Little Things please little minds.

20 days to go.

Monday 4th November.

Today started off pretty much as normal.  DH went swimming, then collected a parcel for me from the post office and went and did the shopping.  I hate food shopping, in fact I hate shopping full stop!  There is one exception of course, yes - fabric for quilting.  However, I do well out of DH doing the shopping because he only brings the things I have put on the list.  If I go, I tend to overfill my trolley with "ooooh that looks nice" goodies.  This means I usually have a bit left at the end of the month.

Anyway, while DH was away I was doing the washing and other sundry "housework" sorry, sorry I know that is a swear word to all of us but sadly I do not have a fairy who comes in the night and does these things.  The door bell saved me and my new serger machine arrived.  Yippee I thought, I can run up a couple of skirts this afternoon.  OOOppppssss.  Didn't realise you needed a Phd to use of these "easy to use" brutes.  The afternoon and the evening was spent ingesting the whole book.  Never mind, there are still 20 days to go until we reach Madeira.

This is the small jetty by our hotel.  You can see the baby fish growing up in the water.  It is also the entry point to the sea for those brave enough to enter. DH also goes scuba diving from here.

The main harbour where the big cruise ships are moored.  From our balcony, we can sit and watch the ships as they come over the horizon and sail across and into port.  Then we watch them go out again.  Madeira needs the tourism to survive and the cruise liners bring plenty of currency into the area. Funchal is the main shipping port in the area and around Christmas there are numerous liners in.  New Year's Eve is the big one.  There can be as many as 20 liners standing off shore to see the fantastic fire-work display put on by Madeira.  One of the ones I would like to see.

Taken from the cable car this view shows the red roofed houses, a popular site in Madeira.

Another view from the cable car showing again the red roofed houses.  The municipality specify that the roofs be red so it does not look like a hotch potch from above. They also subsidise the tenants.        The sea really is this colour.

Finally a view from our balcony looking to the left, towards the main harbour.  The pink bit you can see is the hotel next door.

If you look to the right, we are next door to the famous Reids hotel.  This is where Winston Churchill had a suite, kept only for him, for when he was on the island painting.  His hobby and relaxation was to paint, I think, in oils. I will find a photo.  We had an English tea there.  It cost £30 (don't know the $) per person. We had a pot of tea, three small sandwiches and two small cakes!  We went home and had a meal.


I hope these photos have given you a small insight into where I am going.  I will photograph the Christmas set up for this year and let you see some of these when we return.
For now I will wish you a goodnight and God Bless.  I have to be up early tomorrow as DH goes to work, but that means a play day!!