December 2017

Friday, 1st December 2017

is a public holiday for Portugal – the Restoration of Independence Day. Actually I awoke 9:15am, that is very late and unusual for me, even I do not need to go to work before 11:45am, because my shift always starts at 12:30pm. This day I got an exception and was allowed to start at 12pm. I also had to pack for another three-day trip and there was no time to go home between end of shift and the departure of the bus. My early start at work was just that I wished to be sure, that I will make it in time to the bus.

I fixed it, of course. I was at work in time and I had my little suitcase and my backpack as well as my cover with me. It is colder as usual and I think the cover will make it comfortable for me in the night bus, that I will be able to sleep. That I also have the little suitcase and not only my little backpack depends on the weather, too. I am sure, I need some more and warmer clothes for the trip than usual. I chose the night bus for getting a little more time for Seville, the town I already tried to visit in 2015, but more about that, you can read by dorotheeinternational.blog/Europe/Sevilla.

They day at work was at usual. At 9pm I left for the bus station Oriente. I thought I will go with an Alsa bus, but there was an Portuguese company running instead. I had been in the bathroom at work, just before I left and tried to go one more time before the bus was leaving. Unfortunately I was mistaking me about the bathrooms. We left in time at 10pm. All about the trip you can read by the link above.

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Saturday, 2nd December 2017 to Monday, 4th December 2017
see Sevilla (by the link above).

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Tuesday, 5th December 2017

It was very cold even here in Lisbon. I have lots of time before going to work, even I had to wait on the bus station Oriente for around half an hour for my 750-bus home to my Lisbon place.

I really had a cold, but I was anyway to work after have had breakfast and shower. At work I did my best, but had to sneeze all the time. I had a little plastic bag for my used tissues, because of the lack of wastebasket and some 10-packs of tissues, of course.

At the end the working day passed with my cold and my headache, but I was walking to the bus stop by my own. My colleague Pejman could have been my company, but he had to go to the bathroom and I was not waiting for him for my cold.

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Wednesday, 6th December 2017

I stayed at home because I felt, that I need a day in bed, sweating out the cold. I had already written an email to my supervisor Diana the evening before, while I still was at work and told her, that I will stay at home this day. I wrote to our hr-support and asked them to use one of my compensation days for the sick day. Unfortunately they answered, that it is not possible “book compensation days for periods that you have schedules book.” and added “We recall that has a period of 5 working days for us to get a justification or sick leave.” (Sorry, for the bad English, this is correctly what they wrote me.)

I tried to get an answer, what this exactly means by my supervisor, but she did not answer me, she only emailed me, if I will come that day, because I am scheduled for 12:30pm. That made me wondering if my work email had not reached her, but I have not got any answer yet.

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Thursday, 7th December 2017

I had a long chat with my flatmate Jessica this morning during breakfast. I did tell her “my story” and she did pamper me a little as well as I have got two slices of bread of her, because I run out of it. We share food sometimes, though it was not unusual. My goal was to go to a doctor and sent an email to the hr-support asking, how it works and where I have resp. can go. I had pain in my back, thinking about my lungs. I never got an answer on that email and did not know, what to do. Fortunately I became better during the day. At last I have got my schedule for the rest of December. In my case it means until 15th December 2017 and it was as I expected, I have to work the last five days and I am only off one day at the end of my old schedule. Usually we have almost two days off in a row, but they only change that, when one is going on leave or leaving the company.

Of the reason, that I did nearly not have any food at home, I was to the supermarket Continente in the evening and also looked for little warmer shoes as my sneakers, in the hope I also could use my voucher. I had been on the Internet to understand which shops accept the vouchers I have got at my work. I found same names of shoe shops, even I could not see where in the Vasco da Gama Shopping centre they were situated. First I was to the second floor and looked if I would find shoe shops, started with the first one, but did not find booties, which matched my feet. I have wide feet and it is difficult to find comfortable shoes. I continued to the Hush Puppies Shoe shop. First I asked them, if they accept my vouchers and they did. By the way all the shops had discounts, so had this one. I found a pair of booties for 79,90 EUR, when the discount was subtracted.

Afterwards I made my weekly shopping at the Continente for around 45 EUR, but also paid by my vouchers. The female cashier was very good in helping me and very nice, too. The bus was crowded. At my Lisbon place I filled my shelf in the refrigerator and in the cupboard. Then I went to bed again, but had another chat with Jessica before.

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Friday, 8th December 2017

is another public holiday for Portugal – the Immaculate Conception Day. It was raining and not very warm either. I was dressed in both rain trousers and rain jacket on my way to my job. I was afraid, if I will get wet, I will be sick again immediately.

