It’s been sunshine and showers all week and not necessarily in that order. One moment we’re basking; the next we’re gasping as the wind whips the rain in our faces. Poor Ersenho has found it hard going as he cuts, carves, jack-hammers and digs a trench all the way from Casa Nada to the fossa at the far end of the garden. 
The trench is to take the discharge pipe that Horacio, after taking a series of measurements, has gone off to purchase. Once that’s in and buried, we’ll be able to use the facilities in Jones’s Bijou Ensuite.
MORE SUNRISEThat’s to say, we would be able to use them if they were installed. But we really need to varnish the floor tiles and paint the walls before we do the installation. And Idalecio has advised us to wait for a little warm weather to dry out the tiles before we varnish them, lest we varnish in the damp. So for the moment, the facilities remained piled up in the corner of the tractor shed. As I say, it’s been sunshine and showers.
STEVE & LUIS AT WORKAlso struggling against the elements have been Steve and Luis, the fencers, who – as I write – are completing their work on the enclosure meant to hold the dogs, especially the pups, when we want them out of the way.
BETTER SHOTLike the larger fence that they erected, this one leaps up several large rocks, which has entailed the construction of stepped fencing sections. The air has been thick with dust as awkward rocks were either demolished with a jack-hammer or sliced up with a diamond-tipped angle-grinder blade.
The pups continue to wear us ragged, so lovable and yet so exhausting. Their twice-daily walks barely tire them. They rush around joyfully, licking the other dogs’ muzzles, stealing shoes, digging up plants, dismembering their mattress and roly-polying around the yard. 
CONCRETE BASEAs soon as Horacio’s men have erected the gates at the tractor entrance this coming week, we’ll introduce the (not so) little animals to the enclosure. Aurelio has already laid a concrete base where we’ll place a kennel and where the dogs can rest under the shade of the almond tree.
Speaking of almond trees, the hundreds dotted around the valley below us are in bloom and a joy to behold as they are every January. The bloom is either white or pink, depending (we understand) on whether the tree produces sweet or bitter almonds.
Slightly luckier with the weather were an architect and an engineer, who arrived from an estate agency to value the property next door. This is land that we have long wished to purchase, as it juts deep into ours and prevents us from completing the periphery fence. While the multiple owners of the plot have been willing to sell, they have had to wait for the youngest of them to turn 18. 
Another caller was the MRW courier, who hooted her presence at the front gate, prompting a chorus of howls from the dogs, who were clustered in their baskets around the fire in the lounge. (To be warm when the weather is cold and cool when it’s hot must surely be among the world’s great luxuries!) The courier came to deliver 3 books that I had ordered from Amazon. Such deliveries to Portugal are now free if the order comes to more than £25.
Yet another outburst of canine protest greeted a knocking on the front door. This proved to be Marie, with a large slice of her home-made cappuccino cake to cheer us up. A few crumbs remain on the work-surface beside the afternoon cuppa that Jones has delivered to my desk. (For those unacquainted with our set-up, we have a mini- kitchenette upstairs beside my desk in the study. This permits us to refresh ourselves on occasion without disturbing any guests who may be using the downstairs facilities. It was, if I may say so, one of my better ideas.)
Jones and I sat down one evening to watch Inception, the reality within layers of dreams film that has won high praise from both critics and audiences. I had already watched it through once without being persuaded. And after 15 minutes of joint viewing we agreed that it represented the emperor’s new clothes and gave up on it. Anybody want a hardly-viewed DVD?
WAKE UP - TIME TO GO WALKINGAs ever, a mishmash of almost uninterrupted dreams has filled my sleeping hours. During one of these, I found myself attending some big outdoor ceremony. As part of this a troop of uniformed young women came trotting up the road in close formation, followed by another of uniformed young men. To my great surprise I became aware from the appearance of the latter that one and all were either exceptionally gifted or sexually aroused. They disappeared off down the street, where I chased after them in an effortless loping run (I must have been dreaming), for what purpose I couldn’t say. I was worried that that I lacked the cap I should have been wearing. But the troop vanished from sight. There the dream endeth. No, I haven’t a clue either.
I had reason to reflect as BBC World Service Radio announced that it was making a quarter of its staff redundant, just how lucky I have been. My redundancy offer (all of 12 years ago) was relatively generous and unlikely to be matched for those now about to lose their jobs. One of the several members of staff who were taken on at the same time as I was, was a bright young man who worked his way up to become the head of the Albanian service – one of 5 language services shortly to be axed. I wondered what might happen to him, and the other 650 members of staff facing unemployment. That must be very scary.
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