loving one's job...

They say that if you find a job you love, you won't have to work a day in your life... I haven't... so I guess that means that I will keep working...

I had very vague and undefined dreams when I was a kid about what I wanted to be when I was older... I did not know exactly what I wanted to do until I decided I wanted to be an artist and just paint for the rest of my days! My choice of future did not pass my parents' control, they said I was going to die penniless and forbade it (and if you knew my family you would get the irony of it...) but they "allowed" me to become an architect... right, more irony there, is it half of them unemployed or even more?!... Anyway, I did not make to be an architect either... but I did get an engineer's diploma... and my dreams shrunk to the size of "I want to have a secure job that allows me good quality of life"...

"Be careful what you wish"... Well, I should have been; my wish came true and for many years I actually also liked what I was doing... not "love", but "liked" a lot and, though I was still working, it was very much ok... Not any more... things have changed... I will not go into details but what I do want to say is that it must be pretty damn fabulous if one wakes up in the morning and looks forward to jump off the bed and get started doing a job they love! This cannot be an urban myth, no, I do believe that there are people like this, I wish them all the best in the world, even if it reminds me that somewhere along the way I must have made a mistake...

Yes, it must be great to love what you do everyday, to not dread it, to not loath it, to not get depressed when the weekend is over but to, maybe, even be happy you will go back to work or even not wanting to stop for the two days! Yes, it must be "better than shoes" to love your job and be happy doing it day after day... I will not know I guess... but I will still think it must be awesome!

surviving Monday...

...and its potential of being better than shoes if achieved:

Here I am, on a Monday afternoon, struggling to work and kinda managing (relax, I said kinda...), having slept very little and not being able to get over the fact that it is August, for goodness' sake, we should not be working in August, nobody should, we should all be resting, there are traditions, people... all this not having one chance to be found "better than shoes" when compared... all this being lame... to say the least...

But, as almost always in desperate moments like this one, I resort to my personal resources of positive thinking and self-conviction and I start imagining how incredibly great it will be after I have actually gone through the work misery of this Monday, I have managed to be as productive as the circumstances allow me (I'm not magician mind you..) and I have reached home, in one piece, ready to sink in the sofa pillows and let my mind have a break in front of the TV... (to answer your comments before they are phrased, no, I don't read for pleasure unless I'm on holidays... I read all day for a living you see... so, TV it is..)

Yep, that's what I have to do... convince myself that the working day is over, mentally transfer myself forward to about 6:20pm, when all the chores are done and I'm watching "Pointless" in my pyjamas with a cup of tea with honey and I know that I will not have to do much for another... oh, well, about 13 hours! Bliss! Now, one could claim that this method is slightly risky -professionally- since it sounds a lot like daydreaming which is known to diminish productivity...; and they could be right... 
but, man, whatever works... and if this works, just to get me though the day, it will be better than shoes ;)

dining in Porto...

I have many times shared with you "better than shoes" experiences from Porto and I hope some of you have actually visited this magnificent city by now to see for yourself that, although I am indeed biased (and proud to admit it), I am not misleading you.

Here's another one...

Imagine you arrive there late and you are looking for a place to have dinner at 11pm; you are in the centre and you head to "Tascö". You get there and it is full of young people and buzzing, good vibes for sure; you are told that only around midnight you could get a table (kitchen stays open until 1, I think) so you go have a drink and you return about an hour later. You get a table, you order 4-5 different dishes to share. You start looking at the blackboard on the wall, messages written by people from all over the world testifying to special moments have been had there... you share your own... A while later, after you have already started savouring delicious authentic Portuguese food with a definite home-made quality, you are offered a plate of "presunto", just to try... it's divine!

By then, you are treated by your first name, you are listening to great music, you are cracking jokes with the owners and laughing with the other guests and photos of you have been uploaded on Facebook having the time of your life and you already feel like your are having dinner at a friend's house! You have a bit of space left in your belly and you order dessert... but they are out of chocolate mousse so you are offered an alternative, on the house, which completes perfectly a fabulous meal!

And then you ask whether it would be possible to book a table to celebrate your birthday in a few days, longing to share this experience  with some close friends and... you are offered a bottle of Port wine as a present!! Because now you are a friend! And it's your birthday! And all this is better than a pair of Fendi sandals, on sale!!!
And of course you go back and you have a marvellous time, again, and when you leave and the guys say "until next time" you know you already can't wait for "the next time"!

Ps. Don't forget to try the "panados" and the "pataniscas de bacalhau" and the home-made fried potatoes! Oh! And the home-made chocolate mousse is a dream; have it with a glass of Port wine ;)