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| The delightful Storks that grace us with their comings and goings and chattering every day!! |
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| Stocking up for Pee Pee |
The 1st
of October was a day of excitement, the boys and I went off shopping to stock
up for the arrival of Pee Pee(our cat), who I was to meet at Lisbon airport late that
night. As previously mentioned Sarah was very kindly taking the boys for a
sleep over, they have slept over before with our friends but never somewhere
with kids so they were doubly excited and the next day we would all be home
together.
Neil’s trip to BG had been busy and successful, bank accounts all
closed and the container had been checked and prepped for travel, only the last
few hours of the trip became a little manic to say the least.
The flight was
from Bucharest, Romania, not too far from Veliko Tarnovo but obviously across the border
which is where Neil called me from to tell me he was probably not going to make
the flight, there was a huge queue on the bridge to passport control where the
computers were down, the word on the bridge was that it could take 3 hours or
more in which case he and Pee Pee would be stranded in Romania… I put the phone
down and didn’t know what to do, it took a few seconds for it to sink in and I wanted to cry and throw up but couldn´t do
either, it really was an awful feeling, I paced around for a little then called
Sarah which was helpful as just talking about it helped calm me down, we
decided to go ahead with the sleep over as planned and just see what happened.
Another call from Neil didn’t offer any further solution, he had approached the
border staff with his boarding pass and explained that he and the cat could
miss their flight if he did not get going soon, but in the usual Eastern European I am in control manner they just shrugged their shoulders, Neil was beside himself at this
point and just had to wait in the long line of cars, he could not even turn
around and head back to BG with the idea of leaving the hire car, walking over
and getting a taxi. I checked flights and the closet flight by time and location was the next day to Malaga and there were plenty of pet friendly hotels in Bucharest so we had a
plan B which alleviated the stress a little. It seemed like it was hours but it
was no doubt no more than hour and a half at the most and Neil called to tell me he was now across
the border and heading to Bucharest and would call later, at this point
I could not even work out how long he had to complete the journey my brain was
mush, I headed over to Sarahs with the boys and had some tea and cake – how
British, lol…
I asked ´whoever´ was listening for assistance to get Neil and Pee
Pee home quickly and safely, poor Pee Pee was rolling around in his box on the
back seat of the car as they raced to the airport (Neil confirmed he was doing
180km at times). The next call was to tell me they had check in with 5 minutes to spare and the flight
was delayed!! Neil sent a text saying ´I am convinced you somehow delayed that plane`. OMG thank you, my prayers had been answered!!! I left the boys and
headed home to shower and regain a normal heart rate before heading off on the
3 hour drive to Lisbon. I arrived in plenty of time and waited ages despite
the fact that flight was the only one in at that time, this however didn’t matter in the
slightest, they were safe and sound in Portugal. We arrived home at around 5am
as the sun rose and got a few hour shut eye before heading over to pick up the
boys who could not wait to get home for a cuddle…
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| Making himself at home. |
It took a few
days for Pee Pee to recover, he slept pretty much solid for four days bless him
and to be honest I have felt sorry for him as he is now confined to the apartment
which is worlds away from the lovely house and garden he had free access to at
Terrys in BG. I was glad to have him home though and have told him all about
our plans for the plot of land we now own. Yes, the plot of land on the edge of
Silves is ours!!
Not everyone will
know this but I have been working with a lovely young man in India Vishal, we
both share an interest in Ayurveda and we have been working on setting up a
company offering simple products that will help the everyday person introduce
Ayurveda into their daily routine, and natural supplements that I know really
do work as tried and tested by yours truly… So, when I came across the Zen International
Festival in Tavira east Algarve I thought I should go and take my copper
bottles and also promote my Bowen and other therapies, well, it all sounded
great until the bottles arrived from India and the import taxes were over 200%
of the cost of the items themselves, in addition some things were just stuck in customs and still
are.
