Trouble Sleeping

Homeless

Yes, you read it right... I will be homeless once again and I am soooooo pissed off about it. Yesterday I got the brilliant news from my landlord that his son is returning from Italy and since the apartment I am living in its his own, he wants to move in!! Fuck, I have been living here for a bit more than one year and thought that I would not have to move again for another year and a half. I am starting to be a bit fed up with moving all the time. Putting everything into boxes again and then restart from scratch. I get tired just thinking about it!! Where do I want to live next????

Love will tear us apart

When routine bites hard
and ambitions are low
And resentment rides high
but emotion won't grow
And we're changing our ways,
taking different roads
Then love, love will tear us apart again

Why is the bedroom so cold
turned away on your side?
Is my timing that flawed?
our respect run so dry..
Yet there's still this appeal
that we've kept through our lives
Love, love will tear us apart again

Do you cry out in your sleep
All my feelings exposed
Get a taste in my mouth
As desperation takes hold
Is it something so good...
Just can't function no more?
And love, love will tear us apart again

2 DAYS IN PARIS

I have watched this movie last night, and although I don't think it's a great one it has definitely some very funny parts! It is about a couple, french girl and american guy, that go spend two weeks in Italy and on the way home they stop for 2 days in Paris. During these two days the boyfriend gets to see how his girlfriend is when she is around her family, friends, ex-boyfriends... It is hilarious to see how shocked he gets when he sees her family discussing about anything. They are not arguing, just talking, but this guy gets the impression they are about to kill each others. Talk about cultural differences...

A friend of mine uses to say that we should not look for a partner with different cultural values, otherwise the relationship won't work. I think I have to disagree with him here. It makes it much more interesting to have to deal with the difference. Who wants a boring relationship when you already know how things are supposed to go?

AS PESSOAS QUE EU MAIS ADMIRO SÃO AQUELAS QUE NUNCA ACABAM

Entrei numa livraria. Pus-me a contar os livros que há para ler e os anos que terei de vida. Não chegam, não duro nem para metade da livraria. Deve certamente haver outras maneiras de se salvar uma pessoa, senão estou perdido. No entanto, as pessoas que entravam na livraria estavam todas muito bem vestidas de quem precisa salvar-se. Almada Negreiros In "A invenção do dia claro" - 1921

Today I went to a bookshop and at the end of the day I started thinking about this text by Almada Negreiros. There are so many books I would like to read... He says, "I started counting the books and the years I will live. They are not enough, I won't last not even for half of the bookshop. There must be other ways to save a person, otherwise I am lost. However, people that entered the bookshop were all very well dressed who needs to be saved".

First pictures taken with my new camera

I have always been into photography, but only recently I decided to buy a good camera and start learning some more about it. These pictures that I'm posting here were taken in Portugal, in the Azores, when I went there for a couple of weeks. My main models were my two nephews Carlinhos and Diogo, but here I am just showing you some of the beauty of the island of Sao Miguel, where my sister lives.
The next step is to buy a tripod and start taking pictures of the night sky!

Not enough time...

Today I managed to arrive to the office early, well... early for me... 9am! I was suppose to attend a meeting which turned out to be pretty boring. Anyway, after that I tried to do some work but I keep finding myself doing a million things in between. My ability to concentrate on one task is decreasing so much lately! Why do I try to do so many things at the same time instead of finishing one by one?
I start reading an article, then I check my email. Then I go back and try to work on a model, five minutes later my computer is beeping with a new message and I am distracted again! I'm online on skype and the phone keeps ringing too. And when it doesn't ring it is me that rings someone to have some news and hear the voice of the people I miss. I'm a mess... need to organize myself and get things done. This is my resolution of today.

We still love you

We had the pleasure to have professor Jayant Narlikar from Pune, visiting us at ESO for the last weeks. He gave a series of lectures on cosmology and yesterday he spoke about Searches for life in the Universe.

"The first part of this talk will highlight the vastness of the universe, the commonality of planetary systems and the abundance of organic molecules in interstellar space, all suggesting that life as we know it may not be uncommon in the Galaxy. Some attempts to find advanced form of life will be outlined. The second part of the talk will concentrate on the search for extraterrestrial micro-organisms in the vicinity of the Earth, as implied by the panspermia hypothesis revived in the 1970s by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe. The results of an experiment carried out in 2001 under the sponsorship of the Indian Space Research Organization will be presented."

Very interesting stuff. He started by saying that in a Universe with about 10^21 stars, how can it be that we are all alone??

Instead of looking for aliens in exoplanets, professor Narlikar joined a team that runs an experiment with a balloon that is sent at different levels of the atmosphere and tried to detect microorganisms. It seems that so far they have found something that resembles a lot some of simple forms of life we can find on Earth. However, this is not a result of a contamination of the sample, but they truly believe they have caught something! Really clever idea indeed. I will keep following this study for further results!

Los siete pecados capitales

"De rodillas en el confesionario, un arrepentido admitió que era culpaple de avaricia, gula, lujuria, pereza, envidia, soberbia e ira:
Jamás me confesé. Yo no quería que ustedes, los curas, gozaran más que yo con mis pecados, y por avaricias me los guardé.
Gula? Desde la primera vez que la vi, confieso, el canibalismo no me pareció tan mal.
Se llama lujuria eso de entrar en alguien y perderse allí adentro y nunca más salir?
Esa mujer era lo único en el mundo que no me daba pereza.
Yo sentía envidia. Envidia de mí. Lo confieso.
Y confieso que después cometí la soberbia de creer que ella era yo.
Y quise romper ese espejo, loco de ira, cuando me vi."

Eduardo Galeano, in Bocas del Tiempo

Chicas superpoderosas

Hey you all,
here are the pictures that I had promised to put online a long time ago... or at least some of them. I know I am not allowed to make all of them public!! Do not worry, they are very safe! Christina, thanks for message you sent us today... we miss you too... A LOT!!!!!!!!!

Christina's last night in Chile

Our dear friend Christina returned to Greece last friday after spending one year with us!! We had a formal 'despedida' with everybody but the night before she left we got together at my place with the closest friends: Elena, Olga, Kirsten and myself.

This is one of the bad things about being an astronomer, you have to keep saying goodbye to people that are already part of your life. It is good to make friends but also sad when you know that after some time you will have to let them go. Anyway, I am happy for my friend that is returning to her home and to her fiance! I hope we will see you Christina next year sometime, somewhere in Europe!!

Spring in Santiago

It is not always easy to decide in which language to write. I should be writing in portuguese since I am portuguese, but I have friends spread all over the world and I think they would not understand a word...

I forgot to tell you that my recovery is going really well!! I spent 3 days at the clinic after being told that I was supposed to be there only for one night... anyway... thankfully I have very sweet and nice friends here that helped me a lot at the beginning when I could barely walk.

Maybe it is because I was so decided in getting well quickly that I only used crutches for a couple of days! I started driving one week after I left the clinic and yesterday was my first big victory when I was able to use the bike at the physiotherapy!! It is good to be able to walk properly again and soon I will be back to yoga, which I am missing so much. The good side of it is that I got a medical statement that says that I can not go to Paranal until the end of October. I am on sick leave, and in the meantime I have to finish a lot of work that has been piling up for the last months. But I am in such a good mood that I am even motivated to finish the pending articles I have to finish. Spring started a week ago and Santiago is definetly the best place to be right now!!

Saludos de Chile,
Carla

Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars video

I have been listening to this song so many times lately...