Today was a day to get a long list of errands done which took us from 9am to 8pm…longer than expected! The nearest big town to us is Castelo Branco which is an hour’s drive away but the route in is through beautiful countryside nearly all the way.
It started with breakfast – priorities! – including a Nutella croissant and coffee – still just 1 euro for a latte. No wonder there are no Starbucks around! Feeling fuelled up, Phil then did the washing at the lavandria (laundrette) which coincidentally is next door to a cafe so we had another coffee – why not? – while waiting for the washing to be done. I went for a walk with Joey while Phil did the drying and folding. I walked past these two huge chimneys that must be protected structures though no longer in use. It’s quite common to see gigantic storks nests on top of tall poles and you can see one in the photo of the chimney.
We took a trip to the one and only very small garden centre in the area and bought two fuschia pink bougainvillea plants. I adore these as the flowers look like they are made of tissue paper. Other than that, the plants there were a little disappointing so perhaps we’ll have to take a trip back to Spain to a garden centre there one day. I did discover though that there are plenty of seeds and bulbs sold in the DIY shops, but oddly not at the garden centre, 
which are considerably cheaper than in England.
Interspersed with all this were stops at various builder’s merchants for bits and pieces we needed including another four jerry cans to store more water in and jet washing 
Tut.
Our land didn’t have mains electric running to it but while we were in the UK over the summer, we arranged to have it connected which involved running another three electric poles down the road to our property. We went to switch it on just after we arrived to discover it wasn’t working because although all the wiring was in place, the wires were not physically connected at the top of the pole. This afternoon we met up with a friend who was going to help us work out who we needed to speak to. Perhaps we had still to sign a contract or something? So at 4.30pm we found the EDP electricity main office expecting to be able to sort it out. However….Portugal is wonderful in that it still likes to do business face to face with real people who are helpful, but on the other hand, it’s got bureaucracy down to a fine art! It turns out we need a number before they can set up the account at EDP but that involves going to a different office that shuts at 4.30pm! So despite trying to get everything done in one day, we are going back tomorrow morning to work on moving it forward. It’s never boring!
The final job of the day in Castelo Branco was food shopping. We were so hungry by this point that we abandoned the idea of dinner when we got back home and opted for buying some bread rolls (bread is yummy here) and buttered them in the van – the advantage of travelling with your kitchen with you! – and sat in the supermarket car park to eat them before heading home, including a stop to fill the jerry cans with water from the village tap.
We got home eventually at 8pm, made a cup of tea and, as the evening was still warm, sat outside by torchlight and looked at the stars 
which are amazing here because we have no light pollution. Another divine ending to a full-on day!
