Much Ado About Nothing

It was go go go yesterday in spite of the hangovers and a general lethargic feeling after, what was, a very late night for Phil. We started off the day slowly with bacon and egg sandwiches made by Phil and lots of cups of tea. Luckily Steve didn't have to rush off and he kindly helped Phil load the car with the futon frame and mattress which they then took to the TMA flat. While they did this I went to the CCF to paint the brown water stains on the bathroom ceiling. Lindsay had called me whilst we were at the pub to say that the plumber had indeed come back to fix her leaking toilet.
Phil brought Steve to have a look at the CCF but it transpired that he has seen this flat before.

Whilst I was at the city centre I walked over to the market to get some fruit and veg and some flowers for Phil's mum before returning home to cook the lunch. After Steve left for Loughborough Phil went back to the TMA flat to give the floor one last clean before the carpet fitters turned up. They were booked for fitting in the afternoon anywhere between 12 and 6pm, but sods law and wouldn't you know it, they called me to say there were sitting outside the flat halfway through me cooking lunch. I switched off the potatoes and dashed over to the flat. It didn't take them look to lay the underlay and carpet and new shiny silver room dividers. The whole place was transformed when they finished and I was really happy. I bumped into the Polish tenant from across the hall when I was going down the stairs to take out the rubbish and invited him to take a look at our flat. He was impressed and told me I was a good woman. He also thanked me for his new door mat which was sweet because I was a bit worried that some of the residents may be slightly narked that I had thrown away their old mats without asking.


After a tasty plate of weight watchers quiche, new potatoes and salad we made our way back again to the TMA flat. We were under pressure because Phil had booked an estate agent to come out for a valuation at 3.30pm and we had less than an hour to put up the futon frame, fix the fan heater in the kitchen, clear out all the decorating stuff and generally clean up. Talk about stress, it was a bit like that 60 minute makeover programme on ITV. Thank goodness we just about finished it all and I pulled out of the close just as the agent pulled in. Phil said the agent liked the flat, and in turn Phil liked the agent, so he has instructed him to put it on his books. Hopefully he will do the business and it will sell soon. Fingers crossed!


After a hot shower and a change of clothes we got in the car and went to the City Centre flat to meet Mr Dutta to collect the signed contract and hand over the keys. Mr Dutta arrived first closely followed by his brother-in-law and his friend. The handover took nearly an hour but we were home in time to crack open a bottle of cheap bubbly to celebrate and settle in front of the TV to watch 'A Taste of My Life'. How sad are we?


Sad but happy. Phil has just left to pick up Georgina and take her to his mum and dads for the day. Harriet stayed at Shane's last night and hasn't returned to base so I have the whole house to myself. Bliss! I do have few domestic jobs to do this morning and I want to go to Lidl's for the grand reopening today but I may be lazy and take the whole afternoon off. Maybe a walk round the city centre or perhaps even a trip to the cinema?

Who knows - I may even make the most of the peace and quiet and stay at home and do nothing.......................

Banana's, Boys & Bathroom Leaks

It’s only been a week and already Phil is driving me bananas. For a start he hasn’t set up his base in the conservatory like he said he would. This means that his laptop and all of his bits of paper and IKEA pencils are strewn all over my kitchen table on a daily basis. Also he hasn’t done any food shopping or cooked any meals and we’ve been either been eating out or ordering in a takeaway. Not good for anybodies diet. Even Harriet got fed up of the bare fridge and dug into her own pocket and brought a few supplies. Nothing I would eat mind you and so reluctantly on Wednesday morning I caved in and went to Sainsbury’s. I cooked a big pot of lemon grass chilli chicken to last us a couple of days and a big jug of wagamama salad dressing. Phil’s excuse was that he has so much to do at the TMA flat and has no time to shop. I said that it’s all a question of planning and he should get to Sainsbury’s bang on the dot of it opening at 7.30am, come home to cook, plate up and then start work at the flat. He tutted at me which of course I ignored. But just goes to show you that men really can’t multi-task, unlike us girlies, who have to do it for our whole lives.

In actual fact we have been really busy all week. I don’t know what I was thinking when I said that I thought we’d be finished in the TMA flat on Monday. We’ve been pretty much there all week finishing off odds and sods. Gee from Polifix (actually his real name is Gracjan but we couldn’t pronounce this so he said we could call him Gee) finished off painting the communal hall, stairs and landing. It’s looking a lot better; even the postman said how much he liked it. Phil put up the new blinds in the landing and I brought each flat a new mat for their doorway. Phil thought this was a bit OTT but it’s the finishing touches that make the difference and besides their old dog-eaten mats were causing me much distress. Today is a great day because the carpets are being laid this afternoon. I can’t wait. For some reason this flat has been a hard slog but at least now we are ready to go on the market.

