Week 3 - Sunday 6th December 2015 - Sunday 13th December 2015
An Early Christmas.
Sunday
Today is moving day. We have had a very pleasant four days around ESTRAMOZ, not much sightseeing but lots of - joy of joys - Christmas food shopping.
We are going to The ALGARVE for a few weeks. We were going for two weeks to a recently opened site but Rosemary and Frank went and checked it out and were not impressed so they found somewhere else for us. We met them at a lay-by just off the motorway and we were surprised when we were told to get in Franks car, “I’m taking you to look at a couple of sites while Rosemary sits and waits in your car” he explained. Frank took us to two sites, one a standard site the other not so standard, but more of that later, as the “not so standard” one was where we chose.
The “NOT SO STANDARD” site is just being started by the owners of a large garden centre, SULFLOR.
Monday
Spent today setting up camp, we were going to spend two weeks here and then move on in the hope of meeting up with other pals further north but Frank has negotiated a very good monthly rate for us so we will be here for at least a month.
Tuesday
Went to lunch at Rosemary and Franks home. A real treat and when (or if) I manage to persuade Rosemary to let me have the recipe for the fabulous Lasagne we consumed I will post it on the food page. I don’t think you will ever get better.
Wednesday
Today lunchtime we visited a new Japanese restaurant in Olhão called SUSHI MOMENTS. I have only once been to a Japanese restaurant before, in Canada, and like the Canadian experience this was outstanding. There were three lunch menus, all were the same food but one was small (€8.00), one medium (€10.00) and the other large (€12.00). We all elected to have the medium - “big” mistake! There would have been plenty with the small. The food was superb although so much raw fish may not be to everyones taste but I thought it superb and we will be going again if I get my way (VERY unlikely - Ed).
Thursday
One of the problems with our caravan pitch is that we cannot access the site internet, the site owner has put us an undercover table and chairs where we can log in but it’s a bit inconvenient and we can still use our “Knowhow” data sim but that gives us only 10GB month so we have been investigating getting a Portuguese sim. With his nose for sniffing out a bargain Frank has found that the Portuguese company “NOS" do an unlimited usage data sim for just €25.99 (£19.23ish) which is less than we are paying for the Knowhow 10GB. There has to be a catch and this one is that it must be part of a landline phone/broadband package. It happens that Rosemary and Frank have just such a package and they have been kind enough to allow us to get a data sim attached to their package.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday - Our early Christmas. Lots of Rosemary’s fab food eaten and an ocean of Franks drink drunk, we have been spoilt rotten - what a wonderful Christmas, and we still have the one on 25th December to come.
Week 4
Monday 14th December 2015 - Sunday 20th December 2015
This has been a very easy peasy week when we have done little other than shop - well we do have Christmas to cater for and there will be two of us so, using a borrowed Macro card, we have been loading up. Beer, Gin, wine (in a 10 litre box equivalent to 68p per bottle for a more than acceptable wine) all at wholesale prices - oh yes and a little food.
Week 5
Monday 21st December 2015 - Sunday 27th December 2015
The entry for this week is going to be as sparse as that for last week. We have been very lazy on the days leading to, the actual days of, and the days after Christmas doing little but eat and drink.
On Christmas day itself we did drive over to Fuseta to take our “traditional” walk on the beach complete with a paddle in the sea, although we must admit that for “paddle in” we really should have written “stood close to”.
Our Christmas dinner this year was unlike previous travel years quite traditional with turkey and all the trimmings. The turkey was however not a whole bird but just a leg, it was a big leg that must have come from a very large bird indeed, we took out the bones and tendons, stuffed it one of Sue’s home made stuffings and cooked it on the BBQ - fabulous.
We’ve had a lot of e-cards and texts this year - thank you for all of those - although one text I would rather not have had. I reproduce it here, spelling mistakes included :-
Hi Steve. Just had a call from a guy also calked Steve - manager of a company called ‘saga glass’ (never heard of them) who says they have been trying to contact you regarding your windscreen. Don’t know how he got my number but apparently they checked the policy and the fitter, Keith I think it was, wasn’t authorised to work on cars belonging to policyholders under 69. Seems that company rules dictate that they have to be arranged direct with sagaglass who will have to remove it and refit using an age appropriate fitter. Do you know anything about this? Sounds rather strange but I’ve heard saga insurance (if they are the ones involved) can be a nightmare to deal with. Good luck & all the best. Bro.
We are all told never to reply to any text or email without re-reading the original several times and then after replying don’t send that reply until the following day. Did I take that advise? Within seconds the reply was typed and the send button pressed :-
Hi, Yes we have had a new windscreen.
It was a total nightmare. The guy who finally sorted it out was a manager called Steve (Preston office) and the very efficient fitter was indeed a chap called Keith. Seems to me the fitters should be trained to the cars not the customers.
There are two points here
1- If they want to refit the screen they can come here and do it if it is before policy renewal time because then
2- Saga are going to be told to (expletive deleted) ‘cos I am certainly NOT staying with them another year.
