{ New book - D. Teresa }

 

I love history, everything and anything about it, but especially England with all the kings and queens and so forth.

However, I almost always forget that Portugal has a very rich history also with royalty, and very close to England's.  I don't know why I never delved more into it's past, but it's something I want to do this year.

 

Did you know that the two nations have maintained the oldest continuously active diplomatic alliance in the world?  The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, dates all the way back to 1373 when a treaty was signed between King Edward III of England and the Portuguese royal family.

 

They've cooperate in military missions and commercially for many centuries, seeing many royal marriages between the two.  

 

So, I had a book sent over from Portugal, written by Isabel Stilwell, a Portuguese journalist and writer who focuses on historic novels, short stories and children's books.

She has quite a few books on the Portuguese royalty, and the one I picked is called D. Teresa.  A great Queen of Portugal who ruled with a fist of iron.

From Wikipedia:

Theresa (Portuguese: Teresa; Galician-Portuguese: Tareja or Tareixa; Latin: Tarasia) (c. 1080 – 11 November 1130) was Countess of Portugal, and for a time claimant to be its independent Queen. She rebelled against her half-sister Queen Urraca of León. She was recognised as Queen by Pope Paschal II in 1116, but was captured and forced to accept Portugal's vassalage to León in 1121, being allowed to keep her royal title.[2] Her political alliance and amorous liaison with Galician nobleman Fernando Pérez de Traba led to her being ousted by her son, Afonso Henriques, who with the support of the Portuguese nobility and clergy, defeated her at the Battle of São Mamede in 1128. 

 

I am so excited to read this one.

Would you like a glimpse of South Africa???

The past few days I've pretty much been on a worldwide tour, it's amazing how much you can visit through the Internet.

I've really enjoyed looking at videos and learning so much about different cultures and countries, and taking trips down memory lane with my own country Mozambique. So today, I thought I would take you on another trip.....this way to my second home country, beautiful South Africa.

Come on, what do you have to loose??? You don't even need to leave the comfort of your home, just sit tight and warm and grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea, then watch the video that I'm sharing with you. There are some pretty amazing people out there sharing their family vacation videos with the world. This is one of them and it features some of my favorite places in South Africa, including the Kruger National Park....I'm SO going there when I visit in July :)



Seriously, if you ever take a trip overseas, be sure to include South Africa, you won't regret it, it's a beautiful country and it has SO much to offer.

OK now moving on, to those of you that have blogs on Word press, I am having the HARDEST time posting comments. I went over and checked all your menus and could NOT leave a comment, I could type it out and hit submit and then it would just sit there for 10 minutes. I don't know what the deal is, but just wanted to let you all know that I had been by :)

I want you all to go check out one of my FAVORITE blogs. I've been visiting Fish Creek House Inn for months now, it's the first one I check every morning. I just love the pictures they share and OH.MY.GOODNESS the recipes are to die for. Until recently you couldn't comment on the blog but they've changed that...so you bet your behind that I've been enjoying leaving comments. Here's what the little blurb on the blog says:

The adventures of a bed and breakfast innkeeper in Montana. Explore the great outdoors, travel tips and of course recipes. Hang your hat and come on Inn!

It's always been one of my dreams to own a Bed and Breakfast so for right now I'm living vicariously through the owner of Fish Creek House LOL

I have so much paperwork to tackle today and I'm trying hard to motivate myself to do it, but so far it's just not working. I want to sit at the computer and play all day.....are moms allowed that??? Can you imagine ONE day where you don't do anything at all??? I can just picture it, the kids would be running around naked, they would be eating junk food and all the candy they could find, drinking soda, not taking a bath and my couch would be non existent because for some reason they believe that the couch pillows look better ON THE FLOOR. If I got a penny every time I picked up the pillows and returned them to their rightful place, I would be a millionaire.

My sweet friend Sarah asked me how I ended up in Mozambique and Portugal....so I thought I would share a little of the how's and why's LOL

I was born in Lourenco Marques, now known as Maputo. In 1976 when Independence of Mozambique happened many families left for other countries, a lot of them taking only what they could carry.....with all the tension and violence erupting around us, we left first for Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and then later to Portugal where we stayed for approximately 8 years, I'm sure my dad will correct me with the time lines and the dates, seeing as I was 2 years old when I left my country of Mozambique.

Below are some pictures of old Lourenco Marques...some from this wonderful site and others from google searches.

Lourenco Marques - Marginal (main road that runs along the ocean front)

Lourenco Marques 1959-1966

Anyway, when I was about 10 years old my dad got transferred to South Africa and that is where we've lived for the past 23 years. South Africa become my second home, it's the ONE place that I remember going through my childhood and then later school, being a teenager, first boyfriend, becoming an adult, working etc. So I consider myself to be lucky in that I got to experience SO many different cultures and I carry a little of them all with me. I guess instead of "I'm a little bit country and a little bit rock n roll"......I can say "I'm a little Mozambican and a little South African" of course I'm Portuguese too because Mozambique was one of Portugal's colonies. I guess I'm multi cultured, got the best of 3 worlds LOL


I think every friday I'm going to do a "Greatest Places on Earth" post....share different places, videos and pictures etc. It's something I've been thinking of doing for a while and what better place than my blog right??? This way if anyone has been to these places or was born in one, they can also come in and share their own interesting stories or memories :)

Hey, I'm all for taking a break from reality and letting my mind wander to a different place....I can just picture it, Egypt, Greece, Ireland, you name it, we'll go. If there is a specific place you would like me to mention just let me know and I'll see what I can find :)

Well my friends, I think this post has gone on long enough, I have to go tackle that huge mountain of paperwork and get some other things done around here. I will see you all tomorrow.

Tonight I'm fixing Steaks with Mushroom Cream sauce...I will have the recipe up on my food blog later today :)

GENERAL HOSPITAL

Jason tells Sam that trouble is brewing;
Spinelli looks for information on Alcazar's shipment;
Diane explains a plea deal to Alexis;
Dillon and Lulu become more suspicious of Alan and Monica;
Someone calls Shadybrook to check on Laura's condition.

AMERICAN IDOL

Week 2A: Auditions 3 The best and worst auditions, as the search for the next singing superstar continues.

DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER

Dog tries talking a fugitive into straightening out his life.

Put away laundry
File paperwork
Vacuum