The plot thickens

Hello again.

Well here we are back from Madeira.  We had a great time, although it was very busy too as we are now moving on with our plans to have a house built out there.  We have put a deposit on the plot of land and have a set of design plans to be submitted for planning approval.  We spent a whole day with the builder, including 3 hours with the architect, and on other days visited numerous tile and bathroom-ware shops. We also spent a lot of the rest of the time poring over the plans and working out some of the details.  They will not start building until September, and it will take the best part of a year to build, so there is no need for us to have everything sorted at this stage but Dave, in particular, likes to get involved in the fine detail and wants to get a lot of things nailed down straight away.

We revisited the plot a couple of times to visualise how the plans will become reality.  Here are some pictures of it, along with the resident lawn mowers:

We did manage one "lavada" walk, which is a walk following one of the many irrigation channels which are all over Madeira.  They are a lovely way of getting away from the hustle and bustle and spending some tranquil time with nature.  As I am still suffering from the odd bout of vertigo we avoided any of the more vertiginous walks this visit.

Also while we were in Madeira Dave and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary with a delicious meal in the town of Ribeira Brava. The builder kindly gave us a beautiful orchid which I have entrusted to our neighbours (of our current house there) until we are living there full time. I am so looking forward to growing my own things out there, and my list of plants for the future garden keeps on growing.  We won't need a banana tree as we will be surrounded by banana and sugar cane plantations, but I do plan an avocado tree, several citrus trees and possibly mango, persimmon or some other sweet fruit.  Dave, on the other hand, is busy researching robot lawn mowers, strimmers and other pieces of garden equipment.

We did a little investigation into buying a second hand car for every-day use and were shocked at how expensive they are.  Portugal has very high duties on car imports so even old cars are very expensive compared with the UK.  We had to tone our hopes down from something like a VW Golf to a Toyota Yaris!  Again, no hurry, although we need to get something by September when we move out there.

Now we are back home and back down to earth.  Dave continues to pore over the plans and is currently trying to configure the kitchen (even though there will be experts to help us with that!).  He is also getting on with more decorating to get our UK house ready to rent or sell.

I did manage to get along to my bra making class on the day we got back, although I was rather too tired to take in some of the more technical stuff that we were taught.  I have produced something called a fit frame (like a bra with no cups!) which, once it is properly fitted to me, can be used to try out different cups, to get the perfect fit and style. We now have a week off for half term and I hope to find some time to make some progress on my own.

I hope that you all have a great bank holiday weekend and that the weather is kind to you.

Spinning around!

Hello there.  Sorry it has been a while since my last post.  Last weekend was a busy one. Amongst other things we went to Brooklands Track for Auto Italia day on Saturday and saw lots of lovely Italian cars, although it was ridiculously cold for May!  Here are some friends for our baby:

On Sunday we drove down to the South coast for my eldest sister's 60th Birthday party.  We are now officially our nieces and nephews' "coolest aunt and uncle" as we turned up in the car.

Then, on bank holiday Monday, I woke up to find the room spinning, and it was nothing to do with alcohol (honest!).  I seem to have gone down with something called Labrynthitus, an inner ear infection which causes vertigo.  It is no fun as everything spins every time you move even a millimetre, your stomach churns, and you can't balance.  I spent the whole day in bed trying not to move.

Since then things have got slowly better but it has not gone completely yet.  I have been taking things easy, but at least I have been able to get on with going through my huge piles of food magazines. I've probably worked through another foot or so of magazines. I'm relieved to say that I also did manage to get along to my Bra Making class on Wednesday evening (still nothing suitable to show you I'm afraid).

On Thursday Dave took a day off from painting the house and we went along to the Grand Designs Live show at Excel to get some ideas for our new house build.  We came away with lots of inspiration.  Who would have thought that I could get so excited about pocket doors and extractor units?  And don't get me started on lighting systems and blinds!

We are off to Madeira next Wednesday, our first visit since I finished work, and are really looking forward to chatting to the builder about his plans and our ideas.  It will all feel a lot more real when we go back and stand on our chosen plot, and can visualise ourselves living there.  Sadly I will miss one of my bra making classes but hope to get to the following one on the day we return, as long as the plane is not late.

Another exciting development is that the company which runs the ferry from mainland Portugal to Madeira has finally released their timetable for the summer.  We now have a booking in the middle of July to take our car out there.  We will have a mini holiday driving down there through France, Spain and Portugal. Then we have all sorts of fun in store as we have been advised that the process for importing cars is incredibly complicated and laborious.  And we will need to arrange garaging once it is there as we will not be able to get such a low slung car up to our house in Funchal!  It would end up beached on the entrance to our condominium!  Having done that, we will be doing it all over again with the motorbike.  But we haven't picked a date for that yet.

I'll keep you posted on how we get on in Madeira.