Quinta das Abelhas

well the rains have finally arrived, and let’s hope they’re here to stay for a while. even if it is a right pain trying to get anything done outside, let alone trying to get my overflowing basket of laundry washed & dry. has meant it’s been safe to burn the enormous pile of empty cement sacks the builders left in a heap by the car parking place though.

and, ironically, after we survived the drought with enough water, once the rain arrived it got into our pump so every time we turned it on it blew all the electrics in the house. so - when we finally get rain we have no water! we had to take the whole pump apart and put it in the oven to dry out (as recommended by portuguese mechanic in the village - a fellow technopeasant obviously). and hoorah, it´s working again and we have water. water that even goes into the new (almost finished) tank up in the forest. and on the subject of our new (almost finished) water tank that the builder assured us would not leak, and we did not need to tile inside it (which we did anyway) heh, guess what? it leaks.

and on the subject of said builder, his mate said about a month ago he would get us some glass for the doors in the new house. “no hurry” we said “as long as we get the glass in before the rain comes and the nights get cold” yes, i know, we should have learnt by now. a couple of weeks later i bump into matey and he says “i have your glass, i’ll bring it over”. “great” i say “no hurry, just drop it in when you´re passing”. yes, i know, we should have learnt by now. a week or so later and it’s raining. the nights are getting cold. we are passing matey’s house so we drop in to collect the glass and save him a journey bringing it to us. “i can’t remember where i’ve put it” he says “i’ll find it and drop it in this afternoon or tomorrow”. now, this was over a week ago. still no sign of our glass. we´ve left a message on his answerphone saying please can we have our glass, we´re cold. nothing. the balcony door now has cardboard drawing-pinned over the glass-less windows and i’ve made a nice thick curtain for the office door. now, if matey doesn’t have our glass, why not just admit it? then we could go get some ourselves, put it in the holes, and presto! nice and warm and dry. and i bet you’re thinking “well, what do they expect? they should know about portuguese builders by now”. well, let me tell you, matey is, in fact, english. pah.

Stumble it!

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