The day the coolest guys came visit

It was a warm summer morning when scrolling through my Inbox I saw the subject “Portuguese Land Rovers” an e-mail sent by Huckberry, a long-time guilty pleasure newsletter (it’s 99% focused on outdoorsy men stuff…), that makes me crave for adventures and wild expeditions.

I remember perfectly the mix of curiosity, excitement and pride when I clicked to read it. “A Portuguese brand on Huckberry’s Journal? A-mazing!” I thought. I had previously seen some Portuguese brands being sold at Huckberry’s online store, but this was a proper feature on Cool & Vintage, a company dedicated to restoring vintage Land Rovers.

Fast-forward a few months and a couple of reciprocate courtesies, and Zé Pedro Alvarez, Cool & Vintage’s talented photographer suggested we meet.

“Let’s do something, you know, with one of our jeeps, and your food and wandering spirit, in Arrábida” he said. I obviously replied “Of course!”, not exactly knowing what that “something” meant.

So I kind of went with the flow, trying to keep up with all the coolness of the situation. Along with Zé Pedro came the brand’s CEO and Founder Ricardo Pessoa, both armed with a couple of small but still intimidating cameras.

I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to take the food on the jeep, or if we were to only do a photoshoot inside, so I decided to make a simple soup and a couple of desserts, one a bit fancier than the other, both quite experimental/improvised, everything very seasonal.

The task at hands was to cook something that resonated with my style of cooking but also with their brand image, good enough to eat and pretty enough to take photos, while keeping an interesting conversation with two persons I’ve never met before AND trying to (barely) look good - myself and the kitchen - for the gazillion photos they were taking.

I failed miserably on the quantity of food and my hair looked messy after the cooking session but everything else went kind of well. At the end of the day I think they left hungry but happy.

It was a delight to get to know and chat with both Zé Pedro and Ricardo. The two have very distinct personalities and life paths, they love what they do and for me that’s the greatest inspiration. They put a great deal of attention in all sorts of details, being the jeeps they restore or the pictures they take of them, carefully constructing the right setting, to evoke the right feeling.

That feeling you are probably feeling right now, the one where you can picture yourself leaving all the business of your life, get inside this Land Rover and take the Freedom road towards Summerland.

And if by any chance you decide to take action on your feeling, I hope you have the time to make and pack a thermos of the soup we had on this day.

Celeriac and Chestnut soup

150g chestnuts, previously boiled or roasted and peeled
250g celeriac, peeled and roughly diced
2-3 cups of water or homemade vegetable stock
1 small piece of Ceylon cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste

Place all the ingredients into a medium size pan, bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the chestnuts and celeriac are very soft. Remove the cinnamon piece and process the soup until smooth. I like to use the smoothie’s blender for this but a hand blender will work as well. Return the soup to the pan and re-heat without boiling.

To serve:
A knob of ghee or butter
A handful of mushrooms (Shiitake and Portobello are my favorites)
1 or 2 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
Salt to taste
Freshly grated orange zest
2 slices of sourdough bread

Melt the ghee on a grilling pan and add the mushrooms and sage. Fry for a couple of minutes, season with salt and set aside. Place the bread slices on the pan and grill for a few minutes on each side. In the meantime, pour the soup in bowls, place a spoonful of mushrooms on top and finish with the orange zest. Serve immediately with a slice of grilled bread.

Serves 2

Head over to Cool & Vintage’s Journal for more about this day.

Meaningful Mondays #4

“Each of you, make yourself an island, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge. Make truth your island, make truth your refuge; there is no other refuge.”

— Buddha

I came across this quote a few days ago when I was searching an old document on my computer. Along with it, I wrote at the time - which was around the end of 2014 - a few more words on the theme which I'd like to share with you. It made sense back then and it still does. 

***

To me there's nothing in this world that compares to peace of mind and spirit, and nothing that can give us more courage, calmness and hope than being truthful with ourselves. This is not an arrogant and egocentric exercise, but one of humbleness and detachment. 

All of us have opinionated people around us, people that express strong beliefs about how life should be lived, including our own. Even if we hold some of them in high esteem they will not live our lives for us. More so, most of us live in society, which being obviously great it could also be that whatever is happening around us might be blurring the vision we have for our life, and these two things together leave us without truly knowing if what we want is coming from within ourselves or from others.

The power of presence

As you've might already noticed, this is not just a place about food. Well, at least not food as we commonly know it. Just as I believe that food isn't only a means to get energy for our body, I also believe that life is more than getting things done. I won't deny that there's a kind of sense of accomplishment when you tick that certain item off your bucket list. But I wonder, without meaning how long does that sense of accomplishment lasts? Maybe just one moment, as you will surely look for the next item to focus on. I'm completely guilty of doing this. When I'm not doing something I feel like I'm just waisting my time. Except I'm not. 

