A day in the life

So when you're in the Algarve for a bit of winter warmth, what does a normal day look like? Well today, I think it's Thursday, is exactly that, no sightseeing trips, lunch or dinner dates, just an ordinary day. Most days I'll get up first, 7.30 ish, and sit on the balcony to do a bit of Duolingo. Most days the sun's just coming up and whilst there's still a bit of overnight chill it's very pleasant and the sun soon warms everything (including me) up.

Some time between 7.30 and 9.00 the bedroom shutter (they're electric) will start to go up signifying it's time for me to make coffee. Now there in lies a funny tale, and it relates to how you know you're a foreigner in a strange land (to you). There will be a couple of these in this blog, but this one is about sugar. I have a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in my coffee and whilst there was some in the apartment it had run out, but no problem because Ellison had foraged for some at the local supermarket. We sat in bed (yes, I generally go back to bed for morning coffee) enjoying the coffee when it occurred to me it wasn't very sweet. You forgot to stir it I thought, you donut, that is until I got to the bottom of the cup and found sludge, much like soggy breadcrumbs, which is exactly what it was. The sugar wasn't sugar, it was powdered breadcrumbs which were, as you can see from the piccie, are one shelf down in the supermarket from the Muscovado sugar.

Back to a day in the life. I'll fast forward a bit past the usual shower, breakfast, WORDLE and NERDLE (both 5 rows today I'm afraid) to the next significant event of the day, shopping. It's the same kind of choices here in Portugal, LIDL, ADLI or something a bit more upmarket, although here both LIDL and ALDI are held in higher esteem than the UK I think. The supermarkets are just across the road from each other in Albufeira and also have natty shaded parking bays, see below. No bother with the shopping, don't think there's any surprises today, although the middle aisle definitely has the feel of a foreign land (foreign to us at least). Of course you get the usual wacky items (see below) and also in Portugal a crepe hot plate. I very much doubt would appear in the middle aisle in MK! I was of course highly tempted by the 'Guincho Eletico' (Electric Winch). Another big difference that we've definitely taken to is the 'pick n mix' prawns and shellfish, very nice.

On the way back from the supermarket we thought we'd fill up with fuel before it's out of our price bracket (and we have to stay here forever). It's a bit trickier in Portugal as the coloured nozles don't make complete sense and we don't know the Portuguese for Diesel. Turns out that a bit of research revealed Diesel and Petrol are pretty similar names - Gaseleo and Gaselina. Also there are a couple of types of Diesel and the nozzles ain't all black (see below). What could go wrong! Anyhow I plumped for Gaseleo Simples, avoided the 'pay at the pump' option (in Portuguese!) and whilst I'm somewhat poorer the old Jalopy seems to be running fine on Simples!

What to do with the rest of the day? A spot of lunch (in the apartment) then a couple of hours on the beach, enjoying the sun, watching the sea, reading, and maybe some water colour painting (in Ellison's case). Then to finish the day off we went in search of a sunset picture, which I failed to get because of the cloud, but I think I've found the perfect place! Needless to say Ellison got a better picture with her phone than I did with my fancy nancy camera, as we know it ain't about what camera you're using!

Tomorrow the weather looks iffy so we thought we'd go to a German Biergarten with our chums. Don't ask. It should be fun!

Saude!