Week 5 – 11 April

Tony arrived back on the island on Monday, laden with goodies. We met him at the airport and a family from Holly’s gymnastics club in Bishop’s Stortford walked through arrivals, so we’ll head off to catch up with them later. It’s a small world.

On Tuesday we met with the headteacher at Holly and Joe’s school. After an expensive trip to the uniform and bookshop (coincidentally owned by the school headmistress!), we headed home for some peace and quiet.

Tony has started using his TEFL qualification and is teaching some local kids English, and I am still keeping up with the Portuguese tuition for our children. We started verb conjugations and they went down a treat (NOT!). We did resort to I stink, you stink, he stinks … and much worse, but I think it worked ok.

A friend popped by with a phone number just as the local workman came to do DIY by my apartment. I was caught in a "there really is an innocent reason for standing in my towel at my front door chatting to older men moment." I’m sure I’ve lost my gentle English lady reputation. Oh ok, I’ve never owned that title!

The swimming pool has been filled – a sad day for all of us.

On Saturday we went to see the crabs and lunched at a local eatery – great apart from the cockroach in my beer bottle. On the way home, we bought a kilo of wahoo/tuna at the harbour. Fish stew for Saturday’s dinner and tuna steak for tomorrow. A great game of Scrabble last night – I mucked around with words like "eggy" and "jetee", then got serious with a "quad" and "cod" in one go. Still lost, but a fun sesh.

Jogged off the hangover with a mega-run, then met up with the gymnastics bunch on Sunday – Anne, Alex, Amy and Ethan, with whom we spent a lovely day at the beach. I forgot to put suncream on (major D’oh moment) and I am sitting at the PC this very moment, yoghurt and aftersun piled thickly everywhere. I’m using this as a lesson in "this is why you need to put suncream on."

Tony is at the pub and "networking."

Week 4 – 4 April

Happy Mother’s Day to all, including my own Mum. Hope everyone had a lovely day, although if it’s like my home, you were probably ignored until you received a box of choccies and the kids got all lovey-dovey in the hope of a choc or two.

Monday was the going-out anniversary for Tony and I. We have been seeing each other for 14 years, and next month we’ll celebrate 10 years of marriage. OMG! Knowing Tony, I’ll be showered with gifts and exciting nights out. Alternatively, it’ll be "here’s a box of Black Magic m’dear".

Our exploration of the island is on hold until Tony comes back to share it with us, but I am finding out bits and bobs locally. The hotel across the road has a great sandy playground and doesn’t mind us using it. The quaint old port part of town hosts a fab deli/café, so I’ll be having a delicious brunch here next week to celebrate Tony’s return. The kids will be on the stone jetty wall, watching the crabs scramble about.

It’s the local Secondary School holidays here. I now run an unofficial creche in our empty swimming pool for a 1,2,3,6,8,12 and 13 year old. In true local style, I do it in a relaxed way, from my balcony with a book in my hand.

I’m getting to know the expats now, and there’s a hell of a lot of Brummies and Northerners here for the sunshine, I guess. Steve is a landscape gardener here and has helped me scrounge some nice plants from other people’s gardens for our own apartment block.

I wish my brother would visit here, as he would fit in straight away. Please take note, Steve, if you’re reading this!

This week has been even more chilled as I have a good routine. Danny now goes to morning class instead of afternoon, so he does more grown-up play, instead of tennis etc. Still not sure what exactly that is, as he informs me on a need to know basis. On Thursday, his class was filmed by a Portuguese TV crew, for a program called "Pearls of the Ocean," and he even denied a camera-crew being there.

Joseph has left Murdeira Infant School as he’ll join Holly in the more formal Letrinhas International School after Easter. So both elder children have learnt lots of Portuguese in the mornings and we’ve all played in the afternoons. Now they are established with friends, I can sit back and get on with jobs (reading, cooking, learning Portuguese…). There is a daily play-out time with friends around 4pm until dinnertime at 6.30ish, then games until 8ish and bed. Joe and Holly are fully-fledged whist experts, except they like to save all their trumps until the end for a big ta-da final flourish. Don’t know where who they got their show-off genes from!

On Saturday, the children just wanted to play inside with their toys, and we made Easter Bunny Masks etc. Muffin-making has also become a core activity- there is no squash/cordial juice here, just sachets of powder mix, so we have tried a variety of cupcake flavours – cola, guava, strawberry…

Today is Sunday, and we’re heading for one of the best surfing beaches on the island. Our island of Sal has produced a world champion windsurfer, and professionals of other hard-core wave sports. I’m hoping the kids will be inspired today by the fun out there. It really wouldn’t bother me if the children were happy surf-dudes or successful business-folk when they’re older. I just hope they apply themselves to something, unlike their drifter Mum. (Although, I must admit that I’ve had a lot of fun drifting!)

