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#fozdoarelho

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Simon Campbell

Oz the Foz, Squeakers and a Belgian beer stew.

#Belgium #Portugal #FozDoArelho #CaldasDaRainha #live #friends #music #musician #jamming #DinnerParty #birthday

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SubstackSimon Campbell on SubstackFriday in Foz do Arelho was a day of heavy, tropical rain, a stark contrast to the gentle drizzle I remember from my childhood in Radcliffe. We had planned to take our four hounds to the lagoon as it was the first birthday of Françoise and Edith, aka the squeakers. I know @Suzy Starlite will write a little piece on them and will leave her to wax lyrical. Instead, we stayed home with me working on the acoustic panels for the Lab and Starlite jet washing the drive: yes, in the rain. Friday is one of our three weekly gym days, where for two hours, I attempt to kill myself—in the pursuit of a trimmer and happier me. We set off around 1400 via Pingo Doce to pick up some supplies. We've adopted a no-drinking-at-home policy unless we have guests. This has enhanced our social life, as we've been going out more and meeting wonderful people. And on that note, we had a dinner date in the early evening at the home of the omnipresent Oz the Foz with the promise of Belgian beer stew. On non-gym days, we tend to only eat one meal, so today we kicked off with porridge. It’s great to work out on, but by the time it came to 1800 we were pretty peckish. Oz's home overlooks the Atlantic Ocean, and we arrived just in time to witness a spectacular sunset. Joining us were John Cunningham, his partner Ana Pinto, Jamie and Cheryl Hutchison and Canadian, Andrew Byrne. The stew was delicious and was accompanied by mashed spuds, peas in a Belgian style and apple sauce, followed by a lovely, moreish, ‘heart attack on a plate’ fig, peanut butter and chocolate dessert provided by the Hutchison’s Oz is Belgian and a great host. By the end of the night,he was amazed at the number of empty wine bottles lined up on the worktop. Brits being Brits. Except for Cheryl, all the guests were musicians, and following dinner, we had a bit of a jam. I brought my Fylde Custom Falstaff guitar, and Suzy brought her Mike Lull M4V bass. Finding an amp for the bass is always a challenge and tonight, we experimented with one of our self-powered QSC K12 PA speakers and a Radial JDI DI box, which worked surprisingly well—no EQ, just straight in. The power of a great instrument, eh? Thanks for a great evening Oz in the Foz…
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Simon Campbell

The twists and turns in our journey never cease to amaze me.

#music #musician #FrameDrum #percussion #gearsquad #portugal #FozDoArelho #CaldasDaRainha #FediMusic #MastoMusic #FediArt #MastoArt

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SubstackSimon Campbell on SubstackYesterday marked a significant milestone in our musical journey. We found a musical partner who's a perfect fit in many ways. As you may know from previous updates, we were introduced to @Dave Boyd by @Rhonda and @Jeff Boehlert. We had met him twice before: once at Cafe Central in Foz do Arelho, and again a couple of weeks later at his home near Bombarral, where we enjoyed a wonderful evening of food, conversation, and company with his partner, Freya. We chatted about music, politics, and life, but yesterday was the first time we had played music together. Dave hails from Belfast in Northern Ireland and arrived bang on time, bringing two drums: a wooden djembe—no skin—and a custom-made bodhran. Neither @Suzy Starlite or I are familiar with these instruments and were amazed by the range of sounds Dave could produce from these seemingly simple drums. He's a true maestro and within minutes it was clear that he'd be a great addition to our new trio and perfect for our next album which is primarily acoustic. Dave is also a great keyboard player, arranger, producer and programmer who can help us perform our more recent progressive material—something we lacked on our last tour. A right talented bastard 🤣 Keep an eye out for updates on this exciting collaboration, and be sure to bookmark our new website. https://vibrationists.eu
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Simon Campbell

Bluey is back…
#life #diary #MovingHouse #portugal #CaldasDaRainha #FozDoArelho #hotwaterbottle #musicians #music #recording #studio substack.com/@simonjcampbell/n

