“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them” George Orwell. 

BLIP (Better Living In Portugal) exhibition – well it was free so we thought we’d go along… it was what we expected really, usual stands and stalls, free sweets, free prize draws, free bag, and not a lot else really! We met a lovely couple setting up a new free voucher web-site and good luck to them… link here  .. they were sparky and cheery and genuinely interesting. But other than that, well it seemed to revolve around one of the following categories:

1. Are you ill?
2. Are you dying (or even… already dead?)
3. Would you like insurance against numbers 1 or 2 above? or
4. Have you got an enormous villa with a big pool and shed loads of money spare?

No? Well – then there’s probably not a lot here for you. 

But I had to post this to share a mildly amusing conversation we had with one of the stall holders, selling triple glazing, which went along these lines:

Q         ‘Are you interested in triple glazing?’

A          ‘erm, no not really, but go on then…’

Q         ‘Did you know you can now have triple or even quadruple glazing, and soon double glazing will be obsolete?’

A          ‘No?’

I’ll save you the long middle bit where we were shown LOTS of different versions of this…. and one with double glazing on the outside, then a single bit in the middle, and then another double bit on the inside… VERY security conscious:

Hubby  ‘So, this (quintuple?) one…. is it unbreakable?’

A          ‘Oh yes, completely unbreakable, you won’t be able to break it at all’

Hubby  ‘So what happens if there’s a fire then and you need to get out of the house?’

A          ‘Oh, you can’t get out of the house, you’ll be stuck inside’

Hubby  ‘Isn’t that, well, a bit dangerous then?’

A          ‘Oh no, in Germany it is the law that all fire engines must carry special equipment to break such glass. You just stay in the house until they come.’

Hubby  ‘Right, erm, but this is Portugal not Germany. Do the Portuguese have the same equipment?’

A          ‘No’

A          ‘But I know of a house in Portugal where there was a fire and the fire brigade came expecting to bring out the charred bodies… and they were all still inside and ok, the glass had saved them…’

Hubby  ‘How did that happen then?’

A          ‘Oh it was a forest fire, the fire was outside the building, so it kept them safe’

Hubby  ‘OK that’s great but what if the fire had been inside the building?’

A          ‘I guess they’d have burnt!’

Now, maybe it’s just me, … or maybe it isn’t…. but honestly!!!!

“There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them” George Orwell.