We started the week by taking our mothers to Aras de los Olmos, to drink coffee and snack on sandwiches and cookies under the core of our beautiful galaxy, Via Lactea. 🌌
I took a day off from work to go to Valencia with my mom and mother-in-law. We visited Mercado Central, snacked on jamón, olives and vermut, then stopped by Café Lisboa for a cold beer, and wrapped up at Café de las Horas, sipping on the best água de Valencia. 🍹🍊
My MIL gave me a much needed break from cooking lunch and dinner every day for 4 people, and commanded the kitchen twice this week! One day she steaked salmon and tuna fillets, served with a summer salad. The other day she made pork ribs with potato and cauliflower gratin. Everything was delicious, but the gratin was extra nice and easy. I’m planning on making it a few times this winter!
The TV situation at home is crazy atm. We are stuck watching Brazilian TV with Swedish subtitles, or Swedish TV with Portuguese subtitles. Then there is the issue of different tastes too… We ended up watching season 5 of Love is Blind Brazil LOL. This season, every participant is over 50 and it was bonkers. Old people are awesome and awful at the same time. Sometimes they seem so mature and determined, other times they are worse than high-schoolers. 📺
On Friday I took my driving theory exam here in Spain and I PASSED! To make a long story short, I took my license 20+ years ago but never drove due to fear. I’ve been feeling a bit handicapped, because I live in the countryside and a car is the best (sometimes the only) way to get things done. And feeling a bit stupid too, for not getting over this ages ago… . Oh well. The best time to start driving was 20 years ago, the second best time is right now, at 41, amiright? 🚗
This weekend we had lunch at Latte e Farina, a small Italian restaurant in the old town. Food was delicious, but portions were ENORMOUS. I’ve never had so much food in my life. 10/10 and will be back many times (but will be sharing my plate with someone or taking leftovers home). 🍝
My mom took over the kitchen on Sunday and prepared a couple dishes from our hometown in the Brazilian Northeast. So good!!! We started the day eating corn couscous with queijo coalho, a fresh cheese that reminds of halloumi. For lunch she made beer chicken. MIL hates chicken, but she was so surprised and shocked by the flavours, she actually had two full thighs. To that I say: Brazilian cuisine is awesome and it is a shame the world doesn’t know it. 🍗
After lunch, we turned on our PS5/VR2 and introduced our mothers to Virtual Reality! We spent four hours playing Ragnarock and Synth Riders and we had so much fun! We laughed the entire time, we made mini competitions, we gave our very best until our arms hurt, and we sweated soooo much! It was hilarious, a perfect Sunday! 🎮😍
A mega storm hit Valencia again. I was prepared in advance and took Luna to sleep in my bedroom, but left Astro in the living room as he never cared before. The storm was so massive windows were shaking with the noise of the thunder, lightning was striking the trees in our neighbourhood, and Astro started barking in the middle of the night, in a state of panic. So I ended up moving into my office with both dogs, an emergency radio, my kindle, and stayed up all night playing calming music and giving pet massages. Once the storm calmed down, dogs slept beautifully, while I stayed awake with insomnia. 🐶⛈️