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!!!!!!
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