Oddballs

What we do when we are not in a classroom

 

After a swim in Lagos

I have spent this last week in Lagos without the benefit of roaming. My TESCO sim card has not fulifilled its duty. The only time I can log onto the internet is when I am on my training course and at my hotel. Argh... When group messages are posted, the only way I find out where to meet or what everyone is doing is if someone tells me! As you can can imagine this is most frustrating. 

I have tried all the usual things to try to get it to work... taking the advice of the IT Crowd! I even swapped my sim to the position two in the slot. This seemed to work and I had access to my local network here in Portugal. Woohoo. I thought this would be the end of my troubles, but no. My phone now says my home is seven hours ahead... Singapore time and then when I tried to access my phone I was locked out and it said I was in Turkey. Writing this, I now realise that my other sim is the Turkish one but that has no data on it. Weird or what?

I managed to meet up with another person on the course for a sea swim one morning. He had swam the channel  - Wow... That is the nearest I'll ever get to swimming the channel. The water was a bit warmer than Cornwall in February and if I had bothered to pack a hat, I would have been up for a much longer swim. As it was, it was a bit cold when I put my head in the water it felt a bit like being gripped by a vice. 

Other than that, life has been been pretty cool. I have learned loads, met wonderful people from all over the world and done a bit of cultural research, AKA finding out about the local nightlife. I also met a Canadian couple who are travelling around the world with two tiny dogs on a yacht. They were on the next table to me in the bar on the marina. Lots of "locals" are Brits of a certain age in search of sun all year round so there is an English translation for almost everything. Home from home some might say.

My apartment/ resort is quite nice but housekeeping and organisation is all over the place. There are two of us sharing and only one breakfast between us! The towels are now replaced whether we need them or not even though I opted for the every other day clean up in return for vouchers... This seems to be a case of left hand not knowing what right hand is doing. Other than that, the coffee is good and that is what matters!

And it is now to home that my journey starts today...See you soon.

Wafted in from Paradise

Not quite paradise - just Luton Airport and no Campari!. Most Brits over 50 will remember the Lorraine Chase ad. Today I am Lagos in southern Portugal still without Campari. It was a relatively painless trip through a very quiet airport to Lisbon - a long queue to get my dabs on the EU system followed by a couple of days doing the sightseeing trek round Lisbon and then onwards to the warmth of southern Europe - or not. It is actually not very warm at the mo and perhaps my wardrobe is not quite appropiate for wind, and dare I say it? RAIN!

Lisbon after the rain

I commend Portugal on its public transport infrastructure. I used it to the full - cheap and efficient. I am not so pleased with the Tesco mobile promise of being able to use my phone for free in 26 countries. I can't get a signal in Portugal. errrr. This has impacted mt plans. I had my dinner down by the Tagus on my first night and then planned to go to the Time Out Market for breakfast the following morning. My hotel in the Bairro Alto was really central for getting to these places on foot despite it being a hard climb to get back to my base. Unfortunately the market didn't get going  early enough for breakfast so I went off to the Monastery Jeronimus to visit De Gama's tomb. He was the man who cut into the profits of the Silk Route. What he did was fifteenth century entrepenuership with a big human price. No internet so no advance ticket bookings for me - twenty-first century frustration -  and as I wasn't about to sit around for three hours waiting for a spot to go inside, I looked around the outside and then went to the Moorish quarter and onward to Castelo de sao Jorg - lovely views, really old olive trees all in a veritable fortress first built in 1147 - originally constructed to fend off the Muslims!

Castelo de sao Jorge

Dinner that evening did not go smoothly and that wasn't anything to do with a lack of internet. I went to a restaurant near my hotel, Lots of people were there already so it looked busy which equals "good" in my experience. The waiter took my order and dropped his Samsung tablet on my leg. It left a dent. He brought the olives and wine from my order but not my main course. I sat and read my book and waited... and waited. In the end I called another waiter over. I told him I was waiting for my sardines on toast (Portuguese style- not the British way).

He told me the other waiter was so embarrassed he had hurt me, he forgot to put the order in. I was invited inside the restaurant as by this time it was getting nippy. I was given another glass of wine gratis, had lots of apologies bla-de-dah. I told the waiter that this was not a good place as  - first I got attacked, then starved and got cold waiting so as compensation this waiter was trying to get me drunk... All was good. The sardines were especially worth waiting for and now I can laugh about my extended evening at Leve Leve.

I have since explored Lagos - very small with quaint bits annd a fort - very crowded with people from all over the world. I stepped off the bus and the first accent I heard was strong Mancunian. Obviously lots of Brits escape the British weather only to be soaked out here in slightly warmer rain. 

My studio under the arrow

I am sharing a studio at Dom Pedro. I am cut off from world happenings and world news  - limited internet - and therefore relaxing. My place overlooks the sea and it is quite nicely laid out - a good choice for location and comfort. The organisation of the resort, however, leaves much to be desired. There are two of us sharing but only one breakfast included. Crazy!

Retirement

 

The first rose in my garden

Being retired means I can lie in as long as I want to, then do nothing all day apart from visit garden centres. For my holidays, the world is my oyster. I could get a cruise to almost any destination in the world. I am doing something wrong. I rarely get to visit a garden centre, nor have I organised a cruise after my experience last year. Daily, I am rushed off my feet. Alice Cooper said, "The word does not exist in my vocabulary." Well it does in mine and one day it will come to pass that garden centres are high on my to-do list and then I know I will be truly retired. 

This week I have been chasing my tail sorting out "stuff" for the community orchard and organising myself for my trip to Portugal. With only 24 hours in a day, it will be a close run thing whether I am sorted before I leave for my flight. My bag is out and half packed, I am making lists because that makes me look organised. I just need to make sure I don't leave my passport behind. At least I know it is still valid! 

In addition to all the other stuff, I have played two tennis matches this week. Both have lasted over 3 hours for four sets. I have cycled a bit and swum over 400 lengths too. I suppose these are self-inflicted strains on my life and my left foot -  but they do bring me joy. I sometimes wonder how I ever found time to work as well. Scary! 

I also heard on the news this week that fewer people have a healthy retirement, especially as the age of retirement is edging up to 70 not far away from now. Apparently the UK is amongst the most unhealthy of developed nations where poorer people start to get ill at the age of 51 while more affluent people become sick after the age of 70. This discrepancy is a real stain on the way the government has used its resources and organised the country. I am sure this is a really big step backwards to the post war years when overall life expectancy was much lower. Perhaps this is a wake up call for younger people to take greater responsibility for their health and lifestyle. 

Sadly future generations will not have the luxury of choice that us Baby Boomers have had. They will have to work longer and apparently because of changes in employer contributions, they will have less money to live on too. Mind you, I never really thought about what "retirement" would feel like when I was working. I just new that when the time came I would stop earning money. I grew up without central heating,  walked or cycled to school every day, did a Saturday job, the TV was a black and white one that only worked for a few hours a day and people died of diseases that can be cured now. Despite this, I am one of the "haves" in this world and I won't forget that even when I moan about things that annoy me. 

The delivery of boxes from B&Q. 30kg each

I shouldn't complain about my lot but looking at these boxes, I have to plan a military operation to sort this out. I just have to co-ordinate the delivery of some bloody great boxes that contain the base for a flatpack cargo container to the orchard by asking for help from the fellow volunteers and then round up some extra manpower to move the free gravel in wheelbarrows to the orchard on Tuesday, Easy!! 

However, this is not what retirement is!