Scotland

 I had a meting in town to show some work i was doing for an Valentines day present. I was then asked if i could make a board in the shape of Scotland, yes i said because i believe i can make anything.

What you se is Scotland cut from a piece of Chestnut and it's about 40mm thick nice and chunky. It's 430m long and 230mm wide once finished it will look stunning.  

Since starting Scotland i have been asked if i can make a board in the shape of Holland. Holland i know will give a few challenges but i can do it. 

This view doesn't really show how thick the wood really is that i am using.

It never gets boring cutting wood

Well it's been a busy couple of weeks down in my workshop. I have just finished cutting a board for a lady and it's the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two island I am just finishing are part of the Azores one has to be oiled with a food grade mineral oil. The other has to be varnished as it a wall feature importantly they are a Valentines day gift.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then there is the United Kingdom. All countries are not to scale I have done Wales, the isle of Mann also Ireland with Northern Island. Then there is the one I call " There will always Be " that one is England. I still have to cut Scotland to complete the series. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I cut Scotland for a customer the board is about 16 inches tall and two inches thick. This one will be interesting because of  the shape of the country and limitations of the machine I use for cutting.

 

Here i am back

 

Hello Blog followers that doesn't sound right i should say friends

I once said that I hadn't posted for a while because of Covid etc but sadly that was wrong.

I stopped posting because I have family members who where trying to make my life difficult. So it was easy not to post but that was not the answer but it is still happening to this day. The last comment even included my Family name I have been Peterfc since about the age of 15. I used to buy Dylan, the Stones and Jimi Hendrix LP’s and sign the back Peterfc and I still 57 years later still have those LP’s.

My surname is mine I am to those who know me Peterfc. I have been contacted by a nice Guy on Britishexpats that he noticed I hadn’t posted on my Blog or Britishexpats well below are some of the reasons.

It's about time I made a few comments.

First when i mention family i mean my sons and daughters and grandchildren and not my siblings.

About 55 years ago my Grandad took out a handkerchief that he had in WW1 he had his handkerchief In his breast pocket. Inside his handkerchief was a pocket knife, a sniper shot him is the heart. Thankfully he had his handkerchief in his breast pocket and the knife stopped the bullet.

My Grandad let me look at the knife and he said one day my Dad would give me the knife. I waited for almost a lifetime only to find out that a younger sister took the knife knowing it was to come to me.

On my various trips back to the UK I saw many items had been taken out of the family home STOLEN.

My Dad had two commemorative plates that where displayed on the walls in the house. One sister took both commemorative plates. On the plates are the shields for the regiments that served in North Africa my Dad proudly served in North Africa he was a Dessert Rat. There where three sister and two brothers and she took both.

My Mum used to give me a cheque for £100 not one of the cheques was ever cashed all put on my fire when I got home. One sister  criticised me about the cheques but she asked for about £7,000 from my Dad so she could by a house. This came after Mum and Dad sold there house back to the council and for once in there life they had some money. Money to see them through there retirement.

One family member came to visit Mum when a football team played at home.

OK what about me living in the sun I traveled back to the UK between 3 to 4 times each year. These trips stopped towards the end of 2019 and I have only traveled once since then. My last trip lasted for only three days but I got to see my family and grandchildren.

However I am trying to make a point and explain why I haven't posted for the last three months. I do miss not posting on my Blog, this Blog was so my children and grandchildren could see what I was doing in my new life. From the UK to Afghanistan Nigeria and Iraq my family have missed a lot.

So my Blog is mine and I am back nobody is going to make me feel bad even the bossy bitch.

Way down the road

Last week i was talking to a friend who is away at the moment about driving. The conversation got to the favourite places to drive and in my opinion it has to be the tree lined roads in France. My friend told me of there favourite places to drive 

We both are alike with our love of driving when i heard the email tell me i had an email arrive. The picture below is stunning it looks better than and tree lined avenue i had driven down. 

Well that's my dream road to drive down but then it's the love of driving for me.

