Almost home

Flying over the WA/SA border.

Almost home. At last.

Did a bit more duty free before I went to the gate. Got some 100 proof black label vodka. Some little vodka sampler bottles (different flavours). Picked up some cigars too since they were about half the price of the ones in Australia, well the ones I've bought in the past anyway lol

Singapore Airlines really are the best. I've been awake for 5 minutes tapping on my phone and had one of their gorgeous girls thrust a glass of orange juice at me with a beautiful smile.

I'm glad I was able to get the top deck, back row, window seat again. Just helps to make the trip easier knowing I could pick the seats I wanted all the way :-)

Left my family in Singapore just as they were starting to get their things together to goto their gate. Jack asked why I wasn't going with them and asked if I was going to braga again lol silly bugger. Gave them all a hug and kiss and told them all I loved them, then we all headed our separate ways....

I'm glad I have someone meeting me the airport. Nothing like giving someone a great big hug after a long journey home :-)

And birds of a feather made a 10th season!! :-) they had first 2 episodes on the plane. I love those girls! :-) year stamp at the end was 2014 so it's really fresh off the press :-)

About 3 hours to Singapore

Got up from uncomfortable sleep not long ago. Lady with a tray of drinks and salty snacks greeted me soon after which was nice.

Early on in the night there was some sort of in flight emergency. I still don't know what it was, but there was an abrupt german call on the p.a. system followed by a blonde attendant running towards my seat then she leapt up onto the end seat of my row to reach up and rustle around the emergency equipment in the overhead compartment then rushed towards the sections past the curtain of the galley in front of me. Some other girls went looking for things with a torch in the other stash of emergency things opposite my seat row. No one seemed to be disturbed by this commotion apart from myself so I'm sure if the plane is still flying quietly, it must've been a passenger problem. The blonde who leapt up near my seat initially came back after a while and it looked a bit like a defibrillator pack that she was placing back up in the overhead so then I started wondering if there'd been a heart attack or something and if there was a dead body on the flight..... no idea....

Exotic Marigold Hotel was an excellent movie. Not as funny as I thought it was going to be but a great storyline nonetheless. Good strings entwined together at the start with all the characters and how they all came to encounter each other at the hotel, highs and lows throughout, with a really good ending proving pretty much that love and passion are the keys to life at any age. Well that's what I got from it anyway :-)

So I'll crack open the nibbles and watch something else now whilst I wait for the lights to come on when breakfast starts showing itself :-) it's daylight already outside but I only snuck a peek and shut the window shade again before anyone hissed at me like vampires in the morning sun lol

3 hours in

Don't ask me where I am. In the middle of international airspace lol

Dinner eventually came after having starters and a glass of wine whilst we waited for non eaten food to come from business class upstairs....

Worth the wait. Beautiful fish fillet with potato wedges and snow peas in a beautiful sauce. White sauce I think.

Now watching The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Wanted to watch it when it came out at the movies but me and trips to the movies just don't mix normally lol

I'm enjoying it so far.

Got my patches on.

The plane is very empty down the back so after all the effort I put in to getting my family seated within a row of each other has gone to waste as the rest have all moved to have rows to themselves to sleep easier with extra space lol

Mum watched Rio as per my advice and loved it :-)

I'm enjoying my trip home so far. Got seats organised that I'll enjoy sitting at. And time to myself again :-)

Nose patches on. Lights out and window shades drawn. Time to finish the movie and probably have a snooze :-)

Mid flight frankfurt to Singapore

About an hour in to the flight

Just had a very strong vodka orange drink. reminiscent of the vodka drink on the eurostar to Paris in 2004 with amber lol so I'm a bit half way to pissed already lol don't mind any spelling or grammar errors lol

Watching Rio on the in flight thingo. Damn I love birds. I wish I was one. It's one of the reasons I feel so comfy on a plane

dinner should be served shortly

I've added a few movies to the play list to watch during the flight.

Trying to sleep little on this flight so I sleep on the Singapore flight as I arrive early morning Saturday in Melbourne.

We saw grandmother today as we left. It was so good but so sad. She recognised dad. Then she called mum by name. She saw me and Alex and Jack and you could tell she knew who we were even if she didn't remember our names. You should've seen the great big smile on her face. Unbelievable. Brighter than the sun.