If Steve rings again tell him to check his records cause he did have my phone number and if Saga displayed their number I might answer but when in Europe do not answer anonymous calls
Do you get the impression they have (several other expletives deleted) me off.
All the best
Steve
Unfortunately my phone chose that moment to refuse to send my text and I was so incensed I rang my Bro and gave him a thirty minute rant on why I hated Saga and what to tell them if they rang again. Sadly that caused me to miss another text from dear baby brother Richard sent almost immediately after the first :-
Oh I almost forgot. He said that if I gave him my bank account debit card details, pin number etc he would refund your excess direct to me so that I could pay it to you. Must say that sounded most helpful so naturally i gave him all the info he wanted and will look out for the payment. He said he was in Nigeria so I suppose it may take a while and I bet the bank charges will be stiff but hey ho thats to be expected coming from all that way. All the best Bro
Hook, line, sinker, rod, bait box I swallowed the lot and less than a week after I had put the original sorry story on t’interweb.
Bro, you will need to keep looking over your shoulder - I will get you back, sooner or later I will retaliate so be afraid. Be very afraid.
Week 6
Monday 28th December - Sunday 3rd January 2016
Christmas gone, new year not yet arrived - a bit of a nothing week really, we have sat around reading, gone for short walks and doing not very much.
One bit of exciting news is that Sue’s Aunt Brenda and Uncle David are coming to visit for a week in early February so we have lots to organise in a few short weeks. Given our age it would appear that we will be visited by a right old pair of geriatrics but David was a late addition to the family and just a few years older than Sue. When Sue was born her parents were living with Sue’s maternal grandmother so David was more of a big brother than an uncle.
Week 7
Monday 4th January 2016 - Sunday 10th January 2016
It’s always feast or famine, last week we saw no-one, went no-where, did nothing. This week we had a phone call and an email. The phone call was from a couple Lynn and Mark who we had met on our first Spanish camp site on our first adventure (and again several times over the following years) asking us where we were. On being told they announced they were “just down the road” and suggested we meet up for lunch, Friday was agreed and, because they now had a car (they tow it behind their motor-home on a trailer), they would come to us.
On Thursday morning we were still trying to decide the best place to take Lynn and Mark for lunch when they arrived a full 24 hours early, they had decided to move here for a fews days visit. A bit shocked that we were not in fact on a proper camp site but a nursery/garden centre but soon came to terms with that. They stayed with us for a while, we went out for a couple of lunches had a few dinners/parties in the van and a thoroughly good time was had by all.
The email was from a couple, Anne and John, we met last year. They are renting a house a few miles up the coast for the winter and invited us for lunch on Saturday. We had a splendid time, a very pleasant lunch and a walk on the beach, just a few metres from their front door - fabulous. I did unfortunately leave my jacket and camera there but that has given us an excuse (none actually needed - ed.) to meet up again very soon.
Week 8
Monday 11th January 2016 - Sunday 17th January 2016
When you write a blog it’s always best to keep a diary of daily events or write the blog VERY regularly. Sadly since we have not replaced our 2015 diary with a 2016 version we (I use the term “we” but in all honesty should have used “I”) so writing this in week 13 I haven’t got a hope of remembering what happened weeks ago. I blame it on getting older and loosing short term memory, now where was I?
Week 9
Monday 18th January 2016 - Sunday 24th January 2016
Just a couple of happenings of note this week the first having a dinner party for Lynn and Mark in the van, Sue as usual did well serving up a delicious three course meal which we would have detailed here if either of us could remember what it was. There was lots of local wine drunk with the starter and main course and despite Marks insistence that he didn’t like port a whole bottle disappeared with the cheese course - a splendid if (at this distance and nothing to do with alcohol) hazy evening.
We Brits certainly know how to enjoy ourselves. We have travelled the best part of 60km west to visit Iceland. There are very few UK food delicacies we miss as there are few things that can’t be bought in the major supermarkets except that is UK sausages. There is nothing quite like them and nowhere else, that we know off, where they can be bought in Portugal.
Week 10
Monday 25th January 2016 - Sunday 31st January 2016
Well I can remember something of this week ‘cos Monday was my birthday. Quite a lot of it was spent emailing “thank you’s” to the huge number of friends who sent e-cards or greetings on face-ache (Facebook), I’ve never received so many Happy Birthdays, it was great.
We went out to dinner, the first of this trip (lunch is now more normal for us). We went to a restaurant that we have been to several times before Colibri Restaurant in the centre of Moncarapacho where they specialise in “steak on a stone”. Having tried the steak (and been impressed) this time I elected for the duck which Sue had had and enjoyed on our last visit. This time of the four of us only Sue enjoyed her meal (bacalhau) But the rest of us were a lot less that impressed. Well that will be the last time we go there.
Fortunately we had another meal out this week, we went to restaurant Rosalios just off the N125 near Cabanas where we had a first class meal in the very pleasant company of Anne and John at whose winter residence I left my camera and jacket recently.