Obama power

Obama is arriving tomorrow and the city will stop while F1 lands. Once again the bridge between Sweden and Denmark will be shut down. I think it’s amazing the power that one single man can have and the security measures that are necessary to protect him!

Climate changes: maybe it’s not entirely our fault

Copenhagen is more active than ever. A European city that apparently also “never sleeps”, Copenhagen is now hosting the Climate Conference. During these days, the city is known by Hopenhagen. Politics and associations, from all over the world, are gathered here to discuss and negotiate issues related to industrialized nations and emerging nations. Topics like thinking green, deforestation, CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere, etc are in agenda. And everybody is heard, or almost everybody. This conference has no space for the voice of Henrik Svensmark and it’s co-workers from the University of Copenhagen.

It’s amazing how the history repeats itself. All the new ideas that are out of the box and radical are never accepted. Like Galileo and Van Gogh, apparently one still has to die before its genius is recognized.

Henrik Svensmark and co-workers defend that the climate changes are not an exclusively consequence of man’s work. This story begins in 1991, when Henrik Svensmark’s group, leaded at that time by Eigil Friis-Christensen, proved that the warming of the planet was not mainly due to the release of CO₂ to the atmosphere but that there was a nearly perfect correlation between solar magnetic activity and temperature: when the magnetic activity in the sun was larger, the temperature on earth was higher. Later, in 2005, Henrik Svensmark and co-workers found experimental evidence that sun and the galaxy are determining climate on earth. By studding the clouds, they have managed to establish a correlation between the warming of earth and sun. Briefly, the idea is that cosmic rays are responsible for forming clouds and the sun with its magnetic field controls this cosmic radiation. The solar magnetic field has more than doubled in the last 100 years and as a result fewer cosmic rays (formed by stars dying in supernova-explosion) have sprayed the earth and therefore fewer clouds were formed (they keep the earth cooler). Unfortunately, no scientific journal wanted to publish this. Maybe they are wrong. But the data is shown to be very accurate. Maybe the climate change is not just our fault. Still we have the obligation to preserve and cherish our planet.

Christmas calander

J knows how crazy I am for Christmas! It’s my favourite time of the year! Every present is planed in detail; the Christmas tree is bought in the beginning of December or in the end of November and so on. This year, because I have been a good girl I got a Christmas calendar. It’s the train that you see on the picture and everyday I get a chocolate. Thanks J. It’s beautiful!

Thursday bells

I am sitting in my nice couch in the comfort of my living room. The fireplace is on and the Christmas tree gives me a nice cosy feeling. It’s cold and it’s raining outside. I’m relaxing playing my facebook games (Damn! They are addictive!) Suddenly, I hear it: dling, dling, dling! It’s Thursday and the sound is coming from the street. There is no doubt! It’s the ice cream car! Weeee! I jump out of the couch, grab my coat and boots in hurry and I run down the stairs. Run? I flight down the stairs. It’s so nice! Only the kids from the street and me are near the car. We take ages to decide: so many colours, shapes and flavours. After some minutes and in the middle of four year-old screaming and jumping with excitement I choose some nougat/caramel ice cream. Happy, as a kid I return home. The ice cream will be saved for the weekend! Hummm… delicious!

This is a season to be jolly!

Oh well! What can I do? I’m a Christmas freak! I Looove Christmas! This is my favourite time of the year (excluding summer vacation). I don’t stress and I enjoy everything about Christmas. And because it is almost December 1^st I bought today my lovely tree. J and I went for our morning jogging near the water and after a fantastic breakfast with cereals and berries (very healthy, see?!) we begun the hunt for x-mas presents and x-mas trees. Streets were crowded, stores decorated and the smell of roasted sweet hot almonds took over the streets. Hummm… delicious! And we found a very nice tree. J had to carry it on his shoulders from Kongens Nytorv to home. My brave and patient man! Then with Diana Krall singing x-mas songs I started the decorations. Weeeee! You can see the result in the picture although it is not a fantastic picture. The nutcracker I bought in Heidelberg this year, when S and I went for a malaria meeting.

I hate... #1

I hate to bike near big trucks: it makes me feel like a small ant near a elephant ready to be crushed.

I hate to bike in the rain and in the middle of a windstorm without being dress for the occasion: all cover in some kind of impermeable fabric.

I hate November in Denmark: 3 hours of sun so far! Remember the scotch advertisement that said: “days are gray, nights are back and white”? Well the days are gray, afternoons dark gray and nights are pitch black.

Jimmy Choo for H&M … the final episode!