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| YES, tongue cleaners!! |
The show was Friday til Sunday, 10am - 11pm which I thought was very late,
I was even talked in to doing a presentation on Bowen to take up a slot after a
cancellation, I was not feeling very comfortable about this and it bothered me
for a while and to some degree made me want to run like hell in the other
direction, however, once I realised I would be disappointed with myself if I
backed out I just got on with it, unfortunately the show was so quiet only 6
people attended my talk,this was fine with me and I actually enjoyed it, the bonus here was I could
do some Bowen work on everyone that attended. It didn’t cross my mind that
selling and demonstrating at the same time is a little tricky and I may have
lost sales while doing treatments, after 2.5 days of little food, lots of coffee,
hours on my feet and not selling much I was more than ready to head home, on
the up side Bowen was quite a hit with those that had mini treatments (which
initially I was doing for free and totally drained myself), unlucky for me
though most lived in the East and I live in the West of the Algarve and its
unlikely they will come to me if they feel that they want to give Bowen a go. The people I met during that time were all truly wonderful and I was
gifted some lovely things, for that I was extremely grateful and I am sure our
paths will cross from time to time, especially the Baby Yoga teacher who is the
mother of one of Ryans class mates…
NOTE: click on the image description to visit individual pages.
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| Stunning Drum by Fiona Issler |
I left Tavira and
headed for the airport to meet my dear friend Sarah who was arriving for 10 days,
I overslept probably due to a late night and a few beers in the Irish Bar and
was late for Sarah who was patiently waiting, I was soooo happy to see her!! We
jumped in the car and to Sarah’s delight headed straight to the beach for a
swim and chillax, it was lovely.
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| First stop at the beach. |
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| After lunch snooze. |
Sarah and I done all the things girlfriends do; therapies, shopping, swimming, lunching and brunching, over the 10 days we covered pretty much everything even sewing and colouring.
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| Another after lunch snooze!! |
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| A good day out in lovely Luz. |
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| Colouring therapy. |
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| 2nd visit... |
The last two afternoons found us in Café Duetto in Silves where they serve speciality teas and home made cakes, it’s a good job we hadn’t found this haven of indulgence any soon otherwise Sarah may have been classed as a heavy load on the return flight.
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| First taste of the Caffe Duetto delights. |
One incident in the beach in Aljezur will stick with me forever though, and we were paddling in the surf (it was an incredible sea with waves 8-15ft) when a wave came rushing up the beach, Sarah turned to run but she was never going to beat it and just decide to leisurely paddle back to the safety of the beach, boy did I laugh she was fully clothed after all, certainly no Bond Girl exit. I laughed even more when I looked at the pics!!
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| Just a litte bit closer... |
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| Holy crap!! |
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| OK, no point in trying to out run this sucker. |
On a serious note, Sarah has had a very tough stretch with one thing and another, its incredible that she has managed to drag herself through it all and with such acceptance and grace learning many lessons on the way and standing firm in her faith. Its been a while since time with Sarah resembled our early days of much fun and many adventures (remember Nik Berry Sarah?) but this time it was just that, when she left I think we both felt wonderful; rested, nourished, happy and very grateful, it was a tearful farewell at the airport, but she is now thinking of getting a camper van, which was nothing to do with me of course!!!
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| This is ours. |
Now, the land! Yay!! We have the plot, its classification is urban, roughly 1300ms with plenty of trees; Olive, Fig, Orange, Carob and Almond, its long and terraced so it will take a bit of planning to get our new home in the space, the first part of this is to submit a rough outline of our project which is one of Catarina´s (our architect who specialises in natural building) jobs, once this is approved we will have peace of mind that the project can continue whatever happens to the town plans which are currently under review.
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| Loading in BG. |
The
container is now on our plot too, this was a saga to say the least, it came by
road from Bulgaria all taken care of that end and sent on its way by Svetlo and
Diana.