SubstackSimon Campbell on SubstackWe are doing one room at a time and today was supposed to be all bout the live room. My desk is up and running so next up is the pipe furniture and HiFi system. @Suzy Starlite had already done a lot of work in there setting up for Christmas and the squeakers doing their best to steal and chew decorations from the tree. ////// Last Friday we had a very strange second-hand missive from José Capinha, the owner of the house, saying what repairs he would do and those he wouldn’t. Second-hand in that he wrote to his agent Norberto, and copied us in but the letter was to us. Strange. ////// He did mention that someone was coming around to do some of the plumbing work on Monday and at 0915 we received a call from Rodrigo—who had visited last week to check out the problems— to say he was at the gate. The drive is 50m long, steep and the electric gate only opens when you are 5m away. So I had to contain the girls to prevent them running up there then opened up. I still can’t get used to the silence of electric vehicles, it’s unnatural. If you want a laugh, read the article—link at the foot of this note—about our experiences when we hired one in the UK earlier this year. He came in and told us what he’d been authorized to do, which was around 30% of what we required but had was here and we let him get on with it. Rodrigo was lovely and very respectful, completing things efficiently but had to go mack to Caldas for some bits he needed. It’s always disruptive when someone is working in the house—water on, water off etc., but he was really great and finally leaving just after midday. In the meanwhile I had been writing and Starlite off doing what Starlite does. ////// On Sunday we bought a chicken which was going to be BBQd for lunch—our one meal of the day. Starlite had already power washed the terrace where the grill is located and Rodrigo had just fixed the drain in the sink there so it could now be cleaned effectively. Like the rest of the place it was disgustingly filthy so I set to spraying the whole thing with oven cleaner and cleaned off the corroded and calcified tap with Hydrochloric Acid. When mopping up I stood in the bucket and water was everywhere—I am a nobhead. I set to lighting the BBQ, burning all the old wood and charcoal left there by the owner—we needed to cleanse the place with fire. José—the owner—is a structural engineer and had designed the house. Although a lying slippery arsehole he did a good job and the grill is no exception. It backs onto the open fire in the live room, sharing the same chimney and ash can—the Portuguese know a thing of two about grills. The place was clean now and I cooked without further incident with the chicken accompanied by sweet potato wedges cooked in the oven with cumin, onion, garlic and fresh chilies. ////// The squeakers are diggers. They love digging. They are very good at digging. They also like to go where they shouldn’t and will dig to get there. The garden with the pool is separated from the drive area with a fence which is on a slope and therefore has small triangular gaps underneath it. Not Labrador sized gaps, but gaps nevertheless and they have now dug holes to get in. Starlite blocked one of said holes with bricks. They moved the bricks. She tried again with large logs. They moved the logs. They also like swimming—no shit Sherlock—and as the pool is not being effectively cleaned—one of the repairs required—we don’t mind if they go in and it’s better they know how to get in and more importantly, out. When we were in Valencia, Hummock fell in and nearly drowned—lesson learned. ////// After more cleaning and moving shit around we had an early night watching The Matrix. We like of bedroom cold and Starlite is a lover of hot water bottles—as if I am not enough—so Bluey had made an appearance again… What a great film and still stands up. I remember seeing it for the first time at a private screening in New York—it blew my mind. My friend Lyla, who is now sadly dead, was part of the editing team. See you tomorrow. https://vibes.starlite-campbell.com/p/never-hire-an-electric-vehicle-its
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Simon Campbell

An expensive screw and a typical Sunday… My daily diary, and this edition is not for vegetarians. #diary #life #music #musician #Portugal #food #CaldasDaRainha #FozDoArelho #MastoMusic #FediMusic substack.com/@simonjcampbell/n

