The Toll of 2020 | Here is a little story, one I have been wanting to tell for a while, but I have been trying to deal with so much at once, that focus on chronicling the journey, has taken time in terms of how best to deal with such delicate detail. To begin with, let me state as a matter of due diligence that I endeavour to operate ethically and in full good and clear conscience of my actions, believing empirically in the concept of cause and effect. At no point is it ever my intention to cause loss or harm, or engage in a negative way. I take full responsibility for my actions, to the extent that my circumstances were controllable by my actions, but at no point am I responsible for the actions of others, or circumstances beyond my control.
I have tried for so long to hide the stress and turmoil I have been going through, whilst just sharing snippets with a small dedicated inner circle of devout friends and family, but none of it can be understood without grasping the fullest context of our journey…
And thus, now that I finally have the will and the words to write up this episode of my reality, it is time to put into perspective my journey since moving to the Algarve, and where I now find myself, heading towards the end of the most hectic year of my life by far.
As always, I ponder which part of the timeline do I start at in order to give an accurate trajectory of dates for events, as there is so much context and back story to every decision we have made… but for expedience sake, I shall start with…
THE MOVE TO PORTUGAL
In mid July 2017, my husband and I came to the Algarve, relocating our media network, Conscious Consumer Network, whilst staying on behest of a friend’s invite, on his farm in Lagoa, that affectionately donned the name Beach Farm, being so close to some of the most beautiful beaches along the Algarvian coast. We set up the network in an old room at the back of the farm, right along one of the busiest roads in the whole of Portugal, and yet, paradoxically still in the countryside. These paradoxes seem to be an all consuming and persistent sacrificial price for the experience of the paradise that is the Algarve. The contrasts and contradictions of this land were indeed not lost on me, but none the less, I immediately fell in love with the Algarvian countryside, and of course the stunning beaches and scenery. The Algarve reminded me so much of my home country of South Africa, both in terms of climate and scenery. It is a charming place, with the cleanest air I have ever had the pleasure of breathing. It was so lovely that my husband Biggi and I, worked towards setting up our infrastructure locally, with the full intention of settling and assimilating into the local culture.
BEACH FARM
The first 14 months, during which we were staying at a friend’s farm in Lagoa, we were dedicated to learning our way around, networking, connecting, and learning about the local culture, whilst building our business infrastructure, and looking after a sweet, old, frail and very little Portuguese lady called Maria, who was very slowly and painfully dying. I had the devastating experience of watching Maria eek out day by day. This was not something I counted on when I arrived in the Algarve, as it was emotionally very challenging on many different fronts. The experience of providing care and assistance to someone with such high care needs, was very educational, for as I now move from youth to middle age, I learned though my experience of caring for Maria, of the ways to care for a high need person, and I got to experience what it would be like to lose mobility, and mental capacity. Looking after Maria enhanced my already well developed knowledge about health, and encouraged me to look after myself and seek out better alternatives, which had always been a mission of mine, and the founding ethics of Conscious Consumer Network. This pursuit brought us to the creation of my Algarvian Life artesian produce business, which was inspired by the cultural aspects of the Algarve. For a time, I was surrounded by people who inspired me with great produce and immense creativity. The markets, festivals and events that happened in the Algarve were simply amazing to be a part of, and we were grateful for the experience. Eventually we made the big move of registering a business in the Algarve with a view to setting up home and buying a place of our own.
Whilst doing all this, we were still running a full time media network from day to day, with all the stress and emotional pressure that comes with it. At the time I was doing a show called ‘Stop South African Genocide’ which I co-hosted with a fellow expat South African Karin Smith, who lives in Texas, USA. Stop South African Genocide was a live broadcast show which focused on the issues that are faced in South Africa, and which are largely overlooked by the international community.. At this time I was also busy doing conferences, teaching workshops and assisting in the media effort of the Khoisan Nation.
APPOINTED INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ADVISOR TO THE ROYAL HOUSE OF THE KHOISAN NATION
Only three months after arriving in the Algarve, I landed one of the biggest opportunities and appointments of my life. Due to the humanitarian work that I have been involved with, I was approached by representatives of the Khoisan King, Khoebaha Calvin Cornelius III, who wished to discuss the plans for the Khoisan Nation’s bid self determination via the process of secession, which is backed by United Nations law pertaining to the rights of First Nations. After several meetings and interviews with the King and his people, which included Florida University Professor of Law, Winston P. Nagan, I was appointed by Royal Mandate as the International Media Advisor to the Royal House of the Khoisan Nation, and have gone on to serve as the International Media Advisor to the Greater Aboriginal Community Council of Southern Africa. I still work with and advice various first nation tribal groups across the world in various capacities including the Australian Aboriginal communities, various Amazonian tribes, and various First Nation tribes of the greater Americas.
A BIT ABOUT MY VARIOUS BODIES OF WORK
I have lived and worked in many parts of the world, and experienced many different cultures. This has really developed my Anthropological view of the world, which has taken shape in the various books and documentaries I have published, which deals with cultural origins, mythology, art history, megalithic structures, archaeology, linguistics, symbolism and all things mystical, magical and dragon related, for indeed, these critters turn up in every ancient cultural mythology across the planet. I myself am born in the year of the Dragon, so I am fascinated by this topic, and this has resulted in an immense body of work called Dragonology, the complete teaching of which can be learned from my book ‘Spell Breaker’.
The research and writing of ‘Spell Breaker’ sent me down a very interesting direction of research, and encouraged me to write to and speak with a number of interesting academics and explorers across the world, whilst delving into their works. This resulted in the book ‘The Greatest Discovery’, followed by my film ‘Secrets of the Kalahari’. This was a book that was delayed 14 months in completing due to the fact that most of my time and attention was focused on palliative care for the aforementioned sweet old Portuguese lady called Maria. Once Maria had passed on, we had moved into a small place in the Old Town of Lagoa, where I got some focus and finally completed ‘The Greatest Discovery’.
For more about my credentials, please check out my blog post entitled The King and I
OLD TOWN LAGOA
The adjustment from living on the farm, to living in a tiny boxed in town house in a very narrow old street in the Old Town of Lagoa, was very tough. I have never been more depressed living anywhere else in my life as I was during my time in Rua das Olarias. The town house was right on the road, not even a pavement to separate the walls of our premises, from the narrow one way road. We routinely had large trucks trying to squeeze through narrow road but half an inch from our living room window. From the get go, there were so many issues with the apartment, which never got sorted during our entire 16 month tenancy. Our immediate neighbours who were located diagonally behind us, had big dog issues, both in terms of noise, and how little they cleaned up after a dog living in a 4 meter square space. The filth, smell and cockroaches were overwhelming. We contacted SEPNA four times in an attempt to get the dog owner to clean up the mess that this poor dog was living in. There was a lot of theft too, as that was an area frequented by hang youths, as there was a public high school just down the road. Furthermore, there was what seemed to be a council estate, with some very dodgy characters, right on our doorstep, none of which we were aware of, nor were we advised by the landlord when we moved in. My office / work area was right by the street level window, and there were several people who just tried to climb through it whilst I was sitting there working. It scared me out of my wits a few times, and eventually left me a nervous wreck. On one occasion, I had to slam the window shut on a man’s head as he tried to climb in through my window whilst trying to grab me. I was constantly aware of who was walking past on the street whilst having some very sensitive conversations as an Independent Research Journalist. There was a constant stream of sales folk, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Gypsies at the front door, wanting my attention for what ever reason, as they would see that I was in. There was no privacy unless one kept the windows closed and blinds drawn, and that made the place very dark and claustrophobic, as there would be no natural light coming in. I eventually had to put up a DO NOT DISTURB sign in Portuguese, in the hopes of staving off those who called at our door uninvited and without appointment.
DRUNKEN NEIGHBOURS & CRYING DOGS
At night, it was hard to sleep as the neighbour directly behind us, had a dog that kept crying and howling out of loneliness, often into the early hours of the morning. We went around to the neighbour’s house to speak to him about his dog at least 3 times, but of course he had to work as we all do, and his employment was as a bartender at Smilers in Carvoeiro, hence the late hours, whilst his dog howled away the night in loneliness and desperation. The howls are so loud and gutt wrenchingly desperate, that at times they reduced me to tears as I felt so sorry for this lonely dog, who was clearly miserable. Being a crazy animal lover, it was hard to ignore the constant torment of this suffering animal. Then one night, after I had just arrived back from travelling, I was still in my business suit, whilst doing dishes at 1am, this barman with the noisy dog, most randomly and unprovoked, started yelling at me from over his wall, through my kitchen window, in a drunken frenzy, slurring and cursing and ranting on about a turquoise cat. I think he may have been on hallucinogens or some other drugs, probably cocaine, as he became threatening and abusive, and started to make gestures about harming my cats. Not sure what his issue is or was, but I just avoided him after that as I never want to be associated with violent drunks.
OUR LANDLORD MANDY HUGHES
I was beginning to realise we had moved into a slum, and we were being overcharged for it. As we learned our way around, we soon learned that we had been paying double the going rate for a one bedroom town house in that area. To compound matters, we had rented this place from a typically unscrupulous landlady, who was not issuing us with tax invoices, known in Portugal as Green Receipts. This landlady was named Mandy Hughes, and was a nasty British lady with a very toxic personality. Right from the get go, she was hostile, aggressive and nasty. During our initial meeting where we signed the Tenancy Contract and took possession of the keys, Mandy became threatening and abusive to the point of traumatising me enough to walk out of the room, and whilst allowing my husband to conclude our business with this toxic wench. We almost walked away from the tenancy at that moment, and indeed, in hindsight, we probably should have, but we had already signed a one year contract with MEO for Fibre Optic internet, which we need in order to run our TV network.
Whenever we saw Mandy on the streets, she always looked deeply miserable, and never smiled or greeted us when we passed her in coffee shops or on the streets in town. Mandy had many properties around Lagpa which she owned and rented out, and she had not registered any of the property with the local authorities as having rental income, in order to avoid paying taxation on her properties and the income they generated. As the property we rented from Mandy Hughes was not registered as a rental property with the Portuguese Tax office, we could not register as living there, despite having a signed tenancy contract in English, which as it turned out, made said tenancy contract, invalid in Portugal, which meant that I could not get various documents in order, important documents such as driver’s licence, passport, which were all coming up for expiry in mid 2020.
This property of Mandy Hughes that we rented eventually drove me to deep depression, as there were so many issues associated with it. I had damp coming through the walls, the boiler leaked constantly, and we were unable to catch the leak due to the positioning of said boiler, which dripped into the cupboards, often ruining my artesian produce. The environment of the premises had absolutely no natural energy due to the thick walls and no nature, and can best be described as being energetically dead. It was like living in a prison. There were so many persistent issues, but we were discouraged from continuously approaching Mandy about the issues, given her previous hair trigger threatening outbursts. I just did everything to avoid having to deal with her as I do not like being abused by people with bad tempers. Nobody knows just how much I struggled with my mental health during the 16 months that we lived there, but I was deeply unhappy and very depressed, and I tried my hardest to hide it from everybody, but sometimes I had some breakdowns and outbursts, and the worst thing is, because everyone lived on top of each other in this road, I am sure everybody in the neighbourhood could hear it my painful and tormented outbursts.
