maique
maique

Home! After months away, we finally made it home. Only for a little while, but it feels great.

First thing I noticed: noise! Sweet city sounds! Cars driving by, people talking down on the street, even tourists! So many different languages…

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helgeg
helgeg

@maique Out of curiosity, where is home? My current address (in Lisbon) is actually the place where I have lived the longest in my life. However, “home” for me still is Bergen, Norway, although I left the town almost 30 years ago.

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maique
maique

@helgeg Home is Lisbon, where I was born and live. At the moment we’re in Parede, closer to Cascais, but already planning our return to town. We miss the city life 😊 Great to know you’re also in town!

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helgeg
helgeg

@maique Cool! My first address in Portugal was in Paço de Arcos, so just a bit before Parede on the Marginal.

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maique
maique

@helgeg Yes, close! And great that I can say Marginal and one person on Micro.blog knows what I’m talking about 😂😂 love riding that one, probably my feel-good ride. All the way from Lisboa to Guincho and back, I love to whole thing.

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helgeg
helgeg

@maique Small world! Maybe when things normalize we can do a micro.blog.ride to Guincho. 🏍

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@maique nice! Where did you come from? And where are you now?

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@maique aha. Just read your thread 😉

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maique
maique

@hollyhoneychurch 😊 It’s not far, at all, but feels like a different world! We love in a cosy, old neighborhood in Lisbon, small apartments in small buildings, and have been staying at a huge house closer to the sea. It’s like living on the countryside, quiet and almost no one around.

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maique
maique

@helgeg We will! It would be my pleasure!

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@maique so you like the city vibe better? People long for the quiet countryside but after a while I find I want to be in the vibe again. 😁

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maique
maique

@hollyhoneychurch It’s complicated.... I love the walking part, and I do that a lot on the city. It’s wonderful, not that big, and we have everything close by. And our friends all live there. I do like the quietness of the outskirts, but when you’re free to move. We’re not a the moment. Maybe we have just been stuck inside for too long.

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paulopinto
paulopinto

@maique I do know where’s marginal. Two people on micro.blog. I have an aunt that lives on Santo Amaro de Oeiras.

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paulopinto
paulopinto

@maique in Santo Amaro. I hate spelling tools.

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paulopinto
paulopinto

@maique orthography tools

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maique
maique

@paulopinto Three of us are aware of the Marginal. Corrected 😊

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pratik
pratik

@maique @helgeg I loved this thread thanks to @hollyhoneychurch’s reply. What are the chances that someone who now lives in Lisbon finds out that what you call home is Lisbon? ☺️

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maique
maique

@pratik Indeed! And he’s been here for a while. A lot (LOT) of newcomers, but long time residents are very few.

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helgeg
helgeg

@maique @pratik I’ve lived in Portugal since 2002, and at my current address in Lisbon since 2004. I do consider it my home town now, but the term “going home” will always refer to Bergen for me.

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pratik
pratik

@helgeg I get what you mean. A similar blog post has been churning in my head. Must put it down @maique

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maique
maique

@pratik Do it! I love reading about people who live in a different place, not where they were born. I’m trying to finish one about an island that we call home too, even though we’ve only lived there for four months, but been a lot of times. It’s so hard to write that down, I can’t imagine one for a longer period! @helgeg

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@pratik 😁

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@maique @pratik I find it amazing that people live their whole lives in one place. Sometimes in the same house! I haven’t stopped travelling round the UK since i was small but now i’ve finally settled down which is quite a miracle really. I’ve chosen Scotland to call home! 🥳

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maique
maique

@hollyhoneychurch I feel very comfortable at our home, and the city has a great size and feel. But we used to travel a lot, and spend time at other places. Now that it has stopped, I’m thankful that we love the place where we live. But some people just don’t have the opportunity, or will, to move around, that’s my feeling about it.

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maique
maique

@hollyhoneychurch My parents took us on amazing road trips ever since we were babies, all over Europe, and I like to think that’s what made me and my brother itch whenever we’re at the same place for too long.

