Recently in October '23

October just passed by. It’s now full-on autumn and I just turned one year older. It was, overall, a great month. Friends have visited, both from abroad and local. Met with some people, steam train rides. Let’s dive into it!

✍️ Website

This month I published a few more posts than I was expected. I had a weird afternoon a few weekends ago where I just streamed down a few posts that I had then to schedule during the whole week. I would like to stick to a schedule, but that can be hard, especially when trying to juggle with everything else in life.

I also made a few updates to my homepage, where I now added a favorite photos section. I also intercalated the photos with the posts sections, which I think looks slightly better than before. Finally, I have added a “more articles” and a “more photos” links to the list of latest articles and photos, respectively.

🍄 Life

This month, I met with a few friends in different instances thorough the month. I’ve also kept going to the gym, sticking to my schedule properly. I think the coming two months I might’ve to make some adjustments here and there. Other than that, it’s going well.

I also celebrated my birthday on the weekend of the 22nd of October. On the Saturday night, I had a dinner with friends. In Portugal, we never celebrate the birthday before the actual date. We say it gives bad luck. Unfortunately, my options was to either choose the night before, or two weeks after. I don’t regret choosing the night before.

On Sunday, and therefore my actual birthday date, my partner and I went to Limburg. Limburg is the southernmost region of The Netherlands, where they actual have their own language, Limburgs, and also hills. We went to this old train station in Simpelveld where we took off for a lunch steam train ride, in the Miljoenenlijn.

The lunch was served on a Pullman eating wagon from 1927, completely renovated. This used to be a 2nd class car in the Étoile du Nord, an express train that used to link Paris and Amsterdam. The train was very beautiful, from the inside, to the outside. It was all well kept. This is an event that happens once a month and entirely run by volunteers. It just happened to happen on my birthday, so I had to go, right?

🍿 Entertainment

There is not much in the entertainment category for this week. However, I recently started reading the first Harry Potter book in Dutch. I am reading it using an e-reader, while listening to its audiobook simultaneously. So far, it seems to be a great way to make sure I listen to the pronunciation while still reading the book and seeing new words. Using an e-reader makes it easier to check what some word means.

Regarding movies, I watched Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I was almost sure that I had watched the first one, but I can’t find it in my list. It was fine, not the best, not the worst. Enjoyable enough. In the series department, I finished watching the first season of De Luizenmoder, a Dutch show. Certainly did not understand everything, but well - that’s how it goes, right?

October is now (almost) gone, Halloween is lurking there for those who celebrate. Have a great November!