Recently in January '22

It is unbelievable that 1/12 of the year has already gone by. I came back to the Netherlands in the beginning of the month and I’ve been able to achieve quite a few things last month.

First, I got my booster. Then, I also watched a few nice movies and, more importantly, started reading again. Maybe I went over the top and bought a bit too many books for my “to read” stack, but well… it is what it is.

I currently have 8 books stacked near my desk for the next readings. They’re all most short and I’ve been enjoying the process quite a bit. Related to this, I have also been investigating the possibility of reading ebooks. I’ve never used an eink display before for reading and I’m very curious about the experience. On the other hand, I can’t see how I would feel about not being able to actually touch and feel the books.

On other news, I went to Den Haag to renew my passport. As expected, it was delayed. Not because of the staff in the embassy, but because the system is all centralized in Lisbon and it was down for 30 minutes… so they couldn’t do anything even if they wanted. I got my new passport and it is quite pretty: there’s different artwork portraying UNESCO heritage sites in Portugal in every different page. Besides, they all shine under UV light (365 nm) light. I would share some pictures, but I don’t think it’s appropriate.

Last week there were general election in Portugal, mainly caused by the budget crisis. It’s a bit sad to see the results and see that a party got absolute majority and the far (extreme) right party climbed to the third political force. At the same time, only 57% people voted.

We’re still waiting for the votes from the embassies to come on the 7th of February, but those 1.5M Portuguese people abroad only elect 4 people for parliament, out of 230. Considering the entire country has around 11M of population, it is not proportional. Additionally, most of this 1.5M don’t vote. On the last elections in 2019, only 10% voted.

Today I have what I hope to be my last ever University exam. Wish me luck! Good day!