My final update last week referenced “a journey that could hardly have been smoother”. Before I get on to this week’s real topic, let me explain the significance of that ‘hardly’.

When we first began our thrice-yearly migrations to Portugal, we hired a car from the airport. In Lisbon airport, this is very convenient. The car hire reception counters are a one-minute walk from the arrivals hall, and the car pick-up points are a further three-minute walk.

However, when car hire prices rose steeply a couple of years ago, we discovered that the premium we would have to pay for this convenience was very substantial. There is very little parking space available for car hire at the airport. The few companies that take that space pay a hefty rent for it, and pass that cost on to their customers. There are, in addition, a host of other companies that offer a shuttle service from the airport to their offices and car parks, a five- or ten-minute drive from the airport.

So we began using an off-site company, Klass Wagen, whose service is, I must say, excellent, in all respects (other, of course, than the fact that you may have to wait 20 or 30 minutes for the shuttle, and off-site pickup therefore adds the best part of an hour to your journey).

I was therefore very excited, when I was booking a car for this trip, to discover a company, Flizzr, that offered airport pickup at an off-site price. I should have been suspicious: as Bernice pointed out after the fact, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I should have known better than to trust a company called Flizzr, which sounds like a TV dolphin with a speech impediment. I should have wondered about the company describing itself as a ‘Car Rental Provider’. Just what did ‘provider’ mean in that sentence?. I should have wondered about the pickup being from the Sixt desk in the airport. Why don’t Flizzr have their own desk?

In the event, after we took our short stroll to the Sixt airport desk, the clerk told us to go outside the airport while he phoned for a white Sixt minibus to take us to pick up the car. Needless to say, I pointed out that the website had clearly stated that pickup was from the airport, but, of course, the Sixt clerk, who had no interest or investment in Flizzr, wasn’t in the mood for conversation.

After we had waited fifteen minutes outside the airport, I tried calling the phone number on the voucher. However, this was the phone number of Sixt, not Flizzr, and after listening to the available menu items all the way through, I realized none of the options would lead to a resolution, and so I hung up. A couple of minutes later, the minibus arrived, and within seven minutes we were at the Sixt office, where a very pleasant and efficient clerk, who spoke excellent English, swiftly handled our paperwork. He agreed with me that Flizzr’s misrepresentation on their website was outrageous, and assured ne that Sixt were forever telling them they had to change it, but, of course, it was nothing to do with Sixt.

We were soon on the road, in a Peugeot 308 that is a pleasure to drive, with Android Auto working, so that the map display was very easy to read. In addition, the car offers cruise control, headlights that dip automatically whenever they sense traffic ahead or oncoming, and then automatically return to beam, and windscreen wipers that automatically adjust to the presence and ferocity of rain. Every time I hire a car these days, I feel more and more like an optional extra.

All of this meant that we arrived in Penamacor at 10:30 rather than 9:40, as we had hoped, but it could certainly have been worse. We were able to get a good night’s sleep before Tslil was no longer able to hold the boys back from coming into our room, at around 6:15 the following morning.

In the week since then, we have had time to discover all of the ways in which the boys have developed since we left here in July. We of course expected to see big changes in Ollie. The difference between being just two and being two and three-and-a-half months can be expected to be significant. But Tao, as well, has surprised us in how he has matured. We were in the supermarket (of course) with the boys yesterday. When we reached the checkout, I started unloaded our trolley. Meanwhile, Tao said ‘Hello’ to the cashier. In the summer, he would have not felt confident enough in his Portuguese or in himself to strike up a conversation with a stranger, but this has now changed. He is noticeably more outgoing, and, by all accounts, his third language is developing as well.

Of course, in this respect his parents set him an excellent example. For several months, Tslil has been teaching a yoga class in English to a group of local women. She also found a useful arrangement where she gave a weekly private lesson to a Portuguese woman who, in return, coversed with Tslil in Portuguese. She also practices online every day. Last week she started teaching a new class, in Portuguese, and she was very happy with the way it went. Meanwhile, Micha’el recently spent a half-an-hour in conversation with an elderly local man, who asked him at one point whether he came from Brazil.

One day a week, Micha’el and Tslil practise their language skills by speaking to each other only in Portuguese. They certainly sound convincing to me, although it has to be said that I’m not exactly an expert. Also one day a week, Micha’el speaks to the boys in Hebrew. Now that even Ollie is very clear about the difference between the two languages, it seems to me that exposing the boys regularly to a second native Hebrew speaker is a very worthwhile initiative.

However, the prize for language development since our last visit has to go to Ollie. In July, he spoke a few words, always in isolation. He had no difficulty making himself understood with eloquent body language, but he was barely speaking. Nobody was at all worried about this. He clearly understood everything anybody said to him, and his father did not speak until he was well into his third year (and hasn’t stopped since).

When we arrived this time, we were amazed to find Ollie stringing words together like a pro, with ‘sentences’ like “Mummy outside laundry dryer” (“Mummy has gone outside to put the laundry in the dryer”, obviously). Now that his outgoing nature is augmented by sparkling conversation, and given the fact that he has a healthy appetite and is not at all a finicky eater, he is the perfect guest to invite to a dinner party.

Both Micha’el and Tslil are keeping themselves in very good physical shape and eating very healthily. They seem to be in a routine that is working well for them. Lua grows more placid as she continues to mature. Micha’el has trained her very well and I am thoroughly enjoying my daily morning walk with her. Even the weather has been largely kind, with, so far, only a little rain, and plenty of mists and mellow fruitfulness.

Shabbat was even warm enough to sit in the sun in the backyard.

In short, everyone here is in very good shape. Even if Bernice and I are on our knees by the end of the day, we get a good night’s sleep, because Ollie is sleeping through the night much better, and we have only shared our bed with him once so far. We are confident that by the end of the second week we will have hit our stride, and be ready to go the distance.

Tune in next week, to follow me eating my words.