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.