Day No. 110 - Christmas is coming... - Also at Praia de Loulé Velho

This morning we are woken up by the sun. - It's only 10°, but it's supposed to be a fabulous 17°. - Above all, there is plenty of sun. 7 hours of sunshine, the solar bag is immediately unpacked and put in the right light. - The GNR also treats us to a relaxed start to the day. And we wish the GNR a peaceful and contemplative Christmas, and preferably a happy New Year too. We kindly ask you to refrain from home visits. GNR - Guarda Nacional Republicana or "Republican National Guard" - that always sounds dangerous. A lot is written about it. - Especially about hefty fines and so on. This is not our impression. Yes, we were chased away twice. But we didn't hear from anyone personally that they had been charged. The gentlemen came at dawn and not at night and chased us away from a wooded area where storm Elsa had also raged in the coming days. Quite a few trees fell there. So they directly or indirectly ensured our safety. Personally, we only know of one couple who were chased away at night. In this case, the National Guardsman even called his superior to ask if it was really necessary as the children were already asleep. The boss was tough, the guys on site were cordial.

There is little sign here that Christmas is just around the corner. We have already considered simply leaving the door closed. We have to admit that it can be wonderfully relaxing to escape the Christmas hustle and bustle.

Still, there's one thing I really miss: I'll have to do without goose and dumplings this year. Torgit makes fun of the fact that this is the most important thing for me at Christmas. - I don't understand that at all, goose or no goose, that's not just a question here.

Torgit, on the other hand, has other elementary questions of life to answer. Long or short trousers. - She chooses the shorts - after all, it's Christmas.

Surely everyone associates Christmas with very different things. Everyone has their own personal Christmas story. When I think of Christmas, I always think of a small construction company from Remscheid. In my early days as a house salesman, I thought it would make sense to enjoy some kind of training at the same time. - "If you become nothing, you become a landlord. If you don't succeed in that either, you go into insurance." - I didn't even try my hand at being a barman. My brother's insurance agency was closer. - Insurance specialist was the title at the time. In connection with the house business and construction financing, topics such as builder's liability, builder's risk insurance and homeowner's insurance were a tangential issue. - So why not the entire insurance business for regular customers? - But then from a specialist, please. - But I never warmed to the insurance business. - This is just to explain why we are talking about insurance in this article.

Even today, I am still grateful to my brother for an important tip in sales. I later passed this on to "my" salespeople. - In sales, and therefore also in the home and insurance industry, you are often taught to write the names of friends, acquaintances, neighbors, hairdressers and so on on a list. - After all, these would be potential customers. My brother also advised me to write this list. But his tip was not to do business with the people on this blacklist.

I was all the more surprised that there was a customer in the insurance portfolio whom he referred to as an old friend. Officially, this person was on a completely different blacklist. On the insurance company's list. This list stated that under no circumstances was this customer to be issued with a duplicate card (back then you needed one to register a car or truck). The problem with this customer was that he never had enough money to pay the insurance for his trucks or construction machinery.

As a result, the contracts were terminated by the insurance company, the cars were forced to be decommissioned and the stickers on the license plates were scratched off. - But my brother always made sure that double cards were distributed to these customers for the sake of old friendships. - There was a reason why the bonuses didn't come. After a motorcycle accident, the small business was running more badly than well. Only the basement of the private house had been finished. So the entrepreneur was living in more than just poor conditions. But he made a constant effort. And once a year, the insurance company also received its money. That was always on December 24th, around midday, sometimes in the late afternoon. Because that's when the last Christmas tree was sold. This additional business helped us through the worst. - I was sent to collect money. Which meant that I sold the last Christmas trees myself. I always brought home the last one that was left. So, in the first few years, I always brought home the most crooked fir tree. Just the one that was left over. Can you imagine what it looked like? It was usually the most expensive fir, because the money had to be right. - I always loved these crooked fir trees.

In this context, I would like to thank Evelin, my long-time companion, friend and partner. I think she had to endure a lot with me during this time.

What is your Christmas story? Have you passed it on?