Muddy Walkers

Generally the weather has grown a bit milder, but there seems to be a return of rain. We checked the weather forecast yesterday and it looked very promising, only 20% chance of rain, so we set off for a 16km walk SW of Tabua (that we found from a link posted on Expats Portugal ie http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/home.do)

But after only a few miles light rain had started. So we were unlucky there, but unthwarted, we donned our waterproof coats.

Another mile or so along the forest tracks and we came to a stretch that was virtually impassable. Okay we could have done it in thigh length wellies! The forest track had been churned up by some heavy vehicle and it looked like a scene from Glastonbury. Even if we managed to wade through, we didn't know how much more to expect further on. So, a bit disappointed we retraced our steps. We wouldn't even attempt to come back and do this walk until it has been dry weather for a few weeks.

We returned to Tabua, popped to the Post Office to post a birthday card to Shannon, and then we went to the Farmacia. It's been a revelation to be able to buy some drugs over the counter here that in the UK are prescription only. It was one of our worries that we were only able to bring 3 months supply of our prescription drugs from the UK. So we have to pay for them, and they are not cheap, but it's only for the short term. When we move out here permanently we will try and get onto a local doctor's books, and with a Portugal prescription the cost will be way less.

On our way back we stopped off at a little picnic spot at Covas to eat our packed lunch. The sun was out by now and all we could hear were bleating sheep. We were quite amused to see a herd of sheep following a few naughty goats to fresh pastures. The poor old shepherd was blissfully unaware of the exodus until the last few stragglers started running down the hill to join the escapees. We have to admire goats really, even though they ate all our veggies, as they're quite anarchic.

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.