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It’s 4am ish and I’m awake.  Not just going to the loo awake, but up, bouncing, alive awake.  It’s so very annoying.  It’s not even approaching day break and there’s no sense that anyone else in the village is doing anything as silly as being awake at this time, so what am I doing up?

To be frank, I have no idea.  I love my bed, it’s a great place to be.  And I love sleeping; pity I’m not awake to enjoy it, as my dad would say.  I’ve been thinking for the last 30mins whether to get up or not.  And then there was the decision as to whether to get productive and get online or just to make a cup of tea and read.  But it’s too cold in the kitchen, so here I am.

1. Why is this happening? I’m such a heavy sleeper.
2. Is there too much or too little alcohol in my system?
3. Should I stay in bed and fight the urge to be asleep or should I get up and be productive?
4. If this happens regularly, should I embrace the change in my body clock?
5. If #4 happens, the problem I have is work.  Clients expect me to be available between 9am-5pm.  If I am up and about at 4am, it’s unlikely I’m still going to be useful by lunch!
6. The house is cold.  There’s no central heating and I’m not starting a fire.
7. Could it be my hormones..?

About the Author:
Emma Crabtree is the owner and sole-operator of Red Box Virtual Office, an off-site business support service.  Red Box Virtual Office can enable you to free yourself from the day to day admin of your business so that you can focus on what you enjoy and what makes you money.

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Just come back from the Finanças. Ongoing IRS/house sale saga.  Nightmare.  But have come away with new information that if true, makes me question part of our raison d’etre for being here:

1. The reinvestment of any capital gains HAS to take into account the value of the property WHEN YOU BOUGHT IT.    So the money we got from our house sale in Nov 2007, the value of which was €100k+, has to be ALL invested into a new property. Ouch!

2. You can either reinvest in a new property OR in works to that property. Not both.  No wonder there’s so many abandoned houses in Portugal.

3. You have 3 years in which to get rid of any money you may have put by for your old age!

So, from what I understand, there’s no incentive to downsize, there’s definitely no incentive to invest in older properties/ruins and using property to try and build a nest egg is futile here!  There’s no way you can buy when the market’s low and sell when it’s high without some opportune help from your accountant (we need one of these!)

I don’t want to have to think about buying bigger and bigger properties until I die, I have no desire to clean them for a start.  I wonder what you do if you’re single (by choice or divorce or death)?  Suppose you had a big 4 bed place, wanted to sell to move to a 2 bed flat, what do you do with any gain on a sale?  Get taxed on it?  Lordy!

I’m now thinking that €3k+ kitchen I was after isn’t such a bad investment after all!

I had a quick break away this weekend and went up to the Alto Douro/Trans-as-Montes in the far north of Portugal.  Ecademy/BNI has invited Bob Nicoll to Portugal and he came over, via Italy & the UK and several other places in between.

We stayed here at the Hotel Flor do Monte.  It is a small, but perfectly formed hotel about an hour north of Pinhão, in the Alto Douro region.  The rooms are spotless, the pool is covered and the hospitality & welcome are warm and generous. The owners, the family Fonseca Ribeiro, are wonderful and generous people.

We had both lunch and dinner here as part of the BNI weekend with Bob and the kitchens are superb.

Our host, Victor Marques of Vitória Koi, was so enthusiastic about us being there that we saw more of the Alto Douro and it’s beauty than we would of on our own.  We were taken to a number of wineries and sampled some gorgeous wines.  The best of the wine, to my palate at least, was the D. Paio Velho Tinto, a full bodied, round, intense wine, made from a mix of Touriga Nacional and Franca grapes.  The port wine from the vineyards of Quinta da Cuveta was amazing; 30+ years old & I got to take a bottle home with me.  Being the only woman in the group had it’s advantages!  Loz took home a t-shirt!

If you have never visited the Douro valley, I would highly recommend it.  It’s one of the 13 UNESCO designated areas in Portugal and one of only 3 UNESCO sites that are wine orientated, 2 of which are in Portugal, the other one being in the Açores, on Pico!

I could try and describe the Douro for you, but believe that the area best speaks for itself.  Go see it and be gob-smacked.

About the Author:
Emma Crabtree, Virtual Assistant and Chief Organiser, is the owner and sole-operator of Red Box Virtual Office, an off-site business support service.  Red Box Virtual Office can enable you to free yourself from the day to day admin of your business so that you can focus on what you enjoy and what makes you money. Go to the main website to find out more

Nesta tarde, estieve no medico e esperei 3 horas para as exames importante.

