Thumbs Up

A day dedicated to visiting folk I needed to see how they were doing.

Two and a half hours to Ponte do Sor to see a new Brazilian family. Absolutely froze in their freezing flat, the poor things came just over a month ago from Maranhão, one of the hottest regions of Brazil, average 34C; it's going down to 4C tonight, which would be fine if the flat wasn't tiled floor and walls, practically no heating, and no insulation. We've got used to our warm little cave, and I neglected to wear my coat and scarf.

Then, half an hour to Montargil, to another Brazilian family, who turned on the heating (heating is very expensive here) and made two coffees to try and defrost me.

Then another half hour to Mora (where we lived for a year), and Bia made us a special pizza with cured ham, dates and walnuts, and broccoli (they ate beans and tomatoes at another table). And we listened for hours.

In the almost dark, we drove then to our Dutch friends near Lavre, another forty or so minutes. Had to be extra careful, as she's not been vaccinated, for health reasons. And then, another hour and a half to... home, where two cats were glad to see us, and first thing we did was light the fire.

That's enough socialising to last me quite a while!

Gratefuls:
- my chauffer, and safety on the sometimes quite dangerous roads
- the views from the Serra d'Ossa (Bear Hills), 653m (2142ft) high, wish I could show you, but this day really was more about people
- warmth!

Not so good - Julia testing positive after all this time working with women in labour (she's a midwife), who were sometimes quite ill with it -  looks like the Omicron variant from the symptoms.

And a happy birthday to my brother, Bryn, who is one cool guy (as long as you don't mind talking about football).