Just another roller coaster week in the life of 
This sure has been a week filled with (v)intense energy shifts and a (long distance) confrontation with the landlord over us feeling un well in our rental house, eventually leading to us realizing that we might have been experiencing (a slow build-up of) carbo monoxide poisoning - or another poisonous emission - caused by the wood burner in our living room that isn't working properly and is placed underneath our bedroom (where we have been sleeping poorly for weeks now).
Yesterday, late afternoon, it all became a bit too much for us - we were starting to feel pretty terrible and were even stumbling over our words (experiencing serious brain fog) and we decided it was time for a big imminent change.
We decided to stop using the wood fire and to move our bed/two mattresses to the tent that Clare had put up in our garden, once again ( with the intention to spray/waterproof it ) and to sleep there, even though it's Winter and has gotten very cold at night ( frosty) in the last week or two.
Although it was pretty damn cold outside - and inside the tent - (4 Celsius in the morning), it was nothing we couldn't counter by sleeping with our clothes on, covering ourselves with double, triple or quadruple blankets, hot water bottles and the hot person lying next to us )
and no, I'm not talking about a threesome here
This morning, the two of us woke up feeling quite a bit better with a clearer mind. Today we took a homeopathic remedy, went on an amazing walk, holding hands and enjoying the landscape and each other's company. We kissed a lot, talked to friends who spontaneously visited us when we were prepping lunch ( I am blessed with the fact that Clare loves to cook for me and is a great cook ).
We also made love in the afternoon, ate amazing food throughout the day and had some powerful talks about life and love, making us connect on an even deeper level, once again.
We have been together/in a relationship/partnership for only 3 and a half months ( a little over 100 days ) and (wo)man has it been intense but every time we struggle/are challenged, things just keep getting better, afterwards.
In the last couple of days, we have been booking tickets for our travel to Italy: a bus from Lisbon to Barcelona, a (ferry) boat from Barcelona to Civitavecchia (a port near Rome) and a hotel room in Civitavecchia for the night we arrive there.
Our trip back to Italy, where we want to focus on selling Clare's house (which she calls 'our house' now) slowly starts to take shape and we are very much looking forward to it.
Also, by having set boundaries with our landlord and having paid the last bit of rent ( up till mid January ), we are starting to feel freed up, coming unstuck.
It's now time to pack things, prepare most of our stuff to be moved to a friend's house in the nearby village and focus on getting healthier, once again ( one of our specialties/main points of focus in life ).
Also, in 4 days, my family will be visiting, from Holland, and Clare and I are very much looking forward to that.
Anyhow, I just wanted to make this a quick post and get back into writing.
We have been very distracted, mainly caused by the reasons above.
It's8:30 at night and has been dark for hours now. In short, it's about time for us to get cosy in our tent, with hot water bottles and ( the cliche of cliches ) Netflix, to relax our brains a bit.
I know for sure that we will feel even better tomorrow. Even more as we did not use the fire/'leaking' stove/wood burner at all, today.
I wish you all an amazing day/night wherever you are.
Sending love and good vibes from Central Portugal.
