So the big day arrives and we head to Fortress Pump House once again for the usual routine of Breakfast and pre-match build up and before we knew it kick off had arrived. A tense first half with a mixture of English and Portuguese in attendance. Despite my reluctance, the tv crew from Portuguese channel SIC were adamant they wanted my views on the action so far, and there I was in front of the camera again to give my opinion albeit in Portuguese. It went ok, although I think I said something about Rooney being important for us (Doh!). The second half continued in the same vain as we all now know England went on to victory through penalties, before beating France with a Rooney hatrick, and then trouncing a sorry Italian team in the final with Crouch scoring an unlikely overhead kick before 4 other players chipped in.

 

(Well, not quite, this was the result of a conversation over a few imperial that I was so far behind I'd write about England's victory and my blog would become a work of fiction from here on in.)

 

So England crash out on Penalties once again, and we were stuck in Lisbon with very few places to hide, wearing tear streaked face paint(not quite, but almost). We stuck around to support Brasil, but it apears it wasn't our day as they also crashed out. So decided to cut our losses and retreat to Tim's place for a post world cup wake with beer and pizzas.

 

I'd just about got over the dissapoint by semi-final stage and joined the German gang for the Semi-final against Italy at the Goethe Institiute. Seems like I'm cursed as they also crashed out in the last minutes of extra time, leaving most of the attendees in a state of numb silence. My bad-luck continued the following day as I was with the Portuguese for their semi-final loss to France. (for the record I also wanted France to win the final- mainly for Mr Henry).

 

Over the final weekend there was a Free Festival of African music set in Belem on a stage next to the river. A group of us went for the first night before heading back to Lisbon for Jo's leaving party, finishing around 6am. A fitting send off - you will be missed Jo!! (Come visit soon!)

 

After another night of the Africa festival, Saturday and Nuno's Birthday had arrived. We congregared in a garden in Restelo armed with Paddling pools, Ice, beers, Febras, a football and a bbq. The highlight was a rather crowded, Portugal v the rest of the world kick about, which we were winning, before a rash challenge (on concrete) and ensuing handbags, prematurely brought an end to the fixture. As the sun began to set we joined the Africa festival once again, for some Reggae from the Ivory Coast (T'ken Jah F'Koly or something similar) A car full of us then moved on to a really cool outdoor bar looking over the river, with a scattering or mattresses, tables and cushions and big fabric dome tent thing with a tv showing bizarre japanese films (reminded me of Spectre-man, or whatever the guys name was, Friday video nights with a chinese take-away with Dad as a youth). The World cup final had arrived and so had Karen and Gia for the week, quick tour, bit of a siesta and on to the pump house for the big game, meeting most of the gang in there. Karen got chatting to Dave and I managed to learn more about him in 30 mins that I had in the previous 6 months! The girls were tired after a long day so we decided to give the Festival a miss and headed back to the veranda with a bottle of Vinho Verde.

 

Monday was a beach day with Nuno, Polona and the gang down in Costa Caparica, before giving the girls their first taste of the wonders of a night in Bairro Alto, discovering the delights of Morangoskas, Caipirinhas and plastic cup street drinking. I didn't have many lessons this week, so it worked out kinda well, even if the girls did prefer days at the beach to my ideas for more cultural trips around Lisbon. We met Maddie and Amy on the Tuesday and all decided to go to the beach on Wed. We had a dinner party at the house, and Polona had press ganged me into making Sushi, my first time outside of the lessons. Could have done with a bit more rice (I didn't know 13 people would turn up), bit stressful, but it went well with able help from Lemba, who picked it up so quickly - I was in danger of being upstaged. Donna arived on Thursday, so it wa another day of beach and Bairro, and first night excess, a bit messy but we made it back in one piece. Friday and Saturday folowed in a similar vein with beach trips, restaurants and nights out including a trip to the cool outside bar with fabric dome thing, followed by Santos for a drink in Estado Liquido (with a Guy playing sax over a DJ inc a Metro Area track, schmmooove) and Fluid (Funkiest wall paper in Lisbon and best Apple n Vodka drinks).  Saturday didn't start too early and it was always gonna be a bit of a stress with the plans we had, spot of shopping, Largo to Calmo and views over Lisbon (I insisited on something at least slightly cultural), before hitting the beach, meeting (Donny) Chris in the process (just to clarify, he's from Doncaster, not some Gangster reference or owt). A few beers by the sea, dinner back in Lisbon and before long it was getting late. The girls wanted an early night as they were leaving early on the Sunday.

