✱ There’s this restaurant in our city where my family and me have eaten for I can’t even remember how long now (although I’m sure it’s been for more than 18 years in a row now). We don’t eat there every day, of course, but are regular customers, either eating there, or ordering take out. This week I dropped by them as I usually do, made my regular, favorite, order (the owner knows it well), and when I was about to pay, he told me this time my meal was on the house… and it totally surprised me! When I insisted on paying him, he said that was because of the many years of orders we usually take there. He wouldn’t need to do that at all, but this certainly made me very happy, and added to the reasons for me to go on eating there.

✱ Last Tuesday I could celebrate my first anniversary at the company I’m currently working for, since I came back to work with them again. With this particular anniversary I’ve completed 20½ years of service in total — having left between 2018 and May 2022. I won’t get into specific details here, except to say that I’m proud of working where I work and to say that it feels like being home again. I really hope to remain where I am for many and many years to come 👊

✱ Also on Tuesday I flew to Rio de Janeiro to participate in Rio Websummit 2023. It’s a very big and important technology and innovation event that’s happened in Brazil for the first time this year, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to be able to visit the expositions and to watch some interesting keynotes.

✱ Then, last Thursday, when I landed back in São Paulo, I had the chance to spot one of the four existing Azul Airlines aircraft featuring Disney character paintings. While I was getting off the plane and moving inside the finger to get to the airport building, there it was: the Daisy Duck aircraft. I really liked the chance to spot it, and I posted this picture here as to share the vision with you.

✱ I briefly went out with a friend from work this week for having a coffee, so he could help me with a procedure I was having doubts with. This experience got me thinking about two totally different aspects. First, this is something I should do more often. As someone who can WFH, going out and performing certain tasks on my notebook while sitting at a coffee shop is really interesting and focus helping, if only because it allows you to change the scenario a little bit. Second, my friend introduced me to this coffee shop I didn’t know about, and it features Japanese small food and beverages. So I ended up coming back later with my children, for the older one has studied Japanese language — and culture, for that matter — for at least a couple of years now. The aftermath is that I had two taiyakis, a kind of waffle biscuit, one with my friend and the other as I returned with the kids. And I also tasted matcha green tea, which is very popular but a lot bitter to my own taste. Anyway, the experience was fantastic.

✱ Somedays ago I found out about Netflix’s The Nurse, a true crime miniseries about a Danish nurse who was accused of murdering some of her patients as if she was an angel of death. Now, I like true crime stories and was set to start watching the production, when I discovered the series is based on a book. So I first read the book, and finished it this very same Saturday (so in time to be featured in this weekly notes post). Kristian Corfixen’s book then became my eighth read book in 2023, out of the 20 I’ve set as a goal. I’ve then reached 40% of the way.