I can proudly say that after a long 2 year search I finally found a house and followed through with the purchase. It is not my ‘dream house’ but it is the first step to getting there. I bought the property because of rental potential and the plan is to keep hold of it for a while and then sell. It looks as if we may have to hold on to it longer than originally planned because of the downturn in the economy.

The house needs some cosmetic work done to the outside and a complete overhaul of the garden. There is potential for this house but one step at a time as they say!

I will post images soon and give a more detailed account of the tiring buying process which may be beneficial to those of you considering buying in Portugal and needing a mortgage as we did.

I hope you are all well and please don’t forget to leave me a comment

Keep an eye on my blog because I will be updating on a much more regular basis again

See you soon xx

It’s been a busy few weeks for me lately. On the 25th of July I signed a promessa contract and paid my deposit for the house. It’s taken over two years for us to find the right property, so I hope I have chosen wisely. Time will tell!

The Promessa went smoothly as expected and Nick and I are very excited. The house is a lovely little place, it was built in the 1930’s in traditional style. It’s located in the hamlet of Vales not too far from where I’m staying now. I love this area as it has a lot going for it. There are many stunning river beaches, the Town of Tomar is approximately 4 kilometers away and the main road (IC3) to Porto, Coimbra and Lisbon is literally a three minute drive.

The house itself has potential to convert the garage, which holds three cars, into a self contained cottage for very little expense. However, we have maxed ourselves to the full and this project will have to wait for now. The main house has three good size bedrooms and everything has been renovated to a good standard. My favorite has to be the garden, there are many fruit trees, peach, apricot, orange, three lemon trees and a pomegranate tree. It also has an amazing shocking pink bougainvillea tree which looks very old. There is a lot of work that needs to be done in the garden and that’s also something I am looking forward to.

Last week my sister Geraldine came for a weeks holiday, we had a great time. We went swimming, shopping and we visited the Templar’s Castle. One of the days that we went down to the river beach we collected freshwater clams and cooked them for our evening meal, we had seafood kebabs (bbq) and clams with a fresh salad and a glass or two of the local wine. It was lovely, freshwater clams have a very earthy taste compared to seawater clams and they went well with our kebabs. Geraldine took some photo’s of the clams so hopefully I can add the image soon.

Next week is going to be fairly busy as well, I have decided to start up a hairdressing service for expats so I need to get on with designing some business cards. I have finished the website which you can find here. It’s nothing fancy but I’m quite proud of it because this is the first website I have done all by myself!

I will post some images up very shortly so check back soon.

See you all soon and don’t forget to leave me a comment or two as I love to hear from you.

K ~X~

I’ve had a wonderful day today. As my close ones will know I left my job recently and I didn’t leave with any explanation so people were left not knowing what really happened or why.

I was sat on my bed playing my nintendo brain training game (oh yes, my brain is now at it’s true age instead of the equivalent of an 80 year old , which it was when I first started the playing the stupid thing!) and I was thinking to myself that if I really want to stay in this area and get a house with a nice garden, some rental potential and a place that doesn’t need a total overhaul that I would have to up my budget. As I was thinking this Derek, one of my ex-bosses rang me and said he had a property that he thought I may like to see and that it was a bit more than my budget.

I nearly fell of the bed., I thought he must of been reading my mind or something - either that or he has some physic magical powers I had never noticed before and trust me , if you know Derek, you will know that is laughable ( sorry Derek hahahaaa!)!

I phoned Nick and asked what his thoughts were on upping our budget and I explained there would be a few ways we could lessen the burden and he totally agreed that maybe that would be the route to take - that in itself was nigh on a miracle! So today was looking more and more like my lucky day!

Derek called back and we made a time to go and view the property - It’s located in the next village from where I am so that was a good start because I love this area. Great! I was looking forward to it. The time came and Derek arrived with Nicky my other ex boss (and Dereks partner X 2 work it out for yourselves!)

