The right side of the road..

I need you to try to imagine a driver with three passengers in his car ..... all looking pretty similar to this guy here, only a million times more shocked.... hair on end the lot..... because some idiotic English moron was driving on the wrong side of the road, heading straight at them... wondering why they were on the wrong side of the road and when /if they were going to shift over......

Then realising AAARRRGgHh ! Holy moly its me !! I am on the wrong side !!!

Anyhow, our bad, we are truly very sorry and promise to never do that again. Ever.

Cabriteeny....

I LOVE this photograph very, very much.

This little guy was one of three boys born on the 8th Janurary this year, they are tiny and soft and cuddly. Just Gorgeous. My neighbour Maria has five all together - two were born to another Nanny about 10 days before.. one boy and one girl and they look like a right handful, especially the boy who tries to eat my shoes and clothes every time he see's me ! Maria tells me that they are ok to leave their Mum at around 4 months and I have asked her if I can have the little girl - to come and hang out with our other two.

We went to Arganil today with Maria and Fernando her husband. Fernando is ill, he has a bad leg at the moment and can barely walk and he had a hospital appointment today so we took them in. Slightly different experience for me today as we arrived 10 minutes early for the appointment, were seen straight away and were out the door 10 minutes later. Unbelievable. Not quite like my experience of Hospitals in the UK where you need a good book and some comfy slippers for your stay.

So we went off and did some shopping, then went back to their place for coffee and spent some time looking at photographs of their family. Fernando has been ill for 2 months and the poor guy is so fed up. Maria must be finding it so hard to look after everything without his help. I am not really sure what is wrong with his leg - my Portuguese would only stretch to the date /place and time of his appointment. Maria is fantastic at communicating with me, she seems to be able to decipher my poor pronunciation and breaks things down so I can understand - anyway we get by ! and I really enjoyed spending time with them today.

Sienna and Tashan have been chatting to each other in Portuguese tonight - I am so envious !

Sienna is really embarrassed to speak Portuguese in front of us and I only realised last week that she can actually speak whole sentences. She was trying to peruade me that she had to take her two cats to School with her as her friend had asked to see them. I (assuming she was trying her luck) and being irritable said "oh yeah ? and how did she ask you that ?" (you have to imagine my head swaying from side to side for that one).

Sienna : "Eu quero ver dois gatos amanha por favor".

Me : .......(silence) "umm right. Well go on then." -Well that shut me up !

Then tonight I asked her who she was playing with at school today, she met one of the girls Mothers last night in a local shop and I asked her if she had mentioned it to her friend.

Sienna : "she already knew"

Me : " how do you know ?"

Sienna "she said -voce viu a minha mae, and I said - sim"

Me: "Oh right".

So after a little more than three months at school I am asking her to translate for me and she is only four years old. Oh the shame of it.

Feliz ano novo !

How cute are these two christmas angels ?! Christmas in Lagares was good.. Santa turned up with some little helpers in a 4 wheel drive with speakers blaring out Portuguese festive tunes... unfortunately when the 'gathering' arrived along with a guy who might possibly have been the Mayor ? I was looking something like Jethro out of the Beverly Hillbillies ...only worse, as I had been busy burning a big bonfire out the back for several hours and looked like an expert soap dodger. I did contemplate hiding until I realised that, that was exactly what Vicky and Lee were doing and these guys were not going to go away.

Anyhow, I am glad I came out of hiding as Pai Natal, (Santa) had arrived with gifts for the kids - would you believe it ? How cool was that. We were blown away.

On New years day our neighbour arrived with a gift of the most delicious honey (Mel) for us, from her own bees down in the woods, and yesterday Maria arrived with a huge bag of lovely fresh produce from her garden, so as you can see I am on my way to being self sufficient.

2011 has started off with a huge dose of DIY for us..all my favorite stuff like sanding plaster until my nose is blocked with an inch of polyfiller and I can no longer breathe. Deep joy.

I cannot believe that Vicky and Laila will be leaving next Monday. I am trying not to think about it too much. It has been so great to have them here.

We have begun to paint and with a little luck this time next week our house will have windows and doors, our floors have been sanded, stained and varnished and it is beginning to resemble a home again - on the inside at least. The outside is plain shocking ! We have to be in the house in 8 weeks time so the pressure is on now- which is how both Lee and I seem to work best.

So, Feliz ano novo to all ...

..and fingers crossed the elves show up sometime soon and save me !