precious moments

23 mar 2012

photo taken from my mobile phone

yesterday i was with maroquinha hilra at lattes cafe, highfield campus, from 9.35am until 1.50pm. the initial plan was to meet, have some coffee, catch up a bit, and go about our business for the day. instead, we stayed longer than planned, half ignoring that we both have a life filled with commitments and deadlines. once in a while we said 'i have to go soon' but never left. when we finally left the cafe, almost 2pm, we still went together to the uni shop; then, hilra wait for me by the cash point and there was still some more conversation. yey!!! sooooo good to talk freely with no fear of being misunderstood. this is precious.

i walked back to avenue campus and only did a few more things. it was not the productive academic day i had hopes for, but fine. hilra and i talked a lot about my research, which was 'work' and much enlightening.

now telling from the beginning: - sometime before 9am i walked from home to the office [at avenue campus] to drop off some bag weight here and go to highfield, where i was to meet up with hilra. when i got to the office rob was already here, and we talked . . . he seemed to want to chat more but i had to leave and told him we'd talk more later on. 'ok', he said. i was headed to highfield when there comes fabricio, this very nice brazilian guy who is in his third year phd in oceanography [i think]. he got off his bike and we walked together until the uni clinic, where i went to collect a prescription. fabricio is going back home to brazil this april. i would love to see him again before he leaves. we might plan a big brazilian gathering for him.
 
thanks for the great chat, nene :-) after all, 'cada um eh si' (joao)

e viva o viva

25 may 2011

hoje, agora a pouco, eu estava ali no crown inn almocando com a diana. ai a hilra me telefonou de dentro de um taxi, a caminho da universidade, pra ir para o viva voce dela, hoje ali em seguida. viva voce eh como chamam a defesa da tese de doutorado aqui. primeiro que foi uma peleja pra eu conseguir atender o telefone, porque ainda to apanhando aprendendo a usar o danado. e ai:
- onde tu ta, nene?
- to no crown inn, sabe onde eh? eh um pub entre highfield e avenue (dois campi da universidade aqui pertinho)
- ah, sei nao, oh. eu queria te dar um abraco. to indo pro meu viva agora.
- agora? eita, eu pensava que era so sexta. tava pensando em ti, pra ti mandar um email.
- nao, eh agora. perai, vou perguntar ao motorista aqui se ele sabe onde eh.
(perguntou (conversa em ingles) e o motorista confirmou que sabe, sim, onde fica o pub)

e la eu vejo, de dentro do pub, o taxi passar e estacionar ali na frente. fui ao encontro da hilra, para da-la um abraco grande. maroquilda estava tao linda e chique a caminho de seu momento de estrelato, de fechamento de um projeto que representa tanto.

para mim, na minha experiencia,  essa eh uma conquista que nao se localiza na esfera academica apenas, nao nao nao. eh um processo que sofre / recebe influencias dos sonhos, dos empenhos, das pedras que encontramos no caminho, das alegrias, das curiosidades, das horas incalculaveis (e pra que calcular?) de leitura e descoberta do mundo e de nos mesmos. o processo do phd invade a vida da gente, define quem somos, modifica a gente, parece que nao eh mais possivel dissociar academia e vida pessoal. os momentos de coleta de dados, de investigacao, eu os sinto todos como investigacao de mim mesma, de como e porque faco parte. . . como tambem faz parte, aqui nessa cultura, a mesa de um pub. a mesa de um pub aqui nao eh lugar (so) de vagabundo, mas eh tambem um ponto de encontro, descobertas, fechamento de acordos, entendimentos da vida. . .

eu fiquei muito mas muito feliz mesmo de ver maroquilda achar tempo pra ir me ver para um abraco magico nesse momento inesquecivel da vida dela.

mas foi muito engracado quando eu ia caminhando, dentro do pub, ao encontro dela no taxi, como meu pensamento so me dizia: 'to no crown inn'. e eu pensei: 'conversa de gente vagabunda estar num pub ao meio dia de uma quarta-feira, eh?' talvez nem seja tao mal. foi uma pausa de uma hora apenas. e voltei pro avenue campus com a diana. e ca estou firme de volta no servico. o pub eh um carregador de baterias automatico.

u2b: the accidental journey

12 may 2011


how could we two - it took two - embark on the wrong bus? the consequences were that we went through, undesired at that moment, roads and roads and roads and neighbourhoods when we could not really afford it timewise. thank God everything got sorted in the end and hope it only meant a little, not serious, delay. am glad maroquilda is back and so serene. we need to meet up again for a proper chat and cafe feliz.

