Morgan's on the prowl, look out Tiger

After only his 4th competition, Morgan is on the Golf European Money list after coming second in the last junior competition of the summer at Parque da Floresta Golf Club. Although his 10 euro winnings is not enough to get him into Colin Mongomerie's Ryder Cup squad, he was absolutely over the moon to be in the prize money for the first time.

My friend Bob's youngest sister was 50 last week and she had a BBQ to remember.
Bob is the eldest of a large family originally from The Wirrall, Liverpool. Various brothers & sisters and their children came over from the UK and one brother, Brian came all the way from Australia to help "Our Cathy" celebrate.
Bob being "the organiser" had set up a pig roast for the barby and the fun was to kick off at about 4pm. We thought that we would give it time to "warm up" and arrived at around 4:45pm.
We had only been there a couple of minutes and hadn't even had time for a first drink when we were introduced to the pig roast. The pig wasn't up to saying a lot and looked pretty browned off with the experience as his master, "Carlos the roaster" was happily basting away. What hapless Carlos hadn't realised was that he had set his roasting equipment a little too close to the foliage of the adjoining garden behind a dividing wall. Still with no drink in hand, I asked, is there someone next door also having a BBQ on the other side of that wall", as I could see flames and plenty of smoke beginning to appear.
In a surreal moment from jokingly looking at the fire over the wall, we quickly realised that the whole place was about to go up in flames. Within a matter of seconds the tinder dry bushes was up in flames as everyone scattered fetching anything that held water. The nearest thing at hand was a number of large plant pots which of course had holes in the bottom and when filled with water emptied before we could get to the fire. A hosepipe was quickly found, but I could have peed faster that the water emerged from the end of the pipe.
Carlos the roaster with mobile phone in hand was by now dialing 112 and summoning the Bombeiros.
In between time, the flames were getting higher and higher, from somewhere, proper buckets appeared (without holes)as people filled them from the swimming pool and emptied them onto the flames. By now the fire has really taken hold and the buckets of water were doing little as people were unable to get close enough to throw the water due to the extensive heat.
Suddenly a large fire extinguisher appeared, followed by another and then another, just as the sound of the bombeiros sirens could be heard in the distance.
Wielding one of the extinguishers, Alan, a brother of Bob tackled the flames which were now over 12 foot high. Amazingly after a quick burst, the extinguisher did its stuff and along with the other guys wielding their weaspons, the flames seemed to be out and under control, only for the odd ember to simmer and relight. By this time a proper hosepipe with more pressure was on hand to dowse the remaining flames and completely soak the surrounding areas.

On the left a Bombeiros fire fighter, or is it a taliban terrorist, checking out the damage,

At this point the bombeiros cavalry were on hand just as the flames had been put out.
As you can imagine, Portugal being a very dry country (mostly) and is always on high alert at this time of year for any fires that become a problem. The next thing we know is that we have really hit the jackpot as there is a bombeiros helicopter above scouring the area immediately close by for any sparks that have blown further afield. The helicopter does a number of passes as he relays the information to the bombeiros guys below.
By now we also have a compliment of police who have arrived and are looking for those responsible.
Fortunately, one of the guests is solicitor Maria Dias who is quickly summoned to the investigation to help Cathy explain. This seemed to have a calming effect on the proceedings as the police were seen to be occasionally smiling, always a good sign but probably as they had handed out the fine ticket.

Hapless Carlos on the right, tries to explain to the Bombeiros why he put a pig roast with open flames next to dry undergrowth and over hanging trees.

By now its just after 5pm and everything is under control.
At this point, the man who always likes to be in control, my friend Bob, suddenly arrives at the party, wondering what all the fuss was about. The only comment he could make was, "I thought this was a birthday party, not a house warming".

Happy Birthday Our Cathy.

I have been getting nagged for a few weeks now about getting the windows cleaned.
As I am not prepared to fork out the 120 euros the robbing bugger charges, I said that I would do them myself, hence the nagging.
As you will appreciate, this is a highly skilled operation which can only be done when the wind is in the right direction and also working as the sun moves from east to west. I therefore have to start in the morning on the est side and finish later in the day when the east windows are in the shade.
All was going well and I was being very careful so that I would leave no streaks. With only a couple of windows left, I felt my back twinge. Being ever so careful and wanting to finish off, I gingerly carried on.
By the side of one of the windows we have a terracotta garden clock and just as I was finishing the last window, I was suddenly attacked by a swarm of wasps, which flew out from behind the clock. In panic I moved suddenly, jolted my back and put a disc out. In the process of stumbling away harassed by wasps, I got stung 5 times, twice on the leg, twice on the arm and once on my chin, little bastards.