CREEPY XENOPHOBIC NEIGHBOURS
The real cherry on top was a strange neighbour across the road, a couple by the name of David and Innes Trindade. First a bit about David who works for a Property Agency and Management company called Borborleta. This guy would follow us around. No matter where we went, there he was. He always managed to be at the same place, at the exact same time as us. I would find him loitering outside my window when I was doing important calls and conferences, often dealing with sensitive information. He just creeped me out, but at least he was initially friendly enough to greet us on the street when we first moved in. Now David’s wife Innes, was just rude from the very first day I laid eyes on her after moving in. She just ignored me as I greeted her in the street, often giving me a dirty look, and this became more demonstrative and hostile as time went on, which was curious, as we had never spoken or come into contact. I felt like she disliked us for being foreign, or out of jealousy, as I overheard her one day gossiping about my Chanel Sunglasses and Pink Ugg boots to a neighbour. After this, I never engaged her at all, just passing on the street, trying not to look at her or pay attention, which is my way of dealing with negative people.
MENTAL HEALTH DETERIORATION
Eventually, I became very unwell whilst living in Mandy Hughes’s Lagoa slum apartment, as the energetics from that place was just so dark and negative, and it began to impact on me. I became distinctly aware that something awful had happened in that apartment once, and we would often hear loud moans and groans inside the apartment, that we could not identify, as if coming from a ghostly presence. Furthermore, we had several thefts in our apartment including theft of Xmas decorations, post, fixtures and fittings, as well as several more petty thefts around the area. At a certain point, two of my kitty children were mutilated, both at the same time on the same day, one of them coming home with stab wounds, and the other being covered in glue, as if someone tried to super glue my cat to something. Not that I am a person who lives in fear, but needless to say that we did not feel safe in the area, and in fact, we were beginning to feel like there was a deliberate conspiracy against us. The paranoia and distrust did nothing to help my mental state, which was now making me so physically ill that I had pains in all my joints and could barely walk at times.
Although in all fairness, it must be said that I did meet some really lovely people during my time there. I am always grateful for the distraction, albeit brief, that these interesting characters around the Old Town Lagoa provided, and I love and cherish all the great friends we have made. It was truly wonderful to be in Lagoa for the amazing events and festivals that happen there, many of which I have chronicled reviews on via various international publications that I write for, and we felt very privileged to have had access to these events right on our doorstep.
XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS
Sadly, we became the target of xenophobic attacks and a bullying campaign, which I have since learned, was specifically orchestrated with the specific intention of trying to get us to leave. Not sure why as we had never had any altercation with any neighbour, and we just kept to ourselves. If we did not like somebody’s behaviour or energy, we just ignored them and carried on about our business. We have / had no interest in fighting with anybody. We are peace loving people, and thus, we have a strong policy of not engaging with toxic people, attitudes or behaviour. Having lived in big cities around the world, I had learned how to avoid engaging with toxic people, but it seems that hatred and jealousy had overcome some of the locals, who we would often hear gathered in the streets on each other’s doorstep at dusk to gossip. Of course with my paranoia setting in at this stage, I was always sure they were gossiping about us. We soon learned that the lady across the road, Innes Trindade, worked for the Municipality, as we saw her working at the Camara (Municipality) in Lagoa one day, when we had to attend at the municipal offices in order to try to register as living at our rented property in Old Town Lagoa. On two occasions, Innes orchestrated the removal of our water supply by getting a part removed from the water main pipe that was located directly on the narrow street on which we lived. This resulted in the loss of water to our rented property for extended periods of time, without any warning or due cause… and this happened on two separate occasions. My husband would have to go down to the Camara (municipality) and speak to this one and that one, struggling with his limited Portuguese, in order to get that head of department to make calls to sort out the mess, whilst also dealing with the legal department, etc etc, just to get the water turned back on…
On the first occasion, Lagoa Municipality claimed to have switched the water off as we did not have a valid tenancy agreement, given that it was written in English, and thus, we had it translated, and gave the Portuguese version of the tenancy agreement to the municipality, and demanded to have our water turned back on, which they did after two days. The water department sent a maintenance crew round to our abode and they replaced the previously extracted water pipe. On the evening of the day our water was turned back on, I saw David Trindade, the neighbour from across the road, come past our external box where our water pipe was, and I noticed that he was checking it out. I thought that was rather odd that he would be looking at our water pipes, as we had not discussed the issue with him, and yet, David knew about the issue, and seemed to be examining our water pipes directly outside our window, whilst looking somewhat confused as to why said water pipes had been fixed. What made me truly suspicious about David was the fact that after that incident of having our water pipe removed and then replaced by Lagoa Water, David Trindade stopped greeting us, even giving us very filthy looks, when he had previously been generally friendly. I had to question why was he so unhappy that we had our water back? Probably because David and his wife Innes had tried to bully us out of the neighbourhood by getting our water cut off, after all, his wife did work for the municipality…
And then, a few months later, the same thing happened. The same part of the water pipe was been removed without any notification to ourselves, and our water was once again cut off for absolutely no reason. But this time, the municipality could not use the excuse that we did not have a Portuguese tenancy contract, as we had it translated and given the municipality the translated version. When we asked why the water was off, the excuse was “clerical error”, meaning someone had ‘mistakenly’ processed an order via computer or via paperwork, supposedly by accident (????), to have our water pipes dismantled. This was not an accident. This was something that was deliberately contrived and executed by somebody within the Lagoa Municipality. It can’t be co-incidence that this just randomly happened on two occasions, without warning… As if we were stupid enough to buy that bullshit.
By thats stage we began to figure out that these activities were set in motion in an attempt to bully us, and that the neighbours across the road were in on it.
CORRUPTION
I have had to learn the hard way just how corrupt various aspects of the Portuguese infrastructural governance is, first hand. Being born and growing up in South Africa, I was no stranger to open corruption in government and municipal administration. However, that being said, I am pretty sure that Lagoa Municipality would not be complicit in deliberate acts of xenophobic bullying of people in the community, by their employees within positions in the municipality infrastructure, who had personal grudges, and probably also xenophobic hatred and mental issues too. That is pure juvenile style bullying tactics, which was acted out by using one’s limited position of power within in an administrative sector, to cut water to people you do not like, by depriving them of water. Water is a basic human right and necessity of life. Cutting one’s water is like depriving them of the rights to live. Needless to say that I did not let these incidents bully me out of the neighbourhood, and I stood my ground there longer than perhaps I would have otherwise.
With all that going on, I never really settled in Old Town Lagoa, and just when I thought I was at my lowest point, an opportunity too good to be true, came up…
MEETING LISA & HUCKLEBERRY
Whilst hosting one of my Algarvian.Life Cheese and Wine parties just before Christmas at a house in Lagoa, I was introduced to an Jewish American Lady called Lisa Clare Brull, who just showed up without an invitation. I did not know Lisa and I had not invited her, nor had she contacted me beforehand via my email or Facebook page to let me know she was coming to my Lagoa Christmas tasting party. The following day after the Xmas tasting, whilst walking my cats on Carvoeiro Beach, I ran into Lisa, whom I had never seen at the beach before, a beach I frequented almost every morning, which I found rather odd. I was introduced to Huckleberry, Lisa’s huge and very furry, very slobbery Saint Bernard. This is the biggest dog I have seen in the Algarve, and I am sure I would have noticed him before, but I had never seen this dog before that point. Lisa told me that she lived with this massive dog in a small apartment nearby in Monte Dourado. I just could not believe Lisa was keeping this huge animal in a tiny apartment with no garden. Furthermore, Lisa was a very sick lady, who took 13 pills first thing in the morning, and was barely able to walk. The daily trips to the beach were a struggle for her, but she did them for the sake of her dog getting out for a walk and urinate. Huckleberry was not a happy dog, and by far the most depressed and listless looking St Bernard I have ever seen, a bit like Lisa. Lisa mentioned that day on the beach that she had found an alternative place in Luz, and that after 4 months of suffering in the Carvoeiro apartment, that herself and Huckleberry would be moving to a place with a garden. Lisa was however concerned as to what she would do with the two year lease on her Carvoeiro apartment. This is where I stepped in and I offered to take over Lisa’s tenancy contract, as I was not happy in Old Town Lagoa, as the neighbourhood was definitely a bit rough for me. The safety and privacy aspect was a problem, and furthermore, I urgently needed to get settled into a place where I could register as living and get my important travel documents renewed, which meant, with a landlord who was registered and paying taxes. With a two year tenancy agreement such as Lisa’s, I would be sure to be able to get all of this sorted, or so I thought.
EXIT DRAMA WITH MANDY HUGHES
We agreed to move out without any expectation of getting our apartment rental deposit returned to us from Mandy Hughes, as we had been advised by former tenants of Mandy’s, that she never gives back the deposit. We had over the time of our tenancy seen various social media pages and threads, with many negative comments by people doing business with Mandy Hughes, and there were many fights that erupted with some clearly very unhappy tenants, with some very nasty and hostile lashings from Mandy Hughes being directed to those who went public about how Mandy Hughes operated. Enough was enough. We had fulfilled our one year tenancy contract with a 16 month tenancy, having paid double the market rental rate for the property we rented, which was effectively in a slum, and surrounded by a some very xenophobic, mentally ill and soul sick people. Furthermore, we had never received a single factura / receipt (Green Receipt) for a single payment that we made to Mandy Hughes, as she was renting the property to tenants without paying taxes on on her rental income. We had had enough, and we had a better option, or so we thought.
When we handed in our notice to Mandy Hughes, we got the usual hostile, nasty and aggressive response from Mandy Hughes, with all sorts of unnecessary and ridiculous threats, including that Mandy was going to change the locks whilst we were still in the apartment. We went to the local police (GNR) and they advised us that this was illegal, and if that happened, we need only call them and they would break the door down and get us out. We were also advised that we had the right to move out any time if the conditions were unsuitable, and Mandy Hughes had no legal right to keep us there and we were entitled to do so without duress from our Mandy Hughes. Portuguese Laws governing tenancy specifically state that it is illegal to bully tenants. Mandy Hughes was just crooked, and did business like a mafia thug. We simply did not wish to be associated with, or pay further monies to, such a disgusting person. We only ever wish to support people who operate fairly and ethically.
