Washer Woman

Hola bloggers,

Washer woman here. Just been down the old launderette - don`t think i have ever been in one in my life before! Don`t think I can spell it either! I`m sure most people will have used one at Uni but I always had a washing machine in my house and even in halls in the first year I don`t think I ever used one. I remember taking my washing home every few weeks in the first year. I was going out with a boy from home (James - I know you are reading this) so I used to drive back to Leeds from Liverpool and do my washing at my parent's or at James` mum`s pub. I've always had more clothes than most shops so it was never a problem even if I didn`t go home for a few weeks. This all just dawned on me today - I suppose I have not done bad to have avoided public laundry facilities for 30 years! You live and learn.

I can't get over what gorgeous food I am having for such cheap prices. Today we went to a beautiful bistro for lunch. I had a fantastic mushroom risotto (which I couldn`t finish - yes even greedy guts here). It cost three pounds. In a similar standard of place in London it would have cost about 15 pounds ................and you wouldn`t even be able to find such a place in Yorkshire. I am constantly having amazing juices as well. I haven't got the foggiest what the names of the fruits are in portugese so I just randomly pick one and then have fun trying to work out what I`ve got. I never really know because there are different fruits here than we would get at home anyway. All been lovely though (and all so cheap). Don`t even get me started on the icecreams and sorbets.

Last night when we were eating in a restaurant (Jose - the one where we met the crazy waiter who gave us details of the apartment), a little boy was knocking on the window to us and asking for food. I thought he was a little con artist because he wasn't exactly skinny and I could see a few resai sticking out of his pocket. He kept trying to look as sad as he could everytime we lokoed out at him. Then Jo started making him laugh by blowing her mouth out on the window. I pointed to the money in his pocket and he giggled when he realised he had been sprung because he had kept signing that he had no money. He was about ten years old. Bless the little rascal though - he was hungry (even though he was quite fat) because when we had finished eating what we wanted I got a napkin and put lots of roasted peppers and slices of cheese on to it and took it out to him. He stared at it and didn`t really know what it was. I don`t think he`d such fancy food before. I explained what it was in Spanish and told him it was really good for him so he nibbled a bit. Then he gobbled it down at the speed of light. He must have been hungry. About ten minutes later he came running up to the window again and knocked on it and showed us an ice cream he had been given from the shop next door. He looked so happy he was going to burst! I think my peppers and cheese would have been better for him but I doubt he thought that.

The beach vendors have really got in going on down here. They have thought of it all. There is even a few men going round selling travel size suntan lotions. So if you are running out or you just need one application - the jobs a good `un (as we say up north). There's amazing jewellery for sale. We chatted to a jewellery seller today - he was from Peru and he was explaining his life to us. He is 24 and he has been travelling for 3 years now. He makes the jewellery by hand and then wanders up and down the beach selling it. once he has made about 50 reis (about ten quid) he goes home for the day (to smoke a fat one - or to make more jewellery!). Nice life hey? Some of the necklaces cost about 30 reis so it doesn`t take him long to make enough money to live off. We might go on a trek up a mountain with him. He was telling us about a place where it is really good to meditate - apparently its a really important mountain with very old sculptures carved into the rock. Me and Jo will ahve a job on trying not to crack up laughing but we might give it a go. We discussed whether he was safe to go with but then we agreed that we could esily deck him between us - he's only 24 and not exactly filled out yet. He has given us his email address and his phone number and he loks far too stoned to be able to conjure up any sort of scam so I think we are safe.

What else can you get on the beach ? Lets think ...........the food is fab. You can get hot corn on the cob (for about 50p - I`m always eating that), you can get an amazing cheese on a stick thing (I know that means something else in England but it is gorgeous!). Its kind of like haloumi and I am alwasy eating that as well. They stick it in a little charcoal grill thing that they carry around and put herbs on it. Again that costs about 50p. You can get coconuts and virtually all fruits that you can think of, all drinks that you can think of, sandwiches, sarongs, full on outfits, stupid bags that are just one long zip that keep zipping round and round on themselves to make a bag (really naff but clever idea), bikins, hairbands, cd's, trips off to places, henna tatoos, hippy hair band things (ì`m sporting a blue one) ............the list just goes on. You never get bored because you just watch these people go by all day selling there wears. They don`t annoy you - they just walk along shouting out what they`ve got and you whistle them over if you want something.

You English people are all really shy you know. Loads of you keep writing to me personally on my gmail address and saying that you follow the blog - but none of you seem to dare to put a comment on here. That says something about you as a nation I think. The only one who put something on is Maren ...................who is German. Hmmm - the joys of the English!

S xx