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Curiosity Can Kill More than the Cat

This has been specifically written for cats and their owners, a lot of the information will apply to dogs and their owners as well.  If your cat is special to you, is a pedigree cat, or has unusual or special markings please, get it chipped. In Portugal this will cost between twenty-five and fifty euros and can be done by most vets.  These cats have a high risk of being stolen.

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Vegan and Vegetarian Food and Recipes in Portugal

Over the last few weeks, I have shared some of the abundance that Portuguese cuisine has to offer. David asked me in one the comments how well Vegans were catered for in Portugal.  It was time for me to do some research.  On the face of it, Vegetarians can manage quite well as a lot of traditional Portuguese dishes incorporate eggs and cheese.  There are even some places where Vegetarian cheese can be bought.

If you are a Vegan, however, it is a very different story.

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Christine Quinn Leading from Behind the SoundProof Room: When Five Paid Sick Days are Not Enough

A sad bit of history was made this week when New York City finally passed a law that requires businesses with at least 15 employees to provide five paid sick days a year.  Five.  Days.  Five days are not enough days to be out sick in a single year, especially in a living space jam-packed-with-people New York City — but at least its a start in a City that clearly has cared more about your cigarettes and sugar consumption and your Big Gulps than ever it did about actually giving you a few days off to heal while still being able to make the rent.

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Metaphoric Synesthesia and the Myoclonic Tick

Synesthesia is one of the most fascinating phenomena.  In its simplest example, one hears a sound and sees a color associated with that sound.  Stevie Wonder has stated that, even though he’s blind, his music is specifically filled with colors he sees in his mind depending on the key and rhythm of the sound:  Visual Hearing.  In its more sophisticated form, Synesthesia changes the colors of words or numbers in a sequence depending on the context of arrangement.  

For example, an outline of the number 7 might be perceived as being “seven” and trigger the color blue, but when you look closer — and learn that the 7 is actually made up of many tiny number threes — then the color changes from a 7 trigger color to a 3 trigger color like, say, gold.  Some synesthetes can actually taste the colors as they view them.

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Banishing the Monday Morning Blues

It is a grey day here in Portugal — the sun has temporarily deserted us hidden behind layers of cloud. I have a day full of chores ahead after a weekend of relaxation. Cleaning, laundry, changing cat litter — all the mundane things I love to “hate” but know have to be done. Mr P is already fielding phone calls, organizing international transports from France to Portugal via our usual third-party who just happens to be in Brazil this week — the usual Monday mediocrity.

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