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Tuesday 30 December 2014

PIGS!!!!!!

16th November
Hoo-bloody-rah, the internet came back today; I posted my blog (a good six week’s worth!!!).
Gary came round; still no sign of Betty and now he’s convinced that the hunters shot her last week ... and I have an awful feeling he more or less accused them of it this morning, when he went to talk to them (ostensibly to ask if any of them had seen her) – he also managed to mention us in his conversation, which we’re not happy about, we don’t want to be thought of as bolshie expats, we want the locals to accept us.
We were supposed to go to a hog roast in Penamacor this afternoon, but, by the time the animals were away (and the stove was lit) we decided to stay home.

17th November
The solar still isn’t getting much chance to charge so we’re having to ration our use of electricity; one light bulb in the evening and the fridge turned off overnight.
Most of the morning was taken up with collecting our tools from Annika’s, then this afternoon Brett taped all the joints of the next area of ceiling he’s going to plaster.

18th November
Well I did a job on myself last night, when I was putting the animals away; I managed to catch my foot in the electric fence, fall over onto my hip and puncture my hand on a broken plastic post on the way down. I had a very uncomfortable night and today all my joints ache, especially my knees and hips – the joys of old age!
Brett plastered another section of the kitchen ceiling while I taped and filled between sheets of plasterboard.
It was jolly cold today, unfortunately it wasn’t sunny too, so not much solar charging going on, the fridge went off early evening and we sat with one light bulb on – I went to bed at 8.30.

19th November
No electricity – no lights, no fridge, no charging ....
It rained and we sat inside a dark gloomy house, unable to do much – boring!

20th November
A little bit of sunshine today, thank goodness.

21st November
We went into CB and bought a wood burning stove for the living room (Pam told us about it as it was on special offer in Maxmat), it was only 169€ and its 11.5KW – it’s not very fancy, very simple lines, but it goes well with the stove in the kitchen.
Second language class this evening.

22nd November
We spent the day playing house; tidying and cleaning the living room and deciding where to put the stove.
And this evening we went to Chris & Di’s (they’re house sitting for a South African man, Richard, who owns a real house in our village, with electricity and a flushing toilet!!!) with P&M for a meal – we had a lovely evening ... Di even serenaded us (she’s a professional singer) which was fab.

23rd November
It was remarkably quiet for a Sunday; fingers crossed we’ve cracked the hunter problem (but I’m not getting my hopes up yet!).
Brett continued plastering the kitchen ceiling (3/4s of the way there, it’s a big old high ceiling!). I designed some Christmas cards to sell at the market (if they don’t sell I will use them).

24th November
Brett finished the kitchen ceiling
whilst I had a ‘girly day out’ in Castelo Branco with Pam, Di and Lou AND ........ I drove! First time I’ve ever driven into CB and it was absolutely fine (phew). We did the rounds of all the clothes shops and I bought a skirt and jumper from H&M.
I have coveted a Kitchen Aid Food Mixer for years, but they’re so expensive and I couldn’t justify that expense even to myself! But next week Lidl has a Silvercrest food mixer (I’ve purchased quite a few of their electrical appliances and they are very good quality) on offer (100€) and it looks very like a Kitchen Aid, so I’m going to treat myself (Christmas/Birthday present) – very excited.

25th November
We went to lunch with Nicky & Rich; one of their sows had to be put down when she was in labour (so we were eating her!) and we are going to have her two piglets. They’re only six weeks old and not fully weaned yet so we’ll have them in a few weeks. They are very cute; fat and black.
On our way to Fundao we stopped at a couple of stone masons to look for a plinth for the stove – all we were offered was rather expensive (75€) and not particularly attractive (looked like/was kitchen counter top), so we’re wondering about a tile fireplace?

26th November
We went to the builder’s merchant, in our village, to look for tiles and found a lovely thick piece of stone perfect for our plinth (48€) so we’re really pleased. As I couldn’t help Brett lift it (he wouldn’t let me!) we invited Chris & Di to lunch!

Our living room looks very smart now, I can’t wait to light the stove (but Brett still has to make a hole in the wall for the flue to go through.

27th November
Stove flue fitted and cemented in place .... now I just have to wait for the cement to dry!
The last few days I’ve been painting plaques for the Christmas market.