I was to work again, but because it is a public holiday there were not many agents working and most of the supervisors were off work, too. So was Diana. Jules, another supervisor, saw me coming and I also sent an email to Diana, that I was onboard again. It seems, the day will never end, but there is always an end. Neither Pejman nor Mario was working, though I made my way home by myself.

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Saturday, 9th December 2017

It was a usual working day for me, but the last two or three hours of the evening we were only a few agents left and no supervisor with us – which is quite unusual. One of them told us, that we may not be at the working space without any supervisor.

I had company to the station Oriente of another girl of our email team. I had no need to make some shopping and was directly going to the bus. Even the bus already was waiting, we were not let in, but 15 minutes later. There were no many passengers this time.

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Sunday, 10th December 2017

I have my last day off work. I try to update my blog. I started to update and finish the report about Sevilla, continued with the dates for December month, because they are so few yet and finished then the November. In between I emailed with WordPress asking for my new blog address. They explained, that I only have to choose “dorotheeinternational.blog” as main domain. So I did!

Around 3:30pm I had my lunch, actually at the same time I usually have it at work. I was not aware, that I was waiting so long, when I was writing my blog. I just became hungry at that time. By the way I still sneeze, but I am feeling much better than the days before.

I finished the update for November / December 2017 around 11pm and had my third meal for the day. I hope I will be able to work a little more with my blog the upcoming days, before going home to Sweden. I actually feel a hurry.

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Monday, 11th December 2017

I awoke around 7am and was up around 8am, though I have got something done. After the usual breakfast I was taking off my curtains and put one of them into the washing machine. Afterwards I did the dishes, showered, dressed and put the other curtain in the washing machine. I was wondering where to hang my curtain for drying. To put it for the window again is no option, because it is too hard to put them up and take them down again, though I hanged the first one over the door of my room. I think it was a good decision because I have the heating on in my room and it will dry a little faster, but in the living room, where we usually dry our clothes.

Work was boring again and only the knowledge, that it will be over in a few days makes me cope with it. I did not have company on my way “home”, but Jessica was awaiting me and we had a short chat before I was checking my emails. There were a lot of emails from my former class mates with holiday and New Year wishes. It made me thinking about, that they did not know yet about my name change, but my best girlfriends.

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Tuesday, 12th December 2017

I awoke early again and was up at 8:30am. At the same time Jessica came out of her room. We had breakfast together, meanwhile I made another laundry. By the way my curtains dried quickly. The first one was already dry in the evening the day before, though I could hang the other one, which was dry in the morning. It is not cosy at all in my room anymore, but in a few days I will be at home. After breakfast I prepared my lunch incl. the half Galia melon, I had bought some days ago. Jessica offered me some slices of an orange. Before leaving for work it was time enough to write this lines for today as well as importing another site of my blog about New Zealand.

Time seems not to go by at work, but finally it is end of shift and I am on my way to my Lisbon home again. There I was working hard with the importation of my sites about New Zealand and Australia. At 4.55am it was all done, but only the text.

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Wednesday, 13th December 2017

After a few hours of sleep my day started as usual. I did have some time, too, for adjusting the links for New Zealand on my blog. I hoped I can do that with all of Australia after work.

I get tired around 7pm at work and bought a cappuccino from the vending machine at work during my late break. By the way Jessica and me have had lunch together. Work was as boring as usual. I also decided to work only with the cases I know how to handle. The others I close again. I am not willing anymore to look for colleagues, who can explain for me or asking my stressed supervisor, who also tries to care about the Christmas decorations.

After work we were a group of five agents joining each other on the way to the station Oriente. We were four women and a man. I had a chat with one of the women, though we came behind the others, but that did not matter. Also I had to buy toilet paper and a big bottle of water at Continente. Well there I finally was looking for something sweet and found a Tiramisu, which I ate later already in bed. I also tried to fix the links on all of Australia on my blog, but was too tired. I only got one site done.

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Thursday, 14th December 2017

I awoke around a quarter past 7am and took my medicine, then I tried to sleep a little more, but could not. Therefore I fixed the links on all of the sites of Australia. Anyway I was up around half past eight for breakfast. I already had finished breakfast, when Jessica joined. Meanwhile I prepared my lunch, Jessica had breakfast and we were talking about my upcoming leaving. I also asked her if she is interested in some items I cannot take home to Sweden, because of the limited weight allowance on the plane.

I had still time to update this sites before going to work. By the way, the weather is warmer again, but it is raining off and on. It did not happen anything special at work, but my former trainer asked me, when I will leave. She did not comment my answer. Neither Pejman nor Mario was working this day and I walked to the station Oriente all alone, where I took a cup of chocolate and the other Tiramisu to my room. I put photos in my blog about New Zealand until I have got tired. Unfortunately I could not fall asleep before 2am anyway.

