The Spoons That Are My Ears!

Lisbon treated me well -- as it always does.
Such a beautiful and interesting city! One of my favourites in Europe...
This photo shows three people fundamental to the creation of my Sereia de Curitiba book. Publisher Pedro Marques, translator Safaa Dib, and illustrator Paulo Barros...

My heartfelt thanks to this talented trio, also to Luís Rodrigues, computer genius, and to everyone else involved in the Sereia events...

For instance... to the British Council, who paid for my flight from Madrid and provided a five star hotel for me... to Isabel Lopes, their representative, who met me at the airport, chauffered me around the city, took me to Belem for pasteis de nata and was extremely good fun all the time... to the teachers and students at the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, who were extremely lovely in every way... to the staff of FNAC... to the waiters of the Chiado café where I read... to all the lovely people who took the trouble to say hello and make me feel welcome -- and hugely welcome I did feel!

There are some photos on my flickr account, here... Also here and here, courtesy of Luís Rodrigues, and here, courtesy of Safaa Dib, and here, courtesy of Sandra Rosa... Luís and Safaa (and Pedro (not to mention many of my other Portuguese friends)) are characters in my stories and I will undoubtedly turn the new people I met on this trip into characters... Everything was wonderful! Now I'm off to have another coffee, which reminds me: here is the strangest galão ever!