Linguas de gato

The other day we bought what we thought were salty snack biscuits, from the snacky biscuit section in Lidl. They are called Linguas de gato.

We were disappointed to find that they weren't salty snacky at all, but they are sweet, and not really to our liking.

And then we realised that "gato" means "cat"! So, we thought we had bought cat biscuits.

Twig, the resident mouser, wasn't tempted when we put one near her as she rested from a tough day doing nothing.

I looked in the dictionary and "Linguas" means tongue. They are sort of shaped like small cat's tongues, and must be a popular Portugese snack.

Anyway, none the wiser, we will make a cheesecake tomorrow and use these strange sweet biscuits for the base.

I just googled Linguas de gato and found this blog:
http://missmishmash.blogspot.com/2008/02/linguas-de-gato.html

Olive Mill and River Beaches

Sunday we spent all day viewing 3 very different properties. The beauty of it was that we had to travel an hour or so north of where we are living, so it was all a bit of an adventure. The terrain was quite different, with boulder strewn hillsides and then valleys and hills affording agricultural land.

All 3 properties were in different states of renovation. The most amazing was the old olive mill, it was like stepping back a hundred years, all the equipment was still inside, the walls were 3 foot thick granite, and the floor was solid blocks of granite. Part of the outer walls looked like something from a Norman church as the precision of the stonework was superb. The views from this property were also magnificent. The estate agent wandered around the old mill with us, and he was as awestruck as we were. It felt like a real privilege to be there. Could we buy this place? Well, it was affordable but would need a lot of money spending on it, there would also be architect fees, planning permission, habitation licence to apply for, as well as the actual work itself. And I don't know if Jon and I would be able to gut the place as it would feel sacriligious.


Today we were out geocaching. We found two wonderful river beaches on the River Alva. They are clearly popular places for locals, but today there were just the two of us. It was so peaceful. The photo shows the sulphorous thermal well at Caldas de S. Paulo. We were keen on having a dip but the sides were sheer, and it looked very, very deep (scary).

The more we see of this region the more we love it. Even a drive to the nearest Lidl rewards us with magnificent views of the mountains that form the Serra da Estrela.

First Viewing Trip

Firstly need to say Happy Birthday to Jon's Mom. Happy Birthday Mom! Hope you got our "card" as it is on its way!

We had our first viewing trip today and got back about half an hour ago (about 4pm). We looked at three very different properties, and it certainly sets the mind cogs wheeling while we think about what we like and don't like. They were all local to Tabua.

Two of the three were potentials for us but for different reasons.

As a first experience it was quite enjoyable. More viewing on Sunday. And probably some more next week etc.

Now time for gin and tonic on the balcony to slake our thirst in these hot temperatures.

Acts of Kindness

One of the things that we've found here is how helpful and kind some of the Portugese are.

There was the checkout girl in the supermarket who took us across Coja on foot, to show us where to buy sim cards.

Then, when we were out geocaching at the prehistoric burial mound, a gentleman slewed to a halt in his car, and though he couldn't speak a word of English, and we didn't have a clue what he was trying to tell us at first, he persisted and wrote down three other places he thought we might enjoy visiting in the local area.

In Lidl in Tabua, we bought some supplies and at the checkout the girl tried to explain to us in Portugese and sign language something about the carrots we had bought. Eventually, we understood that she was saying that we should swap the bag of carrots we had for the ones that were on offer for a bigger bag, at the same price.

These are a few examples of the kindness that we have experienced and it would be far easier for these people just not to bother. It's not that these people are not busy, because the shops both had customers waiting, and they were completely chilled.

Don't you think it's a sad indictment that these acts of kindness stood out to us, as being unusual?

News Flash: The cat is called Twig.

Seaside

Figueira da Foz is the nearest coastline to us, approximately 80km away. As the holiday season is over and we don't enjoy crowds, we thought it would be a good time to venture over there to see the sea.

There are extensive golden sands at Figueira da Foz, and it puts you in mind of Weston Super Mare a little, as you have to walk for a few minutes to reach the edge of the sea. The pictures we took don't give justice to the size of the waves, it would have been a good belly boarding day if we'd brought equipment with us, or perhaps not, as the tide seemed to be on it's way out. Even at high tide it probably only reaches inland another 30 yards. There was a brisk wind blowing that kept us nice and cool.


The sands are very clean, and while at the beach we did a spot of geocaching. We enjoyed lunch in one of the seafront restaurants, and the food was very good and reasonably priced.






