Of course, you mustn’t forget, tomorrow morning i leave for maastricht for a long weekend, for a very close examination by my doctor!!!

But i am glad to be leaving portugal this time. it has rained here every day since the 15th of this month which is now becoming a real pain in the arse. i can do my washing, i just can’t get the stuff dry, julia has the same problem too. this makes packing my bag for holland very easy, i have virtually no clothes left to take.

my washing line was completely detroyed in the winds of two nights ago, i will upload those photos very soon, along with the naked surfing pictures.

Of course, with all the rain, this means i havent been able to wash my car but who cares about that? at the moment, it is the cleanest it has been in ages because of all the rain.

so what did my long hot summer consist of?

well, i surfed a lot and enjoyed most of it too. my skills have improved since last year but now i have a two month void. i will return to portugal over the new year and spend 8 days surfing my ass off until i have to go back to work but all in all, i am happy with the progress i have made. still not achieved the elusive total cover up but it will come. i find myself taking waves later and steeper, stuff i just wouldn’t have tried a year ago. i am also finding wave selection easier now, knowing when to go for it and when to sit it out.

have been guilotined a couple of times, one of them very hard, took my breath away. i also took a leap of faith in tonel and came up for air laughing my tits off. the ocean can provide so much fun and amusement, but beware!

yesterday, a beginner at one of the local surf schools lost the tip of his finger. he was in at mareta (which i had decided was too heavy for me) his leash had wrapped around one of his fingers and tore it off at the first knuckle. if that wasnt bad enough, while he was in the hospital, the nurse was giving him an anasthetic and broke the needle off in his hand. i guess some days you should stay at home.

so beware – if you are one of the macho surf boys, you will pay a price.

also in th enews this week, one of the local fishermen fell off one of the cliffs into the ocean. if you have seen the cliffs here you will appreciate that he had no chance of survival. the cliffs range in height from 100 – 120 feet, and they are sheer!!

i hear the weather is much better in masstricht so be sure to drop by next week and take a look at all of the photos, there will be plenty to see , i promise. Dr Lineke will show me all of the best bits of holland i am sure.

I have done a little work on the house and will add photos next week too. progress has been slow but who is in a hurry ? not me !!!

so remember, as from tuesday next week, i will be on my spanish number. if you don’t have it, you can view my contact card details and grab it from there,

be good

let me put this into perspective for you, while most of you were sitting at home or at work with the heating on, mid october, i was surfing naked in the atlantic on a very small but just about useable swell.

and of course i have photos to prove my claim, they will be added during the coming week so please make sure you keep dropping by to have a look.

but in my defence i must say that the water was a little chilly – if you can see where i am going with this.

today i am taking Kelly and Amy for a surf session. of course it is their first and they will be complete grommets for sure but i will have my camera to hand to capture the action or lack of it.

when i asked him what he was doing with my land he explained………

i saw you marking it out and the old lady that lived there before told me i could have it or use it!

so clearly he knew it wasnt his land but he didnt want to get in a fight with me so i decided to be kind to him instead. so the land is mine, always was and always will be unless he cares to part with some dollars to pay for it. i got so much land i dont know what to do with it all. but still, what kind of drunk old fool takes your land, puts a small brick wall on it and tops it with soil – WHILE YOU ARE OUT OF THE COUNTRY???

then he tells me he was going to make a lawn on it!

anyway, the other night while i was driving home on the old road, the local sheperd was out with his sheep. As i approached i could see the sheep in my headlights so i dipped them and slowed down. the herd was completely covering the road. i didnt want to honk my horn and scare them so instead i switched the engine off and sat with just my side lights on as i was completely absorbed into the woolen cloud that covered the road. it was almost silent, apart from the hoofs on the road and the clanging of the bells around their necks. i sat and watched as the cloud engulfed my car and devoured it as though it wasnt even there. they chomped and stomped and clanged all around me until the moment when the shepherd called to his sheep      ( yes i know this sounds a bit biblical) and the all ran to him like obedient dogs. it really was a spectacular moment, a moment of peace, tranquility and of being close to nature watching next sundays lunch eat and roam free.

so changing the subject

predictive text.

been talking with the doctor quite a lot on text. there are some strange word combinations on there, for example

EAT and FAT have the same combination, as do
COCK and ANAL, and similarly
AWAKE and CYCLE.

the last one actually did catch me out when i was trying to wake up gentleman Jim at 6am one morning for a surf. my message read………….

