Sunday 1st March

Sunday, 1st March.

Sue arrived safely yesterday to the beginning of a period of rainy weather. Stopped for coffee in a cafe we have not tried before in the square outside the church in Paderne. Good coffee, but acoustics (aided by goup of cheerful young men talking very loudly, Portuguese style, made it almost impossible to hear each other. Also the unavoidable telly with English football (Chelsea playing Wigan) playing at full blast. Anyway friendly young man behind counter who responded to my Portuguese in alarmingly fluent and colloquial English, even to the extent of saying "cheers" when I said goodbye. Got back into car just in time as the serious Algarvian rain started and lasted the rest of the way home to TE's.

Sue came armed with birthday presents for N ( a "pilot's torch" with super strong white light and also blue, green and red.Not sure what the coloured ones are for, but the white will be very useful for when the electricity fails here, which it does regularly especially when it rains.And also Lindt chocolates. Will have to ration those as combination of inactivity due to Achilles problem and chocolate eating would not be a good thing!

Out for dinner at "Hotplate a Curva" our local friendly family restaurant which gets its name from being the only restaurant in the Algarve which serves food on hot plates.