SubstackSimon Campbell on SubstackPictured below is one of the most expensive bolts in the world. It’s a replacement for one that snapped before we left the old studio and is a key component of our American made Latch Lake micKing® 3300 microphone stand. They have a lifetime guarantee and the excellent European distributor—Bigger Boat Distribution—supplies parts for free. They shipped one out to us with a value on it of £1 for customs purposes. Sadly they marked it as a sale and not a gift as I requested. CTT—the Portuguese postal service—charged us €0.24 which is the VAT and €8.50 plus VAT clearance fee. It took three weeks to go through the process. Welcome to Portugal. ////// I usually have my desk and computer next to Betty, our 48 channel CADAC mixing console, but we are not set up as yet as @Suzy Starlite needs to work her magic with the decor and I with the acoustic treatment. The console and much of our recording and processing gear will reside in the aptly named Pit—the basement of the house—which has access to the garden and pool through two, three metre glass doors which can be fully opened. There are also shutters outside. It should be cool in the summer and warm in the winter. For now I have set up my desk in the live room on the ground floor. This is the place where we will record drums, other acoustic instruments and full bands. It is the home of Starlite’s piano, the Hammond Organ, Leslie speaker, Wurlitzer electric piano and Philicorder. For the past three weeks I have, somewhat unsuccessfully, been attempting to keep up to date using my iPhone and iPad but amazing how much stuff you miss when you don’t use a desktop computer. Anyway, it’s set up now and I am wading through the admin. ////// Starlite has been playing Christmas Carols for the past few days. Occasionally she breaks out into something new, or one of the songs which will be on the next album. I love it. ////// We needed to go shopping and there was as offer on again at our preferred supermarket Pingo Doce—spend €100 and get vouchers for €20 of fuel at BP and €20 off your next shop. Unmissable. First we need to take the girls swimming. The tide was coming in strongly and I checked the IMRAY tide app to find it was 20 minutes before high water at Peniche—the closest listed port to us—but didn’t look like to to me, or the squeakers who were briskly swept along whilst retrieving their little surf board toy. I will investigate further. It was around 1300, and although a little brisk we thought taking a beer outside at Cafe O’Clock would be a great idea. Bruno, who we met last Sunday, was waiting on and presented us with two glasses of Estrella 1906. Over our years of living in Europe we have learned to love small glasses of beer. In the summer it doesn’t have chance to become warm and is generally stronger, creating the desired effect without the volume. ////// The supermarket is around 20 minutes away and as you would expect was heaving because of the offer. We are very economical with our shopping and try to get as close to the €100 spend as possible. Starlite has the calculator and adds up as we go along. We eat a lot of turkey breast which is Portuguese is called Peru. Turkey - Peru, confusing for sure. It’s close to Christmas and there wasn’t any available so I bought a pile of chicken instead and a whole one for ther BBQ today. If you are a vegetarian, don’t read the next bit. The best whole chickens are free range and known as Frango do Campo. They come complete with head, feet, giblets and a bag of chicken blood. They eat everything here and specifically use the blood in a famous Portuguese dish called Cabidela de arroz—chicken cooked in its own blood with rice. I am still not sure what they do with the feet, but the butcher cuts off the nails before they give it to you. OK. Read on vegetarians. We left having spent €103.86. Our record is €100.27. There was also a 15% discount from one of our other favourite supermarkets—Cointinente—and went there. This tends to be cheaper for domestic cleaning stuff, shampoos and soaps. This was our first time to to this branch in Caldas and it was very buy and parking was in limited supply—especially for the van of rock. There was an 25% offer on Denta Stix for the girls and picked up a box, but Starlite noticed the discount wasn’t applied at checkout so we waited at customer service to sort it out. It was mayhem there. ////// We were starting to become less stressed but still thought it would be good to eat out and went to our now regular haunt Cafe Central. We ordered a lamb stew which was the prato do dia and to our surprise one of our friends walked in with his wife, Christa. Gerrit Ekkelenkamp was one of the first musicians we met when arriving in Portugal and is harmonica player. He and his group—The Silver Coast Blues Band—recorded with us when in Samora. We all walked through into the main restaurant and had a lovely evening chewing the fat. They are from Netherlands and speak great English. It was another chance meeting as two weeks ago we bumped into him at E.Leclerc—another fucking supermarket. Onwards. See you tomorrow.
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Simon Campbell

Yesterday was good. Here is my summary of the positive things that happened last week. Enjoy. #diary #MovingHouse #portugal #CaldasDaRainha #FozDoArelho #music #musicians #recording #studio #MastoMusic #FediMusic #MastoArt #FediArt substack.com/@simonjcampbell/n

