the end...

dear all,

friends, family, and all of you who followed this blog...
...it's time to inform you that the chinese-beijing chapter of my life has ended by now...
and with it this blog also, so it's time to say goodbyes!

i guess some of you are asking "but why did he left china?"...
...i was working in a joint-venture company between portuguese and chinese companies. well, the portuguese mother-company decided to sell their part of the joint-venture and thus all the portuguese people that was working there left the company and with me was no different.
...but and most unfortunatelly this happen just before the olympics...so i didn't had the chance to live it...was really a pitty!


...after 19 months of china all i can say is that I LOVE CHINA!

我爱中国

...and, definetely, i want to live there again someday!


...so

再见北京 Goodbye Beijing

再见中国 Goodbye China

告别我的朋友 Farewell my friends


it was a pleasure...a big lession...a huge oportunity...a big adventure...and I WILL COME BACK...


to all my true chinese friends and all of the great friends i made i beijing a very big kiss and hug...AND THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ALL THE MOMENTS!


i will let you know about my next adventures....here!

cheers...and hail CHINA....thank you CHINA and CHINESE PEOPLE

luiza @ beijing

my father Gualberto, my sister Luíza and me...such a nice time we spent together!



better late than ever, right?!?!?


last weekend of march i received a very special visit for the weekend in beijing...
...and who can be more special than my small sister Luíza! my 3 year old brasilian sister has come with my father to spend the weekend with me at beijing, can u believe it?


it was a great great great weekend spent in family!!!

first thing i did was to pick up luíza and bring it to my company and let my colleagues and friends know her!...


later i made a home dinner for all of us....since luíza was already in china the previous two weeks and let's say that she isn't the biggest fan of chinese food...so she was really needing a brother-home-made-pasta!

first a little chat before dinner...:D

than a little dance to open our apetittes

than a nice italian pasta

and desert....ice cream of course!

next day morning (saturday, march 29th, 2008) we went to beijing blue zoo to see fishes and see animals.

my father, Marilu (Luíza's mother), and my sister

in the afternoon we tried to go to the forbidden city but it was already too late and the weather wasn't too good...so we went to see the tiananmen square!
but once we arrived there...and let me tell you prior that tiananmen square always has a lot of persons....a chinese girl notice my sister and ask to take a picture with her since she was so beautiful...and my father allow...3 minutes later we had a crowd sorrounding us asking to take pictures with luíza...just take a look!

...we took almost an hour just to get free of people and continue our walking!


sunday morning we wake up really early and went to a more less isolated part of the Great Wall - MuTianYu...and we were so lucky, great day, great weather and almost no one up there...





...once we got back to beijing...we went to the forbidden city....




what can i say...what a great weekend spent with family....on the other side of the world!!!!...who would have guest this 2 years ago?...

for the rest of the photos .... click here ... or watch the slide just below

hangzhou

after hong kong...next station: hangzhou


for those who follow this blog already heard about hangzhou, for those who not...you can always check my last year's post of hangzhou...just click here


therefore...the difference this time is that i went there with andreia and took a lot of photos...








... zai jian!

hong kong

after 2 and a half days in macau...next stop: hong kong!


first of all hong kong is a completely different city from any other city i ever seen!!!


hk is a really tall, noise and crowed city! if you think beijing is crowed, well, think again!...hk is much worse since the street and avenues are no where near the size and width of beijing...so it's a lot of people in a much smaller space...so you have corredors above the roads which are the sidewalks of the people like this ones....




and since hong kong isn't flat as beijing...and it has mountains right on the back of the marginal...so and in order to facilitate the movement of the people, they built the biggest escalator of the world....just more than 200 meters of escalators!!!


on rush hour, hk is soo noisy than when i was on the streets with andreia i had to talk to her close to her ear like we were in a disco...it's just incredibly noisy!

everyday at 20:30...you can go to the kowloon side (oposite side to hk seperated by the ocean) and watch a lights festival on the hong kong side...here's some photos




the beauty of hong kong island is that you can easily take a bus and after 10 to 20 minutes you're on the south side of the island....on the beach....or you can visit the stanley market...or check the buddha on the mountains....and this was what i liked most in hong kong...everything is close and not like beijing that you need at least two hours by car, bus, train or plain just to have the chance to see real nature.


here's so more photos...




...definetely a place to visit again...and a place to live sometime in the future!



ciao hong kong!

Macau

Last week of May i had a week of vacations with Andreia.
We went to Macau, HongKong, Hangzhou and Shanghai!

great vacations!

we started with Macau, where we were for 2 days!
first thing i felt about Macau was WOW!
We were coming from Zhuhai (Mainland China) and we cross the border there to Macau on GongBei. Once we pass through the chinese side, the first thing i saw was this...


wow...so cool, right after the chinese characters you have portuguese...great, so easy...i wish it was like this in Beijing...there you have chinese characters and then pinyin!

We staid in some friends house...
Thank you João, Pedro and Marta for receiving us!



Macau still has two sides of a coin....on one side you still can see the portuguese language everywhere...streets have portuguese names, menus, informations...a part of the island is still very much portuguese- Taipa- , despite the number of portuguese is deacreasing and decreasing every year...but you still can get the feeling that you're in Portugal on the street walking!






