Something free from Google

On my IPad I use FaceTime to speak to family and it works fine. Now Google have an app for android phones where you an text or send messages Free also and I have used it one you can even use it like you would use Skype. Because it's also linked to Facebook it finds all your friends and Family who have phone, IPhones or IPads and it saves you from finding your contacts. 

Try the link below and if it sounds good for you give it a try the best bit is its Free.

Text messages on Google Messenger - Android One Help

support.google.com › ... › Messenger app

You can send and receive text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messages using the Messenger app. To open Messenger ...

A little reminder about train prices

i mentioned a while ago about the cost of train travel and that I paid a little under 12€ for a return ticket to Porto and back. Well I am in Liverpool and I got the train down to Lisbon to get my flight to Liverpool. My return this time was 18€ and that was for a return journey much further than my previous trip but remember I am a Senior here in Portugal not an OAP. So I hope this reminder gets to people who may be taking a journey by train.

The Eleventh hour of the Eleventh day of the Eleventh month

On this day the 11th November 2015 I went into Liverpool city centre with my lady we went to the rear of the town hall to the memorial where there was a ceremony. At eleven o'clock everybody stood still what I was most taken by was a couple of young girl office workers who would be only about 16/ 17 years of age. These two girls stood for the silence as did everybody else. Afterwards one thing did make me laugh was a proud Royal Marine dressed in kilt.

My Dad never forgot his role nor the three time he was part of invasion forces and he had the campaign medals to prove it.

R.I.P all who gave me the life I have now.

The price has to be right

I have been selling spices now for quite some time and this time of year is a problem. The local Council or Camara as it is called in Portugal can't decide when the market will be at the outdoor market or the indoor market. This year a leaflet was handed out giving information as to the timings for the coming months.The problem is when the market moves indoors getting the message to our customers to know just where we are. At the last market i had a customer who couldn't find me even though i was in the same place i can normally be found.

This customer had two small 50g boxes of a herb that i also sell, when i asked what it was and how much he paid i was told that 50g cost 1.20€ that was 2.40€ for a 100g. I get told so often that my prices are very competitive but when my price for the same Herb was 1.50€ for a 100g that's a difference of almost 1€ for the same thing. I am glad to say that i sell volume because my prices are correct not over inflated.

As a side issue the other people who sell spices only have a limited selection as this is not there main product that they sell.

Who said Scousers can't take a joke

Heard the joke abut the guy who went to a football match in Liverpool. Near the ground a young lad asked if he could look after the guy's car. The driver said no as he had a dog inside, the reply was Can your dog put out fires Mister.

How about the comedians favourite. Don't drive to Liverpool and park your car Why was the reply because they will rob your hubcaps.

Liverpool has been the target of comedians up and down the UK for man years and it still goes on today.

Well here is one from me, well a picture actually. I hope you like it.

I feel robbed

Since I have been selling Spices I have been the only person to handle the Spices when they are delivered to me here in Portugal. I check the weight of every single pack before they are labelled, each spice or herb is in it's own sealed bag. After I place an order I then print the labels ready for when my next order is delivered. Each Spice or Herb has it's own label, it's really easy and and after the last couple of years there has been no mistakes Untill.

At the market at Miranda do CORVO I had a customer who after picking four items that he wanted then told me that I sold him a wrong item at the last market. On the pack it said White Cumin seeds 100g a very popular item I sell a lot of. 

To my surprise when I looked at what he gave me I could see that inside of the bag was not white Cumin seeds but in fact black Mustard seeds but also something else that looks like Nigella black onion seeds. The 100g bag when weighted had instead of 100g it had in fact 156g. Why someone would take Cumin seeds out of a plastic bag and put other Spices in it's place I don't know. Certainly I don't know why he did what he did as the cost of what he put in the bag cost more that what was originally in the bag. Each and every bag is heat sealed but this nag that was returned had been opened and had no sign of having been pre sealed.

Please look at the enclosed picture.

Now the loft is being insulated to make a master bedroom

While I wait for materials for jobs I am in the middle of I carry on with other works. I have started on the master bedroom in in what is my loft. I have started to insulate the roof joists and I have started to plasterboard over the insulation. I have laid in the pipe work for the electrics ready for the lighting.