SubstackSimon Campbell on SubstackYesterday was good. Although we are no further ahead with the essential repairs we are just getting on with life. The girls really help and what really makes us happy is seeing Hummock patrolling around the place sniffing the air. She loves the Ocean. Her back legs are dodgy now but are still moving, albeit slowly. The relatively new additions to our family, Françoise and Edith—aka the squeakers—are certainly stirring things up in the canine department and it’s lovely to see Bob hanging out with them all the time. They do chase her around and generally hassle her, but I think she likes it and certainly keeps her moving. ////// Even though we planned the move meticulously, some of the boxes destined for the control room—aka the pitt—ended up in the live room and visa versa and so we moved them around. Talking of the live room, it’s really taking shape as we arrange the gear and furniture. I can’t wait to record something in there. The natural reverb is to die for. Due to their delicate nature, we transported our Tannoy and ATC studio monitors the day before the main removal company did their thing. They are not particularly heavy, but they are awkward and they were duly relocated from the live room upstairs to the pit. @Suzy Starlite and I have not enrolled at the gym at yet but we are certainly keeping fit. ////// Screwing stuff to the wall in a Portuguese house is usually troublesome as most are built using almost hollow air bricks—the work of the devil. Most of the walls in our new home are concrete but there are still some of these dastardly air bricks kicking around, specifically where the curtain poles are located and have busied myself securing the existing ones which over the years have become loose with use. Starlite is great at interior design and imagining spaces so if curtains are to be hung in a room, in the room they are hung. We are completing a room at a time and part of my job—beside the curtain rails and general repairs—is to install our own light fittings. It’s amazing to see the amount of corrosion inside the existing ones. The house hasn’t been occupied full time for a few years I am not sure whether it’s the damp due to lack of airflow or the salt in the air. And yes, IKEA ceiling roses are the spawn of the devil. There was a birthday party going on in the garden adjacent to our house. It was great to hear a group of people laughing and enjoying themselves with loud music. Anyway, as per yesterday’s post here is a summary of the positive things from last week. ////// On Sunday evening we were invited to Cafe O’Clock by Ruben the waiter, who is also the owners nephew. It was his last day as on Monday he was starting work at his mums sushi bar in a nearby town. When we arrived there was a private birthday party going on, but we were invited in, had a great night and met another cool barman, Bruno from Brazil. ////// We have been very busy, stressed and lacking motivation to cook so on Wednesday we had lunch at Cafe Central in the centre of Foz do Arelho which was really excellent and inexpensive even rivaling our beloved haunt Restaurante Europa in our old hometown of Samora Correia. I had the prato do dia—menu of the day—which was mão de vitela with chickpeas and chorizo and with wine was 24 Euros for the two of us. It’s almost as cheap to eat out as to cook yourself here. You can dine in the bar or a fancier restaurant area—having now tried both and although a little austere, we prefer the bar. It’s full of characters. ////// On Thursday we went into Caldas da Rainha to have a meeting with the house owner José Capinha to discuss the issues—he didn’t show up and in the spirit of positivity, let’s not go there. We took the opportunity to further explore our new city and although a bit chilly, enjoyed prato do dia outdoors at Restaurante Casa Antero. Starlite and I only eat once a day so we make sure it’s great! We called in on a few cool shops, one being a purveyor of fines wines and other alcoholic delights. On the way home we registered at the Junta de Freguesia da Foz do Arelho—aka the local town hall. In Portugal this is the first step in changing addresses for everything else. You rock up with your ID, lease documents, pay the €5.30 per person and a few days later collect your proof of address signed by the President of the Council. ////// On Friday we took the girls swimming in the lagoon near the sea. It was cold but the sun was shining and the tide was in. Bloody lovely. So that’s it, I am finally up to date. See you tomorrow.
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Simon Campbell

The remainder of last week’s diary. It’s been busy! #life #recording #music #studio #MovingHouse #portugal #CaldasDaRainha #FozDoArelho #musicians #musician substack.com/@simonjcampbell/n