We’ve had the CCF (city centre flat) in the paper and with only one call which resulted in a viewing, I had no option but to agree a short term let with Mr & Mrs Duttu. With a bit of a language problem, I’ve had quite a few interesting phone calls with Mr Duttu but we’ve sorted everything (I think) and tonight we meet up to handover keys and sign contracts. Phil and me went yesterday to check up on the flat before they move in and is was only by chance when I was scrubbing the loo with bleach that I happened to look up at the ceiling and saw that it had a big brown water stain. I climbed up and it was very damp, so obviously it was from a very recent leak. I knew it was recent also because I’ve just finished painting the flat. I was very cross, this is third leak we have had from the flat above us. Even though it was Phil’s lunchtime I marched him to the MK council offices where we waited nearly an hour to be seen. We were finally seen by Jamie, a nice young man with great customer service skills who managed to calm me down and we left the civic offices feeling that the problem would be dealt with.

In the afternoon Phil dismantled one of the old kitchen cabinets from the lean-to shed and he went to the gym while I ended up loading it in my car and dumping it at the tip. Not sure why it panned out that way but as it happened I didn’t really fancy a work-out; I’m always too knackered in the afternoon. I did however ended up going to David Lloyd with the intention of having a swim but when I got into the pool it was packed out with kids so I ended up in the Jacuzzi and having a steam. I’d just got home when I got a call from Lindsay (the tenant above us in the CCF) to say that the council plumber was with her and couldn’t find a leak in her bathroom and could I come to show him where the water had leaked in our flat. I was cross because I wanted Phil to go and see him but he was still at the gym and wasn’t answering his mobile. Typical!

I got in the car and rushed to the CCF but when I got to Lindsay’s flat she said the plumber had found a leak in her toilet and gone to get some bits. I decided to wait in the foyer for him to return so I could be sure that the leak would be fixed that night, but after half an hour I got fed up and decided to go home. I pulled onto our drive the same time as Steve Buxton from Loughborough. Steve had driven down to catch up with Phil one last time before flying to Japan on Monday to work. He’s goes all over the world I can’t keep up with him. We went to The Giffard for a couple of beers and a steak and I have to say mine wasn’t very good. Steve complained and they brought me another one which was really nice. It was good to catch up with all of Steve’s news and when we got home, after a while I went to bed and left them chatting. Phil is definitely not in the wide-awake-club this morning and judging by his grunts and groans when I tried to stir him, my guess is they stayed up late. That’s okay and after all, it’s not as if Phil has to get up to go to work.

Bank Holiday fun

Phil finished early on Thursday afternoon at Rexam and he insisted on celebrated by dragging me to The Giffard. No that I needed much persuasion mind you, but I was still in my work clothes, so a bit of notice so that I could shower and get of my paint togs would have been good. Phil has been hyper ever since and I do hope he calms down by the end of the week because I am struggling to keep up with him. In fact, to be absolutely honest, after only one weekend being together 24/7 and I am mentally and physically exhausted!

Mind you, this is not just down to Phil being hyper, but more likely down to the fact that with we have both been working solidly in the flat all day Friday, Saturday and all day yesterday. This wasn’t too bad, for if the weather had have been bright and sunny I would have been tempted to bunk off and go for a nice long walk along the canal instead. But as it’s been bucketing down practically non-stop for the last 2 days I didn’t mind going to work. There has been no time to go to the gym but we did get to David Lloyd for a jacuzzi and a shower. This is Phil trying out the heated spa bed. I had lost my locker key and had to take my sports bag in to the pool area and just couldn’t resist snapping him. He wasn’t very pleased with me!

The weekend wasn’t all bad. On Saturday we went to David’s (our posh plumber) and his wife Pat’s for dinner. David, bless him, even came over to pick us up so we could have a drink and get a cab home. David and Pat live in a terraced house in Wolverton with a very long garden. They’ve been there for 8 years and have totally renovated the house. It was interesting to see inside a typical Victorian house and they’ve made a good job of it. Pat made us a lovely dinner complete with cheese and biscuits washed down with port. I drank far too much white wine and Phil guzzled too much port; it was a very late night and we both were suffering in the morning.

We had invited Mads & Steve over to watch the Monaco Grand Prix and we were expecting them just after midday in time to watch the build up before the race start. With a fuzzy head, I just about had time to hoover, clean the loos, throw in some washing and get out the nibbles that thankfully, I’d had the sense to buy ready-made from Marks & Spencers the day before. I recall that Phil didn’t help me and settled himself in the lounge with the Sunday papers. No actually he did help me with changing the bed. This is not a job to do alone and Phil always likes to race me in getting the quilt ends in and square. I let him have his fun and of course he always wins! Boys will be boys. Mads & Steve arrived not long after I’d finished my jobs and Phil & Steve soon settled themselves on the sofas in front of the plasma. Mads had brought along her mixer and the ingredients to mix a sponge cake which she wanted to bake in my oven, so we watched the race in the kitchen. I really wasn’t in the mood for more alcohol but I cracked open a beer which took me 3 hours to drink. Mad opened the wine she’d brought because, unlike me, she didn’t have a hangover from the night before.