So no golf today as I can hardly walk.
It will be interesting tomorrow as I fly to the UK to collect the grandchildren to bring them back to Portugal for a few weeks while Lynette stays here to parrot sit.

I'm still not paying to have the windows cleaned, better luck next time when I will wear my back support, as for the wasps they are all dead, except for the ones making a nest in one of the birds house and the ones that a making a nest in the cracks in the walls and the ones .......................

Had special dispensation from Ayatolla Hodson today to play early before the rest of the field in the Wednesday Texas Scramble golf competition due to going to Cathy's birthday party later in the afternoon, (you must read the later blog on Cathy's party). This meant that we were first to finish and therefore, leaders in the clubhouse.
And there we stayed all day long right until after the last team came in and we were still leaders in the clubhouse coming first in the competition, winning a fantastic 20 euros for each member of my team and only just behind Tiger in the overall winners money list, awesome.

Had a grand day out this week on a canoe.
A number of us got together and hired a canoe on Thursday which sailed from Portimao and headed up the Rio Arade for an hour to Silves taking in the local sites, grotto's, a sardine factory flamingo's, hundreds of storks and a trip around the harbour.
We didn't have to paddle the canoe as it had its own engine with Cap'n Carlos and his cabin boy at the helm complete with his own Vuvuzela. All the wine we could drink was provided along with some water to kill the taste, (it wasn't so bad). Those smarter ones amongst us also took along some beer and some more favourable wine.
Once in Silves we stopped for a couple of hours taking in a late lunch at a local restaurant and of course some more wine.
Two hours later, we staggered back to the boat for the return journey and a little more wine.



This is Lynette convincing herself that she isn't feeling sea-sick.

Boat trip 16 euros each, restaurant bill 26 euros a couple, priceless.

I don't believe that I have mentioned buying myself a new set of golf clubs. My good friend Liz said to me sometime ago, that if your opponent has invested in new technology and you are still using equipment that is 5-6 years old, then you are potentially already shots down against your opponent. Well she has proven to be absolutely correct as I have invested in some new Taylor Made Burner clubs and woods. I have only used them 4 times, 2 of which were in competitions. The 1st time time I scored 39 points and was cut 1 shot from my handicap, the second time I scored 42 points playing from my new handicap and was cut a further 1.8 shots, I was bloody awesome.

That was by far the worst performance of ANY football team in ANY league in ANY game that I have ever been unfortunate enough to watch.
Three Liona my Bum, I have 3 kittens here that would have shown more gutts than that shower.

After the last blog saying that we only had one kitten, plenty of brothers and sisters have now shown up and we have five in total, all looking more or less the same. Mowgli herself is getting braver and we are now able to touch her, but still getting a hiss off when we do, although she freely wraps herself around your legs. The kittens scatter back under the shrubs as soon as they see a human.


We had a few uninvited guests/pests this morning as the gypo's moved onto the land looking for snails. It hardly seems worth the effort as most of the snails are no bigger than your little finger nail and they spend the best part of 2 hours getting less than half a bucket full in the blazing hot sunshine and then another 2 hours winkling them out to eat, yuk. Apparently they are very tasty at this time of year as they pick them from the wild tarragon plants where they have been feeding so they then taste of aniseed, I think I'll stick to aniseed balls from the corner shop.

As mentioned in previous blogs about last winters weather and the incessant rain in Portugal, people kept telling me that the weather in the UK was worse and there has been plenty of rain also in the UK. Whilst Portugal does not have a clue how to manage many things they do know how to manage water. A new dam in the Alentejo region of Portugal (just north of the Algarve) was finished last year and was predicted to take 4-5 years to fil at the normal rainfall ratel, it filled in just under 12 months and I have just read that some areas of the UK have a hose pipe ban, told you it was wet.

Had great idea a couple of weeks ago, I thought to myself, I know I'll clean the windows. Being an absent minded old fart, I gave the windows a real good clean and they sparkled in the sunshine. Now one week later with grandchildren out here, I have more hand & finger prints than they have at Scotland Yard, I realised that it wasn't such a good idea after all, bless 'em.
And another thing, while I'm being a grumpy old grandpa, it dosen't matter which toilet I choose, I have yet to go without finding pee all over the toilet seat. Why can't boys be taught to lift the seat before they have a pee, never mind putting it back down again for the girls when you have finished, the girls never lift it back up again ready for us chaps, which would solve my problem.
Anyway, it was great having them and doing the things that we wouldn't normally do, like going to the beach, having a picnic in the forest, going to the zoo, wiping their bum when the call comes from the toilet, "I've done a poo".
They have now all gone home now and the place is very quiet, I was OK saying goodbye until Harrison said in the car on the way to the airport, "I'm going to miss you Grandpa", blub, blub.

