To portuguese

is indeed a verb in Portuguese: “Aportuguesar“; which is nothing else but to adapt a word from a foreign language. Usually, this is done by modifying the spelling of the word, in order to keep its pronunciation similar:

• tuitar – to tweet
• beisebol – baseball

And, the absolute favourite in our house: bleacaute – blackout.

Sometimes however, the original spelling is kept and only modified so far as to make a proper verb, e.g. pasteurizar or parboilizar which has then all the properties & conjugations of any (regular) verb.

Updates:

• rali – rally
• uisque – whiskey
• caubói – cowboy
• coquetel – cocktail

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Only in Brazil

Having traveled quite a bit – and read about it – I have come to terms with the fact that cars in some countries drive on the right side of the road and in others on the left.

What startled me however was a sign in my neighborhood that announces a sudden change from right to the left hand, or as more appropriately called here English hand – mão inglesa.

Is it to check if drivers are awake? Or to see how much confusion one can possibly create? And will we ever know?

Good bargain?

As a child, I used to be very ticklish. Also, I was able to read in the car.

Nowadays, I’m not ticklish at all and reading as much as a map will give me nausea.

Loaded

For the first time ever in my life, I arrived too late at check-in. Even though I could still check in. Landing in Berlin, my luggage as well as the one of my colleague who was more than early for check-in were the first ones to be on the luggage trail.

Now, I always wanted to figure out if it made a difference if you checked in luggage late or early. Apparently it doesn’t. Strange though…

Blacklisted

• How many times do you have to have a cab showing up for a certain organisation without anybody needing it, before you finish on the taxi company’s blacklist?
• Why are the chances of a taxi coming on time inversely related to the hurry you are in?
• Why bothering to book a taxi 24 hours in advance if they don’t show up?
• Why are there taxis bleus, taxis verts and taxis jaunes but no taxis rouges? And why don’t they colour their cars accordingly but are all black?

It’s never too early and rarely too late*

It’s funny how life sometimes repeats itself. The initial name I’d wanted for this blog was taken so I had to come up with something else. In the end, it fits much better.

Opening finally and with just a couple of years delay a Twitter account; lapuce was obviously taken. In all languages I speak. So instead, you can now folllow @ilfautoserlavie; which, in the end, is much better as well.

*From the most famous and only known philosopher from Melmac.

My brain and I

need to have a conversation. Yesterday morning, I wrote down a few things I needed to do. Send an email to this friend, take this paper to work, etc. One of the things I wrote down is “Chaos, small chair”. Only that I have no recollection of 1) writing this down in the first place and, 2) what I could have possibly meant by it.

2 months & 2 years

That plants grow at a different speed is probably widely known. It’s still surprising to see that my avocado ‘tree’ is almost as high after 2 months as is the date palm after two years.

Obsérvations quotidiennes

• Animated discussion in the office around the capacity to picture a story. One colleague claims that women have the greater capacity to do so; the other – equally female – that men do. Considering that I really don’t want to hear certain jokes because the images stay way too long in my mind; I eventually join sides with the first colleague.
• Delayed panic: It really isn’t helpful to forget doing something Saturday all day long only to wake up panicking on Monday morning at 5 am which is the least convenient moment to actually get it done.
• Considering how energetically my colleagues denied that they ever touched MY pen; there must be some way for objects to travel in time and space without us noticing. At least, I don’t have another explanation for MY pen disappearing weeks ago from the desk only to reappear in the office kitchen.

Jetlag for beginners

There are only 2 hours of time difference between Brussels and St. Petersburg. Still, it was enough for me to need 2 days of proper adaption. Arriving in St. Petersburg, midnight was too early to go to bed. Logically, as it was only 10 pm back where I came from. Getting up at 5:30 am though felt like a pain; no matter the time zone. Making it throughout the day even more.

On the way back, 10 pm – bed time – only to wake up at 7 while I would have loved to sleep much, much longer. I’m definitely not prepared for real jetlag…