Pictured below is one of the most expensive bolts in the world.

It’s a replacement for one that snapped before we left the old studio and is a key component of our American-made Latch Lake micKing® 3300 microphone stand. They have a lifetime guarantee and the excellent European distributor—Bigger Boat Distribution—supplies parts for free.

They shipped one out to us with a value on it of £1 for customs purposes. Sadly they marked it as a sale and not a gift as I requested.

CTT—the Portuguese postal service—charged us €0.24 which is the VAT and €8.50 plus VAT clearance fee. It took three weeks to go through the process. Welcome to Portugal.

//////

I usually have my desk and computer next to Betty, our 48-channel CADAC mixing console, but we are not set up as yet as Suzy Starlite needs to work her magic with the decor and me with the acoustic treatment.

The console and much of our recording and processing gear will reside in the aptly named Pit—the basement of the house—which has access to the garden and pool through two, three-metre glass doors which can be fully opened. There are also shutters outside. It should be cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

For now I have set up my desk in the live room on the ground floor. This is the place where we will record drums, other acoustic instruments and full bands. It is the home of Starlite’s piano, the Hammond Organ, Leslie speaker, Wurlitzer electric piano and the Philicorder.

For the past three weeks I have, somewhat unsuccessfully, been attempting to keep up to date using my iPhone and iPad but amazing how much stuff you miss when you don’t use a desktop computer. Anyway, it’s set up now and I am wading through the admin.

//////

Starlite has been playing Christmas Carols for the past few days. Occasionally she breaks out into something new, or one of the songs which will be on the next album. I love it.

//////

We needed to go shopping and there was as offer on again at our preferred supermarket Pingo Doce—spend €100 and get vouchers for €20 of fuel at BP and €20 off your next shop. Unmissable.

First we need to take the girls swimming. The tide was coming in strongly and I checked the IMRAY tide app to find it was 20 minutes before high water at Peniche—the closest listed port to us—but didn’t look like to me, or the squeakers who were briskly swept along whilst retrieving their little surfboard toy. I will investigate further.

It was around 1300, and although bracing we thought taking a beer outside at Cafe O’Clock would be a great idea.

Bruno, who we met last Sunday, was waiting on and presented us with two glasses of Estrella 1906. Over our years of living in Europe, we have learned to love small glasses of beer. In the summer it doesn’t have a chance to become warm and is generally stronger, creating the desired effect without the volume.

//////

The supermarket is around 20 minutes away and as you would expect was heaving because of the offer. We are very economical with our shopping and try to get as close to the €100 spend as possible. Starlite has the calculator and adds up as we go along. We eat a lot of turkey breast which is Portuguese is called Peru. Turkey - Peru, confusing for sure. It’s close to Christmas and there wasn’t any available so I bought a pile of chicken instead and a whole one for the BBQ today.

If you are a vegetarian, don’t read the next bit.

The best whole chickens are free-range and known as Frango do Campo. They come complete with head, feet, giblets and a bag of chicken blood. They eat everything here and specifically use the blood in a famous Portuguese dish called Cabidela de arroz—chicken cooked in its own blood with rice. I am still not sure what they do with the feet, but the butcher cuts off the nails before they give it to you.

OK. Read on vegetarians.

We left having spent €103.86. Our record is €100.27.

There was also a 15% discount from one of our other favourite supermarkets—Cointinente—and went there. This tends to be cheaper for domestic cleaning stuff, shampoos and soaps. This was our first time to to this branch in Caldas and it was very buy and parking was in limited supply—especially for the van of rock. There was an 25% offer on Denta Stix for the girls and picked up a box, but Starlite noticed the discount wasn’t applied at checkout so we waited at customer service to sort it out. It was mayhem there.

//////

We were starting to become less stressed but still thought it would be good to eat out and went to our now regular haunt Cafe Central. We ordered a lamb stew which was the prato do dia and to our surprise, one of our friends walked in with his wife, Christa.

Gerrit Ekkelenkamp was one of the first musicians we met when arriving in Portugal and is a harmonica player. He and his group—The Silver Coast Blues Band—recorded with us when in Samora. We all entered the main restaurant and had a lovely evening chewing the fat. They are from the Netherlands and speak great English. It was another chance meeting as two weeks ago we bumped into him at e.leclerc—another fucking supermarket. Onwards.

See you tomorrow.