SubstackSimon Campbell on SubstackIt’s been busy and I am desperately trying to catch up on my diary, so here is the remainder of last week. ////// Wednesday We were excited as tonight our wonderful friends Joana and David Mourato were coming for dinner. First of course we had to continue to unpack and wrestle with Norberto, the house owners agent. As I mentioned a few days ago go it’s a war of attrition. The second time we viewed the house he assured us that any furniture we didn’t want would be stored in a shuttered off part of the garage, or—and this is the important bit—taken off site if there was too much. Begrudgingly we agreed to give up part of our space to this. We are paying rent to store his stuff. When we signed the lease we went around marking with coloured stickers and numbers which rooms the furniture should be moved to, or removed completely. We live in a recording studio and most rooms are dedicated to this. The big sofas and chairs in the current living room—soon to be our live room—and the pool table in the basement—now known as The Pitt—where the studio control room is to be located, needed to go. The agent clearly didn’t have a mandate to have the stuff removed off site and when we turned up the day before we moved, all the unwanted furniture was in the garage. We need the space and it smelled disgusting, especially the mattresses. The owner was adamant it had to stay, including the fucking pool table which is very heavy. On the day before we were about to move he said—through the agent—he would cancel the contract if we were not happy but we had to accept the house is it was. How do you deal with that? If we didn’t accept we would have nowhere to go. We had changed everything and given up our lease on the old house. Welcome to the very cynical world of Portuguese negotiation. ////// Our new TP-link Deco WiFi extender arrived from Amazon. It was recommended by the MEO broadband guys and had great reviews. I usually buy Netgear as I find it very reliable and robust but this was an essential, unexpected purchase, was relatively cheap and we have no budget. The setup was seemingly straightforward using the app, but ended up creating a new network rather than extending the one we had which took a bit of undoing, but I triumphed in the end. ////// David and Joana are vegan and this was my first attempt at cooking with no meat, fish or dairy products. It’s tricky. I wanted to do something a little different for them and consulted my relatively new Lebanese cookbook by Salam Hage. The recipes are very straightforward if you have the correct ingredients. Starlite made fresh Chapatis and I Hummus, Baba Ganoush (tahini and aubergine), tabbouleh and potato wedges in the oven with onions, peppers, garlic, cumin and fresh chillies—lots of fresh chillies. We did ask in advance if they liked hot food and this certainly was hot. We bought 1Kg of fresh red chilli’s from the Chinese Supermarket in Samora before we left which we froze. Of course they are natural and you don’t know how hot they are until you taste them. These were hot! They arrived perfectly on time and brought their hound Freya, which we put into our new version of Clydes Place—a fenced area we had for the girls when we lived in Samora and named after the drummer Clyde Stubblefield. They brought wine, bread and an unusual vegan ice cream which was delicious. It was a great evening and they told us of all the artistic stuff going on in Caldas da Rainha. There is a lot. They are both film animators and were the people who suggested we move here. Thank you!! ////// Thursday Today was all about more cleaning but first a trip to the lagoon with the girls. The tide was going out and the water was moving quickly around the small spit of sand. The squeakers were retreiving sticks and were carried around the corner by the tide but managed to get out easily enough: they are very powerful swimmers. Hummock didn’t venture in but Bob did have a go. Her eyes are not great and can’t see if the sun is too low and reflected in the water but she got wet and was happy. ////// When we returned the Kärcher K4 jet wash arrived. Together, we unpacked and assembled the machine and after reading the manual—RTFM—Starlite immediately attacked the balcony outside the kitchen which was covered in dirt which had accumulated over the four years, or more, of the house being empty. Apart from me feeding her regular glasses of Estrella, I didn’t see her again all day until sunset. I set about collating all the issues with the house that still to be dealt with. It’s a long list. There are still plugs to be changed over from UK three pin to the European Schuko connectors, principally on the many salt crystal lamps and we have. I did have a go at this but on the old studio some were inaccessible and now they are all done. Moving into a larger space gives you the opportunity to unpack leisurely and put things in dedicated spots so it’s easy to find later. I love to be organised and spent the rest of the day doing just that. Luxury. ////// Friday Another big cleaning and sorting day but we can’t talk about the specifics right now. I can talk about the nights activities however, as we ventured out to another local bar. Opening the studio to guests means we need to understand the local scene as from experience, musicians want to go out to eat, drink and soak up the local vibe. It’s our job to visit every local hostelry. Hell. Tonight it was the turn of Cafe Central which, as its name suggests, is in the centre of Foz do Arelho just a few minutes from our house. We walked in at around 1900 to find it totally buzzing. There were a group of British expats having a pool match and groups of Portuguese waiting to go in for dinner. Central has a large bar area with the pool table and a separate restaurant. We had already eaten, but will go back soon to try the grub. It looks standard Portuguese fare and the prices are very reasonable—not as cheap as our old town Samora, but half the price of places in the beach which is just 2Km away. We had a few beers and in true local style shared a Bifana—basically a Pork sandwich which we liberally applied with Piri Piri da casa—to stop us from getting too pissed. I chatted to one of the Brits at the bar to find they meet at 1400 every Friday to play. For 20 Euro you get all the pool, drinks and a meal. Apparently they sometimes even bring their wives along 🤣🤣 - I was invited. _______________ This reminded me of living in Estivella where I was invited to a men only Paella over Christmas. I told them that I would only come if Starlite joined me and for the first time in forty years they invited their partners. It ended up being a crazy night, the guitars came out and the whole square was packed with people wondering what was going on. The bar became a bit lairy and we had to be escorted out. Rock ‘n Roll. _______________ Back to Central. Tonight was special as it was as the annual celebration of the death of one of their friends from Cancer where they have a match raising money from charity. Wearing black with boots of rock and tinted glasses sometimes makes us look out of place, but here in Foz and certainly Caldas da Rainha we just seem to fit in. There are some very cool looking people kicking around and we spotted a guy with an arctic white beard and the bearing of someone infamous. ////// @Suzy Starlite and I began to wonder home and came across a square teaming with people and motorcycles. Of course we had to investigate and chatting with some of the riders discovered this was a monthly gathering centered round bar As Marcianas. Starlite recounted tales of derring-do from her wins at the Isle of Man TT which banked much credibility. The white bearded dude was there showing off his hand built monster motorcycle. A thing of beauty: he was famous in this community. As usual at these type of gatherings there was lots of dick waving— revving the arse out our their charges of chrome and steel. One guy was driving around slowly with his five year old son on the seat in front of him. Apparently it’s a regular thing for him but I could help thinking of the recent funeral of one of our best Portuguese friends son, Miguel, who died in a motorcycle accident. He was 29. It was a great end to the evening and were fed gin and tonics and beer. The Portuguese know how to party. We rolled home. I should be able to catch up in the next edition…
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Simon Campbell

