Meet-up Number 2

Wednesday night we went to the Faro “Language Exchange”. Similar to the meet-up in Olhão, this was at a nice place called Columbus Culinary Bar. We walked to this one. Really a different vibe. There were people from Australia, Hungary, Greece, US, the Netherlands and Portugal. The organizer, Joss, is from Ecuador . She really had this organized. People are encouraged to practice Portuguese or whatever language they want to. Everyone spoke English to the best of their ability. Joss also had conversation-starter questions prepared and a pretty fun game called “Shit Happens”! Also, she had prepared name tags! The time of this meeting, I believe, is more in line with when Portuguese folks get together. It didn’t start until 8pm and went to 10pm.

Tomorrow I’ve been invited to go with one new friend to 2 supermarkets that are not in Faro. Food Co and Apolonia. Another new friend invited me to meet her for a drink near the marina. So that’s nice!

I’m still struggling to find the magic that allows me to receive goods I’ve ordered at our address. The number of emails I receive telling me that I wasn’t home is truly mind-blowing. Especially since I bloody well was at home. No one buzzed. No one knocked. They no longer call me. Why? No idea. Yesterday I put a note on the door to the building written in Portuguese saying I’m HERE and just press the buzzer. Nothing. Just email telling me that this other carrier, not CTT, but PAACK, “ran into an issue when attempting your delivery. They will try again.” 

OH MY GOODNESS ME! I have to bite my tongue. I just got a phone call from a man asking if I was home (I think that’s what he said). Anyway, I went down to the door, waited less than 5 minutes and there he was with the rug I ordered for the bedroom! Yippee! This is from RugVista, a Swedish company, but I think it came from within Portugal. At any rate, FEDEX was the carrier. I probably should start a list of what works and what doesn’t. Still waiting for PAACK to bring the few things from Amazon Spain.

This is a red letter day! Wait, what does that actually mean? I don’t know. Perhaps I've become overly sensitive to "red"?

Once again, while typing this, someone rang the door buzzer! It was my Amazon Spain delivery. This will likely confirm your suspicions that I’m nuts (yes, I know that you know) … anyway. This order contains bag clips (I should have brought what we had) and ICE CUBE TRAYS. I do realize that this is Europe. Europeans don’t have the same affinity for ice cubes that we do. Also, I’ve lived in the privileged world of a working ice maker and access through the fridge door. But when in this crazy world did these silicon ice trays with teeny tiny ice cubes become not just A thing, but THE thing?? We have no icemaker and only these silly things you have to fight with to get the tiny cubes out. That is, until today! I just received the, to me, normal “quick release” ice cube trays with almost normal cube size. Happy!

Cork shown for scale

Before I stop droning on about these little things, I have to complain about one more. EVERY time I turn around, some AI program is insinuating itself into my world. WTF? I opened MS Word earlier to type this, and it’s insisting on having this weird icon on the page for something called “Copilot”. I am not interested. I just want to type. I don’t need your f-ing copilot. ARRGG! Lola and Bitsy send their greetings!