Forca Portugal!

We flew out on Sunday the 26th of July and landed in Faro, Portugal slightly delayed at 8pm.  Everything went surprisingly smoothly and we were in our hire car (blue and a Ford - I add this because it is very important to Tom) and before long our blessed Tom Tom had guided us straight to our amazing accommodation.  It was a new build and the most impressive thing was just how jolly clean it was.  I know this sounds very sad, but it was shiny as a new pin, even under the beds and sofas there was not fluff of dust.  Sam explored all rooms and balcony but before very long we were all tucked up in crisp white beds, air conditioning humming away.

 We were gifted with gorgeous weather for the whole of our holiday and so we spent a chunk of our time exploring some of the stunning beaches The Algarve has to offer



Bergau



I'm surfing Mum!

Praia de porto de mos, Lagos

I'm snorkeling Mum!

Loving the hot sand

Things happen on a different time frame than that which we are used to in Whitley Bay.  The day starts later and ends later, with the sun shining hot hot hot until late - we were still tanning on the beach at 7pm.  Fortunately the kids got into this way of life from the the first day, so we were able to take them out to restaurants to eat tea much later than we normally would - they were often not eating tea till 8pm.  They coped (mostly) really well with it, which was also due to the family friendly nature of most places on The Algarve.  The boys did eat a lot of burgers, fish fingers and pizza though, and the inevitable pommes frites!  Sam ate a burger for either his lunch or his tea every day we were there (it became a challenge for him).  Tom's challenge he set himself, was to eat as many ice lollies as one small boy could.  He had a cola calippo (they don't do them here, very sad boy) at least once a day, sometimes more.  One of our favourite restaurants was a wonderful place we found in Salema, the views from the terrace were beautiful, the food was really good, the boys were well behaved and polite (practicing their Portuguese,
 prompt: what do you say?
child: thank you
prompt: no, we are in Portugal now, you must an effort to speak Portuguese
child: uh, ok. um abreigadu?
cue much delight and hands clapping from Portuguese person.  By the end of the holiday they were pretty good, and could say hello, good bye, please and thank you with little to no parental intervention.  Of course they've lost it all now!)

Looking down over the village of Salema bathed in the evening sunshine

Off to Salema to find a restaurant to have our tea



Lasagne por favor



Portuguese steak, nicer than it looks!

 We stayed in self catering accommodation in Luz (pronounced Loosh), which was a small number of apartments with 2 swimming pools, set inside a bigger resort with more facilities. It was just very, very nice! Modern, tiled 2 bed roomed apartment with a sleeper couch for a further 2 people. It had a lovely balcony with a sea view that got a much needed sea breeze.

Just inside the entrance gates

  We went to one of the water parks, Splash and Slide, on the Wednesday after a leisurely breakfast. Sam had an absolute blast despite a wavering moment on the cusp of The Black Hole, which Tom point blank refused to go on and so we had to make out way back through the queue, murmuring apologies as we went (thank god I looked up sorry in the phrasebook - desculpe - if anybody needs to know!) me mortified and red faced, him just determined to get as far away from the black pit with screams reverberating back, as he could. After that he refused to do any of the slides ("it's not for my size"), but was very happy playing in the kids play area, with it's little people sized slides. Steve and Sam did most of the fun stuff, but I did eventually get a go on the Black Hole (excellent fun) and the Corkscrew (twisty).


That day was Steve and mine's wedding anniversary, so we ate out again, this time at Fontenarios' in Espiche, we sat outside and the boys entertained themselves in the playground. It was a lovely night and it was made more special by celebrating my marriage 9 years ago to my wonderful, courageous, loyal, funny, gorgeous husband with the two little boys who are here because of our love.

We spent some time roaming the streets of some of the villages and towns; Luz, Lagos, Abulfeira, Faro, eating, drinking spending but also just plain looking.

Lagos

Lagos

Artistic shot courtesy of artistic husband

Lagos

Faro, Stork capital of the world - honestly, Stork nests everywhere



Watching the kids in the park in Faro



Road train tour of Faro, incredibly bumpy over the cobbled streets!

