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 :-)