And then dad led the charge "nos vamos a porto hoje!" I.e. We're going to porto today

That was the story we fed to her so she wouldn't get upset as we expected she would probably forget at some point anyway.

What an amazing lady. It hurts to think that's possibly the last time I'll see her. I really don't know what dad would be like when she passes on into the next life. His dad passed away the year before I was born so I don't know what he was like back then.

And last night tia lola started to cry about us heading home. It was sweet but sad at the same time.

I have to save up to come back and do the trip I wanted to do this time around.

Even sadder still.

By the sounds of things, I probably don't have much local time left with my parents as it's almost a definite that they will sell up and move back there when dad retires.

Still don't know how to handle that just yet. I'm still processing it.....

Tia lola made a last ditch effort to convince me to move over to Portugal. She says she'll even pay for my ticket.

I just don't think I can do it as a full time thing. For travelling yes. Full time no. I've only been there 2 weeks and I'm crazy about coming home.....

Just got given a hot towel. Damn that feels good :-)

Guess dinner is on the way so sign off for now :-)

Pissed cub in the big bird lol.......

It's on the list....!

Things I have enjoyed:
Flying on a380's
Travelling on trains
Seeing relatives for the third time (on average)
The weather has been a good mix of hot and cold
Architecture of old buildings
The ruins of mum's old house
BREAD ohhhhh the bread is damn good
The cheapness of eating out is unbelievable
Travelling 215 km/h on a train
The views
Some of the food tasted wonderful
Cheap shopping
(Make that 220 km/h)
Most importantly, being able to attend my grandmother's 100th birthday celebrations
Montalegre
Being able to watch the eurovision song contest on live television (albeit a semi final)
The beauty of the bridges and train tunnels around the river at porto

Things I didn't enjoy:
People are licensed to drive but they mustn't have many road rules
Being completely alone only when I went to bed
Getting sick
Not packing enough hankies or antihistamines
Some of the food wasn't very nice
Other foods were nice once only but reappeared multiple times at future meals
Hot weather
The beds I have slept in
Almost every retail complex I visited had the same songs as what I work with
The drive from braga to Pisões
My cousin and goddaughter picked this time to visit Melbourne *forehead slap* lol

Things I miss about home:
My bed
A big shower
My chookies
My friends
My job
Asian foods
Cooking for myself and others
3aw
Footy talk
My truck
Having a sticky beak on mobile apps to see if there are any handsome fellas nearby lol
Frasier (last time I was in Portugal they showed "roz and the shnoz")
Talking to my neighbour
Gardening

Things I'll miss about Portugal:
Cousin Paula
BREAD!
good pork meat

Things I have learned:
I still don't travel well with others
I still don't live well with others
I still don't enjoy the company of children therefore am happy with knowing I'll never father any
I need a better paying job to save up and come back alone to explore
Portugal has little to no level crossings
I love to share photos on Facebook
My Portuguese is better than I expected
The birthday party wasn't nearly as scary as I thought
I do have a concept of self confidence in social situations once in a while
Lisbon has a garbo strike so it's a bit dirty on the streets at the moment

Dummy spits:
x1 quietly
x1 loudly

Lisbon 2. Eurovision. Food. Life.

I got to watch a bit of the eurovision semi final on live TV tonight, including the Portuguese entry. That was wonderful considering I've only ever watched it on delayed TV in Australia.

I really wanted to be at the final this year seeing as I'm only a short plane ride away from it, but it wasn't meant to be. Ah well. The future possibilities are endless to a certain extent.

Had lunch with alex's padrinhos today. Was great to see them. They are lovely and very much part of the family.

Went to a local shopping centre this afternoon for a wander and to see if any good music shops still existed in this part of the world but not much luck. No luck at all really lol

I'll have a good fossick around frankfurt as it's a decent sized airport and hopefully has a proper music shop.

I miss hmv......

So the holiday is pretty much at an end now. Train to braga in the early morning. Last look around the shops there before heading up to Pisões to pack up and get ready to fly home Thursday.

I miss home but really wanting to come back here to travel around on my own and see places myself without having to travel with others.... bit like living at home alone. Not having to be mindful of others or pets too much. Chickens aren't much problem cause someone can throw food to them and they look after themselves. Don't need walking etc

Bit like relationships too. Being single means you don't have to worry about someone else constantly whether it's out loud or subconsciously.....

