As this Blog business is new to me and as my personal Blog is new to everyone, it's probably worth outlining my background.
After living in Swindon for 56 years, 25 of them with my lovely wife Sue, we decided that we had had enough of (in no particular order) President B Liar, antisocial behaviour, stealth taxes, traffic, poor service, antisocial behaviour, yobboism, noise, pollution, pace of life, political correctness, antisocial behaviour, bad weather, dirty hospitals, poor policing, speed cameras and (of course)antisocial behaviour. Apart from that, we quite liked living in England, however we felt that it was time to move on.
We sold up everything and moved to a small, quiet village in Andalusia, southern Spain, where we lived very peacefully and contentedly for 4 years. As happy as we were, Sue began to contract itchy feet syndrome (IFS)in the middle of last year and suggested that we move on. After 2 superb holidays in Portugal, the contagious IFS spread to me and the only cure was to move, so we started looking for somewhere to live in the land of Porkandcheese.
We discovered a beautiful area in central Portugal, near the spectacular and historic city of Tomar, on the shores of Portugal's secong biggest lake. With beautiful scenery, fascinating wildlife and friendly, helpful natives, the area offered the quiet and rural lifestyle we wanted so, for the second time, we sold up and moved on.
And here we are. Living the good life in another country with new customs, new food, new culture and another new language. I hope that IFS is finally eliminated this time.