PROPERTY CONDITION DISPUTE
After moving out of Mandy’s place, we had planned to return to said property in order to give it a final cleaning, but my husband hurt his back during the move, and we could not get back to Lagoa Old Town to get it sorted before the handover date to Mandy Hughes on 7 January 2020. As we had paid double the rental rate for the 16 months that we were there, (as ignorant foreigners do) and offered to forfeit the deposit, we felt absolutely no guilt in letting Mandy fit the cost of the clearing and cleaning. Mandy did try to convince us we had to pay for a new kitchen, as we knew she would, because of continuous flooding from an oversized boiler that had destroyed the shelving and cupboards. As Mandy had installed that boiler whilst we lived there, it was her responsibility that the boiler was not correct. We also suffered greatly with the loss of products from continued boiler flooding. We had grown tired of trying to chase after Mandy’s lack of interest in getting things sorted in the apartment that she had promised to sort out, and never did. We wrote one final letter to Mandy detailing the struggles we had endured during our time there, especially with trying to get registered, and the drama with the invalid and unregistered English tenancy agreement. We had observed over the course of our tenancy, some very nasty discussion on Facebook, where Mandy likes to attack anybody who questioned her pricing, ethics etc. We realised we had rented from someone who was an unscrupulous and toxic person, and we simply wanted her out of our lives and to move on. We informed Mandy that we knew her properties were not registered for rental income, as we had not received a single Factura / Green Receipt from her, which were necessary for our business requirements, and we work from home often, and thus we had to submit rental as part of our business expenses when doing our tax accounting. We told Mandy that we were not going to go online like her many other unhappy tenants, and tell everybody what we know about her, that she overcharged and did not pay taxes on her rental income, as we are bigger people than that and we have better things to do. We just wanted to move on and be done with Mandy Hughes and that slum she over charged us for. We got one last final message from Mandy, begging us not to go around telling people that she did not pay taxes on her property… And to be fair, we just wanted to move past all that drama, and focus on our priorities so that we could get my documents sorted in a new address. We had no intention of harming Mandy Hughes. We just wanted to get on with it and to be left to live in peace as we are entitled to do by law… but Mandy Hughes had other ideas. After leaving Old Town Lagoa, Mandy actively participated in a campaign of slander and harassment against my family and I. This bitter lady had a serious sense of entitlement, and was very vindictive. Lagoa is a small town, and in the expat community, gossip and slander gets around, and before you know it, much damage was done as a result of this entanglement with such a narcissistic, unethical person.
CONTACT WITH EVELYN SIMON
Lisa connected me with her landlady, a woman called Evelyn Gertrud Simon, who lived and worked in Germany. I spoke to her over the phone before we decided to move into her apartment in Carvoeiro. Evelyn seemed very happy to have somebody to take over Lisa’s two year lease, and I was given a copy of the tenancy contract by Lisa, to see the terms and conditions before moving in. Lisa informed me upfront that Evelyn was not good at getting back to her tenants and getting repairs and other matters pertaining to the apartment, sorted out or fixed, if there was a requirement to do so. I assumed this was largely due to the fact that Evelyn was German and lived in Germany, and being far away, had other distractions and time commitments. Upfront I just gave Evelyn the benefit of the doubt, and she came across to be very sweet and nice on the phone. She definitely had a much nicer demeanour than Mandy Hughes, and I honestly thought that anything would have been better than Mandy Hughes at that stage. From the conversation we had on the phone, I could also tell that Evelyn was a simple lady, and not at all intelligent or savvy when it came to business matters. And thus, when I spoke with Evelyn, I offered to draw up the tenancy agreement with our details in them, and Evelyn was very happy to not have to worry about doing it. She trusted me with the task of sorting out an updated tenancy contact. On instruction and agreement from Evelyn, I drew up a new contract with our details replacing Lisa’s details, and including date adjustments for the start and end of the contract, which was a two year tenancy contract that would run from 1 January 2020, to 31 December 2021. My husband then signed the contract, scanned it, sent it to Evelyn via email, and made the first rental payment. We gave Lisa back half of her deposit, as we had a lot of cleaning and repairs to take care of as a result of Huckleberry’s hair and mess left behind, including an ongoing odour of stale dog.
THE MOVE FROM LAGOA OLD TOWN TO CARVOEIRO
As Lisa was so sickly, barely able to walk, never mind carry heavy boxes, and so my husband helped Lisa to move house, carrying all her stuff from the third floor, to his car and a hired van. My husband then drove Lisa and her belongings to her new house with a garden in Luz. After moving Lisa from Carvoeiro to Luz, my husband and I had to move our belongings from Lagoa to Carvoeiro.
On 1 January 2020, we took occupation of the Carvoeiro apartment. The move from Lagoa to Carvoeiro was extremely difficult, and my husband ended up hurting his back moving our couch up three flights of stairs, and at the end of the move, he was barely able to walk, having moved two households, both Lisa’s and ours, in a very short space of time. All the moving in such a short time, caused severe and permanent injury to his back. Furthermore, the apartment was filled with Huckleberry’s hair, and his dried slobber was all over the walls, often thick with caked in hair, dirt and general filth.
It was all over the curtains and bedding in the apartment. The dog’s slobber hair drips were caked into anything and everything. I mean, you just can’t imagine how much slobber and hair a Saint Bernard leaves behind. Furthermore, the apartment had a very intense stink of stale dog. It has to this very day, not left the apartment. I have had to burn incense constantly to mask the smell. If I sleep with the balcony doors and windows closed, and I wake up at night, I can smell dog. The moment I walk through the front door, I can smell the dog. We just could not seem to get the dog out of the apartment. Furthermore, the washing machine hose and motor had to be fixed due to blockages caused by Huckleberry’s hair.
I was finding Saint Bernard hair in my products for my business, in cakes I baked, in my lipgloss, in my shower gel, in my toothpaste, on the towels that I dried myself with… it was just everywhere and seemed to keep coming back from hidden spaces, no matter how many times we cleaned. I even had a professional cleaner once a week to help get rid of it.
I spent most of January 2020 moving in and getting the place cleaned up. It was extremely difficult dealing with internet service providers, as they missed one appointment after the other, and we needed our internet up and running, in order to work and earn money. We took out a media service contract with MEO, which is a minimum of one year. At first the internet was very slow, and it was difficult and frustrating to complete any task, but eventually, MEO installed Fibre Optic in July 2020, 5 months later than was promised to us when we first took the contract. This delay cost us dearly as we were unable to run Conscious Consumer Network for that period, resulting in loss of earnings. It was a constant back and forth battle that has been an ongoing back and forth battle in a country where we are still learning the language and struggling to get basic amenities sorted.
NO TENANCY CONTRACT
By the end of January 2020, we had still not received a signed tenancy contract from our landlady Evelyn. I found this to be very strange. In all the time I have rented properties, I have never ever entered into a tenancy without a signed tenancy agreement. We emailed Evelyn several times regarding issues in the apartment that we felt she needed to know about, as Evelyn had not been present to observe the occupational transfer from Lisa to ourselves, in order to monitor or check anything that was out of order, or needed attention and fixing. When we sent these emails, we always let her know that we had not yet received our signed tenancy contract. Without a signed tenancy contract, we were unable to register as living there, nor could we transfer registration of the basic utilities such as water and electricity in our name, which had to be done, as Lisa was pressuring us to get it sorted, as the utility bills were still in her name, and she wanted this to be sorted out as soon as possible, as most understandably, she did not want be liable for two sets of bills, as she was a sickly old lady living on Disability Social Welfare. We urgently needed to get a signed tenancy agreement in order to get the bills sorted for our own personal administration, and to be able to register as living there in order to renew soon to be expired documentation such as my passport, my EU work permit and my drivers’ license.
FALSE ALLEGATIONS BY BUILDING MANAGEMENT
a.k.a.: The Fiddler on the Roof Incident
In the first week of February 2020, something very strange happened. We had been living in the apartment for five weeks, when a lady one day just walks into the apartment, claiming to be the building manager. Her name was / is Mino, and she was and still is the owner of Inter-Real, a local real estate agency and property management company that maintains the apartment block. I had never met Mino before, and she was a complete stranger to us. She reminded me of a Portuguese Donatella Versace, with a lot less money, given that she walks around with a fake Louis Vuitton handbag, and yet, she had all the pomp and arrogance of a self entitled diva, and an over inflated sense of self importance and arrogance that one usually associates with estate agents. Mino just barged into our apartment, without an appointment, without a business card or credentials, and entered into our entrance hall with the door open to the entire third floor corridor, (which amplifies sound across the tiled interior, echoing through the apartment block so no consideration for our privacy) where Mino began very loudly accusing my husband of masturbating on the communally accessible roof terrace on the fourth floor, whilst also alleging that my husband had left the mess behind for the cleaners, who had apparently reported this to Inter Real, the building’s management company that they worked for. Needless to say, these allegations were ridiculous. We asked Mino for proof that the masturbated mess was from my husband, but she had none, not even a photograph. In fact, Mino had absolutely no evidence at all, nor has she taken time to see the mess for herself. In fact Mino showed up at our door with these serious and embarrassing false allegations, without having taken any photos of the offending mess, without having taken a sample of said mess, and without any proof that said mess had come from my husband. This was either a vicious prank to discredit us, and Mino was in on it, or Mino was making a mistake somewhere along the line, starting with not following any form of legitimate, professional due process when investigating such a serious claim, such as collecting and presenting evidence before laying such a serious charge at our door. Nonetheless, this entire episode was so unbelievably traumatising, as these were completely false allegations and completely out of character for my husband. That night I barely slept, tossing and turning, wondering why such a random injustice had come to plague us at this juncture. We got in touch with our legal advisors, and the very next morning, we attended Inter-Real’s offices with an interpreter and legal advisor. Needless to say, Mino did not attend the meeting, rather her son Dominick had to deal with this ugly situation, and I did feel sorry for him, having to clean up his arrogant mother’s mess… and I got the impression that this was not the first such mess that he had to clean up after his mother Mino. The cleaner who made the allegations that my husband had masturbated on the roof of our building, was called in and was questioned. It turns out, the incident that the cleaner had brought to the attention of the building management, had happened on the roof of a different apartment block to the one we live in. The cleaner confirmed that the masturbated mess had not come from us. Had Mino followed any kind of due process in investigating these claims personally when coming up against such sensitive matters, such as bothering to go to see the location of the offending mess, and perhaps taking photo or two for evidence, as she should have done, then perhaps, having visited the location, Mino would have realised that there was no way it could have come from us, as we do not have access to the building where the offending mess was found, as it is a completely different block to the one we live in, and we do not have the access code to enter that block of apartments. Later on that day, after a very traumatising experience at the hands of Inter-Real, Mino and her entourage and the cleaner who had made the report about the mess, arrived at our apartment. Needless to say that Mino was forced to apologise in person, but in all honesty, that was the most forced and disingenuous apology I have ever heard, and considering the brutal nature of the allegations, one would think she could have done much better. Nonetheless, we got an apology (which we recorded on iPhone) but only after a cleaner, my husband and I, had been severely traumatised by this arrogant lady’s negligence and false accusations of a rather perverted nature.
We were not off to a good start in our Carvoeiro apartment.
Needless to say 2020 has been hectic for everybody, but it really was hectic for us right from the start, even before Covid 19 pandemic hit us in full force.
But to make matters worse, prior to levying these false allegations at our door, and prior to conducting an investigation to assess whether we were really at fault, Mino of course got in touch with our landlady, Evelyn, in order to tell her what had allegedly happened, without having first conducted an investigation, without having obtained facts and evidence, and without having spoken to us about this matter. I got a text from Evelyn wanting to know what was going on, as she got a very strange text message from Mino. Now imagine having to explain such a disgusting situation to one’s new landlord, especially when one is still awaiting a signed tenancy contract. At this point, the complicated entanglement of the situation had become tenuous, and very stressful.
