CURRENT MISSION

Make the best of it!

ABOUT ME

I am mother to an adult daughter, also a couchsurfer, and I teach at NOVA, the New University of Lisbon. I live in the center of Lisbon and I enjoy hugely my free time in the city and its environs - beaches galore in Estoril and Caparica! I am an avid reader, theater+concert+moviegoer, occasional nightlifer, intermitent traveler & emotionally and deeply interested in politics, philosophy, science and (lately) religion. I am a soixante-huitard-type leftist who wants a good life for everyone, with absolutely no patience for moralistic verbosity, either from the right or from the left.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
“we’ve haven't got the money, so we've gotta think” (Rutherford)
"....hey, teachers, leave those kids alone!!" (Pink Floyd)
"You've got to get in to get out." (Genesis)
“Age and life experience will always overcome youth and skill" ;-)
“Mais vale rico e com saúde do que pobre e doente”

PHILOSOPHY

I enjoy life. I try to follow the adage "live and let live"; I try to accept the differences; I try to do to others what I would like would be done to me (JC had it right!); I am of the left. That said, I believe in categorical imperatives and I oppose adamantly what I consider unnaceptable.

Interests

I love being with family and friends. I love learning about all sorts from all sources, generally travelling around, gulping in new experiences, seeing new places and meeting new people - thus I live & love my work, both teaching and research. Interacting with my daughter and with the kids at NOVA keeps me me aware, apt and on the spot at all times!

I love the Azores (my craddle), Alentejo (my home from home) and Britain (ancestors before, daughter presently..)

I love SCIENCE and POLITICS and RELIGION and to engage in lenghty and emotional discussions on these issues!

...and now for something completely different: wherever I go, I look for clay houses & figures to place in my universal Presépio (Nativity crib) which I build every Christmas.

• theater
• concerts
• politics
• traveling
• religion
• science
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Presently I am a kind of TV couchpotato, staying at home after work most nights watching news and serials and films at several channels.... however, I go to the movies regularly (either starred by the critics or directed by "some director I know"...), to concerts, specially of classical music, and to the theater. Shining recolections from years past, among others: Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, the agony of the non-communicator; What's New Pussycat, whaky vintage Woody Allen; Leonard Cohen, the Stones, the Beatles (of course!), King Crimson, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, GENESIS (I was at their Big "lamb lies down on Broadway" Concert in Cascais in ninteteen seventy something!) THE DOORS - and so on. As a (compulsive) reader I have drifted slowly from fiction to essay. I am particularly interested in History and, of course, in Science - my professional subject area. Amidst all this, I am generally interested in "the new things", be it avant-garde art or music or ideas. The internet tool remains a kind of toy for me: having all the Internet information at your fingertips is absolutely awesome!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Awesome, awesome - I lived and gloried trough the passionate days which led to democracy in my country - 25 de Abril, sempre!...and I raised a marvelous daughter who is now starting her own life.

Besides that, I hitch-hiked trough Europe with my ex, and travelled many other times, including a visit to Prague (the most wonderful city!!) the year after the wall fell, had a Jonh le Carré-type scene in the Tallin to St. Petersburg train, felt at home in the Cabo Verde Islands, voyaged to Cairo (amazing!) and along the sacred river Nile, went to the New Worls's West and East Coasts

I am Azorean and I climbed to the peack at the Pico Island!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Cabo Verde, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, Sao Tome and Principe, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Portugal, United Kingdom