30th July FONTE DOS CLERIGOS
We collected our water analysis results; we don’t have ecoli or any other risky bacteria in our well, we do have a harmless strain of coliform bacteria, found in soil, which means that surface water is getting into the well. The water can be treated easily (with a small amount of chlorine or with ultra violet light) and then it will be completely safe to drink, or we can just boil it for a few minutes.
We picked up our deeds from the solicitor; apparently she received them a week after we bought the quinta, but something happened to her phone so she lost our phone number and was waiting for us to get in touch with her!
We still can’t sort out the truck documents; the Mitsubishi showroom is shut down, the guy we dealt with is away (perhaps on holiday, nobody seems to know/care) and the truck is still registered to Mitsubishi. One man did take pity on us and made a phone call, and then faxed through our details to the car sales head office, they said he would be phoned back; we waited 30 minutes, no call back – he’s taken our mobile number and says he will be back in touch (I’m not holding my breath). It’s all very frustrating, meantime the cover note for the road tax has run out; I think we’re driving illegally, Brett has taken the word of the finance people and thinks we’re ok until 26th August (they said we had 90 days to pay – the cover note says 60 days).
The expats we contacted (via the expat forum), to ask for advice on vegetable growing and pests in Portugal, got back in touch and we have been invited to go to visit them – I’m really excited about that, I might get some answers to my problems, rather than just guessing.
We had an enjoyable evening with Mark and Glen; while we were there we used the campsite electricity to charge both the mobiles, computer and Kindle – we only wish we’d thought to bring towels and we could have had showers too!
31st July FONTE DOS GLERIGOS
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Steve!
While Brett dug footings for our living room (so that we can build a wall where the double garage doors are) I weeded using a kitchen fork!!! It actually worked quite well. We have this weed, I have no idea what it is, if it’s dug up any part left in or on the ground will regenerate; I left a pile on the surface expecting them to dry out and die in the sun, next day they had rooted along the stems and had fresh growth – so now as I weed I have to collect every piece of plant as I go, it’s very time consuming.
It got very windy again today, we feared for our gazebos but they survived; but the peaches on our little prolific tree started to fall off so I picked what were left (23), we have quite a few other peach trees but this one was more advanced than the others. Our grapes by the house are turning black; they’re not a big grape (probably for wine making), but they are very tasty.
I’m feeling rather guilty about Gary; he had some ‘jewels’ that he found in a skip; he was convinced he’s actually found diamonds – I felt really mean telling him it was only costume jewellery.
He’s taken Betty’s ‘lampshade’ off; I knew he would, he said it was irritating her and she couldn’t sleep with it on. I’m trying to convince him that he has to take her back to the vet to have her stitches taken out – he wants to do it himself.
I phoned the expats; the man, Mark, sounds very nice. We’re going to visit them over the weekend, I can’t wait.
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