Body clocks back to normal. Went for a walk around our neighbourhood this morning. There are some very large houses with beautiful grounds and pools around. The sea is about a 5 minute walk and we checked out one of the two golf courses in our neighbourhood. So far so good : )
We arrived into Lisbon at 8am on Tuesday morning. We flew Vueling Air which I think is a Spanish airline. There are so many different airlines over here which we’ve never heard of. Anyway the flight was good and all went to plan. Got picked up at the airport by the rental car company to go get our car. All good apart from the fuel tank was empty – a little trick by these rental car companies – you then don’t have to bring it back full but more often than not you don’t risk that so they end up with the gain. Anyway if driving a manual on the left hand side of the road in a city we’ve never been too wasn’t stressful enough we had to find a fuel station. Found a station, got fuel, dialled in the address in Algarve and off we went in circles until we eventually found our way to the highway heading south.
Crossed this amazing bridge – picture below. We had about 250km of straight roads. The Portugese are very good at building bridges and viaducts across streams & valleys – I say streams because they were quite small in comparison to the bridges.
The coast eventually came into view so we knew we were getting close to our destination. The weather is very pleasant – blue skies and about 20 degrees. The forecast for the next 4 weeks is more of the same with the temperatures increasing daily. I think I can live with that.
Found our little abode & settled in before navigating to the supermarket to stock up on supplies. Not too hard. Found ourselves asleep again on the couch about 6pm, woke at 11pm and went to bed. Second night in a row doing this and not having dinner.
Given that part of our adventure this year is to take in all the tennis majors I thought I better skip back in time to January 2014 when we went to Melbourne for the Australian Tennis Open. We had a great 4 days at the tennis and saw Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and the like play. We went with Jeffo, Harty, Pete and Kaz – it was a laugh a minute – normally at Steve’s expense : )
We are now in Paris after a great couple of flights. MH130 got us to KL safely and then it was onto MH002 to Paris. MH002 was one of Malaysian Air’s new A380’s – what a plane. The lie flat beds were fantastc and we both managed quite a bit of sleep. It was also a first for Stevie – an alcohol free flight! He went straight to sleep and they didn’t serve champagne with breakfast – obviously still under Malaysian control because I am sure the French would have!
We took the Air France bus to Orly airport where we are staying at the Hilton before flying to Lisbon in Portugal early tomorrow morning.
I hope this plane doesn’t take any detours into the Indian Ocean. Saw the pilots checking in & was tempted to have a word!
After a busy morning picking Mum up from the bus, having breakfast with her & then dropping her at the domestic terminal we are finally all checked in & ready to go.
The Taylor family minus Preston dropped us at the airport. Preston wrote us a lovely card though telling us to keep calm & think cool!
Relaxing in the lounge waiting to board our flight – it’s finally happening : )
On Sunday the gym girls put on a long lunch under the trees at Vicky & Hira’s – what a magical afternoon. The very talented gym girls put together a song & dance using classic Abba songs & some very classic moves!
It was a fabulous afternoon – more wonderful memories created. Will miss you all very much x
We were never going to be able to leave Auckland quietly!
We flew to Auckland early on Friday the 11th April for the Business Like NZ farewell party. Rachel D had kept it a surprise so there was much anticipation. Normally it was me organising the surprise events so it was interesting with the boot being on the other foot.
We were being picked up at 8:45am – being picked up was another interesting twist. The Siminovich Olive Estate / Bracu van turned up so we then knew where we were heading.
Thirty minutes later we arrived in Bombay South of Auckland and were driven down to the activities area. Archery, BB guns, knife throwing & clay bird shooting awaited us.
We then had a delicious degustation lunch. The team presented Steve & I with survival kits. Mine had some duct tape in it – it might keep Steve quiet – yeah right!
Steve also got given a lovely hand beaten copper bowl – now taking pride of place on our coffee table. I got a Thomas Sabo charm bracelet with a charm from each of the team that meant something. Very special & will be worn with fond memories while I am away.
An awesome day.
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SUNGRL 