Probably you were one those millions that at one point in time went to the movies and watched the Lord of The Rings trilogy. To some people you even had the nerve of sometimes pretend that you read them all. Nobody did. Some guy tought that we were not getting the voice of the oppressed. The thousands (perhaps millions) that ended up giving their lifes for what they believed in. Martyrs of Mordor. Here's a book, a black swan that tell the untold and gives voice to the unheard.

Lord of The Rings on the eyes of Mordor.

Haridwar é uma cidade santa no norte da India a umas 4 horas de Nova Deli.

Em 2006, depois de 4 dias num Raft baixando o rio Alaknanda (e depois o Ganges até Rishikesh), dei por mim nesta cidade á beira rio plantada. A gente do acampamento de Rafting deixou-me aqui ao meio dia e fui á procura de sítio para dormir. "Escolhi" um sítio manhoso , mesmo em frente á enorme estaçao de comboios é que no dia seguinte tinha uma viagem de 14 horas até Orcha e nao queria arriscar a perder a minha ligaçao.

A long long time ago i wrote about the places i stayed in while going from Bangkok to Singapore. It was my second time in Asia after a 3 week trip to northern India. At that time i realized how important it was to feel at home away from home. It's true that when you go out on the road you're full of strenght but after some time that wears out and you're batling your own fights. Heat, rain , animals, transportation, crowds. It all may lead to exhaustion. A very very confortable feeling is knowing that in the end of the day you won't be battling bugs in your bed .. just wondering if the water in the swimming pool is too cold/hot for a afternoon swim. Or should i call recepetion for another kind of pillow?

A few years ago i passed through this city that i remenbered today again and again. Stayed here for just 48 hours but it was more than enough for me to enjoy plenty in this old Portuguese colonial city. There's still a strong Portuguese sense and comunity and a Portuguese descendant is owner of the famous Air Asia low cost airline, the biggest in Asia. If you happen to pass near this city in the near future don't hesitate to stop and enjoy a good time. Sweets, some nice eateries and bars and a lady that cuts hair quiete nicely :) (photos after the break)

I came to life on 1976. For people before me i agree that they may look at Pele as being the best. Cruyf could pass. Eusebio scored. Puskas and Di Stefano did it all. There were others. After 1976 there was only one name . Maradona . I enjoyed Van Basten; how he controled the power and still looked so fluid in all his actions. In school between Maths and Geometry, during those 15 minutes in wich we played 4x4 under the Nuns eyes there was only one person to look up to. Maradona. We'll score like him , i'll go through you like him, we celebrate like him. Football was Maradona and Maradona was football. This feeling never changed. I believe this sensation to be like that of a Mother and Son. He may not be perfect, he may make mistakes, he may hurt you ... But , in the end of the day he's the best you could ever had in your life.

BERLIN (early this year)

For a long time i wished to land in Berlin. I finally did it in the beggining of this year for a cold weekend break in Germany. Fast cheap flight and arrive to our hostel amid a few danger moves on ice.  Tried one of this "free" tours through Berlin for almost a whole day. Spanish version ..hehehe. It was quite entertaining, with this spanish guy talking about and explaining a few things on the city and it's history. We walked around the main part of the Easter Berlin for a few hours passing through the Brandenburg Gate, the jewish memorial, checkpint charlie and so on... and a chocolatier that looked amazing and made us comeback by metro on our final day there. It was so sleepery on the sidewalk that it made it dificult to walk around and extremely tiring also. Loads of photos. A few weeks before heading to Berlin i got me and Anna two tickets for a movie session on the Berlinale film festival  "El Mal Ajeno". It was in original language so that was much better than german language that i do not yet master. I may be getting back one day . Who knows?

LISBOA (May)

Surprise, surprise! Everyone knew but me. For my birthday, my Anna sent me on her company to Portugal, Lisboa. My soccer team (Benfica) was about to win their first championship in 5 years or so and i was there to witness it live on Estádio da Luz. I remenbered perfectly the last time we won , how we hit the streets horn screaming out loud. First we had to infiltrate the stadium .. we had 2 tickets to diferent parts of the stadium and that wasn't good ... so, she jumped the fence and just entered without any problems. It was a lousy lousy game .. but , we won! So it didn't really matter cause we were all happy. Maybe i was happier than somebody else ... after horning my way up to the center of Lisbon i met Flip,Paula,Frade, Sara and the guys for the street party that followed the championship win. It was Great!!!

 MARRAKECH (June)

We went to Marrakech for a few days of relaxing on the swimming pool. I found a nice place on the outskirts of the city (15Kms) that made us feel we were in heaven. Birds singing, 3 swimming pools and rose petals everywhere. That's what we call life. One day we also went with a guide to the center of Marrakech to wonder around the old city. We only had 1 day to spend there, that's why we tought of going there with a touristic guide. He took us to the Royal tombs, one amazing palace that in the begining just seemed like nothing and in the end it's wonderfull, with gardens and decorated rooms. We also went to one of this carpet places where they tried to sell us something we did not want. I'm not a carpet person i must say .. but after a tea and a couple of unconfortable moments we safely arrived to the final NO, thanks! We went for some chicken (again) and afterwards hit the souks on our own , so that we could be harassed as much as possible by the people trying to sell stuff. We bought a pair of things , including Babuskas hardly fought for. Were they too expensive? On our last night i asked for a triple chocolate cake from our hotel and they delivered big time ...cause it was absolutely delicious . hmmmmmm

Hoje de manha quando vinha para o trabalho, fiz logon ao Spotify e 2 ou 3 shuffles depois ouvi esta música. Mistura Tom Jobim, com concertos ao vivo com uma boa interpretaçao. Para quem lhe agrade musica brasileira. * Da simpática Ivete Sangalo (na foto) a música "Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar"

"Eu sei que vou te amar
Por toda a minha vida eu vou te amar
Em cada despedida eu vou te amar
Desesperadamente, eu sei que vou te amar
E cada verso meu será
Prá te dizer que eu sei que vou te amar
Por toda minha vida
Eu sei que vou chorar
A cada ausência tua eu vou chorar
Mas cada volta tua há de apagar
O que esta ausência tua me causou
Eu sei que vou sofrer a eterna desventura de viver
A espera de viver ao lado teu
Por toda a minha vida"

On my quest to continually improve my blog i came across an issue that disturbed me. It still disturbs me. On an innocuous webpage advertising the "20+ templates for your blog you'll love" i found a link to the 10 Must disturbing deaths. That made me wonder. I realize that i like horror movies and although it sounded cheap it worked well enough for me to click on it. There were strange deaths, accidents, etc. On the upper ranks came the famous Nazi doctors with Mengels on the top row. Nothing strange there, anyone a little bit familiar with the European WWII story has heard about these cruel, heartless people and their deeds.  Strange enough the first place on this dubious list was "awarded" to someone/something i had never heard of... Unit 731. What that hell are you talking about? How come i never heard about these guys? Maybe it was just me. Or maybe it wasn't .. maybe a lot of people never heard about this Unit 731.  (Gore Stuff after the break)