The alarm was set for 6.30am today. It was dark when it went off (I don’t like getting up in the dark) but the silver lining was that we got to see the dawn. And how beautiful it was!
We wanted to get up and off early to Castelo Branco again today. We only planned to go there once a week as it’s an hour’s drive away, but this trip would be twice in two days. Why? To aim to move the electricity connection forward. Before we moved to Portugal, I read a book with tips on life here and one of the best pieces of advice was that if you have an admin type task, make it the only task of the day and go with the flow. That advice came in especially handy today!
We got to E-Redes, the electricity distributor (like the National Grid) who extended the electric from the village to us and put the pole up, for 9am to ask for the ‘CP account number’ that EDP, the electricity supplier (like Eon in the UK) needed in order to set us up with a contract. We were seen straight away by a lovely lady who gave us the CP number – result! – then said, ’But…first you need the electrician who fitted the meter to certify the work of the E-Redes company and submit the certification to them…’ and it can take up to 10 days to be entered into their system before we can then set up the contract with EDP.
Upon leaving the office, we immediately put in a call to our good friend who offered to call the electrician who doesn’t speak any English as our Portuguese is still in the early stages. We later heard that he can come to inspect and hopefully certify the work tomorrow lunchtime. Result!
As the chap we saw yesterday at EDP said all we needed to set up the account was the CP number and proof of ownership of the property, we thought we’d chance going back there to see if in fact it could be done today, or if the lady was right and that we would have to wait for the certification to be confirmed on their system.
Off we went to the EDP office and took a ticket to wait our turn. If you think the English are good at queuing, the Portuguese are even better because they queue without moaning and sighing at the wait. They really are such lovely people. Eventually it was our turn. Marco, who served us, started to enter our details into the system. He needed various documents which I could mostly pull up on my phone. When we took up vanlife, we decided to do away with paper files of anything and scan everything and file it on One Drive in the cloud so we could always access it on our phone.
Marco examined the documents closely and one was dated just over a year ago when we bought the property in 2021. Using Google translate, he explained that we had to have it dated within a year but that we could go to the Finanças office and ask for an update. So off we went to the Finanças office which was just around the corner and another kind lady produced one for us within minutes. Result!
Back we went to see Marco and took another ticket to wait our turn again. Back to being served, Marco started entering the new information in then asked for our bank IBAN number. Oh. We didn’t have it to hand. Fortunately the bank is also a few doors away, so off Phil went to get the IBAN from the bank which took about 20 minutes of queuing there. Result!
Back again to Marco and another ticket to wait our turn! Finally, after about 2 hours of the toing and froing, it looked like it might all just be finalised, until ‘the computer said no’. It turns out the first lady was correct after all and we do have to wait for the certification before setting up the contract. Marco smiled and said, ‘Sorry, you will have to come and start all over again.’ Our details won’t be saved on the system. However, we now have all the paperwork needed so 
it should make for a smooth process next time. Result!
Of course, the elongated morning was all of our own making but we did learn a lot along the way! Result!
After all that we treated ourselves to a ‘tostas mistas’ (cheese and ham toastie) and a ‘galão’ (latte) at one of our favourite cafes on our favourite tree lined avenue with the traditional mosaic tiled pavement. The sun was shining and it was so lovely. We love the cafe culture!
When we got back home, it was hot shower time! Is there anything as wonderful as a hot shower to cleanse the soul after a sort of stressful day? Maybe there is one thing better – a hot shower with a view of the mountains.
Thank you for reading our adventures!
