Sir Winston Churchill

I've spent these last days working on a page about Winston Churchill. Why? I didn't know much about him, but he seemed to be a pretty inspiring man - now, I'm sure he is one of the most talented statesmen ever. His speeches are amazing and his strategical thinking is completely stunning.

What surprised me the most, among all the stuff I found out about Churchill, was his childhood. His father died at the age of 45 and his mother kept from him and his brother (yes, he had a brother, Jack! I had no idea of this as well!) the truth about their father's will. The money he left their sons was spent by their mother on her second marriage!

Wanna know more? I suggest you take a look at the biography I made :P

P.S - On the bottom of the page, vote for your favorite Churchill quote and, by the way, feel free to leave a comment :)

yours,

millou

Sisters!

Maybe I love my cat so much because I don't have any siblings and she* sometimes acts as my little sister. Tita (that's my cat's name) was my birthday gift when I turned two and she has always been convinced that I'm her older sister: whatever belongs to me - my bed, my wardrobe, my chair - belongs to her as well. With humans it must be the most annoying thing, but with cats it is adorable!

The best thing about cats (you'll agree if you've ever had one) is that adorable snoring. I love resting my head on her, as if she was a pillow, and just listen to her snoring and feeling her chest up and down at the rhythm of her breath! It's so lovely!

About the photo above, it was shot this afternoon, while I was sunbathing and my cat joined me and sat down on my - forgive me, our - towel. The usual.

* In Portuguese we refer to our pets as "he" or "she", so referring to my cat as "it" is simply too strange. I'll just call her "she". My apologies, everyone.

yours,

millou

Lisbon photos

If you live in an old city, you've probably noticed how many times people pass by beautiful, amazing places without noticing them. Rossio Square is one of the most beautiful places in Lisbon's downtown and I often pass it by without actually seeing the fountains and the 18th century architecture - today, however, I wanted my daily 30-day challenge shot to be taken at Rossio and I just stopped and stared.

yours,

millou

30-day challenge photo: Day 6

Photograph taken in Cascais, Portugal, by twilight. Click the image to see the original size ;)

yours,
millou

30-day challenge photos: which one is the best?

Hey! For those of you who don't know, I'm following a 30-day plan to get rid of some of my worst habits (and also to learn new things). Among other stuff, I'll be taking a picture everyday, trying to make each one better than the previous ones.

Since yesterday I didn't post the Day 2 photo (I've been to a music festival with a friend and we discovered how awesome James are!!!), I decided to make a little survey to check your opinion of these photos. Here they are:

Day 2 photo: Old Book Pile

Day 3 photo: Switcher

So, which one of these is your favorite, and why?

yours,

millou

World Photography Day

Hello, everyone!

Today is the World Photography Day. This has been celebrated for the last 20 years or so, on August 19th, bringing photographers from all over the world together.

Why this day?

On August 19th 1839, the French government announced the invention of the Daguerreotype as a gift "free  to the world". Still in the year of 1839 another photographic processes was also invented - the Calotype. These two events mark 1839 as the year of the invention of photography.

Why was photography invented?

Well, during the Industrial Revolution, the middle-class became very fond of portraits. Oil panting  was too expensive and slow, so photography emerged as a much more efficient method of capturing images.

Learn more about the History of Photography right here.

yours,

millou

30-day challenge: Day 1

Hello!

Today is Day 1, the first day I'll be putting into practice an advice I found on a blog I follow - a 30-day challenge.

So, what is this 30-day challenge, and why am I doing it?

It is very simple: for 30 days in a row, I'll be changing some of my bad habits. For example, one of my main goals is to jog every morning, so that I stop being so lazy about physical exercise. Doing this everyday, for 30 days, will make sure that the habit stays with me long after the challenge is over.

What really made me do this was a question asked in the post I read: what do you want to be like in 5 years? I want to be so many things that I am not nowadays that I understood it was time to do something about it - and why not this challenge?

So, I made a list of activities I think that should be a part of my daily life - like jogging every morning, having cold (well, fresh, at least...) showers, religiously taking care of my lovely cat and working on a novel, on this blog and on my Squidoo lenses - or simply things I want to become better at, like taking photos.

Here's my Day 1 photo, presented to you as a trophy, a proof of my success so far:

Click here to read the post that inspired me.

yours,
millou