How far would you let your dreams go?

Text by Nora Vasconcelos
Image: Patrimonio
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I always say that it’s a very lucky day when you see a movie that really manages to move your heart, specially when you’ve hear nothing about it and you only got it because the summary on the dvd case made it sound appealing.

It just happened to me. Although Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was launched in the UK in 2011, I’ve just had the chance to watch it and I found it not only interesting, but also really sweet in the way a young reach man who could have anything in the world, decided to go for his biggest dream, to bring live salmon into the Yemen and create over there, in the middle of the dessert, an “oasis” of lively waters filled with this particular upstream fish.

The movie, starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt, was based on a book under the same title, written by the British author Paul Torday, who found in this novel a way to express, and explore, his love for fishing and his interest for the Middle East.

The book, written with a more satiric style, attempts not only to talk about the dream of the young rich man who happens to be a prince, but alto to make some sort of fun of the ways of his own country.

The movie of course takes some of that, but it’s more focused on the romantic side of the story, an impossible dream that has to face uncountable challenges to become real, and even then, it need to find its own strength to remain alive; and the own challenges of the team who would have to believe in themselves and in the dream first, before realizing that it actually might be possible to be feasible.

The film of course, also goes for the romance among McGregor and Blunt, who, at the time they meet, are facing the challenge to make important decisions about their own love lives.

At the end, the story leaves a very comforting feeling that, every now and then, dreams actually can come true.

As for the author of this fantastic story, his way to writing becomes also an inspiration as he published this, his first novel, when he was 60, after a long life working as a businessman.

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Weekly Photo: Culture

Photo by Nora Vasconcelos

“When the Saints go Marching in”

Jazz Music is an amazing thing in New Orleans, where everybody who wants it, can enjoy and express all those strong feelings that only this form or art born in the US, is able to create.

“Ain’t no city like New Orleans”.

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Weekly Photo: Up

Photo by Nora Vasconcelos

A view from the top.

There’s an unbelievable thrill in climbing up historical buildings and standing there, feeling the wind blowing around, listening to the dim sounds of the city and enjoying the amazing views from a different perspective.

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From pen and paper… All the way up to the Moon

Text and image by Nora Vasconcelos

It will never cease to amaze me the outstanding imagination of the French writer Jules Verne.

Loving traveling as I do, the first book that caught my attention by this writer was Around the World in 80 Days. This book took me to travel along Phileas Fogg around all those exotic places that this English character visited in order for him to win a exotic bet place back in London.

After I read this book, many year ago, I’ve watched several film and TV adaptations of the novel, from cartoons for children, to a miniseries starring Pierce Brosnan. But in all cases, the deepest and clearer images of Fogg’s adventures remain in my mind from the lines I read in my childhood.

I took, however, some time for me to come back to the Jules Verne path, and I haven’t left it ever since. It was so that recently I read From the Earth to the Moon and its sequel Round the Moon.

What I liked the most of the first one was Verne’s solution to set a man in the Moon, and I was amazed with all the calculations and theories the characters develop before they were able to calculate the exact length of the devise that will “fire” the spaceship, and particularly how Verne came up with the place where this spaceship would be launch.

However, I have to say that I was absolutely taken by the second story, Round the Moon, due to the clarity and strength that the French writer imprinted in his characters once they realized that they might never come back to the Earth, or even touch the Moon.

While reading these books, I even could picture Verne himself, standing by the Seine river, leaning on one of its bridges, staring the sky, with his eyes fixed on the starts, and the ideas wandering wild in his head, allowing himself to dream, but challenging himself at the same time, to solve the amazing puzzle he had just created.

Lucky for us, the immense imagination of Jules Verne, give us not only a couple of magnificent stories about the space, but a nice set of adventures set on the most unimaginable places.

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Weekly Photo: Change

Photo by Nora Vasconcelos

One of the most wonderful gifts from Nature is to find the changing colors of the leaves all around the city.

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The irresistible joy of cookie books

Text by Nora Vasconcelos

Photo by Anna Langova

It’s funny how I can’t never get tired of cookie books. Whenever I’m wandering around a bookstore I can’t resist the temptation of buying a new book with all sort of recipes to prepare cookies.

Most of the time I restrain myself, but, from time to time I just surrender to the wonders of this unique pieces of happiness and enjoyment.

Of course I enjoy making cookies, but most of the joy comes just from browsing the books, reading the recipes, imagining how the ingredients combine and leaving in my mouth the sweet idea of how any given cookie should taste as soon as it’s out of the oven.

Among my favorite cookie books, these take priority on my bookcase: Holiday Cookies and Treats; Perfect Cookies: Delicious, easy and fun to make; 500 Cookies: The only cookie compendium; The Great Big Cookie Book, and Swiss cookies: Biscuits for Christmas and all year round.

From these, 500 Cookies gave me an immense source of happiness as I got the calendar version, so I was able to go through each one of the recipes day by day, making my mornings both enjoyable and delicious. Although, it’s worth saying that they aren’t in fact 500 different recipes, but three different versions of each cookie. Anyways, it’s something I really like.

The Great Big Cookie Book and Perfect cookies are amazing books to go through and it’s hard no to feel hungry after turning several pages of them.

Of course, baking cookies is always a big challenge, there are so many variations to take into consideration that some times it’s an interesting task to prepare the perfect cookie, but it sure is fun to try! And to try with a good deal of success, Holiday Cookies and Treats is a friendly book that presents in an easy way all sort of Christmas cookies, from shortbread to brownies.

The Swiss Cookies book is my most recent acquisition, and I like that it really puts me in the right mood to feel as if I were walking around one of those busy streets of Zurich, enjoying myself with the sight of the cookies and the treats shown in the window displays, waiting for me to seat down and rest for a moment, while enjoying the traditional recipes of this country.

And now, it’s cookie time! Enjoy 😀

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Weekly Photo: Color

Photo by Nora Vasconcelos

Brightening the day.

It might seem like a simple thing, but I love the way the dark colors of the room combine gracefully with the strong colors of the lamp shades to give the place both an intriguing enviroment and at the same time a welcoming charming feeling.

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