Sunday 23 January 2011
Friday 14 January 2011
Surprise!!
Yesterday we went to the land just to check that the well we were trying to drain was still doing so and that everything was ok.
We took a different way back to normal as it was a lovely day and we thought we'd drive down to Peniche. On the way we spotted this massive monument sticking up in the distance and decided to check it out. We only had to drive for another 5-10 min and then we found this:
Have added these photos to the photo section on the right too.
Friday 7 January 2011
How to upset your neighbours - All of them at once...
We spent about 5 hours yesterday digging and trying to secure one of the banks on the drive up to the house. It had a big crack in it after the rains and had made the earth move, which caused the overflow water from the well to run all over the place. We thought it'd be a good idea to try and prevent it from going any further.
Glenn dug all the channels (again....) to get the water flow in the right direction, off the drive! We then had to get concrete posts as far into the ground as possible to make a fake retaining wall. It was a great idea but we can tell you now that digging wet mud in strong winds and on and off rain is not that much fun. The mud is in fact more like clay and when you are sunk into it halway up to your knees and literally stuck, you just don't really enjoy it at all. (We won't mention about Susie slipping and falling over getting covered in mud from head to toe and getting mud all the way into her underwear)
Anyway, we managed to finish it and the water was flowing where it should and we were tired but happy with the result.
Today we went back to check that it was still standing.
On our way we met our neighbour and we waved and smiled as usual but only received a halfsmile and a nod back from this usually very cheerful man. Thought it a bit odd but didn't think too much of it.
Well, so.... The bank had of course collapsed even further and all that we had built up yesterday was ruined, but the water from the well was still flowing so we were not too upset.
We went for a walk up to the top of the land where there is another well to see if this had anything to do with the problems we had. Only to realise this one is full to the brim and decided to drive to the shop to get a hose and bits to drain it. We didn't get very far...
As we followed the road down we saw this
It doesn't look that bad on the photo, as you can't see the whole picture, but basically a big part of this bank up from the road had collapsed too. It has come from about 2 meters up and fallen into the road. As you can see, the water was running in the middle and digging into the road. The really bad bit is that it was only 2 days ago that they put all the gravel on it to even it out and get rid of all the cracks and holes in the road. We now understood why the neighbour didn't look too impressed. We also had another man watching us trying to dig it all out by hand laughing at us. What can we say, we are the village fools....
We ended up digging and removing the lovely mud with shovels and a wheelbarrow. This is when you wish your road was flat....
We got the water going into the ditch again (sort of....) and cleared a bit of the road (this took us nearly 2 hours) and then gave up. We had a call from Peter the builder who said a really bad storm was expected tonight so we thought there'd be no point getting rid of all of it as it will only happen again.
The good news is that we found perfect sized wine boxes for one (and it only cost 38 cents!!!!)! Happy weekend!!
Glenn dug all the channels (again....) to get the water flow in the right direction, off the drive! We then had to get concrete posts as far into the ground as possible to make a fake retaining wall. It was a great idea but we can tell you now that digging wet mud in strong winds and on and off rain is not that much fun. The mud is in fact more like clay and when you are sunk into it halway up to your knees and literally stuck, you just don't really enjoy it at all. (We won't mention about Susie slipping and falling over getting covered in mud from head to toe and getting mud all the way into her underwear)
Anyway, we managed to finish it and the water was flowing where it should and we were tired but happy with the result.
Today we went back to check that it was still standing.
On our way we met our neighbour and we waved and smiled as usual but only received a halfsmile and a nod back from this usually very cheerful man. Thought it a bit odd but didn't think too much of it.
Well, so.... The bank had of course collapsed even further and all that we had built up yesterday was ruined, but the water from the well was still flowing so we were not too upset.
We went for a walk up to the top of the land where there is another well to see if this had anything to do with the problems we had. Only to realise this one is full to the brim and decided to drive to the shop to get a hose and bits to drain it. We didn't get very far...
As we followed the road down we saw this
We ended up digging and removing the lovely mud with shovels and a wheelbarrow. This is when you wish your road was flat....
We got the water going into the ditch again (sort of....) and cleared a bit of the road (this took us nearly 2 hours) and then gave up. We had a call from Peter the builder who said a really bad storm was expected tonight so we thought there'd be no point getting rid of all of it as it will only happen again.