Getting it off the truck and situated was always going to be tricky but
in addition to this getting it to the land was not a sure thing as the roads
are quite narrow. Neil found two companies that could (in a fashion) get the
container off the truck, option 1 was a large crane that would simply pick it
up and put it where we wanted it, option 2 was for two cranes to take it off the truck, empty it for delivery to the land and then refill. Guess which option we ended up with?? Yup 2!! Unfortunately for me this all
happened on the day I was going to Tavira for the Zen Festival, so not a very
Zen start to the day at all. The Bulgarian driver could not take the truck to
the land so the first thing was to let option 1 man know that we did not need
him, his crane was enroute so probably not be working with him again. Option 2
man felt slightly messed around as we could not tell him if we needed his
services or not until the truck arrived and the driver had done recce of the
route.
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| Wheels OFF the ground... |
Option 2 mans team did a great job with two cranes lifting the container
just enough to drive the truck out from under it, I was holding my breath that’s
for sure especially when I saw how high the back wheels of the one crane come
off the floor, it was a huge relief when it made contact with the ground, I was
doubly relieved as it was lunch time and I could easily get home and pack up and
head off for the weekend, however, option 2 man had other ideas and he insisted
that we emptied the container as it HAD to be moved to site the next day empty,
at this point we thought we would have to take the contents to our plot in the
car, in all honesty probably a whole days work which did not fit in well with
my day, I spotted an empty container and we suggested we packed that until ours
was on site to be refilled, which option 2 man agreed to. So it began, we took
out what we needed to be able to drive out the Barkas and then
spotted it had a flat tyre… ok so what else could get in our way?! The joys!! It
took roughly 4 hours to get everything out, repacked in the temporary container
and get the tyre repaired before heading home, we were starving and totally
shattered. On the bright side though doing this meant we could sort a few
things out that we would find useful in the apartment. I arrived in Tavira just
after 6pm.
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| Tight squeeze. |
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| Not ideal. |
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| Up a bit. |
Neil and the boys received the container to our plot the next day. The transfer from the temporary container back to ours was done over the next few days, I have to say during this time I really was finding it difficult to accept how many bloody times we had moved all of this ´stuff´!!!!
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| Container casualties, poor things, |
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| Everything in place. |
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| Mooching. |
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| A nice find by Ryan. |
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| Avo Maria. |
We have been spending a bit of time at the land, having a good look around, making dens and generally getting a feel for the place, the boys now have their bikes back too. Our neighbour ´Avo´ (Granny) Maria is the happiest granny on the street, she seems utterly delighted that we are the new owners of the land, she has gifted us some Prickly Chayote Squash and if I am correct knitting us all scarves for the Winter.
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| Prickly Chayote Squash. |
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| Happy Birthday Molly!! |
October brought with it a birthday, sweet Molly was six and we were all invited to celebrate with her at the local park, luckily for Molly the weather was sunny and dry, Ryan is not really a girls boy unlike Matthew but as Jack (Mollys brother was there) he had a great time. Sarah planned lots of things for the kids to do but in a good old fashioned kids way they were easily entertained on the large play area, with blowing bubbles and bursting balloons that had sweets inside (it was harder than you think to get them in). Face painting was my role which was a first for me and I thouroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for the invitation Family Emery, Good times!!
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| Organic fruit and veg box. |
Algarve Gardens a local small business are supplying us with an organic fruit and veg box every Friday delivered to our door, its so nice knowing that our food is coming to us fresh from the allotments, they also have a small café Flor das Laranjeiras in Portimao with a veggie and vegan option on the menu every day, all cooked by the lovely Kate, in addition to all this recently they have started a weekly yoga class that I shall be attending once I finally get into some kind of routine
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| No damaged done. |
It hasn’t taken us
long to pay a visit to the local hospital, Matty fell on his wrist and school
suggested we got it checked so within 3 hours we had been booked in, x-rayed
and consulted thankfully with no need for any treatment and were home, all of
the staff were very friendly and pretty much all of them spoke English which
with our current level of Portuguese was a blessing, it was overall a good experience.
Halloween bought
us Neils family J but that will be for next months update.
A hectic month to
say the least!!
