Like father like husband

You know what they say... a girl will marry a man who is just like her father... well not sure about my other husbands, but darling Joel does indeed have quite a few similarities to my father and that is good. Of course, I would prefer him to have the ones that exalt my father, rather than the ones my mother and I roll our eyes about... but never the less, funny!!

Yesterday, Joel was leaving town really very early in the morning and ideally he would have gone to the airport by taxi, but keeping track of customs I brought from my cradle, I told him I would take him to the airport with all my love. So, at 4:30 AM (lot's of love, hey?) we left the flat. Joel locked the door while I called for the elevator. As he got into the elevator, he gave me the keys saying something like "let me give them to you now before I forget".

For some lazy reason we only have 1 set of keys for this flat here and every time we think that we ought to make a copy of a second set, we think, "oh well, we are about to leave this place, so let's keep as it is" and we end up never making one.

Anyway, when we got to the car, I realized that my Ipod had stayed back in the flat, so I asked Joel if he could come and get it and then meet me downstairs and he, very sweetly did so.

A while later, there I was arriving at the airport and dropping him off. Many kisses and hugs later, I got the road and happy came back to the city, listening a bit loud, to Mama Mia's film CD. Loving the music, singing it together with them, loving to be driving on a free highway, loving not to have anyone on the highway with me and loving the fact that I was going to be able to go back home and sleep some more!!

As I was driving into our driveway, I see the light of my mobile blinking and I thought, there he is wishing me a good week, oh how sweet of him... I lowered the music and answered the phone in a all romantic voice only to hear: "hi honey, please come back to the airport... I kept the flat's key in my pocket and only realized it when I was going through security".

We have had quite a few of those at home with dad. Once, he got to the counter to check in only to find out he had left tickets, passport, the works, everything at home. On another occasion, way way before September 11, dad was flying out and as always, we all took him to the airport and after sending him off through customs, we walked back to the car. On our walk back to the car, my brother, the designated driver, realized the keys were in dad's pocket who was already inside the plane with doors about to be closed. He so totally rushed upstairs and because things were so much peaceful in this world of ours in those days, he was able to get much closer than he would today. Got hold of someone who also ran to the plane and just as they were closing the door, got in, went straight to dad's chair and said: "Admiral Coelho, I believe you car keys are still in your pocket, no? Your son is outside asking for them".

This photo is not so great, it was very windy, their faces are a bit funny, but here with us in this computer, this is the only one I have of the two of them together.

and that is dad receiving a warm kiss on father's day from one of his gorgeous dogs, an Old English Sheep Dog (hello Maggie)

From London to Edinburgh via Prague

Yesterday, the language school I've been attending, took 16 of us to visit nothing but "La Presidencia" also known as "Palacio de las Garzas" or the Presidential Palace called Palace of the Herons.

Wow, that was really wow and a good surprise. Also cool because it was a normal working day, so we could see the back and forth of people doing stuff. This small Palace, was inaugurated in 1923 and it has this name because herons were given to its first president. They have some 5 or 6 herons wondering about its entrance and a Spanish style courtyard. The Palace is located in the old part of Panama City, called "Casco Viejo" and oh man... that area is like Disneyland for photography lovers. Just fascinating! Joel and I went to Casco Viejo on Saturday and came back home with just over 200 photos. The reason why you haven't seen them yet is because I still don't know how to summarize it in just a few pictures, LOL!! It's now a World Heritage Site and therefore being restored. Some houses have already been restored, some are being and some are still old falling apart! Just magnificent!


Our life here in Panama is doing fine. My real routine has not yet been established but a "plan B routine" is in force. The good, excellent, fantastic and awesome news is that both our containers are finally sailing, they have finally left Namibia, obaaa!! They are now sailing to Cape Town, then NY and finally to Panama so we still have another 7 weeks or so before we can actually see our stuff, but never mind, they are now moving!!

You know, this thing of moving to a country to open an office that will take care of a whole massive big piece of land is really great for your moral and your partner in life, in this case, me, gets really proud of darling husband with loads of back tapping and hugs.

However... letting my steam off a bit here, it's quite demanding because... on top of getting used to a new culture, understanding new customs, new language, new food/ supermarket bla bla bla you don't have, right away, that fairy dearest person, AKA your husband's assistant to help you with all the cultural matters, including here, playing GPS too. You are so alone that it's not even funny!

