Best Screenplay Award, Beach Life, and Plumbing.

Remember when I told you The Tattered Book had been nominated for Best Screenplay at the European International Film Festival? Well, it won! Can you believe it? It’s a nice feather in my cap for sure. I got a very pretty laurel too ;)

Today is our anniversary. We’ve been married 38 years. We celebrated by having a pastry for breakfast and for lunch our friends from Lisbon came to visit. Antonio’s son is sixteen years old now. That seems amazing to me… I remember when he was twelve. He’s so tall. Martinho and Antonio are getting married next week in Martinho’s tiny village he was raised in. They showed us pictures of the venue on a small river running through the forest. It looks beautiful. There’s going to be 150 people there! I wish we could make it, but it’s too far and too difficult to get to.

We found a beautiful restaurant way up on the hillside. We could see it from the beach, so we wandered around until we found it. What a great view! From up there you can see the frenzied work being done to prepare for the busy season. It looks like they planted an orchard of umbrella posts. Based on the other umbrella orchards nearby, I’m sure they will have a great crop soon. After we said goodbye to the boys, we walked up there for a glass of wine and a beer. Tonight I’m making filet mignon and potatoes for our dinner. Maybe the neighborhood cat will join us again. He’s definitely friendly.

This Airbnb in Sesimbra is a love hate thing. We love the location near the beach. I can see the ocean from where I’m sitting right now. Marco, the host, is very nice. We have a functional little kitchen and living room with a good size bedroom. The bed is too hard, but I put the big, fluffy comforter under the sheets and now it’s cozy. The bathroom is nice looking with a good shower. Unfortunately, it has a leak… from the sewer line. Need I say more? It smells horrible and I have to put down towels to contain it. Marco has done everything in his power to fix it, but you can’t get a plumber in this little fishing village at a moment’s notice. The guy came and worked on it, but it still leaks. This weekend is the “Popular Saints” festival, so my toilet is very low on everyone’s priority list so we have to wait until next week. We’ll live. Just have to keep the bathroom door closed. Shrug. Oh yeah, the AC is still broken but they’ve ordered parts for it. Can you imagine how stressed-out Marco must be?

Today is windy and a little cool. Joe got a haircut and then we came across an Italian guy we’d met yesterday. We sat at their table (he and his Portuguese girlfriend) and had a conversation in Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and English. He’s from Verona, so of course we talked about the movie. Backing up a little, a couple of days ago an Italian man, Tiziano, stopped at my porch (actually a step) to visit. Somehow we hit it off. He sat next to me on the step and we talked using the translator app. He was our buddy from that time on. He was staying at the place across the alley. Without the app, we were incapable of communicating, but we somehow became friends and were introduced to his other Italian friends.

Sesimbra is very clean. People litter, especially their cigarette butts, but they have a clean-up crew working all the time to sweep the cobblestones on the streets and the promenade. They even have a big water truck with a long hose for pressure-washing the sidewalks and streets. It’s a full time job.

Our laundry-line is in the alley and at ground level. I went and bought one of those round things with clothespins to dry your underwear. I hung that inside to dry… I just couldn’t bring myself to have my undies hanging at eye-level as everyone walked by.

Speaking of alleys, we have a favorite fish restaurant called Remos. They seat you in this super-narrow alley and give the best service. They even removed the bones from the fish right at your table. So far we’ve had the Sea Bass for two and the Sea Bream for two. Yum. The only strange thing to adapt to is the pounding of hammers as the guests crack their lobster. Where I come from in Northern California, we use a tool like a vice. It looks like a large nut-cracker. Here, they lay a napkin over the shell and whack at it with cute little hammers until it’s edible.