cafe feliz M&S

12 jan 2011

i got back here in the UK from Brazil last night to find an invite from hilra to have our luxurious breakfast today at Marks & Spencer. yes, of course. all in all we met sometime before 10am and said bye bye around 3pm. we had the always good food, chatted there sitting and ignoring that maybe other customers needed the sofas to sit and have their breakfast, browsed around the shop, bought food, and walked to the bus stop. the content of the conversation is highly confidential and protected information. i doubt wikileaks will ever have access to it.

ah, am very happy to be back in the UK and to what life holds for me here.

por causa de uma abobrinha

7 sept 2010

From: Lima K.S.D.

Sent: Tue 07/09/2010 15:15
To: Vinha M.H.G.
Subject: RE: Reclamacao formal

Prezada Requerente Senhora Hilra Vinha

Eu, Kalina Lima, brasileira, coracao esperancoso de um amor tranquilo, portadora de cedula de identidade daqui e de la, quica dacola, titulo de eleitor sem tanto valor uma vez que nao ha mais esperanca na politica da boa pratica e tendo em vista que nao poderei fazer-me presente ao pleito eleitoral vindouro, venho acatar em sua integra a queixa aqui apresentada; a respeito do que passo a tratar:

- quando de vossa primeira denuncia da ameaca do virus 'abobrinhas' foi tomada atitude na forma de correspondencia enviada aa dona do blog em questao, senhora Thais. a mesma ate a presente data nao se manifestou;

- naquele momento e tambem neste, agora mesmo, sendo precisa, tentei eu mesma, nos limites da minha sabedoria cibernetica deletar o referido blog da minha lista de espaco de passeio, sem sucesso. nem mesmo sei se tenho vergonha do meu insucesso, mas verdade eh que nao localizei em pagina alguma possibilidade de parar de seguir o danado;

- aproveito o ensejo pra informar-lhe que infelizmente nao tenho escrito ultimamente tanto quanto tenho pensado em faze-lo em funcao de sentir que de alguma forma o blog ta precisando mudar pelo menos de template pra acompanhar os ventos, a chuva, os sentidos, o ritmo. . . da vida. . .

sem mais delongas solicito que vossa senhoria de uma tregua e ponha em segundo plano a possibilidade de processo pelas vias judiciais, considerando a boa vontade da minha alma. outrossim, aceito instrucoes sobre como eliminar de vez por todas a presenca de aboboras virais no espaco do dileto soton times para voltar a contar com a visita ansiada e estimada de leitora tao especial. saliento ainda que ofereco uma rodada de paz em forma de pizza e um bom vinho.

abracos calorosos,
Kalina Morena

________________________________________

From: Vinha M.H.G.
Sent: 07 September 2010 13:27
To: Lima K.S.D.
Subject: Reclamacao formal

Prezada senhora Kalina Lima,

Eu, maria nao sei das quantas, brasileira, casada, descasada, re-casada, descasada, e no momento tico-tico no fuba; portadora da cedula de identidade brasileira que nao serve para nada nessas terras, e do titulo de eleitor tambem inutilizado, residente no endereco mais que conhecido, venho informar-lhe que tendo em vista o nao atendimento de solicitacao feita por esta cidada em data nao remota, mas esquecida, sou forcada a iniciar um processo de reclamao formal perante as autoridades de direito, para tratar do caso. Como ja foi anteriormente mencionado em carta anterior datada de deus-sabe-quando, esta cidada, que vem a ser uma pessoa ocupadissima e nao tem tempo para balelas, encontra-se impossibilitada de acessar informacao extremamente necessaria a seu equilibrio mental, emocional e porque nao dizer corporal, afinal mens sana corpore sano.

Desde a data supra-omitida por esquecimento, encontro-me impedida de abrir o informativo diario online The Soton Times, pelo qual a senhora e a responsavel direta e imediata, alem de autora, administradora e unica funcionaria conhecida. Portanto, todas as imputacoes cabiveis e incabiveis sobrecaem sobre vossa pessoa. Estou lhe escrevendo apenas por gentileza, para informa-la que estou constituindo representante legal, o qual em breve devera entrar em contato com vossa senhoria para inicio do processo. No entanto, poderei abdicar do meu direito de consumidora fiel e participativa do dito informativo de entrar com o citado processo caso vossa senhoria faca a gentileza de tirar aquele bendito link pra o site das abobrinhas na cozinha, para que minha pessoa possa voltar a ter acesso ao referido blog da vossa pessoa.