We arrived at the property and initially looking at the outside I wasn’t that impressed, but one thing you learn after you have been viewing property for as long as I have is that you must never judge a book by it’s cover. So we went in and I was pleasantly surprised - the property has been renovated and to a good standard - it’s not a massive house but it’s more than enough for me and Nick and the family should they wish to visit. There is ample potential to make additional self contained accommodation with very little effort. The garden was a bit tired looking and needs some TLC but at the same time it boasts several mature fruit trees, one being a pomegranate and also one of the most spectacular boganvilias I have ever seen!

I don’t usually blog about a particular property because my experience has shown me in the past not to get too over excited, what often often happens is that something crops up and it doesn’t materialize ( more than I’ve had hot dinners, actually!)

So in short, I’m off to have talks with the bank tomorrow and if the sums add up, I will be making an offer and we’ll take it from there.

But what topped off a very positive day for me was the fact that we stopped for a few sagres (beers) on the way home and spoke openly about some issues that were never properly addressed when I left Chavetejo - We parted friends and with a clearer picture of what each of us were feeling and going through at the time - It was nothing personal, just plain old pressure and circumstances from both sides!

I’ll let you all know how things progress with this property, the initial steps are in the hands of the bank - So keep fingers crossed

Speak Soon ~X~

River Beach, Castelo do Bode

Family canoeing across the river after a day out together

The Sunset from my cottage

It’s times like this that I wish I paid more attention at School and learned how to write properly; however, I shall endeavor to do my best at describing how lucky and privileged I feel to be living here in Portugal.

That old cliché ‘The best things in life are free’ could never be truer. Yesterday I decided to take myself away from the endless headaches that property searching entails and go for a drive. So, armed with a book, bottle of water and a couple of towels, I headed off.

I decided to go down to the river beach at Vila Nova which is approximately 15 minutes drive from where I am living. It was 10:30am and incredibly hot already, temperatures were already reaching 32º. and rising rapidly. There were a couple of family’s already there, splashing and playing about in the water. I chose a nice spot and settled down with my book.

What I really wanted to do was to get in the water but a couple of things stopped me from doing so, one being that at this particular river beach there are (what look like) freshwater lobsters, about 4 - 6 " in length and they hang around right at the waters edge. They are probably harmless because I’m sure if they weren’t people would not be swimming in the water, however, they look quite menacing and I didn’t want to embarrass myself by letting out a sharp shriek should one wander across my foot or something. The other reason is, I’m a hopeless swimmer.

As time went on and I could feel myself literally boiling from the heat I decided to brave it, so, I grabbed a huge stick and with my flip flops still on I bravely waded in. Almost immediately I spotted one of the freshwater lobsters and with its pincher’s glaring at me through the crystal clear water I promptly poked it with my staff and it scuttled off very quickly.

It was about 11:30am by now and the two family’s started to pack up and go. Everybody knows that from about midday until about 3pm you should not be in the baking hot sun, I decided to stay and enjoy having the entire beach to myself.

At this point a young couple and their two small children said goodbye to other family members, put their children’s life jackets on and started to paddle across to the other side in their canoe. They probably live across that side and met up with their family for a morning of fun and games. You can see this family in their canoe in one of my photo’s above.
This is when I thought to myself that you really don’t have to have wads of money to be happy and lead a fulfilled life. Imagine what great memories those children will have of their childhood, paddling across that huge lake with their parents!

By midday I was too hot to stay there so I packed up everything and moved on. I didn’t feel like going home so I decided to take a drive. I came to a dirt track, another dirt track - if you ask my husband he will tell you that I’m terrible for wanting to explore what is at the end of a dirt track. He hates it because our car is not a 4×4 and really isn’t designed to go down some of these roads. Not to mention that in the past I have had some narrow escapes where I have been on the edge of a sheer drop and unable to turn the car around.
Anyway, yesterdays adventure down the track was to be a good one - The track came to a sudden halt but this time there was ample space to turn the vehicle around, so I turned around and started to head back but something made me stop and get out to have a look over the banks and there was the most amazing river beach I have ever seen. I parked up and hurriedly went down to the beach, I was so excited you would have thought that I had won the lottery.

After inspecting the shore for freshwater lobsters (there were none) I paddled in waist deep and stayed there for ages, it was great!

