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.