On Monday after our shocking round of golf Michael and I immediately booked the next round at our favourite course in Vilamoura – The Millennium course (http://www.dompedrogolf.com/our-courses/millennium-golf-course.html). While it still has a reasonable number of trees it doesn’t have nearly as many as Pinhal and both Michael and I really like the course. We had the first tee off time of the day at 7:30am. It was 16 degrees when we drove to the course and the word ‘cold’ was actually used for the first time on the trip. Turned out to be perfect golf weather (very little wind) and because we were the first group off, we finished by 10:30am. I didn’t start well but fortunately by the end of the round I had gotten my ‘golf mojo’ back while Michael started well, lost it in the middle and got it back again for last few holes. End result was that we scored exactly the same score and it was considerably better than Monday. We did also see an automatic lawnmower (no operator needed) cutting the lawn of one of the homeowners next to the course. First time I have ever seen (that is what the picture is of).
The other bunch were planning to go to the beach but because the weather was ‘so cold’ (23 degrees by the time we got back at 10:30), they had decided not to go and so we spent the morning in the house (too cold to sit outside in the sun even apparently). Some people watched The Iron Lady (the movie about Margaret Thatcher starring Meryl Streep) – quite a good movie giving you a good sense of who she was and how unfortunately dementia finally took over.
The ladies went back to the Algarve Shopping Centre after lunch to do some more shopping though it seems that Helen was the most successful shopper this time. The men stayed behind and played some table tennis and I also had a chat to our gardening service about what needs to be done in the garden before winter comes.
After dinner we decided to go down to the marina for a stroll and a gelato. The marina is the place to be in the evenings. Every English person who is staying anywhere near the marina is at the marina at that time of the night. The ladies are all dressed up but the men don’t dress up at all – they’re just in shorts and T-shirts. It is the funniest thing to see but every time we are here it strikes me. The other thing that strikes me are the yachts you find in the marina. The bigger ones are very impressive. Michael found a place selling them and the prices for the larger ones are around £1m each. Add to that the mooring fees, the need for skipper etc and you have to be seriously wealthy to own one of them. Stephen says that one day he is going to own one of them … he better start working soon then because he’s almost past his prime. Steve Jobs founded Apple at 21; Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook at 19. It’s only a few days now until Stephen’s 21st birthday so I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s going to invent in the next 2 weeks.
P, M (because he plays golf), H, C, S & O (the insults just keep rolling in from her …)