Yay it’s weekend

Wanted to visit Lello, and wow it was so worth it, it’s beautiful, the attention to detail is phenomenal. The books are all for sale, so it was fascinating browsing the shelves.

Sue and I bought Skye a cooking book, as her graduation gift for passing her two years with great results at Silwood.

Pity but she is missing her graduation set for the 31st March due to Covid, and she will not be able to attend as we in Portugal. But she’s qualified and thats what counts.

When my legs are tired which is every day, I catch the lift to the top of the hill instead of the 375 stairs (at a cost of euro 2,50) but is worth it after 10,000 steps. I am literally exhausted daily but my figure is sure to shrink.

Savannah and I were treated in the lift by a young up and coming star who was making a music video. We enjoyed the singing. Amazing what you get to see when you explore. I wonder if I became comfortable in Cape Town and lived in my bubble and missed some of the beautiful tapestries that I am seeing here?

Whilst I work setting up a future , Sue is madly looking for houses which is very tiring, especially when you don’t know the area’s. Everything is a learning curve. Our budget is 900 euro – 1200 euro. That’s what we can afford, –

What I do know is that in Cape Town you could get good accommodation for 1,200 euro’s but here it requires major research as it’s not a lot of money here. But what perplexes me is that the average income they say is 850,00 euro’s per month ( R 15’300,00 which is not a lot of money) so I don’t know how people afford the rentals. Obviously expats? The average cost of living for a family of four without rent is 1’800,00 euro’s without rent (roughly R35’000,00) which really is not that bad. Some South African’s who are bond free retire inland where the cost of living is even cheaper and live off their rental incomes from South Africa.

Prices vary so much, as do the area’s. My whole thought process is that I would rather live in a box with a view than a mansion in the middle of the city. After living in Noordhoek where we saw the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, to SUDDENLY look at a wall of a neighbour might just make me dilly and dizzy.

Most places ask for 2 months deposit then two months rental – thats 6,000 euro’s which is R108’000,00 — be prepared to see you wallet shrink. Mine certainly is.

Searching and looking at places is not fun! Some places I would not even enter if the exteriors looked like they do if I was in Cape Town, but this is not Cape Town, so a change of mindset has been another challenge I have needed to overcome. Things are smaller here, there is not the space we have become accustomed to in Cape Town. The roads are busy, the homes are all compressed into small area’s. Oh no!!! And as a family we need to learn to live in each others pockets, which may prove to be challenging as we all loud and wild.

After looking everywhere and being totally down that we would have to concede and live in the city – prayer and faith humbled us – we found a waterfront place, with 3 bedrooms / 2 bathrooms / beautiful river view etc –

The inside needs some serious work, and we would re-furnish thats for sure. Our budget to refurnish will be in the region of 5,000.00 euro’s. IKEA will probably be the store, they deliver thankfully as I could not see Troy and myself carrying all the furniture two stories in tight fitting stairways. How we miss our staff.

We all miss our beautiful dogs so much, and the tenant at our house in South Africa is kindly fostering them till we able to bring them over. I tentatively asked the landlord at the risk of loosing the place if we could have pets ; his answer “do they bark?” to which I responded “of coarse not!” so guess what he has approved us having pets.

Because we cant supply a guarantor – we have to do 6 months upfront. This is a lot of money, as the rent is 1’100,00 euro’s and when you x that by 6 months we are paying over R 100’000,00 upfront. Fortunately, this was factored into our budget prior to departing South Africa.

Saturday started with an early morning ZOOM (06h00) with writer Gavin Sher in South Africa as we outline episodes for a TV series we are presenting next week. Portugal is 2 hours behind Cape Town.

After any success one should reward yourself, — we have found a Uni for the girls, found an apartment to live in, and a successful zoom call , so a surf is calling, and boy it was fun. A little big as an introduction but what a honour it is to be able to do a sport with your children. Surfing is such a bonding activity that can be enjoyed by young and old (like me)

Not sure what awaits around the corner – but we getting stronger, wiser and more street smart as we spend more time here.

Portugal is an amazing place, the people are so friendly, the vibe similar to Sea Point and the weather so far has been amazing to say the least. I thought Europe was supposed to be overcast and cold.