It’s been a strange week. Monday saw another trip to Faro, this time to see a dermatologist who was amazed I’d travelled so far for an appointment. I am not keen on Faro, or at least the part we needed. It is dirty, busy, noisy, and parking is hell. But if we lived there, I’m in no doubt we would be fluent in Portuguese by now, as nearly 100% of the conversations I overheard were in Portuguese, unlike our patch in the Western Algarve, which seems to be inhabited by a cluster of foreigners. Which brings me on to my Portuguese lessons.
Learning Portuguese – I’ve said many times learning Portuguese is challenging, especially when you do not use it daily. For example, I went to our local restaurant this week to try and book a table for lunch on Saturday, and most, if not all, of the serving staff were Indian, Nepalese, etc. Instead of a table for five, we ended up with a table for four.
My Portuguese lessons on Tuesday and Thursday went okay-ish. Thursday’s lesson sent me screaming for the hills as we started to study the prepositions de (of) and com (with). I should know them by now. I don’t. I’m still confused. Sigh … I feel stupid. My teacher set me homework and I’ve spent hours trying to wrap my brain around the rules. I can’t. I found a half-decent explanation, which I’m working on. I feel SO sorry for Carlos and thank him for his patience as I am not the sharpest tool in the box when it comes to learning Portuguese. But this time I am determined to succeed.
We also covered plurals. Difficult. My brain was frazzled and I succumbed to a glass of wine.
Exercise and dancing. Still plugging away with Get Fit with Rick’s workout and the hour’s line dancing keeps me on my toes. I am trying to stay motivated. While it’s tough I remind myself I always feel better afterwards.
Recipe of the Week – Lentil Curry One of my New Year’s resolutions was to try a new recipe each week
This week’s ‘recipe of the week’ comes courtesy of Alice. She cooked a delicious lentil curry for her Mum’s birthday bash. My effort was nowhere near as good and the rice was like mush. Mr. Piglet moaned. Moaned he didn’t like it and moaned I’d managed to spill lentils everywhere.
In pan fry onion, add couple of tsp garlic and ginger and a red chilli. Add diced carrot. Add spices 2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 2 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp garam massala and fry off for min. Add rinsed lentils (300g), tin of chopped tomatoes, tin of coconut milk, 500ml veg stock, salt and pepper. Season with salt and pepper and cook on low heat for 15/20 mins until lentils cooked through
A Walk and a Coffee
A walk along the clifftop track is a great way to enjoy exercise and admire the views while we stopped for a coffee. The track is only around 2500 steps. Perfect.
That’s it for this week. Now, I must ponder what arrangement to create for Vase on Monday.
How Was Your Week? Do you have anything special planned for the coming week?
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Piglet in Portugal 
Good how you keep plugging away on the Portuguese! Researchers say that’s a great stimulation for our brains.
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Hi Rebecca, I don’t about stimmulating my brain it tries my patience 🙂
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Lentil curry is one of my favourites esp with coconut milk. I admire your language learning!
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I have never cooked it before. Maybe if the rice was a little more … um … appetizing Mr. Piglet would not have moaned quite as much
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I hear you about your Portuguese language struggles, Carole. I’m also struggling with Spanish for the same reasons – so many rules for tense, masculine, feminine, plurals, etc. Thankfully all of our office staff in our park are Mexican American and our park manager last week said she’d happily practice conversations with me. Outside of our park, Spanish is spoken extensively, with English as a second language used mostly by younger adults. I like the idea of a new recipe every week. I think I do that a fair bit already because hubs isn’t a fussy eater, so I get away with a flop here and there. Today, because we have cooler temperatures for the next while, I’m trying a new recipe for beef stew. Overall, our past week was a good one.
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Hi Terry, it sounds like you have a good opportunity to embrace the language and the park manager sounds a star offering to practice conversation with you. 🙂 As for recipes. I love beef tew. ESpecially when they have dumplings. Do you guys have dumplings?
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Sometimes we make them with dumplings, Carole, but more often with baking powder biscuits, which have just now come out of the oven.
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A new recipe every week is a good goal, I am inspired in periods and then there is new food on the plate every meal 🙂 But mostly I do favourite dishes. It´s difficult to learn a new language without speaking it. We have the same problem, even if we live in an area with a lot of portuguese people, but we are mostly at home 🙂
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Hi Anna, I’ve got in a food rut hence the challenge. We will see. 🙂 Learning Portuguese is a nightmare. We are also mostly at home. I do try and listen to YouTube but it’s hard.
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Unless spoken and immersed it is hard to learn a language!!!
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Yep it sure is. I do try and listen to podcasts and stuff on YouTube but it is not the same as a two way conversation
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💯
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At least you’re persevering with the Portuguese. I got all my books out… then put them back in the drawer when I was tidying up! Isn’t there a dermatologist in Portimao?
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Hi Jo, after my expereince with the dreadful receptionist at the GO OPEN MRI I am more determined than ever to become fluent. There are dermato;ogist more locally but I have been trying for months to get an appoitment without success. 😦 The health group https://www.lusiadas.pt/en were extremely helpful and I only had to wait a few weeks for an appoitment.
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