MINO’S XENOPHOBIA AND PUBLIC OUTBURSTS
After our first very traumatic introduction to Mino of Inter-Real, we spotted Mino out on the street of Carvoeiro on several occasions, shouting at tourists about things that they had supposedly done wrong. There was no subtlety with this woman. She did not care who she publicly embarrassed and she had absolutely no professionalism in how she conducted herself in public. It was like watching an ill-tempered child throwing tantrums in the street. Nobody likes to be confronted with that. Mino’s lack of discretion when dealing with matters that did not please her, creates an air of unpleasantness about her, that many people in Carvoeiro have an issue with. On one occasion during the lockdown, Mino was heard loudly complaining that the foreigners who spread disease must go home. As a foreigner myself, I find this sort of comment rather distasteful. It totally smacks of xenophobia and it is completely inappropriate from a coming from a woman that relies on foreigners to keep her business afloat. I mean, I live here. Portugal has been my home for the last 3 years, and unlike many other expats, I do not have anywhere else to go, nor do I intend on doing so. My home country of South Africa is unsafe and unstable, with many South African’s fleeing in exile, as I did. How utterly ignorant to tell us foreigners to go home. For some of us foreigners, Portugal is our home.
It was through our observation of Mino around Carvoeiro, how she behaved and the negative energy she put out, not to mention the commentary from several people around the neighbourhood who live and / or work in the properties managed by Inter-Real, that we got to understand how we were initially confronted in such an unpleasant manner with such ridiculous false allegations. Mino had a very bad reputation. She was not liked and nobody trusted her. Nobody decent wanted to do business with her. Mino was considered to be a bit of a rough hustler around town. In our communications with the local community, we have also learned that Mino rents out properties to illegal immigrants at extortionate prices, proving that this woman is not beyond capitalising off desperate people.
INTER-REAL EMPLOYEES WORK IN FEAR
It must be said that the cleaners that work for Inter-Real do an amazing job of cleaning the apartment blocks, and they are very thorough, especially in the advent of Covid 19. The cleaners are always polite and friendly. But from the communications and interactions I have had with these cleaners employed by Mino’s company Inter-Real, I got the impression that they were afraid of Mino. The cleaner that was involved in the “Fiddler on the roof” incident, came to us after the incident and confided in us that she was afraid that Mino would fire her, because that is what Mino was like. All this cleaner did was her job, in reporting a strange looking substance that may or may not have been seamen, on the roof of a building, that was not the building we lived in. Mino was the one who had made the grossly negligent mistake of not going to the site of the offending mess to gather evidence and get photographs, instead choosing a course of action that resulted in Mino coming directly to us to blame us and traumatising us with such ridiculous, unfounded claims. I still have big questions as to why we were specifically targeted when there are many people who live in the properties that Inter-Real managed, but considering Mino is in cahoots with Evelyn Simon, I can only make the logical deduction that the “Fiddler on the roof” episode was a deliberately contrived incident designed to harass / bully / traumatise us.
PERSISTENT PATTERNS OF NEGLIGENCE BY INTER-REAL
What we did not count on when we moved into Evelyn Simon’s property, was having to deal with the ongoing negligence and hostility of the property management company that maintains the block that the apartment is in. From the get go, with the onset of the false accusations claiming that my husband was a “Fiddler on the roof”, during which the very owner of Inter-Real neglected to follow a professional course of action, such as obtaining evidence (photographic or otherwise) when investigating such a serious claim, to the actual maintenance of the properties, there was just so much lacking.
On several occasions, we have found the fire escape exit at the back of the building, locked. If we had a fire in the building, we would not have been able to use this exist. Upon writing to Inter-Real to inform them that this exist was periodically locked, and that we did not have a key for this door, we were met with a response of indifference. Mino / Inter-Real simply did not care that people may not be able to exist the building in the event of a fire, should the front entrance become unaccessible, which goes against Portuguese legislation on this matter.
This was only further indicative of the ongoing pattern of gross negligence we experienced at the hands of Inter-Real, and they incidents of negligence continued. Furthermore, he apartment we inhabit is right next to the elevator shaft, so we can hear the elevator moving up and down between floors. Lately the elevator has been making some very loud noises, and on Xmas day, we had an issue with the elevator not reaching the floor we were ascending to. We noticed that the safety check certificate for the elevator was more than a month overdue. We wrote to Inter-Real to inform them of this fact, but so far nothing has been forthcoming. We get the distinct impression that it would suit the agenda of Evelyn Simon and Mino / Inter-Real, if we suffered harm or loss of life.
When Inter-Real began some cleaning and maintenance work on the building we lived in, they cleaned the roof with a jet spray. This resulted in a flood of water containing mould, fungus, general dirt and grime, and lots of bird faeces, coming down onto the patio outside the bedroom and partially flooding the bedroom floor. Indeed, the patio was ankle deep in dirty thick water and filth including bird faeces. We contacted Inter-Real to inform them of the mess left behind on our patio by the cleaning activities, and we asked them to come and clean it up. They responded by saying that they were not finished with the cleaning work and that they would clean up when it was all complete. When we asked how long that would take, they were unable to give us a time frame, but it could be several months. So we were just expected to live with this filth outside where we sleep for several months? Furthermore, I have cats that go in and out of the bedroom onto the patio, and they then come back in and jump on the bed, which would result in the transfer of bacteria E- coli and all sorts to our sleeping linens. We were shocked that Inter-Real thought it was acceptable to leave us living in such filth, and we realised that they were not going to clean it up for several months. We thus spent several hours cleaning and sterilising the patio and bedroom floor, to get rid of the mess left behind by the maintenance crew at our own cost.
FEBRUARY 2020 – STILL NO TENANCY AGREEMENT
We had still not received a signed tenancy contract by the time our rent was due on 8 February 2020, and thus, we decided to remind Evelyn once again, to send said tenancy contract to us, before we sent her any more rental payments. But on 11 February 2020, Evelyn sent me a text message saying that if I have not paid by the 8th day of the month, that I have to pay an additional 100 euros in late fees, as per the tenancy contract which my husband had signed and sent to her.
I sent Evelyn a reply text message saying that it was all very good and well for her to chase rental payments and late payment penalties as per the tenancy contract, but she first needed to return the signed tenancy contract to us. Evelyn assured me that she would be visiting Portugal in the coming week and that she would give me the signed contract then. On that basis, we paid rent for February 2020, to Evelyn on 13 February 2020, trusting that we would be receiving the signed tenancy contract the following week when we met.
In the meantime, I had the previous tenant Lisa, putting pressure on us to change the electricity and water registration and the entire matter became phenomenally stressful. I had to change the water and electricity bills into our names and out of Lisa’s name, as Lisa was constantly messaging us about it as a matter of urgency, and she became very emotionally draining to deal with, as Lisa was demanding, difficult and broke down crying very easily as she was so sickly and frail, which only added to the mounting emotional and psychological pressure.
As we had not received a signed tenancy agreement from Evelyn, we were between a rock and a hard place. Nonetheless, Lisa cut the electricity on 17 February 2020, without letting us know she was doing it, and it took us another 7 days to get it switched back on, during which time we lost a great deal of product for our business, due to the fridge not working. After Lisa cut the electricity, we immediately went to the Lagoa Municipality offices on 18 February 2020, and we changed the water from Lisa’s name to my husband’s name, before Lisa cut the water off too. The change of title with Lagoa Water was achieved by me signing the tenancy agreement on behalf of our landlord Evelyn Gertrud Simon, as we had a promise in writing that Evelyn would be in town the following week to give me a signed copy of the tenancy contract. I was not prepared to be stuck without water for a week (or more) whilst Lisa cut it off, and whilst I waited for Evelyn to arrive in Algarve and get herself organised enough to attend an appointment, and to give me the signed tenancy contract. Furthermore, I was not prepared to put up with any further guilt tripping, negativity, whinging and crying from Lisa Clare Brull. We had been very kind to Lisa, and helped her out by taking over her lease, and having helped her to move house, but by this stage, we had simply had enough of dealing with this emotionally draining, sickly old lady. The added pressure Lisa Brull placed upon us after the move, was just another level of stress that we were trying to eliminate by getting solutions in place so that we did not have to deal with Lisa anymore.
BUSINESS AND TRAVEL PUT ON HOLD
The move to Carvoeiro and issues related to the apartment, consumed us for almost two months, but we had to work and continue with our commitments to contractors and business partners.
I had plans to travel to the United States at the end of February 2020 in order to meet with publishers and literary agents with whom I had previously worked with. It took over 18 months to get this publishing deal lined up, and I was supposed to be collecting the first down payment on my publishing contract for my new book, and follow up publication, as well as attending to various other urgent matters of business including promotional conferences and speaking events to promote my body of work. The plan was to get my passport renewed before I travelled to the United States. Ideally, I would have sorted it out within the first week of having received a signed tenancy contract, supposedly at the beginning of January 2020, but that never happened. Evelyn Simon’s delay in getting a signed tenancy contract to us resulted in massive loss of income, and has limited my ability to work and travel as a result.
EVELYN’S VISIT TO ALGARVE
Evelyn had told me in writing via text message, that she would be visiting the Algarve in mid February and that we would meet and that she would give me a signed copy of the tenancy agreement. What I found rather annoying was that Evelyn seemed to be doing everything she could to delay getting the signed tenancy contract to me. Something that was very strange was that Evelyn said to me in a text that she was having a holiday, and did not want to do any business, and she said in a text that when we met, it would be as friends, as she did not wish to discuss matters to do with the apartment. Evelyn was telling me this in order to avoid dealing with some of the issues in the apartment that I had written to her about in emails. Okay fine, I got it, Evelyn our landlord was on holiday, but not wishing to be rude or anything, I had never met Evelyn before, we were not friends, and the only reason I wanted to meet her was for business purposes, being the exchange of a signed tenancy contract, as we were paying her rent. I felt distinctly at this point that Evelyn was trying to string me along for some sort of manipulation, as she had some sort of dodgy agenda, or there was some sort of dodginess going on. Whilst Evelyn was in Algarve in February 2020, she made several appointments with us, all of which she cancelled due to some strange reason. The last and final appointment she made was supposed to take place on Monday 24 February 2020, which was two days before my planned trip to New York to pick up my publishing advance. But I got a text from a friend of Evelyn on the morning of the appointment, saying that Evelyn could not attend the meeting as she needed emergency dental surgery. Again I found this odd, as the message came from Evelyn’s phone, but was supposedly written by Evelyn’s friend. I mean, one does not have dental surgery on one’s fingers, so why could Evelyn not just have sent me the text from her own phone? Evelyn underestimated my intelligence as an Investigative Journalist, and I was by this stage onto her and her deceit and manipulation. I knew something was not adding up, and so I continued to text Evelyn, asking her to please send over the tenancy contract. I sent her several long texts explaining the urgency, and how much I needed to get my travel documents sorted out as they were due to expire, and I needed to go to New York to work. Evelyn stopped responding to my texts the moment I mentioned that I needed to register as living in the apartment. Obviously the process of us registering there, meant Evelyn would have to pay taxes on the rental income we were paying her, and Evelyn did not want to pay tax.
