Back from Portugal...

Afternoon all,


Ignore the picture, that should have been much lower down the page... fucking free software...)


I got back OK from Portugal last friday. The job in Alhandra went ok, the customer's camera is working fine again.

I flew to Lisbon on the wednesday. With Easyjet. Bummer. I don't like the cheapskate airlines like Ryanair or Easyjet. It's ok to use them for holidays or short weekend trips but I hate sitting cattleclass when I'm doing it for my job. I got to Lisbon around 12 in the afternoon. I didn't have the addres nor the phone numbers or anything for the customer so had to call our secretary. Unfortunately I had dropped my phone at Luton airport and now in Lisbon it decided to go on the blink. So no phone, no address, no nothing. The one thing I did have was the name of the town where the cement plant was, Alhandra. I picked up my hirecar from Europcar and just started driving.

I knew that the town I was looking for was north of Lisbon so I just headed up the motorway. My reasoning was this, cement plants are big places so if its there I'm likely to spot it from miles away. And indeed that is how it went. I found the town and the cement plant was right there on the banks of the River Tejo. I also did not know if there was an hotel booked for me. I looked in Alhandra but there were no hotels so I drove on to the next town. When I got to Villa Franca de Xira I found a hotel and they had some vacancies. I checked in, called my office to let them know whereI was and told them to tell the customer that I would come to their plant the next day.

Villa Franca de Xira was a nice small river town where I managed to find a decent bar where I had to wash the dust out of my throat with a beer or twentyfive.

The next day met the customer Armando and his collegues and got on with the job.

On the friday the weather had reverted to the normal type for when I am around, it was pissing down. When I got to the airport in the afternoon it was clear that this rain was not normal as the whole departure lounge was covered with blue and red buckets to catch all the water that was leaking through the ceiling. I took a piccie outside the terminal and it sortof shows how hard it is raining. The piccie is at the top, this bastard editing software of Google doesn't work very well...

The worst part of the whole trip was arriving in Luton. About 5 flights arrived at the same time and they had three (yes, 3) desk open to handle about 1500 passport checks. What a bloody joke... I must have waited inline about 40 minutes, welcome to Britain.... Most english people always talk condescending about other countries but the UK has really become the worst country for entering. I don't mind all the checks etcetera but can they please please please employ a few more people at these immigration desks?

Now for the best news...
Today is tuesday and on thursday (which is only two days away!!!) I am off again. Me and the wife are off to Thailand! Finally it is time for the annual holiday!!! Time for beer sunshine and good thai food! Bring it on!

Take care,

Alex.