Shopping and day-to-day stuff
We did most of our grocery shopping at our Caxias mini-mercado, with its good fresh vegetables. They have in-season strawberries and the best-ever dark red cherries.
We spent several days this month surveying furniture stores, looking for shelves, another living room chair, and ceiling light fixtures. We ordered shelves from Maisons du Monde, which seems to get most of our business. We ordered Ikea Kallax shelves to put in our closets. We chose a chair at Corte Inglese and ordered it later online, but our order got canceled. The order page said “worn out”. I guess all they had left was the floor model??
We frequently walk in the Quinta Real gardens. Pam saw a hoopoe there on several afternoons, but David hasn’t managed to see it with a camera in hand. Hoopoes are crazy-exotic looking birds. Pam’s hoopoe likes to poke its long curved bill into the lawn where it must find some good worms and grubs.
Pam meets with a Portuguese teacher online on Friday afternoons. David is getting language basics with YouTube videos, which are a great resource.
Business stuff
We signed up for private health insurance, with advice from the health advisor company we are working with. It’s part of the being ready for our appointment at the immigration service in July. That was a several-day process, but the insurance agent was very helpful. There was really only one choice for old people like us. MGEN is the only one with no age limit and a relatively generous pre-existing conditions policy, although there is a waiting period. We will still be able to join the public health plan after we have our appointment and get our residence cards.
Activities
June 4 Dinner at Xico Rolo, organized by SavvyCat Realty, with a small group of their clients who have come to the Lisbon area in the past year or two.
June 7 We finally got some repairs in the apartment for a window / balcony door that we couldn’t open, a bathroom faucet handle, and a new hose for the central vacuum
June 10 Wandered around the Lisboa waterfront on Portugal Day
June 12 Festas de Santos Populares, eve of São Antonio’s birthday. We visited Castelo de São Jorge, with its fabulous overlooks of the city, walked through a bunch of booths with lots of food and dancing, had dinner in Rossio square, and watched the nighttime parade on Avenida da Liberdade.
June 22 Oceanário de Lisboa
June 20 Pam walked to the library in Paço de Arcos and discovered some community gardens nearby. She wanted to find information about in-person Portuguese lessons, but that wasn’t the right place.
June 27 Cabo da Roca
Heat wave
June 15-16 and June 23-28 Outside shutters down on the sun side during the day; windows open at night. We’ve been able to cool off the apartment each night and start each day off at a good temperature. We went shopping on June 25 to buy fans.
Pam inaugurated her swimming season at the Caxias beach on June 24. The water is pleasantly cool and the beach is very popular on the weekends. Not that big on swimming, it took the heat wave to get started.
The afternoons have gotten hazy, starting around June 25, with an orange sun well before sunset. I read a report that the smoke from the Canadian fires is in our atmosphere now.