However, despite what newspaper headlines might sometimes lead you to believe, things these days go right far more often than not.

Nobody talks about the sheer feat of engineering that allows hundreds of thousands of planes to take off and land safely every day - you just hear about the one that crashed. It just doesn't make good interesting news when things go to plan. And fair enough, it would soon get boring if you got a notification every time a plane landed, or a bus ran on time. The good normally goes on silently. But that doesn't change the fact that in lots of ways things are far better now than they have ever been.

It's like Hugh Grant said in the opening dialogue at the beginning of ‘Love Actually’, whenever he gets gloomy at the state of the world he thinks about the arrival gate at Heathrow Airport, (with all the planes that of course arrive without trouble) where people are reunited with the people they love. He said general opinion is starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but Hugh doesn't see it that way. It seems to him that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or (indeed) newsworthy, but it's always there - mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. If you look for it, he had a sneaky feeling, you'll find, love actually, is all around.

We at The Portugal News have that same sneaking suspicion, and so we are launching a ‘Good News’ section to see if we can find it - around here.

And for that we are hoping to enlist the help of you, our readers, to write in and let us know your good news!

Have you recently got engaged, or indeed married? Or, have your children? Are you now a grandmother? Have you recently reached some other major milestone in your life? Have you just graduated? Or landed your dream job? Or are you proud of somebody who has? Is it your mother's birthday coming up, and would you like to surprise her when she opens the paper to see your congratulations for her latest trip around the sun?

Write into us and tell us - and you may very well find your story between our pages. The Portugal News is working to become an even more inclusive newspaper, and that means we want to include you!

If you like the idea of when you open up a copy of The Portugal News you could hear not only about the good things happening in the country as a whole (that we will also strive to deliver whenever possible), but also about what's happening to your friends, neighbours, and local community in general - then help us make this a reality by writing in when something good happens in your world.

Of course, nobody's saying bad things don't happen in the world, but there's also a lot of good. You see what you aim at. And, as somebody on the internet once said, ‘Kinda like how the Youtube algorithm shows you more of what you are interested in, the entire universe also has an algorithm that shows you more of what you are THINKING, feeling and talking about’.

So let's, like Hugh, have a look around and focus on the beauty and the love. Let’s talk. Let's start local. As local as your own life! It's time for some good news. What do you say?

Please send your text and images to info@theportugalnews.com