Its all happening at the moment, the birds and the bees are very busy and unfortunately the wasps too as I have found a number of wasp nests around the garden.
The better nests that I have found are this one which belongs to a family of Woodchat Shrikes, apparently a species in decline. There were 6 babies in this nest and it was a bit crowded, I took this picture 2 days before they fledged. On the left is Dad Woodchat Shrike watching over the nest.
We also have Greenfinches and Goldfinches nesting in the conifers just outside the lounge door. I have put up a number of nest boxes but there is nothing in any of them, they all obviously prefer natural furnishings.

Mowgli the moggie has been very busy too. Last week we saw her chasing and eventually catching a rabbit/hare and then dragging it back to her babies, the prey was bigger than she was but she somehow managed it. It would have been a good time to follow her but we were otherwise indisposed. However, just 2 days ago we heard a different kind of meow and found her with a single kitten, emerging from the rocks down by the swimming pool, just need to catch them both now and take them to the vets for de-flowering.

Mum on guard watching over Lucky, lucky she didn't get eaten by the mongoose, or with ears like that, perhaps we should call her Bat Cat.

Result, sold the motorhome on ebay last week and got £2,000 more than a UK dealer was offering, less eBay's £43 fee. Trouble is, the geezer that bought it, (knowing from the very start as stated in the advert, that it was in Portugal), insisted on me taking it back to the UK pronto and as Niuck & Justine, Harrison & Finlay were coming out the following Tuesday, and I didn't want to miss being away while they were here in Portugal. So with some hasty arranging, I left Portugal Thursday afternoon to catch the overnight ferry from Santander to Portsmouth on Saturday, arriving back in Loughborough at 5:30pm Sunday. Handed the motorhome over to the geezer, who was from Bewdley, on Monday, got the bankers draft(he was a kind of a banker as well), he was most indignant that I wasn't going to fill the fuel tank with diesel for him to get home, t*ss*r.
Anyway, I already had his £1000 deposit before I left Portugal, so he had two choices, I left with the *anker's draft, sorry banker's draft for the difference, he had to stop and get some fuel on the way home.
It was quite funny when he left, as he had already told me that he was a driving instructor, obviously not a very good one as he failed to check if the motorhome was in gear, turned the key and oooops, a big jerk forward.
So, that was that and then on Tuesday caught the flight out to Portugal with Nick & the gang, complete round trip 5 days, me totally knackered.
Spent the following 2 days sleeping, going to the beach, playing with the boys and getting sunstroke.
Spent the next 3 days with the shivvers, cold then hot sweats, a kidney infection and feeling totally sh*te, but I was a complete martyr and wouldn't go to the doctors. I still have the cold sweats but at least I am now recovering.

Had Jose the JCB in this week continuing with digging a trench/moat around the perimeter of the land in an effort to make it more difficult for would be bandits who may have an eye for a visit and make a clearer defined boundary.
I think Jose was trained on the BP rigs in the Gulf as he has ripped through the bore hole pipeline and now we have water everywhere. It won't be an environmental disaster providing my plants don't suffer, meaning that I probably have about 3 days to get it repaired, which should be a dam site quicker than BP could manage.

Damage repaired, plants & garden safe.

May 14th 2010

Dino had an away-day today and went to the NECI special needs school in Prai da Luz to see the students. There are about 25 of them all with varying degrees of age and disability
Dino was brilliant and let each and every one of them have a turn at holding and stroking him and of course having their photograph taken with him, he'll do anything for a few nuts.
It was very special to see the reaction on their faces with only one who wasn't so keen but he still had a go.
Lynette did a bit of an introduction and presentaion and asked if anyone knew what kind of things Dino would eat (with an inturpreteur), expecting a reply of "nuts" or whatever that is in Portuguese. These students are smart, especially when one replied "food".
Next time we are taking the students horse riding.

May 2010
Oh Yes, now where was I?

Back home after a longer than planned 5 weeks away and having enjoyed better weather in the UK than we had experienced in Portugal over that last 4 months, but at least now the Portuguese sun is shining again.

We took a long slow drive back to Portugal taking a full 8 days to finally arrive home by meandering through the eastern side of France which we have never done before and had always wanted to do. I must say that overall it was a bit of a disappoint as it was not nearly as pretty as the our normal journey down the western side. It was more industrial and a shed load more expensive as most of the roads were motorway tolls and overall I think we spent over 150 euros just in toll fare.


