APAPS 21.14: Stick With Me Before We Go Nuts

 

In this year´s series of APAPS blogs, it has been the custom, to conclude each blog with a quiz. But what is the point of establishing a custom if you cannot, once in a while, turn it on its head and do things in reverse. So, on this occasion, we will start with a quiz question which is this:-

“What was it that Homer Simpson ate at The Happy Sumo that led him to believe that he had been poisoned and was about to die?”

Now I must make an immediate disclaimer at this point which is that this question was and is nothing whatsoever to do with the estimable Happy Sumo in Lagos where several of us have enjoyed many a meal without any gastric trouble at all. Homer Simpson´s Happy Sumo is a totally make-believe set up in a fictitious Springfield , Ohio or some such place, whereas the Lagos Happy Sumo is a very real Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurant run, as one would expect, by Mandarin-speaking Chinese proprietors and staffed by Nepalese waiters. If speaking Mandarin is not your thing, what you can do is this - as Myriam and I have both done - and that is to take a crash course in Nepali. We are now both fluent Nepali speakers. For example, in a normal Portuguese restaurant, at the end of the meal, one asks for palitos, a word which the Nepali waiters in Lagos are not too familiar with. So one asks them what is the Nepali for toothpick. The answer is "tuthapika.”

I´m quite serious; never would I make things up for a blog. If you don´t believe me, just look at Google Translate.

And the answer to the opening quiz is given in this The Simpsons clip:-

He eats fugu or puffer fish.

And now, without more ado, on to this week´s walk. We started at the slightly later hour of 7.45 am because the sun seems to be coming up later than it used to. And, what is more, we dispensed with another established custom, that of taking a Starter picture, for two reasons: one being the aforesaid lack of light: the other being that three of our APAPS stalwarts were not walking but would be at the breakfast. See later.

The start of the walk was quite normal, over the canal and along a familiar valley then climbing up to a ridge where we were met by a howling gale which we had to escape from asap.

At this stage we came upon a pathway which I had not seen before and which was certainly un-recce´ed. We have complained a lot these past weeks about the ruinous effect that the recent eucalyptus harvesting has had on the Serra landscape, but one beneficial result of the clearances is that a lot of hitherto hidden tracks have been revealed. And this was one of these. I consulted our local guide (Rod) who was confident that it led from the ridge we were on over to another high ridge in the general direction of where I wanted to go; so we took it. It proved to be entirely satisfactory and just what the doctor had ordered.

After that, the expedition mutated into a serious “Find Yves Another Stick” campaign. The regular reader may remember that two weeks ago Yves had lost a carefully whittled and polished orange-wood walking stick, and he was still looking for a suitable replacement.

Some possibilities were not up to standard and were rejected.

We´ll get rid of that one

This one seemed to be what he was looking for.

Or maybe this one...

But then JohnH picked up a long eucalyptus pole...

Mine´s bigger than yours

And Yves took a section of this pole as his final choice.

Up another hill 

and then we came to the place where, back in July, we had seen signs that one of our customary paths was about to be closed.

Back in July

Now, No Entry

Then it was quickly back to Pescadores where ChrisW, Antje and Paul were impatiently waiting for their breakfast.

The Track and the Statistics

But before we could breakfast, there was the important matter of taking the Breakfast Starters photograph, in which on this occasion we were all joined by Dona Fernanda and her daughter-in-law, Senhora Ritinha.

From the right: Rachel, ChrisD, Yves, Maria, Antje, Rod, Hazel, Dona Fernanda, Paul, Myriam, ChrisW, Sra Ritinha, and JohnH

Breakfast was as good as ever, with excellent behind-the-scenes assistance by Maria with the bacon.

I wonder who do we serve first?

Hazel produced flat-leaved parsley, chillies and dragon fruit which provoked a few flower arrangements and still life pics.

There were complementary grapes from the Pescadores Horta to finish with. 

and then suddenly Myriam came up with some extraordinary nuts from a plant called Water Caltrop.

The water caltrop is any of three extant species of the genus Trapa: Trapa natans, Trapa bicornis and the endangered Trapa rossica. It is also known as buffalo nut, bat nut, devil pod, ling nut, lin kok, ling jow, ling kio nut, moustache nut or singhada.The species are floating annual aquatic plants, growing in slow-moving water up to 5 m (16 ft) deep, native to warm temperate parts of Eurasia and Africa. They bear ornately shaped fruits, which in the case of T. bicornis resemble the head of a bull or the silhouette of a flying bat. Each fruit contains a single very large, starchy seed. T. natans and T. bicornis have been cultivated in China and the Indian subcontinent for the edible seeds for at least 3,000 years.

Hazel and Yves demonstrate the aptness of the moustache nut name.

Last week´s Quiz

Last week you were asked "What completes this sequence?"

One answer came in "2nd February" which was on the right track because they are all dates which, in numerals, read the same in each direction i.e. 30 03, 01 10, 11 11. 

02 20 would have been almost right but not as logical as the proper answer:

            30 03                                01 10                        11 11                            21 12

in month order. Myriam, of course, hit the jackpot.

This week´s Quiz

An easy one: what´s the connection?

Closing music is by Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra

Post script

We WAGS/APAPS have often admired artistic skills of our in-house photographer, but others do as well. Recently he entered a prestigious photography competition in the North of England and won first prize in the "People" category. He asked me to say nothing to you about it, and I of course agreed to keep Mum. So here is his winning entry:

                                          An Algoz Mum.