Unfortunately me and Mads were chatting and missed most of the middle of the race but I did get to see Hamilton win. Well done Lewis! After the post race interviews and the cake was ready to take out of the oven we put on our coats, got out the umbrellas and braced the wet weather to walk to The Giffard. Surprisingly there were a quite a few in, but then again, I suppose us British like to go out on Bank Holiday’s come rain or snow. We ordered a main course and some wine and wiled away a couple of hours drinking and chatting. After eating we went back to ours for knicker-bocker-glories and chocolate sundaes and some sobering coffee. I helped Mads with her online airport security test on my PC which she needs to pass before starting work at Terminal 5. This took a couple of hours and after going through the tutorial we did the test together. Amazingly we passed with flying colours even though we had quite a bit of wine. I dunno maybe it helped! Mads called a cab which was just as well because Phil had fallen asleep at the sofa by this time.

Phil did his usual trick of getting up for a wee around 4am and then not going back to sleep and disturbing me. So yet again yesterday morning I woke up feeling knackered before the day had even started. No rest for the wicked though, we were back at the flat before 8 o’clock. Even though we tried to be quiet it’s difficult in a block with no carpets and I am sure we are very unpopular with the neighbours. Gee the polish handyman turned up at 9.00 am as promised to paint the communal hallway and landing. I could have done it myself but sometimes its nice to have some help. Last week we paid Gee and his partner to cut the grass and lop back some of the trees. And I personally took the 10 bags of grass to the tip. I have also done all the gloss work in the communal area, cleaned the windows and varnished the stairs. In my opinion Gee is value for money and anyway, I am going to try and get some money out of the other owners as I don’t see what we should pay for it all and do all the work.

By the way if anyone is in need of a handyman I can recommend Gee and his company Polifix. As his sign says, he specialises in painting, tiling and gardening tidy up. He did a great job sorting the garden at the TMA flat and I have asked him to come and sort out our garden when the weather improves. Today we are back with Gee at the flat but it’s an exciting day because if we get our fingers out there is a strong chance this could be our last day and we will be finished. Fingers crossed – I’m ready for a day off before starting on the next project!

Master Plans & Mad Dogs

Halfway through the week and nothing out of the ordinary has occurred. After getting back from our holiday, I’ve kept my head down and generally got on catching up with jobs. As always, the list is never ending but I do feel like I am winning. Phil has told me I’m not allowed to buy anything until we sell the TMA flat but I couldn’t resist getting this print from B&Q. Its great isn’t it? And I don’t think it’s indulgent, it was cheap as chips and fills the blank walls after taking the prints down and putting them up in city centre flat. My only other purchase other than food and paint, was this colourful non-sticking frying pan advertised in the Sunday Times supplement a few weeks back. I thought I was buying a wok but it’s no good for stir-fry’s because it’s so small. But still, we needed a new non-stick pan and this one is very pretty.

On Monday I made it to David Lloyd and managed a 40 minute workout. Okay it’s not that brilliant but it is a start in the right direction. I came back home to get Phil his lunch and also to wait for the Rescue man to come and recover Phil’s Land Rover and take it to Stratstone garage in Newport. Fortunately the mechanic was able to repair the gearbox outside the house so this saved us both time and more importantly, money.

Phil went after work and finished off the tiling at the TMA flat and on Tuesday morning I went to do the grouting. It took me a while because I am awfully slow but I got there in the end. After I finished, I cleaned the kitchen and generally gave the flat a good going over. I got up the dressing room carpet and underlay and piled my car with the rubbish. I just about had time to call into Tesco’s, stop off at the tip in New Bradwell and get home for a shower before picking Jan up at the OU to take her out for lunch. We went to The Plough at Simpson which is handy and the food isn’t bad. Jan and I both went for the hot chicken salad with a slice of garlic bread which was tasty. I was tempted to have a bowl of chips but somehow managed to resist. You will be pleased to know that I have lost the six pounds that I put on whilst in Cape Verde. Even better, Phil has lost 7 pounds! Not bad in just 5 days. After work, we went to Sid Telfer’s to get the wood to box in the bathroom at the TMA flat. I love this shop; it reminds me of the olden days. We got all the wood cut to Phil’s measurements and it only cost £66. Bargain.

Jim popped round last night in his new Toyota Eco car which is I think is called a Hybrid. It’s amazing because it can park itself. I need one of these! Phil said that the control panel is great and apparently the engine can turn itself on and off. It looked ultra modern and I don’t think Jim paid a fortune for it either. Talking of cars, Phil has decided to sell his Land Rover because it’s so expensive to run. He hasn’t been that impressed with it and we have received poor customer service from Sratstone Garage which is where we brought it from. We would like to get a Toyota pick up instead but we haven’t done any research into costs yet. I did however pick up a copy of Auto Trader yesterday so perhaps this is a job for this afternoon with my afternoon tea.

