APAPS 18.4. 18 07 18: São Bom Homem, or Shuāng Xǐ

We gathered, in larger numbers than of late, at the entrance to Herdade de São Bom Homem for the start of this week´s APAPS walk.

Here is the Starter photo, which it might not have been possible to publish at all, if it had not been for the happy intervention of Jill and Terry. More on that later.

The Starters: Janet, Chris, Claire, Yves, Maria, Dina (long time no see), Antje, JohnH, Hazel, Ingrid, Terry, Jill, and Rod.

plus regulars Java and Sascha.

The Track

The Statistics:-

Total Distance: 6.12 kms: Total Time. 2.00 hrs exactly.

Moving Time:1 hr 34 mins: Moving Average: 3.9 kph: Ascent: 174 metres

Just Standing Around Talking Time: 26 minutes.

We moved off pretty sharpish at 07.05 hrs. So keen was the Leader to get the show on the road and to get the pack moving that, after the Starter photo and in his hurry, he left his camera still on its tripod on the roof of his car. Luckily for him, Jill took a dislike to the first hill as soon as she saw it and sent Terry back to his car to get her stick. Nothing misses his eagle eye and, as he came back, he picked the camera up and restored it to its ever-grateful owner. (Note to Hazel – “keep an eye out for your husband; he doesn´t multi-task”.)

Meanwhile, the other accredited camera man was lugging a huge piece of equipment with him that nobody could possibly overlook -  a mega-length Canon, the quality of whose lens enabled him to take some fine shots when we reached the top of the first ridge.

Yves Ferrer

Yves Ferrer

A sizeable piece of equipment

Just standing around

H Hope

and standing around again.

It was a fairly uneventful outing along familiar tracks but what was noticeable was that quite a lot of new tracks were being scraped out on the hillsides and that the undergrowth beside the tracks was well–trimmed. Activity by Silves Câmara was evident. Then  we saw the Herdade´s “Mission Statement.”

A few minutes later, this message was to some extent corroborated when Rod and Maria stoppped to interview a Câmera employee who was engaged in strimming a large clump of canes, a rather Sysiphean labour given that Cana simply grows back again, almost impossible to eradicate. He explained that he was working on the site of the former municipal rubbish dump (a lixeira) and that in one of the buildings behind him on the hill they used crush discarded glass bottles for re-cycling. This broken-down material would then be loaded into lorries from the large concrete ramp which can be seen sticking out behind the tree in this photo. And there some of us had been thinking that it was a bridge in search of a motorway!

He also said (I think) that there were now a lot of deer and javali in the area and that nearby was a tree which the javali used for scraping the mud off their bodies.

While the three of us stopped for this interview, Yves took the opportunity to practise his portraiture and focussing skills

Yves Ferrer

Yves Ferrer

Yves Ferrer

Terry and Jill ascended the ridge……………….

Yves Ferrer

…. ……and descended.

H Hope

Yves Ferrer

It was then back to the cars and a short drive round behind Silves Castle to Restaurante Mira Rio in very good time for our scheduled 10 am breakfast.The ladies helped to arrange and prepare the tables and then, just as the hot food was coming out, with perfect timing Paul and Myriam arrived with Mike and Jyll Pease for the double happiness (Shuāng Xǐ) of breakfast and birthday cake. Mike and Jyll were of course the founders of those great annual Sparrowfarts, of which our little breakfasts are a pale imitation.

I have heard no complaints about the food from Paul so far, but who knows; his review is awaited. 

Miike didn´t eat breakfast so he can´t have been asking “Where´s my food?”  in this exchange with Hazel.

Anyway, it having been his 88th birthday the day before, Myriam produced a birthday card.

Although he seemd a bit dubious about the Chinese lettering on it at first, our Dragon Empress has subsequently provided this explanation:-

“8 (八, BĀ) – LUCKY

8 is the luckiest number in Chinese culture because 八 sounds like 發 (fa), which means “wealth”, “fortune”, and “prosper” in Chinese. Multiples of eight are even better, as 88 bears a resemblance to 囍 (shuāng xǐ), or “double happiness”. While the Chinese will go to great lengths to avoid 4 in daily life, they will try to incorporate 8 wherever they can. In the Beijing summer Olympics, the opening ceremony began at 8:08 pm on 8/8/08. Since the number 8 is believed to bring good luck, many airlines in Chinese-speaking countries will use combinations of 8 as flight numbers.”

Antje and Hazel produced birthday cakes

and Mike said a few words, as only he can, before cutting the cakes.

Cakes and coffees all round

Now, readers may remember that last week´s Blog included a photograph of a dashingly behatted Ingrid along with the query “Is she a convert?”

Well, something had obviously aroused the suspicions of the Sartorial Standards Sub-Committee, a.k.a. the Tilley Hat Inspectorate, because they seized and scrutinised her titfer.

Disapproving looks. What have they found?

No Tilley, but a French or maybe Aussie look-a-like, no doubt cut-price. Well, genuine Tilleys are, as is well known, proudly made in Canada, “handcrafted with Canadian persnicketiness” no less and Canada have a trade agreement of sorts with the EU. Clearly, if this is anything to go by, they won´t get the sort of trading standards and intellectual property rights protectioon they hoped for out of the EU. We shall see; will Ingrid still be wearing it next season?

Turning now to other themes, last Blog we put forward a few instances of multilinguistic word play. In that vein, Paul managed (just) to acknowledge to Yves through clenched teeth that France had indeed triumphed at the Football World Cup with his “Qu´on gratte tous les jeunes”, which is self-explanatory.

Yves, apart from wearing a tri-colour polo shirt, did not come le coq gaulois as one might have expected but played things very coolly.

As he said, “When it comes to modesty, we French are in a class of our own.”

Someone at the table suggested that France now have a chance of pulling off a magnificent double if they win the Rugby World Cup. There was then the following exchange:-

Paul: “If they do,  we will have to think about changing the composition of this group.”

Yves: “Paul, we will miss you.”

(Dry wit and repartee – within the permitted parameters: Ref)

This week´s multilingual word play:- “Vin Blanc.” = “White van.”

Anymore, please.

And finally, this week´s closing quotation:-

Hi Paul,

I would be grateful if you would include in your Blog for today my thanks and appreciation that I was treated to such special attention. – very much appreciated and entirely unexpected. I thought that ‘old walkers’ simply ‘strode off into the sunset’ and that was that!

Mike