Well, it’s now almost a week since we left the UK and we’ve been busy relaxing here in Goa! It kind of feels like a home from home coming back here. We’ve settled into our apartment and found our rhythm, if you know what I mean… restful nights, relaxing mornings getting a few chores done and then a couple of hours walking and relaxing on the beach… perfect!

On Thursday 5th December we went and bought our first set of Christmas lights (Katy Beck – let Paul know… we have now bought three sets and, whilst it’s not on a par with Pete’s usual lights at home, it’s getting there! 🤣🤣🤣🎅) and, as this had taken up a bit of the morning, we decided to head south, past Cavelossim to Mobor Beach for a few hours. There’s definitely been some changes here in Goa as we are both sure there are nothing like the number of beach shacks that there used to be… however, one looked familiar – called “Pearl’s” – so we headed there… all week we have felt as if things here are really not as busy as they were – according to the guys in the shack, things are picking up but it’s been a bit of a long slog since COVID…

As it’s usually afternoon before get to the beach, we usually head straight into the shack for a freshly squeezed orange juice… Although I didn’t get a photo, in Pearl’s there was a little Cattle Egret stood on the railing and which some of the other punters were feeding… when we went back in for our lunch an hour or so later, it was still there and seemed to have a taste for the tuna from my salad which Pete hand fed it! I’ll see if I can get a picture of this next time!

In the evening, we decided to head a little further down the road to “Casmy Restaurant” – this is somewhere we’ve actually stayed before about 10 years ago and we wondered if the owner, Ida, would still be there… of course she was and recognised Pete straight away! We spent a nice evening having a little catch up – Ida said that business is very bad (they always say that but even we’ve noticed how slow it is…) and that things really haven’t recovered since the pandemic… also, a lot of Russians used to come and maybe, with the Ukrainian war, that’s had an impact?

Anyway, it was nice to catch up with Ida – later on, Pete asked if she could recommend a jeweller as, for his 70th Birthday, I wanted to get Pete a replacement wedding ring after he lost his original one either on the allotment or in the garden! (I am sure some lucky bugger will one day dig the original ring up… good luck to them! Being the lovely person that Ida is, she not only recommended someone but said she would come with us to the shop in Magao (the main town here in the South of Goa – now called Madgaon). We set a date & time for our trip and then headed back to the apartment – just in time as we had the biggest, and (for me anyway) exciting but at times scariest, thunder storm and torrential rain we have ever experienced in India! It was a whopper! At one point, I thought the building had been struck by lightning as the thunder crack was a bit terrifying! 😱🫣 Fortuntately, it was all over within an hour or so and, apart from a few distant rumbles through the night, it was pretty quiet!

On Friday (6th December), after another lazy morning, yeh, you guessed, we decided to visit our local beach (Zalor)… having had a walk up the beach towards Varca on arrival, we also did another smaller walk the other way (towards Cavelossim) after we ate lunch… here’s some of the birds (and a Water Buffulo bull taking a wash!) that we saw…

Saturday (7th December) was our morning for meeting up with Ida for our trip to the jewellers in Madgaon (Margao). Ida drove us in her “new” car and was accompanied by her husband…. Not sure we’ve ever known his name as he’s like the complete opposite to Ida and doesn’t really say much (think he’s had dependency issues in the past which have affected him)… it was a very slow journey… there are so many scooters on the road (as there always have been), it’s quite difficult for the cars to get around them! Ida had warned us that we would have to park outside the town and walk in – however, it seemed to us, from our previous visits to Magao, that we parked right in the middle of the town and it was just a short walk to the Jewellers she had in mind where she buys all her jewellery, which was near to the market.

The shop itself was very small and absolutely rammed! Ida said it was because it’s nearly Christmas and everyone was in there buying Christmas presents! For a minute, I thought Pete might walk out 🤣 but, after Ida pushed her way straight to the front of the queue (😳), we stuck it out and Pete ordered the replacement wedding ring that he wanted… which is actually being designed by the fella in the shop so it matches the one we had previously (they have kept my wedding ring so they can match it as well as possible) – we haven’t paid a bean yet and wont have to until they deliver it back to us (yes, they are coming to us!) next Tuesday! I’ve told Pete this is his birthday present for October (when he was 70!) and Christmas present too but what he doesn’t yet realise is that that’s for the next 5 years at least 🤣🤣🤣

After our trip to the jewellers, Ida said she had a few things to pick up so we headed into the market… here’s some pics…

We were all done, dusted and back “home” by 12.30pm… so we headed to the beach for some lunch, a good walk and an hour’s snooze in the cooler, late afternoon sun (hard life huh!)…

We have also realised that another change since we were last in Goa (5 years ago), is that there are absolutely no beach sellers… even the ice-cream guy who used to push his ice cream trolley up and down the beach, has to stand by the entrance path to the beach… it’s a shame really as having a bit of banter with the beach sellers was all part of the “Goan experience” before!

After the beach, we headed off on the scooter to get some supplies which included some more Christmas lights, a tree and some decorations! Here’s some birds we saw on the way to the shops!

Today (8th December), we decided to spend the morning at the apartment getting some chores done (like some laundry!) and then headed back down to Mobor beach so that we could pop in the supermarket on the way back. Another lovely walk, there was quite a breeze today (which is quite normal for these parts!). We had already decided that we would eat in tonight (well, have a snack at home instead of going out for dinner…) – when you are away for a long time, we’ve always found that going out every night gets to be a bit of a fag in the end and, besides, although my brother Andy might not agree, you can sometimes have enough of curry (although there are many different cuisines available on most menus!)… my choice of evening meal tonight? Chocolate pancakes – yum yum! 😋 Not particularly healthy but hey-ho! I’ll try better tomorrow – maybe…

And just in case our neighbours are missing our annual Christmas light fest – here’s the ones we have up here in Goa!

Well, feels like I’ve been trying to finish this blog all night in between watching a bit of telly (Lee Finnegan, the Fire Stick works perfectly!), so that’s all for now… hope everyone is keeping safe from the storms in the UK… night night xx