Whoops, we have had several days off from blogging, but here comes an update. Last Saturday, Jon and Anne Lise (colleagues and friends from the place where we worked) arrived late evening. Delighted to see them again. They brought presents of "proper" coffee and a cafetiere which K has been desperate for and which simply does not exist here in Portugal. Dinner at the local restaurant with clown waiter performing in English, Portuguese and Scandinavian. On the Sunday we all went to see if we could play boules in the morning, but it turned out that there were too many full members there because of their AGM, so there was no room for us as well. So went off to Silves where J and A-L explored the Moorish castle before we all had lunch at the Cafe Ingles just outside the castle walls. We had booked a table as we knew there was to be a good afternoon concert ( new groups every Sunday afternoon). Fantastic jazz quartet with blind girl singer who also played keyboards. After the concert we took them on to do part of the walk along the levada which we have done with all the visitors, then back for evening at home with one of Kathryn's homemade Portuguese soups.
Monday morning K and N went for a bike ride while J and A-L went back to Silves to see the market there before all met up at Silves and went down to Benagil for a rather windy picnic on the cliffs there. On the way home called at Jean's to pick oranges, grapefruit and avocados ( a new and exciting experience for our visitors!). Out to dinner at "hot plate Curva" where we were greeted enthusiastically by the family who run the place and who now know us and regard us as regulars.
Tuesday woke to gale force winds. J and A-L went off to explore the south west coast and Cape St Vincent, while K and N went to Malcolm and Anita's to help them paint the walls round their courtyard. Because of the wind, painting turned into rather a risky business and N who was painting the top of the garden wall got a faceful when a violent gust blew the paint out of the brush. Further drama when Kathryn's watch fell out of her pocket and into her bucket of paint! Luckily it was water based paint and Anita rescued the watch and took it away and washed it. After the painting was finished, Anita took us up to Paderne Castle to see the naked men there. (Picture is of Kathryn holding one).
Today A-L stayed at home to proof read an article she had submitted as part of her doctoral work, and the three of us went off to the weekly market in Quartera, and then on to Almancil where we had lunch in an Italian restaurant and visited a famous church (S. Lourenco) which has an amazing interior covered entirely with biblical scenes done in blue and white tiles and a very ornate baroque altar in gold leaf. Butonholed by a weird Canadian man who had a severely overdeveloped need to inform and educate his fellow human beings. His well-pressed tropical outfit marked him out a bit of weirdo. While K and N were looking at postcards he came up to us, and the "conversation" went something like this "Do you speak English? Well you see the Portugese sell these cards because they are the only source of income to maintain these places, that's why you're not allowed to take photographs inside....." Then a bit later he met Jon in the garden of an art gallery and cornered him. "Do you speak English, well did you know that that sculpture of a spider is made from the mudguards of old motorbikes" ( something which would have obvious to a two-year-old.
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