In this, Sally talks about her return to the UK for Christmas 2003
after having started a new life in Portugal.
It was very strange to be back in the UK. I flew on 19
December. At check-in at Lisbon airport, I was furious to be
charged excess baggage by BA especially when the flight was half
full. Interestingly enough, the return flight with self same
baggage incurred no excess baggage charge on another half full
flight. Other friends, who flew the following day to London
to connect with a flight to Canada, were also hammered for ski
kit. An outraged missive to BA on why Lisbon charged when
Heathrow doesn’t, resulted in no apology. I have always
preferred to travel with TAP who surprisingly did not charge any
excess baggage to anyone over Christmas! Warn friends over
the double standards of BA!
When I arrived at Heathrow, having left Lisbon in deep mist (they
like to call it fog), I had forgotten how grey the winter skies are
– quite a shock. I did find the UK incredibly
expensive. I know it was only 18 months or so since I had
left, but I certainly thought things had increased in price.
Also you notice the commercialism much more with all the adverts on
TV, radio and hoardings. You also realise what a wide
difference between earning levels there are between the UK and
Europe. As an example, I was in Carphone Warehouse picking up a new
chip for my phone when I ear wigged a conversation at the side of
me. A young lad was with his parents and enquiring about the
latest state-of-the-art mobile. The cost of this phone was
approximately £350! When you convert that over to euros, it
is roughly the monthly salary of a policeman here – fireman earn
slightly less. I took the bus from Bath to Bradford-on-Avon
and nearly fainted at the single fare – £2.40! The journey is
about 20 minutes. For that fare you can travel twice (return)
from Cascais to Lisbon on the railway (a forty minute journey)!
The biggest shock to the system was the price of coffee!
Definitely spoilt over here. A small black coffee is about 50
cents out of the city and in small coffee bars; the highest price
would be about 90 cents in a posh area of Lisbon (70 UK pence is
roughly equal to 1 euro).
Strangely enough I actually found just before I left the UK that I
was feeling homesick for Portugal – I wonder what that means!
Driving a car was great fun but again I found I had to work really
hard at remembering which side of the road to drive on, and I admit
to going the wrong way round a junction – luckily nothing was
coming! I also had to concentrate and remember that sunshine
and frost sometimes mean ice! Funny how fast you forget these
things.
Flew home to Portugal on 3 January and left grey skies for stunning
blue skies and burning hot sun! Coming back along the
motorway was quite surreal, as so many flowers had bloomed over the
Christmas period.
Pompey (the kitten) was so thrilled I was home that he slept with
his head on my face and his body curled between my head and
shoulder for a whole week!
Although it is winter here in Portugal, it is quite different to
the UK because there is so much in flower. Because of the
rain we have lots of different shades of green, Madonna lilies are
all out, the cherry blossom is just starting, magnolias are in full
bloom along with camellias. Mimosa is also out. It does
make a difference. The weather has been far better than last
winter. We have had some days where we have had torrential
rain but then it stops and you get a bit of blue sky and sometimes,
magnificent rainbows. Some days have been quite warm but
again, it can get quite cold at night and I have had my gas log
fire (salamandra) on a few times which is rather nice as you have
this glow in the corner.
I have now received my official Numero do Contribuinte – my tax
card which means that I now have to sort out all my receipts to
hand in by the end of this month. I can claim medical,
dental, any purchases to do with work, petrol and restaurant bills
(this I was told was to help the tax authorities make sure the
restaurants in question actually declare revenue!) For those
of you who know my hatred and frustrations with sums – keep your
fingers crossed. I have no doubt that things will be thrown
and tears shed when I do this later this week.
