world is changing - or perhaps just following its natural cycle.

That came home to me last week here. On the same day it was Ricardo's daughter's 1st birthday (she's sort of our project baby since she was born during a drilling day) and a funeral in town as well. Mixed emotions, the only way to deal with it is to celebrate life. The wheel turns.

Dingo got rid of my baby plus every roo for kms

In a week where you could be proud to be Aussie this story puts Australia right back to the "strange" side of the world. These stories usually mean those of us overseas start explaining. Except here I suspect - I continually get asked why we don't eat our native animals like koalas since "they have nice soft fur, I'm sure they'd be good roasted". One of the things vegetarians miss out on in foreign countries is that leap of faith you take when you put your fork in a piece of meat and put it in your mouth not quite knowing what animal it is, let alone which part of that animal.......

Salisbury

I seem to end up in the UK a lot. It is supposed to be only 2 hours away but after a 1hr delay in Lisbon and an hour holding over London it didn't seem so close. I headed to Bristol to meet people who understood why leaving a sunny 30deg day in Lisbon took some adjusting. The support process included drinking capirinhas in a Brazilian bar with Portuguese friends in Clifton. What the?!

Then the next day it was off to Salisbury to meet my brother who was singing at the cathedral for the weekend. The cathedral has the highest spire in the UK and dominates the town skyline, I have millions of photos of it to prove this fact. The normal postcard photo is the catherdral seen from across the fields, however I like this one better.
As blogged before I always find it interesting dealing with the English after being away, the nuances, the wit,the cynicism, the questioning about who you are to try to connect with you ("Ah, Evora, we thought of buying a house there once"). Thus being part of a choir thrown together for a weekend was interesting, watching the group interact tentatively, shifting between points where I was comfortable and where I felt as if I didn't fit (since I was a child in England I wasn't involved as much in social situations as my brother). As if getting used to that wasn't enough we were staying in a theological college in the Cathedral close, not the sort of place you'd expect to find me staying. The close is like a town within a town, surrounded by 10m high walls and gates that close at 11.30pm every night. Definitely not the sort of accommodation I'm used to. In revenge for this curfew being placed on our drinking we spent one night trying our best to drink the college bar dry, proving our aim for the weekend wasn't exactly "intellectual and spiritual growth and development".

It was also interesting, and good, to be back with my brother - we live on opposite sides of the world and catch up all too rarely. Yet bizarrely with a lot happening in our lives (especially at the moment) there are times we don't have much to say to each other. It's a credit to the effort we make to keep in contact and the effectiveness of email but also reflects that with somebody close it can be more important to be able to be comfortable enough to relax over lunch and read the paper unlike with others where you need to spend the time getting to know each other

Anyway one essential part of coping with the slightly familar is to get back to something you feel more comfortable with. So I set off on a Bank Holiday Sunday to have a few beers and think Australian instead of English (pardon?!) while catching up with Cathy and some other Aussie mates. One thing to remember is that Bank Holidays means rail maintenance means instead of a 2hr train ride to London I ended up on a 2hr bus trip through Surrey with half a dozen drunk Aussies next to me and got into London 4 hours after I left Salisbury. The other thing to keep in mind is that Bank Holidays always mean great weather for being outdoors. The English attitude of "We're here, it's a holiday, we're going to enjoy the outdoors despite wind and rain" may be bloody stupid but you have to admire it.
After all that the prospect of a the return trip, and the likely outcome of standing outside aforementioned locked gates at 11.35pm without a bed was enough to drive me to drink. None of you will be surprised that I ended up crashing the night in London, the decision made halfway through 2-for-1 cocktail hour, and some may have well copped sms's just before closing time (I still never know when pubs close in London!). But it was good to see people from "home" and feel that the world isn't so big after all, also to share some stories and talk more about the experience I'm having here. That continued later in the week when Derek came back to Portugal with me and experienced some of the "wows" that I end up gushing about on here all too often. As with Bry it amazed me how much I want visitors to enjoy Portugal and the pride I have in the place.

