Well, hello. I am back and things have changed quite a bit around here! There’s been a pandemic (I’m sure you’ve noticed), a new baby (whom is now a toddler! How?!), a house move (still in London!) and my eldest is now in school ready for Year 1 next year! Also quite a bit of driving long distances (as in: London to Lisbon, Lisbon to London), oh!, and my husband now has a beard and long hair. Hahah For those who are new here, I am Millia, an almost 38 year old woman (ugh, I feel so “old” and “put together” when I say that… I feel like I’m forever stuck in that Britney Spears chorus of “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman” – I’m aware that knowing that song makes me an “old” woman), mum of two brilliant and awesome kids (whisper: great genes, wink wink), ex-a-lot-of-fun-jobs and married to a really cool guy called João. I can’t believe it’s been 4 years since my last post, but for some reason, I can’t give this website up and now I feel like I want to come back to it. So here I am. More consistent and hopefully […]

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Hello, people of the world! After a short hiatus, I’m back! And with a very loving subject: my beautiful wedding! I’ve been wanting to write about my wedding day for a while now. And as it was our 3rd anniversary on the 21st of May, I want to celebrate it with a post! João João is my best friend. Calm, considerate, hard working, the most focused person I know, smart and kind, we complement each other and push each other to be better versions of ourselves. I’m an extrovert and he’s an introvert. I’m emotional and he’s rational. I know how fortunate I am that he fell in love with me and to have fallen in love with him. We met 8 years ago, at a friend’s barbecue. We became very good friends a couple of months later and 6 months later we started dating on Halloween. Four months went by and after a complicated house search we started sharing a studio flat with João’s Black Labrador, Mia. I would never have thought that a healthy relationship could be built this fast, but 7 years and a half later we’re celebrating 3 years of a happy marriage with a 1 […]

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I keep telling myself “go to bed early”. But it’s 2 am and here I am sitting in my desk procrastinating. Worrying that Thursday’s gone and no post has been finished or posted. Gosh some days are tough. Today was good enough, but the last couple of weeks? Tough. And even though I have so many posts lined up with interesting themes, today I just want to share my thoughts as they come, no filter, no theme, no game. Just my thoughts. I used to write poetry and poetic prose, and in the latest years I just stopped. And sure, I used to do it in Portuguese, which comes way easier to me than English, but one’s got to try. Sometimes one’s just got to try. And this is me, trying. Trying and failing, trying and failing. But isn’t that life? And life is tough. As I said, here I am just sharing my thoughts as they come. No filter, no theme, no game. Just my thoughts. And lately it’s just been tough. The baby was ill, which made him annoying, which made me edgy and made me cry. Because I am trying but some days I just fail. And […]

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When people tell me “Well, what I do doesn’t matter, nothing will change”, it bothers me. Because it’s simply not true. Every little thing each one of us do matters. At some point, to someone, it matters. And not taking action on something because we think it won’t make a difference feels wrong. We all have plenty of proof in our lives that it does. Why it matters Once I was on a tube station in London and a girl in her 20’s at the end of the platform was being harassed by three teenagers because one of them wanted a seat. I think I was at Tottenham Court Road, which is a long platform. I was right in the middle of it and I could hear them shouting at her through my headphones and her replying back politely, but as assertive as she could through the stress. I looked around and saw about 2 dozens of people scattered around the platform staring but not moving or acting on it. These three teenagers were using the argument of “go back to your country” on the premise that she looked Asian and shouting racist abuse. She was a British girl of […]

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9 months in this motherhood gig and only a post about breastfeeding not going well at the beginning. Gosh, motherhood does suck you in. Although, in my case, I’m not sure if it’s fair to put all the blame on motherhood. I do spend a lot of my time scrolling on Instagram and (still) on Facebook (I know, weird, but all the mum groups are there and I find them either useful or amusing to scroll through) which is kind of pointless at times. But damn, does it feel good. But I need to start focusing properly on creating something. I’m sorry that today’s post is just a brain dump on how I’m feeling frustrated with myself. But that’s also what life is about.. I keep on postponing writing posts and creating videos for YouTube and regretting that I haven’t started it yet, but not doing much to change something about it. And I think I always do it out of fear. Fear that it won’t be good enough. Fear that no one will like it. Or fear that I can’t make it happen in a timely manner. When I think of writing I always think of writing something useful, […]