MUTUAL FRIENDS REACH OUT TO EVELYN ON MY BEHALF
On 8 March 2020, the day my rent was due to be paid to Evelyn, I contacted Frank, a mutual German friend of Evelyn via Facebook, a former teacher at the local German School, whom I had met during the 2017 election campaign. I had been assisting and advising on media for a political candidate for the Lagoa region. Frank was part of this particular political party. We attended several events together and I had attended his birthday / Halloween party. I thought that perhaps I could ask this mutual friend Frank, to approach Evelyn and inform her of how dire the situation is, and that I needed to get my travel documents sorted out. According to the communications Frank had with Evelyn on 8 March 2020, Evelyn was still planning to send me the tenancy contract. I was assured by Frank to just relax, it was coming. I still have the entire conversation on Facebook… and so we continued to wait, whilst withholding rent for March 2020, hoping that would jolt Ms Evelyn into getting the tenancy contract to us. After all, exchange of payment for property rental are done on the basis of terms and conditions of the tenancy contract being met by both parties, who both agree to the terms and conditions by signature, usually prior to commencement of contact and payment exchange. However payment, and acceptance of payment, validates the terms and conditions of a contract in the absence of a signature from either party, as per Uniform Commercial Code which is what international commercial law is based upon.
And thus… we were not able to register as living in the apartment, and thus, we could not apply for my passport, driver’s license and various other important documents, which make it legal for me to travel and work. We wrote to Evelyn continuously, sending email after email, but we did not hear from Evelyn again until June 2020.
COVID 19 & LOCKDOWN
In the meantime, by mid March 2020, Covid 19 hit Portugal and we went into lockdown. This meant that the South African Embassy in Lisbon, where I could renew my passport, closed and only reopened briefly in August 2020, but closed again due to Lisbon going into lockdown due to a second wave of Corona Virus. By then, my passport, and all associated permits had expired, and the delay in getting such documents renewed and returned via diplomatic baggage, had extended to up to 18 months. From March 2020, which saw the onset of Covid 19 and lockdown measures, we wrote diligently every month to Ms Evelyn documenting the ongoing issues with the apartment, including a request for her to return a signed tenancy contract. We did so on a monthly basis in April, May and June 2020, but we had absolutely no response from Ms. Evelyn.
ECONOMIC DEPRESSION
I had to further delay the America trip, delaying payments to myself, resulting in lost revenue due to cancelled appointments and engagements, as the world went into lockdown and travel ground to a halt. Business slowed down for us as markets, exhibitions, festivals and other such events were cancelled. Internationally, everything just stopped, but still we had to survive. With over two years of struggle with trying to get settled and established in the Algarve, saving towards purchasing a home, we were faced with having to live off the savings we had accumulated for buying a home, which we had planned to do by the time we moved out of Evelyn’s apartment at the end of 2021. We have been struggling for so long to get our interpersonal infrastructure secured in Portugal, and this only made matters worse, adding much stress and anguish to the situation.
FACTURA / GREEN RECEIPTS
Having waited so long to get the signed tenancy agreement, which never came, we simply decided to stop paying rent until we had a signed contract, and we were getting Factura / Green Receipts from Evelyn. We had learned from our dealings with Mandy Hughes, that if you do not have a valid tenancy contract, and you are not receiving Factura / Green Receipts, the chances are that said tenancy and rental income is not registered and declared with the Portuguese tax department. We were informed by our accountant that we cannot make any payments to a landlord or any business without them issuing us with a Factura / Green Receipt for our business tax accounting, as to do so would be aiding and abetting tax evasion by individuals or businesses. It is indeed illegal to accept payment without issuing a Green Receipt, and it is indeed illegal to make a payment without receiving a Green Receipt for said payment, according to Portuguese Tax Law.
NOTICE TO VACATE PROPERTY
The first we heard from Evelyn was in June 2020, when she sent an email to my husband asking him to move out with only 10 days notice. Just by “coincidence”, the date we were required to exit the property, coincided with the exact official date of the onset of peak season rentals for the summer season here in the Algarve. Ms Evelyn wanted to boot us out in order to cash in on peak season rentals, without taking into account that we still had several 12 month contracts with various service providers, which we had entered into back in January 2020, when we first moved in and we were still expecting a two year term tenancy contract returned. Even if we moved out, we would be financially liable for the contracts that we had taken out with MEO and other service providers.
We had no intention or energy to move out. We had suffered so much to get settled, been through lockdown, which was extremely psychologically stressful, and then dealing with an unscrupulous landlord, which by now, we were realising had no intention of ever returning the signed contract. She had hoped to get the apartment back from us for peak season rentals, and she thought a message sent from an iPhone would make us move out.
I was by this point suffering from intense post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
CAMPAIGN OF BULLYING & HARASSMENT
Then the attacks started… Evelyn arrived from Germany and began an unlawful campaign of harassment against my family and I. First, she changed the locks on the mailbox downstairs on 15 July 2020, so we could no longer access the mailbox and we could no longer receive mail to our residence. Evelyn had the key, so she can also retrieve our mail, so it is logical to assume she is engaging in mail theft as we have found the mail box was being emptied. Indeed, Evelyn Simon was stealing our post. We checked our mailbox everyday, and so we knew immediately when she had done it, and that is how we learned that Evelyn Simon had arrived from Germany in early July 2020. She did not even bother to arrange a meeting. Not even a knock at the front door. At this point we had still never met Evelyn face to face, whilst she began an outright harassment campaign in a most cowardly fashion. Evelyn disconnected the electricity and water on a Friday over a weekend. This was followed by text messages telling us that she had disconnected our amenities to make our lives as miserable as possible. I was amazed that Evelyn was stupid enough to put that in writing, as this provided clear evidence to the police when we finally made criminal charges against her. Included in the message that Evelyn Simon sent us, were pictures of my family and I that she had taken on the streets without our knowledge and consent, and which were sent to us in a threatening manner, as if we should be scared or something. Evelyn then took pictures of my husband’s Jeep, and sent it to us, as if to say that she knows what car we drive and that perhaps she may cause some damage to it. We were being stalked by a German lady we had not yet met face to face, and who was not beneath using fear and harassment tactics to make our lives miserable, to which she admitted by her own texts.
At this point, we had to go to the local GNR (Portuguese Military Police) and make a report of criminal behaviour on the part of our landlady, Ms Evelyn Simon. And with all the evidence Evelyn had provided us, it was not hard to get the police to see the full scope of what had happened, and to file a criminal charge, now awaiting a court hearing.
This too was very stressful, as it had to be done in the mid summer heat from behind a mask. It took several visits to the GNR, and many hours to get the entirety of the matter, reported and filed.
We managed to get the electricity and water reconnected, but we were without both for 7 days, in the sweltering heat, with no air conditioning, and no ability to wash and clean properly. Furthermore, it was extremely stressful and humiliating to have to keep going from the GNR, to the Lagoa Municipality, to explain to them that we are being bullied by our landlady, whilst handing over the official ‘complaint filed’ paperwork, with all the nasty details.
ENTRAPMENT
To add insult to injury, Ms. Evelyn has somehow acquired paperwork from our account with Lagoa Water, where I signed on behalf of Ms. Evelyn, on the tenancy contract, in order to get the water moved over from being billed to the previous tenant Lisa, and into our name. Ms. Evelyn then took this document to the GNR and claimed that it is a fraudulent document as that was not her signature on the tenancy contract. As I had signed on her behalf, Ms Evelyn claimed that I committed fraud. My intention was only to sign on Ms. Evelyn’s behalf, because at the time, I was expecting a signed contract imminently, which she had in fact stated in writing.
What was I supposed to do, go without water as Lisa cut it off, and I waited for Ms. Evelyn?
I was paying rent to her in February 2020, which is when I changed the water over to our name.
Did Ms. Evelyn expect me not to have water in an apartment I was paying rent for?
All these questions have been playing on my mind, as I realise that Ms. Evelyn has deliberately entrapped me by malicious manipulation, and that she never had good intentions right from the get go.
EU GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR)
When we made enquiries with Lagoa Municipality as to how Ms Evelyn came to be in possession of documentation pertaining to our personal account with a third party, as this sort of information is protected under the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, and Lagoa Municipality assured us that they do not give out account documentation to third parties, and that all account information is protected by a law. It was then that we learned that our former neighbour, Innes Trindade, who lived across the road from us in Lagoa, and who worked at the Municipality and had access to the operational infrastructure of the Water department, and who had orchestrated a campaign of xenophobic bullying and harrasment against us by abusing Lagoa Municipality resources by cutting our water off twice, was the person who had given personal information from our account with Lagoa Water, to Ms. Evelyn, which was against the European Union Data Protection laws. Indeed, there seemed to be a conspiracy against us by a cluster of toxic people, who have nothing better to do than to gossip about and cause trouble for others.
Being a moral and ethical person, it often confuses me as to why people behave in such a manner. Was it possible, this sort of behaviour made them feel good about themselves? Often narcissists behave in such a way, belittling or hurting others, often must unjustly, because it makes them feel good about themselves. The issue they have is more to do with their own inner psychological issues, then having anything to do with a targeted individual.
COLLABORATION IN BULLYING
It also became clear at a certain point that Mandy Hughes, our former landlady, had been in touch with Evelyn Simon, and this collection of nastiness had all been working in an attempt to bully and harass my family and I, due to their various dark internal issues that they had, which now found an outlet via vengeful tactics. In fact, Evelyn Simon wrote in an email the following:
“We got you out of Lagoa, now we are going to get you out of Carvoeiro”.
The “we” she is referring to is the combined efforts of Innes and David Trindade, Mandy Hughes, Evelyn Simon, Lisa Clare Brull and Mino from Inter-Real
They have all been working together to harass and bully us, and for what?
We had never done anything to deliberately cause them harm.
At all times we have always tried to conduct ourselves with integrity, and show grace in the face of adversity.
If you speak to the many people over many years, that we have worked with on various projects, if you speak to any of our friends, the vast majority of them will have only positive things to say. I whole heartedly agree that there are those we have fallen out with, as all people do. Being a public figure, and being outside the box, there are always those who will say nasty things, not because of anything we have done to them, but because they are nasty, soul sick people who elevate themselves by belittling others.
THEFT OF MUNICIPALITY PROPERTY
The true criminal nature of this pretty little German Lady Evenlyn Simon, began to show in full glory. After we had our water and lights restored from Ms. Evelyn’s first attempt to cut off our ammenities, followed by texts admitting she had done it to make our lives miserable, Ms Evelyn once again attempted to cut off our water by stealing a piece of water pipe belonging to Lagoa Municipality, out of the wall, in order to once again stop us from having water. I actually caught her in the act. I glipsed a shadow hovering around the front door of the apartment, moving in the light that streamed through our front door when the hallway lights were on. I immediately opened the door, to see the back of Evelyn Simon, as she ran down the stairs. The coward did not even have the balls to face me whilst trying to steal the water pipe out the wall. I then taped the cupboard where the water pipes were housed, but later that day whilst I was working, Evelyn and an unknown accomplice known to Lagoa Camara, cut through the tape and removed a piece pipe and fled like cowards.