I love the way the French prune their trees

However it did give us chance to sample Burgundy, Chablis, Beaune and that was just the towns, which of course was coupled with the obligatory sampling in each stop. The only time previously that I have been drunk at 10 o'clock in the morning is from the night before, this time it was fresh each day as we called at a number of Chateaux to sample their wines, although sampling a 40 euro bottle of Nuits St George at 10:30 is not the best time, however some might say there is never a bad time.


I needed a beer in Saint-Emilion to wash down all the wine, although Lynette couldn't get enough of the stuff.

Dino enjoyed the trip and even became a star at the home of Laithwaites wine at Castillion on the banks of the Dordogne.
http://lechai.blogspot.com/2010/04/great-weekend_26.html

The weather was good all the way with just a fine sprinkling of rain on one day with sun the rest of time and snow still visible on the top of the Pyrenees. Lynette again gave the driving a go and even managed to negotiate through the centre of....... which she did admit was a bit hairy as she has never handled such a long thing before??????????????????
After a journey of 1,992 miles (340 miles more than our normal route), I now need to jet wash the front of the motorhome to remove the 26,738 midges, flies & bugs killed along the way.

It has taken a full 4 days to empty the motorhome of all the stuff brought back from the UK and of course not forgetting the 22 cases of wine which was a bit of a weight problem, especially going over the Pyrenees when I was down to 10mph and first gear climbing up the hills. It was great to finally get to the top and then almost freewheeling down the other side, it was like putting your feet on the handle bars on your bike as a kid, Geronimo.............

It seems that we hadn't missed much Algarvean sun whilst away as it had been a pretty mixed bag with the rain still winning out overall. The seedlings that I left to mature couldn't cope with the cold & rain and most have had to be thrown away and I need to start again.

Mowgli, the moggie is still calling for her food although this is now down to one meal a day, usually in the evening. She has definitely had her kittens but despite trying to follow her, we still haven't found them, although we suspect that they are well hidden under the shrubs or rocks behind the swimming pool. It's well protected down there especially as the mixture on sun and rain has encourage tremendous growth in the garden and it now needs some serious heavy pruning, which I need to do right now.

But the big news is that Parque da Floresta Golf Club has allegedly been sold, however the staff of which there was around 300 at the beginning of the year have still not been paid, which is now over 4 1/2 months. This has obviously led to a number of them leaving to find alternative employment. The golf course continues to suffer and is beginning to look like a jungle, although I did see a guy on a mower last week doing his best but the resort now resembles a ghost town when it comes to staff. The word on Friday was that the golf course would not be open on Sunday as the only one left that knew how to work the tills and the computer was having a day off after working 35 straight days without a break and without pay. Whats worse is that the supposed new owners don't seem to be around or have any intentions of paying them anytime soon, its a total mess and a shambles.

Blog 3, Not so much Life in the Algarve
Oh, Yes, Now where was I;

Sorry it been some time since the last blog, been spending a busy few weeks over in the UK................

Had to make some decisions on the motorhome this month and as it needed an MOT, it was a good time to have a trip back to the UK. Coupled with the fact that Mum is going into hospita after her fall in November, when she smashed her face against a brick wall. After xrays and scans at the new Derby Royal SUPER hospital the same day, she was passed ok with no further damage. However, after complaining of severe neck pain for the following 4 months, she was sent back for a further xray. This time when viewing the xray, it was clear there was a fracture to the odontoid peg, which if you are unfortunate enough to be hanged, is the part of the neck that the hangman looks to SNAP. After complaining to the hospital, a review of the initial xrays clearly shows the fracture that the radiographers missed and even Stevie Wonder would have seen it, what totally incompetant useless wasserks, I feel a compenstaion claim coming on.
Since finding the fracture Mum has been walking around in something akin to what Jenson Button wears during his racing sessions until she goes into hospital to have a screw or plate fitted this week and as she has not been into hospital since having me 58 and a bit years ago, she is understandably terrified.
Anyway, the operation went well and Mum handled it brilliantly, going into hospital on the Tueday and being sent home on the Friday, as they don't like you in over the weekend if they can help it.
It is now 3 weeks since the operation, she is still in constant pain and there doesn't seem to be any benefit just yet.

