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| Pee Pee eyeing up the street. |
It felt wonderful moving in to have outside just the other
side of the door, have the boys bikes available and to know that Pee Pee would
have some freedom.
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| Bunk beds get the thumbs up. |
The first night was lovely, a very excited Matty and Ryan
were very happy to be back in their familiar bunk beds!!
OK so, with a new washing machine to try out, I did not
waste time, loaded it up pressed start, watched it for about 10 mins as you do
and then bang, fuse tripped… All that we needed was the incoming fuse changing
for a higher voltage one. Thank heavens!! We cant use the washing machine,
toaster and kettle at the same time but hey I am sure we will survive.
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| FREEDOM!!! |
It was just over a week and we released the beast, he looked out across the landscape and cautiously padded through the orange trees, it wasn’t long before he was out for most of the day then sleeping all night through with pure exhaustion, I could feel his relief to be outside again and he had a glint in his eye…
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| Whats up here? |
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| My ride home. |
Car trouble this month unfortunately, I was out alone and
broke down about 40 mins from home, the insurance here has recovery included so
it was simple to get me home and in no time at all I was trundling towards
Silves in the cab of the pick-up truck, we dropped the car outside the garage
for ease of getting it in first thing. The
diagnosis was fuel injector pump, which unfortunately for us was probably the
most expensive part on our car, with a reconditioned one at 800 Euro never mind
a brand new one, (I shall remind you now that we paid 2000 Euro for the car) so
the question was could we get it repaired, Neils mission was to find just the
man.
The first event of February was the Land Rover meeting in Silves, the club is called Xelb Land (shelb land) it was a weekend thing and we joined in.
The Saturday afternoon which was an off road
course nearby, it looked small and simple enough but it was not to be
underestimated, it was quite extreme and we soon grounded out on the cross axle
section, Neil listened to the instructions from the marshals to get us out and
we were then ok but while the wheels were spinning there was a horrendous noise
that in all honesty if we didn’t know better could have been the tyres
shredding, the boys were terrified and we were slightly concerned too, on
checking there was no damage at all and it seems it was the tyres rubbing on
the bolts for the Discovery rear seats that we fitted when under full
articulation, ok so this is not great but we don’t off road that much and would
never find the wheels in such a position on the school run.
The Sunday was a
drive to Armação de Pêra to take a look at the classic car show followed
by lunch, this was great fun and included in the price of 12 Euro per adult,
the kids were free we also got hats and T shirts which the boys loved. The
event was great and they also had plenty of stalls to have a good look around,
food, drink plus plenty of homemades…
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| Xelb Land hats and T's. |
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| Landies all lined up. |
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| Thats a big one! |
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| The red ones are always the best. |
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| Black and white looking good too. |
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| Armação de Pêra sea front. |
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| Cool burger van. |
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| The tastiest juice EVERRRR... |
Next the Silves Orange Festival, we bought a juicer to
celebrate and why not. This event was aimed mainly at the agricultural market
but it didn’t stop us enjoying juice and the most delicious oranges…
It didn’t
take long before Ryan became the juice master, with a few oranges a large knife
and the chopping board he gets to work, while we grit our teeth and hold on to
our boots he halves the fruit, after all whats the worse that can happen??!! In
no time at all he was quite proficient and he often juices alone.
Finally, Carnaval!! This is I believe one of the biggest
celebrations in Portugal. First it was the local event for the schools to
enjoy, the kids had great fun and walked their legs off all around Silves.
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| Mish mash. |
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| Traditional. |
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| Eat your heart out Jack Sparrow. |
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| Besties. |
Then
we went off to Loule where they say you see the best floats. It was truly
fantastic! Colour, music, singing, dancing, streamers and confetti, then some
pretty risqué costumes which had the boys giggling behind their hands, bless!
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| Fun. |
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| Floral. |
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| Political. |
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| Wine delivery. |
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| Unusual. |
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| Shhhhh... |
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| Blush. |
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| Dance. |
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| Shake. |
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| Nothing much more than body paint... |
Matty said goodbye to his lovely locks, I think longer hair
really suited him, either way he is a beaut.
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| Poor mite. |
We came across an injured Gecko in town, a lovely little
thing, its back legs were not moving at all, we monitored its progress for
almost 2 days then released it on our land in what looked like a Gecko hot
spot, not sure if it would survive but at least there was a chance of it
getting food and it would be peaceful, as you can imagine every few minutes the
boys wanted to check on it. Fingers crossed…
We miss Bulgarian food quite a lot, especially the lovely 'kisel' (sour) soups, 'bob' (beans) and leshta (lentils) that our wonderful Baba Stefi used to make us, I had a go at the typical
Portuguese dish Caldo Verde (green broth), very easily made with potatoes and kale with a little seasoning... Yum!!
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| Caldo Verde. |
One thing to celebrate is that we now have power to the
land, YAY!! The meter is connected and its all in good working order, that
means power tools can be used which should keep Neil busy and out of
trouble. And hopefully soon some new
creations.
On the subject of creations we all made things for Valentines Day, Neil made a small table that I am to decorate, which will take a bit of thought. Matty and Ryan made hearts...
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| Valentines homemades <3 |
A VERY lovely month!!