According to the United Nations website:
“Access to water and sanitation are recognised by the United Nations as human rights, reflecting the fundamental nature of these basics in every person’s life”
It would seem that Ms. Evelyn was so self entitled, that she felt she has the right to deprive someone else’s their basic human rights, with the explicit intention of causing loss and harm.
On the same day as Ms Evelyn stole the water pipe, my husband got to meet Ms. Evelyn face to face for the first time. Ms. Evelyn had brought a Portuguese man with her, and both of them were standing downstairs outside the apartment block, and were threatening and cursing in the streets at my husband, calling him all sorts of demeaning names. My husband recorded the entire tirade on his phone, which included Ms. Evelyn screaming threats over and over again, such as “your fucked, your fucked, your so fucked”.
My husband remained calm and respectful, and never said a nasty word in return, he did not deliver a single curse word, nor did he return their nastiness and insults. I am so proud of my husband for standing with dignity against such a toxic little bitch and her wanna be attack dog bully…. And this was done whilst my husband was recording the entire episode on his phone. The man who accompanied Ms Evelyn, despite being half my husband’s size, tried to square up to my husband in an attempt to intimidate my husband, and my husband could easily have squashed this guy, but my husband is not a violent man, and instead of retaliating to this deliberate provocation, my husband took a step back from the little yapping bully, and called the police (GNR). When the police arrived, Ms. Evelyn and her accomplice fled like the cowards they are from the scene, whilst the police came up to our apartment to see the site of the crime where the theft of Municipality property, being the water pipe, had happened. We were then invited to the local police station in Carvoeiro, to make a full statement and make charges against Ms. Evelyn for multiple counts of theft, intimidation and harassment. This police report was then delivered to Lagoa Municipality offices by my husband, who made it very clear that he was aware that employees of Lagoa Municipality had collaborated and conspired with Ms. Evelyn to harass and intimidate us. Interestingly enough, Lagoa Municipality admitted to knowing who had gone with Ms. Evelyn to remove the water pipe, but they were unwilling to give out a name.
The following day, the water pipe was replaced by Lagoa Municipality / Water department, and security tags and seals were put onto the pipes so that nobody could tamper with them. The engineer that visited to replace the water pipe and add security elements, assured me that if Ms. Evelyn did this again, she would be arrested and charged by Lagoa Water for theft and vandalism of their property.
POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
By this time, I had completely collapsed mentally. I had no valid passport or travel documents, as they had expired, I did not know when the South African Embassy would be open again for me to get my documents sorted, because of the Covid lockdown. All our business had ground to a halt, and I had not yet managed to get my publishing contract bonus paid as a result of delaying my trip to New York. Our savings was running out, and we were stuck in a very difficult living situation, where we were being bullied and harassed by a psycho landlord, who was collaborating with our previous psycho landlord and xenophobic employees of Lagoa Municipality, and who had by this time, caused us much inconvenience, loss and harm, that we are so stuck as a result. We still do not have access to our postbox, and we are unable to collect our post. Our post is being routinely removed, so that is indeed mail theft. This alone causes us so much inconvenience not being able to get our post, but furthermore, that other people were stealing and reading our personal correspondence.
VANDALISM OF CAR
On top of this all off, all four tires on our car were slashed during lockdown, and at a time when we could hardly afford to get it fixed as business had ground to a halt. We have had to accept donations and food parcels to survive, but we are slowly trying to get our business back up and running, but the economy is totally stagnant due to lockdown and quarantine measures associated with the Covid 19 pandemic, so recovery is a slow process. But we have not given up and things are picking up slowly, so we have tried to persevere, but it is hard to continue with sort of onslaught and distraction constantly draining all our attention and energy. Evelyn Simon even sent a picture of my husband’s car, to my husband, with a threatening email admitting to the fact that she intended to make us miserable. We have filed a report with the GNR for vandalism, which is now with the investigating police, and this forms part of the ongoing investigation into Evelyn Simon and her campaign of bullying and harassment against us.
This onslaught was intense, and possibly the most vicious battle we have ever had to face… And at a time when Covid 19 has caused huge economic devastation to the Algarve with many people, including ourselves, in a very bad way.
As a result, I have slipped into a deeply depressed state, and have been borderline suicidal ever since.
THE LEGAL BATTLE
During the period of this ongoing battle, Evelyn Simon has employed the services on no less than four different sets of lawyers. The reason for this is because each legal advisor Ms. Evelyn speaks to, tells Ms. Evelyn the true legal ramifications of her actions, which is not what Ms. Evelyn wants to hear. Indeed, this woman has a seriously deluded sense of entitlement. After Ms. Evelyn fired one of her lawyers, because they could not come to an agreement on how to proceed forward, this lawyer confided in us that Ms. Evelyn is a “special case”, with the inference of that in a negative connotation. This lawyer could not disclose anything more as this would violate the client / lawyer confidentiality statutes, but he did seem to be very sympathetic to our cause and even offered to find us a lawyer at the lowest possible rate. In true irony, this lawyer was recommended to Ms. Evelyn by Mino at Inter-Real.
The bottom line is, any lawyer worthy of the title, will look at all the evidence and see that it is Ms Simon’s delays and eventual refusal to issue us with legal documentation, that has resulted in a situation where we am broke, I am currently stateless and awaiting the return of my South African passport, which may take another 18 months (waiting time extended by a year due to Covid 19), and I am unable to work until I have a renewed passport, followed by a renewed working status within the EU. Although I hold a South African passport, I am the spouse of an EU national, which means I am entitled to be in the EU with my husband, but as I have a South African passport and not an EU passport, I have to apply for residence permits and working permits etc, which I cannot do without registering as living at an address, which I also cannot do without a signed tenancy agreement. Until I have these vital documents, my life is on hold. Everything has just stopped. My freedom and ability to earn a living has been taken from me. I can not travel. I can not register a business. I can not work legally in the EU without my updated documentation, and thus I cannot earn whilst living outside my home country of South Africa. I can not go back to my home country due to Covid 19 restrictions, and the hostile political situation… And we are most likely going to lose the roof over our heads as a result. My husband and I have no family to fall back on, and no social welfare support, as we do not qualify for it here in Portugal… And all of this could have been avoided if we had just gotten a signed copy of the tenancy agreement upfront from Ms. Evelyn I would have been able to get my passport sorted, go to New York, do my events, get paid, get back before COVID lockdown hit, and at least have some money left over to keep us going right now. I would also now be able to work legally, having gotten my paperwork and permits sorted, as I have in the interim, been offered two jobs, which I lost due to outdated documents, all of which has compounded the trauma and suffering, leaving me well and truly financially destitute. It is very evident that Ms. Evelyn has conspired to cause my family and I, as much loss and harm as possible, and Ms. Evelyn has even admitted to it in writing.
ONGOING POSTAL TAMPERING / THEFT
15 July 2020 – post box lock changed
Went to Inter-Real office to ask if they had key – Mino shouted at my husband and told him that the next time he came there she would call the GNR
From 4 August 2020, 20 days after mail box was locked – entitled to charge 20 EUR per day for not having access to mailbox
For over 5 months, not able to retrieve a single piece of post. We peered into the post box regularly. The mail kept accumulating. We could see the post box getting fuller over time
2 December 2020 – I received a ring on the intercom. It was the postman. I let him into the building, and the postman then came upstairs to deliver court documents addressed to my husband. As my husband was not in residence at the time, I was not able to sign for these documents, and thus, the postman left a notification in the locked postbox. The problem is, we are not able to access our post, as Ms. Evelyn has changed the lock on the postbox, and, despite several written requests to her various lawyers, she has refused to issue us with access to said mailbox. When my husband came back, I got him to go directly to the Post Office, and collect the court documents, which he had to do without the receipt that the postman put in the post box, as we were unable to access the registered delivery postal receipts due to the post box being locked. Obtaining the registered mail court documents from the post office without this receipt, caused quite a challenge for the people at the post office, who did not want to hand over any post without this receipt, but eventually my husband was able to obtain these documents from the court, directly from the post office after a lengthly process of filling in forms.
Upon examining the legal documentation sent by the court, it came as no surprise of course to find that Mino of Inter-Real is a witness in Ms. Evelyn’s case against us. This was the final piece we needed in order to know that Mino / Inter-Real have been complicit with this entire episode of criminal activity, which most likely include the initial campaign of harassment initiated when Mino falsely accused my husband of masturbating on the communally accessible roof of the building.
4 December 2020 – I found two postal receipts that the postman leaves in the postbox, shoved under the entrance door of the apartment. As Evelyn was / is in Germany, we assumed that this could only have been done by Mino or employees of Inter-Real working on Evelyn Simon’s instruction. Furthermore, as of the 4th December 2020, the post box was emptied of all other post, which clearly indicated mail theft and tampering. At that stage we had no definitive proof that Inter-Real had been involved in the theft of our mail, but it was the most logical conclusion given everything else that had happened.
16 January 2021 – We awoke early to find water bill and MEO bill shoved under door quietly first thing early in the morning.
15 February 2021 – We awoke early to find water bill shoved under door.
At this stage we were still not receiving any other post despite the fact that we have confirmation that other items of post were being sent
4 March 2021 – I was on an important conference call to a publisher in Belarus when the door bell rang. I ignored it initially as I was busy working and in the middle of an important business discussion. But the doorbell rang again several times, and so I ended the call in the middle of sensitive negotiations, and went to answer the door. It was Mino. the owner of Inter-Real. Following on from the unfortunate episode in February 2020, where Mino just rocked up at our door without an appointment, and falsely accused my husband of masturbating on the roof, we had agreed with Mino / Inter-Real, that unless it was an absolute emergency such as fire or disaster, that should she or anybody from Inter-Real wish to visit with us at this apartment, an appointment needed to be made at a time convenient to us. At no point are we just available at their beckon call, and considering that Mino is a witness for our landlord in the ongoing legal dispute, any unannounced visits could be treated as harassment, given the history of how Mino had previously conducted herself. We have this on agreement that a prior appointment needs to be made, on voice recording, and Mino was well aware of this. At no point are we just expected to drop everything on command to facilitate unannounced intrusions from Mino / Inter-Real without prior notification / appointment. Mino attended this inconvenient intrusion with another lady who was unknown to me. Mino started the conversation by telling us that maintenance works were underway, and that we were to remove all furniture from the balcony. This was followed by Mino handing over of a piece of post with a trackable bar code on the back of it, which had come out of the post box that we can’t access. Mino made an over-reaching point of saying that she had brought a witness with verify that she had given me this particular piece of post. The envelope appeared to have signs that it had already been opened. It was at that point that we knew for sure that indeed Mino / Inter-Real has been involved in postal theft and tampering with our post. Mino thought she was being clever by bringing a witness, but in reality, all she has done is provide a witness to the fact that Mino / Inter-Real are in fact collaborating with Evelyn Simon in acts of ongoing harassment which include removing access to our mail, mail tampering and by implication, mail theft. We were only being given access to select items of post, whilst other items of mail were being removed / withheld.