Sem mais para o momento e contando com sua boa vontade no que tange a este assunto, aguardo providencias no prazo aberto de alguns dias, ao fim dos quais serei obrigada a entrar com o processo na justica blogaria internacioanl, nacional e municipal.

Atenciosamente,
eu mesma

Hilra Vinha
MPhil/PhD Student
School of Education
University of Southampton
Highfield
SO17 1BJ

cheers to life

1 sept 2010

hilra & kalina at the highfield campus. photographer: Clarissa

I met with hilra and her troupe this afternoon on the highfield campus. What a great surprise to see the little ones all with lovely cards written to me saying they love me and missed me. I hugged them as we met. It is always a funny moment because they know I want a big cuddle. Hilra had bought the cards to give away to friends and they asked to write one for me, nominating me the first chosen one. I got two lovely cards and a cute book marker with nice words from hilra, leonard and clarissa and also a prayer. So so so sweet and heart warming!!!

It was fantastic to spend this time together. Because we were at first at the workstation at Hartley library we all had to whisper our words not to bother people. The kids behaved nicely. I think that when they saw me using a computer at the workstation they thought I had something there that was my own. Clarissa asked: ‘have you got a house?’ sooo cute. she knows I do, she’s been here to my place a number of times. I told her I do and that that place was where I went to study.

I had put the cards in my backpack to read them later on because I wanted to keep our presence there as quiet as possible. but Leo whispered determined: ‘when are you going to open the card?’ I whispered back ‘now’ and opened them to read. It was so much fun, Leo crouched down the chair to hide his shy face. He knew I was going to grab him for a big hug and a thank you kiss. We all laughed, I mean, quietly laughed. Then I got Clarissa’s card to read and she did the same crouching down the chair. One thing that was lovely was that the students around didn’t make any unhappy face with the presence of the kids in the room. They’re good fellas!!!

Hilra was finished with the printing thing and we were headed to enjoy the beautiful day at the gorgeous park we have at uni, where we stayed until nearly 5pm. Oh my was it good! The kids were joyfully running around and making friends with a girl their age. Oh and mr spider man paid a visit. Hilra and I talked non-stop – what a surprise! – and yes, it was refreshing and a perfect break even from big stressful deadlines I had for the day. We always simply talk, I feel so safe and tranquil to think hilra is around. It really gives me a sense of security. Amem!

After the great time at the park they left and I went back to Hartley library where I stayed until it was about to close, which is 9pm during the summer. at the library i did some more of my work which was due today. i am pleased i at least managed to complete a task and send it on the deadline, although i think i messed the application process. i am now also left with an important reflection about my slow and threating last minute approach to things that seems to want to become a pattern in my life. oh no!!! On my way to the bus stop I passed by Ros, who was I think walking home from avenue campus. ‘Hello kalina’ ‘hello ros’ and I rushed to the U1C bus that was coming. I ran not to miss it and when I got into it asked the driver if he had seen me run and if he would leave me there waiting for the next – 20 minutes later – bus. He said he did and that he would not leave me behind. I gave him a thankful smile and the trip home was safe and pleasant. from the middle of the bus i thanked nice bus driver before leaving bus. He responded back ‘cheers’.

os ventos da paz

19 aug 2010

sorting out life at the unilink bus

my very dear maroquilda,

this is just a note to say many thank yous to you for bringing me the winds of peace, discipline, and a proper management of the situations that pose challenging in my life.

it was magic to once again hear your voice on the phone asking and saying things like: 'por que, fia?', 'pense assim, nao, kalina', 'olha, nao eh assim nao'. all these words, in your smooth voice in the right moment, so truly and softly put me back in the right track, you know that, right? i love you, nene. i've already said it once, but here it goes again: your voice and words bring me the sounds of my heart.

yours,

maroca

le plat du jour: food and thought

28 june 2010

le plat: pizza and a great chat

l'assiete: null

la boisson: diet coke for me, orange juice for hilra.

dear nene,
it was great to enjoy part of this warm summer day with you in highfield, first walking to the stag's head, then going to your office. LOL the music was loud, huh. i'm glad we found this time to have a meal together and catch up a little on our endless conversations. ah, the pizza was good, wasn't it? i like it there but it is too much per person if we are two only. it becomes ideal for three people. anyway, for the rest of the day i only ate grapes and had a cup of tea. my name is guilt.