The TomTom led us into Figueira da Foz without any problems but on the way home it became confused as there were new roads that it didn't recognise, so we knew we were in for some fun. We had our first experience of toll roads as well, and for the first time ever when abroad, we managed to get into the proper line for the toll booth. The tolls were not very much money, some were manned, but the unmanned ones were really efficient as well.

Sunday night we wandered down the path to the mill that belongs to one of our neighbours. The access to the river is better here, and it would be really easy to swim or bathe in this part of the river as there is the weir and a small dam. Locals were fishing there, so we didn't launch ourselves in. In fact, while it's really hot, we are coping really well with the heat, and haven't yet felt the need to skinny dip (luckily for the rest of the population).

Last night we had a light tea, and were feeling quite tired from our jaunt to the seaside, so we cuddled up on the settee and watched a DVD on the laptop.

Celery (and goat) soup

Yesterday the weather was a bit like the UK, overcast with sunny intervals, and for the first time since we arrived Jon was thinking of fishing out one of his "ganseys". I spent most of the day experimenting with the silk painting, trying different techniques. We did some shopping in the morning for a few bits and bobs, and for the first time we spotted celery, but unlike in England where you pay for the same price for every pack of celery, over here they weighed it leaves and all. So Jon felt compelled to make celery soup with all the leaf tops. And it was gorgeous, and we had enough for today as well, and tomorrow we'll eat the last of it.

We also tried the bread making again yesterday. Lots more successful this time, and nice to be eating bread that resembles what we are used to. Local bread is very dense but keeps for about a week if you wrap it up.

Today was back to mist that burned off by 09.30 hours, and then glorious sunshine. It's also car boot sale day (on the road between Tabua and Candosa on the EN528). The car boot is every two weeks up to September, and thereafter it takes place on the first Sunday in the month until Spring. It's not a big car boot by UK standards, but the stallholders are either English or Dutch. Some are selling books, mainly novels (English), some are selling bric a brac, homemade delights such as chutney, jams etc, and there is a stall that sells UK foods such as Branston pickle, Heinz baked beans, Cheddar cheese and other branded items that us Brits can't live without. We also managed to get Linda McCartney sausages from him.

When we returned we found two goats in the garden...gulp.

Jon chased them off, but they had had a good nibble at our baby cabbages. Hopefully the cabbages will survive. Chanfana (goat stew) suddenly sounds appealing!

Quest for Contact Lens Cleaner

Yesterday we had that light rain that really wets you, until about 12.30 hours, then the sun appeared occasionally, but it remained pretty overcast most of the day. We went to Tabua to do some shopping, but the main mission was to find contact lens cleaner. We'd already tried a farmacia and were told that we would need to find an optician in one of the towns. Tabua seems to be the optician capital, as we spotted at least three different ones.

Anyway, you can imagine what it was like with our terrible Portugese and the girl behind the counter didn't speak English. We managed to indicate that we wanted cleaner for the contact lenses but there are different types of cleaner for different types of lenses. I was trying to tell her my lenses were hard, or "duro", and she was looking puzzled, wondering if they were flexible lenses (soft?). Jon rapped his knuckles on the counter, saying "hard...hard" and I don't know if it was that, or his charming smile, but eventually she smiled, and gave a gentle sway of the hips, as if the penny had dropped. On the box they are described as "rigidas permeaveis ao gas" so that should make it easier next time (sure). For a 120ml bottle that does everything like cleans, disinfects, neutralises etc, we paid 11 euros that is a lot more expensive than Asda's £4.99 jobby we normally buy.

Our neighbours have had babies...they're so cute leaping around the field like they're demented or being chased by wasps. There are two black lambs and two white ones. We tried to capture them on a short movie yesterday they were so hilarious, but unfortunately there was too much light, but we will persevere...

Mouse free zone here........for now. Cat asleep on balcony, as usual.

Bread Fiasco

Breadmaking...without weighing scales this was always going to be a bit of a gamble, and using an oven that we're not entirely used to would also be a challenge. All in all, we were sceptical about what the bread would turn out like. However, the bread dough was made and kneaded until silky smooth, then left to prove. After 1/2 hour it hadn't grown. After 1 hour had passed Jon was smelling a rat. He double checked the tin of yeast we had bought from Ecomarche a few days before and, after a quick check on the Portugese translation, realised that it was not yeast, but baking powder.

We could have waited all day and it would have just sat there like one of Lovecraft's slumbering monsters.

All was not lost, the dough became flavoured flatbreads, one was made into basil and tomato, another became cheese and Marmite, and the third became cheese and mustard. They're harder/denser but will do for emergencies if we freeze them. Though, in actual fact, the basil and tomato didn't last much past tea time.

