Week 7 - 25 April 2011

 

Monday: A subdued day. Danny’s first day back at school after Easter and he wasn’t impressed. I  made him grog muffins to calm him down.

Tuesday: The search for an authentic African drum. Tony had to take part in a drum jamming session in each drum shack, and ended up with more rhythm than Bob Marley.

Wednesday: Bongo wake-up call at 7am and Happy 39^th to me. Cachupa (bean stew) breakfast- they do put all sorts in it to bulk it up – green bananas, butternut squash, fingernails… kidding.  I forgot they put shredded coconut in it until I found my second chewy piece of fingernail. Lunch was Tony’s home-made banana loaf, saved by our friend Loite’s home-made ice-cream left over from Sunday. After a pool-side chillax we went for a burger and bacon sandwich for dinner at a beach shack. It’s run by a Brazilian family and the guy reminds me of my brother  - ponytail, tanned, big smile, everybody’s friend… a bum, but a lovely bum! The evening was just as good as sitting on a beach in Thailand. A perfect birthday.

Thursday: I woke with the energy of someone who has just had a birthday and wants to do things in life. So we Spring cleaned the apartment. We swapped our big double bedroom with their small 3-bedded room. We then had meetings with an importer and an accountant. I bet my family never thought they’d hear me say such mature words!

Friday: We watched the Royal Wedding – 9am kick-off down the aisle. We were really privileged to watch it at a beach bar, with a bottle of champagne in one hand, and scones in the other. It was an amazing and emotional day. It really made you look back at your own life, and wonder where your own Prince Charming disappeared to! One siesta later and we were ready for Friday night out. A fantastic day. Long live William and Katy!

Saturday: we headed for a lagoon beach about 30 mins walk away. We found urchins, crabs and shrimp. It was really beautiful. On the way, we walked past the local “superstar” singer’s house, which was a wonderful Little Mermaid palace version of Hansel and Gretel’s house. Slightly OTT, but I think I’ve sold it to you. Later, Tony walked home from a boys night at the pub, and got himself work teaching English to the local hotel security staff. When I say security, I don’t mean that the place is wild and crime-ridden, it’s just that hotels are all-inclusive and use the coloured wristband system, so these guys check your wrists. I’m trying to think of a way round their system, to get access to the restaurants, but maybe Tony can wangle something now.

Sunday: Happy Cape Verdean Mother’s Day! We’re planning on a bit of gardening today, and then we have a beach BBQ to go to.

What a bonanza of a week, and I like being 39 years old.  I’m drinking more wine than Soft Mick!

Week 6 - 18 April 2011

Week 7

We have come to the decision that the holiday is coming to a close, and we actually have to start earning some cash!

Tony is brilliantly teaching English to two children and their mum, but it isn’t a long-term career unless we decide to set up a school. He’s gaining some great experience, though.

I am as usual playing the housewife card and trying to divert all income-related responsibilities onto Tony. Kidding. I do delegate careers well, however.

This week really flew by as we are doing a lot of internet research into opportunities here. Unfortunately, when I get really into the inspirational genius zone, I need chocolate, so the Toblerones are disappearing fast. To stop me devouring all supplies, I’m asking all people who are reading this blog to email us with a multi-million pound guaranteed business idea.  Ta.

Aside from this, the swimming pool is officially up and running. My neighbour is a Czech ex-World swimming competitor. I’ve seen her swim, and reckon I could thrash her. Failing that, I could definitely beat her at an underwater handstand comp.

We’ve had some monster baking sessions in anticipation of next week’s birthday extravaganza (whose? mine? Oh my, I did forget). Anyway the last bottle of honey grog (whisky) we bought didn’t have any whisky in, and was just honey syrup, I think. The kids have really enjoyed “honey” muffins all week. Hic!

Best quote of the holiday so far … Daniel is pretty tanned and has gone blonde again. He turned around one day and in a worried tone said “I’ve got no eyebrows now”. (His face and hair now blends as one sunshiney light brown colour.)

It’s Easter Sunday in two days. Tony broke the Easter eggs he brought back from the UK and Holly saw the bag of Cadburys mini crème eggs we brought out at the start. The Easter Bunny was stuck for ideas until he saw a huge glamour box of 100 Chupa Chups in town.  Glamour.

Saturday was of course St George’s Day and we did celebrate in style. We said “Goodbye” to our  UK friends, and hope to see them again in the Summer. After that, we joined the rest of the English expats in our local British pub for pints of beer.

Sunday, we were woken up for an Easter Egg Hunt round the pool at 5.45 am. Our neighbours invited us for Easter lunch Cape Verdean style – 8 dishes followed by fantastic home-made ice-cream. Dinner was Czech-style at our neighbours i.e. basic food and lots of wine and fire-breathing whisky/vodka type shots, whilst they sat around laughing at us choking. 

Salut and Happy Easter to all!

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.