Last year, I gave Joel a nice little toy, a Tom Tom GPS and to be really the cool wife, I gave him the top of the line model. Well, it so happens that freaking Tom Tom doesn't carry in their library maps of countries outside the "Lancome circuit", so... a lot of street guessing is going on at the moment. I am not a map reading person. Joel and Alice are, but Anna and I are not. Usually, what we do is one of them reads the map and I do the driving. However, as Joel, Alice nor Richard (our nickname for Tom Tom) are not always next to me, I have to get plan B into action. Plan B dictates to always have enough cash on hand to pay a taxi to escort me back to areas I can call home.

On top of plan B, I sometimes have to go for plan C, which is returning home from a trip to a more distance shopping mall at night and not finding a taxi available for plan B. In these circumstances, I inevitably get home via God knows where. Wednesday night was one of those days. I surely got loads of wrong rights and lefts to return home and it felt like going from London to Edinburgh via Prague.

Santo Domingo

My Darling Joel thought that it would be a good idea to take me away on the weekend following my other darling, Carlota, passed away. He planned us leaving Panama on Friday and spending the weekend and Monday somewhere. He was very right. It was a very good idea, because I was able to re-direct my mind into other shores, into other stuff, into lands never seen before... and off we went to Santo Domingo, capital of The Dominican Republic.

If you want to pronounce it as a Spanish speaker does, you must use any tiny itsibtsy Spanish knowledge you might have in your veins and pronounce it thoroughly, pronounce every letter of both words, have your mouth full and say “Santo Domingo”, as if you really want everybody around you to know you are talking about Santo Domingo!! They all say the city’s full name, no nicknames here, just the full name. Even the pilot, who for sure is not Dominican, pronounces it in a way that hints he is proud to be taking all passengers to Santo Domingo!

Joel was quite clever when he chose our destination, because I was terribly sad, actually still am and only few things can temporarily drive me away from the thought we no longer have Carlotinha with us. Early European History in the Americas is one of them.

For us, people from the New World, Santo Domingo is very important and even if one is not into History, one has to recognize that The Dominican Republic was the door to Europeans in the Americas. That is where Christopher Colombus or “Cristobal Colón” as he is called in Spanish speaking communities, first arrived back in 1492. Christopher did not anchor in Santo Domingo as his very first port of call, but according to the archives, Santo Domingo is where he decided to start a village because it was the prettiest place. So my friends, voilá, in Santo Domingo you can find the first cathedral of the Americas, the first paved street of the Americas, the first university of the Americas, the first house or palace, pharmacy and off they go with a long list of firsts. So completely cool that it’s not even funny! I LOVED it!

Then, after we had done a whole load of History, we went to the beach in the Caribbean for some more suffering, LOL!

It's hurricane season, but we manage to leave the island one day before a hurricane arrived. Phew!!

And to finalize it all, do you know what is the name of the airport at Santo Domingo? Because they can afford it, it is called “Aeropuerto las Americas”! Never mind that there are many other airports throughout North, Central and South America that handle thousands more flights a minute, but… they are not in Santo Domingo therefore they have to settle with a less exciting name and go for “XYZ International Airport”.

The palace where Christopher Columbus's son, Diego Columbus lived

America's first cathedral

The ceiling of the cathedral has never needed any restoration!The official entrance to the cathedral
life on a Saturday afternoon by the
cathedral's plaza!
In nowadays, we rarely go to a bank, but should you need to go to one, how about going to a bank located in this atmosphere?

Flavoring the streets of the Historical
Santo Domingo

Ambar Museum

Fancy a fruit at Las Bocachicas beach?

Mother nature leting people know that a hurricane was on its way.

Governor's palace, built in 1512

The view from our room

Happy tourists

Thank you darling husband, thank you for your sensitivity in realizing that we were going to have difficult days ahead and therefore planning some very interesting distractions. We still miss her, but now, we can add to the sadness, a huge satisfaction for having enjoyed these days in Santo Domingo!

Handcuffs x Wife

My friends, I am in total shock, I am paralyzed, I am petrified, I still cannot believe that such a beautiful and sexy language like Spanish is, could carry in its dictionaries such a huge inaccuracy and gaffe, not to mention people’s mind!!

This morning, after Joel and I woke up but were still in bed, I turned on the TV to watch some nothing, just to get our daily Spanish exercise going. Before I go any further, let me bring you into the Panamanian TV picture. Here they have many channels with shows ran and produced in Panama, therefore all in Spanish and like everywhere else, we also have cable. The shows through cable channels come in its original language and have Spanish subtitles. These subtitles have been a great source of learning for Joel and I during this "learning Spanish" phase as well as, have been the local channels in Spanish. This way we sometimes hear Spanish and sometimes we read Spanish and it has all been working well.

