CHEESE & GRASS

8th June

We had coffee in Fundao with Diane and Tom, a couple who are planning to buy in this area. They live in Abu Dhabi at the moment, but also used to live not far from us in Wales (they won't be able to move here permanently for another year). They were very like minded people; they want to keep pigs, goats/sheep, chickens and perhaps a cow and be self sufficient.

Our 'new best friend' Louis came around this evening with a large cheese he had made from his sheep's milk (it was delicious); 

Then he started talking about cutting our grass again but .................. if we understood him correctly (and I hope we did) he's going cut it, bale it and take it for his sheep - and it won't cost us anything, and as he said it will make it better for us when we're ready to get animals. We explained several times that we haven't got money to spend on having the grass cut and he kept saying we didn't have to pay, so fingers crossed we understood one another, we're convinced!!

I think he said that he sells the meat, from his sheep, cheaply to friends - which he implied we were! He speaks very fast and doesn't seem to understand "fala mais lento, se faz favor" (speak more slowly, please), he tried to phone someone, he says, speaks English, but they were at work.

He says that our land is good for growing vegetables and that once he's cut the grass I should plant some seeds - I then mimed ants stealing the seeds, but for some reason he didn't seem to understand me!!!

6th June

It was a bit windy and cloudy today; which was actually a bit of a relief after the heat of the last few days, I haven't acclimatised yet.

Pastor Allen (our language teacher) has closed his classes for the summer (they had finished before we returned) so we are going advertise, in the village, for a teacher; we're doing our Michel Thomas CDs quite regularly, but we have questions with no one to answer them. If we do find someone Pam and Mark will join us, as they are keen to learn too, and hopefully a few of the other expats in the area.

This is our track through the quinta

We walked Brett's track this afternoon and took some photos, which don't do it justice as the sun wasn't out. 

One of the things I want to do next year is catalogue all the wild flowers and grasses growing on the quinta; I'll take photos, press and even sketch them - I will start this year but quite a few are already gone to seed. Today I noted:
Hypericum/St John's Wort

Dog Rose

Cistus/Rock Rose

Allium

Poppy

Lavender, more Lavender and even more Lavender (we literally have acres of Lavender)

Chamomile

Ragwort

Lupin

Sweet Pea

Honeysuckle

Thistle

Broom

Scabious

Toadflax

Foxglove

Convolvulus

Blackberry

and a whole host of ones I couldn't name.

And then of course there are all the butterflies, I'm rubbish at identifying them (but I have seen Swallowtails).

Oh dear, there was this man wandering about our quinta about 9.00 this evening; it turned out to be the man who let us drive through his land to get our camper van on site last year (Louis?). Anyway he kept going on and on about how we need to cut our grass, as it's a fire risk (and, surprise, surprise, he has a tractor) we kept asking "how much" but didn't get an answer (the Portuguese tend to think that expats are rich/ripe for the picking, they charge about 35€ an hour and it would be a good few days work - we can't afford that). When he left he said "Até amanha" which we're hoping is a way of saying "bye" rather than it's literal translation - until tomorrow. We kept saying, in our best Portuguese, "we'll think about it", so now we're hoping he doesn't think we've agreed to anything!!! We're keeping our gates locked for the next few days, so he can't cut it when we go out!

7th June

We were woken up again, by what we thought was the inverter alarm; this time Brett thought it might have been coming from the walkie talkies, but they were switched off, so we're none the wiser. Brett has tightened all the connections on the bus bars, in case they had worked loose (I stood around with my eye on a pile of wooden coat hangers in case he needed rescuing!).

This morning we lashed giant bamboo poles at P&M's; they bought them (not cheaply either) to erect their teepees on and they're splitting, which is annoying as it means they'll need replacing next year. It had turned quite windy, so we postponed putting up the second teepee.

Tomorrow we are going to meet a couple who are in the process of buying a quinta in the area; they contacted us via the expat forum - they used to have a smallholding in Lampeter, Wales (small world) and they want to do the animal rearing here, like us.