THE ONGOING STRUGGLE DUE TO REMOVAL OF POST BOX ACCESS
There are several very important items that we have delivered to us via post, which include:
Banking and Bank Card – I have been unable to open a bank nor receive my bank card. As a result, I have also been unable to get my e-commerce sorted out, such as Pay Pal, Stripe etc, limiting my ability to earn web based money via my book sales, product sales, and learning services. Effectively, all my online earning capacities have been disrupted.
Medication – Antihistamines, Thyroxin
Contact lenses – We have a standing order for prescription for monthly disposable contact lenses
Masks – Following on from the mandating of mask wearing in public places, I we to order special masks from Amazon due to an allergy to the elastane in the stretch bands of the masks that goes around the ears.
Shoes & clothing – As my husband is rather much larger than people in Portugal, being two meters tall and wearing a size 46 shoe, we have struggled to find apparel that fitted him locally, and thus, we usually ordered online and had it delivered.
But to name a few essential items…
As we could not guarantee delivery of these items to our residence due to not being able to access the post box, we arranged to have them delivered to a friend who owns a cafe on the street where we live. This arrangement worked from September 2020 up until 15 January 2021, which is when we went into lockdown, and all the local businesses shut, which meant we could no longer collect items delivered by post from our friend’s cafe, as the cafe was closed.
Furthermore, the few shops that remained open were banned from selling certain items such as blankets, socks, underwear, vests, leggings, and clothing to keep warm. These were items we desperately needed during the cold snap that happened in January / February 2021, and we were further denied access to acquiring these items as we could not guarantee a place for delivery if we purchased online, due to the fact that we have been denied access to the postbox. This resulted in both my husband and I getting very bad flu for a month due to not being able to keep warm.
There are several items related to our business projects that we could not get delivered to us, which include:
Computer parts – Graphics card, High Spec C-drive, webcam, Livestream software
Product samples – I write product reviews for and need to have samples delivered
Product supplies / raw materials – I am a qualified Herbalist and I make and sell various natural artesian products such as Lunar Silver
THE INVESTIGATION
In the interim, we have been in contact with the GNR, who have handed this case over to the actual investigative body within the civilian police force. Interviews have been conducted in the presence of a translator, and evidence has been handed over for a full and thorough investigation. The courts have agreed that since this is a criminal case against Ms. Evelyn, and no longer just in a civil case, that we are entitled to state funded legal team and translator, as we are the victims of criminal activity on behalf of Ms. Evelyn, and the various parties working on behalf of Ms. Evelyn, which includes Mino from Inter-Real. According to the investigating police, all parties should be facing criminal charges, due to the overwhelming evidence we have against them.
DELIBERATE INTENT TO CAUSE LOSS AND HARM
Indeed, Ms. Evelyn has deliberately and knowingly conspired to cause my family and I, severe loss and harm. I was upfront with Ms. Evelyn as to why I needed the tenancy contract, to register as living here, so that I could get my various essential documents sorted out. Ms Evelyn was well aware of what was at stake for me, and she chose the course of action that would cause me the most damage. I got the impression that it was the matter of needing a signed contract to register for my essential documents, and the disclosure of this fact, that scared Ms. Evelyn off. Either that, or she had never intended to give us a signed tenancy contract. Ms Evelyn knew that she had not registered the property for rental income with the tax department, and Ms. Evelyn had not declared any rental income for said property… And thus, my requirement to register for official documentation, would flag up the fact that this property was not registered with the tax department for rental income, when and if I went to register as living there. Ms. Simon was getting payments from our account, paid directly into her German bank account, for rental of a property in Carvoeiro, as she had done with several previous tenants, all of which she had neglected, and failed to provide with Factura / Green Receipts, and she has also failed to declare rental income to the Portuguese tax department. The bottom line is, we have suffered greatly because this woman Evelyn Simon, was / is committing tax fraud. That is what it boils down to.
COMMITTING TAX FRAUD
When we requested valid Green Receipts from Ms. Evelyn via her lawyer, Ms. Evelyn’s then lawyer Tito, sent us Green Receipts made out to the previous tenant, Lisa Clare Brull, for the period of time that my husband and I had lived there and paid rent for the apartment. As Lisa did not live in this apartment, and as Lisa was not paying rent, these Green Receipts were made out to the wrong person, and we could not use said Green Receipts in our tax accounting, as they did not have our details on them, and thus, these Green Receipts are fraudulent, a fact we confirmed by a visit to the local Finance department. We were amazed at how deliberately stupid Ms. Evelyn and her lawyer had been, given that we could show proof of payments coming from our account, to Ms. Evelyn’s German account, and thus we could prove that these Green Receipts were fraudulent, as they were not addressed to us for the payments we had made.
It is because of the deliberately selfish criminal acts of not one, but two unscrupulous tax dodging landlords here in Portugal, that I am now in the position that I am in. I wanted to set the record straight, as I know there have been many different versions of this tale flying around, with various twisted details, but nobody has yet understood the totality of what has happened. Let me just state that right from the get go, our intention has been to operate ethically and with integrity. I would never knowingly enter into a contract that I did not know I could fulfil, and we have never done so. We are deeply saddened by how all this has transpired, with extenuating circumstances reaching far beyond our control contributing to this drama.
SLANDER AND THE IMPACT
Furthermore, all this drama has spilled over into the local community, causing some problems for us, which we know are indirectly related to Mandy Hughes and Evelyn Simon, and the drama surrounding there respective apartments which I rented. A former friend of mine said to me that I had apparently “caused nothing nothing but misery in Lagoa”, which was the talk around the town. I hear some stories and feedback that we apparently forged our contract and stole this Ms Evelyn’s apartment from her. I can see how the facts can be misconstrued in such a way, but that is not what happened. Ms. Evelyn let us move in with her consent, and we have this documented in writing, with one text message even stating “You are most welcome here”. We have handed all the text messages and other evidence over to the GNR, and we are currently awaiting a court date for our criminal charges against Ms. Evelyn. We know that people have jumped on the hate bandwagon without knowing the full extent of what has transpired, and that has resulted in my exclusion from community projects and social media forums due to some very far fetched factoids being bandied around by people who like to speak badly about others. This has been possibly the most devastating aspect of all the entire matter, as not only had we been through hell, people in the local community, who had absolutely no attachment to this situation whatsoever, have taken it upon themselves to project judgement and scorn upon us, without knowing our side of the story… and to be honest, I do not feel that I have to justify myself to such people anyway. I know who I am and that I am a good person. I have never allowed myself to be defined by the nastiness and ignorance of others.
ATTEMPTS TO MOVE HOUSE HINDERED BY THE IMPACT OF SLANDER
We have tried to find other places to live in the local area, as Carvoeiro is my home, and we are pretty sick and tired of the drama, and just want to get on with our lives. There are a limited number of options available to us, as we need fibre optic internet speeds to run our business, along with a few other restrictions. After much searching, we found two different properties that would be suitable for us and our requirements, and we got to the final stages on both properties in terms of agreeing to move in, but at the last moment, the property owners pulled out as a result of the slander that is going around. One of the property owners said to us that they had been informed that we were scum that did not pay rent, and they were warned off letting the property to us. This was after we had paid a deposit and the first month’s rent, and packed up our stuff and were ready to move. We then had to unpack everything and have been searching every since, for a new place locally. Covid restrictions and lockdowns have made it ever more difficult on all fronts. Ms. Evelyn Simon desperately wants us out of her property, and we have made efforts to relocate, but due to this ongoing drama with Ms. Evelyn’s property that we presently inhabit, we have been denied the ability to do so, as there seems to be a concerted effort to cause us as much misery, loss and harm to us as possible, probably by Ms. Evelyn, Mino / Inter-Real, Lisa Clare Brull, their associates, or just nasty people who have nothing better to do than gossip and cause misery for other people.
SO NOW WHAT?…
With very few options available to us as a result, and with the local economy being completely dead due to restrictions resulting from Covid 19, we simply do not know what more to do. We are working on trying to find a solution, but as it stands, we simply cannot find a new place to live, and it is not from a lack of trying. Our efforts have been severely hindered by toxic people trying to harm us. We have been offered options abroad, but I can’t travel without my passport. I am well and truly stuck here in Portugal until I get a new passport issued to me.
This is an ongoing saga, and thus, new pieces are added and updated. To read how this story evolved, please read the blog posts made thereafter:
THE TOLL OF 2021… SO FAR
Well it was a relatively good start to the year, despite another lockdown, or at least it was a better start than we had last year…For those who have been following along with my journey, you will be aware of the issues we had last year with our current place of abode. We are still awaiting a court date for our ongoing criminal case against our present landlady, Evelyn Simon following on from last year’s drama. We have been collecting and documenting our journey, to keep a record of the long list of malfeasance we have endured since taking up residence in the apartment we occupy in Carvoeiro.
After a rather hectic week, we were looking forward to a bit of rest this weekend. Saturday morning we made our usual gallop around the village for supplies, had a cup of coffee outside in the sun, which we are now allowed to do finally, and then headed back to the apartment…. except this time, we could not get in as the locks had been changed, with all our belongings and our kitties locked in. My husband made his way to the local GNR (Portuguese Military police) station, whilst I waited by the door… that is when I smelled something burning as I stood in the hallway. I began to panic as my Kitty children were stuck on the other side of a locked door, and I could not get to them. I called the local emergency number, 112, and they sent the Bombeiros (Portuguese for fire department) around to break the door open. By the time we got in, I was totally traumatised, and have very little memory of what happened next as it was all so hectic and frenetic, but my husband dealt with all the reporting with the GNR, and I tried to comfort my traumatised Kitty children.
Following on from the door being broken down by the Bombeiros, the front door to the apartment was at that point, unable to lock or close, and the whole frame of the door had been hacked open by the Bombeiros. We contacted a few people we knew who could fix the door, but nobody was available until next week, so we simply closed the door and put some furniture up against it to secure it as best as we could. On the Monday afternoon, one of the many community members who support us, sent us a carpenter to put on a new door.
After an exhausting and traumatic day, I took a nap on the sofa, and was awoken by the sounds of 6 thugs breaking into the apartment, and using a crow bar, they took the door off its hinges, removed it completely, and ran down the stairs. This was not a random attack. These attackers specifically targeted our apartment, having been given the door number, and they had been given the security code for the communal front door entrance, most likely by Evelyn Simon or Inter-Real, the property management company.
The attackers then proceeded to make a run for it taking the front door away completely, and proceeded to exist the building down the stairs with the front door to the apartment, taking the front door with them. My husband chased them down the stairs and out the apartment block, at which point he was hit repeatedly with the crow bars, and as the well co-ordinated team of thugs ran down the stairs, they ripped the very heavy red fire extinguishers off the wall, and began pelting them at my husband, opening one of them and directly onto my husband, and spraying my husband in the face with one of the fire extinguishers. My husband was choked and blinded by a toxic white substance that came out of the fire extinguisher. The GNR were once again called and did a full report of breaking and entering, theft and assault. My husband was then taken to hospital and a full medical report was made, which has now been sent off to the court, and added to our ongoing case against Evelyn Simon and Inter-Real
In our time living here, we have heard many horrible stories about the owner of Inter-Real, a lady called Mino, who goes by the nick name, The Poison Dwarf. I have not yet heard a single good thing about her, and our experience of this lady has been nothing short of traumatic and toxic. She is by far the most hated person in Carvoeiro, and we have no doubt that she has collaborated in bringing about this attack. I did sent Mino a text the day after the incident to inform her as to why the entire downstairs hall way was covered in white powder from the fire extinguishers, but I heard nothing back. In fact, their silence has been deafening. Even the normally friendly cleaners that work for Inter-Real, are doing everything they can to avoid making eye contact, even when we greet them. It is very obvious that Inter-Real is involved in this, having arranged this attack at the instruction of Evelyn Simon, as they have clearly used this well co-ordinated group of thugs to intimidate other people.