During the bread fiasco Jon made lemon curd, and we'll be sampling this for breakfast.

We also made our first visit outside our cosy home after dark. It got dark about 8.30ish last night as it was quite overcast during late afternoon. While the nights are definitely drawing in, we usually have light until 9 pm.

Jon drove carefully up the dark curving lanes and we eventually arrived in Oliveira do Hospital, where we had arranged to meet fellow geocachers. Team Fafnir are prolific in this area, and while we were back in England we were in contact with them - they offered to buy us a drink when we came over. Nuno and Reta were absolutely lovely people, and we hope to meet up with them again in the near future. Nuno teaches information technology, so we had that in common as an interest, as well as being crazy geocachers.

Today we have a drop of wet stuff falling from the sky, that we remember as being "rain". It's a welcome sight now as the ground is thirsty. This time of year the water reserves are encouraged to build up to help support the hot summers - there are two large water butts here that capture the rain from the roof. We will be logging when it rains etc, as this will help us look back on this record next year and help with our long term plans. And besides, it wouldn't be English not to mention it!

Tremocos

The tremocos were sort of nutty in texture and slightly salty, though ours did come in brine, so that might have something to do with it! Not sure if they only ever come in brine. They must be far healthier than peanuts though. Nice with a Super Bock!

The baking of bread never happened yesterday and will most likely happen today instead. We never did see any rain though we heard it pitter pattering for about 5 minutes during the night. Instead we went geocaching and bagged four in one day. The caching took us to some interesting archaeological sites such as a burial chamber, Roman ampitheatre and remains of a forum, also what is thought to be a Roman font, and a mystery cache over at Oliveira do Hospital (OdH) that led us to explore a bit more of the town.

Whilst in OdH we were feeling rather peckish we took a deep breath and went into a cafe to try and order something to eat. Suze ordered cheese toasties, or at least she thought she did. When they came they were magnificent, but were ham and cheese toasties. The poor waitress looked horrifed when we tried to explain that we were vegetarians. Anyway, we did what most vegetarians would NOT do, and pulled the ham off and ate the rest. We snaffled the ham to bring home for the cat (Mouser Extraordinaire). The toasties were good value. We learned perhaps to be a bit more specific, to say queijo somente (hopefully this means 'cheese only').

The geocaching took us most of the day and by the time we arrived home we caught up on a few chores like watering the vegetable patch (that seems to have developed molehills). The veggies we put in are coming along well, especially the green leafies like lettuce, cabbage and broccoli. The beetroot are okay but slow going. The carrots are looking a bit sorry for themselves.

We have a glut of ripe tomatoes and there are really only the two of us to try and eat them. We don't have enough jars to make chutney, so we are on a mission to try and come up with some delicious recipes to use some up. Fortunately Jon is a great cook, not so good for the waistline though.

The Italian job in Portugal

Our trusty TomTom is great at getting us from A to B but occasionally we encounter what we call the TomTom Adventure. After a recent trip to Coja to check out the shops we asked it to take us home. This is what I could see:

On turning right, or attempting to, I encountered the following:


If I'd been in a mini I might have attempted it, but the Berlingo was a bit too wide. In the back of my head I could hear Michael Caine urging me "Put yer foot down, put yer foot down!"

Lidl and Tremocos

Not much to note today, apart from it's hot again, though there is a 50% chance of precipitation tomorrow so we may stay in and bake some bread. We also did a bit of shopping over at Lidl near Oliveira do Hospital (on N17) for staple provisions, like wine, wine, more wine, beer, beer, more beer, and some potatoes. Hmmm...think we overdid the food again!!

The Expat Portugal forum is a really useful resource for information on all sorts of subjects. One of the threads was re the best wines to buy for under 2 euros - see below link. So we have our list and we are religiously working our way down it, like we feel we should.

http://www.expatsportugal.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7665&highlight=

We bought some "tremocos" and were not entirely sure what they are, but Jon noticed them being sold on the markets etc. Apparently they are a snack item enjoyed with beer. They look like butter beans a bit, so we'll let you know how we get on.

River Beach at Coja

Well, last night...the thunderstorm came, and it was the grandfather of thunderstorms. At first I thought it was Jon's belly protesting at the borlotti bean bake we had eaten, but no, it was the real thing this time. This meant the Skype appointment was off with Mom. On the scary scale, I thought the storm was probably a 8/10 (with 10 being really really scary) and Jon thought it was a 2/10. But then Jon has been in Cwm Eigiau (Snowdonia) in the middle of a thunderstorm with lightning striking very close by. So it's all in the measure, I suppose.

