Blood, sweat and almost tears

Hi everyone!
There's been so much going on in the last few days that I've really only just found time to blog so I warn you it could be a long one!
When Caroline and I arrived on Thursday afternoon we were shown around the house and the land and got to know our hosts a little bit. There are two adjoined houses that have already received a lot of attention - one is virtually finished and the other is getting there bit by bit. Mandy and John also want to turn some of the outbuildings into small rental blocks too. They've been trying to do a lot with the land in the time they've been here but due to unpredictable weather many of the plants are really struggling. After the tour we had dinner and I discovered that Mandy's mother actually lives in Orkney - I just can't escape!! We didn't stay up too late because we were working in the morning but we bad a good chat and watched the sun set from the terrace.
On Friday Caroline and I were quite happy to have a lie in and got up at 7.30am to start work after a quick breakfast and a mug of coffee each. Our mission was to paint as much of an outbuildings outside wall as possible. The wall joins with the white boundary wall so we wanted to make them match and make it look like someone actually lived there. We had a nice morning working away with a quick break for home made grape juice (made from home grown grapes) and we finished our working day at around 1.30pm.
After a nice lunch with salad and quiche Caroline and I opted for playing tourist in the town. She was only there for the one night and was leaving that afternoon so we made the most of out time and headed to the Convento de Christo (Convent of Christ). It was build back around 1160 and was the home of the Portuguese sector of the Order of the Knight's Templar for two hundred years before Order was dissolved and the Portuguese section became the Order of Christ. It's one of Portugal's most important historical monuments and is really is impressive. Looking up at it from the town you get a good idea of it's size. As we wandered around it was difficult to even work out what part of the castle or convent we were in. Old dormitory rooms filled three or four corridors, cloisters are to be found here , there and everywhere and despite the fact that the main church was undergoing restoration work from the outside you could see huge paintings covering the walls and ceiling with intricate stone carvings at every corner. We walked around for a good couple of hours before we finally decided we much have seen everything so we drove down to the town and went and explored the gardens below the castle.
We didn't spend long there however since we were both suffering from the heat a little and Caroline thought an old ear infection had returned - it was causing her some serious although slightly humerous balance issues. We drove back to Carril afterwards and I got dropped off at the have before Caroline drove off for some goat festival she'd agreed to go to.
The evening was spend chilling out chilling out and swapping travel and helpX  stories mostly since Mandy and John have done quite a bit of both.
Saturday started off with breakfast and the mandatory coffee fix before getting to work. Mandy and I spent the morning in the garden, first clearing weeds in the flower beds and the vegetable plots and then planting. We put in some coriander, rocket and spinach and had a rummage for what else could be planted next. We finished up then got a quick lunch before Mandy and I headed out for some time away from the building dust. We drove down to the lake nearby for some downtime. We spent most of the afternoon swimming - well I swam, Mandy thought the water was too cold - and reading on the Head in the sun. We got home around 5pm but we didn't stick around long. There was a living statue exhibit going on for a few days all around the town so we went into Tomar for a look around. The statues were brilliant, I felt sorry for the people having to stand around all painted up under the hot sun but they were really interesting and represented real statues and moments in Portuguese history. As we walked around looking for each one we also found examples of traditional folk music and dancing. I think we spent about an hour looking around before we returned home for dinner and another quiet evening at home.
On Saturday I returned to my painting mission. We'd gotten just beyond the half way mark last time although there had been two of us then. But I thought I might still be able to get finished so I stuck my head phones into John's iPod (since he wasn't using it), turned UB40 on to full volume and got to work. I managed to get almost all of it done although when i got called in near lunch time i still had a large chuck at the top to finish. However I needed to get scrubbed up and get ready to go since we'd be invited to Mandy and John's friends in another village. Wendy and Will are also expats and they invited another friend of theirs too. Our 'lunch' actually went on almost 8 hours! We ate, talked, laughed and drank (all in quite large quantities) and all had a great time. But eventually it was time  to leave - after all, the plants hadn't been watered yet!