Forca Portugal

The horns have almost stopped. The town is almost quiet. There is only the occasional "Portugal ole". But for an hour or so after the game it certainly wasn't the case. Why? Because Portugal are through to the quarter finals. The roar in the pub when the goal went in and when the final whistle went was as loud as any I have heard in any sports stadium or bar across the world. In celebration everyone seemed to be driving laps of the town, horns honking, hazard lights on, as many flags/scarves/people hanging out of the window as you can, all yelling the fact that Portugal are winners. A truck is really better, you can fit all your family/friends on the back to chant. Something tells me some of the people shouldn't have been driving either given the way some of the cars were weaving. If you're not driving you're watching the parade, waving your scarf/flags at the cars, even playing your trumpet or drums if they come to hand. Not quite dancing in the streets but close. And magical. The good side of the passion and pride that football can bring.

You bewdy no 2 of ???

Hopefully this is just number 2 of lots more World Cup style euphoria. What price a table in Lygon St on Monday? And for those wondering if I could see the game since Brazil-Japan was on at the same time - this is how Kewell's equaliser looked to me on a blocked out pay-TV channel reading HTML commentary while I desperately searched for radio coverage online:

Presents

"It was the most useless thing I could find in the store"

Descida do Zezere

Saturday dawned cloudy and grey, both weather-wise and in my head. An excuse for being in the bar was the football was only on pay-TV, but not for going back there at midnight. No long lie-in either as I was off on a gym trip kayaking down the Tejo. In Australia this would be a meticulously organised operation timed to the second. On Saturday we left 45 minutes after the scheduled time, not only because of people running late but time organising who was driving, which route, who needed fuel, how much extra we had to pay. I could’ve saved a couple of people the effort if I’d brought my 5-seater but silly me assumed there would be a bus or something so it wouldn’t be needed.

Instead I ended up in the front of the only decked-out Polo I have ever seen: 2 jet-engine sized sub-woofers in the back, DVD player and LCD screen in the front, the most unnecessary ironing board spoiler in history. Unlike the usual street racer image the music videos were commercial R’n’B/MTV chart, possibly sensing that the mood wasn’t appropriate he put on The Fast and the Furious. Its not so much the fact he drove like the movie, it was more I wasn’t completely convinced he wasn’t watching more of it than you should while doing 140 on a back road!
So we drove north for the next 2 hours. I only know it was north after tracing the route on the map yesterday. What worried me was when the other guys in the car gave up trying to work out where we were going. Towns, villages, paddocks, market gardens, vineyards, dams, bridges all flashed by in endless pursuit of the car that knew the destination.

We got to Constancia (near Abrantes) in time for lunch. Because of the Portugal-Iran game the restaurant that runs the kayaking was fully booked so we were escorted up the hill to the backup restaurant. I’d been warned lunch was bad, but these are Portuguese standards. As lunch came to an end and the start of the game approached I began to wonder whether we would do any kayaking at all, a hypothesis supported when we returned to the bar and tried to watch the game through the windows and the open door, while the patrons inside got in our way as much as possible.

My hypothesis was proved wrong – half time brought movement. The guy began ordering others to hitch/unhitch trailers of canoes from his crutches and herded us into a van. He then proceeded to struggle into the driver side, assuring us “I drive well, OK?” before we could think the contrary. And drive well he did along the side of the valley, while we looked down on the river below (until he got on his mobile while going round a hairpin bend which had nothing to do with a handicap). If I thought the slope to the river was steep the road across the dam wall provoked vertigo looking down the 100m sheer concrete face of the spillway (plus thoughts of The Fugitive), but we followed the less direct route down to the river past the hydroelectric power station and parked next to one of the “Zona Perigosa” signs (No swimming, no fishing). I wasn’t game to read the sign any closer.
And then finally onto the river (and occasionally into it). We weren’t kayaking on the Tejo, but the Zezere instead. The Zezere is pretty tame, the river isn’t exactly quick and there wasn’t much white water on the rapids with the recent rain. We were in double ocean kayaks (goat boats) and I was paired first with a guy I work with. The fact we were the two heaviest guys, and some communication breakdowns, ran us aground very quickly and left us in the water at the first rapids. So I was re-assigned to another boat. After establishing “Eu nao falo ingles” I spent the rest of the trip trying to read which side she was going to paddle on, and less time looking at the view than I should’ve. But we wound our way in the late afternoon back to the bar through gravel islands and overhanging trees and river grasses with little white flowers, looking up at slopes filled with pine trees. The new team didn’t stop us landing in the water at some rapids further down and by the second rest stop I gave up and went for a swim for the hell of it. The water was not warm.