 

After seeing them off I'd arranged to meet Maria, although we weren't too sure what we wanted to do - Well Maria suggested the beach, but after a week of hardly anything but, I was a little less than keen. We decided to go the Portuguese yoof approach, spending the hot afternoon, in the air conditioning of a shopping centre eating fast food and going to the cinema. First stop, McD's, the first time I've been in a long time, but if you're going for crappy fast food, why stop at KFC. The cinema trip was abandoned due to a lack of good films or concensus - I'm still not sure which. Plan B found us laying under the shade of a tree in the gardens around the Gulbenkian museum, which was really nice until my prediction that the 'flying rat' in the tree above us might not be able to resist such easy targets, came true, and I happened to be the chosen sitting duck, although technically human and lying down the pigeon wasn't so interested in semantics - what luck! Maybe it was a sign? Maria made a few hanging comments about Night swimming with ex-boyfriends, but if there was a hint there I wasn't getting it - unless of course she actually wanted to talk about REM. We decided to head to mine for dinner and a film after a chance encounter with a couple of cockroaches. Maybe a spot of comedy was called for, but on reflection maybe 'Shaun of the Dead' wasn't the right choice. Hadn't realised the humour was so English (well I laughed - slightly).

 

On Monday, I'd got a casting appointment for some voice-over work and before I knew what was happening I was in a mini recording studio, with a glass screen and one of those professional mic's with a foam circle in front of it. After some prompting through the glass window I slipped on the headphones and could now here the guys in the other room giving me instructions. It went well I thought, but if they agreed they'd obviuosly misplaced my phone number or something as I never got a call. After a certain amount of gloating to Karen and the girls I was off to see Kanye West on Monday night an amazing open air evening gig in the fabulous Marques Pombal gardens in Oeiras. He lived up to the expectations, not only doing his big hits, complete with live string section but also covering a few others that I didn't know he'd produced. Lessons had now all but finished and it seeems it was the 'leaving do' season, with Andy's on tuesday (with the bombshell that he may not return after applying for a job in Holland) and Amy's on Thursday. Juan had some friends over too, just in case I couldn't think of a good reason to go out. It was definately worth a trip to Tejo bar (always is). Up to this day I've always viewed the optical illusion picture of two women (see attached) quite sceptically as I thought the hag like women with the huge nose was stretching at a bit, but there she was in the bar - uncanny (sorry didn't have my camera). On Saturday, Recloose was playing at Mercado so I met a few of the English gang in the all too predicatable 'Cena dos Copos', which we seeem to cling to like a comfort blanket, but I managed to prize them away and off to Mercado for the gig.

 

My final week of teaching before the summer was here and with a few cancellations it was hardly worth bothering by now, but I struggled through the 2 lessons like a trooper (for the record it's the first week that I've been paid for more cancellations than actual lessons - nice but when the total is 5 it's hardly a cause to celebrate). Spent much of my spare time, which was plentiful, enjoying final days (and coffees) with Gisa (and the girls), and finishing compilations of music for Juan (which I'd promised months ago) and one for Gisa before she left - it was a bit of a tight squeeze, but I finally finished with minutes to spare before going out for Gisa's last night.  

 

A Friday nights trip to Estoril had raised my expectations that I could encourage a few people to come along and see Fela Kuti's son play at a world music festival in Sines on the Saturday night, but unfortunately any willingness seemed to have dissapeared as the alcohol gave way to hangovers. I did think about going it alone for a while, but thinking was as far as I got and consoled myself with the thought that I might as well spend a last weekend in Lisbon before my travels down in the South, so I made my debut at Op-art near Docas to see a friend of ours, Anthony play.