Tinha uma consulta!

Não é a primeiro vez neste aconteceu, não será o ultimo, acho.

E só eu.

Além disso, o que é que acontece se é uma pessoa ‘normal’?  Se tem um emprego, um patrão, responsibilidades?  Ou uma pessoa que precisa de ir ao medico quarto ou cinco vezes cada ano.  “Peço-desculpa patrão, preciso mais uma tarde de ferias/folga ir ao medico.”

Com a medica, a cuidade é fantastico.  Mas esperar mais um boucadinho?  Não obrigada.

When I lived in Putney, London, I used to get my hair cut at a salon called Peter Penny on Putney Bridge Road.

There Katy would trim and massage and generally do a wonderful job with my hair.  It would be her who had to be satisfied with a job well done before I could leave.  Her attention to detail was a delight.

I left Putney and Peter Penny’s, Katy went off to have her baby and since then I’ve been through a multitude of hairdressers who haven’t quite lived up to my Katy.

Today that changed.

Arriving in Portugal, over coming ‘how would you like that?’ was the least of my worries.  After 4 and a bit years, I’ve finally found my Katy substitute.

Her name is Dinah, she works at the Berlim Beauty Salon in Condeixa-a-Nova and she is a dream.  I even got a head massage!

Many businesses could learn from Dinah and Katy about attention to detail, value for money (my cut cost €10,50) and all round good customer service.

As for me, I’m less Shaggy, more Servalan and feel set to take on the world!

O volume de produtos reciclados em Portugal cresceu no ano passado, atingiu 2,6 milhões de toneladas em 2008, mais 12,3 % do que o ano anterior, com o valor das vendas do sector a atingir os 604 milhões de euros.

Segundo DBK, o aumento do volume de vendas resultou do aumento dos preços dos vários marcados, sobretudo de produtos metálicos.

Aqui em Portugal, podemos reciclagem garrafas de plastico e vidro, papel, cartão, jarros e  latas.  Todos os comunidades têm áreas para reciclagem; a nossa é só 20m em frente do apartamento!  Fácil!

Aquelas mortes não estão sustenável.  Portugal tem 10, 12 milhões pessoas.  Tudo morte é trágico, e eu percebo a teste de conduzir em Portugal é tanto complicado.  Mas a minha pergunta é: os Português não pode conduzir. Porque?

I love the fact that even a small town no bigger than my birthplace in the UK, has been able to get itself noticed by people such as the Clinton Foundation.   Serpa will be holding their Serpa_Energias Renováveis, Construção e Ambiente Sustentáveis, over 27, 28, 29 March 2009.

About the Author:
Emma Crabtree, Virtual Assistant and Chief Organiser, is the owner and sole-operator of Red Box Virtual Office, an off-site business support service.  Red Box Virtual Office can enable you to free yourself from the day to day admin of your business so that you can focus on what you enjoy and what makes you money. Return to the main website to find out more

Congratulations to everyone who took part at Choupal, Coimbra this morning.  According to RTP, there were about 1300 people present, making a loop around part of the national forest in demonstration against plans to build a new road through the park.

Choupal is a great spot, probably the lungs on Coimbra and there are plans to build a road that connects the north and south of the city, diverting traffic around Coimbra, rather than through it.

Both Lawrence and I were there this morning, along with users of the forest, old and young.  We donated to the cause by buying the t-shirt!

About the Author:
Emma Crabtree is the owner and sole-operator of Red Box Virtual Office, an off-site business support service.  Red Box Virtual Office can enable you to free yourself from the day to day admin of your business so that you can focus on what you enjoy and what makes you money. Return to the main website to find out more

Parabéns todo pessoas fui em Choupal nesta manhã em protesto do que o novo rodavario na mata de Choupal, Coimbra.

Tanto gente, 1500, um ar de simpatica e generosidade.  Um pouco chaotica, mas além é Portugal!

TVI e RTP fui lá também.   Um senhor no ‘micro-lite’ tirou fotos de nos. Espero pelas fotos!

About the Author:
Emma Crabtree is the owner and sole-operator of Red Box Virtual Office, an off-site business support service.  Red Box Virtual Office can enable you to free yourself from the day to day admin of your business so that you can focus on what you enjoy and what makes you money. Return to the main website to find out more