It's official...

I'm bad at blogging! And I now, officially own a house in Portugal!

I promise to try and be better! So November 12th arrived and we drove down to Odemira from Alvor, admittedly slightly hungover due to late flight and being a bit hyped. We arrived at the allotted cafe and true to his word (which we never doubted), Tom met us at 11 pm, we sat and drank coffee and caught up, trying to be very Portuguese and not rush things. Then it was off to the local council offices to pay stamp duty (around €900) and transmission tax (around €800). Next stop was the notaries office where we had not one, not two, not three but four Remax representatives. Tom because we were his clients and our translator, Valdemar who was the representative for the property, a woman who was in charge of finance (because we arranged for Remax to draw up the cheque) and the owner of the franchise to oversee! Less than an hour later I was presented with the key to the house in a box with a key ring and the deeds to the house. More money changed hands and I had payed the notaries fees (around €360). We then all shook hands and exchanged chaste cheek kisses. Off we all went to Monte de Estrada where the old owners introduced us to our lovely neighbours, Luis (pronounced Looish) and Sylvia (pronounced Sylvia). We were shown the button for the water pump, the key box of many keys (goodness knows what they are all for). After much more cheek kissing we were finally alone in our house, with all kitchen crockery and cutlery, white goods and a made up bed, whoop it was ours.We also met our neighbours cat, very vocal, very friendly.

'She' came to call with each visit we payed to the house. We bought some bits and pieces to make the house feel more ours, a couple of rugs, a couple of heaters and a tea maker (we couldn't find a kettle). We met up with Tom again to sort out the changing over of bills into my name, the woman at the electric company was on strike, the water board could not change the name over until January, pure bureaucracy, the bills were paid to the end of the year and no system is set up place to do anything in advance! We did however get 3 years council tax free, as is our right. On the Thursday I opened a bank account. The first bank tied themselves into a loop. They insisted that I be able to prove I was either employed or retired, proof of house ownership, proof of fiscal identity seemed irrelevant, we gave up and went to another bank. BPI gave me an account (though they wanted to know my mother and father's name despite me being 50), they also didn't ask for a deposit! Figure that. We managed to change the electric contract into my name despite our lack of Portuguese and the electrical woman speaking no English, waving of bits of paper and gestures accommodated us well. Nicola and Phillipe not only celebrated our purchase on the Monday night but came over to see the house on the Wednesday which was lovely, to share the house with friends was lovely. On Thursday a foal was born next to our land which was quite profound, to us anyway, a new life born where we will be starting a new life!

And to top all that we saw some cracking sunsets over the Mira at Milfontes!