A so so day Wednesday Jan 30, 2019

Today was the worst day ever. It came dangerously close to raining and was over casted all day.

I could do nothing well almost nothing. In the morning I went to the driving range to hit balls I got home just in time to have lunch and off to Wednesday roll up. It was not s great a day s we are use to. It was overcast and even rained.  We soldiered on and played 18ends.

My team listed but the decision had to be decided by the accounts. In as close an event as seen in Portugal in several years we lost something around 26 to 9. Following the game i went into the club house and had a beer with the group. This let to an invite next week to a game of golf with Ron Austin in Spain. Spain is only about 20 minutes from Cabanas.

Tomorrow I will play golf Friday bowling and Sunday bowling. I might take a day off Saturday.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Yesterday I went over to the bowling rink for the 10:00 Roll Up. Roll Up means show up at 9:45 and you bowl. I forgot to take my camera so for now no pictures. My team did not do well at least partly due to my play. I do think that I got better as it went on and our team got better but could not catch up.
In the afternoon we went into Tavira which is only about 5 or 6 minutes away. We did some food shopping and did get a coffee maker. Today I am going to the golf course to hit some balls then home to bowl at 1:00. Yesterday there were 42 bowlers, but I understand that the turn out today will be under 10.
I cannot get Fibe TV to work on our TV. This morning I did get Kelly and Ryan on YouTube to play on the TV and right now we are watching Colbert.
When we were in South Carolina we did saw lots of palm trees and no cactus. Portugal has some palm trees and some cactus. Below is a picture.

Monday was a busy day

First thing I did was meet the man who was to fix our heating 3 of our 4 units are working the 4th in Trish and my bedroom is not. We are OK with lots of blankets, but it would be good to get it working. The temperature goes as low as 48f or about 10c.

Then it was off to get a "bowling package" They rent 1 and 2 bedroom homes with bowling included but not 3 bedroom units. The result was they sold me a membership for my stay. I then went to the bowling rink to get woods. They call bowls woods here.

Peter Brown who is in charge of the bowling was very accommodating and got me a nice set of #2 woods, which is what I was using at RCYC. I then practiced for about 20 minutes while the 8 gentleman finished their games.

I then went to the golf course and bought a used cart for 20 Euros. I figure this is better then paying 6 euros each time I play. In the afternoon I played 18 holes. The first nine I was with an Austrian who lived in Ireland. On the 8th hole we were joined by a Brit and a Portuguese. I played the second nine with them. Today I am bowling if it does not rain.

I will leave you with some pictures of Benamor Golf Course.

Settling in January 27, 2019

I went over to the bowling green after we got home with the new car pictured below.

I talked to Peter Brown who runs the bowling. I am now going to the administration to see iv I can get a Bowling Package with our rental. I have walked down to the grocery store to get milk and eggs for tomorrow.

With milk and eggs in tow I walked down to the sea. I have included a couple of pictures.

Our first day in Cabanas

January 26, 2019

We all had a great sleep and woke up feeling we where no longer affected by jet lag. We went into Tavira to do some shopping, doing very well but no coffee pot yet. About half of the time the Portuguese spoke English and the other half not so much. In all cases the Portuguese spoke better English than our Portuguese.

We are trying to adapt. For starters in the morning you say bom dia in the morning, boa tarde in the afternoon and boa noite in the evening. Kelly and I went for a walk around the "resort" after shopping.

Beach Volley Ball made us think of Kennedy

No one around the Lawn Bowling Rink

Tennis Courts

Swimming Pool (very cold)

While shopping just for Joan I took a picture of the Gran Plaza in Tavira, certainly worth the trip to Portugal.

Today Sunday we head to Faro to change the car.

Arriving in Portugal January 25, 2019

It is Saturday January 26, 2019. It seems like Matt dropped us off at Pearson about 5 minutes ago.

In that time we have managed to get through security, wait three hours for take off, fly over The Atlantic, find our bags, internet gizmo, car and way out of Lisbon, drive 3 hours to Cabanas de Tavira, find our house, find a grocery store, find a restaurant, and go to bed.

The flight was excellent. True the seats are too small and the plane is big. The food is OK but served just as you should be going to sleep. Fortunately the Air Transat Staff did refuse to give the scammer sitting across the isle anything but a free drink, which he refused, for his claim that the dinner was not up to his standard. 

The trip could not have gone better. The house while not up to our Fripp level is excellent. It is well situated, roomy enough has heat and air conditioning and a galley much better than we expected. The town village is quaint with lots or restaurants and a small but adequate grocery store.

I am sitting at our dinning room table with the door wide open and sunlight pouring in. Kelly and I are about to go and inspect the pool and Bowling Green. Our biggest problem is should we have a sweater on or not.  Later we will go and find a store to buy a coffee pot. I said the house was perfect while I should have said it was nearly perfect.

I will leave you with some pictures.

Kelly waiting to board with her coffee

Our Plane

Kelly, Trish and Bill waiting to board

Sunset from our Deck

View from our deck