✱ It's very difficult for me to find good cardiologists. Being the kind of person who likes everything explained to me in details, some doctors I've had appointments with in the past proved very dry and unwilling to talk to me beyond the strictly necessary. Others were just plain boring. The thing is, after looking for a nice doctor for a long time, I found myself a very nice cardiologist, Dr. Paulo was his name. He took care of me and my hereditary blood pressure affairs. He even corrected my medication after some exams. I really liked him, so it made me very sad when I learned that he had passed away February last year. And ever since, I was reluctant to look for another professional. Until, talking to some friends, I learned about another nice doctor. Dr. Carlos is his name. Had an appointment with him last Monday and really, really liked him. He seemed to be very patient with me, explaining me lots of things and making me feel nice. I'm really glad I was able to find him, and fill the gap left by Dr. Paulo.

✱ I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I had been invited to moderate the presentation of a proof-of-concept virtual reality project applied to a training solution. This week it finally happened, and I moderated the session, which took place during a technology and innovation seminar which happens every year, organized by the Engineering department of the company I work for. It was a very interesting experience — considering I had never before moderated any session or presentation made by anyone. Being a lifelong learner, that's something different I could taste, and I really liked it. People were very interested in the subject presented by my colleague, and he really aced his presentation. It made me feel very nice for me and for him, by the end of the day. 😊

✱ My older son and me went to São Paulo this week. There, he took a series of tests as part of an effort to try to be granted one of the many scholarships offered to international students at Japanese universities, under the Japanese Government Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Scholarship Program. When he first took interest in Japanese culture a couple of years ago, by reading mangas and watching anime as many children his age did, I could never have imagined it would get him that far. He's been dedicated to Japanese studies, finding his own means to study, self-learning hiragana, katakana, kanji and everything else supported by Anki and hours and hours of reading, watching and listening to raw Japanese media. Regardless of what happens now, I'm very proud of him and his personal achievements, as it's certainly no piece of cake to master Japanese as a western, Brazilian citizen.

✱ As I've been able to witness my son's effort to self-teach himself Japanese for years, I know it's no easy task at all, but a desire to also learn it, maybe at a slower pace, dawned on me too, maybe because I love language learning. So, after some advice from my son, I started learning hiragana, the first and more basic of the three Japanese syllabaries, also made up of katakana and kanji, the latter derived from Chinese. I hope to be able to keep up with my learning.

✱ Still regarding our trip to São Paulo, the only bad news I had relates to my back and its pain. I don't know for sure, but I'd say the bed I slept into has something to do with "The Return of Low Back Pain", a personal movie — a B-movie, I'd say — that insists on rerunning in my daily life… this means two things, as I'll need to get back to São Paulo next Sunday: getting by on palliative medicine for the weekend and an appointment first thing next Monday, with my osteopath doctor. 😫😫😫