November 14^th has passed and Jimmy Choo fashion goodies have arrived to some of the H&M stores. After evaluating how crazy I am for purchasing a fashion item, I realized I was not crazy enough to go in and stand in line outside a store, waiting for it to open, so I could wrestler with girls from 14 to 50 years old for a pair of shoes or for a bag.

I stayed home and in the comfort of my couch I tried my luck on shopping on-line. And bingo! It worked! I got some problems in having access to the Internet site but I managed to buy two fantastic pair of shoes (yesss… the ones in the picture!). A new chapter of my life has opened: I will try to walk on top of really high heals! For the ones who don’t know me, I am a flat shoe girl J

But still on Monday morning I went to the local store to take a look at the leftovers. There was still a lot! My shoes were there (only a few pairs and not my number, so I did good) and they are really nice. The other shoes were also fantastic. Some of the bags were ok. Now, Jimmy honey, did you lost your mind? What was that plastic clutch in pink? It was definitely made of the cheapest plastic ever. Even Barbie’s plastic accessories have a higher quality! And the price? You are kidding me right? And what about the bangles? Were they from a Chinese store? Sweetie, it’s not nice to over charge something like 1000x! Keep on like this and Santa will not give you anything for Christmas. Remember the song? “He's making a list, and checking it twice; gonna find out who's naughty and nice!” I do like fashion but I’m not an idiot!

Let's talk about sex

I love Portugal! I really do! It is my country; it’s beautiful, great weather, fantastic food and wine and a good vibe. But of course a country is made of all sort of people and is the short minded ones that really gets on my nerves. When I moved to Denmark (Danish boyfriend is the reason why I have moved) my parents were fantastic and sign me up to received Visão magazine. It is a weekly Portuguese magazine where you can read about economics, politics, social things, etc, in Portugal and in the rest of the world. So today, after my morning jogging I sat down in my coach with green tea and some Christmas Danish cookies (yes, already at the supermarket!) and I begun to read the magazine. And I got mad. I got mad about parents that were against of having sexual education in schools. I got irritated with their petitions to the Prime Minister forbidding their kids to attend such classes. Now, we are talking about a country where the average people works until 6 or 7 p.m. and has very little time to spend with their kids. We are talking about a country that the HIV rate is high among teenagers. We are talking about girls that refuse to use condoms because they are not whores. Why not prepare kids to a sex life? Why not teach them how to avoid pregnancy, diseases, how to be comfortable with your emotions and your body, how to avoid and spot perverts or pedofilans. Is that so bad? Sex is natural. Eventually they will do it! So why not enjoy it and be safe? My short minded idiotic parents: sexual education is not about practical classes where they learn how to do blowjobs, anal sex and so on. It is about preparing your kids to be confident and safe!

I will have new glasses!

I am changing my glasses. Tired of the small square type of glasses I will embrace new big ones! I was very undecided but finally I made up my mind and bought the ones you can see in the picture above! Anyway it is worth to take a look at the entire collection at http://ie-shop.dk/. The designer is Elisabeth Bennike. Very nice lady and she is usually at the store in Copenhagen city.

I hope I don't look too much of a nerd!

Lyon, France

Lyon… J and I headed to Lyon the past week. It is so good when you can combine work with pleasure. And that was what this week was all about: us in Lyon attending a meeting about vaccines.

We stayed in a hotel with a fantastic spa that I enjoyed after the work was done. Wonderful for the body and soul! I became a big fan of the hot water pool on the outside with a shape of a labyrinth where you had booths with different kind of Jacuzzis. But let’s start from the beginning:

- - Meeting: very nice, I have learned a lot from the bests.

- - Taxi drivers: oh mon dieu! What is this? Smelly, slow, always parked in specific spots and not driving around the city which could be just a little bit nicer for us customers. First night we walked forever and it killed my feet!

- - People: apart from the incompressible snobbish of the majority of the French people we met some very nice people along the way.

- - Evening: everybody is out enjoying friends or lover’s companies. Super!

- - Food: too much cream for a lactose intolerant as myself

- - Wine: weeeeeeeee! Goood!

- - Fashion: with so many nice shops why are you so badly dressed?

Overall a very nice experience! Now it is good to be home but not for long. Tomorrow I am flying to Stockholm for a course in Malaria Immunology.

See you soon!

Christopher Kane for Topshop

Since the last post was about high fashion designers in the street fashion (thank you, thank you) I just let you with my new purchase: a very cute bag from Christopher Kane to Topshop. Like it?

Jimmy Choo for H&M! Wanna take a pick?

