Cascais (continued)
10th June was a cheap day during which we did some jobs on the boat, followed by haircuts! I am used to doing Dan’s and Nigel’s hair with the electric clippers, then Nigel tried to do my hair. It was his first ever haircut but he thought he could do it, the worst that could happen is that I would have to visit a hairdresser afterwards! So with some guidance he went ahead and cut a fairly good bob, then I had to explain how I had it layered near the bottom. Nigel ended up doing it a completely different way, but after a couple of adjustments it actually ended up fine! So I will employ him again, and I can remove haircuts from the budget!
The beach was absolutely packed as it was the first day of the local school holidays, plus it was 34 degrees, so I didn’t go, not my thing!
Nigel went to the beach late in the day to go to the supermarket as we had invited our Brazilian friends Ana and Dalgas (pronounced Dougas) for tea again. We cooked shepherds pie and a few other things and had a good evening with quite a few beers!
11th June I was faced with a big heap of washing up, coupled with firstly the toilet blocking up which Nigel fixed, and with Daniel spilling my entire bowl of Special K and milk all over the seat cushion, back cushion and floor carpet, which I also had to clean up, it was quite a laborious day. Later Nigel made a sailing boat out of a water bottle, some fishing weights, some coathanger pieces and a lot of Duck tape, and he took Dan out in the dinghy to see if it would sail, which it did very successfully!
Then we all went to the beach for a couple of hours.
One of the black beach sellers, Jimmy, who we had briefly met before and who we knew was ok, approached Daniel that day and asked how he was. Dan turned round and saw Jimmy, who was tall and very black and bending down towards Dan. I thought he might be scared but if he was he didn’t show it. He just said to the man after staring at him for a few seconds, “You’re black”, and then after his gaze took in more, “You’re all black”, followed by “Why are you black?” I said to Dan that well some people are, and he said after a pause, “and some people aren’t”. Then he went off to do something else. It amazes me how well he accepts certain things. In Guernsey his experience of black people has been virtually nil.
Saturday 12th June was the first day of the European Football Championships.
On Sunday 13th we went to watch the England-France match at Ana and Dalgas and Dawdson’s apartment, and had pizza and beer. Dalgas took Nigel back to the beach as he was worried about leaving the dinghy on the beach overnight, while I stayed with Dan.
14th June I left Ana and Dalgas’s apartment with them all to get to the beach for 9am. Nigel was already on the boat but he obviously couldn’t see us so we spent most of the morning on the beach. He rigged a windsurfer but then the wind dropped! He brought the lot to the beach along with the dinghy, then I went to the boat with Dan and we played and had some lunch. Nigel arrived having swum back to the boat, then later we went back to the beach and played on the windsurfer. The winds were gusty and although I managed one waterstart, I later had trouble getting back to the beach, and Nigel later completely failed to get back to the beach and took the gear back to the boat instead! Dalgas had a go with the huge board and sail belonging to a windsurf instructor from the beach but he eventually got towed in!
Dan and I met a local lady with a baby at the café and we chatted for ages, she lives nearby and works at a bank in Lisbon. Her English was very good as she travels to London on business regularly. However she worked long hours and was not sure that it would be feasible to return to the same job now with a baby.
15th June we took Dalgas out for a day as it was his day off. Firstly we tidied up then we went for a sail in the bay, we were lucky because the winds were perfect for a first sail, force 3 or so. Then in the afternoon we set up the windsurf equipment and Dalgas learned to sail up and down and even to tack and plane! His next step is the harness, and then waterstarting! We both had a go with the windsurfer too. We supervised and instructed from the dinghy.
In the evening Ana and Dalgas tried to get us some more gas but they couldn’t because our fitting is different. Then we got Dan’s bike out of the boat - first time since Falmouth - and he rode round for ages and I took him around to the next bay along the beach promenade. Germany and Holland were playing and the score was 1-0 to Germany. Later Holland equalised but I didn’t see the final score.
We went back and had a late tea on the boat, fresh bread left over from the bar and bean salad with mayonnaise.