More Musings
Well, another week of living in Portugal has passed and they haven’t kicked us out yet. Join us on another of my not-so-random musings about our transition. This time I comment on wine, weather and bathroom light switches, among other things. So take a few minutes to kick back and read about how the adventure is going for us.
Light switches. I know most of you probably want me to start with the wine, but my strange sense of humor just won’t let me. So let me start with bathrooms. I wouldn’t call it culture “shock,” but some things just seem strange and take awhile to get used to. Ask me in a month whether I’ve gotten used to it but . . . bathroom light switches are on the OUTSIDE of the bathroom, not the inside.
Len is so lucky we didn’t grow up in Europe. You probably would not have been able to count the number of times I would have turned the lights off on him while he was on the toilet (hint - none of our bathrooms here have windows). Then again, I probably wouldn’t be alive today if I had.
And speaking of switches. They have panel light switches (which is fine). But up is off and down is on. That’s backwards!
You already know my thoughts about the sparse number of outlets. At least we now know where to get extension cords and multi-head plugs.
Wine. “For a very good table drinking wine, you should never spend more than 5€.” That’s at least what one blog site said. Well, actually, 5€ is pushing it. There’s a slew of regional wines for under that (and of course the 20€+ bottles) that it makes one wonder whether 5€ is a bit high. Frankly, I’d say that just under 4€ is a good start (bottle on the left).
Unless of course you can get the award-winning 9.99€ bottle for 3.49€ on sale like the one on the right. We liked that one so much we went back and bought a 6-box of it.
Birds. While I don’t see the multitude of birds around that I did in Oregon, they’re here. And now that we sleep with our windows (read: sliding-glass-walls) open, the birds chirp away early in the morning and act as our alarm clock. Best of all, no jays or crows, which means we don’t get that annoying squawking we’d get in Springfield. (Sorry Stellar Jays, you’re beautiful, but you sound horrible early in the morning.)
Coffee. That’s a mix. We brought over our stove-top espresso pots in our check-in luggage (perhaps one of the many reasons I found a TSA-Inspection tag inside my bag [ok, it could have also been the plethora of multi-tools, the flatware, the metal Starbucks coffee mugs, or travel thermos that was in there, or the tripods, or . . .]). We quickly purchased a French press. And Ann found an upgraded version of our burr grinder on Amazon Spain that’s already been delivered. We’re in coffee business!
Unfortunately there is no Greg at Equator Coffee to call for some Ethiopia Mocha Harrar. We’re making do on adequate Sícal brand beans, but we will have to find a good source of beans.
Speaking of coffee and kitchens, we’ve made an addition to ours. Ann will be spending a lot of time cooking and the work-flow of the kitchen left a bit to be desired. So we wound up adding an island. It’s already proved its worth (and yes, there is a machine espresso maker in the corner - it came with the rental [coffee from it is . . . adequate at best]).
We are light on the pots and pans - a few select items from Ikea and whatever else we see that will still be useful after our household goods arrived. One of our dilemmas was realizing that the steel pans (nice heavy ones) we got from Ikea had rubber on the underside of the handles, which meant we couldn’t put them in the oven. How was Ann going to make fritattas? She first tried to do one with the handle sticking out of the oven - tasty but of mixed success.
Thanks to her ingenuity, she’s figured out how to do it up with some bakeware!
While she’s still pining for her cast-iron cookware, at least we have a temporary work-around that is plenty adequate.
Work spaces. Just like having to resort to Amazon Spain for things we couldn’t find here, Ann turned to Amazon.de (Germany) to set me up technology wise. Here was the temporary set-up for me to get moving business done while we waited for our office shipment from Ikea.
Friday our desks arrived and by the end of the day (on the same day I built the kitchen island), I had my desk and Ann’s desk put together. So here’s my temporary office for the next few months.
I must admit that I have become quite adept at building Ikea furniture. I think their instructions were written for anal people like me who actually read the instructions before and during the building of furniture.
I won’t be deprived if I never have to see an Ikea Allen wrench again.
Speaking of Ikea, they don’t call it Ikea (eye-key-uh) here. Its “eee-kay-uh.” I guess we’ll have to take a trip up to Sweden to figure out who is saying it wrong.
