Weekend Coffee Share – Goals

This week’s coffee share comes from a cafe on the promenade overlooking Praia da Luz. As I sip on my coffee and stare out to sea across the beautiful sandy beach, I reflect on the last week. I can honestly say my days are never mundane; boredom does not feature in my vocabulary, and I don’t have time to sit back.

Gardening

On Monday, we woke once again to be greeted by sea mist. Yep, we were literally living in a cloud rather than floating on it. I tried to work in the garden but gave up. Of course, I couldn’t give up on it completely, as my Six on Saturday post will confirm. The sun did eventually make an appearance and then it was too hot!

Six on Saturday – Plant Share, Sea Mist and Harvest

Webinar

On Tuesday, I tuned in to the ‘Platform Building for Self-Publishing Authors’ webinar with Matty Dalrymple, Michael La Ronn, and Jane Friedman. The Author’s Guild organized the webinar. It was excellent—at least I thought it was, as I made two A4 pages of notes.

I am still working through the MS and draft edits of my romance novel, Dreams. When I eventually publish, it will be useful as I will be responsible for the promo, etc.

Lunch out with friends and recommendations

On Wednesday, we ‘lunched’ out with friends. Discussing health and diet, I was given contacts for a dietician and a new doctor. I’ve already tried the new doctor (Friday), and he was brilliant. He seemed far more on the ‘ball’ than my existing doctors, and we now have a plan moving forward to try and resolve the crippling vertigo I’ve suffered with recently. He also looked at blood test results and suggested I give up alcohol, not for the month I planned, but for three months. BooHoo! No more Pornstar Martini Cocktails, G&T’s or wine. Hmmmm… no one said I can’t have the occasion ‘mocktail’. As for the diet my friend forwarded me a copy of the regime that worked for her. The downside is that it is all in Portuguese, so I’m now in the process of trying to translate using Google Lens. I’ll get there. Still trying to figure out what kefir yoghurt is and where to buy it.

Learning the Lingo

You may well wonder WHY a slice of fig and carob cake features under learning the Lingo. At lunch, we were all trying to speak Portuguese, so I tried to order one dessert with two spoons. With the help of Google Translate, we figured out that two spoons translated to dois colheres.

The waitress arrived to take our order. Taking a gulp of courage, I ordered “Uma sobremessa and duas coelhos.”

The waitress looked surprised and confused. Then smiled. I frowned.

I realised I’d just ordered one dessert and two rabbits!

I (we) have finally signed up for an online course to study Portuguese. Despite studying Portuguese for over three years, many years ago, two of which were one-to-one lessons, I still cannot speak the lingo beyond more than a few words. We will see. I feel stupid. This time, I will persist.

Goals

This week, I have set two challenging goals:

• A new strict diet

• Abstain from alcohol for 3 months

• Yeah, I feel a grump coming on!

• Resume my Portuguese studies on a structured course.

• Edit ten chapters of Dreams by next Saturday.

The bacon butty was my last hurrah before the diet started in earnest.

How was your week? Have you set any goals?

For more Coffee Shares, why not pop over to Natalie the Explorer’s blog