Furthermore, following on from replacing the front door, we there have been several toxic stink bombs deliberately let off outside our apartment. This affects not only us, but also the neighbours, who have a new born baby. Furthermore, the lifts have been disabled every morning, meaning that we have to proceed up and down via the stairs. Furthermore, the front entrance security door has now had the key pad for the security code, disabled. It is simply no longer working, which means that unless someone lets you in from inside, there is no way of entering the apartment block. I simply find it hard to believe that all these incidences are just malfunctions or accidents. This is a deliberately co-ordinated and planned attack on us, and Inter-Real / Evelyn Simon just do not care how the rest of the apartment block has to suffer as a result of their harassment campaign against us.
This entire matter was a total intimidation tactic to get us to leave, and we really want to, but finding suitable accommodation has been difficult. Because we have always acted in honour, and we have a very solid case against Evelyn Simon and Inter-Real from the very beginning, we have stood our ground. We simply will not be bullied or intimidated by anybody, not to mention, that this is actually against Portuguese law that governs tenancy.
We will continue with our case against Evelyn Simon, as there are a long list of criminal charges against her, and she has actively conspired to cause us loss, harm and / or injury.
I would like to thank the people who have been there for us during this time of trauma. To those people, you know who you are. I treasure your love and support and will never forget it. The neighbourhood has really rallied around us, and several people have come forward to tell us their stories about their run ins with Inter-Real. This has been a time of fact discovery, and we have learned that Inter-Real is like a mafia operating in Carvoeiro, and the GNR (Portuguese Military Police) are well aware of this, and made several overtures to this fact, and have agreed to testify in court when this case is finally heard. I look forward to my day in court.
We have no begun the process of communicating with the Instituto da Construcao e do Imobiliario (the Property agent licensing board), which issues (and withdraws) licenses for estate agencies, agents and property management companies. We have for some time now been collecting data, and thanks to the many people who have come forward offering information and testimony, we now have a substantial case file being sent on to the Instituto da Construcao e do Imobiliario and the courts.
In the mean time, we will be relocating to our family’s wine estate as of mid May 2021, as the borders are now re-opening. All we want it to be allowed to relocate in peace, as we have the right to do. We will be back for our court hearing, and we will not stop until justice is served. If those who have acted out against us causing loss and harm, think we are just going to go away quietly, they are very much mistaken. You have very much underestimated us!
EXODUS
It has been over a month since I last updated this blog with the goings on in my reality. Let me start off by saying that as I write this post, I am in a good space… No, I am in a fantastic space. Life could not be better for my family and I right now. I honestly do not recall a time in my life when I was this happy, content, secure and living in abundance on all levels. You see, life in contrast is a beautiful thing, and it is when we go through some of the darkest periods of our life, that we so appreciate the light at the end of the tunnel.
I never regret leaving Holland and moving to the Algarve, but the move here has been somewhat challenging, with the last year and a half especially due to various hectic circumstances in the wake of Covidity adding to the complications, and resulting in further stress and difficulty whilst attempting to settle in a foreign country with a foreign language.
For those who have followed my journey via my various online posts which have chronicled the extreme circumstances of my living situation, you will know some of the hectic drama I have been subjected to. We did eventually manage to relocate from our previous residence to a lovely modest villa with a garden for my Kitty children, and it is even closer the beach than the cursed apartment in Monte Dourado, where we had suffered so unfortunately at the hands of the management company Inter-Real, and the property owner Evelyn Simon.
After being attacked, assaulted and injured in the Monte Dourado apartment, in the middle of the night by a gang of 6 thugs paid to intimidate and harass us by Inter-Realunder instruction from Evelyn Simon, which was orchestrated with the specific purposes of intimidating us to leave the property, we began the process of moving our possessions slowly across to our new home which belongs to a friend of ours, and who kindly let us move across slowly to minimise the stressful impact of our situation following on from the attack. The really ironic thing is, we had already made arrangements to relocate to our new premises prior to the orchestrated attack, and if Evelyn Simon / Inter-Real had just bothered to try to communicate with us in a nice way, they would have been informed of the situation, and it would not have been necessary for them to further put themselves in a situation where they have had further criminal charges added to their wrap sheet. We had always intended to move at the beginning of May 2021, as May is a special month for us, as I celebrate my birthday and our 20th Wedding Anniversary, and we did not want to be in the grips of these toxic people and the toxic situation they had created for us.
The final kicker, and really, to add insult to injury, following on from the orchestrated attack on us, Inter-Real changed the access code for the apartment block / building, and refused to give it to us whilst we still lived there. That meant that someone always had to be inside the apartment to let people in to the building. I became a prisoner for the last three weeks of living in that apartment, and it made moving particularly difficult. The true sickness of this is that Evelyn Simon and Inter-Real were so desperate to get rid of us that they hired a gang of thugs to attack us in our sleep in the middle of the night in order to intimidate us into leaving, but they made leaving even more difficult than it needed to be. Fortunately we have a good relationship with some of people who own properties in this apartment block, and they gave us the new code to the building without hesitation and in complete disgust for Inter-Real and their behaviour. In fact, the owner of Inter-Real, Mino Perdigao A. K. A. “The Poison Dwarf” (a nickname I have heard repeated by many a Carvoeiro resident) saw my husband from across the street, (where she where she was berating the painter in her usual abusive manner) and near enough ran into oncoming traffic to see if my husband was entering the building using the new entrance code, which clearly she did not want us to have. Mino Perdigao, A. K. A. “The Poison Dwarf” then sat in her black BMW for some time watching the door to see if we were accessing the building with the entrance code, and we even filmed her doing it. Once she realised that we now had evidence of her stalking us, the next day Mino Perdigao got another member of her abused staff to sit in a grey vehicle across the road, all day for several days, watching us come in and out the building, recording and monitoring our movements… Such a desperate act, and for what purpose? For pure intimidation purposes by means of psychological harassment. The Poison Dwarf’s behaviour and actions were as sad and desperate as she is.
It was interesting to learn through this entire process, just how despised Mino Perdigao and her company Inter-Real are in the community of Carvoeiro. Inter-Real manages many apartment blocks and properties in the neighbourhood, and have been running now for 25 years. Their 25 year reign of terror has left a long list of victims and very unhappy people who have been all too keen to share their horror stories which they shared with us. I have learned that Mino Perdigao’s clients all hate her, and nobody I spoke to about our situation has had anything but contempt to utter about this lady and her company. Many of these people I spoke with still have property or dealings with Inter-Real, and thus I shall not share their stories our of respect for these people, but there are plenty who have suffered at the hand of Mino Perdigao and her company Inter-Real.
I even have accounts from former employees about the abusive, dangerous, toxic and narcissistic behaviour of this woman, which is why she has such a high turn over of employees. The cleaners that work for Inter-Real are petrified of Mino Perdigao. What was also interesting to note whilst dealing with the GNR (Portuguese Military Police) during our process of reporting the crimes perpetrated against us by Mino Perdigao and her company Inter-Real, is just how aware the GNR were / are of the problem that this woman is or has been in the local community over the years. When we reported the attack on us to the GNR, they asked who the management company was, and it was interesting to note the discussion and body language that went on between the various attending GNR taking our statement. The moment we mentioned Inter-Real, the one GNR officer rolled his eyes and shook his head, as if to indicate that he was well aware of the despicable behaviour of rather toxic property management company and its owner. We got the impression that this was just one of many case reports that had been made to the GNR over the 25 year period that Inter-Real had been operating in the neighbourhood.
We have now systematically disentangled ourselves from the toxic entities and people who latched onto us and created problems for us, directly and indirectly though the people they connected us to, for indeed, from rotten roots comes rotten fruits, and oh boy have we paid the price for opening our heart space to the wrong sort of people, most of whom have used us and gotten us into some pretty sticky situations as a result of our entanglement with such soul sick, bottom feeding lowlifes, and our time at Monte Dourado (a complex in Carvoeiro managed by Inter-Real) was one such cosmic gauntlet of utter hell which resulted from mixing with the wrong sort. We are presently awaiting a court due to the criminal charges against Inter-Real and Evelyn Simon, so this saga is far from over, and we look forward to our day in court.
When we first moved to the Algarve, I totally dropped my guard and opened myself up to everything and everyone. I do not know why I thought that people here would be any different from people in any other part of the world we had lived, but something about the sunshine and all the beautiful scenery gave me the misguided impression that the people who reside here, be they local or expats, would also all be beautiful and happy, but I was wrong. I learned that if the grass seems greener on the other side, that is because there is more shit there. I have however learned a valuable lesson: It is okay to have high standards.
Having grown up in a wealthy home, I was always put off by the fact that my family were rather snobbish. I was always put off by my Mother’s sneer or indifference at people who did not have money, and her disregard for people who exhibited what she termed as “low class behaviour”, or who were “unrefined” or “cheap”. This is the typical mindset of the wealthy white privilege South African elitist. Being part of the Rainbow Nation generation, I was more open minded and open hearted to people who had suffered poverty and deprivation, and perhaps, did not have as much of a refined upbringing as I had had. I embraced people on a deeper level, not for their material superficialities, but for the soul inside. I always tried to be different to the snotty mind set of the white privilege I had experienced in my youth, more open minded, and indeed, more open hearted and less judgemental in general to people of all backgrounds and cultures, hence why I have enjoyed the experience of travelling and living in many different countries. However, the idealism of my youth has dwindled with age, not because I have become more judgemental and snobbish, but because the world has changed and so have the people. The proportion of unkind, toxic, narcissistic people has exponentially sky-rocketed. The reality we are now faced with is that the vast majority of people out there are utterly damaged due to the horrors of the world we now live in, and the majority of people are suffering some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and as a result, they project that ugliness and violence onto others in their attempts to self soothe. It is a rare few that have not been impacted physically and psychologically by the zeitgeist of our present time.
Fortunately, all is well with us and we are now in a very good space, and nobody and nothing can affect that. We have grown so strong through adversity, and thus, I am in a way grateful to those who have attempted to cause us loss or harm. Clearly they underestimated our intelligence, our strength, our resolve and our resilience. As they say, “what does not kill you makes you stronger”, and we have come out the other side of all of this, stronger, wiser and better people… And for that, I am eternally grateful to those who have presented us with challenges. You have made us better people at the end of this all.
Thank you for contributing to our growth.
Peace Love Unity Respect
Mel Ve
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