Harriet told me last night she was the owner of a dog called Coke which apparently she has been keeping at Shane’s for the last 2 years. I was a bit shocked especially when she told me that Coke was a staff, one of my least favourite dogs. Anyway she told me quite emphatically that it was nothing to do with me and I suppose as long as she doesn’t bring it anywhere near my cream carpets and laminate floor, then it isn’t. She brought Coke round so I could have a look at him. I suggested a short walk along the canal but Coke has a poorly paw and was limping slightly. When he first got here, Coke tore around the back garden like a madman and did a couple of pees before finally calming down. Thankfully he didn’t do a poo. Now there’s an interesting thought. I wonder if Harriet takes a plastic bag and picks up the poo and dumps it in the dog poo bin when she takes him for a walk. My guess is she doesn’t. Nothing to do with me though, but surely she realises that a dog is for life and not just for Christmas? Bit like kids really.

Today is Phil’s last day at Rexam and he is really happy to be finishing work. Check out the big grin on his face when I snapped him at 7 o’clock this morning. He looks like he’s just won the lottery. He hasn’t I can assure you! I am happy for him, if feeling a little churn of trepidation for myself. If I’m honest I was a bit gob smacked at first and worried how we would manage without his income. Harriet asked me if I realised that she would be the sole bread winner in the house? I said I did and maybe I should up her rent? She grunted at me and gave me a digusted look so I guess that’s a no no. But Phil being Phil, has obviously given our situation a great deal of thought over the last 2 weeks and has come up with ‘a plan’. The plan, among other things, involves a dozen house moves, a barge on the canal and trading shares but its complicated and I will leave it to Phil to blog about if he wants to share his wider vision.

Even though we have just tied the knot and made our vows, for richer and poorer and all that, initially I was concerned about being together 24 / 7. But I’ve given it a lot of thought and I have come to the conclusion that Phil’s forced early retirement can only make my life a lot sweeter. For a start he has agreed to take on all the shopping and cooking which is great. I hate shopping for food and I find cooking very stressful.

Although Phil will be in the kitchen to cook, he has kindly agreed to move his laptop and make his base in the conservatory. This means that I can keep the kitchen as my space and have daytime TV on in the background. I think it is important that we all have our own areas and that these are defined sooner rather than later. The best thing is though, I figure now that Phil’s at home, my workload will be halved and now I can really start to live the life of riley which Phil is always telling me I have! Bring it on is all I can say!!!

They Voted Jorge!

Jorge Figueiredo celebrates victory on Sal
19-05-08

Not even half of the ballot boxes had been counted before incumbent Sal municipal chamber president Jorge Figueiredo, of the independent GIMS group (supported by the MpD), began commemorating the success of his re-election bid. As soon as the official counts from 13 of the island’s 28 polling stations showed his win by a wide margin - 3,105 out of a total of 4,712 votes - his supporters took Sal’s streets to celebrate.

In his victory speech, Figueiredo stressed the importance of being able to continue his work developing Sal. “The results surpassed by expectations. More than a win for the GIMS, this is a win for Sal. Today, its population showed its high level of consciousness and acknowledgement of the work we’ve done over the past four years. Citizens also reacted well to any and all attempts at changing their minds regarding whom to vote for,” he said.
Figueiredo affirmed that Sal had cooperated more than any other island in the economic development of Cape Verde, and, as such, should demand greater attention from the government. “We’re open to continue working in cooperation [with the central government]. We hope that this signal from Sal’s voters is welcomed by the Prime Minister. The GIMS deserves the respect of the government in order to increase the island’s human qualifications,” he said. Figueiredo said he would give priority to infrastructure and integration policies during his second term in office.
The PAICV’s Jorge Spencer Lima, better known as Scapa, promptly gave an interview acknowledging his defeat. “As the head of the PAICV’s ticket, I must say that I lost the elections on Sal. We managed to consolidate the party’s electorate, but our message did not make its way to citizens in a satisfactory way, despite our having carried out a nice campaign. I would like to thank everyone for the help I have been given over the past days. I should also take the opportunity to congratulate the GIMS, which achieved a clear victory. The people are always right. I’m from Sal and I will always do my utmost for the island,” he concluded, to the applause of his supporters.

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I suppose Ricardo is suffering this morning? Hope you enjoyed your celebrations!

Cape Verde Experience

We got home last night at about 1am so we are pretty pooped. No real delays, just 30 minutes at the airport. Traffic on M25 and M1 was fine our way but there was a jam the opposite way on the M1.

