Today is 9 February 2024: it’s been pouring with rain for the past 24 hours, which is unusual in this land of perpetual sunshine. Coincidentally, the weather was the same the day I arrived, exactly one year ago. So what better time than to post a recap of my highlights.
Friends and acquaintances
When I first arrived, I had to rely on Facebook to get to know people. This could keep you busy every day of the week, from East Coast Border Gals lunches to Vegan Social Group events by way of the Cabanas Book Club. It was a bit like freshers’ week at university, with all of us new arrivals keen to meet new friends and swap information.
But with time, things have morphed from a string of Facebook events into a more normal social life.
I’ve met a group of like-minded migrants who are only too happy to while away time in sunny cafes, go on trips and meet for sundowners on Fuseta beach.
Seasons… and seasoning
The carpet of yellow oxalis flowers that met me when I arrived one year ago has re-materialised and the trees in the orchards are weighed down with ripe oranges and lemons again. Soon the orange blossom will be out.
The salt pans are full of seawater, waiting for the magical transformation that comes with summer evaporation. Diligent shovelling makes gleaming piles of salt that are hauled away by laden lorries leaving snowy trails in their wake.
Migratory birds have been and gone, along with the scuttling fiddler crabs that cover the shoreline in summer. They freeze on the spot when they detect movement, as if they were playing musical statues (or Squid Game for crabs).
Migrant campervans appear in winter and disappear in summer as the holidaymakers arrive and the beaches become fully operational. My favourite is my local one, Terra Estreita beach in Santa Luzia, where the ferry only operates from May to October. In winter, it’s accessible by a 4 mile walk along the beach – but it’s just a lonely hut at this time of year.
I can’t wait for May, when the view is more like this.
Bureaucracy
I treated the first three months as a kind of extended holiday but then had to get down to the hard graft of officially moving my life to Portugal. Lottie and I are now fully paid up residents and, as of this week, so is my car.
I haven’t been so lucky with my driving licence. The last I saw of it was a clerk at the Beja IMT office theatrically waving to it and mouthing “bye-bye” as she slipped it into a folder. But I have high hopes that my new Portuguese one will drop into my post box anytime soon.
Clean-ups
I’ve been a sporadic member of the East Algarve Clean-up group, which meets on a Sunday at various locations. But our efforts with litter-pickers pale by comparison with the big guns deployed by the local council. Cleaning up is their superpower.
After a bad storm in September, within hours the streets were echoing with chain saws cutting down the fallen trees and pick-up trucks carrying the logs away. Street cleaners were soon out to clean away the debris littering the roads.
And on 1 January, all signs of the previous evening’s riotous New Year’s Eve concert and its attendees had vanished by 8 am, including the massive stage and equipment.
New hobbies
One of my aims in moving to Portugal was to spend less time behind my computer and more time getting out and about.
To this end, I joined the Pink Flamingo croquet club and wasn’t disappointed. It turned out to be an extremely pleasant way to while away a couple of mornings a week, followed by a relaxed lunch in good company.
Despite not having attempted yoga since my 20s, I’ve been gamely attending a couple of sessions a week. Nothing can compare with tying yourself in knots in the early morning sunshine outdoors on the boardwalk at Quatro Aguas.
The café at the Clube Nautico de Tavira, also at Quatro Aguas, is one of my favourite places to sit and watch the world go by. If you go at the weekend, you can see tiny feisty girls sailing their dinghies across the lagoon. I’ve never seen any boys doing it – perhaps they have their lessons another day.
Family
I’ve made several trips back to the UK to visit dad and probably see at least as much of him as when I lived in Cardiff. I’m also able to drop in on him courtesy of an Alexa Show trained on his favourite armchair.
Jack’s a short car or bus drive away in Seville. He’s close enough for a day trip, though driving home westward to Portugal in the evening with the sun in your eyes is a lot less pleasant than staying overnight to enjoy a few tapas and vermuts.
Jack’s just bought his first flat and I’ve been enjoying helping him furnish it and settle in. It’s great to have somewhere to stay too.
Leon and Lily also have a spare bedroom in London and I usually plan trips back to the UK to incorporate a stopover in Leyton for some fine dining, shopping or cat sitting of the princely Marcel.
Jack, Leon and Lily came to Portugal for Christmas and we fulfilled my dream of Christmas lunch in the sun on Armona island.
We followed that by a few days in Seville between Christmas and New Year, when Lily came to join us.
Festivals, events and celebrations
I’ve missed a couple of festivals in Tavira, notably the wine festival and the 25 April celebration of the Carnation Revolution that overthrew the dictatorship. Unfortunately I’m going to miss that again this year – and it’s going to be a big one as it’s the 50th anniversary.
I did get to go to the Smugglers’ Festival (next edition 2025), the Almond Flower festival and the festival of the Mediterranean diet.
Christmas in the sunshine was wonderful – and most of the beach bars were open.
New Year’s Eve in Tavira was as spectacular and entertaining as it was easy to attend, with a massive concert in the main square and fireworks along the river banks.
Travel
I’ve been travelling more because of my regular trips back to the UK and the challenge of vacating my apartment for two months every summer. I’d like to make 2024 a no-flight year, so have been concocting an ingenious mix of Interrail and car trips to get around. Next week, for example, I’m going back to the UK via a night in San Sebastián. Spanish train strikes permitting…
Plans
People keep asking me whether I intend to settle in Portugal for good and I really have no idea. My short term plans are to get permanent residency and maybe a Portuguese passport after five years, enjoying life to the full and working less in the meantime.
Property is far too expensive in the Algarve for me to consider buying anything. In any case, that would mean selling my house in Cardiff and having to give up a lucrative source of rental income. After years of managing two properties at a distance in Italy, it’s very relaxing to live in a rented place – so short-termism (or at best a Five Year Plan) rules for now.
