Oh! Deer me.

Today I'm in pain, can't barely walk from my bed to the toilet.

Sometimes we tend to forget how old we are and just go climbing trees like we are still kids and then sometimes it does not go well.

So, yesterday, after 4 years living in London, I finally went to the Richmond Park. The park is really nice and big and full of trees or tree trunks. And where is the best place to take really nice pictures?

Yes, that's it - on top of the tree trunks.

This just to say that I climbed one and when I wanted to come off it, not really know what went through my head, instead of going back to the lower part, I just jumped from the highest and when landing I twisted my leg. It did started to hurt a bit but I was still able to get home, just to wake up this morning with a swollen leg.

The good part of all this is that we saw some deers running around and again the park is really nice, can't wait to go back and spend more time exploring it. Hopefully I will be a bit more careful next time and don't make myself get hurt.

Good night!

Toastmasters - check!

Hi everyone!

Today I'm going to tell you all about my latest item in my To do list that has just been crossed out.

I have this very good friend back in Portugal who, for years have been talking about the Toastmasters and inviting me to go along. I have always said I would go but somehow never went.

Then I came to live in London and again she told me that there were loads of Toastmasters clubs here. Again, I promised I would go and even searched for some locations and chose the one I wanted to try first. But again, Life happened or just was not the right time, and then after 4 more years, I did go last Monday.

And what made me change my mind? Well, I realised I needed something to help me grow professionally and that seems to be a first step. 

And what is this Toastmasters that I have been bragging about?

Well, the Toastmasters is like a school or an ongoing course, I would say. Its main purpose is to help you develop your public speaking during the sessions and these are quite different from what you would expect or at least from what I was expecting.

First, I went by myself, without knowing anyone and not quite sure how it would work, but in my mind I would just be at the back observing how it is. Nothing could have been more different.

As soon as I got there, this very smiley guy came to me asking my name and explaining very briefly how it was going to be and if I wanted to participate - which I politely declined - and then he told me to sit anywhere but, while talking, he was pushing me to the front.

After a few minutes another guy sits next to me and introduces himself and we chatted for a bit - it didn't felt that scary at that point.

Don't worry, I am not going to describe the full session as I don't want to make you feel bored, will just give you a brief idea of what went on.

So, to start, almost everyone has a role and, from what I understood, some roles change before every session. You have the Timekeeper, the Grammarian, the President, the evaluators of the speakers, the evaluators of the evaluators, the speakers, the responsible for the Table topic and the Madame/ Mister Toastmasters.

The speakers are evaluted according to how they have delivered their speach, including behaviour, movements, words, time, grammar and the use or not of the word of the session. There is a different new word in every session that is not used on a daily basis and you get points if you use it.

I went to the one in Grosvenor Square and will go again for sure. If you want to know more about it go to the Toastmasters website.

Thank you for keeping reading my words and thoughts, it has been amazing seeing the visits growing everyday.

Goodnight!

Love affair.

Time flies, isn't it?

Well, sometimes not so much.

At this moment, I feel like time is going too slowly. And why?

Because my holidays seem to be so far away... but it's not what you're thinking.

I never thought at this point in my Life I would still be this surprised about my feelings and towards whom they are directed.

You know those love stories in the movies where two people have been friends for ages and then one day they find out they are in love with each other? Only in movies, right? Or not so much!

Yes, that's my situation right now. The big question here is does he feel the same?

I think I have been confused for the last year and a half about this, but thought it was just me seeing things out of place. And I was in a relationship at the time, and I really loved my ex back then, so it couldn't be.

Then, I became single, went on a few dates and decided to take a break from dating. Meanwhile, every time I would go back home, there he was. Every single time, he was there for me and that was so important that I started to think that maybe, just maybe those feelings I thought it was just my imagination could be real.

Then, in one of my visits, I met a friend of his and I got a bit uncomfortable about how close they seemed to be and to had so much in common. But, I was still thinking that it couldn't be true, I couldn't be feeling that for him after knowing him for so long and, although we have always been good friends, I could never see us as more than that. And I came back to London.

The thoughts and weird feelings, though, kept me anxious and I decided to go back earlier than I was supposed to.

