It was a slow start today as it was a bad night. It was hot and there was a squadron of mosquitoes, or at least what sounded like one, in our bedroom. Turned out that the aircon was making a noise that made it sound like mosquitoes and then we also had a real squadron of mosquitoes in room that were feasting on me most of the night. Needless to say I didn’t sleep much and so when I did get to sleep I didn’t wake up early.  When I did wake up I found that Helen had gone for a morning run again down to the beach. It was pretty warm already and she didn’t want to run back again so I went down and fetched her. It was a very hot day today – probably the hottest we have had since we got here – around 32C – with very little or no breeze most of the day as well. The picture is the view from our bedroom of some of the other houses nearby (and the clear sky).

We pretty much loafed the rest of day around the pool and the house (including a midday nap). Stephen and I went out to do some food shopping so that we had some food for dinner tonight.  The supermarkets in Vilamoura aren’t great, or at least we haven’t found a good one.  The best one is the one we went to today and it is in fact the one we found when we came here for the first time in December just after we bought the house.  Portugal could definitely learn from the rest of the world about supermarkets.

After dinner this evening we (H, C & me) went down to the beach and boardwalk at Quarteira.  Quarteira is slightly to the east of Vilamoura but there really is no distinction between the two places. Quarteira is like the second counsin of Vilamoura though. The beach area has apartments lining the road and reminded me of Strand in Cape Town. Lots of people were out walking along the boardwalk and many of them seemed to be locals. The beach was empty though. Helen pointed out that in Cape Town there would have been people having sundowners or picnic suppers on the beach but not in Portugal.

We came back to watch the end of the football game which saw Netherlands finally going through on penalties. I am hoping for a better night sleep tonight so long as the mosquitoes behave themselves.  Note to self … bring mosquito repellant next time.

Until tomorrow …. P, H, S (because he came to the shop with me), C (because she came to beach for an evening walk) and M (because he really did do nothing today)