Dude, are you cycle?

some how he knew what i meant but if you have any other T9 predictive text funnies, please let me know. i am sure everyone has made some mistakes somewhere and totally changed the meaning of the message that they intended to send.

so lets talk about the house now

been working hard this week re-plastering walls. i would like to say two things at this point….

1. it is bloody hard work mixing muck and spreading it on walls
2. to get a smooth finish is an absolute art form, its a damn good job i prefer the rustic, antique look

i got some more photos to add, will do as soon as possible

and then the other day, the same day that Luis returned, the digger man turned up again. the week before i had been to the builders merchants to see about a JCB again. the boss wasnt there and i forgot to go back later so, as the digger man was passing, he just popped in to see if i needed the digger still. Half an hour later, the garden had moved again. Nice people those  dudes at vila do bispo, very nice indeed.

so, i am almost at the end of my portugal stay and very nearly out of cash. mallorca beckons for the winter and i am expecting to work my cute ass off.

Kelly and Amy arrive tomorrow and guess which fool has to get up at 5.30 to go to the airport? yep, ME.
no doubt i will have tales of adventures to tell and photos to post so stay tuned.

so that leaves me with two more things to say

Max – where the hell are you ???
Jo Beach – glad you enjoy the page, keep watching

i arrived late in the afternoon on a very high tide, (3.8 metres) as the tide was dropping back. it wasnt working when i got there but i knew it was gonna go off at any moment. the morning session was similar but ended almost as if someone had flicked a light switch off.

i called rick and told him ‘get here quick, it is gonna happen’. with all the water in the bay, the session would last for less than an hour – you just had to be there.

rick arrived while i was still getting into my wetsuit and mooning to the rest of the carpark. we hit the water less than two minutes later.

it was one of those days, the waves were picking up on the first sand bank and dropping again over the channel before lifting again on the second bank. on a big board, i could catch the first rise and have enough speed to ride over the soft spot until they reformed again, and this i did for the best part of three quarters of an hour.

the rides were long and solid but this meant i had to paddle a hell of a long way out to do it all again. i even found myself laughing as i paddled out, laughing at the guys on the short boards as they tried in vain to catch a wave from the second bank. even if they did catch it, i would call them off as i ploughed through the swell from much further out on the first bank. the rules of surfing and priority are simple

1. furthest out (that’ll be me on my longboard)
2. nearest the curl
3. first to their feet
4. call for it good and loud

sometimes it’s good to ride a longboard – english gentlemen ride longboards – short boards are for pussys!!

after getting a bit too cocky for my own good and dropping down faces that were too big, i took a couple of knocks and decided enough was enough, i had just had a most excellent session.

as i got to the beach i looked back, as predicted , the waves had stopped, just like turning a light off

amazing

dont be put off by my confusion though, it is a seriously excellent film, one that you really must see.

on a less confused note, last nights surf left me feeling completely stoked – almost like never before!

it was just one of those awesome sessions made better by the fact that i was in the water with just one other person. The beach, i cannot tell you about, a local beach , just for locals and i aim to keep it that way, but for now, lets just call the place ‘crazy waves’

it doesnt work all of the time but when it does – it is one kick ass place to be. the sea bottom slopes gently upward to help with big long rides, excellent if you ride a long board like me, but the real beauty is that it A frames so pick your spot and then choose left or right! If you are patient, after every set comes a crazy wave that crosses the beach diagonally on a right hander, this has to be one of the wierdest sensations ever!

so i was there for an hour while all of the grommets were fighting over slop at mareta. the place is just awesome. even had some guy turn up in a RIB with a surfboard to save him paddling out.

as i drove away, i was in heaven. i remember thinking ‘i want to be here for ever’ it was just one of those never forget  moments. the sun was almost down, i was in my shorts, wet hair blowing in the wind, brazilian music on the stereo and a great big smile on my face.

you just gotta love portugal!

yesterday i met with the accountant and closed my business off for the rest of the financial year. I also met with the solicitor. he tells me he has seen a land plan and the terrain is all mine, personally i think he is telling me fibs. when i went to the camara, they told me they didnt have land maps. he did show me though the cardineta for my house, this is basically the ownership papers. i thought they were missing but he soon put me right.

