Here and There
dated 2008-06-24 | posted in Columns | permanent link
A noticeable pall fell over Cascais, and surely over the rest of Portugal, after the national team lost their quarter final match to Germany. When I watched on TV, I was reminded of Gulliver’s Travelers with the Lilliputians outsized by the Brobdingnags, and here were the smaller Portuguese up against the huge, charging Germans. ( Who am I to talk at less than 5 feet myself!) But everyone in our living room, even my German friend Jutta, agreed ...
The Pine Tree
dated 2008-06-09 | posted in Columns | permanent link
Bob Pine died two weeks ago. Alone. The coroner’s report stated that he died of “natural causes,” but the people who discovered him, apparently 4 or 5 days after he died, thought differently. They had been alerted by people in Bob’s building that he hadn’t been seen in several days, hadn’t answered his phone and hadn’t responded to emails from people who began to become concerned about him. One of them, his property agent who had b ...
Writing on the Ribbons
dated 2008-05-27 | posted in Columns | permanent link
If educators had looked at Joana’s school transcript ten years ago, they would never have predicted that she would have graduated last week from Universidade Católica, esteemed by many as Portugal’s finest school of higher learning.
When I met Joana at the SOS Children’s Village in 1998 she was floundering in a Portuguese public school. One day I asked how her English classes were progressing.
“Our teacher has been gone for two weeks, ...
Beware of your Insurance Company
dated 2008-05-13 | posted in Columns | permanent link
True or false? If a car hits yours and you are clearly not at fault (attested to by Brisa, the witnesses and the driver at fault) then you could be liable and have to pay for the damages made to your car? The answer: Maybe.
Here’s what happened. On March 29 I pulled into the toll lane to pay my €1.15 on the A-5 highway from Cascais to Lisbon. I was last in a line of cars waiting to pay. My friends and I were eagerly talking about the musical ...
Life without the Internet
dated 2008-04-26 | posted in Columns | permanent link
Life beyond the Internet
One week ago, our internet connection went down. It wasn’t the first time the small round light to the far right corner of our router went red, so Don and I figured the rain, heavy usage or some other temporary anomaly caused the problem.
“It will come back in a few hours,” Don, the eternal optimist said.
“Well, maybe we should call Jeroen anyway,” I countered, optimistic too but totally helpless when the ...
Patricia Westheimer, author, teacher and business writing consultant, is originally from Baltimore, Maryland. She currently lives in Cascais, Portugal and in Paris, France. She is the principal author of Scott Foresman's Executive Writing Series. In addition, she writes a bi-weekly column for The Portugal NEWS (
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