Two days of my life. Two good days. #life #music #musician #recordingstudio #diary #SamoraCorreia #FozDoArelho #portugal substack.com/profile/118813522

SubstackSimon Campbell on SubstackAnother double day diary post… ////// Friday We left our house in Samora Correia yesterday fof the last time. If you read my notes over the last couple of weeks, you will see we enjoyed our time in the town and made great friends. @Suzy Starlite, myself and our colleagues have made two studio albums and two live albums there and gave us a safe haven in the middle of the pandemic—it’s been good to us. It is located right next to a noisy factory and we didn’t have the room to offer a residential space for other artists to come and record with us. This is one of the many reasons we moved but also wanted to be part of a creative community which Caldas da Rainha has in bucketloads. ////// Yesterday was all about cleaning and collecting the last few things from the place: plant pots and some stuff we missed—a complete drawer full of kitchen implements, an alarm sensor and a kick drum pedal for example. It’s strange when you go back to a house that is empty of all your personal stuff, a bit like viewing the dead body of someone you knew. We arrived a bit later than planned, dropped off the woofers and squeakers—who thought they were going back to live there—cleaning equipment and toolboxes and made our way to the Europa Restaurant for lunch. We will miss this place!! We returned and wanged around with the hoover then removed all the cardboard boxes from the storeroom we had been saving in the event of us moving. There were far too many and took the excess for recycling. There were a few important ones—such as the original boxes for the Sequential Prophet-5, Moog Matriarch and Waldorf STVC—which we loaded into the van just in case they needed to be sent anywhere for repair. ////// I had a few errands to run. Dropping off a letter at the Unidade de Saúde Familiar de Samora Correia (health centre), change the address at the bank which has to be done in person only to be told that we needed a utility bill to change it. But, we haven’t moved in yet: welcome to Portugal. We bought a huge bag of chillies, ginger and garlic from the Chinese supermarket—very cheap and great quality. We also had to return for exchange two large laundry bags and a LED bulb to the other Chinese shop—not such good quality. It was getting dark, said goodbye and thank you to the house and left. We had made an extensive things to do list which I failed to consult before leaving and had to go back and remove our stainless steel cool towel rail. Shit. We returned and removed said rail then dropped the keys off at the Estate Agent and made our way home. Now it’s real—we have moved. ////// Saturday Our first visitors had to be Dani and @Tiago and I cooked a Spaghetti Carbonara in their honour. It’s one of my specialities and again for the Marcella Hazan’s superb Second Italian Cookbook.Use the right ingredients and follow the recipe to the letter and boom—world class Italian food. First, we had to do some shopping and decided to visit the local Pingo Doce Hypermarket as opposed to the one we went to last week. Today was the spend 100 Euro and receive a voucher for 20 Euro and 20 Euro off BP Fuel. It had to be done and when we arrived the place was packed: it’s the best Pingo we have ever been to… Supplies purchased we returned home and I started cooking. Tiago is a wine buff and brought with home two excellent bottles. A white Carlota a Imperatrizfrom Lisboa and a red Cedro do Noval from Douro. Portuguese wine is sensational. We showed the guys around and we ate, drank and made merry topping off the evening with a visit to the O’Clock Cafe. We walked in and within seconds two Estella 1906 beers were presented to us without us having to order. We have been there just once before—great barman! So that’s it. See you tomorrow!!
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Simon Campbell

