APAPS 21.4: Acrostics At Dawn, Anyone?

 The attentive and regular reader of these blogs (should any such creature actually exist) will have noticed that I like to carry a theme forward from one blog to the next, to provide a smidgeon of continuity. Last week we were considering the subject of Uruguayan whiskeys and whether, just because they contain a dash of Scotch Malt whisky, they can be classified as “Scotch Whisky”.

This week, I have news that an engineering firm in Scotland has signed a USD4 million deal to ship an entire Scotch Distillery out to Inner Mongolia. This news came by courtesy of a colourful publication called MALAYSIA NOW.  Mark you, I am not one to doubt the intellectual curiosity, hunger for knowledge  and sheer sophistication of well-read Malaysians but, even so, I find it strange that a journal claiming as it does to focus on Malaysia Today should think its readers are deeply interested in a quite minor trade deal between Scotland and a northern province of China. But what worries me is that, if Scotland continues to export the essential components of its Scotch Whisky industry, be they mechanical, as in this case, or natural, as in a case where Scottish malt (malted barley) is shipped to a distillery in Holland, soon it will be inviting ever-more overseas competition to its own product. What is Nicola doing about it?

Could have been worse, though; might have been Outer Mongolia.

Food (or drink) for thought.

And now to the walk. This was to be an repeat but in exact reverse of the walk two weeks previously in Bom Homem, precisely so that our in-house photographer could take shots of the Silves Castle and Windmill using his heavy equipment rather than his Samsung phone.

The Starters

The Maestro at work

The result

Once up on the ridge which was the key to the taking of the pictures Yves busied himself and took a fair amount of time in doing so. This gave Myriam the chance of laying herself down to rest on a conveniently placed chaise-longue.

As time went on, we all except Yves moved onwards , having shouted and signalled to him to follow us down to the right. Further on we waited for him to catch up. Minutes passed but he did not do so.The Leader had to retrace his steps back to the ridge, just at the moment when a rather lost Yves appeared, having missed the right turn, or to put it another way, having taken the wrong right.

The rest of the walk was relatively uneventful.

Treading softly past the beehives

 Towards the end, however, we met a forester employed by Silves Camera who proved to be very talkative. 

One gathered later that his topics of conversation had included stories of the damage done to newly planted trees by deer who like to eat the young leaves (apart from alfarroba leaves), by male deer who rub the velvet of their antlers on the bark, and by javali who dig holes beside the trees to pee into. The foresters are only allowed to shoot old female deer and then only in in the hunting season. Old male deer are spared that fate to live to fight another day. Discrimination rules.

Then it was along the road to Para e Fica for breakfast, where Rod left us after taking a coffee and Hazel, Chris and Terry joined us. The females segregated themselves just as they did a fortnight before but if their conversation was more subdued this time it was because it was mostly medical – the benefits of suppositories being one overheard item of chat - so we men did not really mind being on our own. Our conversation dwelt on such imperatives as whether it is better to be to be booted or unbooted as far as one´s car is concerned.

One of the booted kind. What will the future bring?

The bacon was excellent and the toast plentiful. No more of the eggs were served broken than is usual.

The Statistics and Track

Distance: 6.41kms. Time: 2 hrs 26 mins.

Average speed: 2.6 kph. Total ascent: 200 metres.

But these are pretty meaningless figures becaue of course the Leader had had to backtrack to look for Yves (he got lost - did I mention that ?)

Yves` special photographs

He certainly has an eye for scenery

You will agree that the pictures were worth the effort of carrying all that equipment.

P.S. Did I mention that he also got lost.

The APAPS who breakfast will have noted that I have been asking them to say if they want breakfast by using that very word "breakfast" , and most have humoured a grumpy old fart in his idiosyncrasy. "Breakfast" is a word of 9 letters which is not particularly onerous to type into an email or WhatsApp. Yves, perhaps to make amends for getting lost ( have I mentioned that already?) has come up with his own rather more weighty way of using the word "breakfast" which I should share with you before it gets lost into thin air. This is his acrostic.

Bread, toasted, piled high;

Rashers and tomatoes sizzling;

Eggs sunny side up;

A Sagres to help it all down;

Knives and forks ready;

Friends to share with;

All in hearty spirit;

Smiles and banter aplenty:

That’s what I want…

 

 He used 154 letters. 9 will do fine.

And to conclude, no music this time round but a small puzzle for you.

What is the connection between these four items ?

CRIME         NAKED           GRAZIER         AGARICS

In France     In Germany          In Italy              In Spain

(No prize for correct answers.)