It rained quite a bit this afternoon and has been rather cold all day; if I had had the opportunity I would have lit a fire this evening - instead I put on extra clothing and socks, and cooked a curry!

FURNITURE ARRIVED TODAY

5th June

Well our furniture arrived 'safely'; I say that in inverted commas as one chair had two legs off and a cupboard had a door broken off - fortunately we're not too precious about our possessions, they will mend and be fine.

Ian, the removal man, had forgotten to bring the keys, to the padlocks on his trailer, so they had to be opened with a hammer! Then we thought that the back doors on his transit wouldn't open and that we'd have to try to manoeuvre the dresser base out  through the side door, but with a bit of persuasion they opened - it was all rather chaotic (but, as I keep saying, his vehicles got down our track).

Brett and Mark went off to order the wood for our roof and they came across Ian blocking the road ........... on his way back down our track he had scraped his trailer along a stone wall and had only just bothered to stop to fix it - he'd practically ripped his tailgate off!

We went back to Pam and Mark's for lunch; mainly because I wanted to see their new marble worktop - it's lovely and was really cheap. It's called rose marble and is threaded with a pink/brown/orange colour;  it's made up from two pieces of marble (L shaped) approx 2m and 3m, and cost 160€, what would it have cost in the UK?

On Friday we are going to help P & M put up their second teepee -should be interesting! They have built fabulous platforms to stand them on.

This weekend Pam and I are going to a festival; Salva a Terra (Save the Earth), in Idanha a Nova, a nearby village where lots of things take place, last year it hosted the Boom Festival. Brett doesn't want to go, it's not really his thing and it's rather expensive, 17€ to get in.

Another day in Paradise .......

3rd June: BRETT'S BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday Brett!!!

We took a day off today and set off to explore some of the surrounding countryside; we ended up at Monsanto (voted the most Portuguese village in Portugal), where we had lunch - a typical Portuguese meal, griddled ham and cheese toastie with hot sauce and onions, it was HUGE and delicious and, with drinks, cost a mere 8€ (about £6.50 'real' money).

As Brett needs nothing, and I couldn't think of anything to buy him (that he wouldn't sneer at, like his Christmas present ..... a wind-chime made out of a coconut shell in the shape of a goose!!!), we agreed that his birthday present was getting his gym set up and being able to work out again. So he had a workout while I prepared dinner.

Pam and Mark came round for the birthday meal: toast topped with black pudding and mango puree (we had it as a tapas in Spain, it was delicious), sticky lemon chicken (a staple, but so tasty) with rice, followed by cheesecake. Between the main course and the pudding we did a lap of the track Brett has been strimmering around the quinta - it was a lovely evening with a beautiful sunset.

We had the fan on when we went to bed and were woken up by the inverter alarm (it goes off if the batteries are getting too low and things need to be turned off). Brett tested the batteries, they were fine, so don't know what that was all about (Mark I can hear you muttering ....... "Chinese, what do they expect").

4th June: BRETT CONTINUES TO STRIMMER

We went into Castelo Branco to buy a new head for the strimmer and a few other bits and pieces; but we were home for lunch and Brett spent the afternoon widening the track he's strimmering, (1)  so we can drive around it (it's a lovely drive through the olive groves) and (2) to act as a bit of a  fire break.

We had an email from Gary inviting us down to his quinta this evening to meet 'Pinky', the kitten he rescued from a skip. He found him last week, in a skip, tied up in a plastic bag and his back legs weren't working, so he took it to the vet and had him X-rayed - the poor little thing had been shot, three times, and had pellets lodged close to his spine; the vet took the pellets out and Gary picked him up yesterday.  This evening you wouldn't have know he'd been through all that trauma (apart from his bald patches and stitches) he was playing just like any kitten of about six weeks old - thank goodness Gary found him.

We timed our walk around the quinta this evening, 20 - 25 mins, and so far the track is only halfway round our perimeter! When Brett was strimmering this afternoon he called me, on the walkie talkie, to ask me to bring him some  petrol, I couldn't find him for ages (I went the wrong way!).