So, in this morning’s exercise, we learned that the Spanish word for wife and for handcuffs is the SAME, "esposa" for wife and "esposas" for handcuffs and what is worse is that their word for husband is a whole new word, nothing to do with the idea of imprisonment!!

I am in shock... have loads to say should I ever bump into Cervantes!!

A bit of my Panamanian day for you.

Today was one of those days that really “pinched” my emotions, with plenty of ups and one down. My heart survived it all, so here I am, still alive, talking to you and that is good.

I met new people which was exciting. Four of them were Brazilians and the way I got to them was because they have a hobby… which is… guess… guess…. yes bingo, you got it… scrapbooking! Panama City has three scrapbooking shops. One is actually an art shop that has a small scrapbooking corner. The other is really good for stamps and the third one is pure bliss, pure scrapbooking and that is how I connected with one of these ladies who then introduced me to the other ones… you know how it goes, it’s the domino effect all over, really cool!

The other lady who I also met, is an American married to a Panamanian who has lived in Singapore. There, by chance, they met some good friends we have, who have, via the virtual world, introduced us to them. The chemistry was also a great one, especially when talking to each other, we found out that we had both lost long loving dogs in the same week. We lost gorgeous Carlota and they lost Bobby who was 13 years old. We also discovered that her hobby is photography, that as most of you know, is something very close to my heart too!!

Then, after these ups, along came the low. I went to the vet to collect Carlota’s ashes that came with a nice card from team there and once again, I was able to talk about her passing, confirming that her actual passing was peaceful without any fits nor painful for her. The infection that started in her intestine was already largely showing in her urine, hence the frequent peeing on her last night here with us. Joel and I will take her ashes to a specific Pacific Ocean beache she visited on a weekend outing we had. This way, we will have Siggy, our absolutely cute, gorgeous and so gentle Golden Retriever, who passed away while we were in HK and whose ashes were sprinkled on that extreme of the Pacific Ocean and now Carlota, sprinkled on this side of the vast Pacific. Who knows they meet halfway, hey?

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.Panama City has quite a few parks. One of them, is right by the sea and it's called "Cinta Costera" or Coastal Belt. It's really nice, loads of space for pedestrians, a bicycle route, playing areas for kids, parking and a wonderful scenery.

The way to Cinta Costera from our place.

Part of Cinta Costera, with the city at the back

Joel and Carlota enjoying the extreme heat (or not!). Punta Paitilla at the back on the right. If plans go as they are now, we'll live in the next Punta along from Paitilla, Punta Pacifica.
Part of old Panama or "Panama Viejo".
Pacific Ocean beaches in and around Coronado

On the way to the beaches, we passed over the famous and indispensable "Puente de las Americas" or Bridge of the Americas, built in 1962. In other words, for many decades, this was the quickest and most used way to cross over the magnificent piece of engineering, The Panama Canal. It connects the two mega huge pieces of land, South America to Central/ North America. Because it has this particular "connecting" feature, in my mind, it would be a massive bridge, with bands playing on either sides, neon signs saying something like "congratulations, you're the Nth car to cross THE Bridge" and a souvenir card would be given to you on the other side", but only in my dreams, LOL!! The Bridge is short, quick with no toll charged to cross it!

... life in the aftermath

And so life goes on and we just live with it!

It’s hard… it feels weird… it feels something is drastically wrong and it indeed is! Carlotinha is not around and won’t be around any longer… coming back home is just not fun now. For the last 13 years nonstop (to this date) I have arrived home to a dog waiting for me. In those days it used to be gorgeous Candy, an English sheepdog we had. She, like Carlota, had no tail, so her whole body would shake, more than a true salsa lady shakes her hips while dancing, when any of us got home. Then along came Carlota, who was ALWAYS so terribly happy to welcome us home, to the point that lately, we had to disguise our entry after a vacation away to avoid her fainting. Two and half years after Carlota came to us, we got beautiful Siggy, a golden retriever, who passed away prematurely at the age of 5.5 years old. So you see, it’s hard coming home where there is no longer any barking nor hip dancing and the only movement is the air shifting around with the door opening movement.

