Well true to form, when we have visitors three things happen. The weather takes a dive, the car throws a wobbly and one of the dogs comes into season setting all the others off.
Mum and Susan visited last week and the average temperature fell 15 degrees, the exhaust pipe fell off the car (which Ian mended with glue that probably wasn’t a good thing), the header tank broke and BOTH petal and Tinks came into season which resulted in rather a lot of unpleasant doggy behavior – and to make it worse it appears that Hamishes one remaining thingy seems to be working as he is showing WAY to much attention to the ladies.
On the plus side the weather did pick back up again so although the carnival was a little chilly, we were able to spend some time outside not wrapped up like Eskimos. There were several high points – wine and tapas at Pepe’s, wine and tapas at the swimming pool bar, scavenging chandeliers from near the church (by the bins – we weren’t raiding the church), Mum making a small boy faint when she said ‘David Beckham’, Susan and I looking gorgeous as witches, visiting the chapel where the 24 kilometer walk ended (have I ever mentioned that…?), our wine and cheese evening…
Talking of wine and cheese – this was our special treat. We’d long thought we’d like to buy some really nice cheese, a bottle or two of good wine and some port. Our visit to Portugal was just what we needed and we stopped off on the way back from the English Cemetery at Elvas to pick up supplies AND have a picnic. The picnic was in a less than lovely spot at the side of the road – but lucky we stopped there as who should pass us than Mike and his daughter! They did a double take at us, and we thought they were moving us on, but what a co-incidence.
The car palava started just before M and S visited. The last repair that Ian made on the exhaust started to break just one or two days before they arrived. Ian bought some stuff that lasted between here and the main road. However, although we expected problems from the exhaust we were unprepared for the car to over heat at the top of a hill on Hornachos. We did laugh though, when filling our water containers with water to fill the water bottle in the car back up, a farmer with a horse told us that he didn’t have that problem with a horse. Well – that is what we thought he said.
I’ve no idea why petal and tinks came into season now – its a little disappointing that Hamish is showing interest as I had hoped that we wouldn’t need to get him operated on again. However, quite frankly, having spent the last three days with him serenading the ladies at the top of his voice we’ve been tempted to do it ourselves.
The car went into the garage and got its necessary bits stuck back on so that should last until probably a day before we have visitors again!
We went to class tonight and found that two new ladies had joined when we weren’t there last week. They are Brazilians and it is really interesting the differences in the languages and they really did have problems with some Spanish words. Another interesting point we noticed was that the gender of some items was different in Portuguese to Spanish. I must admit seeing that we are only 50 or so miles from Portugal I do think if I was from Brazil I might look to live the other side of the border – but perhaps I’m not entering into the spirit of things!
We’ve given the go ahead for the building work and the windows. We’re only getting the downstairs windows done for now, but we will do the rest later. While I am looking forward to getting the building work done, I also know that I will soon find that the novelty will wear off soon. I might look at moving into a barn for a few weeks and leave Ian with the builders.
So, this week is going to be a busy week on the rubber stamping front. I am still to find my stride with About, but that is because there is a lot to learn on all fronts. It’s quite cool, however, to take my New York Times paycheck down to the bank to cash – that did get a strange look or two!