We just had a pizza for dinner since we'd eaten so much already then I wandered off for a lovely Skype call from back home before bed.
Monday started of in the normal fashion then it was into my painting clothes to do some more work on the wall. I managed to get it all finished and still had time to draw up and paint some nice yellow borders around the windows and paint the metal work on the mains water tap box since it was next to the path outside the land and looked pretty grotty. After a few busy days I decided to stay home for the afternoon and evening in an attempt to find some helpX projects for October...no luck yet though - maybe cause I slept through half of that time!
Our work plans for Tuesday were a little different to normal. We were up bright and early to arrive and start work at a local vineyard - Casal das Freiras. We were shown to the field were we would be working however nobody had thought to tell us to bring our own secateurs... when the other pickers heard our situation you could tell they thought it was pretty funny - this silly English folk haven't even brought anything to work with! Luckily one old guy just happened to have three spare pairs so under his guidance we got to work. We worked for the first couple of hours before heading for a quick break then we realised that everyone else was parked right next to where we were working...we were on the other side of the field. However we hurried off for a drink and a quick snack before getting back to work. During this second stint I managed to find a young Portuguese guy who spoke English so we chatted when we were working on the same row of vines. We thought lunch would be provided for the workers but we quickly realised that we were fending for ourselves. Luckily we did have some more cake and some bananas in the car so we made do with that and relaxed a little before heading back into the field. When we got back I ended up working by the guy I talked to before, Tiago, and we ended up just teaming up and working along the rows chatting as we went.
Around 3pm however I was starting to feel a bit funny. I hadn't been wearing a hat and the portion size at lunch probably didn't help. I kept working despite it until I tried to cut a rather awkward bunch of grapes. Not only did I finally manage to cut through the vine, I also sliced right across the top of my finger - ouch! Definitely the most painful injury I've had in a while and it was gushing blood - nice. I was feeling dizzy before and, despite the fact I don't have a problem with blood, this pushed me over the edge and I had to carefully sit down before I fell down. After a bit of fussing and staring from the experienced workers, a couple of cups of water and the offer of Tiago's hat I got back to work - with my shirt wrapped around my head instead since the hat wouldn't fit over my hair.
Just before 5pm Mandy shouted over that she had to leave. She'd managed to cut through her thumb and was suffering even more than I had been. We drove back to the vineyard's owner's place so she cut get her hand seen too properly since the grape pickers hadn't done the best of jobs with the first aid but as we were finishing up the truck arrived with the grapes. We watched the grapes getting taken off their stems by the machine and had a look around the production room before being handed a box of wine for our efforts and heading home.
The evening was spent redressing work wounds - Mandy got hers properly cleaned and dressed it to my standards - then we all had an early night.
Today's work load was a little lighter after 8 hours in the field the day before. Mandy and I cleaned up some more of the garden and planted pak choi, carrots and beans before digging out around the fruit trees so that water would stay by the tree where it could be used instead of just running off  to other parts of the land. We also spent some time picking figs and by the time we had all those jobs done it was lunch time once again.
After lunch we decided to go on a little field trip. First we drove out to see the aqueduct which originally supplied the convent with water. It's still in almost perfect condition and the view from the top is pretty spectacular. After this we drove out to the Grutas de mira de aire - the largest caves in Portugal. They were first discovered back in 1947 and the cave system stretches along over 11km (although only 600m is open to the public) and over 230m deep in some points. The caves are amazing, they're huge! There are some brilliant examples of stalactites, huge caverns, flow stones which look like waterfalls made of rock and loads of other impressive geological structures - brilliant! Unfortunately the tour guide only spoke Portuguese during the tour but we still got a lot out of the trip and I really enjoyed it.
We got home around 6.30pm and had a nice quiet dinner, except for the dramatic moment when I apparently had a mouse by my foot. Since then I've just been super busy getting this written. However I've now told you all about my adventures so far here and I really should decide where I'm going after the Algarve next week.
So, until next time!