River of gold

With a title like that its no surprise this was a work trip - however I was actually assessing a tungsten deposit! Instead the gold around the River Douro is liquid gold because the region challenges my "home" (the Alentejo) to produce Portugal's best wine. While I must be diplomatic its fair to say the Douro produces wines which match the Australian way of drinking - i.e. wines to be drunk on special occasions or with specific foods, bottles to be put down for a few years - instead of the Alentejo which produces wines to be drunk every night of the year no matter what's for dinner (and to be honest they're both damn good so why pick one as better?!).
Because of the steep slopes the vines are planted on platforms cut into the side of the hills, often stabilised with brick walls, which gives the hills a tiger-striped appearance. Since theses platforms are the width of a vine and a person mechanical methods are pretty useless so technology hasn't helped the wine growers here much.
The real liquid gold is the "vinho fino" (fine wine) better known to us as port wine. Port "farms" like this one in Regua are all along the banks of the Douro. However don't let someone try to explain the difference to you between vintage port and aged port. Its complicated.

culture shock

For my birthday I was given a copy of CultureShock!Portugal, partly as a joke since I enjoy challenging some cultural norms here. However I got a surprisingly strong reaction on reading it for two reasons. Firstly it angered me because it seemed to say that business/living in Portugal was all too hard and I don't think my friends here deserve to miss out on business opportunities for that reason. Secondly it frustrated me because Portugal is changing (it's only 30 years since the dictatorship was overthrown) and becoming more "modern" and I believe that it will need to change more to claim a greater influence in Europe. Therefore I see a book which preaches accepting the old way as a little recalcitrant.

Part of that is that I believe one of my successes here is that we've managed to work to Australian-style deadlines without massively changing the way that people are used to working here, plus we know that we can change some things slightly to achieve even more. I think thats the object of my role here - to respect culture but also challenge it at those times where it impacts on work, to show a different way to approach a task or even to approach work itself as a part of life so that people see a different way. No one way of working is ideal and being able to adapt your way of work can result in achieving more than simply following "best practise".

It struck me last week when I was showing a friend of ours around that I have become an ex-pat of sorts - grumbling about waiters, things "you can't get here", "the way things work here", being a little pushy at times. Honestly I don't like it because I see it as a bad thing for me to not be able to relax and accept things as they come, even if it's more a result of tiredness than a change in attitude. But I also think it's a third step - a place is new, then familiar, and now I probably need a break or to visit somewhere different so I can come back and relax better. Certainly after a trip north last week I feel more comfortable this week (photos on this blog soon!).

Handiwork

While I've been systematically documenting each castle town and landmark close to where I live I haven't been as good at showing you the crafts of the Alentejo. If you visit I always make sure you see the traditional painted plates of the region whether it's just in the souvenir shops of Evora or the trip out to the actual workshops in "Plate Town" (Sao Pedro do Corval). The plates are painted either with simple designs in blue, "still-lifes" of olives and grapes or paintings of idyllic rustic scenes (which seem to include several not-so-calm hunting scenes!). These days more plates are made with designs which ignore tradition like team logos or Noddy plates!

The other traditional art which Alentejanos are proud of is the woven tapestries and rugs of Arraiolos which decorate palaces up and down the country. Once again the traditional design is a symmetrical, simple pattern; any hints of yellow imply a Spanish influence and idyllic rural scenes or tapestries showing important historical scenes have come in and out of fashion. We got this one last weekend - we love it partly because it has 2 dogs, a deer, a wild pig, a castle and a horse but I have to point out that its asymmetrical and therefore not traditional!! Ah well.
On looking back I was sure I had a post with some photos of Arraiolos but apparently I never shared them. This is the church inside the castle walls, there are some more town shots on Flickr.

So an update...

Hmmm it's been a while since I posted. Sorry people. But on trying to think what I've been up to I can't come up with much new, or different, or interesting to share with you. Just life. But that in itself is interesting since it all happens against the backdrop of Portugal, the Alentejo, Lisbon. Normal things like going to the shops, the movies or out for a coffee or lunch/dinner have their own slight "flavour" in each town, each country.

Well a couple of things have changed at least. Firstly I've got older in the last couple of weeks. And secondly I got a girl-shaped present for my birthday which was the best present of all. Unfortunately BA/AP are still learning the concept that people and luggage travel together and decided that they only had to deliver Bry to Lisbon, which meant that I spent too much of my birthday shopping for girl's clothes instead of ..... ah hell I didn't want to do anything special anyway! Just complaining for the sake of it! Joerg was also over for a few days so we had a great time sharing the tastes of Portugal with him - fat-free salads, organic breads and freshly squeezed juices. Not.

Since then I've been flat out with work including the first visit from the new bosses and trying to get some rigs in the country and drilling, but also trying to make time to get Bry settled in and show her some of her new country. Of course that's another "flavour" added to my life now and it's been really nice - the master of understatement I know but nice, comfortable, normal just shows me how special things are as well as how much my life hasn't been normal, how hard it has been at times. As normal I'm not going to let you all know exactly how I feel but life is good at the moment, and for a change there's no separations on the horizon.