Who wants a van

During the years i have been driving i have had a number of vans. I can't explain but i just love owning a van. At one point i had a new car but nothing gives the feeling to me that a van does.

A time has come when i must consider my present van has to go. Recently my van has cost 857€ due to urgent repairs to the engine. The injector pump cost 700€ and then the belt that drives the power steering pump and alternator.

The final nail in the coffin was the timing belt snapped causing a possible need for major work to the cylinder head.

The search is on for another van, the reason i need a van is to carry my spices but also the tables.

Another trip back to Liverpool

 I recently went to Liverpool to see my family but for only 3 days. I contacted a company who send you a Covid test kit that you send off to there Lab. I didn't know that there office was shut at the weekend and i needed to do a 2 day test. Then after the 2 day test i had to have a test before i left to return home.

I arrived Friday night at 11.20PM at night and i left again on Monday about 5pm. I contacted the test company and said could i have a refund because i was flying on Monday and the post office wasn't open for me to send the test kit. As they couldn't complete the test for me i was entitled to a refund. Oh no they say there is an £15 admin charge so my refund is less £15 because they can't fulfill there side of the agreement.

I did find another company who where open and i did get tested sadly it took time that i could have spent with my family.

Brexit

 It's a long time ago that the vote for Brexit was reported and to me a was a huge shock.

It's only now that the UK is finally out of the EU that the effect can be felt.

It started when i had a parcel sent over to me in Portugal. The driver claimed that the day of delivery nobody was at home. I was in fact painting the outside of my new veranda. It's common that drivers don't deliver if the address doesn't suit them so they just take the parcel back. That parcel got sent back to the sender who sent it again and this time the Customs didn't like it so they sent it back to the sender. 

Now i buy from Hungary and Spain but the downside is that i can't get the curries that are common in the UK. 

A new Spanish suppler now has Hot and mild Madras curry so as the markets open i may find some of the things i need from this new suppler.

A day turned out bad

Don't you just love it when you have a busy day planned and then one by one things turn out wrong. 

First i had an appointment at 10am to see my Doctor but at 9.22am i received a phone call from the Doctors to say the appointment was cancelled for another day.

Next i drove 80 kilometers and after arriving in the area i called the guy as he was to meet me. I phoned and after 6 calls only to be told to go in different direction. It soon became obvious that the guy was just playing games with me. In the end i just turned and came home.

Next i had an appointment with an Optician always an appointment to look forward to BUT. Yes another BUT, Arriving on time i was told the appointment had been changed till the same time the next day.

I would like to know who i have upset to be punished like i have been today.

I have hated this ruin for 10 years but now it's gone

The time has come when the ruin next door to me became no more a ruin it's now flat. The thing is when the ruin was built many years ago they used stone and earth. The machine took only a couple of hours to bring all the walls down. Then it had to be all tidied up until it was done. The pictures show first my house looking through the Olive grove

 

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Here is my house looking beautiful in it's setting. All the trees you can see in front of the house are Olives.

 This is the last view i got of the ruin this morning before the machine came to remove 

Here we go there is no going back now. the guy on the machine did a great job.

It may look dusty but that is what happens as the walls are knocked down.

 

This is it the back of my house great no ruin to stop my plans.

There is going to be a veranda across the whole side of this house that will be 2 meters wide. on the left side the veranda will have a plunge pool looking out onto the valley.

Figures from UK

 

Why do people want to go to the UK to work the place is falling apart and why should i be bothered.

14.6% of people working for the NHS are from countries other than the UK.

There are so many HGV drivers short presently more than 100,000 drivers short. Shops short of food, petrol stations closing because of lack of drivers to deliver petrol. 

Today a company closed who supplied most supermarkets with food. The largest company who grows peppers and tomatoes can't find workers to pick the crops. 

There are Glass companies who have a rota system in place to try to supply there customers.

The latest to warn of stock shortages are Nike and Costco Christmas doesn't look to be good this year. People who have money will stock up now and those with little spare money will be left behind.

On a temporary basic Boris is wanting a 5,000 visas for drivers to help out. But 5,000 drivers aren't enough.

