Big sighs all round! Tonight we gather in Warung for a group dinner. Seems everyone is leaving for a while – or for the winter at least. There is a very morose atmosphere here tonight, which is really far from normality, or maybe it is just me.
Something else i noticed – nearly all of my friends here are german – not that there is anything wrong with that, it just seems to be the way things are. I am even considering learning german as a 4th language and maybe on my return i can surprise them in their native tongue. I like the idea of being able to talk to other people in their own language.
The house has been locked down, my car is packed and i am ready for the road trip starting tomorrow at 6am. Another early start but i am used to that by now. I treated myself to some new music for the journey – strangely enough – one of the things i miss most about england- Jo Whiley’s Live Lounge. Was a big treat too, three double CD’s eagerly loaded into iTunes. Sadly, the iPod shat the bed last night and i am trying to fix it as we speak.
I have offered the house to a friend of mine at cost price and he will move in tomorrow (strangely enough, a german dude) and i have also listed it with an estate agent here in Portugal. It is most likely that i will make it back at christmas for a few days but after that, i will be gone for over a year so i figured someone in there for no profit is better than nothing at all.
Today i completed my rescue diver training – another certificate to the ever growing portfolio of qualifications. I was also treated to a few rather cool sights. the biggest crab i have ever seen – so big, i was convinced it was from the jurassic period. the thing was huge – its body had a bigger diameter than my head, those pincers were pure evil, then to finish the dive, some shrimps in a cave and lasty cuttlefish. Coming face to face with a pair of these beauties was awesome. Daniel my dive buddy and me both sank to the bottom to watch the pair. The pair stayed motionless watching us – a medieval stand off! Then, unannounced, one of the cuttlefish started to change colour to blend with the sand. I have seen this on TV many times but to see this just 2 metres in front of me while peering round a rock seven metres below the surface quite simply blew me away – it was a perfect ending to a week in Portugal.
So, at 6am, i start out for a four month stay in spain before sailing the mediterranean and toward the end of the year another transatlantic crossing back to the caribbean for the winter.
Choose Life !!
The November Archives 
Have a moan - the beers are on me !!