A group of rowdy workmen who are meeting at the carpark before setting off for the day wake me at 6.00am. Kimberley sleeps blissfully on so I decide to read my book. I now read all books on my Kindle app on my phone. The van’s space is precious, so I only have two physical books with me. The first is my absolute rock as it is the book that changed my life more than any other. It is called Infinite Possibilities and it is written by Mike Dooley. It is a journey on how your thoughts become things, and how to make that happen, to ensure your future is better than your now. The other is a Michael Connelly thriller that I will read then give away.
Our car park is on the main drag going into Viseu and as such is very noisy with people going into work. My work is driving TUT to Penacova down the N2. I love my job! Whilst researching the route last night, I realised that we were passing through and around and over some lakes and that there was a fantastic place to spend some time called Praia Fluvial da Senhora da Ribeira. The last bit loosely translates as Lady of the River and as this looks more like a lake than a river, I spend a fair bit of time waiting to see if a hand suddenly emerges from the clear water holding a sword. It doesn’t.
It is beautiful but also a bit of a holiday destination with some using jet skis and other water activities. On the plus side there is a rather nice café that does tuna melts and also ice creams. We are set for the day. We get the dream chairs out of TUT’s boot and set them up in a nice bit of shade from a eucalyptus tree. The dream chairs were purchased before we even bought TUT and Kimberley and I used to sit in them in our house in Milton Keynes dreaming about life in a campervan touring round Europe. Weird that, huh? Now we sit in them dreaming about other stuff, of which the only one I am going to share right now is the fact that we dream of building our dream home. Once we had this as a destination, we just took baby steps towards it.
The first baby step was choose where to live and, after much research, we are starting in Portugal. The second baby step was plan a trip to visit potential plots online – after covid lockdowns lift. Then list builders, get recommendations on solicitors, explore everything, tie ourselves to nothing. Take action but not worry about the result. Know that we will know when we find the land if it is right. Tour Portugal and get a feel for the country and the culture. Don’t rush, but enjoy the journey. Know that if it is not this, then it will be something better. You should be getting the idea now of how we go about it, and the good news is that this works for most things in your life, not just mine. If you don’t dream and think and take baby steps, you really are missing a trick.
We spend the whole day by the lake and just relax in and out of the sun, and in and out of the water. It is a special day and very different to what we have done so far on this trip. I love my job. It has such variety.