Tony returns to Cape Verde tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to his suitcases coming home.

Week 3 – 28th March

Tony is still in England – lots of tedious course work I’m sure. He is staying with his old Uni flatmate, Mark, so I’m not sure it’s all work like he tells me.

We had the usual dramas this week- Joe tripped headfirst into the empty swimming pool, Daniel sprained his ankle…

It feels like we are really settled here at the moment. The Lucky Lucky Men know our faces now and no longer tout their catchphrase "Nice Family" at us, or maybe they just watch the boys being loons and have decided that we really are not a nice family.

Our route to school means we often walk by a new road under construction outside our apartments into town. Health and Safety doesn’t really exist here, so we walk on the pavement-less road and stop a couple of metres from the men swinging their pick axes and operating their CAT diggers and JCB tank-things. It really is Enid Blyton boyhood adventure-time. Joe is never happier than scrambling on mounds of dirt on a building site.

On the way home from school, we mostly walk along the beach and watch the windsurfers, kite-surfers and the boats. A favourite is the Neptunus yellow glass-bottomed boat which looks like a submarine.

There are between 50-90 British expats here depending on who you talk to. A lovely Chigwell man has offered to take Joe fishing on his boat, but he really has his sights set upon shark-fishing. He’s also desperate to try quad-biking. Holly fancies the island-hopping tour and Daniel just wants to play Lego.

It’s now weekend and a bit cloudy, so we went to the cake shop for brunch, and the kids are watching "Phineas and Furb" on Portuguese television with Walter and Maira. I have a nice chicken thigh in the slow-cooker for a scrummy Thai curry later on. It’s a huge monster leg, so I think they have some unmentionable poultry mutating here. Also, I’m not tempted by goat yet, but my Dad has an amusing goat curry story from Goa to tell you if you ever meet him.

We do have a few concerns here- the children worry if the Easter Bunny will come here as they aren’t sure that he visits Catholic islands. It will also be nice when Tony returns, as I’m sure people think I’ve been deserted out here- the Cape Verdeans keep asking where my "man" is!

Week 2 – 21st March 2011

Happy 6th Birthday, Emma. Hope you had a fantastic time.

This week we got down to real business, such as buying a proper washing machine. We installed flyscreens as there are flies and the odd mossie, unfortunately.

Holly has a place at the International School in Espargos (a town called asparagus, but I’ve never seen one for sale in the shops). She will be taught in Portuguese, and I think she’s looking forward to the challenge. We are staying here until September, so I’m hoping she will get a good basic grasp of the language in that time.

The boys are settled into school. Joe is having immense fun not speaking Portuguese, but blurting out words like "cowpat" and "cow udders" to his new school friends in a sort of low-level verbal tennis game. At least he’s settled in now, however, I’m quite pleased that the teacher doesn’t understand such in-depth English vocab.

We bought our first fresh fish from the fishermen – parrot fish and ate it in a salad with a glass of wine. I felt like Rick Stein cooking it!

I also tried kite-surfing, as our next door neighbours are kite surf teachers. I completed the lesson on dry land and will hopefully get into the water when Tony returns. It’s blooming hard work. In terms of general keeping-fit, I jog along the prom (sometimes with Holly), swim in the pool and do Fitness videos. I do miss my Body Combat though.

On Wednesday, Tony flew back to the UK, as remember he was on his teaching course, but failed his essay? Well, he transferred to an 18 month course instead of the original 12 month one, as he lost two months tuition time whilst they were deciding if he could continue. In short, it cocked up the flights we had booked ages ago, but he still went back to the UK to do private study and get some things we had packed but forgotten to bring such as the old lady shopping trolley (which I can’t wait to test out) etc. I’m running out of Celebrations choccies, too, so he’s bringing back supplies soon.

So it’s full steam ahead for the four of us. I am Mum, Dad, Good Cop, Bad Cop, UK Curriculum Teacher, Portuguese Teacher and Entertainment Staff all rolled into one. Needless to say, my Duty Free vodka has almost gone. The local delicacy here is Grog, of which I have to say the honey version is gorgeous – like a really sweet, sticky whisky. Mmmmm – 9pm is my favourite time of day!

At the weekend, we ran around the sand dune beach, watched the surf waves crash, and hunted for pirate treasure. As those of you who know me well would expect, I have found a great little cake shop. For the next three weeks that Tony is in England, this will be our venue for eating out – well, it is fresh and tasty!

