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This is the first fully free weekend I have had since Easter, six weeks ago. And it’s a long one, since tomorrow it’s a holiday. It feels good and it feels different. Yesterday I finally washed the dishes, cleaned-up the mess and went to the supermarket. I also watched some DVDs (“The Forgotten”, “Ocean’s Twelve” and “The Last Samurai”) and the football match between Luxembourg and Portugal that Portuguese team won 3-0. All at a very slow speed. Today will be another slow day… I just woke-up, had breakfast and am now listening to Sigur Ros music, the closest thing to stay in bed – and I mean it in a positive way! Outside the mood seems to be the same: the sky is mostly cloudy and the temperature around 13C… Summertime is approaching fast, but Brussels seems to be immune to that – and I mean it quite negatively! Before summer, in less than one week, it will be the turn for the FIFA World Cup to start. One entire month of football, the sport that unites the world and provides millions of people with a national identity. This is true, at least, for Portuguese… For some days, as long as the football team manages to stay in the World Cup, Portugal will be again, for the vast majority of Portuguese people, a collective project, a community which prosperity is the source of the welfare of each of its members, a chain of affections, a space of shared heritage and culture. This football team is the only entity capable of mobilizing the crowd, giving a meaning to the national colors, causing collective pain… In five days, the world will see the birth of a new country; let’s hope it lasts long!