Sunday, February 26th, 2023

It seems amazing that I’ve been here almost a month. Time just keeps passing so quickly. Even this morning I was awakened at 6 AM with a text from a friend who’s arriving here next Sunday. I must’ve fallen back asleep and the next thing it was after 9 AM.

BC was outside the door, waiting for his food; he also went in to visit the neighbours; as usual he just walked into the house wandered around came out and came over here talk to me and then he was gone, after he’d eaten of course.
My Sim card minutes are about to run out. I had a message from Vodafone saying to contact them. It’s not as easy as you think. I actually have to go into an actual shop either in Lisbon or down in the Algarve. That won’t happen for sure!
When you contact Vodaphone on the mobile or online, all the messages are in Portuguese,which I don’t understand and, of course there doesn’t seem to be any options for, English speakers.
I finally did get an agent who could speak some English. What’s funny is that while waiting on the phone, as with all these big companies at home, for a real person to answer, they play loud annoying music. The the music is in English not Portuguese!
They do have a great phone system over here in Europe. If you’re part of the EU, and you were on the phone here, there are no roaming charges by law. You can take your phone anywhere, to any different country in the EU. That’s something Canada and the US should adopt!

It’s just before noon on Sunday and I’m now sitting here in restaurant Rita. I am eating an omelette and enjoying an abatanado; It’s my large coffee. I could sit here all day. I’m just inside from the wind and the sun is beaming down and it’s beautiful. I could have made the omelette at home- I have the ingredients- but it’s Sunday and people watching in the sun is an ideal activity.
I do have to get over to Sao Teotonio and top up my phone and get some fuel but this is such a pleasurable moment.
I had no luck getting a top up to my phone. I came back to town and tried again on the phone. Two hours later I’m still without a top up. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Maybe in the long run it would have been better to pay for international to Koodo, my home phone system.
I spent the rest of the day sitting in the sun reading. Not a very exciting day, but it was still lovely.

BC came back to sit with me at the end of the day and to try and get some food from the ingredients of my dinner. I was combining my leftover Indian food from last night and some chicken that I had to cook from the fridge. The little monkey actually jumped onto the top of the stove while I was cooking my chicken. Glad it’s an induction stove. I gave him a light smack and said no. I think he learned that pretty fast. I did feed him a couple of pieces of raw chicken. He liked that. He hung around until around 7 o’clock and then I showed him the way out.
I have noticed that he’s a little heavier than when I first met him. Regular meals are making a change.