Posts

Here is to the (not) lucky ones

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  We are lucky. I am lucky.   Just reading now all details out there of what has been going on in Palestine or Israel-Gaza..  But also, just listening to a real life crime/investigation podcast (maybe too much). It is as worrying as it is entertaining. My conclusion is, I’m too preoccupied for small things.. I’m so lucky to be able to go for a walk in the forest each morning and be able to see the mountains and the 4 seasons evolve through the year through my window. It’s so easy to lose perspective of things.  I have mys elf gone in the last months through a period of self-doubt, of wondering if I’m in the right place, if I made the right decision at work, if I should change.. but the fact is, that is a problem for the lucky ones. I’m not saying this is not important.  I’m not saying this should not be important to me.  But, it does rank the issue in a different place when you compare it with other bigger issues like.. am I surviving another day?  Do I have enough water to not dehydra
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Going back to business trip

It’s been over 2 years and something that I didnt get on a plane for a business trip, trying to figure out what to fit in my small suitcase that will be appropriate for the management meeting I was going to. Packing a small suitcase is normally a challenge, but when you have lost the habit it can be even more difficult. These last 3 days have been great.   I love travelling, going to an airport and walking around in a city that is not my own.   I love the idea of taking some air from those 4 walls in the house… a breather... I think I lost that feeling, but it’s been a great reminder that this is where I’m happy.   Moving around, doing things. I have been working with these guys for the past 2 years.   Putting real bodies to screen faces starts to feel closer to the “old normal”.   And I like that.   It’s funny, because they are almost exactly as I imagined them.   And I know how awkward it can be to find a common theme to talk about over a dinner, a shared taxi, a drink, a blank
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Eternal Ryanair Claim

Dear Ryanair, Ref: QTKLQG, flight FR7613 In June 22 nd 2017, I bought a ticket for my husband and myself to fly with Ryanair from Glasgow to Lisbon.  The purchase was made through Edreams.  This flight that was meant to leave September 10 th 2017 was cancelled.  (A ll details of that experience submitted in the letter attached.) Since cancellation (almost 5 months), I have been completing all possible online claim templates and sending several emails to your company with no successful resolution.  With no successful resolution because the cheque you sent over had been returned by my bank since it was not possible to deposit in Lisbon, only in Ireland where bank operates.  Also, I must say, that the cheque reached my door by luck because the letter was sent over without my apartment door number. I have also been calling to your service line, and the service is very poor and offers no options other than submitting a new different online claim template every time I call.
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Adapt or DIE

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-- After – unbelievable - +3 years of absence, I have decided to re-take my blog project.  -- Welcome and thank you for taking the time to pass by. This space is where I express my ideas and thoughts around VERY RANDOM TOPICS. Hope you find it interesting and if so OR NOT, please leave me your comments. For those who are first timers here and have no clue of who I am, my name is Ana Mateo.  I was born a long time ago (no need to bring each other’s trash) in the Dominican Republic, place where I spent more than half of my life (start doing the Math OR NOT).  I have been away from home for the last 10 years, first 5 living in Madrid and last 5 living in Lisbon.  So blog posts might be in whatever language I feel like writing... I work for Oracle, a big Computer Technology Corporation, as Business Analyst for an EMEA team that focus on SaaS Implementations done through Partners.  I will explain in depth in another chapter what this really means. There’s be
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Silence

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El silencio. Y el tiempo. Pero todo va bien. El trabajo. El amor. La ciudad. Todo va bien. Todo va bien. Cuando nada va mal. Somos felices. Cuando no estamos tristes. La familia. Los amigos. No están presentes. Pero están. El jefe. Los nuevos jefes. Sin más. Cosas nuevas. Cosas difíciles de explicar. Todo va bien. Cuando nada va mal. El cambio. Mis expectativas. Mis expectativas sobre el cambio. Ganas de cambiar. Todo va bien. Pero no siempre va bien, cuando nada va mal. El silencio. El tiempo. Viene bien para pensar.
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Leaving the "Mangú" behind to go abroad

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Many people wonder why others leave their hometowns if they have a “confi” bed, a “decent” income, live in “dream countries” with amazing beaches, or whatever that might sound reasonable.  Perhaps because of the need to learn new things, to gain independence, to discover cultures, to start thinking “out-of-the-box” (being the box: your hometown and the people that live there), to break the “path/trend” of doing what culture imposes (being the trend: having kids at age +21 and/or marring, forming a family you don’t truly want at that time). The truth is that, well, there is no good answer to that question as we all leave for our own personal reasons and pursuing different purposes. Us, We (or what I like to call it), the “world travelers” are not a weird human kind.  We are more common than we might think.  We are not more special than others, we just choose a different way of living.  Do we risk more?  Are we really more open minded than the rest?  Who knows! 
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Lisboa, love story

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Es muy gracioso que siempre que digo que soy de Santo Domingo acá en Lisboa (o antes en Madrid), es como si tuviera que adoraaaar la playa.  Yo quizás soy una muestra atípica, y es que estoy igual de feliz si voy o no. Esas grandiosas postales con arena blanca, con agua cristalina y cálida.  No, no es una película o un lugar escondido, es República Dominicana. En fin.. dicen que uno de los encantos de mi nueva ciudad, Lisboa, es el "tiempo de playa".  No sé si cumplirá mis expectativas por venir de dónde vengo, pero le que sí es cierto, es que con playa o sin ella... Lisboa me gusta. Me gusta la calidez de su gente, su poca necesidad de "mostrarse" y su obvia inteligencia. Me gusta que a pesar de que me diijeron muchas veces que era una ciudad triste, es lo que menos he percibido. Me gusta el saber que aunque no voy a bañarme a la playa, el mar está cerca y puedo ir a sentarme tranquila para escuchar de fondo el sonido de las olas. Me gusta pensar en lo
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