Shopping for Shoes

I had just finished playing football, and didn't really feel like going home and back to the city centre... So I thought.. What the hell, I'll go straight to the shops! :)

Los Compadres @ Arts Picture House

Are you looking for a Job? We are hiring! # Application period now closed!

We at UNEP-WCMC are hiring for various positions, but I would like to share the adverts for Informatics positions. So if you want to work with us, the creators of Protected Planet and other cool applications take a look at the following vacancies:

- Ruby on Rails Developer
- Front-end Developer
- Geospatial Developer
- Product Manager


Interested?
   - Just send in an application!
Not interested?
   - Share with your contacts anyway! =)
Any questions?
   - Feel free to use the comments box in this post!

Thank you for reading! :)

And if you wondering who are we, take a look at this presentation:



#Quick guide to the presentation:
- There are 7billion people in the world, there were 5billion in 1985, in 2020 there will be an estimated 5billion people with access to the internet. In the past 6 months we had 1million visits to our applications. This shows that there's a world of opportunities for us. And we as the Informatics Unit of UNEP-WCMC are here to embrace those opportunities and help the Centre (UNEP-WCMC) show its outputs to the world, with exciting new applications. We have a fantastic team of 8 people, and we are hiring! I think that's it. =)

Stacey Kent in Cambridge, UK

Yesterday I went to listen to Stacey Kent in the Cambridge Arts Theatre, with Mariana and some friends.
I didn't really know Stacey's music before buying the tickets and I knew very little before the concert. When we were buying the tickets Mariana told me that she sang Jazz and Bossa Nova and she showed me some songs, it seemed nice so I agreed to go.
Now, after the concert, I'm really happy that I did so.


It was a really nice evening with great music, sang in English, French and a song in Portuguese... that was dedicated to us! =)

During the show's intermission Stacey's husband (, producer, saxophonist, etc.) was selling some CDs and we went to ask about the prices. During that brief chat he asked us where we were from and we said Portugal. After that he started speaking in Portuguese and he said that Stacey would be very happy to speak with us after the show.
When we got back to the show she sang in Portuguese (a song named 'Corcovado') and noted that she knew that there were some portuguese speaking people in the room. It was really cool. =D

After the show we had the chance to speak with her (in Portuguese!) and she was really nice. She praised Portugal, the portuguese language and she even said that she'd love to live in Lisboa with her husband. It was a really interesting chat.

I had loved the concert, but after that I became a true fan! :) She said that she'd be doing four shows in Portugal in the near future (Lisboa, Castelo Branco, Leiria, and Torres Novas), so if you have the chance, go and listen! It's really worth it! And next year she'll probably come back to Cambridge and she said she'll sing a song in Portuguese named 'Comboio' (Train), that they are preparing with a Portuguese poet named António Ladeira, that was also their portuguese teacher.
That should be cool!

 

Me on the Radio (Antena 1 in PT)

A few weeks ago Fernando Pires, a friend of mine from my Faculty, asked me if I would be interested in participate in a small Radio Show called "Portuguese in the World" (Portugueses no Mundo). I said yes and he sent my contact details to the journalist. Last week the journalist contact me asking for some more information and after a short talk (3-5minutes) on the phone we scheduled it for the past Friday, 6th of January at 7h25 in the morning... Quite early, no, but the talk was going to be live so it had to be at the time of the show. It was a really nice experience and I'm happy that I did it. I was a bit nervous at first, but I think I didn't do too bad. =) The only "bad" thing was that this happened at 7h25 in the morning, so not many people that I know listened to it live, still there were a few people that were surprised to listen to my voice in the radio. And it was in Antena 1, a national Radio Station which has a market share of 5% (that's around 400k listeners :-o). If you didn't have the chance to listen to my participation you can do it through this link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3436237/simaocastro.mp3 =) (you might not understand anything if you don't understand Portuguese... =P) You can also check the show's webpage and the podcast, if you want to listen to other editions. =) Hope you enjoy it! =)

St. Johns College 5-a-side tournament

On Sunday the 9th of October 2011 I took part in a 5-a-side tournament organised by St Johns College's 11-a-side post-graduates football team, actually it was all organised by its captain, Russel. I normally play in St. Johns team but for this tournament I talked with some friends and we registered a team of Portuguese Speakers. The team was formed by 5 Portuguese (myself, João, Bruno, Filipe, and Zé Pedro) and 2 East Timorese (Diamantino and Zé).

Standing up from left to right: Diamantino, Simão, Zé, Bruno; On one knee from left to right: Zé Pedro, Filipe, João

The tournament had 11 teams registered that were divided in two groups. The best two teams of each group would go on to the semi-finals and then the winners of the semi-finals would face each other in the final.

