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| Happy Birthday Matty!! |
Our first visitors of 2017 came to help
celebrate Mattys first decade!! Yes, 10 years old, more on that later...
The house provides us with plenty of rooms so
we decided to let the boys have a bedroom each, on the condition they bunk up
together when we have guests. Its easier to keep your own space tidy, right?!
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| Ryan space. |
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| Mattys space. |
A skating event took us to Lagos, as we all
have (very under used) skates we do enjoy skating, this event had me gripped,
the kids whizzed around the track like lightening and WITHOUT PROTECTION…. They
wore only helmets with a couple of knee and elbow pads dotted around but in the
main none, not sure if this is responsible (for kids at least), there
could be a lot of damage done at those speeds and if everyone wore them surely
they would still all be skating from a level playing field. There did seem to
be quite a few ambulances there with medics attending to knees and elbows,
hopefully nothing more than scrapes and bruises. Anyway, it was a very
thrilling and enjoyable event.
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| Residency documents. |
Congratulations to us, we have residency!! Took
longer than planned but we finally managed to register from the land so we are
now legal. On the document front we also submitted the
architectural plans for our straw bale house, lets hope this first stage is
speedy and uncomplicated, we have been told by many that it could take years…
We have been making a point to visit different beaches, there are so many to experience it would be rude not to...
Our first visit to Meia Praia, (half beach), Lagos, was
at the least bracing and actually quite uncomfortable, the powerful winds
picked up the sand and gosh, from time to time it came quite sharp, for a
contact lens wearer this kind of beach condition is not ideal!!Sheltering was essential. Still a great
time had enjoying the sounds of the enormous waves and constant spray the sea drizzled
over us.
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| Shelter designed and built by Matty.. |
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| Ryans solution. |
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| Praia dos Três Irmãos. |
‘Praia dos Três Irmãos’ (three brothers beach) has been the most
enchanting so far. As you walk along the through the rock tunnels coves open
up surrounded by lush green cliffs and crystal clear water, it was nothing
short of paradise!
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| Tunnels. |
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| Rock pools. |
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| Cooling off. |
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| Coffee with a view. |
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| Morning walk. |
Praia do Vau and Praia da Rocha. We had a
morning walk that due to the full moon and the sea being out further much more
was bared to us than normal bringing with it a wonderful calm and peaceful
energy. The coffee was good too!!
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| Morning sun Praia de Rocha. |
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| Baring more than usual. |
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| Inviting. |
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| Beach Heart. |
Every month our outside space brings new colourful
blooms and/or fragrance; for at least a month the Orange Blossom was heavy in the air which my nose and brain enjoyed very much, this month we have a splattering of Red.
Jose gifted us some of the biggest oranges I have ever seen, he explained that they are actually too big to sell as people want more that two oranges per kilo, I am not complaining as we had some of the most nectareous juice ever.
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| Half a kilo orange. |
Mom and Dad arrived for Mattys birthday, how
wonderful!! We had the obligatory days out shopping, dining and to the beach
plus fun and games.
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| Blustery. |
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| Loving Nana |
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| Loving Grandad. |
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| Ooooo treble twenty!!! |
With Mom and Dad here Neil and I had a chance to get a night out, we were fortunate enough to be able to catch the Afro Beat Latino artist Beto Kalulu, a night out full of song, rhythm and friends. As it happened the next day at lunch time he was playing again so I took Mom and Dad along, although it was a little loud they too had a chance to enjoy the energetic performance of him and his musicians.
Matty thought about his birthday gift requests
carefully this year and took plenty of time over it and totally loved all three
main presents; a Lego castle, a (real) remote control car that he/we had to
build and paint from scratch and a watch that he had the joy of choosing for himself.
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| Watch. |
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| Tamiya RC Car. |
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| Lego |
His party was local and with the help (yet again) of Sarah, the cake was exactly what he asked for. A great time was had by all.
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| Besties. |
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| Burgers |
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| Boys. |
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| Batatas (potatoes) instead of ' say cheese'... |
Matty misses his friends and teacher Bobi from Bulgaria, and she did an amazing thing, she arranged a skype call with his class, it was a surprise for them and they all screamed when they saw him, the tone of their voices said it all, full of excitement they asked questions and sang Happy Birthday. OMG... Mom and I could not hold back the tears!! Talk about going the extra mile, the world could do with few more Borislava Ivanova’s that’s for sure, even across all of those miles she finds a way to bring him and his old friends a few moments of joy and happiness, an Angel for sure!
Happy Birthday to our son, a tender boy filled with love,
kindness and compassion, bursting with enthusiasm for life and all it offers, old and new.
We shall enjoy watching the next 10 years unfold...