We knew thunder was in the distance as the internet connection became intermittent, but then the sky turned darker and the rain came, and it rained and rained and rained for several hours. Lightning strikes in the valley all around us. The electricity went off and on, and then there was a really close lightning strike, that sent all our electricity off. Fortunately the trip switches did their work so we were soon back in action and there are power surge sockets in the house to protect the electrical equipment.

And this morning, there was a mist hanging across the valley so that the hills on the opposite side weren't even visible. But by about 09.30 the mist had burned off, and we were in for another scorcher, but the air was more crisp and full of the smell of pine trees and eucalyptus.


We had a venture into Coja to look around a bit more. We found a nice pavement cafe and then we found a river beach (praiya fluvial) that, at weekends, will be brimming with locals. There was a strategically placed bar/restaurant. We even ventured to ask for the menu to see if there was anything vegetarian, but it was all full of meat and fish dishes such as Chanfana (goat or lamb stew) or cod heads, so we decided to come home and cook for ourselves. We enjoyed home fried chips and a Spanish omelette made with peppers and tomatoes fresh from the garden...perfection.

Taking it easy now, just for a change, chilling out.

Market Day at Tabua

Several missions today, visit Tabua market for fresh produce, find somewhere to dispose of all our recycling collection, find drinking font to refill our 2 litre bottles so we don't have to buy bottled water, and a visit to Ecomarche for vittles and a drink of cold beer for our reward.

We found recycling facilities in the next village, ie Lourosa. We ditched bottles, cans, cardboard, plastic bottles and tetra packs (eg from cartons of milk, orange juice etc). We also found the village font, and refilled our water bottles for free.

The visit to the market and Ecomarche were also straightforward. At Ecomarche you can buy gallon containers of red wine (Capatz) for 6.45 euros. The wine is very drinkable and it's 13%. There is initially a deposit on the bottle of 1.25 euros, and then when you return the bottle they give you a ticket (bilhete) so you don't have to pay it on the next gallon container. All of this appeals to our greener side.

We bought a lettuce for 38 cents from the market that would have cost 1.49 in Lidl. The market is quite an experience at Tabua. On the inside market there are meat, fish, vegetable, bread stalls. Outside are the plant sales, and about once a month the market is larger, and there are clothes, hardware, shoe, curtain stalls etc. The sellers are very patient with us when we take an age to count out our cents to pay them.

Apart from that we've come back and Jon made some hummus for lunch but in the absence of our food processor, he had to make it using a mortar and pestle. We ate, as usual, outside on the patio in semi-shade from the sun. Chores done, there's nowt for it but for a sit inside in the cool, perhaps reading, or Suze doing a bit of sewing or silk painting.

There is Sky tv here, but the English channels we get are limited, like the usual BBC1, BBC2, ITV, More4 etc, so you can imagine we watch tv very occasionally, usually to watch the British weather forecast for a good laugh, though it seems to be a bit warmer over there at the moment. The Portugese children's programmes are cute - we thought watching these might help our Portugese but we can't understand what they're talking about. And when the little pigs keep just saying "Oink, Oink" there's not much to be learned from that. Still Suze likes the animation, that is quite sophisticated compared to some English kids tv programmes.

Anyway, that's it for today. Will be Skyping my mom later on today, so fingers crossed the internet connection stays stable and we don't get a thunderstorm.

The First Twelve Days...

This blog is to record our six month stay in Central Portugal from September 2009 to the end of February 2010. We'll do a potted history for the preceding 11 days and then start trying to do daily entries.

We drove from home to Plymouth on 30 August 2009 where we caught the ferry. The ferry crossing dropped us in Santander on 31 August and we drove down through Spain to Vallalolid. This was where we experienced our first TomTom adventure. The satnav placed us on the opposite side of the river to our campsite and there was no bridge. So we drove around for what seemed an age to try and find a campsite, any campsite, by now we didn't care about our 6 euro deposit! In the end, surprisingly enough for a man, Jon stopped and asked for directions. Fortunately the young lady knew enough English to put us on the right track. So, gleefully, we eventually found the campsite, which had a bar! First stop was the bar, for two ice cold Super Bocks. The campsite was mostly empty as the holiday season is mostly over, so we could take our pick of where we wanted to pitch. We found a nice little pitch with some grass. The next day we set off for our final destination, ie the place we have rented for six months in Central Portugal.