From the picture you can see the insulated board behind the plasterboard. At the top of the plasterboard I was lowering the centre of the ceiling as the picture shows a piece of insulation in place as a guide. Now I am putting more plasterboard up to the level of the blue plasterboard to have the ceiling that bit higher. The reason to change the ceiling height is so I can install the lighting I want. By the time I am finished I will have all my lighting on LED lights but also being run from solar energy, but that's another story.

A trip to fix an injured knee

The last time I was in Liverpool I had injured my knee and had to see a doctor. I was told I had damaged a ligament on the inside of my knee and I was prescribed some cream to rub into the damaged area. I did this as prescribed but nothing happened I didn't feel any better. Over time I noticed that I was getting worse not better so it was a trip to my doctor here in Portugal. I took the cream with me and shown it to my doctor who just shook her head after looking at the tube of cream. 

After looking at my knee the doctor decided that I should go to the hospital to have my knee examined before she gave me a prescription. Today I went to the hospital to have my knee examined. The hospital is a Universtity teaching hospital and not having been to this part I left early so as to get there in plenty of time. 

After giving in the letter from my doctor I waited my turn to go in to be examined but I was soon called to go to the examination room. The room was only lite by the light behind the box that exhausted are put on to be viewed and from the monitor and instruments. An assistant told me to lower my jeans so the doctor could examine my knee.

This was the first time I have had a scan was similar to how doctors scan to check the development of babies before they are born. The doctor who examined me had me in all kinds of positions so she could scan every part of my knee. After the examination the doctor said I had big damage to my ligament but reassured me that my own doctor would give me the right medicine to fix my knee. I have to go back next Monday afternoon for the results of my scan, I didn't want to wait for the results to arrive by mail. 

I forgot to mention at the start that I had to pay for my examination but I had no reason to worry as the cost was only 1.80€ now that was a bargain. More to come after I go back to see my doctor next week.

Timber frame houses

I have a friend who owns a huge Timber frame company in Spain. I had occasion to call him today for some advice for a friend who is looking to move to my area and build a modist Timber frame house. There certainly seems to have been many advances in Timber frame house since Chris and I last met. The land is available and the price has been agreed it's now down to the finances to be in place and I will in the near future have another friend living close by.

As soon as I get some pictures of the proposed house and links I will let everybody know Worldwide.

The Chill Out

Monday night My lady and I went for a meal at a restaurant in Gois called the Chill Out. The Chilli Out had been club but now with a English part owner it's become a Restaurant.

A short time ago they had a curry night and it was amazing so i wanted to let My lady taste curry here in the centre of Portugal. I booked a table and asked if they could do a curry, when asked what type i would like to have i said i would leave it up to them to surprise use. Well we had beef curry, chicken curry, prawn curry plus lots of side dishes including mango chutney that was amazing.

The English part owner was a manager of a Michelin starred restaurant and comes to Gois with a wealth of experience. If you come to Gois or live close enough to called then i am sure you will have a great night.

It's been raining a we needed it

The last week has seen various amounts of rain from showers to almost torrents only seen in the tropics here in my place in the sun. At one point Gois was one of 26 places at most danger of forest fire but thankfully it didn't happen.  So when rain comes it is greeted because it helps keep use all safe in our homes here in country surrounded by forests.

I am keeping busy in my house working hard I have finished my window from in Chestnut, the 2 bedroom doorways have been started and look well in Chestnut and now I only have the architrave to get cut by Chicco and that's the doors done.

A lenght of timber in the loft that supports the roof has now been finish. It is Chestnut and will be at the top of the stairs and for where a hand rail will go in front of the shower. Why I flip from job to job is because I have timber available to get started and because I have the time to set up other jobs that I can go back to. I will take some pictures later.

A number of jobs getting done

As the pictures below show i have been busy in the lounge. The window frame on one wall has been encased is Chestnut and certainly looks so much better than it was before. The next step will be to get the window frame replaced in Chestnut and double glazed.

The wall at the side by the stairs i couldn't decide what i wanted to do until i saw a floor in a dark wood that had been polished by someone who was renovating a house. I could picture the wall done in planks of Chestnut and i went to see my timber guy Cicco. I wanted planks of various sizes and Cicco did even better. When i called to see him he had laid out the planks so i could see how hey looked. I was pleasantly surprised with the result and i could imagine them all together against the ugly wall at the side of the stairs. Cicco went even better he glued up all the planks to make one complete panel and the picture below shows how it will look. Now i need to varnish it before i fit it into place.