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When you’re 23, a young and more naive relaxed person, you look up at 30-year-olds and you’re like: ‘Wow… they’ve got it all figured out!’ And by 32, you think that you’re supposed to have kids, be married, have your own house, a car and a stable career. This is true for some (probably very few) of my friends, but damn, it’s definitely not the case for me! I consider that, so far, my best year was at 23. And, for some weird reason, I have high hopes for my 32’s. So, as I turned 32 this month, I realised a few things. The main thing being that we all evolve at a very different pace and life doesn’t always turn out to be the way you’ve planned. Of course this is something that I’ve known for a long time, we read it constantly everywhere. But most times we need to go through things for them to fully make sense. So here’s 23 things that are true at 32 Career: Some of us have stable careers. Some of us are investing in a career change. Some of us still haven’t found our dream job. And some of us are simply […]

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I’ve always been moved by change. I need change and challenges in my life. Living abroad was always something that I was certain of. I wanted that adrenaline of moving to a new place, having to solve challenges in a language that was not my first nor second one, build something in a new place, learn from people with a different background and lifestyle. So when I thought I found the love of my life, I saw myself pondering whether that was it. He was everything to me and I loved him like I loved no one else before. But he didn’t want to travel. He didn’t want to live abroad. I did. And I saw my own dreams become a bit smaller. I saw myself re-structuring my life to fit his life. And that’s when it hit me.   1st sign: He didn’t like my band Just before we starting dating, at 19, I had the chance to become the vocalist of a friend’s band. I was so excited. I was finally writing lyrics with other musicians and not just creating music in my head. So when a couple of weeks later we started dating and he didn’t support […]

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For those who know me, there’s at least one thing they know for sure: I’m a Disney fan. When, almost 9 year ago, I realised I had the chance to work for Disney World for 6 months, I didn’t think twice: I applied. Going wasn’t an easy decision. I’ll write a little bit more about this on a future post. But it was one of the best decisions of my life. I worked for a company I loved, highly respect and respected me back. Worked a job that kept me wanting to wake up every morning and get to work. I remember those days with so much love and so much saudade*. *a Portuguese word for: feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia Do you want to know why? Here are 10 reasons why integrating the College Program was one of the best decisions of my life.   Hug, Millia :::::::::::::::::: Come follow me! For blog updates on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter To get to know me a bit better: milliadasilva

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Happy New Year everyone! This post is not about the lighter side of Christmas, but I finally had the courage to find the right words, so here it is. I’ve tried to write this so many times over the past weeks and today I got it out. I guess I felt the need to share this with you. We might be in the same boat and it’s good to know we’re not alone. Not all days are sunny days, and not all Christmases are easy in life. I’m well aware some will be worse. So far I’ve been pretty lucky with how many people in my family are still around. A year and three months ago, I lost my youngest uncle to a heart attack, at 47. He was a happy, silly and joyful person, who loved to cheat at board games and make us laugh. So, obviously, in a large family that gets together on the 24th, Christmas is not the same without him. But, life goes on and we’re learning to live with as much of the same joy as we used to live with when he was around.   Life changes and the fear of missing out This last Christmas has come […]

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Hello, people of the world! I’m happy to be back to writing! I’ve had a few busy months with several event management projects popping up and have to admit: this blog was left behind. But no more! When helping a few people getting their homes organised in the last couple of months, I’ve noticed that not everyone wants to give everything away to charity. Whilst we are happy to do it for some items (because they’re still in excellent conditions but we are no longer emotionally attached to them) other are harder to get rid of. Well, to be honest, fair enough. At that point,  I made this question: – “What if they were sold instead?” – “Well… Maybe… But I don’t know how to do it…” – (Lightbulb moment in my brain!) What if I could help selling them? And that’s when the idea of an online shop came on. Ladies and gentleman, girls and boys, welcome to my little Tidy Shop! Why and how? I thought this could be the perfect way to get rid of things and get some of the investment back. Because I’m starting with baby steps, the first batch of products can only be purchased by UK-based shoppers. For now, it’s second-hand items […]

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