Portugal: Sister Leaves Me With Sprouts

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Well I think an update is much overdue. I have had a busy few weeks as my sister came to visit for 23 days and joined in the fun of 'retired' life ... and have those 3 wks flown by. It was great to wake up in the morning and hear somebody else potting about in the kitchen making breakfast (hoping for a surprise breakfast in bed), and cooking for each other in the evenings ... I ate very well and nutritiously ... and now Im back to making a quick wrap and scoffing it down over the sink.

What surprised me was that before she came, I used to spend approx €70 a week on groceries ... then for both of us we spent probably €50-60 with plenty of food ... and after she's gone I'm back to €70 for just me ... I can't make sense of it ... I must be buying gold dust instead of gold blend. Actually I don't drink coffee, but now I have some along with brussells sprouts in the freezer and I don't know what to do with them ... might ship them back to her in UK 😊

Soooo what adventures did we get up to over the last few weeks? Let's mention a few of them:

One morning we went to Portimao, this is towards the west end of the algarve and is where the shopping mall was burnt down a few months back. I went here to visit the British Embassy to obtain a document I needed, but to be honest the town didn't appeal to me so we didn't stay here for lunch. Instead I drove to Silves, which I heard is a little town equivalent to Tavira with its beauty ... I didn't think so, a nice little town with a castle and crazy slopes but no comparison to Tavira ... not much going on here. I decided we should visit the castle since I wanted to get something out of going there, and after probably a 70 degree upward walk for 10 mins we go inside to find they are charging for entry ... U Turn ... oh well it was a pleasant enough town ... might be worth revisiting in summer.

Pink flamingo is a bar a friend of mine almost had a brawl at with a drunk, but it has now been taken over by some friends of mine so we went here a couple of nights ... even ended up playing poker with the charity bucket cash until we were told to stop for obvious reasons. I miss my poker games, I haven't had one since I lived in Cambridge, not even in London ... defo have to find some poker buddies in the Algarve ... might ask my jolly barber (who speaks a type of Portuguese I can't understand)

On the way to the flamingo one night I was pulled over and fined by Portuguese police. The last time I was pulled over was in Texas when I was speeding away from the Sherriff ... but since then I've been good ... and I was on this particular night too. All I did was come out of my complex and turn right at the roundabout, and the cop car in the lane next to me pulled me over and decided I cut him up and fined me €99 ... here you have to pay fines on the spot, even if it means they accompany you to an ATM or to your secret stash under the kitchen floorboard. I had no interest in arguing with the dude as technically I was illegal ... once you have residency in Portugal you aren't allowed to drive a foreign car. It didn't help that he came up and started to have a full on Portuguese conversation with me and I was responding in Portuguese and even paid with a Portuguese bank card ... I should have acted like a tourist. Now this guy takes my driving license and goes to the boot of his car, opens it up, and flashes a torch inside for about 20 minutes before returning ... I'd love to know what he was doing. Later people were joking as to whether he was really a police officer and whether it was really a police vehicle ... I've seen a lot of cop cars by roundabouts these days with the policemen just stood at roundabouts ... my Portuguese teacher told me this is the season where they are 'collecting for social security' ... lovely.

Some other trips included tavira island, praia do barril (but staying away from nudist beach this time) and the spanish border where we ate paella .... actually I made paella at home last wk, it didnt take long and it was F I T.

Last week as I was walking in town I thought to myself, "Lets join the Tavira library" ... and so I did. Now Ive never been a library boy ... the last time I went into one was back in Sheffield Uni days 11+ yrs ago, and that was just to drag people out to go to the pub ... however I signed up to the library here (biblioteca) and I felt a sense of belonging all of a sudden ... like I'm one of the community, like I am one of the people ...... haven't been back since.

I've also been very busy doing things for matriculating my car tax free (a ballache, challenging and getting expensive, and running out of time) ... this I will mention in another post as it's quite an adventure in itself.

Yesterday I was expecting my new furniture to arrive which I ordered on new year when I came back into Portugal. Unfortunately not all of it arrived ... I have a dining table with no chairs and no corner suite yet ... Ive been told I have to wait another month and that is still not concrete. Over here it's common practice to pay for delivery AND installation, and it's definitely worth it ... something that can take you hours is done by the pros in 10 mins at a little extra cost. After the workmen left I decided I would make this weekend all about buying bits and bobs for the apartment and re-style it ... and it felt great. I did this 5 yrs ago when I moved into my Cambridge house (but much cheaper as that is a house with gardens, prob spent £5-10k furnishing cambridge, really cant remember, so far only €2k here) ... I love to make things look contemporary, awesome and frickin unreal ... and so I went from store to store getting items to complement the furniture. Once the final pieces arrive, I'll upload a before and after picture.

And finally, today I visited Loule to check out the Portugal carnival ... a yearly 3 day event on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday which is meant to be like a Brazilian carnival. I drove 45 mins to get there and after an hour I came back ... it's good if you had kids otherwise it gets boring ... they close off an entire avenue and there are thousands of spectators standing on the side of the roads, with a big parade going up and down the avenue ... very loud, very messy, kids with paint covered all over pushing past you, and most people taking part in the parade doing it with sad faces and having no fun like they are being forced into it ... still it was an experience ... I think Im getting grumpy as I get older ... damn.

Keep smiling😊

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