SubstackSimon Campbell on SubstackIt’s been busy and I am desperately trying to catch up on my diary, so here is the remainder of last week.
////// Wednesday
We were excited as tonight our wonderful friends Joana and David Mourato were coming for dinner.
First of course we had to continue to unpack and wrestle with Norberto, the house owners agent.
As I mentioned a few days ago go it’s a war of attrition.
The second time we viewed the house he assured us that any furniture we didn’t want would be stored in a shuttered off part of the garage, or—and this is the important bit—taken off site if there was too much.
Begrudgingly we agreed to give up part of our space to this. We are paying rent to store his stuff.
When we signed the lease we went around marking with coloured stickers and numbers which rooms the furniture should be moved to, or removed completely.
We live in a recording studio and most rooms are dedicated to this. The big sofas and chairs in the current living room—soon to be our live room—and the pool table in the basement—now known as The Pitt—where the studio control room is to be located, needed to go.
The agent clearly didn’t have a mandate to have the stuff removed off site and when we turned up the day before we moved, all the unwanted furniture was in the garage. We need the space and it smelled disgusting, especially the mattresses.
The owner was adamant it had to stay, including the fucking pool table which is very heavy.
On the day before we were about to move he said—through the agent—he would cancel the contract if we were not happy but we had to accept the house is it was.
How do you deal with that?
If we didn’t accept we would have nowhere to go. We had changed everything and given up our lease on the old house.
Welcome to the very cynical world of Portuguese negotiation.
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Our new TP-link Deco WiFi extender arrived from Amazon.
It was recommended by the MEO broadband guys and had great reviews. I usually buy Netgear as I find it very reliable and robust but this was an essential, unexpected purchase, was relatively cheap and we have no budget.
The setup was seemingly straightforward using the app, but ended up creating a new network rather than extending the one we had which took a bit of undoing, but I triumphed in the end.
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David and Joana are vegan and this was my first attempt at cooking with no meat, fish or dairy products. It’s tricky.
I wanted to do something a little different for them and consulted my relatively new Lebanese cookbook by Salam Hage.
The recipes are very straightforward if you have the correct ingredients.
Starlite made fresh Chapatis and I Hummus, Baba Ganoush (tahini and aubergine), tabbouleh and potato wedges in the oven with onions, peppers, garlic, cumin and fresh chillies—lots of fresh chillies.
We did ask in advance if they liked hot food and this certainly was hot. We bought 1Kg of fresh red chilli’s from the Chinese Supermarket in Samora before we left which we froze. Of course they are natural and you don’t know how hot they are until you taste them. These were hot!
They arrived perfectly on time and brought their hound Freya, which we put into our new version of Clydes Place—a fenced area we had for the girls when we lived in Samora and named after the drummer Clyde Stubblefield.
They brought wine, bread and an unusual vegan ice cream which was delicious.
It was a great evening and they told us of all the artistic stuff going on in Caldas da Rainha. There is a lot.
They are both film animators and were the people who suggested we move here. Thank you!!
////// Thursday
Today was all about more cleaning but first a trip to the lagoon with the girls.
The tide was going out and the water was moving quickly around the small spit of sand.
The squeakers were retreiving sticks and were carried around the corner by the tide but managed to get out easily enough: they are very powerful swimmers.
Hummock didn’t venture in but Bob did have a go. Her eyes are not great and can’t see if the sun is too low and reflected in the water but she got wet and was happy.
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When we returned the Kärcher K4 jet wash arrived. Together, we unpacked and assembled the machine and after reading the manual—RTFM—Starlite immediately attacked the balcony outside the kitchen which was covered in dirt which had accumulated over the four years, or more, of the house being empty.
Apart from me feeding her regular glasses of Estrella, I didn’t see her again all day until sunset.
I set about collating all the issues with the house that still to be dealt with. It’s a long list.
There are still plugs to be changed over from UK three pin to the European Schuko connectors, principally on the many salt crystal lamps and we have. I did have a go at this but on the old studio some were inaccessible and now they are all done.
Moving into a larger space gives you the opportunity to unpack leisurely and put things in dedicated spots so it’s easy to find later. I love to be organised and spent the rest of the day doing just that. Luxury.
////// Friday
Another big cleaning and sorting day but we can’t talk about the specifics right now.
I can talk about the nights activities however, as we ventured out to another local bar.
Opening the studio to guests means we need to understand the local scene as from experience, musicians want to go out to eat, drink and soak up the local vibe. It’s our job to visit every local hostelry. Hell.
Tonight it was the turn of Cafe Central which, as its name suggests, is in the centre of Foz do Arelho just a few minutes from our house.
We walked in at around 1900 to find it totally buzzing. There were a group of British expats having a pool match and groups of Portuguese waiting to go in for dinner.
Central has a large bar area with the pool table and a separate restaurant. We had already eaten, but will go back soon to try the grub.
It looks standard Portuguese fare and the prices are very reasonable—not as cheap as our old town Samora, but half the price of places in the beach which is just 2Km away.
We had a few beers and in true local style shared a Bifana—basically a Pork sandwich which we liberally applied with Piri Piri da casa—to stop us from getting too pissed.
I chatted to one of the Brits at the bar to find they meet at 1400 every Friday to play. For 20 Euro you get all the pool, drinks and a meal. Apparently they sometimes even bring their wives along 🤣🤣 - I was invited.
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This reminded me of living in Estivella where I was invited to a men only Paella over Christmas.
I told them that I would only come if Starlite joined me and for the first time in forty years they invited their partners. It ended up being a crazy night, the guitars came out and the whole square was packed with people wondering what was going on.
The bar became a bit lairy and we had to be escorted out. Rock ‘n Roll.
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Back to Central.
Tonight was special as it was as the annual celebration of the death of one of their friends from Cancer where they have a match raising money from charity.
Wearing black with boots of rock and tinted glasses sometimes makes us look out of place, but here in Foz and certainly Caldas da Rainha we just seem to fit in.
There are some very cool looking people kicking around and we spotted a guy with an arctic white beard and the bearing of someone infamous.
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@Suzy Starlite and I began to wonder home and came across a square teaming with people and motorcycles.
Of course we had to investigate and chatting with some of the riders discovered this was a monthly gathering centered round bar As Marcianas.
Starlite recounted tales of derring-do from her wins at the Isle of Man TT which banked much credibility.
The white bearded dude was there showing off his hand built monster motorcycle. A thing of beauty: he was famous in this community.
As usual at these type of gatherings there was lots of dick waving— revving the arse out our their charges of chrome and steel.
One guy was driving around slowly with his five year old son on the seat in front of him. Apparently it’s a regular thing for him but I could help thinking of the recent funeral of one of our best Portuguese friends son, Miguel, who died in a motorcycle accident. He was 29.
It was a great end to the evening and were fed gin and tonics and beer. The Portuguese know how to party. We rolled home.
I should be able to catch up in the next edition…
