Blog 2, The Sequel

Now where was I, oh yes I remember;

March 3rd 2010
No golf today, rain & thunderstorms.
March 5th
No golf today, rain & thunderstorms.
It's official, this is the wettest winter on record in Portugal, as if we needed telling.

Today is the first Saturday of the month which means its gypsy market day in Lagos. Every time I go to this market, I can't help staring at some of the Gypsy's, they are so interbread that some of them have trouble opening their eyes. I saw this woman on Saturday with eyes that she could barely open and she was carrying a young child of about 2 years old and the child also had eyes that he could hardly open as well, he was looking through what were just slits.
We had only been there about 5 minutes when this geezer pushed a Rolex watch in my face. He said that it was very good and cheap price and only 50 Euros, wow, I thought what a bargain. I thought about it for just a nano second and said no thanks. He continued to offer good price and very cheap and eventually gave up. We didn't stay at the market very long, it was too boggy.
Whilst in Lagos we drove past the old railway station and it looks like the homeless doesn't just happen in the UK, here in Lagos it is a big problem too. This lot have taken up residence outside the old railway station waiting hall.

March 7th
No golf today, rain

March 14th Two consecutive days without rain, this is more like it.
We actually had time to get Carlos and his tractor in to plough the north side field, although he had to leave the land on the south-west side as 500 sheep came to visit. The law in Portugal is that if your land is not fenced or cultivated, anyone has the right to roam. The shepherd spoke excellent English and asked if it was a problem which it wasn't and the sheep tucked into the lush weeds. They enjoyed it so much they came back everyday for the following 5 days. The shepherd told us that whilst he was looking after them, (I think he must be a free-lance shepherd)he had walked them all the way from Sagres, (Sagres in the most westerly point of Europe and used to be called the End of the earth when the explorers set sail on their discoveries many years ago), which is about 15 kilometres away, so the everyone has a good walk.


The picture may be a bit small on the blogg, but trust me there are over 500 sheep out there. This is a picture of Larry, or is it Shaun, they all look the same to me.

March is a busy time in the garden, we have been seriously pruning and taking quiet a few tree branches off. Now we need to burn all the rubbish before the end of the March deadline, then its no bonfires until October. Once the sun eventually does come out, its surprising how quickly things dry out and everywhere becomes a tinderbox.

I have been down the stables and have been collecting a shed load of horse manure for the garden and in the latest batch I found these grubs that would give Bear Grylls a 3 course meal, apparently they were "Dung Beetles", well they will be eventually when they grow up.
Whilst digging the manure into the garden, a mongoose walked past me as brave as anything only about 20 feet away, from nose to his very long tail he must have been at least 4 foot long and disappeared into the shrubs, he should be good for keeping the rats down anyway.

March 12th
This is more like it, I do think summer has arrived. This will be 3 consecutive days without rain, we are actually going to get some golf in today and it looks like I am going to need some sun screen for my bald head.

It's time to dust off the motorhome and get it ready for our trip back to the UK at the end of the month. It's an absolute waste having it now that we are living here as its main use was only to bring Dino to & from Portugal. Its been sitting there for the last 8 months and never moved, I think the time is fast approaching when we need to get rid of it or use. I love driving it around Europe but Lynette is not so keen, she prefers staying in a hotel and having her meals cooked for her, continuing the life that she has become accustomed, spoilt I say.

Our neighbour "Herman the German" who is 63 years old, has had his "land locked"house up for sale for a few years as he wants to move to Brazil with his Brazilian girlfriend. As he has no official access to his house and only through the kindness of our hearts do we allow him to drive through our land to get to his house, we thought that he would have a problem selling it. Well he did for a couple of years and them we heard that some daft nut has agreed to buy the house without even speaking to us to see if we would continue the agreement. Our spies inform us that both parties we due to be at the notary last Monday but the buyer didn't turn up. A new date was set for the following Thursday and as far as we are aware, the buyer failed to turn up a second time. Watch this space.

Parque da Floresta Golf Club has allegedly been financially troubled for some time, but at the moment it seems that it is only one fragment above Portsmouth FC. The staff have allegedly not been paid for approaching 3 months. According to another daft Portuguese law, after 3 months have passed without being paid, only then will they will be able to sign on at the Unemployment office and collect some assistance. There are about 250 of them and the majority of them have still been turning up for work each day, its a sad situation. Anyone with a couple of million to spare please apply to PdF immediately.
Just heard that the new golf director who was appointed in January this year is leaving next week, can't blame him.

Mowgli the moggie is still turning up for breakfast & dinner and is definitely pregnant.


**News just in**
Just heard that Herman the German has sold his house, so we went up to see him yesterday. I have to say that he doesn't look well. It appears that he is moving out on Friday and off to Brazil, however he wouldn't give us the name of the new people. I am sure that he hasn't told them about the access issue. The house was black with damp inside and the porch roof was about to collapse, whoever has bought this pile of crap is a complete nutter, which raises the fear that the new owners are planning to demolish it and start again, meaning we are going to have construction work for the foreseeable future trawling across our land, unless we stop them.

Must go now the JCB has just arrived to start digging ditches across all access routes. Looks like World War III is about to begin.

Thanks for reading.