Night Plane to Lisbon

There’s a famous book called Night Train to Lisbon.

It’s about a rather serious teacher in Switzerland who suddenly gives up his job and embarks on a journey to Portugal. This is my version, though I can’t take a train from here and I do like to plan my trips in some detail before I set off. My plans so far:

Feb 28	dep PER 10.20 pm
Mar 1	arr LIS. Train to Porto
2	Porto. Sandeman
3	Porto. Sandeman
4	Guimaraes
5	Guimaraes. Porto
6	Madeira. Allegro
7	Madeira. Allegro
8	Madeira. Allegro
9	Madeira. Allegro
10	Madeira. Allegro
11	Madeira. Allegro
12	Lisbon. Lisbon Lounge
13	Lisbon. Lisbon Lounge
14	Lisbon. Lisbon Lounge
15	Lisbon. Lisbon Lounge
16	Lisbon. Lisbon Lounge
17	Lisbon. Lisbon Lounge
18	Lisbon. Lisbon Lounge
19	Lisbon. Lisbon Lounge
20	Lisbon. Lisbon Lounge
21	Dep LIS 13.35
22	Arr PER

I’ve always been interested in the idea of Madeira and its botanical gardens, where spring flowers bloom apparently out of season in an island paradise. Now I’m going there. I’ve also allowed plenty of time to explore Lisbon and maybe do some day trips.

In 2024, I had more or less decided I was getting too old for long distance travel, but now I’m tempted to do one more trip. I’ve been watching travel documentaries on TV with Miriam Margolyes (age 83) exploring NZ in a campervan and Michael Palin (age 81) in Iraq. If they can do it at their age, so can I. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Today looks like being the hottest day of the year in Perth, with 44 degrees forecast. I feel like the conditions envisaged in Juice are coming true and we all need to be underground, or at least in the swimming pool for a few hours.

Leftovers

We buy too much, we eat too much… and still there are leftovers.

On Sunday, we even went out to a restaurant and consumed some more! Nobu is Japanese and very up-market:

We ordered their take on bento boxes, which came in double-decker size, with a cold section on top and a hot section below! Very clever of Nobu, and makes things easier in the kitchen:

Just when I couldn’t eat another thing, they brought me a birthday surprise:

On New Year’s Eve, I didn’t want to stay up late. The fireworks would be noisy. I did a swap with E, who invited her friends for a sleepover at Burswood. I’m sure they had a good time as they went to bed at 4.00 am.

Meanwhile, C cooked curry at Como. There was a dry curry of cauliflower and potatoes and a wet curry of lentils:

We were up early on New Year’s Day, taking Rocky for a walk by the river:

A 39 degree day was forecast, so we were out and about before breakfast:

Then we set to work netting the fig tree. There is a constant battle with rats which run along the top of the fence and eat every single fruit that they can get their paws on. Not in 2025, if I can help it!