Sunday 18 & Monday 19 Jan

Well, today was a bit of a write-off. Maggie was ill again, and spent the day in bed. I went off for a walk and to do some e-mail checking, and walked down into town and back again. That was pretty well the highlight of the day. In the evening, I was despatched to the local Chinese, for a take-away, and we spent the rest of the time passing each other hankies, paracetamol and throat lozenges.

Monday 19 January

After breakfast, we decided to go into town, and get the blog up to date, so we took the 10.30 courtesy coach into Funchal. (The cruise ship, Aidabella, was docked again – lovely looking ship.) Unfortunately, every man and his dog seemed to want to use the free wifi network, and it was painfully slow. We sat in a wifi zone for over an hour, and barely achieved anything, so gave it all up as a bad effort. We went to the useless tourist info office and booked tickets for a Mandolin Concert in the English Church this Saturday evening. Cash only, cos the Tourist Info Centre for Funchal can’t take credit cards! After a drink in a nice old café (established 1841), and another abortive attempt at getting on the net, we got the 1245 courtesy coach back to the hotel, where Maggie retired to bed again. I went down to the local shopping precinct, where there is an internet café, and although they don’t have wireless, they were able to get me online with a cable. In the next 30 minutes, I achieved everything that I had tried to do in 2 hours on the free net, so I’m now up to date on all e-mails, and the blog. I also paid for a full day tour of the Western half of the island for Thursday, and a half-day tour to the local “secret valley” for Sunday. This afternoon, Maggie felt somewhat better, so we took the late courtesy coach into the centre, and had a wander around before eating. We found a very nice bookshop even though it was pretty well all in Portuguese, but were able to browse the flora section, and found that the peculiar flower we saw a couple of days ago was an Agave. After eating, the plan was to walk back to the hotel, but when we came outside, it had started raining. Plan B was promptly put into action, and we got the local bus back to within about 50 yards of the hotel, and are now back in the room. Maggie’s in bed already (2005), coughing and sneezing. Let’s hope tomorrow brings better news, as we seem to have achieved very little in the first half of the holiday.

Maggie’s addition.
We cannot find a laundrette anywhere and having laundry done by the hotel is quite expensive. So, as 7 pairs of knickers don’t last for 21 days, I’ve resorted to washing things out in our little kitchen sink. We wring the surplus water out using a bath towel, and we’ve rigged up our 2 dressing gown cords to make washing lines on the balcony. It all seems to work so far; necessity IS the mother of invention! (Tom says the knickers bit is far too much information! But I am doing other bits as well). As I write this, 2 polo shirts and some of the aforementioned k’s are blowing in the breeze – I just hope that it doesn’t blow them off the balcony completely.