The good news is that we found perfect sized wine boxes for one (and it only cost 38 cents!!!!)! Happy weekend!!
Wednesday 5 January 2011
No news = good news??????? Not sure....
Went to see the architect, as planned, and we did not really get much clearer on what is going to happen now. We need to get our lawyer involved to change some legal stuff before we can proceed and this will prob take another couple of months. It is a little frustrating and also BORING to wait but better to take it easy and get it right... or so they say :-) Luckily we have a lot of time.... sort of...
But despite this we had a VERY good day.
We went to see a lady (well girl more like it) about language lessons, and think we were both quite happily surprised at what approach she had to teaching and will def give it a go. She does not have any free time until February but that's fine with us. In the meantime we might actually learn another word or two.... Maybe....
We then got a call from our newly found friend lovely Jennifer with a suggestion for lunch, which we happily accepted as it was her birthday. So we ended up at a Japanese restaurant with an All you can eat offer on for 7.95!!!! There was a sushi train (with loads of other little fingerfoods too), soup and bbq'd meat (which were both served to you at the table). Think we all ate more than we needed and def got our money's worth!!! And it was lovely, will be going back there again, that is fact!
After we had been to see the architect we went to meet a couple from the UK that we met in the pub the other week. An amazingly friendly and nice couple at that. They promised to introduce us to the man who built their house. As we kept pestering them by text to keep their promise, we were invited to their house and it was FANTASTIC! It had once been a ruin (we saw the before pictures) and was now an absolutely stunning property. There was no way you would have guessed it was ever just a ruin on a muddy plot of land. It really gave us some new energy and hope to believe that one day this will actually happen... The builder was a great guy too and the praise we had heard in the pub was confirmed to be true (after seeing their house!). We (Glenn) had a good chat to Peter (the builder) and he agreed to come with us to have a look at what we can do with our plot and how to go about it. For introducing us to this man we will forever be grateful to Gary and Maria and we will have to hope we didn't interrupt their last day of their holiday too much.
We must say that we are yet to meet a not so nice person here in Foz do Arelho, it seems it is impossible, whether they are locals, foreigners or tourists. It is so lovely and makes a nice change from a lot of other places in the world!
But despite this we had a VERY good day.
We went to see a lady (well girl more like it) about language lessons, and think we were both quite happily surprised at what approach she had to teaching and will def give it a go. She does not have any free time until February but that's fine with us. In the meantime we might actually learn another word or two.... Maybe....
We then got a call from our newly found friend lovely Jennifer with a suggestion for lunch, which we happily accepted as it was her birthday. So we ended up at a Japanese restaurant with an All you can eat offer on for 7.95!!!! There was a sushi train (with loads of other little fingerfoods too), soup and bbq'd meat (which were both served to you at the table). Think we all ate more than we needed and def got our money's worth!!! And it was lovely, will be going back there again, that is fact!
After we had been to see the architect we went to meet a couple from the UK that we met in the pub the other week. An amazingly friendly and nice couple at that. They promised to introduce us to the man who built their house. As we kept pestering them by text to keep their promise, we were invited to their house and it was FANTASTIC! It had once been a ruin (we saw the before pictures) and was now an absolutely stunning property. There was no way you would have guessed it was ever just a ruin on a muddy plot of land. It really gave us some new energy and hope to believe that one day this will actually happen... The builder was a great guy too and the praise we had heard in the pub was confirmed to be true (after seeing their house!). We (Glenn) had a good chat to Peter (the builder) and he agreed to come with us to have a look at what we can do with our plot and how to go about it. For introducing us to this man we will forever be grateful to Gary and Maria and we will have to hope we didn't interrupt their last day of their holiday too much.
We must say that we are yet to meet a not so nice person here in Foz do Arelho, it seems it is impossible, whether they are locals, foreigners or tourists. It is so lovely and makes a nice change from a lot of other places in the world!
Tuesday 4 January 2011
Today...
we are finally off to the architect to see what he has to say re the topography and what we can actually build. We are also meeting a lady re language lessons AND a builder! Now how is that for a busy day????
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