28th November
Another day of cleaning and tidying and (my most dreaded chore) hoovering, and of course the hoover spent more time belching out dust than sucking it up – I HATE it!
Third language class.

29th November
Brett plastered another kitchen wall and, at last, it was sunny enough for me to finish stencilling the cupboard bed, I even painted the second beam.
This evening we went to Marc & Mieke’s for a meal with Alex and Karina – another lovely evening out with good friends.

30th November
Wow, another Sunday with very little hunting noise; and what there was was all in the distance.
We had to move some of the big kitchen furniture in preparation for Brett plastering the ceiling and walls underneath the sleep platform (Tuesday and Wednesday). So lots of unpacking cupboards and moving on rollers and repacking – dirty tiring work.
This afternoon we light the living room stove and watched a film, very relaxing.
Tomorrow we’re leaving for CB early so that we can take Chris & Di to the station (they’re off to the UK for a fortnight) and to buy my new pretty food mixer – excited, it feels like Christmas!

1st December
Where has the year gone?
What a horrible, wretched, day; I’m really disappointed .......
We picked up C&D and got them to the station nice and early and then it was off to Lidl; we arrive there at 9.20 a.m. I rushed in to look for my mixer, there was a lady pushing one around in her trolley, I couldn’t see where she’d got it from so I asked her (in Portuguese) and she answered (in Portuguese) over there (pointing) but I got the last one!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Don’t worry, said Brett there’s another Lidl in the town centre; we went there – sold out. Poor old Brett even drove all the way to Fundao – but they’d sold out there too, apparently each shop only had two, they were just a ‘lost leader’. I was not happy.
On the positive side I have looked on Amazon and for not much more money I can get an equally nice looking mixer with a mincer attachment which will be useful when we have pigs (so maybe today’s disappointment was for the best, even though it didn’t feel like it at the time).

2nd December
Brett plastered the ceiling under the sleep platform; he was shattered by the end of the day (all that overhead work).

3rd December
We (Me, Pam, Mieke, Clare & Andy) met at the Camera to get the keys for our space; we have a lovely old house on the main street up near the church. By the end of the day our ‘shop’ looked wonderful, now all we need are the customers.
Brett did the last wall under the sleep platform, now the kitchen is all done except ... the BIG wall, that Brett really isn’t looking forward to - Brett’s Everest)..
I felt very virtuous as I made chocolate mousse tonight as Diane and Thomas are coming to dinner tomorrow evening.

4th December
Very busy today; cleaning, hoovering, reorganising the kitchen (moving all the heavy furniture) and cooking for tonight’s meal.
We had a lovely evening with Diane and Thomas; Diane is off tomorrow (she works in Abu Dhabi) but Thomas has now moved here; I’m rather concerned about how he’ll manage as he doesn’t drive.

5th December
The kitchen looks good when it’s clean and tidy (it’ll look even better when all the tools are out).
We’re going to look for tiles next week for behind the stove, behind the sink and behind the cooker; we have some old tiles that Marc & Mieke gave us which we would like to replicate.
Language class this evening, we had to speak about what we are selling at the Christmas market ... hahaha, we are not very good however there were some new people tonight, who left halfway through as they thought the class was too advanced for them!!!! Next week is our class Christmas meal at O Quartel (not the Cave for a change!).

6th December
First day of the Christmas market; our stalls were not a huge success!!!! The food sold quite well – to other expats, we did sell a few handicrafts (but they were sympathy purchases by our friends), I sold eight Christmas cards (4€), as Brett says the Portuguese don’t go in for ‘tat’!
We decided that tomorrow we don’t all need to be in at the same time (it’s rather off putting to have a room full of expats, talking English, when customers turn up) so we organised a rota; unfortunately everyone wanted to do the early shift so I ended up on the late shift with Pam (she’s going to give me a lift as I’m not confident driving in the dark, I just can’t see – when Brett is driving at night I always think he’s driving too fast for the conditions and spend all my time saying ‘can you actually see?’, he says he can – I can’t).
The town looked amazing, there were some beautiful decorations; a lot of work has gone into this market.
I was there from 9.00 a.m. – 7.00 p.m. Brett came in at 7.00 but most stalls were shut by then and there was nothing going on, so we had a meal at the Pizza restaurant.
Bloody hell Looby is on heat (and yes, she has been sterilised! so please someone explain it to me); today she had a male dog hanging around and then she ran off, Brett had to chase after her in the car, so now she has to be walked on a lead and kept behind a gate.

