Donald, Ronald & Dave. And the great American homecoming
For me, one of YouTube’s most love-hate Portugal-promoting influencers is ‘Dave in Portugal’, who recently posed the question: “Are Americans returning back to Europe?”, which quite honestly confused me but
Your pal Pat, the expat, maintains an annoying tradition for yet another year
Yup, you guessed it – this is my much-anticipated, annual New Year’s resolution column. I must admit that it helps to be optimistic when resolving to do better, and yours
The more things change
For those of my readers who were wondering where I had disappeared to for the last couple of months, I have some wonderful news to share. Well, I was in
A Year in Monchique 2 – You stupid boy! – September 2018
Having made it through the wildfire, I woke up feeling surprisingly optimistic. In the quiet of the night, I had decided to press on with my new life. What is
Is It Just Me – The time of my life
So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell? Blue skies from pain? Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail? A smile from a veil?
Water, water ever rare; and not a drop to waste
The once-abundant resource of potable water in north and central Portugal is under pressure from the combined exigencies of industrial and commercial activity – especially in the mining and “quality”
A poem for the end of 2024
When thunder flashes and lightning claps The icicles grow upwards from the taps And point to a sodden, saddened sky from whence The coldest rain fulfils the earthly floods Restoring
Reflections upon goodwill towards all
Ebenezer Scrooge, the protagonist of A Christmas Carol, was perhaps the leading economic minimalist of Dickensian times. From rationing the coals that burned in his clerk’s grate to his consumption
Did You Know? … Two Christmases in 1924
Thinking about today’s commercialization of Christmas had me reflecting on how different Christmas would have been for my great-grandmothers, one in England and the other in Portugal, 100 years ago.
What I learned about friendship from teaching yoga in bad Portuguese
I spent the first 20 years of my adult life in Philadelphia. Philly is a special place. It’s a city of neighborhoods. The neighborhoods are made of row homes. Living