Thursday: Twice this week I've had really satisfying experiences. The second was stepping on the scales to see that my weight had dipped under 90kgs, the first time in some years that such a reading has been conceded. I reckon I'm about halfway to my target. Jones asks what I'm going to do when I reach it - if I get there. She suspects that I'll start putting weight on again. Maybe she's right; it's happened before. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Meanwhile, the campaign continues.
FIRST NARCISSUS OF AUTUMN
That's to say that it continues for the next fortnight. On the 19th I fly to Canada to spend Christmas with the family there, at which point the diet pauses. Barbara will accompany me as far as Lisbon, where I'll leave the car and she'll take the train back to Loule. Not that I'm leaving her alone for Christmas. She'll be joined the following day by Llewellyn and Lucia. The arrangement's a bit of a compromise and like most comprises, it's less than perfect. But it's just not possible for the pair of us always to get away together. She plans to spend several days in London early next year when she hopes to see a couple of exhibitions and I mind the zoo.
Speaking of which: we were host for several days to Ermie, the ghost-like dog belonging to our Dutch neighbours. She's well known to our lot, who hardly seem to regard her as a proper canine. With her we fetched her mega-comfortable sleeping cushion. This was immediately appropriated in turn by Prickles and Braveheart, the cat. Ermie had to compromise by using a rug instead.
Returning to this week: the first experience was even more satisfying and almost as surprising. I nipped into Benafim one morning to seek some advice from Rui, the fellow who is overseeing the process of recording all the properties in the parish. With me I took a couple of files to show him where my uncertainties lay. Among other things I suspected that details on the forms he'd given me would all have to be amended to reflect the merger of Benafim with two other parishes earlier this year. (All the property numbers have changed as a result.)
As on previous occasions, I anticipated having to wait my turn. But there was no-one else in Rui's office when I arrived and he sat me down in front of his computer to go through the files. The software he was using was most impressive. It looked a bit like Google Earth but it could zoom in to reveal individual trees and certainly showed the fine detail of our property. Rui said it had been specially developed for the purpose.
On it he marked the approximate boundaries of each plot or residence, at the same time adding the title deed reference. The software computed the approximate area and other details at the same time. We spent 90 minutes at the computer and filling in the accompanying forms before lunch and an hour after lunch. That was it. Rui then emailed me the image you see of our nine properties. The others pictured belong to neighbours. I might add that Rui himself turned out to be a neighbour too, living barely a stone's throw away.
I thought I'd erected and initialled all the necessary marker stones - around the outer borders of our land. But, as I discovered, I am also required to mark the inner divisions, which means another day's work with Slavic some time next week. I also learned that the project is intended to provide uniform information to all the relevant departments - the courts, the Financas, the Council and the Register of Title-Deeds.
Matters had become very fuzzy over the years because so many plots had reverted to nature after the death or migration of the owners.
One afternoon Luis the electrician called around at my request to run a cable through a duct that runs under the cobbles to the fusebox in the house. At least, that's where I thought it ran - until, that is, the far end of Luis's plastic guide emerged from the duct on the fringes of the garden near the house. He thinks there's a way around it.
First he needs the assistance of Horacio, the builder, who's due here Monday morning to prepare the ground. The intention is to link up some lights that are attached to the boughs of a tree overlooking the extended patio. Currently, they're linked via an extension cord plugged into a patio socket - not a very satisfactory way of doing things.
Last Sunday we fetched May's nephew, Ken, from Faro airport and delivered him to his welcoming aunt. She had to welcome him from her couch as she's still struggling with a painful hip and walks with great difficulty. Ken himself is still getting over a fall a few months ago. He came off a ladder while gardening and badly damaged his right arm. Over a couple of meals in Loule, we discussed with him how to broach a number of potential issues, the first of which is likely to be the loss of the TV channel which shows May's favourite oldies. He returns to Edinburgh this coming weekend. May will miss him sorely.
At this point I went downstairs to the living room to watch a TV programme with Jonesy on the history of Byzantium (Constantinople, Istanbul). Shortly before 22.00, the BBC began flashing up sub-titled warnings of a major news development. A glance at my phone revealed it to be the death of Nelson Mandela. I never met the man. But we've seen and heard so much of him that we feel we almost knew him. Barbara was part of the NBC production team in South Africa that covered his release from prison in 1990 - and in 1994 I worked with a BBC colleague on the desk set up to cover the first post-apartheid elections. RIP Nelson Mandela.
Friday morning we took ourselves to the lawyer. Afterwards we met Natasha and I took her to meet my bank manager. She would very much like to purchase her first property instead of continuing to rent. Given her modest earnings, she's finding it near impossible to obtain a mortgage, never mind one that she can afford. We spent 15 minutes talking to my banker about the possibilities, emerging much the wiser but no more hopeful. She's well aware that property prices are now rock-bottom with all the banks desperate to flog properties on which they have foreclosed. But they're equally keen not to take on any more lenders unlikely to meet their mortgage payments.
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