We came away from Cape Verde without making an investment. It wasn’t for us really, too much development happening everywhere at the same time. Too much wind and dust and the cost of living is higher than here in England. If we had money sitting in the bank earning 4 or 5% then we may have bought in Boa Vista on the front line. I think we could have got the one bed we liked for less than £40000 which would definitely make money once the front line was finished in a couple of years time. Basically, we didn’t like it enough to keep visiting any investment we had made. Regarding Cape Verde as a holiday resort; in my opinion it isn’t it will need several years before it gets to this stage. Maybe if you had worked hard all year and just wanted a hassle free break then the Riu all inclusive hotel might be for you where people rarely venture out of the grounds except to walk to the beach. If anyone is interested Tam Tam's is for sale. One thing I forgot to say was about the keyboards in Cape Verde are different from anywhere else I have ever seen. The "A" key is where our "Q" key is, the numbers have to be shifted and a few other wierd things. Everywhere we went was the same so it wasnt that someone had cleaned the keys and put them back in the wrong place. It was quite difficult to type as sub-consciously you were put off.

Straight back to the flat finishing the kitchen off and now back to work for my last weeks work. Roll on this Friday so I can concentrate on getting the flat finished and we can start on our garden, shed and garage at home. I took the fan and heater covers around the flat that Claire had sprayed white to fit back up but as my shorts had been washed the screws that I had put in thier pockets for safe keeping had gone. Maybe this is why the washing machine was making a noise?

Home Sweet Home & Harriet

The bags are unpacked, the clothes are washed and ironed and back in the cupboards. The fridge shelves are stacked and the grass is cut and tidy once again. I have to say that Harriet did leave the house very clean and tidy, in fact the best condition it’s been when we’ve returned from holiday. But you never know what she’s been up to and I still have to give it a going over, but don’t tell her that. We have changed over our mobiles from contract to pay-as-you-go and so our mobiles didn’t work whilst we were away. I did email Harriet to say as much; even though we were only gone for a week, I knew she would panic if I didn’t return her texts. There is always something that goes wrong in the house when we go away and this trip was no exception as you will see from the email Harriet email sent me just a few days after we left:

Hey Mum, You ok?, it's just you said you wouldnt be able to call but ya havent emailed me. Some strange things happening in the house, so think im going to stay at Shanes mon, tues and wed night just till you get back. Shane thinks im being stupid, but first thing was i washed my towles on fri night when i took them out it sounded like there was money in the washing machine when i looked i found a nail took the nail out but still sounds funny and cant find anything else so washing stuff at dads till you come back, then turned on tumble dryer and it started but making very loud noise so dried towles inside, then the dishwasher stared acting up and had to empty water by hand but now working normaly again, then (sorry know this is going on abit) tonight heard a LOUD like banging noise thought it was one of the neighbours outside but was actually the shower making very loud thud thud noise when the power was off. Its just a bit freaky that in the space of a weekend all these things are happening.And that i cant get hold of both you and phil is weird. Im off monday (tommorrow) so email hotmail address. Hope your both ok want you to come back soon would rather stay here but i'l feel safer at shanes till you get back. Luv Harriet x

I am tempted to edit and correct the typos in this email but I won’t as it would detract from the content and besides, I always tell it as it is. Anyway on my return the washing machine does have a small screw latched somewhere but I can’t find it but its washing the clothes fine. The tumble dryer also had a few screws knocking around the drum but I got these out and this too is working and not making any loud bangs. As is the dishwasher. All is not as it should be with the shower and there is a problem. It drips when you turn it off after use which is making the pump kick in. We have temporarily solved this by putting the hand shower as high as we can get it and turning to the bath function but we will have to get David our posh plumber to come in and fix the problem. She is right about one thing though, Phil is weird!

Yes we’re back, in fact, 2 days home and it’s as if we’ve never been away. It feels ages since I’ve done a blog and I guess it’s been at least 10 days since I was in google. Phil volunteered to blog in Cape Verde and a sterling job he did too. As in most third world countries, finding an internet connection and one with an unprotected USB port to plug into is never easy. Still he managed it and I think he posted an update most days and downloaded lots of photos. Photographs, he took mostly with my new digital camera I have to say, which he hogged for the whole week. Despite taking his super duper all singing and dancing Olympus complete with extra lenses and tripod, he decided that my little dinky diggi is easy to transport and he can just carry it effortlessly in his top pocket. I did tell him this when he ordered his new camera, but you know what boys with new toys are like!

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful and I know I’m fortunate to be able to travel to exotic places but I really didn’t get Cape Verde and was glad to get home. I was pleased that Phil offered to do the blog because I am sure my reports would have been quite negative and miserable. I blew hot and cold the whole week, well mostly cold really. This is true in more ways than one, I had a stinking cold the whole time, I burnt my nose which then scabbed and to top it all, I broke out in cold sores halfway through the week. It can only happen to me.

Our hotel was clean and basic but had we not have been tied in with the property company who were situated next door to the hotel, I would have demanded to be moved to a better hotel. The breakfast was foul and not really worth bothering with and the staff were indifferent and at times down right rude. Sal island is a virtually a building site with little or no thought having gone into the infrastructure. This picture taken from our balcony, for me, sums up the whole island.