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helgeg
helgeg

@hollyhoneychurch This thread is getting weird. Outside of Norway and Portugal, Scotland if the third country I think of as belonging to. I used to live there for four years in the 90s. @maique @pratik

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maique
maique

@helgeg Ahahahahaha. Let’s shut this one down! Enough of this nonsense! 😂@hollyhoneychurch @pratik

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@helgeg @maique @pratik haha! That’s so funny. Whereabouts? Let’s start up another location chat. 😉

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helgeg
helgeg

@hollyhoneychurch Edinburgh, but my favorite bits are the northwest coast and the Isle of Skye. @maique @pratik

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In reply to
odd
odd

@maique This is such a great thread!!🧵 As a matter of fact I was born in Scotland, but moved to Lisbon when I was 10, then to Bergen when I was 18, but now I live in Oslo. 😂😂😂 No I’m just kidding! I do however live in Oslo, and it is a great thread! @helgeg @hollyhoneychurch @pratik @paulopinto

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maique
maique

@odd 😂😂😂 @helgeg @hollyhoneychurch @pratik @paulopinto

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paulopinto
paulopinto

@odd @helgeg @hollyhoneychurch @pratik @maique there's a track name "Close to Home" on Lyle Mays' firs solo album (later played in many venues by the Pat Metheny Group). I live in Guimarães (North of Portugal) since I was born but travelled a lot. There are places that I easily call "home". Being "close to home" is being in a place where I can find a true connection with life, being that a person, a dark sky, the sea or any particular smell. That's why I consider myself a neapolitan despite never having been there. To be "close to home" is to feel the presence of my only brother who I lost at the age of 15. Being "close to home" means having the people I love close by and taking with me the memories that make me the way I am. www.youtube.com/watch

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@helgeg can’t wait to explore some more. Looking forward to bays with turquoise crystal waters. Freezing and fresh.

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@odd 🙃🙃🙃😘🤩😎

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@maique awesome parents! Travel is exciting! We’ve felt that pull for the last couple of years. But then something changed and instead of living in other people’s houses we wanted to find our own. It’s working well so far and I’ve realised just how stressed I felt moving every 3 weeks to somewhere new. Packing up my whole life and starting again. In the end I longed for stability.

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@paulopinto people are so important in creating a magical. I’ve been quite a loner both with family and friends. I’ve never held onto friends as i’ve been on the move so much. The idea of having a best friend is exciting but surreal. Not since school has that happened. I have my sweet Simon of course but he’s the only friend I see on a regular basis. Looking forward to creating new relationships to heal my soul. I’ll have a listen. It must be nice to feel your brother’s presence. ❤️

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maique
maique

@hollyhoneychurch They are the best! You know I thought about that when I was listening to your interview on the podcast. It seems like too much trouble, moving in and out so often. Obviously the cats were a major plus, but still...

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@maique yep the cattos made it worthwhile (sometimes worse though in my man’s opinion 😅) but eventually and despite visiting lovely new places, I began to see that everywhere was the same somehow and what I really wanted was a place of my own where I didn’t have to live on top of other people’s crap!!

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maique
maique

@hollyhoneychurch Yes, I get it, I do. I love having my space, with my stuff. We’ve been here for a while now, and we’re very well, but it’s not our place and I’m starting to feel that way. We need to go back to our home.

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paulopinto
paulopinto

@hollyhoneychurch thanks for your reply. I too got used to the isolation. When you lose someone you love, you have a tendency to protect yourself and you don't want to get too attached to other people, for fear of losing them too. Later I lost my father and never saw my first two children again.Life has been suffering for me, but I continue to look with admiration at the wonders that we have at our disposal every day. Wonders that, as humanity, we are destroying. We think we're smart, but we're just wasting time fighting each other to celebrate meaningless victories. Life is also about failure. And there's beauty in that. Right now, I'm not afraid of life. I'm just afraid of not being able to survive in the midst of so much evil. We need our souls to be healed.

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@paulopinto the blame game is so intoxicating. The world needs a big hug. Your life has been hard. Like you said, loss is always there. That’s sad. I have enjoyed following Elizabeth Gilbert on Instagram. She’s suffered loss, but somehow through all her sorrow she turns it into magic. She makes me feel peaceful when I look into her loving eyes. You’ve gotta collect the good people. The people who raise you up. The more news you watch, the deeper you fall. There is goodness out there. There are lots of lovely folk. Don’t stay down in the mud to long. It’s not productive down there looking at too much bad news. I’ve stopped that now. It’s hard for an empath like me to hear all this heaviness. So I choose to stay in the innocence as much as I can. About friendship, for me it’s a different kind of loss. One where I lose myself. The friends I have made in the past tend to see me as a listener and they download their problems onto me. There’s no balance. I’m almost not there. I started to realise I couldn’t save them. I had to save myself instead. Go well. 🌈

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paulopinto
paulopinto

@hollyhoneychurch I'm not angry about what happened to me. I'm in peace with it. There are so many people with a much more difficult life story than mine. People suffering like hell. I'm not complaining about me. That's about these other people that my angry is about. As far as friendship, I consider friendship and loyalty fundamental values. Inbreeding is just a fluke. I stopped watching the news, like you, but I also don't want to pretend that nothing happens. Like you said, we need a balance in our lives. Thanks for the sharing.

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hollyhoneychurch
hollyhoneychurch

@paulopinto Hooray for balance!

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