It looks great but...

No electricity, no WiFi, no hot water yet. I managed to press something I shouldn’t have trying to get the boiler to work. I had to call my landlady who lives over the other side of the world in East Timor who doesn’t speak any English. Thankfully coffee is one euro here and I was using the WiFi there to sort everything out, and I got the electricity back. In the process I met my neighbour, a Polish guy and we went for a drink together in the evening. Here corona rules mean you have to buy food after 8pm to buy a drink, but once you’ve bought the food you can buy any amount of drinks. Judging by the noise outside it’s not putting people off. I had read reports of noise in Bairro Alto but it really is extremely loud. I am really looking to Rory and our boxes arriving. I miss all my stuff, I really need to buy a kettle too. Urgently.

Tomorrow I have my first meeting with my work colleagues so I’ve also been preparing and catching up on emails. To my delight, there is a free sailing day for the employees, a sort of regatta! There was also a comedy night this week with stand up comediennes by the beach and less glamourously blood donation and flu jab days.

I know everything will eventually be really nice, and I plan to buy lots of things for the flat so it’s much more liveable. It is a great location and very cheap, plus people are friendly and work is interesting... I just have to get through these growing pains :) wish me luck!!