The government in Cape Verde have sold most of the front line land to investors and the local people are not happy. It’s understandable; they gain nothing except an ever increasing volume of visitors. Trouble is, there is nothing they can do to stop it, so in my humble opinion, they may as well embrace and indeed capitalise on tourism, they have nothing to loose. That said, if they don’t improve upon their customer service skills and smile once in a while, visitors to the island won’t return – I know I certainly won’t.

Looking at the different developments was interesting and, if anything more, it gave us something to do. There is not much to do in Cape Verde unless you are into spending hours sunbathing or are into water sports. I didn’t even go in the sea once it was so rough. The highlight of any trip we take is sampling the local cuisine. We searched high and low for reasonable priced dishes in local restaurants with a bit of ambiance but with the exception of Casa Canaria, we found none. Even Casa Canaria, enveloped between building developments was not totally ambient but it was certainly the best we could find. Saying this though, somehow me and Phil, still managed to pile 6 pounds on our waist lines when we got on the scales yesterday. You don’t mind if you have stuffed yourselves silly, but honest to god we didn’t. Worse thing was, we were charged a fortune, for what really was quite simple and insignificant food.

Okay whinge over. The best things about Cape Verde for me? I can think of 3.
1) the beer, 2) they don’t have wasps and 3) the beaches. I was going to add a 4th and say the weather, but being in the middle of the Atlantic it’s breezy all the time. Okay if you don’t like sweating, but personally I like to feel hot and when the wind gets up the sand whips across your calves. Okay Cape Verde maybe the new Tenerife in 5 or 6 years time if all the developers deliver what they promise in their glossy brochures but personally I’m not sure they will. Give me India any day.

Even though our flight was slightly delayed and we didn’t get into bed until 1.30am on Saturday morning, Phil was still at the TMA flat by 8 o’clock on Saturday. I had to drop him off as we still only have my car in working order. I spent the day doing the domestics and we settled down in front of the TV early evening, both knackered. Phil is itching to finish off the kitchen at the TMA flat and we were both back round there just after half past seven yesterday morning. Phil was keen to start sawing wood but I had to remind him that it was early on a Sunday morning and he would upset the neighbours. He broke off to take Georgina to the pictures but went back in the afternoon to do some finishing touches. It still seems that we have so much to do there but in reality we’re not that far off.

I have a list of things to do today as long as your arm and feel knackered before I even start the day. Still I’m not complaining. I’m sitting here with a decent cup of tea, the telly is on and it looks like it’s going to be a fine, fine day.

Caipirinha (another local drink)

Caipirinha

1 shot Cachaca (local Grogue)
1 lime
1 spoon sugar
crushed ice

Instructions

Cut some small pieces of lime for the glass, crush the rest of the lime with the sugar, strain and serve with Grogue lime pieces and ice, stir well.

This drink absolutely knocks your head off as Claire will explain in her entry later. I suppose you could replace the Grogue with other spirits such as Vodka or Tequila. They serve it during happy hour at the hotel Morabeza where we often frequent with the ex-pats. We have been there 2 nights and drank with Bill and Liz, they have sold up in England and have now been here for 6 weeks. They are trying to make a new life for themselves by offering property letting and maintenance on Sal. They are an unlikely but lovely couple and we enjoy their company. We will be seeing them again for happy hour at 6.30 for our last drink and I will try to get a photo of them. We were in there last night and had a curry at the Bombay on the way home; very British.

We have had a lazy day today for our last day like most people would do all week before our return home tomorrow. We caught up with Jacqueline at 9am in our reception for a de-brief where we basically said the truth; either we are not ready for Cape Verde yet or Cape Verde is not ready for us; not sure which. It has been very interesting and enjoyable but also very over priced and most staff are miserable and unhelpful. Not all of course, some are charming and bend over backwards but most do not and seem lazy and don’t want to be here (or maybe its us they don’t want to be here?). Following this I wrote the last entry and posted it with the one before in the usual place where everyone seems to know me now. Maximillion never stops trying to get me to buy something from his shop in the Oasis plaza. I have promised to buy something tomorrow. If you go into the internet place after 10.30 the locals start to come in and use the internet phones. I can’t tell you how annoying this is being positioned in-between two of these bellowing locals yelling their mumbo- Jumbo as if they are trying to impress someone. Best to get there early!

By the time I had put both blogs on it was time for lunch and we decided to go to the Funana’s for a light lunch so we could use their beach beds afterwards. I originally thought “Funanas” was a play on words being similar to Banana but with a fun at the front but no, silly me, it’s from the African dance the “Funana” where the girls put their hands in the air and wiggle on down. We settled for a burger each but it came without a bun and was one of those real cheap frozen burgers that Claire called dog meat. You can see how much she left. By the way, I know what you are thinking, that’s a fly on Claire’s nose; no its not, it’s where she got sunburned and scratched it off in the night whilst at Boa Vista causing it to scab over. Poor Claire has just not been able to shake off her cold all week; she’s been sniveling and sneezing the whole time. I would have thought that the sun would burn it off or these ceaseless winds would blow it away, but no. Also we were eaten alive at Boa Vista whilst we ate our dinner alfresco. Strangely we haven’t been bothered by them on Sal.