Oh that's right! I got to have the BEST grilled pork cutlet for lunch. It was perfect. Tasty. Juicy. Not too dry. Not too oily. Perfect roast baby spuds. Damn it was the pick of the litter in terms of all the food I've had here. Absolutely loved it! :-)

Almost forgot to write about it lol

Lisbon.....

Lisbon tonight and tomorrow night. Staying at tio Fernando's place on the south side of tejo river.

The train to Lisbon from braga was quite good despite the 4 hour rough journey time. Travelling with Jack I thought it may have felt longer but I think both Alex and I were surprised at how quick the time seemed to pass......

Got to visit cousin carlos this afternoon and have dinner with his family. Wow he's got himself a big beautiful house with an inviting swimming pool out the back and a very comfy hammock :-)

Had a bit of a heart to heart chat like I did with his sister last week about the gay thing in relation to how our family might take things. It was another nice talk and it's reassuring to know that someone else I'm related to is ok about it.

He also has the same view as me in that a family is what you make of it and blood relations are only as close as you want them to be. So that was a nice thing to find out too...

On the way back to tio's house, carlos took us on a little tour along the river tejo to a beautiful viewing point of the city from the sexial ferry terminal. I love city lights at night from across a river. Reminded me so much of Melbourne.

Tomorrow having lunch with alex's godparents which will be lovely to see them. I still consider their daughter to be one of the most beautiful girls I have met, since I was a little kid. Not sure if she'll be there too just yet but we'll see.

Now that tomorrow is the last tourist day, I'm starting to look forward to getting home more. Checked the weather forecast and it's not quite as cold as I'd like but it's certainly colder than here so that's a good start! The short burst of extra summer is nice but I'm over it now and can't wait for a nice cold winter in my big bed with flannelette sheets and a roaring fire in the lounge room :-)

Community spirit is alive and kicking!

Today I reached a moment where I think I started to miss work when I started facing up items on the shelves of my aunties supermarket when it was closed lol

They're going to hate me when I get back and pick on them about things not being neat lol but hey I've always been of the thought that the basic rule of retail was good presentation of your stocks :-)

Auntie told us the story tonight of how she started a not for profit community organisation.

Basic gist of the story was when a local factory closed down, at which she was working also, there were many people left without a job.

She identified a need in the community for the provision of assistance to the sick and elderly as services were lacking at the time.

Using her knowledge of locals from her former job and also through the running of the supermarket, she formed a volunteer group of about 20 people (including many of those who lost their jobs from the factory closing) who would go together visiting some of the local elderly people who needed help at home, cleaning, cooking, washing/bathing, spending time etc etc

They would create things by hand to sell to others to help raise funds for their volunteer works and have stalls at local fairs etc to continue their fund raising efforts.

After some time they developed a plan and raised funds, including a substantial government grant, to buy a block of land and build a community building facility.

She took us there after dinner tonight. Wow. It's quite a feat!

The building has 3 levels to it.

The top level houses some permanent residents requiring full time care.

The ground level has rooms for socialising, eating, a hairdressing room to which they have a local person come each week to volunteer their services, a few large disabled access bathrooms, a day room (for those who come to spend the day but require a room to rest or have medical appointments, blood tests etc), offices to help operate the organisation and building management and more.

The basement level has a garage/storage area, massive laundry rooms and another large social/activity room.

In the process of their efforts they have been able to employ staff to help run the centre and purchased a minibus to help transport those who make day visits or others who require transportation to other important medical locations etc

They continue to do fundraising as it is still predominantly a volunteer based organisation and they are 20 months away from paying the loan/mortgage off in full.

This all started about 12 years ago and is a fine example of how getting involved with your community can really make a difference to at least one life.

There's much more she spoke of that I haven't written about but I just wanted to jot down the main storyline of it all.

This would be something that if I could afford it, I would give as much as I was able to help them reach their current goal of successfully paying off their loan in full and on time.

Future plans include extensions to provide additional beds and upgrades of the basement activity rooms.

I wish I had the courage to do something bold like that.

Certainly explains why she says hello to almost every person she walks past!

Wow........!!!

