It’s 19:15 (BST – ‘cos I haven’t checked what local time is yet), and I’m sitting in the dining room of my rental home.

1st impressions? Let’s just call it rustic. Seriously though, the house is clean and suitable for around 4 (smallish) people, with modernised bathroom facilities, and an ancient kitchen, most of which is taken up by a huge grill pot, (v.large BBQ) and an enormous chimney which covers most of the kitchen and spells bad headaches unless I’m very careful.

I’m waiting in to see the owner, and have practised a few encouraging words in Portuguese.

I arrived this morning, fairly early, and Auto-Route took me EXACTLY where I’d asked to be, though not without some hair-raising moments as Microsoft ‘Anna’ guided me through villages with some streets so narrow, a cigarette-paper would have felt oversize, but surprisingly no scrapes!

(Yes, that was fortunate – some would say lucky (!?) – See! I’ve already grown milder in temperament)

And talking of mild, since I arrived at 7:30 this morning, the sun has been shining, and the temperature outside is still ‘scorchio’.

M. do Corvo’s council have thoughtfully provided Wi-Fi Internet access in the town square, so it’s quite pleasant to sit in the small park amongst the shady trees, or at a table from a cafe, to do my emails, which I did this morning.

These included an email from the agents in Tynemouth, with derisory offer on my house, which if I was dealing personally with the putative buyer, would have met with a polite request to go away and stop wasting everyone’s time.

I’ve taken a couple of photos of the square – yes I know the Council has posted ‘official’ ones – you’ll like mine better, trust me. I’ll also take some tomorrow of this house and the ‘garden’.

Property Shop Portugal has several interesting houses for sale, and I’ll be looking at details of these on Monday. For now, I’ve settled at looking at M. do Corvo’s beautiful women, though my 1st choice of today is married – I’m reliably informed, but she has an associate which isn’t…

My source of information will, for the moment remain anonymous! (Apologies for being cryptic, but remember – M. do Corvo’s population is well under 10,000, and it would only take 1 to read this blog)

Other items on my 4-point plan are going well. There is a largish, partly-plowed field/garden/orchard, on slightly sloping land, attached to the rental, so promises rewarding days of target practise with my bow. It goes without saying that I’ve also had my first ‘session’ on the guitar in Portugal.

I also pulled and ate my first ‘honey’ fig off a tree , before washing it down with water from a village fountain – fabulous!

21:53 BST

Slight digression. The owner of the house called to demonstrate the machinations of the gas water heater etc., then I headed off on a circuitous route to the centre of Miranda. I passed through Tabua on the way, and discovered a small botequim, with a gathering of locals, which promises to be an interesting visit for the future.

I’ve met her. That is: either I’ve met the Senhora I was told about this morning; or I’ve met someone equally beautiful! More later.

I’m now back home after a light supper of a sanduiche de fiambre and one bottle of Super Bock. I used Auto-route to navigate home – it only coughed once, but no serious problems.

As a Sat Nav, the combination of Netbook, W7 and Auto-Route has several advantages, but a lot of disadvantages, as I discovered on my journey here. Frequent adjustments to the screen, requiring mouse or touchpad use, are necessary, but impossible whilst travelling.

Boa Noite from joe.