APAPS 21.3: There are Alternatives to Walking

 

It has been a bit of a struggle to hit upon a theme for this week´s blog, so I thought I would revert to an advertisement for Uruguayan Scotch Whisky (or Whiskey) which Paul posted in response to last week´s blog which, I am sure you remember, mentioned the World Stone Balancing Championships held in Dunbar in Scotland.

Now I don´t know if Paul was recommending the stuff from personal experience, nor indeed if he was even recommending it at all. But I myself would be extremely dubious about trying it, because the following is what the advertisement said about the brew.

Whisky Dunbar

The Dunbar Rare Old Whisky honours the place of his birth, on the River Spey in the town of Dunbar, Scotland.

Rare Old Whisky Dunbar was born in Uruguay in 1981 being an ambassador for the Seagram’s Distillery, founded in 1857, with the mission to promote the core values of the Scottish distillery, based on integrity, craftsmanship and tradition.

With imported malts of Scotland, and having been aged in oak for 5 years in Uruguay is a whiskey (sic)blend with optimum purity water, alcohols and a select handpicked distilled from grain to achieve the taste and character of the brand.

Expert tasters focus on determining the right time to bottle the whiskey (sic) based on the aroma, fruity flavour and unmistakable smoky characteristic. These are predefined standards that give identity and character of the brand since its inception.

Rating:

Whisky type Blended high level nationally uruguayan, but still far from its competitors Scotchs (sic).

Direct competors (sic): Whisky Blenders.

My doubts arise partly from the dodgy spellings – is it a whisky or a whiskey? -but partly about what apart from a drop of malt goes into it.

It may have some genuine Scotch Single Malt in it but how much we don´t know. And what “handpicked distilled from grain” means, I have no idea, but it doesn´t fill me with great confidence. Seagrams is of course a Canadian distillery company from Montreal in Quebec, not a Scottish one. And their or their advertising agent´s knowledge of Scottish geography is pretty poor as can be seen from this wee map. Dunbar, the town, is nowhere near the River Spey.

Happily, about 168 miles away from the Spey, the aforementioned 2021 World Stone Balancing Championships were held very successfully on the seashore of Dunbar earlier this July, as these latest pictures show.

As for the week´s walk, numbers of walkers were reduced, to 5, Rod being on manoeuvres somewhere in Spain and Hazel being prevented from walking by some mysterious lurgi.

The Starter photos were taken in the difficult light of early morning.

But, for the record, those walking were:-

JohnH, Myriam, Antje, Yves and Maria, plus Sascha

The walk itself was very pleasant; the temperature being modest and, what with the tidal estuary being full and the shade from the trees, the walk along the canal was balm for the soul. Myriam even learned how the producers of wine in a box cleverly manage to stop the wine from leaking out of the cardboard.

We went uphill at one point but that wasn´t too strenuous.

The subsequent downhill track was a little bit too prickly for some tastes but, although some blood was drawn, it didn´t flow like it did when Mike Pease and Ian Scott were leaders.

Sascha enjoyed a paddle and we all rested in the shade at Clube Nautico.....

. 

where Myriam treated us to her renowned Dragon Empress Dowager Ci-Ci impersonation

and also instructed us on the Dragon Empress´s etiquette of shoe wearing which, as far as I could gather, consisted of putting her shoes on back to front.

Normally, that would have made walking a bit difficult but, for the Empress, that wouldn´t have caused too much difficulty because, being the Empress, she would probably be carried to most places in a palanquin or some such contraption.

And, as a post-publication insert, we have this picture provided by Myriam

The technical details are  that these are shoes for a Manchu noblewoman, China, Qing Dynasty mid-1800s AD.  Silk and wood. 

Myriam says these are the Ching "flower bowl" shoes to imitate bound feet. 

(Is Qing pronounced Ching?)

(Not recommended by AWWs, WAGs or APAPs.)

Also submitted by Myriam is this picture. It shows a concubine being taken to the Emperor's chamber. Well, that´s one alternative to walking.

But we lesser mortals had to walk and, as we did so, we saw signs that the local authorities are looking after access to the area; road bridges are being widened and measures are being taken to reinforce the canal walls.

Are they expecting an increase in traffic?

And, while on the subject of repairs, Yves managed to capture an artisan at work on the interior fittings of that cottage near Mira Rio which has been under renovation these past ten years or so.

Breakfast was ordered for 10 a.m. And we got back just in time. There were four reinforcements for the meal, Chris, Hazel, Paul and Terry.

The Track and Statistics

Distance: 8.55 kms  Time: 2 hrs 45 mins.  Ascent: 133 metres.

And to close, Funiculi Funicula, for no other reason than that Myriam sang it at the breakfast table. I could have chosen a Pavarotti version but one can have too much of him; and our regular entertainer Fats Waller, so far as I can tell, did not record it. So we will have to make do with this Japanese group.