A sunny and warm December...

Praia da Rocha.

The last month of the year was soon upon us, and we were going to be in the UK as usual for Christmas time but I have to say staying in a warm climate was very tempting.


Neil was hoping to get the trenches and all of the other work he had to do finished before we left so that the electric could be connected at the land, it seemed that this was going to be difficult and the trenches were not straight forward due to a huge rock, after weeks of digging by Neil (I only manged to strike a blow once or twice), building and re modelling structures to house meters/fuse boards he could not get the gates moves in time so unfortunately he had that to look forward to on our return, he was a little disappointed to say the least but in all fairness he had worked his socks off. The bonus to being at the land is the sun, its warm up there compared to the apartment that is always cold, its so bad we look forward to hanging the washing out on the roof soaking up the sun, Pee Pee likes it up there too, lets face it his life is very limited for now. Neil has also become very fond of the sheep that visit every day; they chat...

The Grafter!!

Electric installation boxes.

For the fuse board.

Not much progress with the house design as we needed to check a couple of things with the planning office, one thing that we are finding tricky here is the timeline and the longer we take over preparing the plans the longer it will take to get them submitted for approval, time is of the essence but its equally important that we are happy with our home. Fingers crossed we can get cracking January…

The boys work.

After 10 years in Bulgaria we are not used to a warm Christmas, the boys put up the tree again and it was lovey all their own work, I was not really ‘feeling’ it, the apartment feels ‘detached’ in a way so I was happy to let them enjoy doing it. The towns festive lights were all up, it was really pretty, they put red carpets out along the cobbled streets to give a more festive feel, the shops had all done pretty Winter window displays but not much happens, there are people still around but I mean in the way of festivities, nothing festive at all as far as I could work out.

Nicely done!

Ricardos (front right) party.

We had our first invitation to a Portuguese birthday party, it was the lovely Ricardo who had helped us with the boys school registration.  It was a house party with wonderful food, singing and dancing. The boys made themselves quite at home clearly feeling comfortable in the family environment, Ryan ate pretty much all of the grilled fish and had a good suck on some small crabs, he really is a fan of sea delights, the rest of us tucked into the rice and beans. 

Max with our two, how handsome?!

Milka, Julian and Max are Bulgarian and very close friends with Ricardo, Milka prepared a lot of the food and it was great that we could chat away in Bulgarian as our Portuguese is not at such a level just yet to get us through a social evening. Neil had a few glasses of wine and moved on to some shots of stronger stuff before we headed home, Ricardo Neto is a wonderful and kind person and a wonderful singer and it was an honour to celebrate his birthday with him and his nearest and dearest.




December also bought Neils birthday so we went Karting, needless to say Neil won, Matty took out a pile of tyres while Ryan and I tootled round in quite an uneventful manner… It was a lovely family celebration!! Neils gift was shares in the electric car company Sondor, lets hope they prove to be a worthy investment. The afternoon took Neil and the boys over to the park with the remote control cars which Neil always enjoys very much as long as they don’t finish up arguing over who crashed it and smashed it. That was pretty much it, without child minders evenings out are off the agenda so no relaxing meal out and/or crazy party this year. 

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Waiting to go...

Santa doing his rounds in Shirley.

We were soon on our way to Mom and Dads for Christmas, it was heavenly not having a three hour drive to the airport, the two hours before the three hour flight and then another two hours at the other end not to mention the time waiting around, all in all we were door to door in less than seven hours which was joyous, very unlike what usually became a 12 hour journey that was made so often from Bulgaria.

First stop the chippy! Then Santa came down the street giving out sweets much to the boys delight. 

Cadbury's tree.

Our treat day out from Mom and Dad this year was Cadbury world, what could be better, free chocolate, we’ve been a couple of times before and have been impressed, it was a lovely day overall, the 5D experience was excellent!

Cadbury's street.

We had a lot of shopping to do and only a week to do it in, the internet would have been ideal here if only we had started a week ago, I ordered Neil a Japanese trowel (from Japan no less) and was astonished to say the least when it arrived in three days, we had decided to wrap some of the gifts in newspaper this year so the newspaper that the trowel came is was ideal and much better (as we could not read it) than the local papers which were full of death and violence which made the wrapping a bit tricky, we did however manage to find some Christmassy advertising that worked quite well.

Newspaper wrapping.

Our stay was just over two weeks returning home on New Years day, this was about a week shorter than normal so it meant we had cram things in a little.

Jules and me after a few.

Julie (from my boxing days many moons ago at Warley Gym) and I met in Brum and had the usual catch up over a pint or 10  and food in Weatherspoon’s, I really wanted to eat, drink and be merry at the German market but as there had been reports of food poisoning Jules said no, so cheap and cheerful won and to be fair with a difference of what was almost £4 a pint it was the better option. We as always, talked about anything and everything, great day!!

Christmassy Brum; the good old Rotunda

Catching up with Pete.

