Portugal: Pakora Fun times

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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 safe and happy ... the only things missing were a cape and 2 fake ears ... but i had my long black coat on and when the wind blew it was almost like a cape.

And I got to speak to very special friends of mine too so that was awesome ... 1st time Ive tried viber for calls ... works great and uses hardly any bandwidth.

Sooooo, this week is the week where things get serious as I've decided I'm definitely staying here at least for this year ... and if I make things work financially then for the forseeable ... therefore my 1st task is to put my stamp on the apartment.

If peeps knew me when I moved into my pad in Cambridge, they know I'm quite particular (dare I say anal) about furnishings and making things look nice (and getting things of the right color/shade/size/dimensions regardless of cost) ... and this was going to be a challenge here since furniture (like many things) is ridiculously expensive. Nevertheless, I decided to go out to a furniture store about 30 mins drive away with a printout from their website of what I wanted. When I got there I was like a kid again, bouncing up and down on sofas, running in the hallways and having fun. Once I saw what they had I wanted to change my selection to something better ... and thats when it hit me .... "etchy boy, it would have made sense to measure ur room before u came here, now u dont know if this stuff will fit" ..... and so I drove all the way back home, measured the place, ate an octopus and spinach wrap, and drove all the way back to order my gear.

Will be another month before it arrives so before then I need to find a way to get rid of my existing furniture, defo no room for 2 lots of everything ... sofas, dining table/chairs, cupboards, etc all need to be gone.

On Friday I decided to initiate the process of obtaining residency here. This is where it hit me how much red tape and illogic there is with these people as I'm being given the runaround from one building to the next to the next all day long ... I will write about the process some other time when it is complete ... but for now all I wanna say is "aaarrggghhh".

Yesterday was a friend of mine's birthday and his son has now bought a bar here called "Pink Flamingo" so I decided to make some pakoras and head over for treats and fun times .... they love to sing and kept wanting me to get on stage but no chance, singing is not my thing ... especially not after 10 greasy pakoras. I should have taken a picture of the bday cake ... it was rather rude ... all I'll say is my slice included the left nipple.

Interesting night tho ... I was chatting to my friend who bought the place about a few things ... he has Traktor Pro and a DJ controller setup ... I've never dabbled into the software world and want to give it a shot so I could have a regular spot over there .... will be packed in the summer and heaps of fun ... so possibly good things there ... only thing is they like their cheese so I need to convert them into cool music. Don't get me wrong, cheese is nice on a sunday afternoon when you melt it into baked beans and throw in the scrambled eggs ... but why have cheesy beans on a Friday night when u can have a "TRANCE-FILLED SCRUMPTIOUS BANG TIDY TOASTIEEEE"

Actually, they want me to do standup there as well lols ... man I can't believe it was 2010 I did that ... where has the time gone? Maybe I'll give it a go here ... but on the other hand I could be a bit too offensive for the folk here .... still a possibility for some more fun and to get to know more peeps.

Plus I got a referral for web work ... overall a useful trip there me thinks. Things are looking up ... I have a few projects on the cards I'll be working on over the next few months so hopefully a couple of them can be money earners ... busy days ahead ... just gotta make sure I spend my time wisely on the important frogs (Pareto's principle)

I will wrap up by sharing something I read the other day in Portuguese news .... which kinda sums up the craziness here.

"Four public holidays, two civil and two religious have been extinguished in Portugal for this year by the government as part of the ongoing austerity measures in a bid to increase productivity."

Keep smiling all 😊

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