Our journey from Vallalolid to our rental home was straightforward. But as soon as we entered Portugal it was clear as the landscape changed, much more green, whereas Spain was parched and yellow. The border crossing was just like going through a big toll booth, but we weren't stopped. Our passports etc were checked when we arrived in Santander off the ferry, and apart from that there was no other check made.

When we arrived at our rental property, we followed the directions given by our English landlady, and without them we probably would still be looking for this place! The property is situated approx half a km from the road, along a dusty track (our car is barely visible through the dust on it). We unpacked on our first afternoon, and though other towns were slightly closer to us we chose to drive to Tabua as we were more familiar with this place and knew exactly where to get our vittles from. Tabua boasts a Lidl and an Ecomarche right next to each other, and they complement each other very well, as what you can't get in Lidl you can most certainly get in Ecomarche. Ecomarche is also splendidly equipped with a bar. And having spent our first few euros on bog rolls and biodegradable toilet duck cleaner we felt obliged to have a deliciously cold beer in the bar.

On Wednesday 2 Sept 09 we ventured into Coja as we had heard that we might be able to buy sim cards for our unlocked mobile phones, so that we could use a Portugese phone network called Uzo (this meant that local calls would be cheap), our Orange sim cards would be too expensive.

We didn't know Coja very well and went inside a supermarket to try and make ourselves understood. Immediately four people in the supermarket began speaking ten to the dozen amongst themselves, we watched wide eyed. Then one of the staff led us outside, down the hill, down the high street and indicated a very small bar. We ventured inside and Suze tried her pigeon Portugese. The bar man reached up and started pulling socks from a basket. Hmmm, perhaps her Portugese needs more attention, we thought. But no, attached to the snazzy socks was a sim card. Can you believe we only paid 5 euros for the sim card, the socks came for free, and we also got 5 euros credit on the phones! To top up we think we will need to go back to the bar and get them to "recharge" it.

Local text messages cost 9 cents.

The coverage is usually fine but not when we are in the rental property, unless we move about on the balcony or in the field next to the house.

Thursday 3 Sept 09 we went to Arganil. We knew the market took place on Thursday mornings but we didn't know where it was located. We also knew there is supposed to be a Lidl in Arganil but we didn't know where that was either. The town was busy and we followed some people, who looked like they might be English (don't ask us why, we're not sure). Anyway, they were going to the market. We bought some plants ie 20 cabbage (couve), 10 leeks (alho frances), 20 lettuce (alface) and they cost us 2.75 euros for the lot.

There were a couple of days when we stayed home and chilled. There was of course the drinking of the gin and tonic etc at regular intervals.

We are trying to ascertain how many neighbours we have. We know the shepherd and his wife, as we see them moving the goat/sheep herd up the tracks a few times per day. The jangle of the bells on the animals is lovely.

On Sunday 6 Sept 09 we visited Tabua market to get more plants and provisions. We bought some beetroot plants and broccoli and some carrots for about 2 euros.

We visited Gois on one day to find Caminho do Natural which is a health food shop. We managed to buy some vegetarian provisions such as stock cubes etc that seem to be hard to find otherwise. In Gois we had some soup (sopa) that we think was cabbage soup and swilled it down with beer, for about 4 euros. After a stroll around beautiful Gois we headed back, and as we went back through Arganil we spotted the Lidl and bought some puff pastry as this is another item we have not seen anywhere else.

We weren't here for more than a few days before we realised we had a mouse, or two. So far we've disposed of six dead mice and the traps are still out just in case.

The house cat ran off when Suze pointed at the place where the mice are resident - obviously over fed!

We have now done a couple of geocaches, one was a "FTF" or "First to Find" - both very local. There is a little cluster of geocaches in nearby Coja that we intend to do in the next few days.

We visited Bobadela where there are some Roman ruins, there is some stonework that was to the forum apparently, and there is quite a large ampitheatre. After our visit we realised that there is actually a geocache there as well, and as with most geocaching there was a wealth of information about the place. We intend to go back and do the cache and visit the museum to look at some of the artifacts.

Geocaching info

Today we've been mainly chilling, doing washing and other bits and bobs, refining our viewing list. We even had our first rain shower since we arrived, it lasted all of five minutes! Our washing didn't even get wet from it.

Our internet connection is Sapo and is a bit intermittent. We are being cautious and disconnecting the internet and unplugging our electrical gear during thunderstorms, just in case.

And also today, we decided to start a blog. Sorry this was a long entry but from now on it should be a bit more brief.