In with the new!! January 2017

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

5am start to get home New Years day, we flew into Faro to sun and warmth which was very much appreciated and continuing warm weather meant a few very enjoyable days out, a perfect time of year to investigate the coastlines stunning cliffs and beaches.

Looking so grown up.

Fancy this place Sarah Ball?

Eyes of the sea.

Algarvian coast.

Daydreaming.

Fairy theatre.

We had the first picnic of the year on the beach with the Emery family, lovey company, great place and tasty cake - thanks Sarah :) 

All wrapped up on the beach.

Avo Maria our lovely neighbour.

Avo Maria gave the boys their Christmas presents of hand knitted scarves, they were very happy to have something from her. 

We now have the design of our house and the floor plans all finalised which you will see once the plans have been approved. Eeek!! This is only part of our view... :)

A section of the view from which will be our bedrooms and lounge.

Nice gates.

Drive through gates refitted and the home made walk through one all in place.

Quick hide!

Found a snake!










The earthing rods (three of them) took a bit of sinking at 1.5m long and meant yet more digging to Neils delight, electricity company out, road up and mains cables in, just need to be connected now. 

Mini digger at work.

Rod or The Lightening Thief?!

I would say the new year got off to a very positive start and the icing on the cake was that we found a new home, a house for half the rent of the apartment, this was very welcome as we had been cold in the apartment, situated on the north side of the block meant no warmth from the sun at all, we had a couple of electric heaters but they really didn’t make much difference, the electric blanket did though but I was in bed more than out of it which isn’t good for the back. Its closer to the land which will make things a lot easier, with sunny rooms and outdoors is outside the door. 

Brown!!

Much nicer tiles!

It needed some work as it had not been rented since 2009 and the owners were happy for us to do what we felt was necessary. With six rooms, three of them south facing we should be warmer for what is left of the Winter months, the other huge bonus is that Pee Pee gets his freedom back. One possible drawback; the electricity had been disconnected years ago so we were eager to find out if it could be reconnected without moving the meter outside which is the current requirement and we did not know if there would be a fee, the owners made it clear that they did not need to rent it so if it was going to cost them anything there was every chance they would just not bother, fortunately the electric was turned on and we had the keys pretty much straight away. 

Kitchen.

Likely to be a bedroom.

Lounge.

Covered area out the back.

With over a week to move we had the luxury of a more relaxed relocation, we painted and reorganised the furniture that was there to suit our needs and with the help of Sarah had a good clean up. Shopping for appliances was nice, as most people know this happens rarely, we quickly picked a fridge freezer and washing machine to be delivered in a few days, next stage was getting our own things finally out of the container. 

All good, then a couple of days before we were to leave the apartment the fuses started to blow, we could not get them to stay on despite a systematical check of every appliance and light in the house, to be honest looking at the wiring we began to wonder if we could get it resolved, all surface fixed with lights connected with socket etc... Crap! Crap! Crap!  
Anyway, after a second lengthy process of elimination and a lot of brain steam Neil found the offending cable which was an outside one, once it was disconnected all was well. Phew!!

Washing machine = check. Fridge freezer = check. Beds = check. It felt good to know that we had a place that was comfortable and convenient and we were looking forward to moving in on February 1^st.  

Pee Pee, although he is a little nervous, loves taking a walk around the roof when we put the washing out, not sure if he appreciated the view as we do though, this is as much as he gets of the outside world poor love, but that will soon change. Wink wink, purr purr.

The Astra had its MOT, this was quite a painless experience, the MOT centre was as clean as a new pin and full of professional, efficient, and helpful staff, in one end and out the other with a pass or fail, we failed but nothing too serious especially considering the car is 18 years old. One good thing about this set up is that you cant be ripped off, the test centre is just that so no vested interest, a few days later we were back getting the retest and a certificate. 

I smashed the screen on my phone; gutted!! I am not keen on spending a lot of money on such things and my Samsung Note 3 was second hand and very much a bargain, so when I dropped it and the result was a broken LCD screen, I really did feel sick to find out that a replacement at 180 euro was actually more than I paid for it. It took me a while to get over this. Thanks to youtube we ordered one from China and Neil fitted it for half the price, thank you Neil!!

Well, things are plodding along so they say, which is just fine. 2017 is going to be very busy with lots of learning, much organising, masses of creating and plenty of willing volunteers!!