Now & Then - Luanda

"Oh well maybe I shouldn't go you know... maybe next year!I've be craving for a cold cold winter that is finally here and just bought myself a new jacket!"

To be  brutally honest I was awfully reticent about going to Luanda for x-tmas... I haven't been there for 4 years, I was younger and my days were spent at home... But being older also means being much different from the girl with the hair bang and pseudo-skinny jeans. Since then I shaved my head, had an afro, whore a mohawk, tinted my hair like Cruella, then blond then pink then blond again and by the time I was leaving to Angola I found myself with a very dark and discrete blue hair.
My hair isn't the only thing different.
From pants with converse to 80's short-shorts and cosmic Litas. I became a totally different person that most of my family and friends in Angola hadn't met yet...
I found myself trying not to take my loudest pieces or  my highest heels. I guess I was afraid of a mental castration, of people looking funny at me on the streets.. even more then they already do in Lisbon. Of being a foreign in my own country...
-Let them look at me as they want!- I said to myself as I grabbed my Litas and sequins dress- for there is no better protection or answer than having the audacity of being myself! No better way to overcome insecurity  than wearing all of them off  on my next outfit. And most certainly no better way of smiling and knowing how comfortable I feel than wearing Steve Madden clogs on a party that turned out to be on the sand. Oh well... Of course some people looked at me as if I am crazy either for shaving my head or for the discrete-but-sometimes-evident blue tint.
But turns out Luanda was the sh*t!
Being overdressed all the time made me travel all the way to Low Profile Land, not in a "hiding myself mode" but in an honest and weather adapted way. I mean how many heels could I torture on the sand?
As Josine said Luanda is the place to be if you dig underground-glamour - Literally.
After being shocked with the discrepancy between skyscrapers and cubatas I learned one thing - if you just sit there on your car with your sunglasses and  A.C. on, looking straight ahead to the beautiful views and dance in those great parties you may not spend the holidays martyring yourself about all the social and cultural differences present in one city.

THEN : Luanda

All the way up...

...And home sweet home.

View while getting ready

Kiki, Ricardo & I

Cat wearing sunnies & lovely lace

Clutch & my (fake) nails

Drinks out & time to roll

Posing

WAR SCREAM

Ricardo drinking & Júlio - the crusher

Brother & Little sis

Underground-glamour - literally

Meet the famous Cabrité...

...and hit the club.

Louboutin 

Nice tail

Ricardo & Júlio

Leaving

Júlio's bottle & belt

From the button

to

The top - meet hiding Daniel

Paulo

Gaga shirt!

Bye-bye

NOW: Lisbon

A school tour - Fernando Pessoa

Diogo's backpack

We found Lola!

Bá's backpack

Bá

Creepers

Lovely porch

A marvelous afternoon spent with friends talking about boys, toys, fashion and subjects we won't even remember... Talking about this life that really is a stage! Entertaining  and being  entertained. Playing or clapping in the audience. Either on a great comedy or an awful drama...
There's no use on sitting alone in your room for this life is nothing more than a Cabaret, old chum!
Allow me to present my absolutely favorite song from my absolutely favorite movie:

Lisbon & its colorful buildings 

Diogo's gorgeous bracelet 

Diogo & I & Jacket I just stole from my sister

Know what Mr. Photographer? F**k you

Knitties 

Bird attack 

Mr. Rock'n'roll pigeon (yep, no middle fingers)

Miss Cruella de Vil

Diogo

Josine 

When there's no more sun and the only brilliant yellow globe is Ricardo's awfully intellectual head...is time to go!

The where

Waitress  would you be a darling and bring me some wine on a platform?

Oh no... 

Life is a Cabaret isn't it Ricardo?

There is only thing I envy more than shoes.

Only a Cabaret, old chum,
And I love a Cabaret!

*To be continued...