Saturday evening....

At tia gentil's place tonight.

Damn the weather was absolutely perfect today. Blue sky. Sunshine. My best guess would have been close to 30 degrees. It was hot. And I loved being back in my shorts and wife beater.

Went to mum's old place this morning and I helped dad try to clear a shit load of weeds and overgrown grass to create some sort of access around the place. The ruins of the house are beautiful but should be even nicer once the house is rebuilt. I love the open staircase in the middle of the house. It'll create quite a feature once finished, as it already does as ruins.......

Then alex's friend carlos came to visit. He's a lovely guy and it's very interesting listening to him speak as he is originally from Spain but has been living in England about 12 years now. I first met him in 2004 when I went overseas and Alex was still living in Horsham.

So carlos has this accent that you can tell is Spanish but regularly breaks into an English accent. Very interesting to hear hehehe

Did a lap of bom Jesus which was great given the lovely weather. Took heaps of pictures. Alex gave me a coin to throw in a wishing pond. Fingers crossed it comes good hehehe

Another short perve on a couple of cute cubs on the bus..... Small pleasures lol

I'll be home this time next week. That's a nice thought :-)

Friday night

Said goodbyes to auntie edina monsoon and uncle mick molloy tonight. They're going home to Paris in the morning. Swapped phone numbers to stay in touch. Really would love to see them again soon. They're my favourites as they treat me like their own kid and tell me the same. It's a comfort when I'm a part of a family I don't always feel like I can get along with all the time.....

Had a nice lunch at a restaurant with them in montalegre today.

The weather has been so beautiful this last couple days - actually got to wear shorts today!

On the down side though, I think the liquid in my right knee is building up again which means probably the arthritis is back.... just as well the weather allows me to wear shorts cause my knee needs some open space to breathe, as opposed to the tight fit of legs inside jeans.....

After dinner tonight a bloke knocked at the door. Some old friend of dad's, and a couple of others. He was a bit of alright to look at and he had this cap (don't know what they're called but it's like an old man's beret hat type thing) - well it looked good on him and it was made of black leather which is always a win for me lol so now I want one for myself hehehe

Reminded me of the hot cub back home. One of his profile pictures is him wearing one of these caps, just not a leather one hehehe

Going away for the next few days with Alex and Jack. Alex's friend from the UK is coming to spend the weekend in braga and then we're going to Lisbon for 2 nights so I might get time to myself. At least be away from dad for the best part of 4 days.

So back up here in Pisões on Wednesday to pack up and get ready to fly home on Thursday afternoon. I'm looking forward to being at home.

Had a horrible dream last night that it was my first day back at work after holidays and the whole doors and joinery area was a mess. Everything out of place. Doors in wrong locations. Timber mouldings like a jungle lol it really was a disturbing dream lol

Almost, roundabout, sort of, little bit, close to half way mark....

Got the rest of the shopping done today with Alex in Chaves. Was good fun and a nice day to be outside.

I got a nice soft dark blue pair of jeans, hoodie jumper and some shoes, along with the rest of the souvenirs I wanted to get for people.

We had a lovely lunch at an apparently traditional Portuguese cuisine restaurant. The building was amazing in style and character, just wonder what it was used for in it's previous life/lives......

Wandered up to the bus station to head back to montalegre to find we just missed a bus and the next was almost 2 hours away so we caught a taxi instead. Beautiful new looking Mercedes e class. Leather interior, all the gadgets you could ask for, like an aeroplane screaming down the runway for take off but without the noise. It was a lovely ride :-)

Did another lap of montalegre waiting for the next bus to friães which turned out to be the school bus service lol so a typically 20 or so minute trip became an hour and a half lol

Then went back to montalegre for dinner with auntie and uncle who I stayed with the other night - their daughter's birthday. Got to meet and make friends with her husband who was very lovely and intelligent - qualified aeroplane mechanic but working as a driving instructor at the moment.....

And afterwards came back to friães and went to the local cafe with most of the dinner crew for a last coffee/tea before bed.....

Tomorrow we get to goto porto to visit some of mum's side of the family which will be good as I haven't seen them since 1990.....

Night 6 (I think lol)

Got some shopping done today. Couple of things for friends who asked me to get them something in particular. A few things for myself.

