It's Sunday morning, 8 Maio, and I'm listening to a YouTube recording/video of Prof. Edgar Nogueira (no-gay-rah), the world's best Portuguese guitarist. In fact, the instrument he's playing IS a Portuguese guitar. Here's the link: http://youtu.be/6vat6Y0Vua0 The recording sound is poor. In person, it sparkles.
Trish and I were enjoying a girl's night out with Lerena, my Asset Management Flight energy guru. We went to dinner at Buzius (the restaurant I've frequented more frequently than any other in the two weeks I've been on the island), which is in Porto Martins (mar-teensh), the village where I will reside in my new house. Lerena, her husband Joel (dju-ell), and their daughter Elise live there, also. Joel also worked in the energy section until last Thursday. Sadly, the contract with the company he worked for ended, which is a huge loss to the base's energy program.
 |
| View from Buzius |
We were on the way to Praia to see what trouble we could get into in the shops. It turned out to be a lot!
First we stopped in a fabric store so I could look for upholstery ideas for the love seat that Emma used to create a little nest out of one of the cushions. Using Spanish vs. Portuguese, meters vs. yards, and beds vs. sofas was a hoot. I did manage to get swatches of two fabrics for when I unroll the rug that will go in the living room.
My tradition when starting a new adventure is to gift myself with a piece of jewelry. This time I bought earrings of Portuguese filigree and hammered silver and a Portuguese silver ring. I had fun speaking Spanish to this clerk, also. But he spoke English, so we compared Spanish words to Portuguese.
In the next store I bought three cute black roosters,which is the Azorian mascot. Coincidentally (NOT!) I had bought a rooster before I left Virginia. [To dispel confusion, these are not LIVING roosters. Nor are they formerly living roosters.] I'll post photos to prove that after I unpack the Virginian. The rooster store (well, they sell lovely items other than roosters) will be a stellar resource for Christmas presents.
Except for two disappointing discoveries, the Praia experience was wonderful. 1: my new, cute, beaded sandals proved not to be up to the challenge of 15th century cobblestones. 2: the Caprese Salad I ordered for lunch bore no resemblance (except for three slivers of something red that I suppose was in the tomato family) to its Italian model: dried basil instead of fresh leaves and thin slices of mozzarella instead of healthy slabs of fresh cheese. Plus, it was grilled. Ugh.
 |
| Caprese Salad |
Here's a photo of one I made for Thanksgiving. (You knew I was strange, but you probably didn't know that I take photos of food arrangements.) The Real McCoy is room temperature and glows with the fragrance of the basil and the tri-colors of the Italian flag. Sandals and salad notwithstanding, it was a glorious day!
The weather was rainy, cool, sunny, overcast, and windy, and it was in its sunny-windy phase when we got home. I wore Emma out with ball throwing and wrote a few postcards before it was time to start the 20-minute drive to pick up Lerena. Over a delicious dinner of Penne Vodka Chicken, we compared the merits of spending our first 3-some weekend trip in Lisbon, or in the Algarve (pronounced all-garr, on the west coast of Portugal), or on Isla Sao Miguel (also in the Azores archipelago, a 3-hour trip by car or a half-hour flight). The Algarve is 3-1/2 miles of coastline in the southern-most province of Portugal. Lerena has places we can stay gratis in the first two, and the cost of the flight is only about $200. For any of you who is serious about visting me, the cost of flying from Boston direct to Terceira is only $600 in July (peak season). And you'll have a place to stay gratis!
 |
| Lisbon |
 |
| Marinha - the Algarve |
 |
| Lagoa das Sete Cidades - Isla Sao Miguel |
The concert was free, but their system is to go to the ticket window and choose seats/receive tickets. [An aside: my only packing mistake was bringing only summer footwear, thinking that surely it would be warm enough for them by the end of April. Apparently, this is an unusually cold spring, so my boots and light-weight wool would have come in handy. I was the only patron wearing capris and sandals - though not the aforementioned beaded ones.]
The music ranged from interesting to beautiful to spirited, but all of it was produced with astoundingly dexterous talent. My favorite was the Tuna - no, not the fish! Follow the link to see a Portuguese Tuna performance in Luxembourg. http://youtu.be/izWILAaErH0 This time of year, university groups perform at each other's schools and collect patches from each that they attach to the black blankets they wear around their shoulders (you can see one on the ground behind the first guy on the right). The black frock coats are standard costumes. By intermission it was 11 PM, so we took a vote - well, neither Trish nor Lerena would state their preference of staying or leaving, so I made the executive decision to leave. (That's why they pay me the big bucks!)
Fast forward to now, sitting on the couch, Emma at my feet, finally beginning to master keystrokes to forward delete and jump to home/end on my MacBook. The sky is a hazy medium gray with the faintest distinction between it and the water. I have big plans for the day. Lots of nothing much. Why go anywhere when a gorgeous panoramic view is at my doorstep?
Tchau!