This relaxing period was short lived as Claire was convinced that there was a bumble bee hive nesting in the old wooden boat behind us. I was desperately trying to finish off the biography of Peter Cook by his first wife Wendy but it was not to be. Never mind, I will have a minimum of 7 hours in the airport or on the plane tomorrow; I will probably be glad of it. So it was off along the beach where Claire tried her hand at being a lifeguard and then on to find Harriet’s cigarettes. We had been told that they would cost about £18 a pack so not bad as that includes local tax. They only sell red or silver Marlboro here, nothing else is available. We managed to find them eventually in a local supermarket behind the main streets for a little less so we managed to save you some money Harriet! I also bought a couple of Red Bulls to help finish the vodka off but boy they are expensive here; more than the vodka!

The last picture is of the Neptunus, a glass bottomed boat where you can view the exotic fish that swim around the shores of Cape Verde until they are either over fished or driven away. I can’t see the turtles that nest here lasting much longer either with the amount of development going on very close to their nests. I think they will only survive in more remote beaches and islands. My next blog will be from England where I will probably sum up our experiencies and thoughts of the holiday so BFN or “Chow”. VOTE JORGE!!!!!!!

Same, Same but Different

It’s one thing to have outside toilets but we had outside rooms in our hotel, there was no roof. If the Esteril Beach Resort was in Goa they wouldn’t be charging much more than £5 a night for the room but Here in Boa Vista it was over £60. No aircon, poor lights, old wooden furniture over 50 years old, dirty bathroom and a small portable tv. We thought the prices in Sal were high but they seem even higher here. Our meal at our hotel last night came to between £40 and £50 with a bottle of local wine Cha (very palatable). But our pre-dinner drinks that we had with our property sales executive Peter came to almost £30. I wouldn’t want to stay here for any length of time you really do need to stay in one of the many all inclusive hotels springing up everywhere. We walked into town after dinner to see what was around and our first encounter was a young man behind the hotel dumpster eating the remains of yesterday’s meals.

A very brief walk around town was enough to make us feel uncomfortable there wasn’t anything here to catch our eye anyway. On our way back we looked for our dumpster man but he had been replaced by two dogs. In the morning we had another walk into town and back along the beach. The light of daytime made it look slightly better than our previous encounter but still not much around. Again like Sal the beaches are the best thing about this island. Generally it’s the same old story as Sal with developments going on all over the place but it does seem a little more controlled here and also a little better finished off. The square at least has curb stones and pavements and everything seems a little better defined.

Dino picked us up first at 9am from Delphini developments. This was in a lovely spot front line to the sea with a choice of sea view or mountain view. The room we liked best (G1C) of all the ones left had a mountain view but if you looked to your extreme left out the window you could see the sea. The main exit was to the side of the development but another from our terrace to the pool. A nice thing about this development is that everything around it that can be seen is already finished so it will look good right from the start. It is also next to the hotel where they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the picture taken from the giant sand dune (I will explain later) Delphini is the one in the centre of the picture, the left most development with the hotel to the extreme left of the picture. The other photo is of the views from outside Delphini looking towards the giant sand dune to the left.

Back to our Hotel in time for Peter to pick us up at 10am and show us two other developments, Creola Sands and Sabi Sands. Peter has only been on the island for about a month, his background is 20 years sales in the canaries so he has already been through a similar growth pattern. In fact he married a local girl from the canaries second time around. Before visiting any of the developments he took us for a drink at the restaurant. I took a few pictures from this pier type terrace. Then onto Creola Sands which is a large development standing on the old football stadium. The FM Developments (a Scottish company) bought the land from them and contributed towards the new stadium that has already been built (see in the picture taken from the mountain at the back). There are a few front row one bedroom apartments still available on the ground floor which was our second favorite. The company is offering mortgages and a 2 year 6% income if required. There will be a large pool and lots of shops and restaurants available which also helps.

Peter then handed us over to his college Richardo who showed us the Sabi sands development built into the side of the mountain. Richardo’s father is Jorge Figuliredo the mayor of Sal island and one of the Georgie’s standing for election this Sunday. Richardo is so confident that he will win he has already booked his flight to Sal on Monday for the family celebrations. Jorge is the only independent standing and is expected to win again to hold for a second term. The other George who calls himself by his nickname “Scaper” to avoid some confusion is the government’s representative and they are desperately trying to regain control of Sal. The main problems, as I see them, for Sal is over development that all happened prior to Jorge gaining power. Jorge is trying to plan the development and then put out to tender rather than just selling any piece of land to the highest bidder to do with as they chose. There are elections on all the islands, each with their own representatives being held this Sunday. The islands are an independent republic.

