Well it’s been a lively few days celebrating the legend that is Tony Hennessy’s, Birthday. My liver is on the floor crying and I am not proud to say I have spent my Saturday night drinking tea! Yes folks, it’s true. Bloody lovely alcohol free Tetleys finest!

We have new neighbours. Albert and Alan, the cockney double act, have moved on. I was sorry to see them go, such a genuinely smashing pair of chaps. Our newbies are equally lovely. Rob and Debs. Can’t do enough for you. Bless her, Deb even offered to spin my smalls in her posh Motorhome twin-tub yesterday!

We kicked off Hennessy party central on Thursday with a beach barbecue. We all trotted off to our favourite Butcher, if you visit Manta Rota you must go! All the meat comes from their family farm, it’s fabulous. Marion prepared a big vat of Sangria with fruit soaked in brandy for the ladies. The boys packed the cool boxes with beer. Luckily the sun shone and we all partied on down in the dunes until sunset. It was great fun.

All would have been hunky dory if some eejit (probably me) hadn’t suggested we go for a nightcap in the bar on the corner. Three hours later, extremely worse for wear, we all left, under protest. The poor bar man was putting the chairs on the tables as a hint. The bar bill soon sobered us up, ouch! That’s ballsed this weeks budget up then. We sang our heads off all the way home, got shushed a few times and I nearly hung myself on next doors washing line. I woke up yesterday feeling like I’d been run over by a truck. Beans on toast and a bucket full of tea brought me round. I’m getting too old for all this daftness.

It was washday at Wadsworth Towers. Wrestling with double duvet covers is not fun with a hangover. Just call me Dame Twanky (why does that always remind me of Mick Gould – oh yes it does! He will know what I mean). I also needed to finish off Tony’s Birthday cake. Henry and Liz nipped in to say cheerio. They were starting their journey back to old Blighty and hoping not to get caught up in snow over the high bits. We’d had reports from other travellers of snow several feet deep around Santander. We will visit them in the New Forest in Summer with a bit of luck.

It was a taxi for 5 at 5 bells so we both got scrubbed up and ready for Birthday bash, round 2! We have hook up today so I even got to use my hair straighteners that have been gathering dust for months. We were off to the town of Monte Gordo for the night, to Tony’s favourite restaurant. We caught the early bar on the seafront for sundowners and we were off again!

Monte Gordo is a built up holiday resort just next to the Border with Spain. It has lots of bars and restaurants and a big casino on the seafront. It’s neither quaint nor pretty but it does have its own charm and to be honest I would come again just for the Restaurant. It’s called O-Tapas and it’s brilliant. I had clams to start cooked in garlic and parsley and then shrimp kebab. The shrimps were huge. You also got desert and coffee AND wine, all in for ten Euros. Wow!!! Of course we got silly and had more wine and then liqueurs but at least we didn’t do shots like the night before. There was a table of Dutch people behind us. They too were celebrating a birthday so we ended up joining forces! The Dutch are all batshit crazy! They are real party animals and boy they can drink! We had a really great night, very raucous, lots of singing. Here is my very tiddly drinks yoga:-

Anyway, today’s hangover was even more brutal than yesterday. I decided to stay in bed all day but I nearly died of starvation so I went to the shops under protest.

Check out the grumpy face! Anyway, all was well when I got home with a Portuguese style dirty takeaway, barbecued chicken and fries. Oh and “I’m never drinking again” wine. I am a lost cause.

It’s now 9 pm. Me and the dog have just been for our beach walk. The sky is fiery red over the lovely Fort at Cachela and the lighthouse is flashing over towards Isla Cristina in Spain. We’re tucked up in bed doing a bit of route planning. Thinking we may exit Portugal tomorrow and head up towards Seville. Time for another adventure methinks!

I shall bid you all a good night then chums. Hope you have a brilliant weekend. Will catch up with you on the road! Boa noyte for now, tomorrow it may well be Buenas Noches!