It’s hard not having to go out late at night for the last pee and poo of the day, it’s hard being out and about and not worried to return home so that Carlota isn’t alone for much longer, it’s hard not having her full one meter body ALWAYS on the way of everything we wanted to do around the house, because she was also checking whatever we were doing, it’s hard not having her to check at night and it’s hard us not being checked by her when she woke up as if she were just making sure we were all fine and not needing any help, it’s hard eating an apple and not having her to give the middle bit or not having her for the last slice of the sliced bread from the supermarket, it’s hard not needing to keep small plastic bags for her poos… it’s tough, really tough… and the reason why it’s tough is because dogs ARE indeed men’s very best friends and as best friends, they are always there, always available for what you might need.. they are there, just there, right by your side, ready to be loved and ready to love you! Such an amazing unconditional love they give us, oh how marvelous!

I never realized how much company these dogs have kept me. In the last years, I was NEVER alone, never, I mean never… even when Joel was away, the girls out of the country and the helper on holiday I had them to talk to, to hug and to worry. I don’t mind being alone, but it’s just a new circumstance that I was not used to and that makes her absence even more obvious.

Carlota’s life was mission accomplished and that is a very comfy feeling we are experiencing. She lived life in full, at its max, at all times and that was very cool!

Although difficult for me, because I re-live the whole thing again and again, it fills my heart with immense satisfaction situations like when I called the driver who picked us up at the airport when we first arrived here in Panama to schedule a new pick up with him and as I start reminding him who I was, he interrupts me and says: “Senora Odila, I don’t remember you but I remember Carlota” and gives me a big laugh, or the child who had a “date” with Carlota every afternoon downstairs and sees me without her and goes “au au?” (Spanish for barking in children’s language) twisting her hands as in “where is it? or the senior gentleman who parks his car right next to us in this building and sees me without her and asks: “where is Princesa Carlota?” or even the valet parking guy from a fancy hair dresser in the neighborhood who used to see Carlota and I walking and now sees just me and asks for my “granny dog”… it really fills my heart with delight… it’s pure bliss!

Once again, thank you very much for ALL your very loving expressions of care towards us. As a friend of ours said when she called: “I am calling but I have nothing to say”, she says… “I just want to be there with you and for you” and that is what happened with all of you. It was like you were here for and with us. Thank you thank you!

The one and only!

Ouch, this will be a hard posting… to write about our very dear Carlota and not have our so loving and so beloved Companion around us any longer is very difficult. It’s hard, it’s painful and its not pleasant…

Thank you VERY MUCH for all your warm emails and phone calls on her passing. Although far away from us, you were all very close to us in these last 2 days! She passed away in her sleep in the early hours of Monday. Her heart just did not take the stress and stopped beating.

Of course, there is no need for us to say here, how very difficult this is, because although we are talking about a dog, she was totally part of our lives, a complete member of our family who, by the way happened to have 4 legs. As many of you know, she was simply a human being who looked like a dog (some might even say a Gremlin) and a dog that was so ugly with supersize lips/tongue and a crooked tooth sticking out that she became cute.

These last 3 months after we left HK, were especially great and we mean it, because she REALLY participated in EVERYTHING we did. We have no idea what was going on inside her mind about this whole pilgrimage from Asia to Central America via Africa but, never mind, we were all together and that was awesome!

To say that the four of us (poor David, don’t want to drag him into this “super love for dogs thing”, that some might not see as normal) are grieving is so obvious that it is like saying that the sun will rise tomorrow. In the middle of all this grief, we are choosing, also as a tribute to Carlota’s attitude towards life, to be SO VERY TOTALLY GRATEFUL that she did not die from any of the many flights she had to endure lately, or the extra heat in Miami, or from green water puddles in Angola, or cancer that would have made her suffer for a very long period of time and also for Joel and I never having even to consider taking the decision of putting her to sleep. We are very grateful she went quickly and kind of peacefully for her own sake! Amen to that!

We have been trying to find words in either Portuguese, our mother tongue, English or now in Spanish to express our total satisfaction to have lived ALL that we lived with Carlotinha, but have not found anything that could really express how fantastic these 12 years with her were!! Yes she was a very naughty dog, no she was no saint, yes she did have a bit of an attitude but all these naughty doings of madam, were only good reasons for a delicious laughter just a few minutes after they happened.


Thank you Carlota, Cacá, Carlotinha or Pititica, thank you, it was an amazing adventure to have you as part of our family! Again, we are at a loss for words, so as cheesy as this sounds, you Carlota, will be forever in our memories and you will live forever in our hearts!!