A trip to Ikea has been on the cards since arriving here but with being so busy we have kept putting it off plus Rob was secretly dreading it as it wasn't a favourite pastime of his when we had one on the doorstep!
Off we set last Friday morning with me at the wheel (in the van, not my pedal pusher!!!) I haven't done much driving here as I'm not used to driving on "the wrong side of the road", but as we are in our english van somehow it seems easier with the steering wheel being on the usual side. A lot of the motorways in Portugal are on tolls, and the major motorway down to Lisbon (the A23) is an unmanned toll which means as you pass through the tolls your number-plate is filmed on camera and you pay the tolls locally. On a manned motorway you can pay the toll direct on the motorway but as we have a british number-plate we are unable to go on the A23 without shelling out 60 euro to have a costa verde box fitted on the dashboard. So off we proceeded on the "B" roads with our (not always to be trusted Sat Nav, especially in Portugal)guiding us. Well, I will cut the story short there and just say that it took us 4 and a half hours to get there. After a 3 hour mad shop we filled the van and set off back home. We took a different route this time using a motorway which we could pay on and got back home 3 hours later!! At least the ordeal ended with us being happy chappies with our goodies. Apparently when we can use the A23 the trip would take us 2 hours!!!. Can't believe we had to endure that ordeal when we used to live 2 mins from Ikea at home!!! How ironic!!!!
That evening the winds got very strong and during the night the much awaited rain came lashing down (sounded worse than what it was) and the rest of the weekend the weather was very windy. The sun came back on Tuesday so we treated ourselves to a 2 hour break and sat in the garden relaxing. With bright red faces we decided we had better head back indoors to get back to some hard graft (decorating the front bedroom). We still had the need though to light the log fire in the evening.
The next morning's work schedule was another day on the "electrics" the kind of day which Rob wishes he could hide under a rock as he dreads the horrors of the portuguese wiring techniques. After several hours of pulling out his own hair (and there isn't much of that) he has now discovered that a portuguese electrician will often use any spare wire lying on the floor as a "make-do" so sometimes what you perceive to be an "earth" could be a "live" and a "neutral" could be a "live", but after plenty of fun and games (translated means cursing and swearing and the occasional kick) the job was a "good one".
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.