Hi guys,
I'm writing this just an hour before our class, so Graham won't have a word to say about a possible miscommitment to the class. I guess i'm the kind of person who likes to work under pressure.

Moving on, Benfica will beat Celtic so I don't understand why Graham even bothers talking about it.

Related to the topic Graham posted on the blog, my opinion is that women should stay at home bringing up the children. At least that's what I would like it to be at my place: I want to have a big family, so my wife must be an old-fashioned woman. But, if she isn't, I will accept that.

I think Portugal is a great place to live, because it has the best of both worlds: the sunny weather of most of he 3rd world countries and the economics of a developed one (although in less quantity - this goes for both). Anyway, I would rather live here than in Scotland, for example, where it rains all year round, or in Brazil, where I can get killed if I wear something a little fancy.

My favourite sport is rugby. Altough I quit playing a couple of years ago, I still care about my club and, obviously, for the portuguese national team. In Portugal, rugby moves much less money than football, because it is still an amateur sport. I think that's why it's such a fair sport.

I would describe the British people as too polite for my taste. Portuguese people, being part of the latin people, are much more passionate than the british. If you're in an argument with a british person, you cannot refuse his opinion without adding a «mm-mm» or a «oh really?!». If I did that whit my friends, I would be considered a bit sissy.

I would prefer money to time. I actually have a lot of free time by this point of my life, but I don't have enough money to enjoy it. Against Graham's way of life, I actually need money to have fun. You can´t buy anything using time as a coin.

Like Marta, I just finished reading "Por Amor da Índia". Funny coincidence. I didn't like it, but I do understand she did. It's really a women's book.

That's all for today.

The SuperMothers!

I’m going to pretend that I didn’t see that football post... Who cares about that??? Hummm, maybe the same people (men) that don’t help enough at home and, in this way, prevent women the chance having a good career… This is just a thought!

Well, regarding today’s main issue, in a general way, people at work are being evaluated for the amount of work or amount of hours spent working. Although many talk about different performance measures, in the end what is being recognized is if one works more or less than others.

What I believe, is that raising kids and taking care of the home can be a very demanding task… no wonder in the same newspapers we can find so much news about abused children or other family problems… Not all are up to the task and, in this new nuclear family concept, it’s not possible to count on mothers, aunts or other family members to help out.

More and more women feel pressure to be just perfect… raise perfect children, have the perfect home and the perfect job and appear with perfect hair and nails… This is not real… it isn’t possible! But they are not complaining!

If we consider the time spent on “domestic” tasks, we find that women work much more than men (and, again, they are not complaining) and take many high responsibility decisions during the day… Companies should bear this in mind and stop misusing these very talented assets!

I strongly believe that we should find (and implement) different measures to evaluate women's performance (which is very important when considering the career issue) and that husbands should have a more active role at home!

Well, my time is up! See you later!

Ricardo

BENFICA V CELTIC NEXT WEEK

I'm sorry if you don't like football , but the biggest thing in Portugal next week is obviously the benfica/celtic game !!!!

a few weeks ago i was very confident because we have a better team this year than we did last year - but over the last few weeks we have been decimated with injuries.

we have 3 right backs injured - so we have no idea who is going to play there

we have 2 midfield players injured - hartley and Brown ( probably our best player ) and our striker Venegoor of Hesselink is out too ... !

no matter what happens, it can't be as bad as last year, when we played as badly as i have ever seen Celtic play...

I reckon it will be a draw. what do you think Benficistas ? you probably have to win if you want to qualify.

Can you give me the low down on your team please - i hear you have a few injuries, and your new signings are not as good as you first thought.

A women's place is in the home

There has recently been a lot of discussion in the newspapers in the U.K. that women can not have it all (as they used to think ) . They can have a good career, or they can stay at home and have kids - but both is impossible. What do you think ? please support your opinion with some ideas...

Hello everyone,

I’ve tried a couple of times before publishing something in the blog, but I don’t feel too comfortable talking (or writing) about myself. Don’t ask me why… I’ve been like this for so long that I don’t really remember why I act like this. But, since this is our HW, and I always try to comply with what it’s expected from me, I really feel the need to make this effort.

What can I say about me that helps you to understand what I'm like? I thought about it several times… one valid option was to follow the guideline Graham gave us in the first week. But, in the end, I’m tired of following guidelines at work, so it would be better to try a different approach… that’s why I’m just going to give you some clues about my life at the moment.

I woke up this morning with the same throat hurting symptoms I had last night. I don’t get sick very often, but I panic over the smallest symptoms… As today (once again) I have lots of work to do (but I managed to find 10 minutes to write this post) there was no way I could call in sick! I decided to drag my body out of bed and drive to work.

Last week I changed office (after 8,5 years in the same – river view – office) and this one is a mess. I really love having my stuff in perfect order but the former “tenant” left lots of belongings in here and doesn’t care a bit about others well being. I almost can’t reach the office window. Things will get better… I hope!

In about an hour, as my wife is out working, I'm going to have lunch with one of my best friends. He is the kind of person that “is always there” when you need a friend… due to my workaholic tendency I don’t meet up with friends as often as I should, but as all of them have the same problem, we manage to understand each other.

Well... I have to get back to work. See you tonight!

Ricardo

Press publish :-)

Hi Everybody!

This is just a reminder because there are several messages saved as drafts. You have to hit "publish", otherwise the rest of the world won't be able to see your posts. :-)

Have a great week.

All about me (Marta)

Hello!

My name is Marta. I am 16 years old and I am studying in high school, at least pretending to be. As I was told to present myself, here is some basic information about me.

Although I haven't got any specific plans for the future, I am quite an ambitious girl. All I know is that I want to have a big family and a nice stable job, probably related to management. In the near future, I'd love to do voluntary work in Africa, as well as to start travelling more often.

In my opinion, ambition is not necessarily related to money. Thus, even though I think that I am an ambitious girl, I prefer time to money. All I need to do most of the things I'm into is time. In fact, whereas you can make money with time, you cannot make time with money.

I strongly believe that Portugal is a nice place to live, especially for foreigners. Not only is its weather very nice, but the country is also very peaceful and cheap. And, above all, the people is amazing.

If I were the mayor of Lisbon, I would foccus on rebuilding the old part of the city (Baixa, Rossio, Chiado), and on organizing the traffic. Replacing cars by bikes is an easy way of reducing congestion in the city. In addition, I would create more gardens and other public outdoor places.

Besides that, being very feminine, it is obvious that I would rather be a woman than a man. I actually cannot understand women who want to become man.

I am a scorpio, but I don't care at all. Signs and horoscopes mean nothing to me.

The last book I read for pleasure was "Por Amor da Índia", a wonderful novel about India written by Catherine Clément.

Now, I'd like to start reading more English books. I reckon that learning English is essential. To me, it is the international language with which one can communicate all over the world. That is the main reason why I am learning English.

To have or to be? Definitely, to be.

Well, that's a part of me.

Marta