Signed

Last Thursday my documents arrived for me to change my name.  I signed and had my lovely neighbour L countersign for me. I am now waiting for my certificates to come back and then I can start contacting the bank, my boss and all the other admin!

I can also submit the name change certificate to Charing Cross too as I have until March 10th to confirm formally that I want a place with them.  This will be a wonderful to enter the system with my new name of Leng Montgomery.

It feels surreal to finally have this as my name and in doing some name research I had a bit of a giggle.  The name Montgomery is one I have liked for a long time but before it legally becoming my new name I never bothered researching the meaning of it.  I did last week and it means "Powerful Man" quite fitting I thought. 

Saying that I could do with going to the gym a bit more as well as squash but for the last week and a bit I have been feeling ill. As I write this I now have a stinking cold, my sinuses are completely blocked and my nose is really painful.  That as well as coughing up green things, as well as hair like an 80s warewolf.

I feel very sexy right now. Not.

I know I will be better soon so no point dwelling on it.  It's just frustrating.

I had a wonderful weekend spent in Lisbon with E. I keep reliving that with lovely memories of a great place and having a lovey time.  I felt I reconnected with my camera having interestingly lit places to experiment with depth of field and frame and create photographs that I was creating with my minds eye before I was shooting them. It was wonderful.  That coupled with an AMAZING place to stay...the bed was so big we could both sleep like star fish and still have space.

The decor was some of the best interior design I have ever seen and the place was well located.  Navigation wasn't too complicated either, nd I managed to read a map the right way a couple of times so was pleased about that.

The food we ate too was reasonably priced and really lovely. I also liked that there was a passion about what was being served and created also. 

The people in Lisbon were really lovely.  Well with exception for E who seemed to attract the attentions of two rather slimy men on the metro.  The first guy was a real creep and I didn't see what he initially did but he kept looking at her, licking his lips and then touched his groin. That was disgusting and we moved very quickly.

But as a slight aside, why do people do things like that?  What does a person seek to achieve with that, like seriously?

The other slimy man kept looking at her in a slightly leery way but luckily he was going down an escalator and we were going up so there was no harm done. Also in any situation like this its all about the attitude one keeps.  E has a no nonsense approach to situations like this an takes no prisoner and that is something I admire about her.

It also reminds me of when my Mum used to drill into me not to respond to people being creepy and not to be afraid to speak up or out loudly that what someone is doing is wrong and that it's their problem.

For a mental note the slimeballs were to be found on the Green Line around Baixa-Chiado. So although the behaviour wasn't on at least we could isolate the exact area as to where it seemed to happen. 

Still there were so many beautiful and lovely other happenings going on that I feel confident to say that these two incidents were semi isolated.  We walked around Rossio area which was littered with wonderful tiles, had rides on wonderful trams and also had other adventures on giant lifts as well as going to one of the best aquariums ever. We also rode a cable car, too photos of more breathtaking architecture that Lisbon had to offer and then on our last day we went to Sintra.

There we explored some castles, did a mini hike and reluctantly returned, had some natas and then dragged ourselves to the airport.

If I could have barricaded myself in the room we were staying in I think I would have. 

The flight back was painful as by then my sinuses were in full on ouch mode and I can tell you having popping ears and a feeling of a metal vice across my face wasn't nice at all.  Still for every pleasure in life there is sometimes some form of pain.  Only I prefer it to be consensual - or negotiated at the very least.