Richardo first drive us in his 4x4 off road up the mountain to show us the views that would be gained from some of the properties in the Sabi Sands development overlooking the palm desert which is protected so developments cannot happen there. However we heard it may be possible to one day build a golf course around and amongst it. The development area is the brown bit between the palm desert and the front line currently being built. The beauty of the front line is that once finished in a year or two you won’t be able to see further developments behind you. The Sabi Sands development consists mainly of large villas with individual swimming pools and BBQ patio areas. A little above our purse I’m afraid. The up side of this is once finished no developments will be built next to you. The down side is that with its elevated position you will be watching further developments for the foreseeable future. Richardo then drove us down the mountain and up the giant sand dune that seemed to consist mainly of broken coral. From here we could see all the developments we had visited and all the ones we hadn’t. Richardo also gave us the opportunity of our first photo together since we got married in Barbados on 5th March (see I not forgotten yet Claire). And now its in writing so I can remind myself.

Back to the FM office where we saw Peter again, he had offered to buy us lunch or give us an island tour but we declined preferring to lunch alone and talk about things privately. Richardo dropped us at the beach bars for lunch and Peter promised to pick us up at 4pm from our hotel and take us back to the airport.

We stopped at the only beach bar that was open during our stay and had a spaghetti starter followed by the local Wahoo fish. We then relaxed and read our books for an hour before being picked up by Peter at 4pm. Unusually out flight was on time and I took a few pictures from the plane. One stationary, one flying over Shabi beach and one over the peninsular of Sal which looked very much like a scaled down version of the Karpaz peninsula of North Cyprus to us (one of our previous investments in Bogaz).

Beach bums in Boa

An early start as usual with a walk to the beach after breakfast at 7.30. We decided to have a long walk today but we hadn’t managed to get water so we stopped at a hotel along the front and eventually managed to get some. It was an all inclusive hotel called Bravo so we ended up having to pay for it at reception, walk around with Visitor badges and take the slip given to the bar in exchange for two bottles of water. I kept the badge as a reminder of the complicated lives they seem to set themselves over here.

The only lovely thing about Sal is the beaches so I have taken a few here from our 2 and a half hour walk. There is so much beach it’s like the Sahara by the sea and seems to go on forever. Look at the beautiful artificial colour contrasts between the sea, sand and sky. We walked all the way around to the Riu Hotel that refused us entry a couple of days ago but this time managed to slip into the back entrance to get some photographs to show you. It’s a huge place where you can easily get lost. There was security on every gate but with so many people going in and out we managed to walk past them with our hands behind our backs so they couldn’t see that we weren’t wearing wrist bands. We looked for a couple of wrist bands without success so we could sample the fair. For our journey back we decided to walk across the desert rather than all the way around the beach but we soon encountered swamps that we had to circumnavigate. Claire didn’t like the looks of the very large holes dug in the sand. It was a very hard long walk as most of it was done on soft sand and by the time we had got back we had a quick shower, I did the last two entries and we headed off to our new favorite restaurant the Casa Canaria where Claire had exactly the same as yesterday but with a mixed salad starter. I tried the bean soup followed by half a chicken.

Just time to have a quick hour in the sun, shower and off to the airport to catch our flight to Boa Vista. Again it wasn’t simple when we discovered that Claires ticket was different to mine. She had an outward journey for the previous day whilst mine was for the correct day. This must have happened when we got them to change the name on Claires ticket the day before. We had checked the name but not the other details as we had already checked them before. Even though they took a copy of Claires passport they even had her name wrong for a second time but we thought it close enough to get through. We had to wait until everyone had checked in before returning to travel standby. This worked so it didn’t matter in the end. We had only taken hand luggage each but was concerned that we wouldn’t get through with all our bathroom stuff. There were signs saying the usual that only 100 ml of liquid or semi-solids to be put in a clear plastic bag. We asked the lady at check in but she said it was no problem. We needn’t have been concerned as nobody checked anything and it was even possible to go between the departure lounge and the outside world freely. People were taking very large water bottles onto the plane and even massive suitcases. We finally ended up leaving about an hour after we should have arrived the other end. It’s not quite as bad as it seems as the flight was only 14 minutes long. So we had arrived an hour before the flight, had an hours wait all for a 14 minute flight. We all had to pile onto a bus that drove about 20 yards parking outside the aircraft. We noticed a German air force airplane with the republic of Germany flag outside so they may have been having special guests for Germany in Sal.

We also talked to a nice chap called Nick Turner who works for Cape Verde Life that was very helpful and knowledgeable about the islands. He offered us a guide book but we had hand luggage and the books were in his checked in luggage so we decided not to keep our driver waiting any longer. I took a picture of the beach from the plane and they look even better than those on Sal. We arrived at our hotel which is very basic but will tell you more about this tomorrow. From first impressions I doubt if there is an internet café anywhere so they will probably go on at the same time anyway.