I have come back to work this week, after well spent vacations where I could relax and gather renewed energy for 2024’s challenges. The first day at work welcomed me with a trip to Sorocaba, a city approximately two and a half hours distant from my hometown — also the city where the company I work for has its headquarters. I had never been to Sorocaba before (although my employer company has facilities there), so it was wonderful both to be able to know a different city and to participate in a workshop prepared by my manager and supervisor, where we had lectures and activities related to marketing and to business planning.

During the following days, I engaged in an interesting project which involves innovation tools and frameworks, research and interview. It’s looking very promising, and it made me very happy to be back 😉

My younger son has also got back to school this week, starting the 7th grade. As it happens with most teenagers his age, though, I cannot say he’s thrilled to go back to school — I believe if every teen could choose what to do, they’d choose endless vacations… but then, who wouldn’t? 😂 Ok, ok… I might be joking (a little)… on the good side, he’s met all his friends again, what, from experience, I know is always very nice.

Meanwhile, we’re expecting news from the Japanese consulate anytime soon, as they’re to send us instructions regarding my older son’s student visa, which will be all paid by the Japanese government as part of his scholarship program. With fewer days than I’d like to admit we have available together before he travels to Japan, I have to admit that I’m starting to have mixed feelings about this trip — as a father, one side of me’d like him to stay, whereas another knows it’s best for him to fully enjoy this experience of living abroad and flying high. Well, nobody ever told me parenthood was easy…

I went swimming again this week, and enjoyed it. I do want to turn that into a (healthy) habit. Although doing it only one night this week, I did more than 60 minutes of exercise, and that’s exactly the kind of thing I need to introduce (back) to my life. I wish to do it at least twice a week, maybe thrice, who knows? Right now I have my both legs sore, but that’s to be left behind once I get used to the rhythm. I’m certain.

We have started to watch From. Only three episodes into the story but looking promising so far — the plot strongly reminds me of a couple of Stephen King’s stories, but, due to the fact that characters are all trapped in a city they can’t leave no matter what they do, haunted by mysterious evil creatures lurking at night, mostly seemed to me like Blake Crouch’s Wayward Pines Trilogy, a piece that I could not put down when I read the three fiction books a couple of years ago. With two seasons already produced, I hope “From” lives up to the expectations it’s creating in our family.

Also, I’m currently reading the Brazilian Portuguese version of the three-book box set of the Dune Trilogy, by Frank Herbert. Dune’s a classic and I’m glad to be reading it. The story’s good so far — and in this case I’m also hoping it keeps like that, but only time will tell.