First of all, the good news. Trudy (not her real name – data protection laws and privacy considerations, y´ know) has at last had her new kitchen installed, and absolutely splendid it is too.
No doubt many of us will now be beating our way to Ikea´s welcoming doors in an attempt to emulate her triumph over adversity.
And the not- so-good news? Which is that the APAPS Hon.Organiser is clearly losing his marbles. Last week, it was his camera that he forgot; this week he had forgotten how to count up to fourteen which nearly resulted in Yves having no breakfast, and he also forgot to switch on his mapping device so there are no statistics or track in this week´s Blog.
“Next week” as the perspicacious Terry (or maybe it was the faux-Tilley Hat wearer Ingrid – exactly who, I can´t remember –there you are, y´ see) remarked “he will have forgotten where he is, and then where will we be?”
Take-over bids are welcome.
The Starters
For the photo, we were joined by Senhor Bento, proprietor of Retiro Dos Pescadores
From the left; Chris, Hazel, Antje, Myriam, Ingrid, Maria, Paul, JohnH, Yves, Janet, Terry, Rod, Senhor Bento, Jill. plus Sascha and, somewhere, Java.
Actually, it doesn´t really matter that we have no record of the track. We have all done it before several times whether as AWWs, WAGS, or APAPS. We don´t need to dwell too much on the walk, save to say that the initial section along the canal proved exceptionally prickly with heavy undergrowth along the tow path. Presumably, the Silves holiday business that used to lead groups of tourists for walks along the canal banks has gone out of business and as a result the weeds no longer get trampled down. The Leader´s canny solution to the problem was to send Antje, Chris and Sascha ahead as trail blazers, followed by the Heavy Brigade (Paul and Rod ), while he remained discreetly in the middle of the pack. Even so, it was a bit like wading through elephant grass in darkest Africa.
Away from the canal at last, we took the route into the hills going in a clockwise direction which was quite sensible because that gave us a longish but gentle ascent. Going anti-clockwise, and we would have had to tackle several steep uphills in quick succession.
When we did reach the upper ridge, we stumbled across a truly extra-ordinary scene.There, before us, was a circle of feminine groupies seemingly prostrating themselves in some form of ritual obeisance before their Lords and Masters (aka Paul and Rod). Were our eyes deceiving us?
Well, yes, actually they were deceiving us. In fact, the ladies were demonstrating their gymnastic and flexability skills, and challenging the afore-said P and R to do likewise. Wisely, P and R declined this contortionist challenge and remained, as always, steadfastedly upright.
The thought has occurred to me that there are themes or blog-topics which seem to recur, blog by blog.
One of these is to note the predilection of people with mobile phones for taking pictures of flowery shrubs and other natural beauties.
Another recurrent theme is that of other people with cameras taking pictures of those photographers taking those photographs of those natural beauties.
Sometimes, if he´s lucky, the original photographer is rewarded for his efforts.
Sometimes, not.
And another of these recurring themes is the deep-rooted fascination that people have with strange hats, whether it be it the wearing of them, the admiration for them, the examination of their inner secrets, or the ranking of them in the official PaulaDev One-To-Ten scale of ridiculousness.You can allot your own scores to this week´s selection.
All this rumination took place during some of the many pauses in this walk. But we did actually walk reasonable seriously for some of the time and at a reasonable pace. Here is the Leader getting a move on while doing his best to imitate the Alice in Wonderland White Rabbit; will he be in time for breakfast?
“Oh dear ! Oh dear ! I shall be too late!”
By now, we were nearly out of the woods when Java went walk-about and, while Terry raced off to find him, we had yet another pause, during which Paul proposed that we should tackle the prickly canal path once more on our way back to the café. The motion was put to the usual democratic vote and heavily defeated, and we took the tarmac route. If we had not, we wouldn´t have had the chance to view a magnificent Bougainvillaea and, when she came out of her cottage to see what all the fuss was about, to meet its proud owner. More photo shoots and another interview ensued. 90 years old, and sole carer of a 62- years old crippled son, Dona Maria dos Reis do Campo nevertheless did her best to sell her cottage to Myriam, who wasn´t buying any of it.
Some of us finished the walk just on the two hour mark; the Bougainvillaea interview group took an extra twenty minutes.
Breakfast was served with remarkable speed, thanks to Dona Fernanda and her enthusiastic team of helpers:-
Once more, Yves managed to get his food first – just how he does it, no one knows.
Ingrid read out a message from Dina following her accident:-
Hoje estou melhor mas ainda não estou totalmente bem.
O que aconteceu foi que no sábado passado fui visitar Córdoba com um
grupo. Quando vínhamos de volta o Ar Condicionado do autocarro deixou
de funcionar, e, estando sentada atrás, o calor era tanto que decidi
ir para um lugar à frente que estava disponível. No momento em que me
levanto, acho que o autocarro fez ou tentou fazer uma ultrapassagem e
eu que estava em pé desequilibrei-me e caí, mesmo na direcção da
escada da parte detrás do autocarro, batendo com força no corrimão e
não sei que outras saliências. Aleijei a parte esquerda entre o tórax
e a bacia. Podia ter sido muito pior se tivesse partido ossos.
Acho que estou a recuperar e para a próxima semana, provavelmente,
contem comigo.
Muito obrigada pelo vosso cuidado. Boa caminhada para amanhã.
Dina
We hope she recovers well for next week.
The meal was up to its usual standard and this time we were provided with peaches and water melon for extras. Organising the coffees seemed to require an extra-ordinary amount of debate and to-ing and fro-ing during all of which Myriam forgot to take her customary through-the-window photo of the group. My beer was so much more simple to get hold off.
Which reminds me of the final offering, thanks to Hazel:-
“There are three things I always forget. Names, faces and – the third, I can´t remember.” (Italo Svevo)
“I never forget a face, but I´ll make an exception in your case.”(Groucho Marx)
“Memory is the thing you forget with.” (Alexander Chase)
(Photo credits: Hazel, JohnH, Myriam, Pauladev, Yves)
