A brief recap: Since arriving at Ocean Villas Luz in August 2020, writer David Lugg has been experiencing all aspects of Luz Life. This blog (# 56) is his review of May 2025:
Life often teaches us valuable lessons, even at the most unexpected of times. Last month, I learnt two life lessons in one day – and came out the other side all the better for it. Portugal has an uncanny knack of making me smile through adversity.
As regular readers will attest to, I am not a fan of the Portuguese shopping queue. I thought nothing on earth could move as slow – until now! Step forward the Portuguese condominium meeting. It is an extraordinary event to behold. Nothing can prepare you for the lack of discernible action at a Portuguese condominium meeting. It is astounding. Astonishing. The word inertia must have been created after one of these meetings. I’ll explain more.
My girlfriend, among her many vocational skills, is a property manager. And so, on a beautiful spring day in May, we set off to what I thought would be a brief, and ultimately concise, assembly of property owners of a medium-sized condominium. After an hour and a half, the meeting had not yet started as they were still formulating all the paperwork. Life lesson number 1 – never go anywhere near a Portuguese condominium meeting.
But this is where everything took a happy twist. Life lesson number 2 – how to turn a Portuguese negative into a Portuguese positive. Realising that my girlfriend would be in for a long day, my daughter and I snuck away surreptitiously and decided to have an adventure. Our first stop was the beach where we had fun playing on the swings, before we built a sand fortress big enough to live in.
At this point, my girlfriend sent me a message to say that, after four hours, they were only on point number 4 of 7, so we decided to continue our adventure. Next stop was the supermarket where we bought Portuguese strawberries and Portuguese pasteis de nata. My daughter and I sat in the warm afternoon sun and happily munched away telling each other stories. These are the moments where happy memories are made.
Five hours into the condominium meeting, my girlfriend advised me that they were taking a break for lunch, so we followed her lead and enjoyed a tasty meal at one of the local restaurants. After lunch, my daughter decided that the best option would be to head back to the beach to jump the waves and swim in the sea. We built a sand crocodile (who knew that was a thing?) and laughed together as the motionless animal fought back the oncoming tide.
Speaking of motionless, the condominium meeting was now on point 6 of 7. Sensing that my girlfriend was losing the will to live, we bought her a smoothie to keep her spirits (and energy levels) up. But condominium meetings are not the place for us adventurers, so we found some armbands and headed to the swimming pool to practice our breast stroke. What a day we were having – there was only one thing missing – an ice cream!
As we enjoyed the final lick of our strawberry ice creams, the exciting adventure had come to a close. Both Daddy and his (almost) three-year-old daughter were getting weary. After almost eight hours, my girlfriend made her excuses to leave the meeting announcing that she had a tired daughter to attend to. Whilst the little one had a nap, Mama and Daddy sat on the terrace to enjoy a glass of Portuguese wine.
What a wonderful day it was (for two thirds of the family). So simple, yet such fun. Once again, the west Algarve had proved to be a magical place. Unless you are a property manager.
More news next month.
David Lugg
@davidluggwriter
All photo images owned by David Lugg