The rest of our furniture arrives tomorrow, so it's going to be a busy day.

Sitting on my sofa using FREE village internet!!!

31st May

This morning the village wifi signal was strong so I tried an experiment, uploading my latest two blog posts along with a photo and it worked!!! It's very hit and miss and we can't use it at the same time, but, as it's free, we can't really complain.

Today I seem to have lost motivation, our three most important tasks (solar, water and toilets) have been completed and we are already far more comfortable than when we were living here last year. The next task is the roof, and we're both rather hesitant about starting it; well I suppose hesitant is the wrong word, we haven't decided yet whether we're going to replace the (heavy concrete) tiles or just insulate under them - it all depends on the eucalyptus trunk which spans the two rooms (30 foot+), there are carpenter bees nesting in it so we have to decide whether it needs replacing and if it does we'll replace the tiles at the same time.

We attached a ladder rack to the truck, which took most of the morning as we had to cut into the load liner. For some reason Mitsubishi gives customers a choice of either tie points, load liner or ladder rack; so, as we wanted all three, we've customised our load liner, it looks pretty smart now.

This afternoon Brett set up his squat rack, so he's happy as he can workout again.

This evening we had a lovely stroll along the tracks around our quinta; we were assessing how visible our buildings are to neighbouring quintas, but we're actually quite well hidden apart from to our immediate neighbours.

1st June

We were sitting eating breakfast when the light went out, then the inverter started popping and flashing and burst into flames!!!! We phoned Nick and he came round with another inverter, so we're up and running again, phew. (Mark and Glenn don't read this last paragraph!).

Our next lot of furniture (the stuff that was transported in February) is coming on Wednesday, so we spent the day organising the buildings, it all looks a lot tidier.

We've seen a few mosquitoes around so have bought a curtain (from China shop) for the front door, to try to stop them getting in, it's absolute rubbish; every time Brett walks through it it catches on his shoes and is pulled down landing over his head and around his neck, then he gets all cross and tries to walk it off, but as it's nylon it doesn't break, so he gets more and more caught up in it (quite funny to watch!). Then I walked through it and it caught on my trouser buttons and the cane it's threaded on snapped in half - hmmm, perhaps we need a rethink.

Another lovely walk along the tracks this evening; the bee eaters don't seem to be back in force yet, I have seen a few perched on telegraph wires - very colourful.

2nd June

Hoorah, Pam came back today!!!!

We have been very lax about learning Portuguese since we've been back, apart from using it in shops; when we were in the UK we had one or two, one hour, sessions daily  and it has definitely improved our grasp of the language and our confidence to have a go. Today we decided we needed to be more disciplined so, this morning, we did an hour of revision - we mean to do a session 'todos os dias' (every day).

Today I conquered one of my phobias; driving on my own, in Portugal, in a left hand drive car. When we first started travelling, last year, I had only just had my hand out of plaster, after breaking my thumb, I had no strength in the hand and was in a lot of pain; this meant that Brett did practically all the driving, of the camper van, while we travelled around Europe and that continued well after my hand had healed,. When we bought the Portuguese vehicle we had just got into the habit of him driving most of the time; occasionally I would drive but I didn't get enough practise to feel confident enough to drive on my own. Anyway today I made the decision to stop being so pathetic and drove to the supermarket (8 miles each way) to buy the ingredients for Brett's birthday meal (tomorrow). And while I was in the supermarket I had to address one of my other phobias - shopping in Portuguese; unfortunately the butcher thought he was helping as, instead of replying in Portuguese, he said "I can speak English"!

