Donkey’s and TV's

“Good morning,” called down Stephen (in Portuguese) to the elderly lady who was making her way across the Town Square from the church; It was Sunday and approaching midday.

“Up here.” Seeing our neighbour look around, a little confused as to the source of the greeting, my husband clarified where his voice was coming from.

After locating Stephen, she remained, for a few seconds, uncertain of who the man leaning our of the 2nd floor window was, then recognition dawned and she identified him as being one half of the couple with whom she exchanged the time of day outside cafés, but more recently from the previous late afternoon’s concert she’d attended in the gardens of the library.

The concert was one that Stephen performed, without any payment, for our friends and neighbours. We are extremely lucky to have a good life that requires little financing; for us no Netflix or similar packages, no TV in every room (the one in the lounge no less than 60”, obviously), no mobile contracts, no car each... You get the idea, don’t you?

We might have had all the above and more if we'd stayed in London, but 13 years ago we moved to rural Portugal for a simpler life, something we have generally achieved. Not to say that we don’t have our creature comforts, especially since moving from an old stone village house to a town apartment, and we sometimes have to resist strongly being seduced by things we don’t really need or even really want in our heart of hearts.

The younger Portuguese people we know are not without aspirations, but even for this generation they appear very much tempered by quality of life and family time. For two burros (donkeys) from Blighty, this way of thinking suits us very nicely indeed.

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