Today I want to give a brief mention to language. As some of you will know, when I moved here immediately I started Portuguese lessons and have been taking 2 a week all this time. There are multiple reasons why I did this, mainly: a) I think if you are going to stay in a country for 3+ months you should make an effort to at least grasp the basics b) I like to learn new things all the time c) It helps when doing the 'boring' stuff like dealing with legalities, taxes and so on. Forcing government officials to speak in English (which a lot of them don't) means they are unlikely to want to help you out. For example, when I applied for residency last week (another post about this when it's completed), I ... read more

As I'm still lazying in bed on a Sunday afternoon ... I'll summarize my 1st week of 2013 here in the gorgeous town of Tavira: I flew back in from Dublin on Monday and filled my car up (which is a rare occurence now btw ... on average I fill up with fuel every 7 wks) and got back home, unpacked, bought groceries then went out for NYE celebrations in the town square by the river ... loads of families, live DJ booth, crazy-ass fireworks ... it was cool. For the firework celebration at midnight I actually moved away from the crowd and climbed to the top of buildings looking down. It was a strange experience because I felt like Batman ... dark & mysterious character looking down on his city making sure his people are ... read more

UK-REGISTERED CARS IN PORTUGAL ------------------------------------------ I'm going to start making some short posts about important things that must be thought about when moving countries ... there is always more to it than initially thought about. Today I'm going to discuss having my UK-registered car here in Portugal since there is so much illogic when it comes to the law (not just here, a phonecall to DVLA today has made me think wtf?). Ok, legally I can have my car in Portugal for 180 days, then it has to be imported (with huge tax) or matriculated (Portuguese plates). I may end up doing a tour around Spain next yr so that would extend my deadline ... no probs there. Until the time comes when I must import the car or decide to take it back to the ... read more

Hellooooo England. Sooo, what's on the menu for Etchy Boy Adventures this week. Actually, there wasn't much adventuring going on for various reasons. One of these is the weather, which is fluctuating like crazy at the moment. One day it's a typhoon, next it's beach day, next it's a hurricane, next it's a beach day, next it's thunderstorms ... you get the picture, it's all a little unpredictable at the moment. On Tuesday when I woke up and realized it was beach day, I decided to ..... go to the beach ... back to Tavira Island. Now that it's low season, things work slightly differently here. For example, you have to get a boat to the island and you purchase tickets from this wooden kiosk booth type thing. That's the way I remember it. So I'm ... read more

I was hoping to have a crazy adventure today, but because of all the heavy hardcore raining these past couple of weeks (too much for the algarve, should only rain for a day max), i decided to keep myself indoors for the weekend. Instead, let's discuss some of the things that have been going on over the past week. SOLAR POWER When I 1st arrived here, I found out that I don't have a boiler and water is heated up via solar panels on the roof. This is an awesome plan since the Algarve boasts 300 days of sun per year ... however there's a flaw in this plan ... no sun = no energy = no hot water. I found this out 1 morning when I shampooed myself all over and then went to wash ... read more