The children have new friends, Walter, Maira and Jael, who live in an apartment a few doors down. They play in the empty swimming pool, which has now become a much beloved tennis court, and football pitch. Luckily, our 17 imported boxes were rammed with skipping ropes, Hot Wheels car tracks and Polly Pocket dolls. After travelling round the world, even our kids are happy to see their old toys. It’s great watching how they get along when they can’t speak to eachother.

They do have to share the pool with a family of cockroaches, but Joe likes the chase. They (the cockroaches) hide under a paint tin in the corner and Joe asked how they pick it up to go under it? I told him they run into the little ledge on the bottom of the tin! He had visions of Tom and Jerry-style super-cockroaches hoiking the tin up to get under it.

Week 1 – 14 March 2011

On Monday we visited a good Infant School 10 minutes drive away, and arranged for the boys to start there…tomorrow!

On Tuesday, the boys packed their lunchbags and we went to the town square where their driver, Victor, will collect them. It’s lovely there as it’s the hub of local life, mixed with tourists snapping away with their cameras, as it has a traditional Mexican plaza feel about it. Upon return, they told us they had learned Capoeira that afternoon. When asked by an excited Mum what Portuguese words they had learned that day, they replied in true boy style "Nuffink"

Everybody had told me how quickly the children will pick up Portuguese, but I think some jellybean bribery will be needed.

On Wednesday, it was tennis time at school. The rest of us got to grips with organising bits and bobs. We are managing to find time everyday to go to the pool or the beach (we are two minutes walk away from it as we are just behind frontline hotels on the beach).

On Thursday, Joe decides he hates school, which wasn’t a big surprise as he’s my more sensitive child, shall we say. We decided to crank up the Portuguese teaching, as well as keeping up with the UK curriculum. I think it’s been a long week for them.

On Friday, we all had major treats to celebrate our end of week at school. We ate at a local restaurant, and pleased to report that the fish here is gorgeous. The fishermen leave the jetty every day in their wooden boats and return at lunchtime with their horde of fish. Any large fish, such as tuna, gets hoiked into a wheelbarrow and sold to the hotels and restaurants. The little fish are sold straight away to the ladies sitting on stools on the wooden jetty, who put it in huge metal buckets. You then select the fish you want and she de-scales, guts and fillets the fish in front of you. I can’t wait to buy our own.

In true "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"-style, on Saturday we ate lots of junk and had much fun. We are in the swing of living a local’s life here. We buy the fruit from the fruit stalls and bread from the bakers. It feels very much like life when you are camping – OK there’s not a Sainbury’s around the corner, but a lovely tuna salad on a sunny balcony more than does the trick.

We have decided that we will eat out at least once a week, as the food is so fresh and tasty.

The Next Few Days

The following morning was an unsuccessful trip to the airport to get our boxes. Our gas and boiler wasn’t hooked up but the sun was shining. We had nothing else to do but hit the beach. Poor us!

 

There are five apartment blocks in our complex, and we are Block C in the middle. It is almost finished, but the swimming pool isn’t quite ready yet, so we went next door to Block B for our shower after the beach. The most we did today was getting some grocery shopping in.

Friday was successful as our boxes were ready (Tony had to open each box up in front of local police and officiaries – just in case we were importing any naughty stuff. I now know that dishing out a packet of sweets for the police gives you a bit of peace and quiet!). The shower and gas were fixed, so I had a fantastic cup of tea and a hot shower.

It is a case of little by little. The island motto is "No Stress," which is definitely true. Even the stray dogs have a smile on their face.

Getting ready for the Big Move.

We arrived back from skiing in the early hours of Saturday and our flight to CV was Wednesday from Manchester Airport. Tony spent the days on a long weekend Uni course and I did jobs – last minute doctor appointments etc etc.

On Tuesday Tony hired a van and drove 17 removal boxes up to Manchester Airport, and after a last goodbye to Georgina, we set off for Manchester a 2am on Wednesday.

Anyone who knows Manchester would expect a grey day, but we actually left it in full sunshine. After watching our 17 boxes and 5 bursting suitcases load on our Thomsons flights, we boarded for a relaxing flight. Well, we were split up so I sat next to a couple from Hull, Holly next to a couple and Tony entertained a bored pair of boys who had become used to back-seat TV consoles.

Can I say that I have never seen as much alcohol consumed on a flight as the Manchester one. It was triples galore and I even saw one guy get out his box of After Eights to go with his Stellas. Well, they seemed happy enough.

We hadn’t actually been able to arrange how to get our many boxes to our apartment 20 mins transfer away, so we were more than happy to meet a minibus guy for 15 Euros, except our boxes didn’t clear Customs that day.

Around 4pm we arrived in our apartment and ate dinner and slept.

Home … for the time being. It felt good.