I could get used life here. I take the subway aka Metro to the university, picking up a sandwich for lunch, take notes furiously during the sessions, then on the way home, buy my dinner from the supermarket. I feel like a student all over again.

I followed British lady on my second trip on the Metro. It was quite uneventful this time round, but the dimly lit stations don't make me feel safe.

Everyone here is sniffing and coughing so it is virus heaven, help!

Fortified by a powerful cappuccino (love the coffee here), and my third egg tart, I set out for the next session. Listener's fatigue is beginning to set in, and I have to remind myself to be polite. This means not swinging my legs when I am bored, no restless tapping of the fingers, and not interrupting with questions, and not rolling my eyes at their answers to my questions.

It being a gathering of geeks, mine is the only iPad 1 here :(

V's entry: the zoo is going wild

In the absence of their doting mother owner, the zoo is behaving terribly.

Blackie has overturned his food bowl, after peeing into it. RABBITTTTT!
PipSqueak is even more picky an eater than ever. I shall just let her go hungry if she wants to be so difficult.
Friendly wants to come out to play, to come out to play, to come out to play to play to play.
Ninja as usual is the best baby Squeak. She only ate up all of her food, and Friendly's too.

When is Masterofboots coming back?

University of Lisbon

I refuse to pay the high price for wifi at my hotel, so I shall make full use of the free wifi here.

Taking the Yellow Bus is a very useful way to orientate myself around the city, and take a whirlwind tour of all essential sights. At least now I know where the university is vis a vis my hotel. I just hopped off the bus whenever I like and take the next one that comes along. Yes, it is the lazy way to travel, and I haven't tried taking the subway yet.

Some of the landmarks are so monumentally huge that I thought they are near, until I tried walking there. Would probably try to look at some of them more closely if I could. Would write more the places when I could actually download the pictures.

Lisbon feels pretty safe and clean, but why is there graffiti everywhere?
The historical buildings are magnificent, but people of Lisbon, why do you anoint all the buildings with squiggles of paint? Add to them the tell tale broken windows, and you get the impression that city maintainence isn't what it should be.

Lesson is starting so I shall have to take copious notes, like a good Singaporean student.

Arrived at Lisbon

Transit in Schipnol (Amsterdam) was mercifully painless. The place was well organized and clean. It was a longish wait of four hours, but coffee, my kindle and some naps helped time to move faster.

Then I arrived at Lisbon jet lagged and found that on Sunday afternoons, the shops are sadly shuttered and streets quiet. There seem mainly to be bewildered tourists like me wandering around. Managed to find the basic survival tools - the supermarket, subway and international ATM. Thanks to the Chinese diaspora, no one is surprised to see a Chinese girl walking around alone. I try to look like I know what I am doing. Maybe my huge sunglasses help to hide my wide eyed look.

Cappuccino index: the (really) small cappuccino in Amsterdam cost 2.5 euros, but in Lisbon, I paid only 1.9 euros.

Sad to say that so far, I don't find the people friendly, whether here or Amsterdam. It feels like they have seen one too many Asian in their homeland. And worse, one lady on the plane tried to explain to me what the headset was for. Where on earth does she think I come from?!

Excuse my language slips and typos. The hotel is charging an outrageous 5euros per hour for Internet. Most unforgivable for a business hotel. Hm!

Blackie Post Op Recovery

We tried keeping Blackie quiet after his neutering surgery, just in case, though we had no idea just how long or short the time should be. Blackie got very frustrated, there was plenty of thumping and pawing. Finally, he took matters into his own feet - when I was feeding him, the rabbit slipped out of the cage like lighting. There was a losing game of 'Catch me if you can'.

 RAAAABBIIIIITT! Still feisty.

Looking at me cautiously. "I am not going back until I want to."

Well, it is good to know that he feels fine. Life is back to normal.

More pics - walking through the village

The source of our tasty organic vegetables. Unfortunately, they have not found a way to preserve the freshness and export their produce.

Every hut every house has a satellite dish, no matter how poor they might be.

Down the winding road. It wasn't a long walk but there were no streetlights.

More pics - delighted!

Pet rabbits. I also saw another white rabbit running around free-range. What a haven it must be for these things here - feeding on fresh vegetables and running around in the cool air.

The view on our way down from the mountain peak, standing on the back of the lorry. Was great fun.

More pics - organic food

We see some relics of the past here. The yellow bowl of water is for you to wash your hand in.

The best grilled fish we have had

 Tasty kampung chicken.

Here we get organic food at its simplest best - enriched by the volanic ash, the soil produces marvellously fat fruit and vegetables. The downside to using animal manure in farming? Flies. Flies everywhere, in great clouds :P Gulp.

Blackie: Post-operation

These are not happy days for Blackie, newly neutered.

We aren't allowing him to come out to play yet in case he does his usual acrobatics. Now he is sulking and getting outrageously spoilt with freeze-dried strawberries and alfalfa hay. At least he is eating again. It was so worrying when he refused food at first.

Then...it would be time to get a friend for him...I should probably adopt one, give an abandoned rabbit a home instead of buying from petshops.

Let's see how things go. The menage is about to grow again.

Some pics

The view is simply amazing. See the rainbow? This isn't photoshop work.