How do you get a Portuguese visa? Normally, US residents who are visiting for under 90 days don’t need a visa in Portugal or most other EU countries. However, these are not normal times and the pandemic has countries closing their borders. I plan to reside in Portugal long-term which puts me in a different…
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It may be a bit telling that one of my favorite movies is a weird cult film from the ’80s: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Peter Weller with hair. Yum. Actually, it seems like everyone was in that movie: Christopher Lloyd, John Lithgow, Rosalind Cash, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum (and the…
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Albufeira: Portuguese for everything is uphill. Yesterday, I made a new rule for myself: Don’t walk downhill until I know for certain I won’t have to walk farther uphill. Some neuron in my brain fired the other night and I remembered that I was supposed to register my presence with the local authorities. I went…
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And… we’re in the air. Chicago to Heathrow is about a 4,000 mile flight. We’ve got a tailwind that varies between 40 and 60 MPH and an airspeed of 560 mph. The outside temp is -65.2 degrees which is cold enough to keep the Pfizer vaccine stable. A bit too chilly for this Florida girl.…
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The Adventure Begins… I swear to you, I have an almost completed post on the visa process, but I need to slip this post in as an update. Yesterday, January 4th, was my departure date from the US. Today, January 5th, at approximately 4:00 pm Portugal time, I should have landed and by 6:00 pm,…
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This is a week of uncertainty. Another strain of Covid has been found and countries are shutting border again. Brexit is not helping—with the UK pulling out of the European Union, I don’t know if EU countries are allowing flights from England to land. My flight goes through Heathrow. A person on one of my…
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The ex-pat life. What makes someone pick up stakes and go live somewhere new, somewhere foreign? Many people have a bucket list, whether it is written down or just wandering around in their heads. I’m a writer so my list has been in written form for decades. It changes as things get checked off or…
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Re-setting marketing expectations is often the first task in my work developing marketing plans for entrepreneurs. If we could just pop a Facebook ad up with a $5 daily limit and get all the business we need, everyone would be doing it. We wouldn’t need any other marketing strategies. Case closed. There are very few…
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Why do entrepreneurs have such a hard time marketing themselves? It’s a problem that I had to overcome in my business and it has been a major limiting factor in the success of people who seek my help. By and large, entrepreneurs and small business people are very good at what they do. Most of…
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There’s a reason why you shouldn’t hit PUBLISH in the middle of moving. Last month, my landlords decided to put the condo on the market and I jumped at the chance to get out of my lease a couple of months early. I had been there for ten years; I loved the place, but I…
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