\n Having decided that my hair was in desperate need of some
\n care and attention, I decided to be brave and try to get my
\n hair done. The word for hairdresser in Portuguese is
\n Cabeleleiro (and no, I still can't pronounce it properly)
\n and because of that I decided to do the coward's way and
\n go to El Cortes Ingles where I thought I could wing it. Well
\n after prowling ladies underwear twice (very glamorous and
\n quite a lot of men wandering around!), I approached an
\n assistant and managed to make myself understood and she
\n directed me to a very smart hairdressing salon.\n <\/p>\n
\n Well the interesting thing was that not one of them spoke
\n English so I found one who spoke French and the rest was down
\n to sign language and pointing at pictures in magazines (I
\n knew that word at least but as for tint, cut etc forget it).
\n There is no appointment system apparently in this country,
\n you turn up and just wait. I got there around 4.00 and left
\n at 8.00!\n <\/p>\n
\n I decided I was sick of being my wonderful three shades of
\n red as it had gone a very strange colour in the sun so
\n thought I would go back to blonde. This was indicated to the
\n staff by pointing at an assistant with what I thought was a
\n nice shade of blonde streak! You are given the usual gown but
\n you have a pocket on the arm into which they put what
\n treatment you are having i.e. cut, colour, manicure, pedicure
\n etc.\n <\/p>\n
\n The backwash is very high tech; the chair has a series of
\n buttons on the inside of the chair arm which allows you to
\n raise the lower part of the chair so you are practically
\n lying down. All the women are beautifully turned out as you
\n would expect and as it was all a bit of an adventure, I
\n decided to go the whole hog and had a pedicure and manicure
\n as well. This is quite entertaining as the manicurist follows
\n you around whilst you are having your hair washed, cut,
\n coloured etc. All in all it was a great experience and my
\n hair looked brilliant as well as my nails. Cost-wise it was
\n on a par with where I used to go in Bath, but it was a high
\n class department store.\n <\/p>\n
\n Some other interesting things about the city are the fact
\n that the metro system is small and very efficient. It is also
\n amazingly clean and considering the seven months of hell I
\n had using the District Line, someone from LT should take a
\n look. You never seem to wait more than five minutes for one
\n either. The trams are good fun. The No.28 is one that does a
\n circular trip and is very handy if you are down in town with
\n a heavy bag – Lisbon is made up of seven hills and I live on
\n one of them! The fare is 1 Euro! I got stuck in a tram jam
\n the other week which as amusing as it means that no cars can
\n get by as trams have right of way. There were four No.28s in
\n a row. Before I got on it, I heard one of the old dears
\n waiting at the bus stop saying that she had seen four No. 28s
\n go the other way and none hers – reminiscent of the London
\n bus problem.\n <\/p>\n
\n I never fail to be amazed as how silly some of the tourists
\n are over their personal safety here. When I was wandering
\n around Feira da Ladra (Thieves Market held every Saturday and
\n Tuesday), you spot them with rucksacks or big bags on their
\n backs and it is so easy for pickpockets to lift wallets and
\n purses from them in crowds. Women in particular seem to lose
\n all common sense – they wear totally inappropriate outfits
\n and cause great amusement when you see them bright red and
\n staggering around in shoes suitable for premieres rather than
\n sightseeing. There again men who are follically challenged
\n really ought to wear hats!\n <\/p>\n
\n We went to the outskirts of Sintra (Lord Byron thought it was
\n wonderful – gardens, palaces etc etc) with a friend who has a
\n car and investigated a garden centre. Now this was
\n interesting. There were the usual pots etc but the plants
\n were fascinating. Large bougainvilleas, lemon trees, lime
\n trees, climbing roses, herbs etc. Some plants were the same
\n as in the UK and others were new to me. I settled for pots
\n (60p for terracotta 23″ ones!), some herbs, a climbing
\n rose, something called a plumbago and an amazing large
\n lavender. Inside it has the usual candles, pot pourri,
\n plastic flowers etc – it's run by an Englishman
\n apparently. After we had finished there, my friend took us to
\n Sintra to try a tearoom. Everything in the tearoom was for
\n sale, from the plates to the pictures. It was a very eclectic
\n mix and had that “I think we should whisper”
\n atmosphere that you find in posh tearooms like Castle Combe!
\n Anyway they do a mean cream tea, which consists of three
\n scones (warm), jam and cream, a piece of cake and a tea of
\n your choice – excellent! Afterwards, to walk it all off, we
\n wandered around Sintra.\n <\/p>\n
\n Sintra was where the Portuguese Royal Family used to escape
\n to in height of the summer heat. There are some amazing
\n houses\/villas as well as palaces on the top of mountains and
\n in the main square. One of the palaces, the Pena, you
\n sometimes see on tourist posters – it looks like something
\n mad King Ludwig of Bavaria would have built. It's all
\n different designs and colours and quite spectacular to get
\n to.\n <\/p>\n
\n I have got involved with a local theatre group – The Lisbon
\n Players – via my Portuguese teacher. She invited Derek and I
\n to go to a workshop on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.
\n It was a very entertaining evening and by the time we left, I
\n had been asked if I would like to get more involved with
\n them. I have now been made Stage Manager for the production
\n as well as Task Force Director to help them raise funds and
\n gain a higher profile.\n <\/p>\n
\n They operate out of a lovely old theatre – Estrela Hall –
\n that originally used to belong to the British Hospital. It
\n has a certain faded glamour (dust) and does quite a few
\n productions each year. We start work on the production in the
\n next two weeks and then I shall be thoroughly occupied most
\n Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday evenings with rehearsals
\n all the way through to Christmas. Obviously it is unpaid but
\n it means you meet new people, which is great. Shakespeare is
\n very popular with the Portuguese and is on their education
\n programmes so you get a good mix of audience.\n <\/p>\n