Portugal, baby

Apologies for the terse style and the hundreds of photos.

We went on holiday to northern Portugal for a month.

It was great.

We needed to get away from the extreme heat of the village for a few weeks and it worked. We had temperatures in the lower 20´s and even some rain. We had hired a casa rural which had a spare bedroom for our guests and a basement for Sparky to hide away in as well as a huge garden for the dogs to do their ablutions in.

The huge garden wasn´t enough for Luna, naturally, and it wasn´t long before we had locals commenting that our Podenco was being seen around the neighbourhood looking for trouble after escaping through the fence. As long as she didn´t go near the main road, she was alright.

We did have guests. We had old friends from Morocco visiting in their camper van, new friends from Guadalajara who are just so lovely and family from the cold desolate wastelands of Yorkshire, one of whom would have been happy to share a couch with four dogs for the duration.

We went to the hills. To the beach. To the cities of Braga and Porto. To a music festival outside of Porto where we saw Snow Patrol, one of the least trendy bands ever but also one of the best bands I have ever seen live. I do not say that lightly. I´ve been to an awful lot of gigs over many years and their set was one of my top 20, if not even in my top 15. They were that good. They were astonishing.

We also saw Simple Minds in Porto, which was a real treat.

We also did a 10K walk/run which involved a nudist beach and a forest. We both have medals to prove it. It was brilliant! I have the memory of two naked blokes standing there staring at us all with their wedding tackle swinging. Not so brilliant.

We ate some amazing food – brunches that you just can´t get in Spain; Indian curry; Thai curry and my favourite sausage rolls from my favourite Portuguese supermarket.

Sonalee did do a lot of work, this is true. It was the time that the IB results came through and she sort of had to be online to take queries and assimilate data and deal with anxious parents and students. It was annoying but it is part of what the job entails.

I did bugger all except drive a lot. And yes, get angry and shocked with the sheer fuckwittery of Portuguese drivers. The standard of driving in Portugal is appalling. It is shockingly poor. Even worse than the French – no, really. The rule of Portuguese driving seems to be that driving at the speed limit half a metre behind another vehicle is the only way to drive. Oh, and that STOP signs are for losers. Do not get me started on roundabouts.

We had a great time. A fantastic time. There are a ton of photos to prove it.

Speaking of which, this will be my last blog on this site. From next month it will be on https://ofdogsandlemons.wordpress.com

Apparently my use of tons of photos has annoyed the admin of this current site.

Anyway, we are back in Andalusia. It is nice to be back. It is unbelievably hot – today was 38 degrees. The house is looking great but needs a huge clearout of tons of crap that we seem to have accumulated.

We´ll be moving to Cordoba at the end of the month, which will be a new adventure for all of us including Sparky who continues to hate travelling in the van but loves pooing in it. I need to find a job. My suggestion to become a pole dancer hasn´t gone down well with anyone so I will need to be a bit more creative.

My mum is doing well and improving every day. She is getting seriously pissed off that she can´t drive her car yet due to annoying bureaucracy. My god daughter is now officially a French citizen, which is slightly weird for her dad and I. My sister has accepted our applications to be Official Photographer and Sri Lankan Chef respectively for next year´s food festival and the new football season is about to start.

I have gotten over the trauma of England losing in the Euros because the magic of the Olympics is here with all of its thousands of stories taking place on a daily basis.