 

We went to Lagos Zoo when the kids were all beached out, and although it wasn't huge, it was really good. There were lots of birds and Steve spent a lot of time photographing then, and then hoisted our first born into one of enclosures to pick up a peacock feather he had spotted! The Zoo was well kept and the animals appeared to be well looked after, but the whole notion of Zoos is not one the sits too comfortably with me. Nonetheless it was a good afternoon out and the boys (all 3 of them!) enjoyed themselves .

"I fed a wallaby!"



My boys and their love of vehicles

The peacock from whom the feather came!

It's all true...

The funky gibbon (well who could resist!)

There were a few small cats

I just liked the fake tree!

 


Clearly my husband is the artistic one when it comes it taking photos, I'm more, what shall we say... obvious!

At the start of our holiday we sat down and drew up a list of what everyone wanted to do on their holidays;  Sam wanted to explore, Steve wanted to eat local food, I wanted to do some walking and Tom? Well, he wanted to go to a castle! A lack of castles in our area required a substitute castle type of thing, and so a trip to Sagres Fort was born!

The fort in the background 

A photograph capturing the excellence of my motherly skills - I had plasters in my bag to patch Tom up after he fell!

 Aaaten-shun

 The church inside the fort, I loved the appearance of the exterior, rugged and sun bleached but not so much the interior which had much less character

After the fort and some lunch, we headed to Sagres Beach. which was my favourite of all the beaches we went to.  Deep swells and cooling water, not too busy and most of those there were locals rather than tourists.  Just perfect!!

 

Sitting on Sagres beach looking out towards the liff holding the Fort.

So cool in my gipsy market shades

Mummy's choice, a walk along the cliffs to our nearest beach in Luz, breath taking sea views!

I had done the usual mummy thing of thinking "be seen in a bikini?, with these lumps and bumps I don't think so!" and had taken a couple of one piece swimsuits in which to enjoy the sea and sun.  And then I  saw the other women... not svelte, not slim and toned, but ALL different sizes.  And they all had one thing in common, they were all in bikinis!  So when we went to the Gypsy market in Lagos and I saw the myriad of bikinis on offer and for only 10 euros - I lost my head and bought one.  It is a lovely bikini, as far as these things go,  and the top fit fine, but OMG the bottoms!  Oh me oh my, the horror!  The smallest little scrap of material (obviously my idea of the size of my bottom is vastly different to the actual size of the bottom!) which covered all the necessary bits, but not all at the same time.  I wore it though.  On our last day, on our long walk to the beach.  I even took my shirt and shorts off.  I then lay on my back, very still, while the boys frolicked in the sea for the last time.  It was actually a great excuse to do nothing for a bit "I cannot play because I cannot expose my bottom to the public..." 
 

Am I cute, or what?


At the beach in Luz, which was a bit, ok, a lot touristy and FULL of British holidaymakers. Now there is nothing wrong with that, but, we like to experience some of the place we have gone to visit, not just sink ourselves in British life abroad.

Cork trees!!  seriously, actual cork trees actually used for harvesting actual cork and turning it into, well cork.

Well it it impressed me! We decided to go to the top of the tallest mountain in the Algarve on our last day, as we had t be out of our apartment by 10am and our flight home wasn't until that evening. So we set off for the mountain, following our trusty Tom Tom which had served us so well, quietly confident in it's ability to get us where we wanted to go. Until the Tom Tom told us to turn off the main road which climbed steadily up, we weren't sure, but it hadn't steered us wrong so we followed instructions. The road got narrower and twistier and further into "well off the beaten track" territory. We were pretty much stuck with going ever onwards as we couldn't turn anywhere, and god knows what we would have done if we had encountered any traffic. It was while we were on this road that we saw the slightly otherworldly beauty of the cork trees, some on there own, others in little forests, and for this I am very grateful to the Tom Tom. We did finally join up with the main road again, and we have no idea why the sat nav thought we should go the way it took us, but I am very pleased it did!!

When we made it to the top of the mountain it was COLD and WINDY.  We didn't hang around for any longer than it took to buy some lovely cork souvenirs (postcards, actual postcards made of actual cork - brilliant!) and then we headed back to the coast and then sun for our last lunch before making our way to Faro, to give our blue Ford hire car back and make some last minute duty free purchases.

We all loved our week in Portugal, and would love to go back again one day. 

