Lockdown Entertainment

5 More Weeks...

It was almost one month ago that I updated you on the coronavirus in Portugal. At that time, Portugal had among the worst statistics in the world. Portugal’s lockdown has had the desired impact. Our numbers are way down. However, the lockdown is expected to remain in effect until after Easter. What are we to do?

Parks and Beaches Open

Last weekend, the government opened the parks and beaches. The sun was out and you couldn’t keep the Portuguese home! We walked Onix on the promenade from Cascais to Estoril on Saturday along with hundreds of masked Portuguese.

The surfers were out!

And on Sunday, we watched as children played in the Parque Marechal Carmona, a large park near the center of Cascais. While we appreciate the easing of these restrictions, we are still in lockdown. Shops are closed. Restaurants remain closed (except for takeout). Cascais’ many museums, including the one (Museu Condes De Castro Guimarães) located in the park, remain closed. On weekends, the 1300h curfew is still in effect.

Portuguese TV

Trying to be productive in lockdown is a challenge. In hopes of improving our Portuguese, we have watched some Portuguese TV. A few of the stations are accessible, offering subtitles in Portuguese. (If you are in Portugal and want to turn on subtitles, watch this video.) Though we are NOT by any means fluent, we can both read Portuguese better than we can hear it. Without subtitles, we also are able to follow the many cooking shows and I actually learned how to make bacalhau (a traditional Portuguese cod dish) by watching TV and a YouTube video.

Guilty Pleasures

There are also a dozen or so channels that are in English with Portuguese subtitles. At our first temporary digs, the landlord had installed NOS internet and TV. While the channels were fairly limited, it did have a BBC channel giving us the opportunity to watch a game show called Impossible and a reality TV show based on a sewing bee. Who would ever imagine us being entertained by a 60-minute show dedicated to watching people use sewing machines?

When we moved to our second temporary apartment we found MEO installed. Unfortunately, we will never learn who won the sewing competition as MEO doesn’t have the BBC channel. Damn, I was rooting for the grandmother! It does, however, have several Fox stations, where we can watch old episodes of Law & Order or CSI that we have already seen a dozen times. These stations have also introduced us to some new crime series. Denise loves Poirot a whodunit mystery based on Agatha Cristie’s novels. I am more of a Death in Paradise girl, particularly those starring Kris Marshall who took over in Season 3.

Of course, Denise and I also have a few guilty pleasures we should not admit to. We have watched far too many episodes of the Incredible Dr. Pol on the National Geographic channel. So many, in fact, that we both feel confident birthing a breech colt and diagnosing a twisted stomach in a cow. We are also hooked on Live Free or Die which chronicles people who drop out of society and live off the land. We have

Colbert, once a successful businessman now lives in a swamp.

learned how to make a bow and arrow out of twigs, vines, and bird feathers. You never know when this will come in handy.

Studying Portuguese

Of course, studying Portuguese would probably be more helpful than learning how to skin a raccoon. In fact, that is what Denise has been doing (studying not skinning) as I wrote this post … and it is what I will do now.

Final Note: If you want to know more about Covid in Portugal I recommend you follow Jorge Branco.