After yesterday and getting to a welcome bed a little earlier I was up at 11.06, and ready to be outside walking off the cobwebs in my brain. It was warmer outside than in the flat and the first stop was the computer store to pick up my keyboard that has the letter Q stuck, there’s only one explanation as to why it’s that letter, it must be some kind of conspiracy.

From there to the swimming pool to give them their presents, American chocolate but I was too busy to stay and swim, great to see all the humans at reception. From there to the psychedelic psupermarket for psychedelic radishes. From there to the opticians in Marquês square for a long talk with a very knowledgeable young woman called Sara about lenses and frames and brands and weight and titanium and flexibility. All sounds normal even the radishes, but it felt freeing to be out and about, walking under the sun, unhindered by the misbehaviour of my brain, doing normal things, things that you can lose in a flash when a fuse blows.

Olivia had joined me, and my brain, behaving itself, instructed me to go to the small second-hand furniture store close to the square, the place where I bought the legendary red chair. Inside, a cold grey, sparse shop, full of a lot of junk, a washing machine that didn’t work, a rusty fridge but also a cooker, AEG, Made In Germany, must be good, 90€, worth the risk, we’ve discovered that these things cost a lot of money. Downstairs in an even colder, greyer and junk-filled cellar, two damaged mannequins, one with no arms and the other with one arm, perfect, how much? 15€ each. I asked where the arms were, the man had no idea so I went down to look for them and found them, but with no hands. When I told him I’d found the arms, also damaged, he said they would be more expensive now, haha, I protested. He called the boss to check and there was no extra charge for the three handless broken arms, duh.

From there down into the city to our new place to meet Nuno the landlord to discuss the water, the electricity and gutting the place and starting again. We were getting the mannequins and the cooker delivered and we waited for the men in the van. Nuno left after organising a meeting tomorrow with a man who will help us plan a kitchen and a shower, well at least we have a cooker. Across the road, the ladies of the day gathered, all on their phones. This street is very much more ‘active’ than the street we live in at the moment, I hope they are as friendly as they are up here.

Casually dropping by the record store and the music store, I walked back up the hill for the last two weeks of our Santa Catarina home and got back in time for the Liverpool derby, Olivia took the metro. After dinner with The Peripheral (a new sci-fi series), my head went down to reading and listening land trying my best to follow up on all the projects, thank you all for letting me contribute to your ideas.