Anyway I managed to get everything on my shopping list (or a Portuguese approximation), so my afternoon task was making a cheesecake, Brett's favourite (it's a no cook cheesecake, so lots of whipping and beating of ingredients, and then left to set in a the fridge overnight ............................... easier said than done when you're 'camping' though. First off I didn't have a cake tin or anything else I could put the mixture in to set, so I made a collar out of the cardboard, from the back of a sketch pad, and staples. Secondly, I had no bakewell/greaseproof paper to line the collar with, so I cut up an (unused) plastic wallet (fingers crossed it will peel off when the cheesecake is set). Next, .......... well even I'm getting bored now, suffice to say, it's in the fridge (lots of other food which was in the fridge had to be taken out to make room, but the beer was still in, until we drank it!!!)  and my fingers (and toes) are crossed.

We bought walkie talkies while we were back in the UK and Pam and Mark have some too; we can actually use them to communicate between quintas. Pam got back this evening and used the walkie talkie to invite us over for drinks. It was lovely to have her back.

Yay, the cheesecake has set!!!

Ha ha, I thought I'd put on some photos of our living conditions (just for you Will and Gill!!!!); don't forget our outside space is absolutely fantastic and the inside can only get better.

'Kitchen' and 'Dining area'

'Sitting area'

Bed

I can hear you laughing!!!!!!

EXPERIMENT; can I use FREE village WIFI to upload blog?

29th May: STOCKING THE FRIDGE!

The charge controllers stopped charging the batteries at about nine last night, dusk, but they were twinkling away again when I got up around seven; so now we're hunting around for all our electrical gadgets to use with all this free electricity!

Having free village internet didn't last for long; last night it said our password was invalid (it's exactly the same as user name, I 'cut and paste' so it wasn't, and Brett tried it and got the same message) and now all day it says "servidor RADIUS n�o responde", so we think the server is down. While we were in town we used the free wifi at Jumbo and posted a week's worth of the blog, it'll be so great when I can do it daily from the comfort of my own sofa - we're still trying to decide which internet provider to go with, we don't want to get it wrong as we'll have to sign up for a year if we want to get a good deal.

We did a big shop to stock up our working fridge - beer, wine ........... etc. We feel like it's such a luxury, now all we need is a bigger fridge!

Brett spends at least a hour every evening strimmering; so the place is looking far more tidy than when we arrived. I haven't got any enthusiasm for starting the vegetable garden, it is so overgrown with weeds, I can't think where to start - it's very intimidating; but I must do something soon, you can't be self sufficient and buy your food from the supermarket!

30th May: DINNER PARTY

Flippin' heck, this morning we had music playing, the fridge working, Brett was using power tools and I was boiling water in the electric kettle and it hardly made a dent in our capacity - the charge controllers were twinkling away, making free electricity; of course it will be a different matter in the winter when there's less light available.

Brett has made a couple of compost toilets and when I have time I will decorate them using my heat transfer tool. 

Internet came back this evening; we reckon it's like our modem, occasionally it needed turning off then on again, as the Junta is only open Mon 6.30 - 7.30 and Thurs 6.30 - 7.30 that's when it will get reset. I was able to check emails and facebook.

We had Mark (unfortunately without Pam as she is still in France) and Nick round for a celebratory (celebrating the solar system, any excuse!) meal tonight. It was quite a challenge cooking a three course meal with only two burners; but we managed ......... fried camembert, with sweet spicy aubergine chutney (one I made earlier, 2006!) as we didn't have any red currant jelly, spaghetti with chargrilled pepper, olives and pesto served with mixed salad and crepes (kind of suzette) made with our own oranges but without any alcohol - it was very filling!!!

WE'RE BACK!!!!!

18th May: LEAVING WALES

We have such lovely kind friends; they came to help us load the removal vehicle with all our worldly possessions and they worked jolly hard for about four hours - thank you all so much (and an extra special thank you to Debbie for making us all lunch), hope to see you all in Portugal.

Then we waved 'goodbye' to our furniture. wondering if we would ever see it again; we did everything that you're advised not to:

·         We booked an independent  removal man; he took the first lot of our furniture back in February, assuring us he had insurance but, as he had just renewed it, he didn't have the documentation to prove it - so we just took his word for it (as our furniture was already loaded onto his truck).

