Bolo Rei

We have found so far with most of the cakes we have tried (Pastéis de Nata being the exception) is that they are very sweet but lack any distinctive flavour, and they are usually DRY. Jon's says that eating some of these cakes removes every drop of moisture from his body. You definitely need a cuppa to help, I agree.

In the run up to Christmas we saw "Bolo Rei Com Chila" for sale in all the supermarkets. They are traditional Portugese cakes and are either round with a hole out of the middle shaped like a huge Polo mint, or square/oblong shaped. They are decorated with strips of brightly coloured, translucent confection, in red, green and/or yellow. But they always seemed a bit expensive for us to try out on a whim (3.99 to 4.99 euros). So when we saw them reduced in Lidl after Christmas we decided to try one out of curiosity (still well within the sell by date). And, undaunted by the fact that we can barely fasten our waistbands, we felt obliged to give one the taste/moisture test.

Well, we tried this Bolo Rei cold, and we tried it hot and considered buying custard to make it palatable. They are a bit like a big dry sponge strudel with thin layers of something like figs or dates, and occasionally a chopped nut. Sounds yummy, but it isn't. And these beautiful strips of translucent confection on the top, taste of nothing but sugar.

We also bought something that looked like a really rich dark chocolate mousse roll, with chopped biscuit in it. Taste test: moist, sweet, Chocolate flavour none. Biscuit flavour, none. A cake seriously in need of a chocolate injection.

Our quest for moist tasty Portugese cake continues...in the meantime where we can we recycle them. Most end up as a bread and butter pudding, moist, with plenty of flavour. The chocolate mousse roll has yet to be transformed.

Christmassy Feel

It has finally started to feel like Christmas. We went to the car boot sale at the Kapingdi Bar, that at this time of year only happens on the first Sunday in the month.

We stocked up on mincemeat, dried mixed fruit, mixed spice, vegetable suet, cranberry jelly, a Christmas pud, and some mince pies. What a bounty!

As soon as we got back Jon lit the fire, as it's like a typical day in the UK today, very wet. And then in the comfort of the warm kitchen we enjoyed a mince pie each with a cup of frothy coffee. Heaven...

Parcels

We have received various parcels this week. For parcels too large to fit into our post box at the top of the track, the postman leaves a card telling us to go to the post office at Galizes to collect it. Galizes is about a 10 minute drive away. Jon showed his passport as proof of identification. Very straightforward.

A parcel arrived from Barry and Lorraine, who had kindly gathered together about a dozen films for us to watch. We don't have a DVD player but they play fine on the laptop, and we have some speakers plugged in as well and it works a treat. Cuddling up on the sofa to watch a film is something of an event for us and feels special.

Another parcel arrived from Viv and Michael, with a Christmas card and wrapped presents. The card has been opened but the presents will be saved for Christmas morning.

We had our main Christmas present (to each other) early, and it arrived yesterday by Fedex. The chap from Fedex spoke only Portugese, and he was asking for Jon to sign for the package. But Jon was in the bath. So I said "banho" and did an impression of Jon scrubbing himself off in the bath. I think the chappie knew what I meant as he let me sign for the package and beat a rather hasty retreat.

Our present to each other this year is a new GPS. We broke the old Garmin Legend the other day, and though Jon rigged the pocket computer/satnav to act as a handheld GPS, it just wasn't the same sitting in the palm of your hand. Our Garmin Legend owed us nothing and, because we used it so much, we decided to treat ourselves to a new model. Our new GPS is a Garmin Oregon 300 and, by all accounts, it's fab.

Mapping (to Ordinance Survey standards) is something we are having a problem with over here. Jon recently discovered that with our new GPS we should be able to upload maps to it that we have calibrated in Google Earth. It's all very experimental at the moment, but if it works it will be a boon.

This morning there is a mist hanging over the valley, but it's early at the moment (0800) so hopefully the sun will burn that off by mid morning. Yesterday was warm and sunny, but the previous two days were wet but mild.

We also experienced our second thunderstorm. It came over us so fast we barely had time to unplug everything, including the telephone, when there was an enormous clap of thunder right overhead and the electricity went off.

This time we were armed with torches. Twig was inside safe and sound, though obviously terrified. Jon sorted the electrics, it was just a trip of the switches. After that the storm moved off very quickly, thank goodness.

Christmas

Well, we have sorted out all our Christmas cards and sent them off by Air Mail (Via Aerer). The last few went off today. Bit premature maybe, but seeing as it took 3 weeks for Jon's mom to receive her birthday card we thought we'd rather be safe than sorry. And also, with the UK postal strike it would be just our luck for them to languish in a sorting office for an extra few weeks.

Below is a photo of all the cards we have made. Most of them are now winging their way to the United Kingdom.

We hope you like them.

Going Ape

The past two days have been pretty wet, with prolonged spells of heavy rain. But today the sun has reappeared and it feels more like being in the UK in the summer, dampish, fresh, green, and not too hot. In fact, judging from the satellite images we are experiencing the same weather front currently being enjoyed in the UK, so the temperatures are pretty much on a par.

We stayed inside during the wet spell, ensconced in "Jon and Suze's Wandering Wammal Card Emporium" (see our logo on the bottom right), where we spent hours making Christmas and birthday cards. We need to try and get them finished as quickly as possible so that we can get them posted, as with the Royal Mail strike starting today, they may take a while to arrive in the UK at their final destinations.

We realise that these cards may be the only way of wishing our close loved ones a happy Christmas apart from a phone or Skype call, and though our cards aren't exactly the most professional looking, they are definitely unique!

We ventured out today to do more geocaching. It was good to be out. After the rain the smell of the pine and eucalyptus is lovely (though eucalypti are not admired by eco-warriors or firefighters as they are very thirsty trees and something of a fire hazard). Strands of eucalyptus bark were strewn on the lanes, so we collected some for kindling purposes.

The Rayburn has provided us enough heat to produce a meal, though we had to keep it stoked up for a good hour to ensure it stayed at 200 degrees Celsius, for the duration of cooking. Jon had made naan bread and oven baked onion bhajis, and that was accompanied by vegetable curry, homemade mint/cucumber raita, and minted onion. Pefection!

So, with all that feasting, we felt obliged to try and burn off a few calories by doing 3 geocaches. The first one was at an abandoned "pousada" or inn. It was strange because the hotel seemed in perfect condition, and there was a swimming pool as well, now lying redundant. From the cache site were amazing views of the mountains and the valley. The second cache was at Sandomil. Here there is a Roman bridge and what passes as a Portugese "Go Ape" obstacle course in the trees. Also, a small climbing wall. Today the place was damp and in recovery from the rain, but the weir was impressive. The third and final cache was at S.Giao. There is a campsite nearby, but our destination was for the praia fluvial (river beach). We were the only people around, but in summer the place will be thronging. The cache took us along the river for a short way, and there was funghi everywhere (we couldn't identify anything apart from Fly Agaric, so definitely nothing to eat for tea!) The walk along the river reminded us of Wales with the raging river and beautiful woodland path.