Travellers’ Tales. Figueira Day 7. The lighthouse. Rainbows. IT problems - everywhere. And other stuff.

Another mixed weather day in Figueira. My weather app promised rain so I ran in my raincoat. It didn’t rain on me. But it did rain later and now, late morning, the sun is shining again.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to risk the chance of rain and walk to the lighthouse.

I didn’t get to the lighthouse as the way was blocked. Whether this was a hangover from the Storm Charles precautions or a general safety thing, I do not know. I’ve not known it to be closed to pedestrians in the past.

I saw some interesting graffiti.

And I did get rained on, but in compensation I got to see a rainbow!

I had a notification on my iPad telling me I had a message from my GP surgery. A new message! Perhaps another reminder to have a flu vaccination. 7I had the vaccination several weeks ago but the NHS still keeps reminding me.) So I logged on anyway. I failed three times to prove I am not a robot. Apparently I can’t recognise enough hats and bags and chairs. However, I am okay at recognising curtains! And the message: the surgery can’t deal with online requests because of the Microsoft outage!

We rely on Microsoft for so many aspects of modern life. Stuff that’s supposed to make life easier, but not necessarily simpler! Both GranddaughterNumber One and her mother have complained about their work being disrupted today - Friday the Thirteenth.

Here’s a cartoon that reflects our modern life.

Granddaughter Number Two told me they had frost on the roof tiles yesterday. Winter is approaching and the season of coughs and colds. Here is something by Adrian Chiles on colds:

“How to define the cold that’s ruining your day? There’s a hierarchy. We start with the sniffle, the mere runny nose, scratchy throat or just feeling a little off. This is the slight cold. The nose becoming more blocked than runny, and a cough coming into play, entitles you to call it a heavy cold. Any of the aforementioned symptoms worsening, accompanied by hotness, shiveriness, aching and general misery, gives you the right to call it a stinking cold. There’s also a malady known as man-flu, but I have no truck with such a lazy, gender-specific categorisation.

The only good thing about the stinking cold is that you have the green light to do sod all and repair to bed. This was me for three days this week, and it has firmed up a theory I have long held that you’re better off getting a stinker because it tends to come and go and be done with more quickly than the other varieties. This theory, I should point out, is based on my lived experience rather than any clinical expertise or any kind of research. Sorry – I felt too ill to bother with anything of the kind.

The kind of cold I really can’t bear is the middle-of-the-road, magnolia, vanilla, neither-here-nor-there type. When you don’t feel up to doing much, but neither, if you’re honest, are you feeling ropey enough to justify doing nothing. And these kinds of colds, for me anyway, seem to drag on for ever.”

There you go. Stuff to look forward to.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!