Had a lovely time in Warwick with the wonderful Peter, so nice to see a friend from Bulgaria, he is now living in Ibiza and with a bit of luck we will get more opportunities to meet up.










We caught up with almost all of Neils friends thanks to Darren who organised a meal out, it was great to see one and all so happy and content and everyone was excited to hear about Portugal. As usual it was hard to speak to everyone and with quite large gaps of time between seeing many of his friends sometimes its hard to know where to start, the journey from Bulgaria to Portugal was probably the most enjoyed topic. It wasn’t a late night as most have kids and any parent will tell you a enjoyable meal and home to bed by 10 is never a bad thing, gone are the days of clubbing in Solihull till the early hours…


Christmas came very quickly and the boys loved their Kindles and were happy to do ‘tasks’ for more time on it, this is part of the parental control we installed which works a treat, Ryan prepared carrots and Matty set the table and the centre piece was his very own creation that had airport security baffled on the way out much to my annoyance as they took ages pondering what it could be and finally unwrapped the very carefully wrapped CANDLE!!!! 

We all had lovely very thoughtful gifts but mom and dads electronic dart board didn’t work that well so that went back. Matty very skilfully flew his drone into the washing up water and killed it, he was gutted so Neil gave him his, other than that a great morning. Then time for Christmas part two over at Dennis and Jeans, more wonderful gifts and more wonderful food! Shattered and full to the brim!!

He's been!!!!

Helping out for tablet time.

Matty's handmade centerpiece. 

Merry Christmas everybody!!

Elfing around.

Boxing day was lunch out with Dennis and Jean, this was pretty much a last minute suggestion so when we found a local carvery with normal Sunday prices, yes NORMAL SUNDAY PRICES we were quite amazed. It was really enjoyable and so hassle free, after that is was back to Mom and Dads to disrupt them again.

Lovely hearts.

One of my gifts was a day out to The Crystal Barn for the sale, what a treat that was, I was so confused what to pop in my shopping basket that the only thing for it was to make sure I go again. I did eventually choose a huge Moroccan Quartz Geode that pretty much resembled a pumpkin, stunning, its stayed packed ready for shipment home – photos will follow. This is a great place if you want crystals, they truly have an amazing selection.

My favourite Labradorite...

Liking the decor here.

We had lunch in Kettering at the Kino Lounge a very lovely and unusual restaurant that was either the old cinema or market place, or maybe even both.

Almost time to go home, lots of packing to do as usual, its difficult going home after Christmas and New Years eve daytime was spent packing weighing and repacking bags, we did have a party to go to but felt it was cramming too much in and stayed home with Mom and Dad, Sarah came over and we had a Chinese take out, a few glasses of Advocaat and games, it turns out Ryan is pretty good at Dominoes and Sarah is a Connect 4 shark, the finale was a Dance Off by the boys much to our enjoyment, it was a really lovely evening. We had a few Happy New Year messages from our dear and much missed friends in Bulgaria at 10pm then we went to bed as the first morning of 2017 started for us at 5.30 am.

Goodbye 2016 and thank you for all of the wonderful things you had presented to us, its been a year of change, that’s for sure, we give thanks for health and wellbeing and for kindness, for opportunity, for strength and guidance and most of all for love, family and friendships old and new, lets open some doors and walk on right through them… Our next chapter is well underway!!!

Lots of things going on... November.

Rainbow from our roof.

We took the Land Rover 90 on a little off road drive just on the outskirts of Silves to the Windmill, it was a great drive with some amazing views. Shall be doing a little more of this for sure, the tracks are probably fire breaks which is ideal for getting over the hill.

Off roading local.

'Windy' Ryan

Silves Windmill and the 90 

Neils parents and brother arrived, it was going to be a little more cramped as Ian had to sleep in the living room on a blow up mattress, the sofa bed in the apartment was pretty useless as we found out when Darren stayed, with Pee Pee here too night time activities (loo visits mainly) where going to be interesting, if he had a chance he would be on a bed, any bed… Pee Pee I mean not Ian, it turned out he was happy to share the blow up mattress with Ian.

Art in the town

Cinnamon Doughnut Sticks.

The fair came to town for a holiday weekend, this was an enjoyable evening for us all especially as the scrumptious doughnut like things covered in Cinnamon sugar and roast chestnuts were plentiful. Matty is quite a fan of rides so he and I went on almost the fastest there, it was pretty fast and I was ready to get off when it stopped, it wasn’t until a few days after when we went again and I asked Matty to go on for a second time with me and he said no that we found out it was bit too much for him, it was too fast he was badly bruised where he had been thrown around in the seat, poor love. 






Visitor´s mean we get to do a bit more sightseeing, we decided to take in Loule, Sagres and Monchique, both were lovely days out, great scenery and some very tasty traditional food of pigs cheek and wild boar stew plus of course the obligatory visit or two to Caffe Duetto in Silves for more delish cake and tea from Val.