My team did really well in the tournament, having won! =D \o/

We played 6 games: won 5 and drew 1. We scored 26 goals, and conceded 4 (or maybe 5, not entirely sure). I scored two of the 26 goals and conceded 3 (or 4). It was a really good tournament and I'm very happy with the outcome!

Our results were as follows:

1. 8-0 against Abacus;
2. 4-0 against Cambridge Assessment
3. 6-0 against Robinson College Team 2
4. 2-2 against Wolfson College
5. 4-0 against Robinson College Team 1 ( Semi-final)
6. 6-2/3 against Queens College (Final)

Hurrah! =)

Collecting the "award" and having a fruit to recover my energy...

The following text was written by João and I believe that it is real football poetry, unfortunately for my non-Portuguese speaking readers it might be hard to follow. Maybe Google Translator can help you... =)

CUPORTSS 5-a-side Futebol Team vence Torneio de Futebol St. Johns College

Foi sob um ameaçador céu cinzento que no dia 9 de Outubro se deu início ao torneio de 5-a-side do St. Johns College. 11 equipas unidas pelo amor à redondinha aqueciam os joelhos sem ainda saber o que os esperava.

5 jogadores dos quatro cantos de Portugal e 2 jogadores de Timor Leste acordaram cedo essa manhã de domingo para formar a equipa CUPORTSS. Pólos opóstos do globo terrestre encontraram-se sobre um relvado frondoso onde imediatamente se trocaram piadas: uma língua que viajou em caravelas muitos séculos antes da Jabulani ou da “mano de dio” tornou este grupo de pessoas, sem esforço, numa equipa pronta a actuar!

A equipa da Cambridge University Portuguese Speakers Society entrou com calma mas com muita fome de bola. O primeiro golo na primeira jogada exprimiu claramente a superioridade futebolistica que se driblava.

Uma enxurrada de golos não tardou a surgir. O Bruno, o Diamantino, o Filipe, o João, o Simão, os Zés; bolas pela esquerda, bolas pela direita, remates longos e tiros colocados, apenas detidos pela rede da baliza adversária.

8-0, 4-0, 6-0. 20 golos nos primeiros 3 jogos sem qualquer golo sofrido marcavam já nas tabelas da estatística o monstro de futebol que se criara!

Uma equipa de perna leve e olho rápido, detentora de um estado de espírito avassalador, uma frescura psicolóica intimidante e uma organisação tanto plástica quanto férrea. A polivalência dos jogadores permitiu uma plasticidade organisacional que tanto serviu para explorar cada metro dentro das quatro linhas como para baralhar o olho adversário. Quase instintivamente foi-se criando um futebol-espetáculo que se podia respirar!

Não tardaram os atentados á integridade física dos jogadores, conforme a brutalidade e a inferioridade técnica obriga a uma sede que não se pode saciar. Mas a língua do futebol, que neste domingo se falou sempre em português, falou mais alto!

A fenomenal vitória da equipa CUPORTSS foi inevitável!

A equipa levantou o prémio por volta das três da tarde. Enquanto recebia o galhardete – ou a pancadinha nas costas, mais propriamente -  Simão, o capitão, agarrado a uma peça de fruta, pensava já no próximo desafio!

3 vivas à equipa 5-a-side CUPORTSS!    Viva! Viva! Viva!

 I just hope that the 11-a-side season goes as well as this tournament did!

6 days, 6 films

From the 15th to the 25th of September is taking place in Cambridge the 31st Cambridge Film Festival.

As soon as we saw the advertisement for the Festival, Mariana and I decided that this year we wouldn't miss it as we did last year. So we grabbed hold of the festival programme and we chose a few films to watch. I don't know much about films and didn't knew much about what was going to be on screen, but based on some hints from friends and in some curiosity we came up with the following list:

• Mysteries of Lisbon - A four and a half hours film by Raúl Ruiz, based on a novel by the XIX century Portuguese author Camilo Castelo Branco
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - A film about which I don't know much, only that it's about espionage during or around the days of the Cold War
• Pearl Jam Twenty - Documentary about the band Pearl Jam, marking their 20th anniversary
• El bulli - A documentary about the now closed Michelin 3-start restaurant, El Bulli.
• Dimensions:  A Line, A Loop, A Tangle of Threads - A film about the theory of bending time, which was filmed here in Cambridge
• Midnight in Paris - A romantic comedy by Woody Allen

To be honest not all of the films are passing in the Festival, but it looked like a great opportunity to have a cinematographic week. ;)


Yesterday was the first day of this small marathon and it started with Mysteries of Lisbon. I was a bit unsure about this film as it is so long, but after the first half I was really pleased to have decided to see it. It was really worth it. The story is very well written and very well filmed. You barely feel the time passing and I got really curious about every new piece of this well thought social puzzle. I got really immersed in the film and I found it a very interesting portrait of that season.