Got a beautiful silver bracelet from my favourite jewellery store in montalegre, I've had things given to me from there since I was a kid so it's nice to know a business like that is still operating today after all this time.....

Went to see the construction of a new old people's home that tia lola is building. A guy met us there with his mum, the mum is also a partner in the new business. The guy was pretty cute so it was nice to have some eye candy close by for half hour or so..... After we finished and were about to head off he was telling me a few phrases he still knew in English after living in Germany for a year... had to double take at one point when I was sure he said "I love you" as one of his English phrases lol I think he said he was 28 so not too bad of an age lol

Started to feel a bit worse health this morning. Woke up being barely able to talk from a very scratchy throat and I had a splitting headache driving me insane..... certainly felt like a hangover even though I hadn't had alcohol for a couple days lol

So most of the days until we head home are pretty much sorted out now, including a couple days in Lisbon (hopefully a trip to sintra.....), visiting relatives on mum's side in Porto, spending a bit more time with auntie edina monsoon and uncle mick molloy on Friday...... Alex has an old friend coming to visit on the weekend.....

Hopefully I can boot this illness quickly.... don't like being sick, especially on holidays!

Meanwhile I'm thinking of buying a t shirt that says "I'm not her husband" written in Portuguese with an arrow pointing to my sister...... certainly make introductions slightly less embarrassing for me lol

I mean, do they really think that if I were to ever get married (which I wouldn't) that the best I could score was my sister?!?!!!? LOL

Today was THE day

Wow.

I've been part of a truly amazing and historic day in my family's history.

My grandmother, avó Emilia, turned the big 100 today.

A fair turnout for the celebratory lunch of I think around 30-40 people.

Caught up with relatives I hadn't seen for many years, others I had never met before and may not see again, but given the circumstances of the day in question, everyone treated everyone as though they had just spoken yesterday.

Took a bundle of pictures, a few videos, ate lots of food and laughed like there was no tomorrow.

I really did struggle a few times to hold back the tears just seeing the look on avó's face, just wasn't quite sure if she knew exactly what was going on around her but I think deep down she knew what the fuss was about :-)

Got to have a great catch up with my cousin Paula who I hadn't seen for many years. She's done this amazing research on our family tree and produced booklets covering the generations of those under avó Emilia.

Also got to have a good d&m with her about coming out to dad etc as she was expecting a bad reaction from him towards me as well. She was very supportive and that made me feel really great too.

All in all it's been a terrific day. I'm so lucky I could've been here to take part in it.

I certainly feel more a part of a family than I have in a long long time, if not, for the first time.

Parabens avó Emilia. Muitos feliçidades para voçe xoxox

Night 4

Today ended much better than yesterday.....

I'm staying at tia marianna and tio guerreiro's house on the banks of the biggest dam in the country.

They are so lovely and cool.

Tia reminds me of Eddie from absolutely fabulous with her slightly eccentric fashion sense

Tio reminds me a bit of a bear and he was calling me his little boy since I haven't seen them since I was 6 back in 1990

I just feel comfortable around them even in spite of the language barrier. With people like them, I make more of an effort to try to communicate cause I really like em.

It helps after last night's events to actually feel like I am indeed related to parts of this family and not so much of an imported adoptee lol

Went to visit grandma again this afternoon with mum for a few minutes. She pointed at mum as if she knew who she was but then said she couldn't remember where from or mum's name. So mum reminded her again who she and I were and it slowly came back to her.

So big celebration tomorrow. Be interesting to see what happens and how I'll handle it all.

Tio said tonight that if I'm not good in crowds that it's going to be a lot worse tomorrow. I said that I had prepared for tomorrow being full of people though I hadn't planned for every other day to be full of people lol

Got to talk about my job to them. About stuff in general. Kangaroos being roadkill. The story of me telling vin that the beaches in Portugal are full of rocks instead of sand and described how vin demonstrated someone putting down a beach towel on rocks to sunbath on a rocky beach lol

wrote vin a postcard to send to work. Hope he gets a laugh from the picture :-)

Went to montalegre today with mum, Alex and Jack. I love that place. So pretty and lovely little castle on the hill to explore.