To sum up in the words of my two little boys 

Sam "extraordinary... really good"

Tom "magical"

Report Time

In England, children do SATS at the end of Key Stage 1, which means that Sam did his first SATS this year.  Explanation for those (like me) who don't have a clue what this means: 

"SATS (Standard Assessment Tests) tests are given at the end of year 2, year 6 and year 9. They are used to show your child's progress compared with other children born in the same month. The mean (average) score for each age group on an assessment is set at 100 and the standard deviation at 15. For any age group a given numerical value has the same meaning in terms of standing relative to the group. For example, an eight year old and a nine year old, each of whom has a standard age score of 105, have performed equally well in relation to the average for their respective age groups.

We got Sam's report card on Friday, with his SATS results and all I can say is WOW!  My little boy got an absolutely outstanding report and also he got the top mark for all sections of the tests (a level 3).  His teacher couldn't have written nicer things about him if she had tried.  I am one proud mummy.  Proud of his academic achievements and proud of his personal achievements.  I want to shower him with praise and gifts, but am managing to restrain myself and keep a bit of a lid on the bubbling pot of happiness.

It's quite hard, because I am so proud of him I want to tell people how brilliant his achievements are, but I think it just comes off sounding like boasting, so I am keeping a check on it!

But he has done so amazingly well, and I am so very, very proud of his hard work and I love his enthusiasim and his enjoyment of learning. 

You are a credit to your mum and dad my darling boy and we love you so much.

It's my blog, I can boast if I want to ;-)

Rockcliffe Rocks

It was Sam and Tom's school, Rockcliffe First School, centenary this year, and to celebrate they put on a performance today called Rockcliffe Rocks.  Each class was responsible for telling us about a particular decade, both in terms of national and international events and as it pertained to the school, and they then also performed a song showcasing music of the era. 

Sam's class did the 50's and were all dressed thanks to inspiration from Grease - Sam wore jeans with turn ups, a white shirt tucked into trousers, a leather jacket and had his hair slicked back (an achievement in itself!).  He had some words to say and then introduced his class as they sang Let's twist again.  He did really well - spoke clearly and with good pace, and then sang and danced his heart out out.  People said afterwards how cool he looked!

The nursery didn't have any words, or a particular decade, but they weren't left out, they got to put on their party clothes (Purple striped "work" shirt with blue pinstriped "work" trousers for Tom... he chose his own ensemble!) and then all sang Zip-a-dee-doo-da, which was painful and magical all at the same time.


There's Tom, just peeking round on the far left

 The hour long performance was really good and quite emotional, and I did well up a bit, especially when they closed the show with Take That's Rule the World.  One of the parents who had all the professional equipment offered to film the concert, so when the dvd is for sale you can bet your patootie that I'll be buying it - and then you all will be watching it too.... 

Babies!

She who knows me best, my friend Andrea, had her 4th baby two and a half weeks ago.  Elizabeth Lynne Robertson was born by cesarean on the 3rd of June, and despite financial problems, a skype call from Andrea showing me her brand new little girl had me booking a bus down to London faster than you could say, well, Elizabeth Lynne Robertson!


I took the early morning bus on Thursday and finally reached Andrea's house in Burgess Hill at about 4pm that afternoon, after a bus, a train and a walk.  It was a major trek, but it was so worth it by the time I got to hold my brand new god baby in my arms. 


She is just delicious!


A little bundle of squidgy gorgeousness wrapped in baby smelling sniffiness.  It did my cluckiness no good at all, I have to say.

Happy baby!

I love the tenderness in this picture

                                            Room for two sleeping babies

I was there Thursday afternoon to Saturday evening, and got to be some practical help, by babysitting and being a chauffeur, got loads of amazing baby time and also, particularly wonderfully, I got to spend some proper one on one time with Nick, my very first god baby!  Nick will be 3 in July and is such a sweet little boy.  That feeling when little people like you and trust you is always one that fills me with happiness.  It feels such an honour when they see through all the grown up gumpf, and like the real you they see underneath!



                                             Me with both of my gorgeous god babies

 I missed my boys, but really enjoyed having time away from my own domestic trials and tribulations.  Being away allows them to miss me, and (hopefully!) appreciate all that I do for them, and realise how very, very much their mummy loves them.