🐳 I went out for a walk at the cliffs again this lunchtime, checked on The Bunker...no new murals..., but the whales were jumping. I saw three water spouts, and then a big splash as one breached. This was followed by a fluke slapping in the water. Elsewhere I caught sight of a couple more breaches. This is all a long ways out, but clearly visible at the same time.
Now
🤔 I feel as though I have missed a day somewhere. I could have sworn that today was Tuesday, but Wednesday it is. I guess that the week is moving faster than I thought?!
🧙♂️ There’s a magic in the air this morning. There is not a breath of wind. The air is cool, with the rising sun making little difference as it sits behind whispy, mist like clouds. All is still. A distant hum of a lawn mower accompanies the bird song. Nothing else. Just the magic.
🤔 It’s Monday morning but feels like Sunday to me. I think because it is that week. The stretch from Christmas to New Year always feels like the longest week of the year to me, and I get completely disoriented. I can’t decide whether I just want it to be over, or to simply wallow in the holiday feel of it all?
☔ It’s raining outside. I didn’t see that coming. We have had such a long dry spell. Still it is welcome and I’m grateful for it.
🤕 After four days, the migraine that I have been nursing finally appears to be dissipating. I’ve been getting them for almost fifty years. In that time their intensity and frequency has varied. What has remained constant is that they come out of nowhere, start with with an aura around my eye until I can hardly see anything, that goes and then a thud of varying strength makes it presence felt. Nausea is probably present as well, perhaps a weak feeling through my body. The best treatment is usually silence, rest and no strong light. I have never had any luck with medication, both allopathic or alternative.
🫰 Things change. After a few days of beautiful, still weather, Maui winter weather at its best, we now have wind and horizontal rain.
Wednesday, November 27, 2024 →
🔪 Sharpening knives ready for tomorrow…and it was an overdue job anyway.
🥶 Brrrhhh! Upcountry Maui is windy and cold right now, though those in more northerly latitudes might question my use of the emoji I chose here?!
☕ Something's up, I don’t know what, but I’ve just made my third early morning coffee.
😒 “Oh the joys of jet lag,” he says typing away in the early hours of the morning while wide awake.
🛌 My bed had an iron grip on me this morning. It was quite a fight to get out. I gave into the struggle a couple of times, but eventually won through. Coffee is now being made.
🏁 A first this morning. I drove from Alcácer do Sal to where we usually park in Lisbon without using GPS (Apple Maps). I’ll need it to get out this evening, but I’ll chalk that up as a win for familiarity and knowing my way round.
📰 I came across a British Sunday newspaper while out today, the FT Weekend for the curious. I love a Sunday newspaper but rarely see one these days (living in Hawaii, the weekend is almost over for most of the world by the time that we wake up). Being here in Portugal increases my chances of finding one, and today I found a source.
So this evening I’m sitting under a light with the paper spread around me. I’ll probably still be dipping into it at week’s end.
I’m a happy chap tonight.
🥱 Almost without fail, I wake up later in Portugal, sleep longer.
🚿 Well I didn’t ask for that, but I got a proper drenching getting out of the car. It was like being in a car wash. Water from all sides and a river rushing down the road to clean my shoes!
🌧️ There has been a Severe Weather Warning hovering over us since this morning, and now it appears to have arrived. With that said, the severity of that warning is changing rapidly. The forecast thunderstorms have currently disappeared and it now looks as though we’ll have moderate rainfall into the night. Though even there it is now no longer lasting until the early hours.
I’ll take my weather app as a guide, and my gazing to the skies as the more accurate assessment of current conditions, and what might be coming.
👋 Olá Lisboa. Olá Príncipe Real.
In Lisbon for the day with Maui friends. Saying goodbye to them tonight as they head home.
🐦 There’s barely any light in the sky, but I can hear the first birds of the morning singing the early notes of the dawn chorus.
😵💫 Well jet lag did its bit last night. I’m up before six having a cup oof coffee having managed probably less than two hours sleep.
At least I can enjoy the quiet early hours…it’s beautifully quiet.
🧟 Jet lag sucks. Last night, pill aided, I slept for 12 hours, after a day of feeling delirious as I tried to stay awake following my early morning arrival.
Today (or yesterday, Tuesday, as I write this) fresh air, a massage and a good meal helped me relax and feel more back in my body. I went to bed feeling tired, but a little fearful that I was not tired enough…
Sure enough tonight, although pill aided again, I am typing this wide awake after maybe one hour’s sleep. I slept better on the airplane. I can feel the call to sleep knocking on my eyes. I feel a little lightheaded. However, so far no luck. I fear morning will bring a discombobulated day.
🥱 Waking up at LAX, or rather an airport hotel nearby. Heading to the UK to help see my mother and hopefully help with some water leaks in her apartment.
🌃 6:10pm and I am in my pyjamas. Well I am home, eaten, showered, I'm not going out anywhere for the rest of the evening....so I figured that I might as well get ready for bed (though I'm not going there quite yet).
😶🌫️ It’s a misty, wet and muggy night out there. I didn’t expect this end to the day. Good night everyone.
🌧️ Making coffee on a hot, muggy morning, and listening to the sound of rain as it dances off the concrete around the house.
Saturday, September 14, 2024 →
🏃♂️ It’s the Hana Relay today. A 52 mile race from Kahului Airport in Maui to Hana, along the twist and turns of the road to Hana. Teams of 6 compete with each team member running 3 legs of 2 to 3 miles each. Waking up this morning I could see a big group of vehicles parked up for one of the change over points, and competitors running down the hill. Good luck to them all.
Wednesday, September 11, 2024 →
🌬️ Yeh! It looks as though the Trade winds have returned. They are blowing through the open window this morning. After a handful of days of very hot, muggy weather, hopefully as today moves on through the conditions will be a little more manageable.
🌧️ Rain stopped play. I was outside topping the hedge and this cloud out of nowhere and dropped a quick but heavy shower. That stopped almost as soon as it started, but not for long. The rain is falling and I can see no blue sky in sight. So I've come inside now and am just seeing what is happening online.
🔌 Last weekend we got through a hurricane, tropical storm and tropical depression with no power outages. From my experience here, that is not what I would have expected.
Today has been a beautiful day and it ends with the power going out an hour before sunset. An hour and a half in and still there is no clear idea when everything will be up and running again.
😮💨 I’m exhausted. Today was a long day.