Hooray! We arrived back in Portugal. The journey from Edinburgh airport was pretty uneventful. It was pleasant to leave a grey, damp and 16oC Edinburgh and arrive two hours later to a very nice 24oC and sunny skies in Lisboa.
It was quite a long day though, as we were up at 2am to get ready to get to the airport for an early flight. thankfully our friend in the village came down to pick us up. A real blessing as we had expected him to drive Wayne’s car down and we drive back. In the end he cam in his car. we were so happy, as we were completely bushed and the drive home would have been stressful having been away for three months and only driven a few days (on the left side too).
The other plus side is that before leaving, our car had developed a very slow leak in one of the tires, and we really wanted to get that sorted before doing a long drive. So that’s exactly what Wayne did. After saying our thanks, saying hello’s to everyone, meeting two new little kittens, dropping the bags off and having a nice cuppa, Wayne took the car into the tyre centre in the nearest town, Porto de Mos.
After using his rusty portuguese and probably butchering the language in the process, he managed to get the salient points across, and the team leaped into action. There was indeed a nail which was the cause of the slow leak, but thankfully it was easily repaired on the spot and included a recalibration and re-pressurising all the tyres. A great service. No waiting, professional service and only 27€! Great peace of mind considering our next long drive was a only a few days away at the weekend. The car was also due it’s first oil change, but due to the fact it had been unused for the past three months, it wasn’t an issue. Wayne booked it in for the following month when we planned to return to check on the house build progress.
Once back it was an early night!
The following morning we got to have a look around the garden and see some of the surrounding land and get some comprehension on how the heat wave in Portugal had left it’s mark. We also managed a quick trip to town to pick up some supplies and grab a nice coffee and cake. We were so pleased to be back to more affordable coffees. Two (ample) portions of apple cake and coffees were only 3.60€. That’s just over £3. That doesn’t even get you a single coffee in some cafes in the UK!
We also managed to visit the house job site to see how the heat has effected the foundation work that was completed just before we headed to the UK. We were aware that no real progress had been done, but that was due to the heat wave stopping work followed by the Portugueses holidays, but the evidence of the heat was clear. The ground was cracked and bone dry. Many of the trees were obviously struggling apart from our fig tree which is groaning with figs! There was also surprising growth of where we had cut down olive trees near the foundations. The heat or the vegetation had caused some of the rendering to crack.
Looking at how we could help the trees, or in some cases kill off weeds and unwanted growth, Annette made use of some discount we had accrued at Leroy Merlin to purchase a backpack plant sprayer!
We also had some issues with getting the banking app to work. That meant a trip into the local branch which can be a bit of an ordeal. Their IT systems are all fairly new, and we needed to be able to access it on our separate phones. Not that easy apparently. It took three trips to get it sorted!
The saddest part of the week was hearing the news that Queen Elizabeth II had passed away. She was a real presence for our entire lives. She was Wayne’s boss obviously as he had served in the armed forces, so it came as quite a shock, even though it was inevitable at some stage. Still a very sad time!
We didn’t want to dwell too much on that, other than following the news and tributes from around the globe. And we definitely didn’t want to end this blog on a sad note, so we looked to pack for our next house sit and await news of the build progress. We wanted to capture some good video and photos of the area, as we had never been to Coja before, so it was time to get the drone batteries charged up and latest software and firmware updates completed before setting off…
Thanks for reading the blog and joining us on our life’s adventures.
Stay tuned for our next one and see what we learn about the area, and care for a lovely dog!
Our Portuguese Life 