Hoping to go back again this week when the shops are open. They have great quality traditional Portuguese homewares. Saw a great dessert serving set in a shop window..... and my favourite jewellery shop is still there and I'd love to score a good quality chunky chain for my neck and/or wrist

I'm looking forward to the view in the morning when I wake up so i best sleep to get there sooner :-)

Day 3

Was nice to watch some love footy this morning

Caught the first half of the west coast v Carlton game

Interesting that it was commentated fully in Portuguese although they still used English words including spoil, behind and were very good at the players names and the run through of round 6 scores so far

Went to braga for a day trip. Didn't get anything from the shops for myself.

Visited tia gentil for a quick catch up and stocked up on some supplies in her supermarket before coming back up to Pisões

And dinner was a bit of a shocker for me. I had to leave soon after finishing the little I ate for dinner (since I stuffed my guts a massive treat at lunch anyway).

Mum came into my room to ask if everything was ok and why I had left. I couldn't explain too much apart from feeling incredibly left out at a loud table of 15 all conversing Portuguese like crazy town and I didn't really know who anyone was and I couldn't follow the conversation so I had to leave cause I couldn't handle being there.

She said I could've at least stayed and just smiled along with the conversations. I said I couldn't deal with it.

So it reminded me of my blog from 1st March. Which meant I really wanted to cry. But I didn't. And I won't.

Just made me really feel like I wished I stayed home alone after experiencing nights like tonight.

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day with less driving.

The road between Pisões and braga is like 40-50kms worth of macquarie pass and it seems to be an endless journey. Twists and turns galore....

Night 2

6.15pm

Dinner time is about 8pm - that's about normal in this part of the world

Slept about 14 hours last night with a couple of wake ups throughout

The bed isn't the best.... It's as hard as mine but this one is hard cause it's old and you can feel each and every spring in it lol

The crazy weird dreams came back.....

The first part of the dream was me at work getting abused by one of the guys in showroom at the front service counter (which was setup like a bunnings front counter in which it protruded the store more so than ours) about the fact that I was getting special or preferential treatment from suppliers for some unknown reason.....

The second part of the dream was describing the abovementioned first part dream to the actual person who was abusing me in that part of the dream, even to the point of describing the front counter in comparison to bunnings store layout.....

Third part of the dream was involving someone I used to work with and her husband and we were hanging out with Bailey and apparently Bailey was telling them how much he missed "my man" and the couple said to me that Bailey told them all about me etc after they drove off I chased them wanting to know what Bailey had said about me but they didn't hear me

After which point I had enough of the crazy shit going on so I woke up to stop it - I certainly didn't want to experience Bailey back in my life, let alone dream about it lol

Went for a long drive to visit silva and his wife for lunch.... hadn't seen him since he left Australia around 1997-98... His left arm has no feeling and minimal feeling in his left leg due to a stroke he had a few years back poor bugger. Mum said it was sad for something like that to happen to such a good person. That's life unfortunately :-(

Then on the way back to Pisões we stopped at tia lola's nursing home where avó lives now. She's obviously a lot more older than when I saw her ten years ago. Her hearing is going and her memory isn't the best either but when you're 3 days from turning 100, that's expected I guess.

It was great to see her though even if she didn't really remember who I was this time.... she didn't know who dad was when he first visited her this morning either...

Tomorrow we're going into braga to go shopping and have lunch.... Hopefully a little less oily than today's lunch lol

It's difficult for me to deal with kids..... even when I was a kid I wasn't comfortable around them...

When I was here in 1990 with mum and Alex, I remember going to a café with mum's side of the family. There was this kid, probably about my age or younger (I was 6 at the time) and he was a bit of an annoying sort and I just didn't want to be near him.

Towards the end of the gathering we went outside for a big group photo. Whilst setting things up, this kid threw a bit of junk paper on the ground at my feet. I tried to get rid of it but he kept on bringing it back.

The group was about ready to have the shot taken when the kid again threw this bit of paper at my feet. I really didn't want the paper there cause it was like having rubbish in the way of a family photo.

And then *click*

And to this day I still think of that photo with me on the end trying to push away the paper while this kid is pointing and laughing at me and the rest of the group just smiling for the camera....