7th December
I woke up a 3.00 a.m. with a sore throat, headache, earache, a snuffily nose and I was freezing cold; in fact I got up and filled a hot water bottle.
I spent the morning in front of the stove watching ‘The Persuaders’ (nostalgia). While Brett chain-sawed wood and split logs.
Then a 3.00 p.m. Brett took me to Pam’s track, for her to give me a lift to the market, .... I wouldn’t have gone but I didn’t want to let her down, as everyone else was leaving by 5.00. She told me I should have stayed at home and arranged for Mark to drive me back home – I was very grateful as I was feeling rotten (but I did feel guilty too).

8th December
Still feel crap, so I didn’t even attempt to go to the market today.
Brett spent the morning preparing for tomorrow – he’s going to endeavour to plaster the big kitchen wall, poor darling he’s really daunted by it – which means it will probably go fine.

9th December
Feeling slightly better, but Brett is feeling rough today! But he still plastered the big wall and I was right, it went well – it looks fantastic, now the plastering of the kitchen is nearly finished. Tomorrow we’re going to look for wall tiles for behind the stove, sink and cooker.
I went to help clear up the craft stall and collect all the money I took (7,40€!), I sold fourteen cards. Next year they are going to concentrate more on food, which went down better.

10th December
Another pathetic trip to CB, we went to several shops but couldn’t find any tiles we liked, there were a few that we liked the pattern of but they were in blues and yellows and we want primarily green.
We did buy the wire for the pig run, so that’s a job we’ll be doing this week. One of the jobs we were going to do, pick our olives, is off the agenda as all the olives have fallen off the trees in the past week (they stayed on until February last year).

11th December
We did lots of smallholdery stuff today; we collected some wood from Anika’s, scrumped some lemons and harvested some vegetables from the garden.
Then this afternoon I painted a sign for the kitchen on some scrap wood

while Brett chain sawed and chopped logs.

12th December
Tonight our Portuguese class went out for a Christmas meal; we were supposed to spend the whole evening speaking in Portuguese however once we’d exhausted the Portuguese for ‘hello’/’good evening’, ‘how are you’/’I’m fine’, ‘it’s cold today’/’yes, very cold’ we had run out of conversation so reverted to English!

13th December
I stencilled around the doorway in the Kitchen and the second pillar – it’s looking more cottagey and less new build.
This evening we went into CB to pick up Chris & Di from their excursion to the UK – they brought us back lots of golden syrup!

14th December
This evening we went to Karina & Alex’s for dinner, it was lovely and cosy in their outside kitchen (it’s so cosy that they’ve moved out of their caravan and put a mattress on the floor!).
On the way home we saw masses of shooting stars.

15th December
Today we spent loads of money on fence posts for the pig run (they are really expensive here and very flimsy).
We prepared a shed for the pigs which we are picking up this week. Then we had the task of making something to transport them in – we have an open backed truck.

17th December
We prepared a couple of ducks for Christmas dinner this morning.
Then Brett started fencing the pig run, it’s going to take ages, it’s huge.
I continued stencilling; around kitchen window today.


18th December
Nicky and Rich gave us lunch and then we came home with our two new pigs – we transported them in barrels (apart from being very practical it also looked like a truck of rubbish so the GNR didn’t stop us!).
The dogs are absolutely fascinated by the pigs – Lili keeps going in with them.


19th December
Brett continued the fencing of the pig run, I help by making sure all the posts are aligned (it’s a proper job; I have to stop whatever I’m doing when Brett needs my eyes!).
When I went to feed the pigs this afternoon ...... one was out!!!! Fortunately the other one wasn’t so the escaped pig was hanging around and as soon as I put the food in the shed it wanted to go back in, so it was easy to catch, thank goodness.
I painted a sign for Pam’s Christmas present (she makes patchwork quilts so I had thought it out).
Before distressing

After distressing

20th December
Brett finished banging all the posts in around the run (he broke quite a few, they really are pathetically weak). Then he started making a pig house.
I had a horrid day doing a proper spring clean; then I decorated the Christmas tree (olive branch) which looks lovely.
Pam and Mark are away for Christmas, so tonight we went out for a birthday (mine) meal with them.

