Settling back

I'd jokingly suggested that I'd need a holiday when I came back from Lisbon, and that's certainly more or less how it's turned out. Being exhausted is most clearly proved by the fact that I didn't go to the weekly music session today. I was up and about from 7.00 am, but felt increasingly tired and went back for 'a quick nap'. Not a good idea! Before I knew it, time had passed, it was almost 3.00 pm, and I turned over for some more rest.

The rest of the day was lazy, lazy, lazy. I did make a start with the suitcase and holiday-jacket pockets, though. That's where this map and travel ticket came from. The map is marked up with the recommendations our meeter-and-greeter made when she filled us in on things to do and places to see (and we actually got to most of them, surprisingly). The ticket is the 'Zapping' top-up one I got on Tuesday. It was loaded with €7.50 to begin with, and a further €5 was added to that on Thursday. Like I said before, the ticketing system is brilliant. There's no swiping involved. Instead, it's a matter of pressing the ticket against a magic eye (I guess it's that tiny black strip which carries the info). There isn't even any need to take the ticket out of your wallet to do this -- indeed, we saw some women just lift their handbags and present those to the checking machines. When, oh when, will we get something like this here?! It's already taken years of consultation and discussions and specially appointed Boards ... and still there's no sign of anything actually happening.

Grrrrrr ...