The government set a figure that to move and work in the UK you need to earn app £30,000.

If Boris hadn't driven round in a bus before the Referendum with the Lie of how much will be returned to the UK from the EU would these problems exist now?

But it was the fool in the street who wanted " There country back " after what is happening in the UK how many would put there hands up and say yes I voted to leave the EU.

The ruin at last is mine

But here are some pictures of my ruin and the valley beyond. I hope my Mum is looking down because she paid a lot of the cost from what was left in her will. Thanks Mum.

This is the ruin looking down from my veranda. All the wood from the roof and the floors was recently remove and now i can see what i have.

Here we are looking down on the olive grove and the valley beyond. In the picture you can see a grape vine climbing up a near Olive tree.

This picture is where my chickens lived until they went on holiday with Tony. I thought i was getting my old back trouble Sciatica but now thankfully i am again pain free.

Here is the Olive grove OK Olive grove may be a little exaggerated. Olive grove is my name for where the olives live.

 

This is part of the valley i live in with the view over the ruin. This is what i wake up to every day how peaceful. 

Good news Coja market is open this Saturday

 I have just had confirmation that the coming Saturday the market at Coja is back on again this Saturday.

Masks are not now  compulsory any more but i hope people who i see are going to be careful and be responsible.  

But i must admit this news today is good news. For me i have to do some stock ordering not for this market but the one after.

Bang goes my computer

 The electrical company sent a text about the coming storm advising that all there equipment was switched off. As i walked over to my computer i heard a noise and i didn't know what it was till the next day.

The next day the storm was gone i had now water problem so all was OK with my world. That is until i switched on my 32in monitor and computer. nothing happened computer dead.

I was soon offered a machine for a good price but i had to wait a week to take delivery. A neighbour soon came round with a machine to use till i get my replacement machine great. This machine uses windoooooz where i use the safer Ubuntu Linux. After taking my hard drive from my machine i found it worked perfectly in it's new home for a week.

Tomorrow i get my new machine and will first remove the hard drive and then replacement  with my own.

So after that storm i am now back sitting happy.

We had a storm

 About the 1st or 2nd September we had a storm. A storm like i have never seen but i was lucky.

I had an area behind my front wall where water was pooling and i needed to drill a hole for the water to drain away. I had lent my huge industrial drill  to a friend who was having work done to her house. She had gone back to the UK and was due back but i needed my drill. On my way home i saw she had arrived home and she had arrived that morning. 

I soon got my drill and after seeing the weather forecast i drilled the wall to release the water from behind it. One hour later we had a storm of Biblical proportions but the water was leaving and the room below was not getting wet anymore.

More in the next post.

Post Brexit what a shambles

 I like many have had trouble getting deliveries from the UK. More and more people like me are using Spain, Germany and China for whatever goods we need. 

On the 11th June 2021 i ordered packs of fish food and i was given for delivery

Estimated delivery Fri, 30 Jul - Fri, 01 Oct

I need lots of fish food for my fish tanks. That's one example of how Brexit is affecting me. I would have ordered from the UK  but the price that Ebay has put for delivery. I recently ordered plastic bags and i normally pay about £7.50 with delivery via Ebay the total cost was £21.23. Ebay and other factors now make for me the UK finished.

That's how Brexit has affected me, how it's affecting people in the UK. T took some information from the BBC News online.

 Shortages

The Road Haulage Association has estimated there is a shortage of more than 100,000 drivers in the UK, which had around 600,000 before the pandemic.

On Friday supermarket chain Morrisons became the latest company to join the growing chorus of calls for drivers to be eligible for Skilled Worker visas to allow them to work in the UK.

Aldi has said it has increased its wages for lorry drivers amid the shortage. The supermarket chain pays between £14.15 and £15.34 per hour for day shifts, and £16.98 and £18.41 per hour for night shifts according to its careers website. Tesco has offered a £1,000 bonus for drivers who join before 30 September.

Across the UK thousands of key workers have left the UK to go home to there own country. Why because the UK has a scale of pay the fruit pickers, lorry drivers ETC need to earn to stay in the UK.