Just hoping that if we do visit one of dad's sisters in Porto that she doesn't point and talk about the locations I used to fight with my cousin. Not the sort of conversion I enjoy hearing about. lol

Night 1

It's coming up to 7pm Thursday night and I've bailed on dinner. I'm knackered well and truly

Didn't help that I kept waking up every half hour during the Singapore to frankfurt leg of the trip - it's always the hardest part of the trip being about 12 hours long....

I didn't quite realise how far away from oporto airport we would be coming to today

Was a good couple hours drive into the mountains

Beautiful views though.... I'll have to take some pictures from out the front of where we're basing ourselves for the fortnight - "headquarters" as dad put it lol

My god the quality of driving (or lack of) is unbelievable.... I was not surprised when we passed two pretty bad looking accidents on the freeway after leaving the airport

It's as if the signs and lane markings are there purely for decorations only, as are the use of indicators!

So the lunch stop we made was at a place called cafe bigode "cafe moustache" directly translated.... sorta reminded me of something out of an asterix book :-)

Grub was great though - roast pork, rice, fried potatoes, shredded carrot, lettuce, tomato and onion all on a plate and endless bread rolls and wine - about 5 euros a head..... I ate all mine and most of mum's too since she wasn't hungry and I downed 3 bread rolls and a glass of wine.....

So onwards from there and once again dad started talking to me about me moving over here.... I'd like to spend more time over here alone to travel around a bit, but I don't think I'd want to live here. I still love my home in Ballan too much....

Well I've been up since 7am Wednesday aussie time and I think it's close to 4am Friday aussie time and I've probably had the equivalent of about 5 hours sleep so I'm gonna zonk now I reckon....

Hopefully dream about the sexy german men in customs I saw this morning including one at border passport control who looked at my passport then slowly looked up to my face (with a serious expiration on him) at which point I gave him a massive smile and he smiled back and was nice to me afterwards :-)

Try again

3 hours into the flight, somewhere over w.a. I think

Bit of turbulence, nothing exciting though....

I've had a glass of red wine, cab sav I think, and a vodka orange juice with dinner

Beautiful wok fried chicken with rice and veggies..... deeeeeelish!!!!! :-)

Meanwhile I'm feeling a bit tiddly now which is nice :-)

Oh there was a drumstick ice cream for dessert too and a cup of tea

I'm loving the flight. It's the first international flight I've had with the TV screens in the seat - watched Murphy brown (devil in a blue dress - from season 1), Mr bean and currently watching family guy :-)

*this is the life*

It really is like having servants in your home

Singapore Airlines deserves the title of being one of the best airlines in the world!!!! :-)

Can't wait to see what lufthansa has to offer :-)

*sigh of relaxation*

Oh I've added a knife and fork to my collection of airline cutlery :-)

Up up and away!

Sitting in the quiet area of gate 16...

Decent view of one of the run l runways and my plane is to my left. ..

I love Melbourne airport. It's like being on a farm. Paddocks as far as the eye can see..... sorta reminds me of being at Jon's place in little river hehehe just beautiful....

The new (well it's probably 6-8 years old by now but I haven't flown international from Melbourne in a decade) part of the international terminal is lovely. Large open space with open ceiling so you can see the glass facade of the mezzanine level.......

This is the closest I've been to an a380 and soon I'll be able to go inside one! What an amazing feat of engineering it is - just incredible.....

I wanted to get 2 little bottles of vodka at duty free but apparently the rules at frankfurt are quite strict with travelling with liquids so I just got the little skull brand bottle... I'll get more on my return home if I can afford it....

Yeah I got here a few hours early but I like to be no later than the first in line for check in when it's an international flight.... The safety in knowing you are one of the first to check in means I can relax the rest of the way forward......

I told teddy to make sure he doesn't mess the house while I'm gone, especially if he lets the girls come in and play up lol

About half hour to go and then boarding will commence

Top deck.... back row.... window seat..... will have to tell the sexy cub I got top deck like he sideways l suggested.... he'll be happy for me hehehe

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3.....

So I figured since I'm going to be mobile shortly, I should learn to do a blog on the mobile phone.....

Not as free flowing as a keyboard but that's ok..... I'll get used to it lol

So holidays start in just over 2 hours so I'm a bit excited about time off work, although I'm not yet excited about the trip - still got a few things to check off the "to do" list before I can tackle the "to pack" list.....

That'll do for a test blog......