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Friday, 15th December 2017

It was my last day at Teleperformance. I awoke around 7am again, took my medicine and wrote an email to my brother Gerhard, because it is his birthday. He became 69 years old. During breakfast I met Jessica again. She was so sorry, because a friend of her will leave Lisbon the upcoming Wednesday and she also is unhappy that I leave. I gave her a big hug, when I saw the tears in her eyes. She told me, that she never before has been in the situation to miss new been friends so fast again.

After breakfast I dressed and packed my big suitcase. I am sure, I have to change the places of the items in the suitcase before I have put all my things in it. I also already checked, though I will not forget anything. I will see, if I can take home all I wish to save. Some things I already gave away to Jessica. – I updated this notes before I left for work.

After work I was to Continente for the last time. I still had 33.55 EUR on Vouchers and was ready to use them this night, because it was my last one in Portugal for years. I was looking for clothes for my grandchildren (as Christmas gifts). When I found the rack with the right sizes I liked a combination of blue sweatpants and yellow cardigan with the text MIRACLE EVERY DAY. I tried to find it in both sizes, but the size of my 4-year-old grandchild was not available. Finally I found a grey sweatshirt with sweatpants with a famous comic car on the sweatshirt. I know that my grandchild loves to see that comic on TV, though I took that one. I still had value left on my vouchers and was looking for a bottle of wine to have with Jessica during the last evening together. I took a 2016 Alentejo vino tinto, not remembering that Jessica prefer white wine. It was on sale (3.99 EUR instead of 5.99 EUR) an there were still around 60 cent left on the vouchers. Therefore I was looking for something sweet and after a while I found a “Smiley mug” with sweets in their. At this evening I was not thinking about to give the mug away, though I opened the package and enjoyed the eight sweets inside.

Back at the Lisbon home, Jessica and me started to spend time together, she also opened the wine bottle for me. She was at WhatsApp talking with her grand parents for a while. So was I. They had not finished before Jessica’s boyfriend Adnan came. After a while Jessica’s grandparents hang of and we three continued to have company for another while until Jessica got tired. She told me to wake her up around 8am next morning. I was to bed to, but did not fall asleep before 2am.

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Saturday, 16th December 2017

It was my last day in Lisbon. I was up at 7am, though I should have time enough for packing the last items to. This day I dressed before breakfast. I knocked at Jessica’s door some minutes past 8am and she came soon to the kitchen. We had breakfast together as usual. When I had made my dishes, Jessica got the left overs as well as my bread knife and my potato peeler. I packed my plates, cups and cutlery in my big suitcase. Put my glass into the bathroom for Antonio, because he was using a glass from the kitchen, knocked his door and we took good-bye of each other. He hugged me twice, because we were talking in between. We never had a lot of contact, but when we had it was pleasant.

Jessica brought me all the way to the airport. She told me, my big suitcase has a weight of 30 kg, I told her “no chance”, it will be 23 kg, maybe one more. It was very helpful that she cared about the big suitcase. She was with me at the baggage drop, too. I  already had checked in online. She had my IKEA-BAG with my cover and cooling bag (where I store my medicines and my creams). Actually the weight of the big suitcase was 24,8 kg. Anyway I did not need to pay an extra fee. Jessica followed me to the gates access. She was not allowed to follow me further, because she had no ticket, of course. I had my little backpack, my little suitcase and the IKEA-bag with me. At a good place before the security I folded the IKEA-Bag and took my cooling back on my arm as well as the cover on top of it. I continued throughout the security with no problems, but the assistant hurried me. He did not know, how many things I had. On the other side of the security I continued to the gate with a detour to the bathroom. In the waiting area for my gate I messaged my son Samuel, that I will arrive at 6:10pm at ARN (Stockholm Arlanda Airport). He messaged back and asked me, if he should pick me up.

.While entering the plane all was going smoothly. We were driven by bus to it and I had got a seat in the bus. It was only one bus, though I thought it may be a smaller plane, but it was not. Surprisingly the plane was only filled for around 25%. There were empty rows and lots of passengers were the only one in its row, so were I. It was good with so much space 😊 and there was no problem for all my luggage. I used my cover on the plan, because it always is chilly and was able to sleep for two hours. By the way, there was only one (1) passenger in premium class!

The meal on Bord was very good and in convenient time. Unfortunately I did not get my lactose free meal I pre-ordered. They apologised and told me, I could get money back if I go to the TAP counter in Stockholm. I could anyway eat the most of the meal and got full enough.

Read about my arrival in Stockholm and the following weeks there by following the link.