·         Second lot of furniture was just about to go and he actually informed us he wasn't insured. And we still let him take our furniture away!!!!!

·         While we were waiting for a friend to bring his 4x4 (to pull removal van and trailer up our drive ......... don't ask!) he casually mentioned that he would be going on the internet that evening, to road tax his van - apparently it had been SORNed for the last few months - so his van wasn't even legal.

·         He was just a bloke with a van advertising on an ex-pat website in Portugal.

The Barn scrubbed up pretty well; let's hope someone wants to rent it out.

We spent the night at Rebecca's, in Clevedon; Rebecca wasn't there - she was at Buckingham Palace.

19th May: FERRY - PLYMOUTH TO SANTANDER

To save money we booked reclining seats, on the ferry, instead of a cabin (a saving of £65); of course we upgraded once I decided I wouldn't get any sleep!!!

We had a really smooth crossing for a change and we both slept well.

20th May: SANTANDER TO PEDROGAO DE SAO PEDRO

I really hadn't been looking forward to the drive from the ferry to our village, but wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected and it took an hour less than anticipated too, which was great.

We had to stop off at our quinta, before going to Pam and Mark's; my goodness it's over grown, but so, so pretty, wild flowers everywhere. My vegetable garden has completely disappeared with no sign of the onion and garlic bed or all the herbs I planted; but the broad beans are absolutely covered.

It was so nice to see Pam and Mark and Brett was completely wrong - every time I converse with Pam on Facebook  he says "you'll have nothing to talk about when we get back", we just talked and talked.

They have done so much to their place while we've been away, it looks fantastic, they have proper accommodation with painted walls, tiled floors, solar electricity, hot running water, a shower, washing machine and fridge (all mod cons) and the piece de resistance is their absolutely fabulous area outside their kitchen, a huge wooden platform - we will be copying!!!

We ate out on their platform and sat outside chatting (until the mosquitoes drove us inside, I'd forgotten about them!); it's great to be back.

Pam and Mark have said that we can stay with them for as long as we like, we really do have kind friends; so we can organise our place a bit before we move onto our quinta.

21st May

Brett started to strimmer a path through our quinta to the building where we'll be living and storing our furniture (about 250 metres from the gate to building) in preparation for our furniture's arrival tomorrow (fingers crossed!). I swept out the building, creating more dust than I swept out as the floor is concrete (hopefully soon it will be tiled) and the  broom just broke up the surface - I won't be doing that too often then!

I have to say we're feeling a little bit overwhelmed, at the moment, realising all the work we have ahead of us.

Back to Pam and Mark's early evening and I volunteered to accompany Pam on a trip to the vet in Penamacour with Toobie, the farm dog they inherited with their quinta.

The vet works with farm animals all day and has an evening surgery around 8.00 p.m. we arrived 8.15ish - he arrived about 8.40, it's all very laid back here. Another English couple arrived after us; they told us they have about 22 dogs (I lost count as she was telling us the details) 8 or 9 were rescued from a ditch and they also bred Rottweilers. They also have lots of cats with two litters of kittens, they were trying to find homes for; no wonder the Portuguese think ex-pats are mad.  Toobie had to have a blood test and as the results would only take 20 minutes we waited in the waiting room while the English couple went in - then the vet asked us to come in and help translate for him, which shows how much our Portuguese has improved.

Poor old Toobie's results were positive; he's got a horrible condition from being bitten by a mosquito (it's rife around here) he's got to have an injection and tablet, twice a day, for a whole month (Pam and Mark will administer them).

22nd May: FURNITURE ARRIVAL

Hoorah, our furniture arrived in the village on time (I didn't doubt it would!) AND the van and trailer managed to get along our track right to our quinta - this was one of our main reasons for hiring a private removal man rather than a proper company with big removal lorries, and it was one of our biggest worries - how would we get our furniture to the quinta if the van couldn't fit down the track, but it did and we were greatly relieved.