21st December
What a chore shopping is!!!!! We went into CB to buy Christmas presents for one another and food for over the next week. We spent THREE hours trying to find a birthday present for Brett to buy for me; needless to say we didn’t buy any Christmas presents, we did buy food though!

22nd December
Today I was supposed to be cooking for my birthday party, but wasn’t in the mood, so I painted another sign for the kitchen – I enjoyed myself.

Brett finished building the pig house and then tensioned his corner posts; they are very solid and he is very pleased.

23rd December
Happy Birthday ME!!!!!
I had a brilliant day; lots of birthday messages, long telephone conversations with Will & Hen and then my birthday party. It was a fabulous evening with lovely friends, lots to eat and drink and so much laughter ...... we were entertained by Di singing and Brett playing the Pan pipes (beer bottles), it was so funny – you had to be there! Another funny incident was when Joyce rang at 10.30 p.m. and an intoxicated Jamie answered my phone, she was very confused!
A whole host of guests left just before midnight Рthey were going into Penamacor to watch the giant bonfire being lit. And those of us that were left made an Ouija board and had a s̩ance .... nothing happened!
We didn’t get to bed until well into the early hours.

24th December
Not much of a hangover at all, so very impressed with myself.
Clearing up didn’t take too long at all, and then we settled down to a rather relaxed day.
We dug up the root vegetables for tomorrow and were very impressed by our parsnips,
unfortunately we didn’t get many carrots (because the sheep had eaten the tops and we couldn’t find them) or sweet potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes (as the frost had killed off the tops so we couldn’t find them).

25th December N/I
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
We invited Diane & Thomas over for the day today, they brought their dogs (Welsh Collies) so we had a pack of matching dogs running around the quinta.
J&J invited us all round for Christmas cocktails at 12.00; two hours later and they didn’t want us to leave, but we had already put food in the oven, however ....... we went home, had our lunch, had a snooze, got a new lease of life and went back!
It was a very sociable day, spent with some lovely friends.

26th December N/I
Yesterday I wore the rings that my father gave me (a heart shaped topaz that was my 21st birthday present and a emerald cut tourmaline): this morning I woke up and couldn’t take the topaz ring off, my finger had swollen, in the end Brett had to cut it off me – so now I need to take it to a jewellers to get it repaired and enlarged, the tourmaline ring I managed to take off after well lubricating with washing up liquid (so that needs enlarging too).
We had a quiet ‘chill out’ day today; taking the dogs for walks, eating leftovers, and watching films – all very relaxed.

27th December N/I
Apparently shooting is allowed on most days between Christmas and New Year (because of the days holidays fall on etc.) but so far we’ve been lucky; I heard shooting in the distance yesterday and Brett heard some today, but so far nothing close to.
The internet has been very iffy over Christmas; I can go onto Facebook, AOL etc. see I have messages but can’t open them and definitely can’t reply to them – rather annoying.
It was back to work for us today; we now have wire on half the fence posts around the pig run (it is a big area, about ½ an acre). It was not an easy job as the posts are too flimsy, the soil is either too rocky or too soft; consequently Brett is not happy with the end result, but I think it looks fine.
My job was holding the posts while Brett banged in the staples – now my joints ache!

28th December
Another shooting day and still only in the distance, we expected it to be really bad today.
Today we nearly finished the pig run; hopefully they should be in it by tomorrow lunchtime (we just have a few fiddly bits to do). It’s a really lovely enclosure for pigs; lots of trees for shade,
scrub land for digging up,
one of Brett’s huts for shelter
– they are very lucky pigs; I’m really excited about putting them in there tomorrow.

29th December
We finished the pig run today and liberated the pigs from their shed; they ran round and round their enclosure, they seem very happy with their new space. It’s impossible to tell where they are in there,
Spot the pigs
but all you need to do is shout “Pig, pig, pig, pig, pigs” and they come running
– they love human contact and are quite upset when we climb out of their run and they can’t follow.
On a down side from having them near the house Lili has spent all day squeaking; she and Looby kept jumping in the pig run, in the end we had to fence off the area where they could get in.
Tonight C&D came round and we had a mammoth Scrabble tournament whilst drinking all the left over Christmas booze.