Another key difference between the races: because the lunch was so bad I was advised to bring some snacks. So I brought some fruit and some water figuring no matter how bad lunch was I could still survive the afternoon on it. Everyone else brought a couple of rolls, half a dozen pastries, some drinks….. (this is for a 3 hour kayak remember).
Back at the bar we found out the result of the game, had a beer and a snack and headed back. Again a bit of a blur due to speed and tiredness, but the sun decided to show itself as we climbed out of the river valley leaving us with a magical view behind, the reflections off the Tejo as we crossed it and sun setting into the wetlands nearby sparkling etched themselves into my subconscious.

I’ve painted the day as a mission but I spelt it out becuase a lot of days end up like that. It’s not like its Africa or somewhere really hard to live but it can be frustrating at times. Of course the language barrier makes me a lot more uncomprehending. This could have all been planned: arrive for lunch, watch the first half, then at 3 when lunch has settled and the heat of the day passed (not an issue this day but possible) get onto the river and paddle about. And this trip was one of my highlights so far, not just the views and the kayaking but the people, as sad as going on a gym trip might seem it was nice to meet some people and try to talk to them (which is what travelling's all about) and then to be able to say hi to a couple of guys in the gym tonight makes the frustration worthwhile.

More football

OK if you don't want more football analysis then as soon as Blogger lets me post photos I'll have another one up.

FOX here is getting great mileage out of the Simpsons episode where Springfield hosts a football game. Why? I never realised this but it was Mexico v Portugal. The soundbyte of Homer saying "I'll kill myself if Portugal doesn't win" is the phrase I've most heard this week. We'll wait for Wednesday to see how Homer goes.

The other thing I've heard this week is not Australia played well, but why didn't we score? In a way it's great, it's respect. Not the patronising "Oh you lost but you played well", it's independent viewers saying "If you have as much of the ball as your opponents, if you have half a dozen good chances on goal, you have as much right to win it as them. Who cares which team is Brazil." I loved the way the Aussie midfielders played the ball around, kept possesion, one-touch football, look for the opening. None of this long ball shit, none of this panic when you have the best players in the world running at you.

My love of Guus remains. SBS said he was conservative in only playing one striker and stacking the midfield but I nearly fell off the couch when he took Moore off and put Aloisi on. Taking off your central defender against Brazil? Who here would do that?! But it sends a message to the players and to the country - we're not here to "lose by a little", we're good enough to win and we're going to chase that win.

This is what I mean when I say how much this means to Australia. We're a country of arrogant over-achievers in sport football is something we're ranked no. 44 in the world in and that doesn't sit well, that belief we have in ever other sport isn't there. Yet. Respect. It's almost there. The next stage is to progress, and somehow I'm comforted Guus is at the helm. Australia historically have failed in these tactical games but this World Cup is different so far, so fingers crossed. Don't worry boys the Alentejo is with you!

One thing I'm not so proud of was some of the fans in Munich. Don't ask me why but some idiot holding up the holiest of holies (Munich beer) and say "Gee the beer's not bad here" makes my teeth clench. There are some Aussie tourists who don't quite integrate or learn or just shut up when they should. Like the one on the travel channel last night who somehow got into a story on Vanuatu (methinks the local guy hosting picked her up and couldn't get rid of her in the morning) with no journalistic talent except saying "awesome" 8 times in a 5 minute story.

Sardines and beer

I like it when the images tell the story better than I could describe it. Writing is hard enough usually but today my brain isn't working. Last night was the night of Saint Antonio's day and the tradition is to cook/eat a lot of sardines and have a big street party in the old quarter. Not that different to most weekends in Lisbon. You spend your night squeezing through narrow alleys or staggering up and down staircases with a mass of people passing by you, beer in hand and reeling from half a dozen sardines.

