1. One of my obsessions is the BATA.  It is a sleeveless housecoat worn by many gazillion Portuguese women and it makes me laugh.   In fact it will probably be the title of a book one day.

2. Another obsession is Tias.  They are women who don't do anything except exist and consume goods and oxygen.  They are a waste of space that could be used for good.

3. I live in Portugal.  Maybe I should have put that first.  I forgot.

4. I ramble.  Ask me a question, I'll answer it, then forget what the question was.

5.  I live in Portugal because my other 'arf is a Portuguese University Professor and his university happens to be here.  I can work anywhere.  He is the one referred to as: el prof, el grumpy, and el grumpy prof.

6.  I have two small children of the female variety.  They are very funny and clever and artistic and beautiful.  But I don't write about them much because that would make this a parenting blog and it ain't that.  When they are referred to it is as "the small people".  I do not actually posess any little people or oompa loompas at present.  Should the situation change I'll post it here.

7.  I speak Portuguese, so: se for preciso, podes escrever aqui nos comentários em Português.

8.  Falo inglês, por isso: if necessary, you can write English in the comment box.

9.  I don't speak any other languages.  Apart from really really shite French.  And about four words in German.

10.  I've lived in Portugal since 1999.

11.  I'm incredibly lazy.

12.  And it shows in the size of my thighs.

13.  I'm thirty something.

14.  Spanish is NOT the lingua of Portugal.  Nor is Brazilian Portuguese.  It is European Portuguese which is a whole different kettle of peixe.

15. Portugal is NOT a part of Spain, nor is the Algarve, which is a region of Portugal.

16.  I am an illustrator and studied to be one.  A long time ago.  Which goes to show that I was wrong and wasn't an overnight success at 21.

17.  I was asked, if I can justify writing about Portugal and the Portuguese by the fact of having lived here for several years, have a Portuguese family, pay Portuguese taxes etc., etc., why do I write in English.  

This was my lengthy answer.  Please read it if you get to this page having been offended by my writing in English:

Boa pergunta.... que no meu caso tem umas respostas concretas: 

O meu espaço aqui no internet é internacional. Embora que haja mais leitores deste blogue em Portugal do que qualquer outro país, há muitos leitores dos EUA, do Reino Unido, França, NZ, Austrália, Espanha, etc etc etc. Eles, infelizmente mas naturalmente, não falam português. Os portugueses (mais uma generalização aqui) têm um jeito fabuloso, assim como o Jorge, para falar e entender inglês. Por isso, é que tenho uma sorte, ser num país onde posso utilizar duas línguas para exprimir-me 

Também, este espaço meu é pessoal e escrevo/desenho as MINHAS impressões de tudo; de Portugal, de Inglaterra, dos ingleses horríveis que vêm cá etc... postitivos e negativos. 

Umas vezes faço umas generalizações. Umas vezes o meu inglês é pouco transparente, e confusa, a ironia perde-se a leitores não-ingleses (incluindo americanos!).... é o meu estilo e o único estilo que tenho. Não sei se o Jorge já tem lido muito postes meus, mas escrevo muito idiomaticamente/esquisitamente na minha língua materna. Isto não traduz bem no MEU português escrito que é, muitas vezes, péssimo, formal, e seco, cheio de erros que confusam o sentido, e sem piada nenhuma (falo muito melhor!). 

Quando escrevo nos lados portugueses, no internet, em papel imprimido, escrevo em português... onde tenho a ajuda de edição de outros. 

Muitos dos comentadores no blogue são portugueses, e escrevem ou português ou inglês... Mimisa, por exemplo, neste post, é portuguesa que mora fora de Portugal. Susana tb é portuguesa que mora cá. 

Tenho que lhe dizer que tive, nestes cinco anos que escrevo no internet, mais apoio de que imaginava de pessoas portugesas e sim, de vez em quando, "hatemail". 

Percebo bem que, nas primeiras vistas, qualquer inglês a blá-blá-blá sobre Portugal parece ser condescente. Eu sei a impressão dos ingleses aqui (outra generalização), e em grande parte concordo com vocês ... infelizmente não consigo pôr este "disclaimer" em cada post de blogue que faço. 

Respondi a pergunta?  

------now in English for the thickies of the world who haven't bothered to learn Portuguese--------- 

Good question... which in my case has concrete answers: 

My space here in the internet is international. Although it has more readers in Portugal than in any other country, there are many readers from the US, the UK, France, NZ, Australia, Spain, etc etc etc. They, unfortunately but naturally, don't speak Portuguese. The Portuguese (here's another generalization) has a wonderful aptitude, as you do, for speaking and understanding English. I'm lucky to be living in a country where I can use two languages to express myself. 

Also, this space of mine is a personal space and I write and draw MY impressions of everything; of Portugal, of England, of the dreadful English who come here etc.... positive and negative. 

Sometimes I make generalizations. Sometimes my English isn't very transparent and it can be confusing, and irony is lost to non-English speakers (and that includes Americans). It's my style and the only style I have. I don't know if you have read many of my posts, but I write in a very peculiarly ME sort of a way in my mother tongue. This doesn't translate at all well into MY written Portuguese, which is at times dreadful, formal, dry, full of mistakes that muck up the sense of the writing and utterly unfunny. (I speak it a lot better) 

When I write in Portuguese places, on the internet, in print, I write in Portuguese.... but there I have the help of editing by others to make my Portuguese readable. 

Many of the comentators on the blog are Portuguese, writing either English or Portuguese... Mimisa, for example, from this post, is Portuguese who lives abroad. Susana, also, is Portuguese who lives here. 

I must tell you that in the five years that I have been writing on the internet, I have had more support from Portuguese people than you would imagine, as well as, of course, the odd hatemail. 

I understand perfectly well that on first sight, any English person blah-blah-blah-ing about Portugal may seem patronizing. I know the impression you have of the English here, and I agree with a lot of it.... unfortunately, I can't put this disclaimer in each post that I write about Portugal. 

Have I answered your question? 

 

18.  I'm always on the lookout for a get extremely rich quick scheme (involving NOT leaving the sofa) so that I can use that money to save the entire planet 

19.  I like achievable goals.

20.  And irony

21.  My awful habit of sickening British punctuality is being overtaken by a new found sense of Portuguese i'll-be-two-hours-late-if-i-goddam-please-ness.

22. I used to be Vitrioilca Webb.  Then I was blogzira.  Then I thought it would be quite nice to be just me.  Anonymity had its advantages... but being me gets me less hatemail.   

contact me: 

Fluent in English and Portuguese, please contact me in either language at lucy [at] lucypepper [dot] com

Falo Inglês e Português, contacte-me numa língua ou outra a lucy [arroba] lucypepper [ponto] com