5th November 2019 Return to SA

After a lovely dinner of roast chicken and ribs with Luis, Marta, Edwardo and Sofia at the beautiful house of Marta and Edwardo, we went back, packed ready for the journey this morning, Luis was worried as the airport was in the direction of the Web Summit venue. Traffic was not too bad and after fetching Luzitta that was going with Luis to Algarve, we made our way to the airport. Typing this in Dubai waiting  for my flight to SA. New shops in Dubai airport including a H&M and Hard Rock Cafe.

4th November 2019, Monday MOOC at a coffee shop

Stayed in a coffee shop for the morning doing a MOOC on digital marketing and social media, trying to get ready for the dissertation, there is much more to tracking the google searches for a product versus when people used to purchase from brick and mortar stores. A very tasty goat cheese salad for lunch and then a walk to Rossio, Chiado and the river. I couldn’t have come to Lisbon without going to look up my dads old visiting sites.

3rd November 2019 Sunday Lunch with family

Awesome time with Tia Luisa, Luis, Graca, Jorge, Rosa, Eduardo, Marta and Sofia. So much fun catching up, everyone looks so lovely- beautiful people. The food was arroz de Mariscos, samosas, cheese. Sofia is delightful and we spent the afternoon in the park entertained by watching her play.

3rd November 2019 - staying with Luis, what a lovely area,

Went for a run this morning, could see that it was going to start raining. Cool and early so fresh, clearly one gets very good rain in the area, very green and quite beautiful. A golf estate.

2nd November 2019 Rugby World Cup final

Michelle and Brian kindly collected me from my Airbnb, and we watched the rugby, to see SA beat NZ what a match.

Caught the Ryan air flight to Lisbon where Luis kindly fetched me from the airport. We went for dinner of fantastic crab soup and bacalhou a braz and a pastel de nata - we are staying in his apartment that is three bedrooms in a gorgeous area. The area has just been bought by an American fund that is making big changes to the infrastructure, new roads etc. Luis is looking very well, after a minuscule (knee) op, he has lost eight kilos looking very healthy.

Going for my first run in quite a few days, looking forward to this hopefully won’t get lost.

01 November 2019, Last day at Salford University

As usual the end of the week catches me by surprise, I took a drive on the bus to the terminus as after asking the bus driver where the Media Centre was, he told me I should have been going in the opposite direction. Enjoyed the ride anyway, I assumed I could carry on after I got back to Salford University but by the time I got back it was pitch dark and I was not confident enough to carry on so made may way back to the Airbnb. There are loads of people milling about and you walk a bit farther and there are none. So weird, passes Oxford Street that looked really festive. During the day i discussed my dissertation and narrowed it down to something manageable though completely out of my comfort zone - social media research to determine the requirement for a new mineral water brand in st francis bay. So once again lots of work and focus.

The colour of the leaves and the trees all changing colours is really beautiful - we don’t seem to experience the slow change in SA. With the peach tree on our garden, one day there are leaves and the next they are gone. Also walking in the leaves has a special kind of sound. I took a picture in Peel park of what I think is a rook, they look like really big crows. Last night we had loads of kids knocking on the door trick or treating - all dressed up.