With help from Pam and Mark unloading the furniture took less than half the time it took to load. Then it was back to P & M's, for me, to help with the food preparation for our 'welcome home' party; Brett stayed to sort out our living accommodation.

A  lovely party with old friends and some new acquaintances; the platform was decorated with fairy lights (posted to us, in Wales, and transported along with our furniture), we drank our communal homemade wine (grapes from both our quintas) and ate pizzas cooked in P & M's bread/pizza oven - yep, we're going to copy that too - it was a brilliant evening.

23rd May: CASTELO BRANCO

Happy Birthday Mother. XXX

Well we went into Castelo Branco and communicated in Portuguese (well Bret did! We have been studying Portuguese daily whilst we've been back in the UK and are keen to use what we've learnt.)).

 In the first shop, an electrical store, the man didn't speak any English at all and we came out with exactly what we went in for.

Then we bought a 1000L water container on a pallet (to fill from our well for our household use) - unfortunately the man did speak English so we had a dual language conversation with Brett talking Portuguese and him answering in English!!! It was all rather bizarre.

We are getting too comfortable at P & M's so have decided we need to move onto our quinta tomorrow; how exciting/worrying/scary.

24th May: BUREACRACY

Today was one of those days that you dread but needs to be done; we had to arrange insurance for our truck (we've had it a year), then pay the road tax (really not looking forward to that after last year's experience), arrange for its first service and put money on our Portuguese mobile (which for some reason wasn't working) - and all this had to be conducted in Portuguese as these bureaucrats make a point of never speaking in English (they are real 'jobs worths').

It started badly, in the insurance office, where we got the woman who thinks that you simply shout loudly at foreigners and they will understand you better - fortunately the man in her office decided to take over, and we completed the transaction in just over one and a half hours!!!! Everything  takes so long here.

Next stop was the Fiscal Office (Tax Office) which, apart from a ten minute wait, went surprisingly smoothly - so our truck is now legal for another year.

Went to book a service with Mitsubishi and were told to come back after lunch and they would service it there and then; wow, the day was going well ......... famous last words!!!

We left the truck at the garage and walked to Jumbo (shopping centre), it was very hot!! So our Portuguese mobile no longer works, as we haven't used it for seven months, the Sim card has been cancelled; and 'no' you can't purchase a new Sim card, you have to buy a new phone with a new Sim card (can't even use the old number) - so we now have two Portuguese mobiles but only one Sim card - I am annoyed.

This evening we took P & M out for a meal to thank them for putting us up for the last few days. The restaurant in our village isn't open yet so we went to one just outside the village; we had a very good meal (rather better than our local restaurant!) and it was a very pleasant relaxing evening after which we came back to our quinta and both slept very well, under a mosquito net loaned to us by Pam.

25th May

Today we started making our lives a little more comfortable. We filled the 1000L water container, our pump is brilliant it only took a few minutes to fill and should last for about a month. We have treated it with some kind of chemical, 2 teaspoons to 1000Ls of water, which makes it completely safe to drink (William!!!).

Pam has left Portugal, she's gone to France for a week, to stay with her mother; I'm already counting the days until she comes back!.

We've cheated a bit and connected a fluorescent light to one of our (already charged) batteries; it means we don't need to go to bed once it gets dark! We'll never take lights or running water for granted again. At the moment we are leading quite a primitive life here, but it will rapidly improve once the solar is up and running. And once we've had our second well tested we'll be able to move the water container nearer the building we're living in, so then we will be able to have water on tap.

I'm making it sound like we're really suffering here, but we're not; we have a double burner gas hob and this evening's meal consisted of three dishes - sticky lemon chicken, couscous and broad beans (so that's not suffering). We have light, we can use our lap tops (and charge them), we're researching what to do about the internet; we borrowed Pam's dongle but we don't get a wonderful signal here with that provider, then again there is free wifi in the village, we just have to work out how to register for it (it's all in Portuguese!!), it would be brilliant if we could use that as we can definitely receive it on our quinta. We have our own bed, so we sleep comfortably at night, and a cosy seating area, with two sofas, a coffee table and shelves; we also have a dining area (table and 4 chairs), a cooking area with shelves for a larder and a wash area. And all this is in one room (which is actually bigger than the footprint of the Barn in Wales). All we're really missing is a fridge - the rest is just like camping/playing house. Oh yes, AND we get a better mobile phone (UK British phone) signal here than in Wales - I can text/make calls from inside the house and don't have to stand outside in the rain .......... he he, here  I'd have to stand in the relentless sunshine!!!