The first images are out! With H&M permission, nitrolicious.com has released all the Jimmy goodies we will be able to buy. The collection includes men's and women's clothes, shoes, bags, and accessories. And I hope the suede gray shoes will be mine!

Don't forget! November, 14th!

http://www.nitrolicious.com/blog/2009/09/23/jimmy-choo-for-hm-womens-collection-preview-official/

And the winner is … Brazil!

As the song says “cidade maravilhosa…” the wonderful city of Rio de Janeiro will host the Olympics 2016! Lot’s of samba, caipirinha and sports. Seems a good combination to me!

Olympics 2016

Denmark is cooking once again. The reason this time is the Olympic games 2016. What city will host the games? Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo? I don’t know but Chicago city has sent reinforcements: Oprah Winfrey, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. Yes, they are here in Copenhagen and their hotels are in my neighborhood. Helicopters are flying, police everywhere, roads closed, the train from Sweden stopped around the time the F1 should land in Copenhagen’s airport, etc. Lot’s of commotion! These 3 make a fantastic cheering for Chicago! Now let’s see what city will win!

I'm back!

It has been a while since I write on my blog. But the truth is I have been out of luck these days. First I got sick with an idiotic virus that kept me at home for 2 weeks. The first time I went to the doctor he was sure it was the flue: “maybe the swine flue?” he said. I did some tests, and waited for 3 days, isolated from the world. Went back to the doctor and no flue. Probably some other kind of virus, let’s run some tests. Next appointment: “everything looks fine with you but you still have a high infection”, he said. “So did you find out what virus I have?” I questioned him. And you know what? He did not test me for that! So again, I had to do new blood analysis.

During all this process, the doctor didn’t give me anything to ease the pain or fever: “The body is healing by itself”. Why, thank you! But fortunately I had my little Portuguese drugs and I manage it.

On the last day home probation, because of the virus, my parents came to visit me for eleven days. Eleven full days! It was nice to have them but quite exhausting: translations, conversations, indications, suggestions, and so on. Then I have my work. Although I had a lot of help, I had a lot to do. Everything combined… I’m sick again. It is just a normal cold but I cough and cough and I am very tired. Fortunately, I am working from home today and I slept until later which helped. I need a speed recovery because I will travel to Lyon next week and Stockholm the week after… weeeee!

Sex and the City 2

The movie Sex and the City 2 is soon on the big screen. And we are getting ready to once more get carried away by the fabulous clothing, accessories and shoes! Blake Lively once said to Vogue or to Elle magazine (I can’t remember now) something like this: Gossip girl is such a great show regarding the wardrobe that you can actually put your TV on mute and still enjoy a full episode! Well I do understand and I agree her. And the same is true for Sex and the City. I just hope that the Carrie’s fantastic chronics about NY and New Yorker’s love life will not be buried underneath clothing that is becoming more and more expensive as well as exclusive. Here are some of my favorite photos from the official site:

Ps: Don’t you just love Galliano and Louboutin?

Velvet Underground

Burberry Prorsum

Bottega Veneta

Balenciaga

Proenza Schouler

Marc Jacobs

Fendi

I don't know why but when I start writing a new post I can hardly resist associating the title to music. Yes, I love The Velvet Underground but actually what I really want to talk about is velvet: and velvet is back! It's so cosy, it's so soft! It's so sexy to go out to party and feeling the velvet on your body... and maybe thinking about the hands that will touch it? Feel it? Well I will leave that up to you and your imagination!

Vogue has posted some of the velvets of this season and I have chosen my favorites. Enjoy!

Go Portugal! Força Portugal!

And today is the big day! The Portuguese national team will play against the Danes for the qualification in the World Cup (South Africa 2010). That means that late in the day I will have cramps in my toes of being nervous and pain in my throat of screaming! Fooorçaaaaaaaa! Go Portugal! Goooooooooooo!

Work presentations

Presenting something for a crowd is a form of art. No matter what you present, a product, results, a theme, you really have to avoid: being monocordic, boring, take too long, repetetive. I think it is desrespecteful for your audience if you don't put up a good show. And that is what is for me: a show!

I practice what I need to say and I memorize all key words to switch slides. Then, when time comes I pretend I am an actress in a play, trying to entretain my audience. It has been working so far, but I get always so nervous....Wish me luck for today!

Back to the 80's

Ohhh Yes! The 80's are back! And tomorrow I'm going to party!

My work is hosting an 80's summer party and everybody has to dress up!