One other job i have been doing is to fit a new window in the bathroom. While getting ready to fit the window frame i found part of the sill was loose and had to be repaired before i could fit the new window in place. It seems that nothing at the moment is straight forward and i had to make a whole new window sill.

The render fell off the wall

Fitting a new window is no problem for window fitters but sadly i am not a window fitter. After taking my time i was happy i was doing a good but slow job until. Until part of the render on the outside wall fell off and disappeared down into the ruin below. It's easy when you have sand and cement laying around but i don't have any sand or cement laying around so work stopped. It would have been touch and go if i left to go to the local builders merchant to get what i needed to complete the outside wall. The glass is being held in by a piece of wood till morning and they i will be able to complete the job and then i will have a view from my bathroom window like my kitchen. My window is about 30ft above the lane that goes past upto a local village so my window has clear glass. Pictures will follow when work is complete.

Going for a cuppa

I am told last night there where high winds but it must have been when I was asleep as I didn't here anything. But when I went out with my neighbour for a coffee, well coffee for him tea for me we got a surprise. As we went down a little lane to the garage where we go for tea we found our route blocked. A tree had fallen acros the lane, look how narrow the lane is and I had to turn round to go in the opposite direction to get my cuppa. I tried using a rope I carry in my car to pull the tree to one side but the trunk was stuck between a number of other tree trunks. So many locals seem to carry chainsaws in there cars that by now the tree will be cut up and gone.

Then the rain came

The last time I have seen rain in this part of Portugal was about early March. The last couple of days we have had some rain, not to heavy but still enough to help protect this area from being a fire risk. When I last went to Liverpool the area where I live was at the top of the areas most at risk of fire till now.

Sadly the forecast for the coming couple of weeks is full sun and good temperatures. So if you are in a country where you have plenty of rain you are lucky not to be at fire risk.

Another project done and finished

 I think by now you understand my want to do things a little unusual. I used Chestnut as usual but nice thick planks as this unit faces the door as you come into the lounge and needed to look good. I had a space under the stairs and I wanted something unusual and when I planned what to do I had to take it a stage further. My drink of choice is Cognac and expensive Cognac so I decided I had to have light. I have a small LED light cut into the top shelf to highlight my Cognac glasses the picture really doesn't do justice to the look I have the bottle of Hine you can see is the best Cognac I have ever had and I have had some Cognac over the years. The 12v LED lights will work well when I make all my lighting run from Solar panels but that's a little time away.

I have included a picture of the window for the next big project in the loft where I want to create a master bedroom and have views looking down the valley. More about that when I get started.

Here is a picture of a window i found that looks just how i would like the window in my bedroom to look.

What a bike

I went for petrol this morning and at the petrol station I saw a bike similar to one some days before. The bike was unusual in that it had a petrol engine fitted. I asked the guy if I could take a picture and he said yes and with that he came out to explain that he makes them but this one is his own the rest he sells. The bikes he makes sell for about 500€ and the ones he sells go over 50kilometer per hour and 500€ for such a nice machine is money well spent and they do look fun to ride.

The sad loss of a friend

Today I called at a local garage for a pre IPO /MOT test. The garage is one I have used a number of times and had got to know the owner over the last few years. Some time ago I called only to find he was not there his brother told me he had had a bad accident and was badly burnt. Today I was greeted with sad news that Luis had died, he was only in his early thirty's and it was a sad loss of life.

R.I.P. Luis

Sunday was market day at Miranda do Corvo

I have posted before about the amount of countries where I have had people reading my story.   On Sunday someone who has been reading my Blog came over to say hello while I was at the market. He had his wife and two young daughters with him. They may not know it but after four years here I know the wonderful life they have ahead of them, I must say they all did look so happy. I know of four children of a similar age who are in the local school system and how they all get on so well. It may be tough to begin with and a tear or two will be shed but they will get on so well. For then there story begins and I wish them all the very best in their new life.

Where it all began

Some of you will have read some of my early postings about when I first started to look at property in Portugal. My dream was to take disabled people for holidays after knowing one young lad who came into my shop in Liverpool. Sean had been in a wheel chair all his life and that is where my dream began. Sadly cost was an issue I couldn't do anything about.

Well the first house I viewed and dreamt about came back to me yesterday, I passed that same house while my lady and I where out for a drive. I had to stop to look at the house that started a dream, sadly the house is overgrown with bramble and all kinds of other things growing but the house still has the charm that it did in 2007 when I first viewed it.