I found a large rock that I could sit on with my feet dangling in the water. The birds were singing, the crickets were clicking and I felt like I was in heaven, then to my surprise I looked into the water where my feet were dangling and there were lots of little fish about 4" long around my feet, they were translucent green in colour, I think they may have been baby trout or tench but I’m not sure. They were so sweet, I wanted to get my camera but I didn’t want to disturb them, next time I go I will try and get a good picture to show you all and then maybe someone can tell me what type of fish they are.

By 1:30pm it was just too hot and although there was a lovely breeze down there I knew I should get out of the sun so I packed up and came home.

Still reeling from the lovely day I had, I was sat outside on my patio with a glass of wine in my hand looking at the sun setting for the day and thinking to myself, that indeed, the best things in life are free.

That’s all for now ~X~

A few days ago I had some good news. My sister has booked a flight to come and visit me on the 2nd of August for a week. I’ll be picking her up from Lisbon airport in the afternoon and then we are going to have a week of fun! I’m hoping to take her to the Algarve for an overnight stay and at the same time try and fit in a viewing of a property that I have had my eye on for a while.

I have a couple of viewings lined up for the near future - so, I’m back on track!

This weekend I have been kind of hiding away from my landlady - she has a weekend house right next to the cottage I rent. I like her a lot but sometimes she gets kind of bossy with me and this weekend I decided to hide away and read a few books, as soon as I know she has gone I will be dragging the dreading washing machine out and catch up with some washing - Oh, it’s an exciting life I lead LOL!!

It is my Granddaughter’s birthday on Tuesday, she will be 3 - I have sent some presents back for her with Nick and I hope she likes them - he told me that he went to the old fashioned sweet shop just around the corner from our house (in the U.K) and got her lots of tiny packets of sweets to add to the gifts I bought her - that shop is her paradise, apparently when she walks in there she grabs a handful of sweets from the little dispenser and shoves them all in her mouth as quickly as possible!

I have a few photos that I took last week, when I get around to it I shall post them up

Bye for now

K ~X~

I’ve been really lazy updating my diary lately - mainly because Nick was here here for a week and we had a really good time but partly because I have been feeling a bit down since he has gone.

The house purchase didn’t go through (long story!) so I’m bck to square one and it’s proving to be an effort to get out there and continue looking for ‘the’ property, which, of course, is the main reason I’m here - alone.

I don’t have a huge budget but what we do have can be topped up with an already approved mortgage but I’m starting to wonder what the point would be; more and more I’m of the mindset that I’m not going to be able to share what this fabulous Country has to offer with Nick until he has reached retirement - and that’s a good few years away yet.

I don’t want to be in England anymore but all my loved ones do, so what do I do? I know they’ll come for visits but it’s not the same as having my Granddaughter Teagan turn up at my house 3-4 times a week with my Son and his partner, filling the house with laughter and fun. It’s not the same without my eldest Son around me having the chats that we used to have - It’s not the same without my pets that gave me so much joy, and so on, the list is endless.

Although I’m able to live with my own company and, I wouldn’t able to be here on my own if I couldn’t, I’m finding it hard this week. I keep telling myself it will all be worth it in the long run - let’s hope I’m right.

Missing you all! X~X

I miss (Not including loved ones, that goes without saying)

Primark

Things I don’t miss

Chavs

Tomar Castle and the Convent of the Knights of Christ

Last Sunday Nick and I visited the Tomar Castle. It’s days like this that I realise how lucky I am to be living in Tomar. On Sunday mornings entry is free to the Castle and it is well worth a visit. The architecture is simply astounding, if you have never picked up a camera before or even been remotely interested in photography, a visit to this world heritage monument will surely change that.

Unfortunately my new digital camera is just a basic 8mpx Hitachi HDC-856E and could not do this magnificant building justice and to top it all the battery died on me pretty early on. Luckily I had my Panasonic Camcorder with me, which is not the best thing to take pictures with but at least you can get an idea of what a photographers paradise this Castle is.

.The Castle was constructed from the 12th century up to the 16th century by the Knights Templar .

We had a great day and I hope the photo’s capture some of the magic of this amazing place. Please click on the thumbnails for the larger format

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