The girls and I went to H&M and et voilá! This will be my outfit for tomorrow. So the agenda is: wake up, go to the gym, make my work presentation (ui, I'm nervous) and then as the Danish band Aqua would say:

Back to the 80s

Back to Soap (Back to soul)
Back to Rocky and Cherry Coke, yeah
Those were the days

Eye Wear

The September issue of Portuguese Elle magazine has a small piece about glasses. And they chose the "minimal look". These ugly glasses that I always hated even when they were In. I can not understantd why boder in writting about them since they are out. That's right! OUT!

The ugly glasses

Now, these glasses ara In! They are a (little) bigger that we are used to but I must say I like it. Special the ones from Prism.

DKNY

Dior

Boss

Prism: http://www.prismlondon.com/index.html

Mens' Shoes

I think it's pretty sexy too see a girl in mens' shoes. And if this trend has been wore by a minority over the years, in the new season 2009-2010 these shoes are here to saty. It's still a shy trend. Although the fashion magazines have already mentioned it was still in a very descret way. Top shop is already selling them. They look underful on Alexa Chung!

But the cherry on top of the cake goes to the hand made brand: Crockett and Jones. You can see them in the picture. Now these are cool!

My Tree

This past weekend I planted a tree. My first tree! It is a nut tree and it is placed near the caban in Sweden. I'm so proud of my little plant. I hope it grows! Now I just need to write a book and have children!

Weekend in Sweden

This weekend J and I drove the caban in Sweden. It's so nice. It's the perfect place to re-charge your energies. There is no internet and we are surrounded by nature. Near the caban there is a big lake, that you can see in the photo. Beautiful! It´s so nice to wake up to that view! We went jogging, walking in the hoods with the dogies, red (I finish my book, "A vida num sopro", of one of my favorite writers, José Rodrigues dos Santos), drink and eat. During our walks we saw mouses, dears, eagles, squirrels and so on. Unfortunately I was only fast enough to take a picture of one of the dears.

There was also place for shopping in Halmstad (the nearest city) where we got lucky with some gym clothing.

Tomorrow a new work week begins. And I will be back to my school days attending to a PhD course in translational medicine...uhhhhh. Just in case, I bought a lot of Red Bull... just in case...

Whish List

Although in August is still summer the new collections are already hanging on the stores. And one can not help starting a wish list for the next season. This biker coat from H&M and this jeans from ACNE jeans really caught my eye... and probably my wallet.

Lars Kepler part II

Remember my post about Lars Kepler? Well, the secret didn't hold for long... Lars Kepler true identity has been revealed: Lars Kepler is a couple! That's right, a writers couple with 3 small kids living in Stockholm. Both are in the beginning of their 40's. He is Alexander Ahndoril and she is Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril, daughter of a Sweedish father and Portuguese mother (Portugueses rule!!!). She has already published books and she is specialized in the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa by Lund University. What about that?

Embarrassment at Body Pump

How the hell these midget girls, around 1,50 m tall probably weighting 30 kg can lift weights 3x heavier than I can?

Watch out for Lars Kepler!

"Ups I did it again!" This is probably what the Swedes are saying. After well know criminal writers, such as Mankell and Stieg Larsson, took our sleep away by turning us into zombies around their books, now it's time for Lars Kepler!

He has delivered the first of 8 books and the critics all agreed that is even better or as good as Steig L. Furthermore, the author is only reachable by his hotmail account. All interviews are made by e-mail. So basic, we don´t know who he is. Maybe he is a woman? Maybe he is the princesse of Sweden? But like in Gossip Girl: "Who am I? There is something I will never tell!!

So Kiki, if it took you only 1 day and 1 night to read the second book of Stieg Larsson, watch out for Lars Kepler: I think it will be a non-stop reading. Be sure you have your phone and a take a way list near you before you start reading!

Cooper Wooper! Boy Boy!

Yesterday J and I went to J sister's place for dinner and to meet the most recent member of the family: Cooper! He is a Labrador around 3 month old! As you can see in the photos he is totally irresistible! Everybody is very glad for him, and the children (my niece and nephew) are in heaven!

Welcome to the family, Cooper!

Ps: The food was Wonderful! Really, you have no idea what is to have dinner at their place! Top notch! And it's not low fat :-)

Gilleleje

Remember the post bugs from hell?

Well apparently they are all dead now. Lady bugs grow outnumbered and they lack of food. So, they fly towards the beach and into the sea. Because there is no food on the water they go back and get "trapped on the beach". And now that they are dead, maybe I can enjoy the beach weather this weekend. Anyway, after J and I got kicked out of the beach last weekend we went to Gilleleje to have some fish and fries. Here are some pictures!