One place to start this week might be with our (half-day a week) assistants, Natasha and Slavic. Natasha is still car-less following her recent accident. On Wednesday she arrived with Slavic. While she busied herself about the house, he (and I?) built steps leading down into an area that we call the gorge, replacing the steep and overgrown path that I negotiated in better days. My part in the project was to ferry down materials on the tractor.
We alerted both workers on arrival to the disappearance several days earlier of Jones's light-weight spectacles, an item that we had already spent hours searching for (not for the first time). As the specs are just lenses supported with bits of wire, they are semi-invisible.
THOSE SPECS!
Jones, who has another heavier pair, wasn't sure whether they had dropped off her head while she was collecting carobs. In the event, Natasha found them lying on a carpet beside the sofa where Jones had been cleaning Russ's ears.
Natasha and I continued planning her December trip to Tokyo where her son Alex is to compete in a gymnastics competition.
OLEANDER WITH A SINGLE BLOOM
I continue to see Jodi the physio at least once a week. As well as practising in her consulting room, Jodi makes a number of home visits to assist immobile patients. On one of these visits this week, she was involved in head-on collision. A young fellow (wife clutching baby on her lap) had come around a blind corner on a narrow dirt road too fast. All concerned - especially the baby - were very lucky to escape injury.
GARDEN SCENE
As you may have learned from your own media, Portugal is in the midst of a bitter fuel delivery strike with accusations from the parties involved flying in all directions. Most service stations ran out of diesel last Monday, the first day of the strike. Key service stations have (allegedly) received sufficient supplies to allow motorists a permitted 15 litres each. The queues of vehicles outside such stations are not inviting. Nor are those beside service stations on the Spanish side of the border to which the Portuguese have flocked. I'm down to half a tank with 25 litres in reserve in Casa Nada. Fingers crossed that it's settled soon.
SEA SQUILL, AUTUMN'S HARBINGER
The heavy winds that tore at the garden early in the week have died down and the cool spell has come to an end. Temperatures are back into the lower 30s. Although that's hotter than I like it, the pool has warmed up nicely in response. We put on the pool pump after lunch to circulate the water ahead of late afternoon dips.
BJ EVENING GARDEN
Otherwise one is faced with bath temperatures on the surface (below the bubble-wrap pool-warmer) with decidedly chillier waters below - not a comfortable combination. Jones breaststrokes energetically back and forth across the 4.6m diameter of the pool. I engage in a series of (hopefully anti-sciatic) exercises. I managed to sit down for a restaurant meal one evening, a definite advance.
PLUMBAGO HEDGE
Given the heat, I am grateful to have the benefit of the air conditioning units that we've had installed in both the bedroom and the study. The supplier recommended Daikin units for their efficiency and quiet functioning, benefits that came at a premium. But I'm pleased that we opted for them. Their background hum is barely discernible and the comfort factor is decidedly business class, whether in the study in the afternoons or the bedroom at night. As ever, when Jones is warm, I'm hot. And when I'm comfortable, she's cold.
WATERING DUTIES
Thursday - a public holiday, the feast of the Assumption - we visited Gambelas hospital to sort out queries in the account following my stays there. For once we found parking right beside the gate and nary a soul in reception as the consultation suites were closed for the holiday. Happily a clerk on the internment desk was able to resolve matters to our satisfacation.
To our regret, a recent confrontation between Jack and Dearheart has totally freaked out the cat. She either spends her days hiding in a capacious bedroom cupboard or flees outside and has to be enticed back in late at night. It's a situation that we just have to live with until Jack returns to his master at the end of the month.
OUR PLUMS
Our farmer neighbour continues to bring us embarrassingly large quantities of fruits that he says would otherwise just rot on the ground. Our neighbours have benefited as much as we have. For our part, we were able to hand over a substantial tractor load of carobs that Jones and I spent much of the week harvesting. He was delighted. It's a brilliant understanding.
MORE CAT SHADOWS
On the spam front I am daily informed of substantial payments that have been made into my (non-existent) Bitcoin account. In some alternative universe I must be an extremely wealthy man. It's obvious to me that my gmail address was added to somebody's spam list years ago. Each time the list gets sold on, I receive a corresponding barrage of spam along with daily invitations to unsubscribe from unlikely entities (sent by individuals seeking to ascertain whether the account is live). Barbara, on the other hand, gets virtually no spam.
JUST FRIENDS
No comments:
Post a Comment