...and of course you can find Portuguese food that i was wishing for a long time to eat....like "ameijoas á bolhão pato" (praws with a portuguese sauce)


...on the other side of the coin...Macau is now like Las Vegas...casinos are everywhere!...and are always open...24/7 with speed boats constantly coming from Hongkong and other places!



and there's even a casino that inside has an immitation of venece

The Venetian

to see the entire photo album of macau...click here



next station: Hong Kong...coming soon

nba world champoions 2008

there can be only one....

...and it was found...

+ BOSTON CELTICS +

2008 champions in 6 games...
...but in the last game won for the biggest margin ever in an nba final game!
WHAT A WIN!!!

congratulations to the celtics...
but special complements to the heart and soul of this team...

Mr. Kevin Garnett...the real MVP of the finals...and of the season

and...as Mr.Bill Russel predicted....he won a Championship!

complements to the 2008 finals mvp...paul pierce the all career celtic

and the clinic finisher ...ray allen

all of you surely deserve it!!!

next year will they win again?!?

it was the most exciting season and playoffs of the last 10 years!

and for those kobe bryant and lakers' fans...just one thing: you've got "the" player...but they've got "the" team...
...and for those of you that still think you can compare kobe to jordan...here's the answer:



see u next nba season!

May 21st 2008 - the happiest night in beijing....and in moscow

May 21st 2008...here's a date i'll never forget!

Champions League Final 2008 between Chelsea and the my heart's team Manchester United!


Me and a some friend arrange to meet in a bar around 2:30 a.m. (because that's the hour in China to see the game live!).
So at 2:30m a.m. there i was ready to see the match of the season!...but my friends never came...no problem...i would see the game anywhere anyhow !

there I was at "the den" ready to see the match!...the bar was 50-50% teams fans!

and ronaldo scores and i couldn't contain myself and had to scream loud "GGGOOOOAAALLLL!!!"



but the luckely 1st hald Chelsea score just before halftime and i was really disappointed...but kept confident in a United win!

2nd half was tough and things seem going for a Chelsea goal...but we arrive to the end of the regular time with a equalizer in the scoreboard...

then extra-time and emotion were "dancing" on the air!

and it comes the lottery penalties....and ronaldo misses...and now i get really nervous but still confident!


....and than dear john terry misses....and the rest of the story you know!


!!!!MANCHESTER UNITED EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!!!!!



well...i can tell that i was completely attached to the tv the whole game...and i can assure you that i've "suffer" a lot through out the game...


but the next day i could already take some jokes on the game...


just to finish...i left the bar at 6 a.m. and went home to slep 1 hour and to work!
and i don't need to tell you that the next day i was the happiest tired person in the company!

THE HAPPIEST NIGHT I SPENT IN BEIJING!

P.S. a special word to mister Ryan Giggs that on May 21st 2008 became the biggest Manchester United legend...even bigger than Bobby Charlton!

Nº1 United's player in European Games played
Nº1 United's player with games played with United shirt
Nº1 United's player with highest titles conquer (2 European Champions League - 1999 and 2008)

THANK YOU RYAN GIGGS!..the red devil!

do you like maltesers?..what?!?!?!

let me take you to a conversation i had in the office a month ago between me and...let's call her "little cloud"...for those you follow my blog, you know her!

nuno: so, what you're eating?
little cloud: some really nice chocolate!
nuno: yeah?!?....which one?
(and she shows me the chocolate package!)
nuno: isn't that maltesers?
little cloud: mal...what?
nuno: maltesers!!! crunchy chocolate balls!!!!...don't you know?
little cloud: mal...what?...don't know what you're talking about!...this is@@@@@@ and it's really good and famous in china, everybody likes it!
nuno: whaaaaattt??....you never heard about maltesers???...ok...i rest my case!
little cloud: wanna taste?
nuno: .....hum....don't know!

...only in china!...that's my comment! LOL


want another example?...


...see KitKat in china...or maybe not the real one!
who's saying these are similiar to the original one?...how can you tell?!?!

i'm with the boston celtics this year!

this video below i couldn't avoid putting it here once i seen it (and i saw it many many times)! i love too much the game of basketball and this it's a representation of the love and passion i have for the game and for the players, coaches and staff evolved in the game!


Bill Russel meets Kevin Garnett
the past meets the present
one hall of fame with one future hall of fame
one with 11 NBA titles and one that will have NBA titles!


may a player and a person like Kevin Garnett be remember as a NBA Champion and a Hall of Fame!


and may Kevin Garnett be remembered as the CELTIC of this decade!

Sichuan - the earthquake

if in beijing was a pseudo-earthquake...


in Sichuan on the southwest of the China, the earthquake was real!
it was an 7.8 on the Richter scale!
by now there are more than 8,000 deaths and at least 15,000 injured people!

for those, my sincere deep feelings!
these people is the same who suffered the great snows and cold in the winter.

the people in Sichuan were so affraid of replicas of the earthquake that last night many people slept on the street...


my hopes goes with does that suffered, suffer and will suffer with this Sichuan's earthquake for a quick recovery to their normal lifes!

may your god protect you!