We are Michael and Jolandi, two South Africans, living in the United Arab Emirates. Over many glasses of wine, we have dreamed of a life unencumbered by the demands and restrictions of corporate life, and as we grew older, realized that unless we make a decision to take the plunge, we will find ourselves stuck in the same rut, ten years from now. Not wanting to risk a life of regret, we have purchased a 3 ha piece of land in rural Portugal, and are planning to, over the next couple of years, set up our life, so that we can move there. We originally aimed for December 2019, but realised that a dream like this needed a lot more patience, time, and money than we initially expected. Throw in a pandemic, and things got even more messy. Despite all of this I (Jolandi) moved to Portugal on 9 October 2020, while Michael is still working in Abu Dhabi for the time being, as a regular income will allow us the freedom to build more infrastructure, pay off an apartment, and set up our life in a way that will provide us with a bit of financial freedom.
“Every food has an inspiring birthplace and holds flavors directly connected to the places and people that make them.”– Simran Sethi Spring on the quinta is a tumultuous explosion of colour – white, yellow, and purple vie for attention, while the calls of the cuckoo bird punctuate a collective increase in the birdsong that fills […]
“We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.” — Jacques Yves Cousteau Growing up on a farm where dryland farming was, and still is practiced, and where a limited water supply via boreholes was available for raising animals and domestic use, the preciousness of water has been ingrained in me. Taps […]
“Every human person is inevitably involved with two worlds: the world they carry within them and the world that is out there. All thinking, all writing, all action, all creation and all destruction is about that bridge between the two worlds. All thought is about putting a face on experience.” – John O’Donohue My writing […]
When we received a quote from our builder to build a retaining wall below the agricultural building he was busy erecting for us, we not only realized that we couldn´t afford it, but decided to do it ourselves. Well, let´s be clear, Michael decided, and I idiotically went along with his hairbrain idea, completely misunderstanding […]