We did spent our usual alone time together, still I couldn't understand if he had the same feeling, but I did understood I was in love for him.

I didn't had the courage to tell him and, since then, I haven't been able to go back. So, you see, I can only go in September and, even with all the work I have been having, he is always in my mind.

I do want to see if I have a shot, but I am scared that he won't feel the same and our friendship gets affected.

We do talk several times a week and joke about us two together but we have always done that, so my head is very confused.

Anyway, I just needed to get that out of my chest and I believe my friends can't hear me anymore.

And there's still a whole month to go... yeah, I know, I should be a lot more emotionally mature at this age, but when it comes to love and feelings who is it? 

Have a great week! 

Put a smile on it.

Have you ever looked around and realised how lucky you are?

You may not have the life you have dreamed of, but if you look close enough, I know you can find more reasons to smile than to cry.

I like seeing the positive things in Life and I do spend a lot of my time thinking about it. I feel I need to keep reminding myself that I have great things in my Life and even some small things have a big impact in my daily life when they are full of positive energy.

Who sees me from the outside, may have the wrong idea of me - or that is my general impression - but I think people change their mind when they get to know me.

I have always had this urge to live, to experience Life at its most with what I have available to me and according to my possibilities.

 

I may not have been to Cuba or to Bali yet, like it is in my traveling list, but I have been to Berlin, Barcelona or Lithuania, among other places, and each one of them meant an amazing trip full of great moments with very nice people, that are now unforgettable memories.

I may not be living near my family and closest friends right now, but I know they are always there for me and I have my brother with me to give me that extra support. And I've made some new friends here who are becoming very important people to me.

I may not be as rich as I think I would need to be to make my dreams come true, but I have a job that allows me to have access to more things than I used to have.

I may not be the greatest dancer or run as fast as I want but I can still walk, run and dance until I'm out of breath and that is an amazing feeling.

We complain too much, every day and we don't appreciate enough the good things we have in Life, we take them as granted.

We prefer to be sad than to find reasons to be happy, and that, believe me, it's easier than we think.

Everyday I feel amazed by something in the same way we feel amazed by a new toy when we are children. Even in my darkest times, I've always been able to keep that emotion and it has been a battle, especially when you see what happens around the world.

But I decided to help as much as I can, do my little bit, because I do not believe that you alone can not change the world to a better place, I believe we, as individuals, can be a starting point and we have so many examples of it: Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Rosa Park, Einstein, Malala Yousafzai and so many more.

So, take that sad face and smile, you have your whole Life to live and it is only one - It is up to you how you see the glass of water: half full or half empty?

Have a great night! 

 

We all need... A Pep Talk from Kid President to You

How open minded are you?

We all like to say that we are open to everything, that we don't have any prejudice against other people, different cultures or other behaviours. 

I think it makes us feel better with ourselves, thinking that we accept and respect all differences. That we are able to put other people shoes and understand where they came from or what they are going through.

But it is a pure mistake.

We try to fool other people with such statements and we make ourselves fools for believing in what we say to the outside world.

We are only human - they say.

And it is true.

No one can be perfect or make no mistakes. But we can try our best. We can acknowledge that we are growing, evolving every day, to a better person or not so much. And that's ok.

We can just be what our circumstances allows us to be, sometimes, but we can also work to change those circumstances and be happy for trying even if we never get to where we believe we want to be.

This came to my mind after a talk with a close friend. We were talking about how people from our home town could change their opinions about the world if they had the chance to live closer with other culures/ societies.

The funny thing was, after finishing the talk with her, I change my opinion, completely. 

While thinking about myself and other people I know who have moved to bigger cities and to live around different cultures, I realised that it is not enough.

On my own example, I have opened my mind to some new ideas, but not so much to others. And I believe that that probably happens with everyone.

We tend to live in our own world and sometimes we simply don't want to open up to anything but what we know and have experienced. It may be lack of interest, laziness or even that we do not think about it. 

Good night!

I also became to realise that to be open to anything different, constantly, requires a lot of energy from us, we need to do some deep thinking about it and to put some effort not to jump into conclusions - we need to pay attention and be conscientious non stop.

