We are almost through the winter... having burned around 9 cubic meters of wood, or 'lanha' so far I am now looking forward to having a night time and early morning temperature to meet the bit in the middle.... which is gorgeous, sunny and blue.
This gorgeous pup joined our zoo on the 16th of December. We found her through Dogs of Portugal, an amazing group of volunteers who devote their free time to caring for and rehoming abandoned dogs. We have called her Remy and she is just perfect.
I totally failed to get any good images of the girls on stage as I got the giggles so bad that I was unable to see anything, let alone look through the lens. The little ones combined stage fright, a moment to shine, cuteness and Laurel and Hardy into one neat package. Priceless.
Pai Natal showed up several times prior to christmas. Sienna was a little bemused that Pai Natal likes to wear high heels here in Portugal... I tried to smooth this glitch over as best I could..
We have also had a little confusion regarding the tooth fairy. First, one tooth fairy left a colouring book and pens under a friends pillow, then another kid decided to keep her teeth rather than swap them for felt tips so she can have them made into a necklace. I have tried to persuade Sienna that the traditional fairy who was kind enough to visit earlier this month and leave money was just following normal procedure for an English kid..... and no I will not let her keep her little teeth and wear them around her neck although I do admire this highly creative idea.
I will not mention my wonderful son Tashan, as whatever I say will embarrass him and fuel his suspicion that somebody nicked his real Mum and replaced her with an evil old hag. ;)
I have learnt that the small terracotta dishes with the bars across the top, sold in the markets and supermarkets here are not in fact ashtrays. They are for cooking chourico caseiro.
Aguardente.... (fire water) is poured into the bottom of the dish and set alight for long enough to cook the chourico. Bloody magic. If you want to know why this stuff is called fire water, just sip it. Once that fire hits your chest and you feel like a dragon about to have a panic attack you will completely understand.
Somebody I know says aguardente makes the best window cleaner ever.... last night I tried some that had been soaked in prunes (for medicinal purposes) and it was good. I recently tried it in expresso too - I think this is called 'matabicho'? (Roughly translates as kills bugs) and I reckon it would.
I go to School now once a week for three hours to learn 'Lingua Portuguesa'. I thought I was doing pretty well until tonight when I felt like 'Senhora Estupido'. Still, onwards and upwards, after all, I knew it was going to be a challenge. It will be worth it and most of the time it is fun.
I think tonight I really realised the importance of all these accents and hats... if you make the dot on the 'i' in pais (parents) into an accent, it becomes 'country'. Grandfather and Grandmother are both spelt the same.... 'Avo', but the o in Grandfather wears a hat and sounds like 'oh', whereas Grandmother wears an accent on the o making her 'o' sound like the one in octopus....
avô
avó
simple see?
My inability to roll my r's and say words like 'burro' means that I will probably always have to resort to making big ears on the top of my head and doing an impressive donkey impression to make myself understood....
But any progress is a step in the right direction and I reckon my eeyore is pretty much spot on. (Because practice makes perfect).
And if I work hard enough.... tudo é possível. The sky is the limit.
Boa Noite... xxx