Weather. While we knew it to be the case (we did a lot of on-line comparisons), the weather here is a lot like back home in the Willamette Valley, except a bit more humid (not DC or Liberia humid, but humid enough). Take this week. It was hot for a couple of days, feeling hotter than the thermostat said, and then cooled down, with an onset of rain. Just like the late June-4th of July cold-rainy snap Eugene-Springfield gets every year.
Yup! Feels just like home!
Stuff. We knew that we would have to make adjustments to the things we consume. The availability of favorite items just won’t be the same. We even watched a YouTube video where a couple that moved from San Francisco to Lisbon bemoaned the fact that it would cost $40.00 (they claimed) to get a box of their favorite craving (something I could easily relate to) - Cheese-Its - after you add in shipping and the several hundred percent duty to the box. Lesson from that video: do not ship in food stuffs from the US!.
But little did we know that apparently Europe doesn’t have maple trees and they have not discovered the wonders of maple syrup. Uh-oh. Pancakes, French toast? Well, Amazon Germany to the rescue. Sure, it’s a 21€ bottle of syrup so we’ll be sure to use it sparingly, but I had French toast for breakfast this week!
And occasionally, if you have an eagle eye, you’ll see one of your old favorites (usually an import in the US) on the shelves too. Ann had that “Look what I found!” look on her face when she approached me with a jar of Maille Honey Mustard in her hand.
I love that woman!
Other things, some good, some bad, some just different include” tougher leeks (Ann loves cooking with leeks, so any leek concerns is a concern for me), stronger flavored garlic, no Sugarbee apples, and very tasty eggs if not occasionally very orange in color.
I think I’m going to try to learn Portuguese cooking so that we don’t spend so much time looking for specific things and instead will be able to look at something and say, “Oh, those look great. Let’s make . . . .”.
The church bells. We have a church about a quarter mile away. It rings on Sunday mornings, and tells the time during the day (they politely do not ring it at night - but that’s when the dog barking takes over). It’s a nice sound.
Covid. Believe me when I say I was hoping to not address the Covid 19 issue, yet again, in a blog post. But when I came across the following headline in the news app, I couldn’t help but take a screen shot for comment.
A few months ago, probably in mid-April, I talked with Ann about the possibility that we would have to time our move, force it even if we were not ready, based on the evolving pattern of how the US and Portugal were treating the virus. Ann was of the notion that we should leave as soon as possible! I think Portugal had just announced another 15-day extension of its emergency measures (very restrictive lock-down), but as part of that it also announced that at the end of the period, conditions permitting, it would start to re-open. Conditions permitting was repeated several times in the announcement. The government also explained the terms for re-entering a conditional normalcy. But the Portuguese government has been very clear that there can be no “return to normal” until there is a vaccine. Until then, precautions are the new normal and the county has adapted and, largely, complied. Not totally because the government this week announced a new emergency measure for a neighborhood in Lisbon (who fancied not wearing masks), and restrictions to 16 parishes (local government areas) where numbers have ticked up. Testing works. But for us, life is fairly normal, except we wear masks when in public and apply hand sanitizer at every opportunity and wash our hands when we get home.
Back to mid-April, I told Ann that it looked like Portugal had a plan for opening, and we both agreed that, as a country, the US was faltering. We realized that we may face a “window” where Portugal opens up and we could get in, before that window closes because of the US’s generally poor handling of virus measures. That’s what ran through my mind when I saw the headline.
Fortunately, our originally intended time frame (very first part of June) worked out within that window (plus the fact there is an argument to be made that because we had a “residency visa” we could have gotten in anyway). Unfortunately, our fears about the US’s lackadaisical attitude towards taking precautionary measures have been realized with the recent spikes. It saddens me, but my hopes for things improving soon aren’t very high. November will determine whether the US will nationally start getting its act together next year. And if people don’t turn out to vote, nothing will improve until a vaccine is found and extensively distributed.
Skies. Both Ann and I were wondering what the skies would be like here. Would there be endless days of boring blue skies, or socked in grey skies all the time (which I’m sure it’s like that for periods in the winter)?
Well, Ann and I have not been disappointed with the light shows we’ve been periodically gifted.
And even during the days, the range of clouds and their beauty will give us a moment to pause in admiration. We definitely can’t complain.
That’s it for now. Next week we’re supposed to receive not only our couch, but our bed too! Plus one more big surprise . . . ! So stay tuned.