I do have a technical point to rant about though - a mate last night looked at my photos and said "Ah lots of yellow." However I prefer flash-less photos, to me they seem to have warmth and seem more natural whereas flash photos look artificial. So thats why you'll always get blurry yellow photos here. The blurriness is completely unrelated to alcohol.

Photos of those things

Blogger wouldnt let me add photos yesterday so here's what the north of Portugal looks like. I was told last night this town is "the most isolated part of Portugal" which might explain the need for a defendable castle/keep.

Another follow up from yesterday - Timmy Cahill you bewdy! I'd managed to control my desire to go to Germany for the Cup but it's back and bigger now. The Socceroos win is a big deal - football in Australia has long been the poor cousin with a constant battle for fans for respect both from fans of other codes and from other countries. The guys at work now take Australia more seriously instead of as a novelty. Not just because of the result but the tactics and the way we played, I'm not convinced an Australian coach, even an English coach, wouldve taken the gambles Hiddink did. In Europe the coaches seem to have more confidence and be more willing to take chances, perhaps it's the knowledge they will be under scrutiny regardless?!

Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Things I do for work

As you drop down from the ring of mountains into the town Fundao you understand why its named the bottom of the cup. Stone houses, stone walls and medieval castles have replaced the whitewashed walls of the Alentejo as we've driven from fields into the mountains, valleys, pine trees and orchards of the north.

Its my first time in the north but we’re late and theres been no time to explore. Instead I just get tempted by the passing attractions - as we past one turn-off: “Down there is a village still surrounded by a Roman wall, with a Roman road in the middle and a Roman milestone. The church has a Roman door, an Early Christian door and a later door”. Indanha-a-Velha for those salivating at the prospect. Through another town we drive up to the town walls and sneak a peek through to the almost entirely preserved medieval town, like looking through a window into history. I almost expect a horse and carriage to come rattling through the gate.

Some things in the north are lacking – over dinner the house wine is not up to Alentejo standard. “In the Alentejo the majority of the wine is good. In the Douro most of it is bad, unless you find a good brand or pay a lot of money.” I start feeling a little parochial, even a little angry, at coming into a new place and being served sub-standard wine. I realise at the same time how spoilt I am, the wine is actually very drinkable. And there are benefits to being in the north in summer – its cherry season and they are grown around Fundao. So dessert was a soupbowl full of cherries on ice.

It’s also the season for summer music festivals. The best bit is that you dont actually have to go as most are telecast live. While work dinner saved me choosing whether to make the drive to see Franz Ferdinand & Keane this week I spent last Saturday night watching Kasabian and Red Hot Chilli Peppers live from Rock in Rio. Instead of waiting for Sting to play the following night I switched over to Rock Am Ring and wasn't surprised to see Depeche Mode on stage - I still laugh at the memory of their CD being on continous play in a pub in Dresden.

All I ever wanted, All I ever needed,

Is here in my arms

Words are very unnecessary

They can only do harm

- "Enjoy the Silence", Depeche Mode

And of course its World Cup - not a season, more a fever. There are Portuguese flags everywhere, a trend started for Euro2004 when the coach told the country to put the flag in their window. Unfortunately since that was in Portugal and the Cup is in Germany the effect might not be as inspirational for the players this time. In a “wow I’m in Europe” moment I have the choice of watching French, German or Portuguese coverage (although for those studying media Portugal has followed the Australian model with one game a day on to free to air, the rest on cable). The combination should make sure I don’t miss a game – although ironically the Socceroos-Japan game doesn’t seem to be covered by anyone. The lady serving me dinner last night thought the concept of Japan running rings around the legs of the Aussies hilarious, I'm just hoping that isnt foresight.

She knew full well who Australians were though. On hearing I was Aussie she ran into the kitchen and pulled out a photo of her with two girls. "They came in at 2 in the afternoon, all they wanted was soup and red wine. Nothing else to drink. Porrrrrrr." Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.