26th May: SOLAR STARTED AND  SANTA MARGARIDA FLOWER FESTIVAL

We are building a temporary solar system so that we can have electricity as soon as possible; the frame is going to lie across the water tank which ultimately we will use as a plunge pool (we've learnt from last year, this one will be tiled, and treated - we'll even buy a pump and filter for it). Today we built the frame and wired up six solar panels; if all goes to plan tomorrow could see the switching on - we could be using our fridge by tomorrow evening ......... mmmm cold beers!!!!

This afternoon we went with Mark to a flower festival in the next village. It was fabulous; all the houses, streets, trees (basically anything that didn't move) were festooned with handmade paper flowers.

There were stalls of food and drink, and local crafts for sale and there were bands playing, often in competition with one another! Many of the bands were solely made up with drummers, it was very primeval; my favourite band wore costumes and very realistic masks of wolf, badger, boar and goat - rather scary to look at. 

There was also an amazing, hand operated, merry-go round with fantastic (very naive) figures of a flock of sheep and a wolf, instead of the usual horses.

27th May: PLAYING HOUSE ON THEQUINTA

We had a bit of a lazy day today as we were waiting for Nick (the guy who organised the solar for us) to come and give us some advice before we wired it all up; we can't understand why we (Brett) won't get an all mighty shock when we wire all the (already charged) batteries together (it's not as if you can turn them off).

As we haven't got a fridge yet (have I mentioned that before?) we have to shop for food daily. There's a Minipreço (supermarket) in Penamacor, the nearest big village to us (about 8 miles away); when we went there today there must have been at least half a dozen expats in there, not including us. More or less every time we go in there we see at least one or two estrangeiros (foreigners) in there, it is the only local supermarket; and we thought we were moving to a traditional Portuguese area.

Nick came and advised; Brett says he understands. I've put a broom in the room with the batteries ready to rescue him if he gets a shock (I've done lots of First Aid courses, they always say 'move the source of electricity with a broom .....'; Nick says it's only 12 volts so it's safe.

Pedgrogão de são Pedro has free wifi hotspot!!!! So this evening we went to the Junta (village council office, only open for 2 x 1 hour per week) to register. All negotiations were conducted in Portuguese, of course. Unfortunately it's very slow, well what did we expect for free? And so far Brett hasn't even managed to get the page to load; but I have managed to open facebook and AOL - I don't think I'll be using it to upload my blog though!

28th May: WE HAVE ELECTRICITY!!!!!

The internet was much quicker this morning; I managed to SORN our car and cancel the insurance on it - and we might have sold it; well we've had a few people showing interest, so we'll see if anyone actually gives us some money for it.

We've finished setting up our solar system (6 x panels, 14 x batteries); it's on and working - we're so excited. 

It was a little bit scary; as Brett says he's rewired two houses, but then the system wasn't live (you connect to the grid once the house is wired), here we're working with a fully charged bank of batteries, so you have to make sure you don't touch live and neutral at the same time. We waited until it got dark to wire the panels into the system, as of course they are generating electricity during daylight; but it is only 12 volts until it goes through the inverter so it's not that dangerous (so we keep being told!). Anyway the lights on the charge controllers are twinkling away and the fridge is on!!!!!!! Tomorrow we will be able to do a proper shop AND BUY SOME BEER (we don't like it warm, so we haven't bought any yet!); have I mentioned that it costs 80 cents a litre?

Every day we are getting a little more comfortable and a little more civilised.