Vocal Voices

our builder.

He arrived quite late and almost said sorry

But he's sorted the leak - rubbish workmanship by the kitchen fitters, so an e-mail will be winging its way tomorrow. We have to let everything dry out now - and that includes the inside and the outside of the wall

Then he refused a beer but realised that he'd forgotten that we wanted a small railing over the walkway for the pump-room and also the wall is still not painted.

So no doubt that'll be done within the week.

And the charge?

Nowt, nada, zilch

I do think the Spanish and Portuguese are intrinsically nice...a couple of weeks ago David needed someone to look at the boiler in his new house.

I recommended Juan (who looks after ours) and he popped round late after work one evening. Got it fixed and wouldn't take a cent from David.

You could give him some veg
Did you ever get your free sheep(1)for letting them eat your grass

Sounds lovely way of life you have ton xx

Jose Felipe has seeded the bottom 2 acres for his sheep Saundra, so we have lupins and grass for them. I have no idea if we'll actually get a sheep - alive or dead

That's nice

Wasn't it nice when people did things for each other because they could?

The street I grew up in had welders, mechanics, carpenters, tailors, gardeners and so on and everyone chipped in.

Workingman wrote:Wasn't it nice when people did things for each other because they could?

This is what we do here, in my little part of paradise

There are still vestiges of it in rural areas, but you certainly wouldn't see anything like that in the city.

You'd be pretty lucky where we lived in Birmingham if people would pass the time of day with you, let alone offer help.

Even walking through Ourique, the older people - well, our age - always say Bom Dia or Boa Tarde. Some of the youngsters do to, but not many

But Ourique is a smallish town, rather than a city. Beja, Faro or Lisbon would be a different matter, unless you lived there.