but the best day is still yet to come, when the drunk belgian returns, i have a feeling all hell is gonna break loose.

had a frantic last minute surf last night at tonel. a quick hour before it got too dark. was a sweet wave even if it was small, as gentleman jim would say ‘ the ETR ratio was high’

so today i have some work in the bubble and tomorrow a day at autorapo, so all is peachy.

england beckons next weekend, just a three day visit, no doubt that will be manic but will also be good to meet up with all of my old chums and have a few beers, check out my old stomping grounds and then head home thinking that nothing has changed.

then my last month in portugal until new year. time will fly i am sure but i am looking forward to going back to mallorca. the experience is good and of course i will see my chums over there too.  This year i am heading back earlier than usual, but this means i can have a mid term break. i wont be taking my boards over, was a waste of time last year, just not enough surf and the water was absolutely freezing.

have the house all to myself next week. julias parents are visiting so she will be staying with them in the very cosy resort of martinhal, lucky girl. so, will push on with the plastering and try to get it all finished.

so until next weekend

be good

i woke up this morning at 6.30 and decided to head out to watch the sun rise. this time i took my camera with me and hit some real sweet shots. damn shame i cant upload them yet but i promise to save them until i can. the sunrise this morning was spectacular, i even managed to get shots of the birds flying as they woke up, these photos you must see.

after the sunrise, i started my search for a wave and ended up at zavial before 8am. it wasnt the best but at least i had a couple of waves, and thats what counts.

i dried off and headed to the bubble for breakfast and then back home to lay in the sun for an hour.

later i headed to barranco, a secluded south coaster, it was going off gang busters! i watched for a while, what was a very sweet wave but then , from out of nowhere, a clean up set would come crashing through, closing out all across the beach. I call it a clean up set because it comes through so big and from so far out, no-one has a chance of staying on their boards, and they were pumping through in sets of three’s or fours’.

being smart, i decided that surf wasnt for me but i got some cool pictures of the day. again, i promise to upload them as soon as possible, just keep watching.

i left barranco after maybe an hour and headed to ingrina. there were two guys in the water and they didnt seem to be catching anything, so , me and my hawaiian shorts gave it a go!  bingo! hit a beauty on my second attempt but then it got real tricky with clean up sets and deadly currents. Julia and Kati appeared and we all did battle with the currents for a while. eventually we opted out as the place was filling up and ingrina is a very small beach.

and that brings me back to the bar where i am now telling you about my day. tomorrow i have to work but i will be expecting some less crowded beaches during the coming week. i have to work on monday at the garage but that is just for one day hopefully so back to my old routine shortly.

are you jealous yet ?

well its a dead end question really because there is no way on earth i am gonna swap, not for love nor money.

i woke up this morning at 9.30 ish and went out to the kitchen to make a nice cup of vanilla tea with orange blossom honey. i sat on top of my chicken house in the sun. it was skin warming at that time in the morning. i laid back and relaxed for 15 minutes and sipped at my tea.

i put my shorts on and headed to the beach, then to the bubble for my morning coffee. the drive into sagres was gorgeous. sunny mornings, wind blowing in my hair, no traffic, only a few tourists remain.

the pace of life here is just breathtaking, it is so slow you actually get out of breath waiting for things to happen.

my work at autorapo is finished now so i have nothing more than surf and beach and house stuff until the end of october, time to relax and enjoy before i head back to the grind inmallorca.

have been up to armado a couple of times this week. the best thing about that is the drive there and back again, it is just so cool, trees , windmills the sea and sand.

surf has been real heavy this week. the waves are good at around two and a half metres but that has created white water that is impossible to paddle through. a couple of brave fools have tried it but without sucess. the swell is dropping again now but the forecast (if you believe it ) is suggesting 13 feet waves for next weekend.  waves that big are awesome to watch but thats about all you can do with them, too big for me to go out and surf. i like my arms and legs all in one place thank you.

on a ligher note, i am still waiting for the drunk fool next door to return. for sure he will try to start a fight with me  but i will just order him off my land and tell him never to come back.  we will see.

so enough internet for one day, its time to hit the beach again