Below is from the UK.Gov website

 

Your job

You must meet all of the following requirements to be eligible for a Skilled Worker visa:

• your job is eligible for this visa
• you’ll be working for a UK employer that’s been approved by the Home Office
• you’ll be paid at least the minimum salary for the type of work you’ll be doing

The minimum salary for the type of work you’ll be doing is whichever is the highest out of the following 3 options:

• £25,600 per year
• £10.10 per hour
• the ‘going rate’ for the type of work you’ll be doing

My sump needs fixing

 In my fish room i have a fish tank i am using for a filter commonly called a sump. I noticed that it was leaning away from the wall by about 3/ 4 degrees. With all the water and filter media if it fell it would fall into my big fish tank.. 

Since i had an accident with a tank during mt teens everything is now above the water line. No chance of anything going wrong and the water leaking out of my tank or filter.

When i came to move my filter i found it was to heavy for me to life i had a problem. I moved my freezer close to the main tank and i then lowered the filter onto the freezer. I was now able to remove the rest of the water and filter media and then start to clean the inside of the filter tank.

A Troll

 The 14th April 2010 was my first post on my Blog. That's now over ten years ago and so much has happened over the years.

This post is not about me but about some fool who has nothing better to do with his sad lonely life. He left comments very nasty hurtful

I have just had seven very nasty comments left for me. My first reaction was to a relative who i choose not to contact. No my relatives are not that Evil but lets see what the future brings.

Customs what a load of rubbish

 Because of Brexit and all those wonderful people who voted to leave it has caused no end of problems for me and many many more.

Often you look on the back of a package only to see it's made in the Peoples Republic of China. Now with so much trouble getting anything from the UK i have started to look for things i need from China. All of a sudden the Customs have stopped 2 out of Four parcels i have coming from China.

I track my parcel to know when they should arrive until i got two emails from the Customs here in Portugal. Over the years i have i had things often from China without any problem of any kind until now. The value of the two items was only about 24€ or £20.

The customs want the Tarrif code for each item a code i do not have. Emails went from me to the supplier just for 4 small filters and 2 bags of fish food. 

It took me from the  28th July and the 2nd August to finally get clearance. It's probably taken about a minimum of 10 hours hard work to get these parcels cleared. The work is not done till i get them delivered and i then wait for the next to arrive.

Alice R.I.P

 I was here 10 years ago ready to do the legal stuff to buy my house. Each time i came up to what was to become my home i would see Alice an old lady why was so friendly to me a new comer.

I was writing about the customs when i heard my name. My friend came to tell me that Alice had passed away. During the first few years out of respect i called her Don Alice until the day came. Alice told me to now call her Alice i had shown her respect over the last few years.

It is so sad that only about a week away from my 10th birthday living here. 

Alice passed away on Sunday evening and the service is Wednesday morning at 11.30 am. I have an appointment at 11 am at the optician so i hope to make the service in time.

Alice gone but not forgotten.

The last week.

On the 16th July i agreed to change my service with Meo. The new service would give me TV wow it's almost all in Portuguese or with subtitles. 

Much better minutes for my mobile phone and better text, I almost never text.

Better internet speed, OK i have heard that before. 

I also get 1,000 minutes after 9pm till 9am to 50 countries FREE yes i can use that.

The pictures below show today's speed. The figure on the left is a test of the speed from the Internet people to me and back to them.

The next speed is the speed i am getting today 0.50 is only half a megabyte the bottom picture is only 0.20 megabyte i could walk faster.

The third figure 0.00 megabyte is the speed i should have to upload this post to my Blog 0.00 megabyte means i can't upload anything.

So much for this great new service i have been sold.

I have tried twice to upload posts to my Blog but the speed is Crap.

My 1,000 minutes went live 6.12pm Sundays night great i can make a call to the UK to a friend. Did it work no after 13 minutes the line went dead when i looked at the display on the phone there was a lock on the so it was no good. Today my house phone is still locked. 

Moral of the story if you are looking to move to Portugal Don't use Meo they are a joke.