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Stopped raining today at last.

I had a similar problem jaDEB. My calf and foot went lame and I could not walk but it was a pinched nerve in my lower back. That is when I was left on the gurney in the passage the whole f**ing night.

Mr_D...I do have medical insurance so I went to the private hospital across the road from me. Have to go back today for physio. 

More rain again.

I made a typo in my post. The first 40k is exempt and not 40%. Nobody even noticed the error.

That R10k pm includes our rent of R6k. If need be, we can cut out wine, beer and eating out and save about R2k.
From August all residents of Portugal and this includes immigrants will get free medical so we would not need private insurance any longer.
Lisbon is the most expensive city here and the Algarve is not far off.
For this reason, we chose to live up in the north in Viana do Castelo as it is the cheapest area.

Money. Money-wise, we still doing fine and despite the exchange rate, we average about R9 500.00 pm in living expenses. This is all inclusive except that we chose to pay our medical insurance yearly so you might add another R1 050.00 odd to that.
having retired 3 years ago plus the expense of relocating and setting up a home here, my investments have grown by about R211K and I have being making 3 monthly withdrawals for our living costs.

Travels. We have 4 train services here.
International. Leaves about every 3 to 4 hours from the main cities. Not used them yet.
Inter City. About every 2 hours and very comfy with aircons and travels at 200 km ph so not a bad means of transport. Only Portugal cities.
Regional. Each province has their own and the train stops at every town. About every 2 hours.
Metro. Only in the cities and are very frequent.
We also have bus services that do all of the above as well.

I did mention that we took a trip to northern Spain as it is only 60 km north of us. A scenic trip as it is all along the coast and the beaches and forests are stunning as are the small picturesque vegetable farms in their lush greenery.
The trip to the UK was a great experience. I would recommend the Cotswold (The Garden of UK) as a must see. The ancient villages are much like kids picture book fairy tale drawings.
You could actually see the trout swimming in the crystal clear streams.
I was surprised to see that in every town center they had stands with defibrillators in them behind a glass door and none had been stolen yet. The old fogies love to retire in the Cotswold hence the defibs.
Prices in the UK are about 3 to 4 times higher than Portugal so I will not be back soon.

Took a train to Faro in the Algarve in the south of Portugal but this will be later.





 

As I was saying.....I mentioned moving into cheaper accommodation in the quaint city center but this fell through.
Our lease contract states that we as well as the landlord must give 4 months notice if we want out or the landlord wants us out. I thought it was 3 months. Too late now so stuck here for a year. Been here nearly 2 years already. How time flies.
At least the landlord has not increased the rent since we moved in and cannot do so for the next year. Perhaps he is just too happy to get his rent on time for a change.

Will I do this again? Lugging 2 heavy bags over cobbled roads in scorching heat in a foreign country and not knowing where to even start looking for accommodation. All the red tape in SA to emigrate and the red tape to live here. You bet I would. Never been happier AND safer as I know I will never be burgled or even swindled out of money even though this is a city.
My wife once forgot the front door keys on the outside for 3 days and I never even shouted at her.

I think I did mention that people have a 2 hour siesta between 1 and 3. The market stall owners and street vendors would just disappear and leave their stuff unattended.

This is getting too long so I will continue tomorrow. Vinho branco time now.

Most stocks are very turbulent and CML is no different.

A book will be written about Zuma, the Gupta's and the Hawks about their second attempt to hijack the SARB. Perhaps a movie as well.