I have my dear friend Maria João to thank for an incredible exercise that she suggested me to do some months ago:

MJ: "Just go outside, sit in your garden and do nothing for half an hour."
Me: "But that's what I do everyday when I meditate!"
MJ: "No, it's not the same thing. Just sit and do nothing."

And what an incredible experience it was. Weird at first for sure, but I felt like I gained something else. I believe it was presence. An overwhelming presence. I've felt this before. I feel this every time I'm deeply connected with nature or engaged in a deep conversation with someone. Or even when I'm meditating. So what is the difference between all these examples and the exercise your friend suggested, you might ask. Well, I guess is the courage to assume that you're about to do nothing in a time where productivity rules, where you are what you do or accomplish. And having the courage to do that empowers you. 

If you'd like some extra reading on this, check this article and this. For Portuguese readers, have a look at this one as well. 

In celebration of the International Volunteer Day

Two years ago I was in Lima, Peru, enjoying the last days of one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. For 3 months I volunteered as a photojournalist for the American non-profit Krochet Kids intl.

A personal story

I’ve always wanted to volunteer but I never knew where to start. Frustration pretty much summed up my searching endeavours. I either thought I didn’t have the adequate background to apply, or the opportunity seemed of low-impact, even impact-less, or the volunteer programme appeared to be poorly structured or unreliable. I have to admit that my standards were reasonably high, specially after having taken this course where I learned about poor economics and impact measurement and evaluation. As in anything in life, the last thing I wanted was to spend time and money in something that was going to add little if any value to my life and the life of others.

I wish I could reveal to you the hidden path to finding the perfect volunteer programme but unfortunately that’s not how it worked out for me. I came across the opportunity to volunteer with Krochet Kids Intl. completely by chance. A long story short, I saw on their Facebook page they were accepting applications for photographers to go to Uganda, Peru and California on an internship/volunteering basis, decided to apply, and was accepted. Since today is the International Volunteer Day, I just want to talk about volunteering but you can still read about my experience here. 

On volunteering

At this point, I feel that it makes sense to share my favourite definition of what is volunteering:

“Volunteer work is work a person does out of free will, that reaches out to invest time and service for the benefit of others or to a cause that is non-profit seeking, and for which there is no monetary or in-kind payment.”

— Jacqueline Butcher, 2010, as read on the Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work

It also makes sense to point out that, according with the Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work, issued by the International Labour Organisation, if you work for a company that provides incentives such as paid time off to volunteer, that doesn’t count as volunteering since there’s some kind of payment (in this case time-related) going on. Likewise, your own household tasks or acts of kindness and support towards your family are not considered to be volunteer work. Nonetheless, the reason that made me write this post is more of a qualitative nature than a quantitative one, and as the same manual points out “As with other forms of philanthropy, the rewards for individuals who volunteer are not monetary but rather social and psychological”.

Sunset from one of Krochet Kids Peru offices, in Chorrillos, Lima, Peru | October 17, 2014

The bitter-sweetness in volunteering

As I mentioned, in my own search for a volunteering opportunity I faced mainly two obstacles: lack of experience on my side and apparent poor organisation or appeal on the other side. Unfortunately, there are many other motives discouraging people from volunteering. Those could be lack of time, means of transportation and family support, and these are all common obstacles that follow from the lifestyle of many people nowadays. On a psychological view, many people may feel intimidated for doing something new with people they don't know, may wonder if they will be welcomed or how will they make a difference. They could have had a previous bad experience or no reply from an attempt to volunteer. All this has happened to me and I'm sure to many others.

In addition people who want to volunteer feel like they have something beautiful to offer that can change for the best the life of others and create a positive impact to the causes they believe in. Well, many times this feeling is hard to match with the reality. Many times you have the perfect vision of what you think others need and more often than we would like to admit, it simply doesn't work. Or to put it better, it does´t meet our expectations. So, in my opinion, and as far as any kind of volunteering goes, you should keep an open mind and most of all an open heart.

Some random inspiration

When you're able to accept all that volunteering involves, the good and the bad, it is one of the most rewarding and life-changing experiences you can have. It made me more humble and vulnerable than anything else. It made grow as a human being, it made me more empathetic, kind, calm, resourceful, aware. It expanded my view of the world.

If you want a bit more inspiration or need a little push, here are a few suggestions:

• Listen to the episode of the TED Radio Hour Haves And Have-Nots, about the world's inequalities;

• Let Dame Claire Bertschinger's interview for the amazing BBC radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs inspire you;

• Read this article from the New Yorker magazine;

• Check-out the United Nations Online volunteering opportunities;

• If you're in Portugal and love nature, why not give a hand to the organisation Plantar uma Árvore; they have frequent reforesting and conservation initiatives in and around Lisbon;

• If you want to take volunteering to a different level you can try Experteering with Moving Worlds, a social impact organisation that matches your talent with other social impact organisations.

I truly believe that volunteering is a powerful action and it should be a part of our lives, just as our family, our friends, our hobbies and our jobs.