I think I've never read anything by Camilo Castelo Branco, but now I think I should, and I will.

Today I'll be watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, I hope it is as good as I've been told it is.

London to Cambridge Bike Ride 2011

On the 24th of July I have taken part on the London to Cambridge Bike Ride an event that aimed at raising awareness and funds for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

This was by far my longest bike ride ever with a total of 96km(60mi)!

I went with two friends of mine, João Afonso and Bruno Frederico. We woke up early in that Sunday morning and went by train to the start point in London (in the North of London if I remember correctly), and after registering ourselves we just rode... for ninety six kilometres. OK we also stopped a few times, but just to have some quick snacks.

Stopping for a snack.... *nom nom*

The course was really nice with nice landscapes and some challenging hills, specially one that was really, really steep. I was really surprised by this as I thought that this area, between London and Cambridge, was fairly flat.

We finished the 96km in 5hours, but I believe I could have done a few more meters if I had to!

It was definitely an amazing experience which next year I hope to repeat, I might even get a proper road bike. :)

Finished, and I look fresh, no?

Another thing that I really enjoyed was seeing so many different people riding with us. There were people in disguises, people in suits, people in roller blades, a guy that was picking garbage from the road as he rode, and people with very different ages.

The three riders (João, Bruno and me)

I was also able to raise 60pounds! Thanks to all that contributed: Mariana, Alice, Edward, James, and Sérgio.

Surprisingly enough on the following day I didn't feel sore muscles... if it wasn't for the fact that I couldn't move my left knee properly I would have played football on that following Monday. =p

PS: my previous longest bike ride was of about 10km. =)

My Tech Blog

A few weeks ago I created a new blog (yes, another blog...). The idea came from my boss who said that he thought it was important for a developer to have a blog where he can write about his work and techy stuff.
I agree with him and so after surpassing my laziness I created my new blog and named it (Don't) Debug in Production.
It might not be very interesting to some of you, but I thought it was worth sharing here.

This will continue being my personal blog. Don't think that much will change in terms of frequency of writing... Which doesn't mean much as it varies a lot. :)
Let me know what you think of my it!

25th of April Forever

Because I appreciate the liberty to speak my mind and heart I will not forget nor cease to celebrate!

The Carnation Revolution (Portuguese: Revolução dos Cravos), also referred to as the 25 de Abril (the 25th of April), was a left-leaning military coup[1] started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance. These events effectively changed the Portuguese regime from an authoritarian dictatorship to a democracy, and produced enormous changes in social, economic and political structures of Portugal, after two years of a transitional period known as PREC (Processo Revolucionário Em Curso, or On-Going Revolutionary Process), characterized by social turmoil and power disputes between left-and right-wing political forces.
Source: Wikipedia

And here is one of the songs I remember waking up to on every 25th of April of my life...

Short tale of a busy period!

Starting in the end of February and finishing in the end of March, it has been a really busy period here in Cambridge. All in all Mariana and I had 13 visitors, divided in multiple visits with varying lengths!

First was Mariana's sister, Margarida, and her boyfriend, João. Then six friends of ours, Cláudio, Patrícia, Ana, Pedro, Cláudia e Ricardo. Just one or two days later Hélder stopped by on his way to Bucharest. On the following Weekend we had two visitors from Poland, Maro and Kuba, who I had met in Denmark during my Erasmus. Then we rested for a weekend and on the last week of March João Pedro and Kiko spent an evening and a few hours of a night here in Cambridge, before flying with me to Dublin to visit Manel.

It was really, really, nice to have had you all here in Cambridge!! Thank you for coming! I know that it might be a bit rude of me to write only one post about all of your visits, but you know that I'm a bit lazy about writing in my blog, so no hard feelings... =)

With so many visits I think that Mariana and I are becoming quite the experts in showing Cambridge to visitors. Sometimes it even seems that we are following a script, but we assure you that we are not... we've simply been having a lot of practice! =)

For instance during one of the visits we were doing a punting tour in the river Cam and I even managed to correct the punter (the guy that pushes the punt)...

A punter, punting the punt in the River Cam

Funny enough these visits have showed me that Cambridge is bigger and has more stuff to see than what I had thought before! Which I find great, and which make my legs hurt a bit with every visit. ;)

So, who's next? =)

Hello Spring

Long time no see!

Welcome back!

