Graham Denby: Fine time for guests

Jun 10 2009 by Our Correspondent, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

WE’VE had our first guests in the downstairs apartment.

They were a Portuguese couple with a young daughter aged four and a grandma as resident babysitter.

It works for all nationalities, you see! They lived over the river from Lisbon in Lisboa and had come ‘out in the sticks’ for a bit of a break. The couple were both in the Portuguese Navy but seemed to have their land-legs. The daughter spent most of her time here playing with Bom the dog. Whether Bom enjoyed it we’re not sure, but she’s good natured and hasn’t a nasty bone, or bite, in her body.

Also she’s really nippy about the place with a body swerve to outdo Ronaldo, so that helps.

The following week we had four Germans – Heinke the teacher and three students studying Roman sites around the Alentejo Campo.

We didn’t know what to expect really, but I don’t suppose they did either – especially as I had the builders in.

Way back, well, it seems a long time ago now, when we’d had the house built on the ‘greenfield site’ we had the existing road (old track) grassed over, ‘cleaned-up’ and strengthened to take our vehicles and the numerous apparatus needed for supplying the build.

We also had a couple of culverts dug so the winter rains wouldn’t erode the road where it crossed the small field valleys.

We were due to have it ‘topped’ after it had settled for 12 months. Helder, our builder, had made a few promises which hadn’t materialised – again like builders do – same in all nationalities! To be fair, the guy has been spot on with us.

Any road up, come the Monday the German geologists were due I got a call from Helder to say that so were his lads complete with road topping materials.

Well, I wasn’t going to stop him and it might well not happen anyway. But at 10am that morning the biggest tipper wagon I’ve ever seen backed its way down our drive, beeping like a smoke alarm up a chimney.

It was accompanied by a pickup full of builders with varying ideas where to dump this first load of four and promises of the JCB after the driver had finished his meal!

As happens at times like this I saw a minibus slowly drive by on the top road with a number of bemused faces peering out, but with no identifying marks...bus or faces!

It turned out it was Heinke and her party, on a reconnaissance trip. They were not best pleased.

How did it turn out? Find out next week!

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