Week 4 of our new life

Monday nice and quiet today, went to Faro Algarve shopping to pick up a few things, also tried to find a place called Oasis for a Swimming Pool cover, still looking for it!  Chilled by the pool in the sun.  Had a visitor to our terrace for lunch, see picture, can anyone name it!!! Douglas had to finally remove it with his fly swat and place it very far away from me. Last night was Supermoon Night, it was fantastic here, pity I did not have a proper camera.

Our Supermoon

Forum Algarve Shopping Centre

What the hell is this

Tuesday, the man finally arrived today to look at the furniture and has taken half of it away (hurray) he was that chuffed that he is coming back on Thursday for the rest of it, Douglas struck a good deal so now the house is looking slightly empty and will be even worse on Thursday, never mind heading back to UK soon so wont have to worry for a month.  Went to Faro Beach Restaurant tonight for a meal, had clams in Butter and Garlic Sauce to start and then Clams, Shrimps and Mussels with rice for Main, for someone that will usually only eat Shrimps I done rather well, it was yummy, luckily Douglas and I shared the meal as it was huge.  Strange to be sitting right on the beach with people still swimming and sunbathing at 8.00pm at night.  Left at 10.30pm and the owners son was on the beach fishing for tomorrows fish, amazing.
Wednesday early start today appointment at the bank to sort out account etc, lost the will to live after one hour, then went to find the Curtain Centre and Vodafone to top up my dongle, finally found the Curtain Centre to discuss curtains etc, bit difficult just now as curtains are in storage along with everything else, oh well will just have to wait until windows etc are in and we can get our stuff out of storage, long way to go then!!! never found Vodafone, then off to buy new radiators and a new hosepipe as ours leaks, this was quite easy but in 31 degree heat I wilted rapidly, never mind 2 litre bottle of water in the car kept us going.  We then set off for Albufeira, there is a lovely coffee shop there called Riviera Pastelaria, we had decided that once a month this would be my treat as they do gorgeous pastries and cakes of all shapes and sizes, I had a lovely chicken salad with apple and pineapple, shredded chicken, lettuce, onion and tomato and Douglas had a Pork toastie, never guess after eating my salad I had no room for a cake LOL, Oh well next time I will forget about the salad.  Well worth a monthly trip.  Finally got home at 6.00pm unloaded the car and straight into the pool, heaven!!!!!

Faro Beach 8.30pm

        

Riviera Pastelaria

      

         Didnt eat any cakes honest!

Thursday James came to take away the big furniture today, so we are left with a bed, some boxes and a washing machine, all rooms are now empty ready for next weeks onslaught of builders.  Mike the Drain Doctor came to clean the drains and gutters, yuuuugh horrible job but now all clear and cleaned out, we wont have to get it done again as he has told us the remedial work to do on a three monthly basis, thank god our Power Washer is in storage, it will come in very handy.  Then the swimming pool man came to measure the pool for its cover, he will phone us tomorrow with the price, why does that tell me it will be expensive.  Finally Hugo came to replace the outside tap, we had bought a new one along with a new hosepipe only we had got the wrong size tap, so at 7.00pm we had to trundle along the N125 to go and change the tap, a 45 minute drive, but it was a cool 25 degrees and made shopping such a pleasure, we purchased some new outdoor lights while we were at it, I can shop at night quite easily as it is cool so I didnt get hot and bothered, think Douglas has a different opinion on that.  We expected our tiles to be delivered on Tuesday but they are coming on Saturday, another case of Manana!!! and Hugo will come back and fix the tap tomorrow. Also discovered our house name Casa Filomena - although a popular girls name also means Beloved so we have a "Beloved House" very apt and it is going to stay with that name, think it has a good ring to it.

Drain Doctor Van and Assistant

Drain Doctor Man himself

Friday morning final meeting with Adrian (the Builder) and Mesteraposa (windows and doors) for final measurements and instructions to Adrian regarding knocking out and changing certain windows, then our time with Adrian to go through plans again and make sure he has got the same plans as we have LOL, five hours later all the finalities done, so all steam ahead next week. Time for a long swim after first going to the shop for a bottle of Morgans (it just had to be done) then lounging by the pool.  Hugo arrived at 5.30 to change the tap and now we have a nice shiny non leaking tap complete with new hosepipe.  Evening of just sitting on the terrace doing as little as possible, well tomorrow is another day.
Why did Saturday arrive!! Delivery of tiles today, should have been an easy job, but no, the truck could only get a quarter of a way into the drive, so could only off load the tiles half way into the front garden 4 pallets full, so guess what we had to unload 163 boxes of tiles off the pallets and into the house, 3 hours later job done after many glugs of water absolutely knackered, 81 degree heat nearly killed us, needless to say we was not fit for much else today.  Long swim in the pool and I still managed my 16 lengths.  8.00pm and we needed to move the pallets into the garage as they now need to be chopped up to use for firewood in the winter, certainly a job for another time and as it is still 79 degrees not much energy for anything else. We also discovered that we had not ordered the plinths for the tiles, so another trek tomorrow to order them, oh Sunday is going to be 84 degrees. Had another visitor to the terrace today, I thought it was our first Lizard but Douglas thinks that the tail is very very long, what do you think?,
Sunday and the end of week 4, it is hard to believe that we will be back in the UK next week, and the weather forecast is not looking good.  Ordered the plinths for the tiles today so that is finally everything sorted, we hope.  Cleaned the house, Douglas commented how nice it was for me to leave the house sparkling for the builders coming in, think that was a bit of sarcasm actually!!  Rounded off the day by going to the cinema to see Star Trek into the Darkness, very good film.  Next weeks blog will be half of the week in The Algarve and half of the week in Devon, will keep posting.

What do you think?

Men at Work 

Labour of Love