We are finally home. #home #MovingHouse #life #portugal #Fozdoarelho #music #musician #recording #recordingstudio substack.com/@simonjcampbell/n

SubstackSimon Campbell on SubstackWell we are in… It’s been an epic move which took six men, @Suzy Starlite and I 14 hours of hard work. The guys who moved us from Beleza Transport were brilliant, more than can be said for the management who were very troublesome to deal with. I know how much stuff we have and how to move it but no one listens. The house is on a steep hillside and the 60m driveway is straight with a canopy of trees. We had to use the Van Of Rock (VOR) to move the piano—our ramp from the back of their truck into the VOR. Everything else had to be hand balled—an epic job. ////// Installing the Security system and fibre broadband connection is top priority and both Securitas Direct and MEO were there to greet us when we arrived. The MEO guy said he needed two guys to install the fibre as it’s all underground and as of today we have no broadband connection. Shit. Samuel from Securitas however had the alarm system connected and running in less than an hour: very impressive. It’s a great system, all connected to a monitoring station and the police with cameras and sensors everywhere. ////// Our new home is in a fabulous location and on Sunday we went to Pingo Doce— our favourite Supermarket chain here in Portugal—and then took the hounds swimming in the lagoon. It’s only 400m walk but we are a little ways from the Ocean and the water is brackish so decided to drive and take them to fresher water. It was VERY windy and the kite surfers were out in force and the squeakers—the two newest additions to our family of hounds—were piling down the beach trying to catch them. It never ceases to amaze me how natural they swim. Edith has a great action: legs underwater and snout parallel to the surface. Françoise however is a splasher, trying to keep her head as high above the water as possible to see what’s going on. ////// We returned home to disarray but rather than spending time unpacking and reassembling all that needed reassembling we ended up cleaning as the house was filthy. We share the cleaning with me dealing with kitchen, bathrooms and the studio gear. It’s was so bad we both got stuck in to the kitchen and dining area. Domestos, K2 degreaser, Isopropyl alcohol and turpentine substitute plus meters of industrial kitchen roll and j-cloths. Starlite emailed the owners agent. If you know anything about my wife, you can imagine the tone and contents of that communication. ////// We have moved a lot and have a system honed by experience, always setting up basecamp in the kitchen first then usually the bedroom and simultaneously at least one working space. My first job however is to install Wolfgang the washing machine. Starlite is a washing fiend! Due to the state of the place we attacked the kitchen first which took the best part of two days. Cooking is very much a part of our lives and we have lots of stuff to organise and put away mindful of the fact our new home will double as a residential recording studio so has to be client friendly. ////// We needed energy and baked potatoes with cheese, beans and the remainder of the home-made egg mayonnaise was on the menu. Egg mayonnaise on baked potatoes you ask? Yes, it works. Try it. ////// As we were going to bed it started raining. Not standard rain but tropical rain—you know the type—big droplets and lots of them. The wind was coming from the SSE so not hitting the house straight on. Spectacular. ////// The house hasn’t been lived in for four years and during that time things stop working and we have been compiling a list. It’s a big list. ////// Yesterday, Norberto, the agent, and his sidekick turned up to see the situation . He was very sympathetic to our cause and we are relatively confident that, over time, things will get sorted. ////// Fortunately we have more bedrooms and as we were focused on organising the kitchen have been camping in one of them so reassembling our bed wasn’t a first priority but yesterday managed to achieve an erection. I love IKEA stuff. Stylish, very easy to put together and generally well thought out. The vintage dressing table that we bought in Germany was also easy to put back together. What would we do without electric screwdrivers and Allen keys eh. ////// I managed to make lunch in an organised and clean kitchen with a wonderful view. See you tomorrow.
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