Meditation may have a positive influence to get to this stage, as well as being in contact with nature, try to surround ourselves with positive energy and, the most important, we need to make peace with ourselves.

Have you ever thought about this? How do you embrace difference?

When do you know that you know?

Through out our Life, we have always met that person who looks like knows exactly what to do, what to say, what to wear, where to go - at the right time.

Have you ever felt like you are just lost, with no idea to where you should make your next move?

Quite often that happens to me, more than I would like.

And I don't think it is all due to confidence or lack of it. I believe sometimes we just don't know what we want.

Life changes every second and we change with as well. We may not even realise it until we make a decision that, on a previous moment, we would never even consider.

Well, all these common places are coming to my mind because this is one of those moments for me. Or it has been for the last few months.

In every single field of my Life, I have come to discover that I am not the same as I used to be just a year ago and that is making me feel I need a change in my Life to keep up with my new Me.

I can't say I am not happy, though, because I feel I'm in a good moment of my Life - yes, it is not where I thought I would be at this age, but it's not bad.

So, that's how I am now. I don't know exactly what should I do to get what I want because... oh, well, I am very confused about what I want to do next or where I want to be next year.

@Kensington Gardens

Due to my work commitments, I know I have to stay in the same work position for a few more months which gives me some time to see around. This doesn't mean, necessarily, that I will resign after that, I may find out that I want to stay longer and see where I can get, as I enjoy working in this company, do not have any complain (the salary could always be higher, but when is it that we think we earn enough?! Never, right?)

Then there's the other change of thoughts - I used to want to stay in London for at least 5 to 10 years (although it never quite matched with me not wanting to raise a kid here) but lately, I feel I would be quite happy if I could go back to my small town - not even to the capital, Lisbon, but to my city to where I used to only want to go back after retirement.

So, a lot is going on inside my troubled mind and none of my questions has an easy answer right now, and I didn't even begun in the love life (another headache). Are you like this too?

Anyway, it is a beautiful Sunday in London and before going back to work tomorrow, I still want to have some fun outside.

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Half-way 1st week

So... three days into our Vegan challenge and we are still standing strong here.

The 1st day didn't go as good as we wanted. 

It didn't cross my mind the bread I had at home could not be vegan and I had it for breakfast.

One of my colleagues had tuna for lunch.

Another one ate mayonnaise.

But all other 5 colleagues actually managed to follow the vegan diet.

Not everyone else in the office thought our challenge was a great idea. We heard comments like "Being vegan is a lifestyle, not a trend" - but in Life there will always be someone who don't agree with what we do or say.

I can only respect what other people think about my actions and opinions, and I do expect the same towards myself.

For me, this is like a try-out - you can't know if you like something if you haven't tried it (most of cases) - and I was curious to test my commitment in not eating anything that comes from an animal.

I don't know if I will think, at the end of the 2 weeks, that I want to keep going vegan, but for now I am enjoying the need of controlling every single thing I eat.

Maybe this will give the capacity of self-control that I have been trying to achieve for so long and, the fact that I am doing this along with my team, it gives me that extra support and motivation.

Always trying to look at the positive side of Life, there are already too much negativism around us.

Have a great night.

Vegan - Challenge accepted

I am always trying to be more healthy, have a more active Life and this is just another challenge that came in my direction and I have accepted.

It wasn't difficult to convince my team to commit to be vegan for two weeks.

We have, even, signed up for the PETA website to receive the vegan starter pack and to check some of their recipes - we do need some inspiration. Pinterest has been also a great font of ideas and some knowledge.

It is not going to be easy - we have some events coming up on these days that will make it harder but, as I say, "it will be a great team work and team bounding".

Tomorrow is our first vegan day and I will be posting how well we managed it.

Starting point.

Hi everyone!

My name is Agueda and I decided it was time to start my new blog, just in the middle of the summer.

It should be a great sign - starting it on a Sunday, on the 1st of July.

Differently from other past blogs I've had, I don't have a clear idea of what I want this blog to be about - thoughts, experiences (mine or not), opinions, tastes - but it will be a space for sharing, where you can contribute.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I will.