Sagres

Sagres Fortress

Monchique.

Monchique.

The arrival of Dennis also meant the we could get the caravan positioned on the land in a more suitable spot, Dennis worked for Land Rover forever test driving vehicles all around the world, moving around the display units and taking folk out on the off road courses, so what he couldn’t do when it came to driving/towing was not worth knowing. He managed to get the caravan between the Fig tree and container using the Defender, this was some feat, the gap was small and the turn was tight, it took a while and a lot of shunting in the pouring rain, power steering not working properly either, 

Watch the Fig tree...

Jean and Ian had a good view from the Barkas of the whole show, those of you that know Dennis will be quite aware of how skilled he is when it comes to manoeuvring anything on wheels, but what he achieved for us that day was nothing short of excellence and I think he enjoyed it too… 

Sheltering.

In place.

Neil had been planning the layout of our house, this took many evenings of discussion, reviewing and rethinking, the main considerations were size which impacts on cost and the layout as the plot is not south facing. We came up with a design that worked for us and very excitedly met with Catarina to see what she had come up with. At the first glance of Catarinas idea we were pretty much smitten, she put a twist literally in the aspect which we had not thought about, that was Neils hard work and torment over, best use of space pretty much wasted, however, Catarina was positive about what he had prepared and found it all very useful, it gave her a good appreciation of what size home we would be happy with and what spaces we wanted within it. We spent a couple of hours at the land discussing ideas, materials and methods before heading home full of positivity, the next stage was for Catarina to show us a selection of more mature ideas to consider, Eeeek!!!

Our plot and the neighbouring ones are full of fruit trees full of tasty produce...

Edible Rubies.

Carob blossom

Olives

Abandoned birds nest.

Subida Impossivel in the background.

Two events this month kept the boys happy the annual Silves Subida Impossível, (impossible hill climb for motorbikes) and a Rally with a stage that was close to us. The Subida Impossível was a two-day event and was very well organised, the first day was the dirt bikes on what I can only describe as a mini enduro/trials course, it was great fun to watch them hammering around throwing clouds of dust our way. Day two was the highlight, the hill climb, the steepest ‘hill’ I have seen for sometime with only wheels to get up, it was more like a cliff face and I really could not imagine anyone getting to the top without a rope, in which case what would be the point if you know what I mean, we asked around and it appeared a few people make it every year, so we happily sat ourselves on the grass to watch the action. It was a very tight turn at the bottom of the hill which meant no run up at all but to our delight it was not long before someone made it to the top much to the joy of the roaring crowds, by the end of the day quite a few made it actually, it was an exciting and satisfying event.




Now we rushed off up the Monchique hills to catch the rally, it was daylight when we arrived after quite a long wait and in the dark (good job we took a picnic) the cars finally came screeching around the corners, sparks flying with brake disks glowing, and sirens, yes sirens wailing, not really sure what all that was about, it was a little like Key Stone Cops on Nirto, this was followed by the more run of the mill Subaru’s and similar, it was a late night by the time we got home but it had been a fun day.

Monquiche Rally picinc.

Pee Pee and his post.

One thing we have been wanting to do for years is make stuff, any kind of stuff and this is the result of throwing together a bit of wood from our land and a blanket from the bin and Pee Pee loves it. Result!!

Picnic lunch at Praia da Rocha

Mom and Dad arrived again, yes again!! And although the weather was not as warm as their previous visit we still managed a couple of visits to the beach and even a swim, we had a lovey time, sunny most days but the nights were getting cooler and with no heating we were all sitting in our dressing gowns. Ryans electronic dart board had some use too which was great fun and caused much hysteria which warmed everyone up a bit.
This time dropping Mom and Dad off at the airport was quite different due to the fact in 3 weeks we will all be staying with them for Christmas, no time at all, how wonderful!!

Praia da Vau

November swim at  Praia da Luz.

Soaking up the sun.

On the domestic front the apartment although it is more than adequate in size for us plus guests with some bunking, now the weather is changing we are feeling the cold, its not ‘cold’ in the grand scheme of things especially after Wintering in Bulgaria for 10 years and we are all missing the snow, yes we are!! The Bulgarian Winters did bring excitement and it was all very cleansing with the crispness, coldness and brightness on the sunny days. What probably makes our place worse is the fact that its top floor with a flat roof and facing west with no south exposure at all, we are wrapping up and going to bed early. We would have liked to move somewhere with a garden by now to be honest so that the boys and Pee Pee who is getting fatter by the day can get outside, we have put up poster asked around and advertised in the local shop and cafe but it seems that rental property in our neck of the wood is like rocking horse shit!! So, for now we shall stay put and get out the jumpers, and maybe go and sit on the roof in the sun for a bit of natural warmth and who knows if we can crack on maybe we will be in our new home next winter nice and toasty.