I knew when I woke up this morning that Carol and Charlie were leaving today. I was beginning to feel a little sad.



I spent the entire first month by myself, and I was quite content, exploring the country, all along the west coast, down to the Algarve, and then going inland and getting familiar with Portugal. And then my first couple of friends came, Ross and Irene, and I was content sharing all my experiences with them. They left and I experienced the pains of loss, as they boarded the bus to Lisbon. Then Carol and Charlie arrived and I was exploring with them as well, all the things that I had found in this beautiful country. And now they are gone. Of course in 6 days I am travelling north to Lisbon as well.
Was it only yesterday, I woke up with glowing green eyes looking through the bedroom window at me. My adopted cat, BC cries “mommy mommy, I wanna eat“. And then this morning again, he came a little bit earlier. He’s just walked in, as I write this, in the front door right , dropping flat in the kitchen area, purring continuously; he loves attention.
The new neighbours from Ireland have two kids, a three-year-old boy named Johnny and a new baby. I talked to Johnny about taking care of BC when I leave; he’s very excited about that so I will give him all the food and his dishes and hopefully BC will be made content. They’re used to animals. They have a farm and Johnny loves cats. He’s very excited about his new job.
I took Carol and Charlie down to the bus station about a half an hour before they needed to be there. First, we had coffee at Café Rita- ourlast coffee together for a while.
The waves were high, crashing against the rocks this morning.



I was really sad when they hopped on the bus, but they messaged me from Lisbon and they’re in their new apartment for two nights and they’re touring Lisbon. Carol gave me the job of hunting for lodging for next year here in town.
Just after 10 o’clock in the morning, I went down to the tourist office and asked the woman there to give me a list of the places that are available for rent. The list she gave me was long. It’s going to take ages to go through it. I need to email every landlord asking to send me pictures and an exact location, and prices.
I came home to go through the list, get something to eat, (leftover enchiladas) and see if I could look up some of the websites for rentals. Once I had some of the streets plotted on my Zambujeira Do Mar map, I drove back into town to have a look at the locations. The tourist guide said, just knock on the door and ask to see the place. I did that and on my first look. I found a really really nice place except, it was up on the second floor, and I would really like a ground floor place. And the bedrooms were separated by a long hallway; it was a little bit disjointed, although it had really good quality furniture. As well it had a couple of decks that looked good. There was no common living room at all, and that I didn’t like. I went home again and answered emails regarding art shows in Ontario and Scotland. At 5 o’clock I had an appointment to meet a woman, who owns an apartment that’s on Airbnb; it faces the ocean. It’s small but ideal, two bedrooms, double beds in each room, pull out couch in the living room, kitchen with all the appliances necessary, full bathroom and, you can open the windows and see the sea right across the road. I asked about deck chairs and she said she could get some, so that we could sit out either across the road or in front of the place. The price is right, so this is a very very good possibility. And the owner is really really nice. She lives over near Odemira.
We’ll see what responses I get to some of the emails and go from there.

I came back home to my empty house and now I’m just thinking about making some dinner. Of course I just have to open the refrigerator and BC appears.
I had sad news yesterday: a teaching colleague died yesterday afternoon. Those of you old timers from ACCI would remember Linda Craig, from the Science Department. We used always have such laughs in the coffee room. She was always up for one of our crazy schemes. She loved a good laugh. RIP dear Linda.
And two more of my old equestrian competition riding buddies passed on last week, one of them younger than me. I have great stories about both of them.
It’s all a reminder, that we have to make the most of life as we have it. Moments are fleeting. Enjoy your families and don’t put off for later what you can do now.
Until tomorrow all.