It is now the beginning of September and the official end to summer was sounded off in The Algarve on Saturday evening as many coastal resorts had firework displays to say good-bye to all the summer visitors who had all most probably already gone home.
The grandchildren have now gone back to the UK and so to school for another term. Once again the place is like a morgue and the silence deafening, but at least I can take control of the TV and have the remote back in my hands.
Morgan & Alice have been here for 4 weeks and really are great kids, but you would expect me to say that. I know that they had a great time in Portugal with some brilliant memories. Probably the highlight of which was at ZooMarine. We all had a fantastic day and Morgan, Alice & Nanny got to swim with the dolphins.

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.

Welcome to my first Blog

February 2010


This is getting silly.

I can honestly say without fear of contraception, that this is the worst and wettest winter I have experienced since Noah started felling trees. Hurricane's, tornado’s, landslide’s, we have had the lot, oh and not forgetting the odd occasion when the sun popped out for a brief appearance. We have now enjoyed a total of 4 days since the beginning of December when it has not rained during the day in some form or other. If you have seen the news recently about the weather in Maderia, well that is what we have been on the end of; fortunately it has not got as bad as that just yet. The ground is so soft, when the winds come the trees have no firm ground to hold onto and we are forever putting the tree back upright and the forecast for the 3 days is thunderstorms and then just more ordinary wet rain.


The golf course has been closed a number of times, which really doesn’t matter as we don’t play golf in the rain anyway. There have been a number of landslides, but so far the houses on the golf course are still standing.
In between the rain I have then tried to catch up on some gardening, the trouble with that is you have the wrong clothes on to go outside as you have dressed for rain and when it stops and the sun comes out, the humidity is high and you get
wet through with sweat, or perspiration if you are a lady.

Having said all of that, it hasn’t stopped us doing things indoors; like making Strawberry jam, Lime Marmalade, Orange Marmalade, Mixed Citrus Marmalade, Lemon Curd & Lime pickle, you Women’s Institute members would be very impressed, we even sing Jerusalem while making the stuff.
The Marmalade especially, is like gold out here as the Portuguese only having something equivalent which comes in slab form and is not the best. Like most things though you can get it from the UK Food shop but end up paying a premium. We now have over 50 jars of the stuff and have been selling it for €3 a pop, which goes straight into the Pink Ribbon fund.

We have been adopted by a local feral moggy, who I have called “Mogli”(Mogli the moggy) as she lives in the jungle of a land on the next plot (I know Mogli was a boy but in this story she is a girl), she could even be living inside one of the rock walls that have some rather
large gaps in them, ideal for a litter of kittens, so far, we
haven’t see any.
Mogli visits every day, mostly twice, morning and night just to be fed. Over the past 3 weeks she has become more trusting, we are now within 1 foot of her but there is no chance of touching her just yet, as she is still too nervous.


As mentioned in earlier postcards, crime is becoming a big issue on The Algarve, mostly caused by Eastern Europeans. I know that I mentioned that Lynette had her purse stolen from her handbag in Lidl's supermarket in the summer. Well, just before Christmas, my friend Bob had his house broken into and the bandits knicked about a sunstantial amount of stuff. They entered the house by removing one of the smaller window frames andthen just took the window out, turns out the frame was only being held in by 25mm screws. The Polizia came had a look, gave him a crime number and that was that. Supposedly there was agang on Rumanian gypsies that we responsible for a big proporation or burgalies and the policia had recovered about 80 cameras, dvd player, tv, computers etc, etc but Bob has heard no more. I am currently in the process of installing video cameras and extra security, sad really.

Wednesday 24th February; No golf today, its raining.
Friday 26th February; Always play golf on Fridays with the boys, the girls play with the girls, not today however, its raining.

There has just been a severe weather warning on the BBC of more bad weather in Spain, Portugal & France, with heavy consequences. It looks like we could again be on the end of it as its main track is heading through Lisbon and to the north.
Saturday 27th February, the mother of all thunderstorms.

Wow, that was the strongest and worst storm that I have ever been in. Fortunately I had put away all the sunbeds and stuff that was likely to have been blown away. We escaped with only have a few roof tiles blown off and nothing like what France endured. If we were on the end of it, God knows what is was like in the North.

Do you remember the bird that was coming every night to sit on one of our porch lights and I asked for any suggestions. Suprisingly no one got it right, that was probably because none of you could be arsed to send in a suggestion, but no matter, the answer is, its a Bonelli's Warbler. I think what you are supposed to do with Blogging is put regular updates, which I will do when I have something to say. You can follow if you wish by joining in and clicking the FOLLOW button, or you can just ignore this sad old fart who has nothing else to do inbetween thunderstorms.
Well tha's it for the first BLOG, in fact that was the front door bell, better go and see if its Cheryl coma callin' now that she is free and single again.
Thanks for reading.
Chow

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