it is always interesting how we talk about so many things and never lose track of the topic. is it a woman thing or is it that we really trust each other and thus feel free to talk whatever? people may think women talk most of the time about foolish things. that is not our case. thanks a lot for the truthful tips on that subject. i really appreciate them. when i am back from Brazil we'll get together and talk more.

big hugs,
maroca

cafe feliz

22 apr 2010

Dear Nene,

Super thanks a bunch for making me part of this special moment in your life. I am certain it was special for everyone who got together with you / us in any one of these days with Adriana, Marcos, and Rosinha. It made my day to meet with everyone and have the tour around uni, following the flowers way, listening to the birds, doing together what I do alone nearly every day. Really, really, it was such a great time for me to meet everyone. I already knew them and the rapport was established even before we met in person. Now it is official: I have more friends, and I add the kids – Nina, Dani, Lipe, and Matheus – to the list.

We were happy to come across the spring blossom with the colours and the beauty all the way in the Common, from one campus to the other, celebrating life. Hilra, I think I can tell you Louise was just as happy to be there with us. The aura of friendship has made us all inebriated with joy and, trust me, we did have fun. I believe Louise didn’t care one bit when we at times spoke Portuguese, which would in practical terms leave her out of the chat. I don’t really think she felt lost at any point. Well, I might be wrong, but she was in the same level of positive lightness and enjoying the great time together. And so were Hannah and little Tim. Moreover, food was good.

It was so nice for the ‘easy riders’ to finally reach here that there was no much need to dwell on the impeding bits that came on their tour through Europe (Mr. Vulcano). I was thinking that this special moment you could have chosen to pass alone with them, but no, you decided to invite me along. Such moments are only possible with special friends, people who know who we are, who follow the events of our life in their very truth. Hope you keep this priceless moment – the days – as a powerful file to be accessed during days when ‘funny’ questions inevitably come to your / my mind. I will.

I just think that the whole walk that we did together is very meaningful. And don’t forget it was on lovers’ walk. Again, thanks for inviting me along. Our café feliz was shared, not planned that way, but it was shared. Did you realize that?

Kalina

caffe latte, tea cake, & bzzzzzz

9 apr 2010

The chatting today with Hilra at BB’s cafe was great. it is in the Mall Marlands, very strategically located as we get out of Matalan. we decided to meet there for a cup of coffee and updates on our news because she has not come to uni very often lately. we met about 9.30 and talked nonstop until almost 2 o'clock in the afternoon. we always talk about life, studies, plans, dreams, whatever one word inspires as the chain is quite free and maybe wouldn't make sense to some people as it does for us.
i really loved our coffee with loads of words today. we had caffe latte with teacake to eat. when time came she had o go pick up her kids at school. i went to uni to work a little, not much as i am out of insiration these days. still wondering wha should plug me back into real world.

the moves of the day

27 Oct 2009

at Lattes Cafe Bar with Hilra and Highfield Campus in Autumn 2009

Today i came to Highfield campus to teach an Academic English class on Management building. After that i came by Hilra's building (Education) to do something with her about my blog. We went up in this super secure lift which only the cool people can ride, such as Hilra and whoever is lucky enough to follow her, like myself today, as you need an ID to make the machine work.

Then we went for our agreed upon nice coffee at Lattes Cafe Bar, the staff club. We had our calories for the whole week (I had a chocolate muffin with coffee and Hilra had this unbelievably caloric fruit cake with coffee) in one single sit and talked about life. . . It is usually inspiring to talk with Hilra, and the conversation always goes on and on and on and on from one topic to the other in a very interesting flow that does not require clear cohesive devices to be coherent. What makes the whole bit coherent is our understanding and the freedom to speak up freely, which we certainly do.

It is amazing how we can find pleasure out of dealing with pain to an extent. It is really a puzzle to me sometimes that we choose to be around the ones with whom we can exactly talk about what worries us rather than just spending time with people to laugh only. . . My meetings with Hilra have been opportunities to explore thoughts, experiences, (im)possibilities and whatever the topic of the day is. Sometimes our conversation is so seriously around concrete worries, not only about ourselves, but also about others who relate to us, and it is so nice, so nice. And we say bye bye with the feeling that we still have this something else to say about whatever. hehehe

Well, today I had to bear with a new feature my friend Hilra is starting to display, which is a sort of neologism, well, not exactly neologism, but more like 'hibridism' in the sense that she, after having been living here for more than five years now does sometimes mix Portuguese with English. We clearly speak only one language at a time, which may in the end be another sort of symptom :-) but the point is we two try to keep being the naturally good Portuguese speakers that we are. My friend, however, is now with this little problem, so funny! She said she feels the need to buy two dictionaries to help her out on this issue, both of them starting with the letter O: Oxford dictionary (for English, of course) and Orélio dictionary (for Portuguese support, obviously).