Vinicius de Moraes @ Graduate Union in Cambridge 24th of March

As a member of the Cambridge University Portuguese Speakers Society here is our invitation for our next event, a Film Night:

For the next film night, we invite you to come with us to the other side of the Atlantic with a documentary about the Brazilian artist: Vinicius de Moraes (October 19, 1913 – July 9, 1980). Tenderly nicknamed as “O Poetinha” (“The little poet”), Vinicius wrote more than 400 poems and around 400 lyrics. He was a poet, a composer, a playwright, a diplomat and an interpreter of his own songs. Together with Tom Jobim he is one of the fathers of Bossa Nova, a Brazilian music style which combines a bit of samba with jazz. In this documentary we will have a chance to get to know Vinicius a little bit more (his life, his friends, his loves..) and also Rio de Janeiro, through archive pictures, interviews and the interpretation of his classics.

* Which film?* Documentary about “Vinicius de Moraes”
* When?* Thursday – 24th of March – 7.30 pm
* Where?* Graduate Union University of Cambridge; 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge CB2 1RX
* Why? * Because Vinicius de Moraes is a singular artist in the Portuguese speaking world with a charming life story.

We hope to see you there!

If you are in Cambridge on the 24th, join us! =)

The News!

For some days now I have been thinking about posting something here, but I had no clue what to post about and today someone* brought to my attention that I had something very important to post. Mariana was on the News of her Department here in the University of Cambridge!!

She had her PhD's second year presentation in February and was awarded the best presentation award of her session. Which I personally think it's awesome, and makes me very proud! =)

For those of you who have no idea what she's working on you can find a short description on that page, which I copy here:

"Mariana Domingos presented her work on Turbulent plumes with heterogeneous chemical reaction on the surface of buoyant bubbles. She said, "In this project we aim to understand how chemical reaction, dissolution and phase change affect the motion of turbulent plumes. This may help mitigate problems caused by plumes, such as the Icelandic volcanic cloud and the Gulf of Mexico oil plume.""

Congratulations to her!! =D

* No, it was not Mariana. =)

Happy 2011!

Hi there!

I hope you had an amazing holidays or end of 2010 days, I know I did. I've been in Portugal for three amazing weeks and returned to Cambridge just a few days after the New Year started.

I must say that this was one of the best Christmas I've had, maybe because I received an amazing gift from my sister Alice and her boyfriend Filipe, I'm gonna be a godfather! I'm really, really happy about it! =D

But that wasn't the only amazing gift, I've also received a PS3! It's fantastic, and I'm trying my best to avoid addiction, which can be really hard. And now my house is even cosier than it was before. :P

I also received other really nice gifts, but I really had to speak about these two...

Before I finish here is my 2010's end of the year postcard!



Happy 2011!

Time to clean my camera's memory card #3

"Let us work!" - taken in Wrocław, Poland

Time to clean my camera's memory card #2

Just another relax dude in the wall...

Time to clean my camera's memory card #1

You've probably heard of the double chin, I present you the double moustache

Christmas break!

After the amount of posts I wrote in Movember I thought I should give you a rest... or maybe I just got lazy afterwards. Anyway here is a new one.

I'm now in Porto for my Christmas break and I'm very happy to be here. Although it's only 13ºC outside it feels really warm, specially because I still have the subzero temperatures quite fresh in my mind... Last Monday the maximum temperature in Cambridge was -5ºC!! That's quite cold... =P

I'm glad I managed to come to Porto because I know of a few people who haven't managed to leave England because their flights were cancelled due to the snow... Fortunately in Stansted it doesn't snow as bad as in other airports so it all went well for me. If it hadn't I think I would've rented a car and drove to Portugal... Fortunately I didn't need that.

Talking about snow last Saturday it snowed the whole afternoon in Cambridge! It was enough to make this huge snow man, named Pep, credit should go to my neighbours Dago, João and Raoul, I only added some accessories.



As it was so freaking cold all the places where cars and people don't pass too much were still covered in snow yesterday... I must say that it made the trip by train to the airport really beautiful. =) Amazing landscapes... other than that snow can be really annoying..

This was taken in Trinity College.

Since I'm not sure if I'll post anything else before Christmas I take this chance to wish you a Merry Christmas! And hope to see you around Porto during my stay! =)

Movember: One day at a time

Movember 2010 is over and so the moustache is soon to be gone. I've raised 111£! =D Thanks to everyone who donated! =) ( the list is here-> http://omeio.blogspot.com/2010/10/movember-donations-required.html ).

Not sure if the Movember website donation system will stay up, but I'll leave the links around for a few more days in case anyone else feels generous and wants to give it a try. =) Here it is-> http://uk.movember.com/mospace/823716/

PS: I wish my facial hair would grow faster... it could have made it even funnier. =)