Anyway, the main point of this post is to emphasize my rationale that no matter how busy you are, if you want to, you can manage to find a moment to spend with a friend and help and be helped in all ways. This Tuesday has been (it's 5.55pm now) a very busy day for me. Still, we had agreed to meet for a coffee today and the new things I had to add to my day to do as well, which represented round trips from highfield to avenue throughout the day, were not important enough for me to cancel our meeting. I am happy because these breaks during the day are so invigorating and should be part of life. It is like being responsible in a more harmonic way.

I feel so tired right now because I came to Highfield to teach 9 - 10:45 in the morning, spoke with Hilra from 11am to 1pm, walked back to avenue campus, grabbed a slice of pizza to eat, taught an EAS class 2 - 3.30pm, met with Chris Sinclair, walked back to highfield for an appointment here at 4.30. I am now free and waiting until the buses are not too packed with people. I need to buy fruits, but am not in the mood to go to supermarkets and queue up and carry heavy bags home.

I have to write an email to this one person to talk about something really bad that is going on now and is having an undesired implication on my personal life. I should stop torturing myself and just go ahead and write the email. duh!!!

Kalina Morena

bus stop at the Avenue, and Highfield Campus in colourful  Autumn 2009

From Summer to Fall 2009 - changing places

from 19 Sept 2009

this day everyone was expected to vacate their rooms everyone in uni accommodation. i moved out of Montefiore 3 in Swaythling to St Margaret's hall, which is very close to the Common and also to Avenue campus, my main campus.

Montefiore is very beautiful and has nice gardens full of colourful flowers, surrounded by green, large, trees. this days was very busy, with loads of students moving in and out all day long. i was sitting for a long time in a bunch at the entrance, close to the reception, greeting people, chatting with my friend Campi, from Thailand, and taking pictures. the two musliim girls were quite happy to pose for me. i did all this while waiting for Ines.

it was a very smooth moving of houses :-) because i had some precious hands of friends all over the process.

the only belongings i ended up losing in the movinf out and in were my clothes rack, but Ines already gave a new one. and i happy. the other thing i lost was a little beautiful basil plant. i was really sad about it. when i bought it i got so scared of having it could die i realized that i don't buy much of this things is because i am afraid i won't be able to treat them properly and they'll end up dying in my hands. i just bought a new one, and it is in the kitchen now. i ate some of it last night night with my frittata (await for a post on this one).

o calor da amizade

manha de segunda-feira 14 set 2009

(post escrito a partir de um email pra minha irma kassandra)

From: Lima K.S.D.

Sent: 14 September 2009 11:22
To: 'Kassandra Lima'; 'adieltaf@googlemail.com'

Subject:
Monday morning 14 sept 2009

Bom dia minha irmazinha linda e branquinha

Depois vou ler direito seu email de ontem. To super ocupada aqui. Esse email aqui eh so pra dar uma noticia breve. Comecei a escrever isso - abaixo - num scrap pra hilra e achei melhor espalhar a boa nova, ne nao? hehehe

[to aqui na uni, agarrada com o servico. ontem meu amigo adiel chegou e dormiu comigo no flat. que balsamo de alivio que Deus mandou pra mim. Fui encontra-lo no onibus. Ele veio de londres de trem, e desceu na estacao no aeroporto e pegou o onibus, que para ali quase em seguida onde moro. fomos caminhando pelo parque ate o pub otimo que tem la no final. jantamos e conversamos muuuuito mesmo. ah, vou mandar isso por email.
beijo e me diga como ta tu.]

Pois eh, adorei a chegada do adiel. Ele veio de Praga - republica tcheca, onde apresentou dois papers numa conferencia internacional, um com o pai dele, que eh tb prof da federal de pernambuco e outro com o pai e mais outro povo. Tudo ja publicado num livro chique demais. Como foi bom ele vir e especialmente nesse domingo que eu tava meio sem rumo e com coisas pra cuidar.

Antes eu tinha conversado muito e, claro, me acabado de rir com a hilra, mas nao podia ir pra rua vadiar.