APAPS 21.15: "The I.C. Bacon made a right pig´s ear of it."

 

What on earth would we do without our wonderful scientists? It was recently reported that a group of them have finally worked out the effects of consuming red wine. These dedicated researchers found that

“Red wine increased pleasure and arousal, decreased the awareness of time, slowed the subjective passage of time, increased the attentional focus on the present moment, decreased body awareness, slowed thought speed, turned imagination more vivid, and made the environment become more fascinating. Red wine increased insightfulness and originality of thoughts, increased sensations of oneness with the environment, spiritual feelings, all-encompassing love, and profound peace. All changes in consciousness occurred regardless of volunteers drinking alone, in dyad or in group.”

And for that they get paid large salaries and get even larger research grants !!! Good grief ! I could have let people know that for free, from my own personal research over the years - as indeed I´m sure you all could as well.

Any way, rant over -  let´s move on to our Grande Finale. As usual, the early start provided some with the excuse to take photos of the sunrise.

You may think that the title of this week´s blog is a trifle unfair to he whose task was to provide the bacon for our closing Breakfast, but it is deliberately put in quotation marks, as I´m sure you will have noticed, because the words are in fact those suggested by the culprit himself. Back bacon not being a good substitute for streaky bacon, perhaps the moral of the story (and we shall refrain from providing the whole story) is this -

“Ladies, do not trust the important shopping to men.”

But his was not the only evidence this week of males losing their grip. Another one, who had signed up to do the walk, having got out of bed especially early, then could not find his man bag which contains all his life essentials such cash, cards driving license, phone etc, so he missed the walk because of the time it took him to search for the bag.

So, to celebrate the superiority of women over men,  we will have this little ditty called “Bringing Home The Bacon” (based on Peggy Lee´s "I´m a Woman")

No Starter photo again this week.

And just to liven things up even more, here is this week´s Quiz, right at the start. Possibly quite a tricky one. What is the connection between these clues?

A bit blurred, I am afraid ((known as the red wine effect) but they are "Differential calculus"  "Binomial theorem" and "Babylonic cuneiform"

The answer will be given at the end of this blog because there will not be another APAPS blog this season, so you need not lie awake all night puzzling it out..

After early morning coffees, 8 started the walk at 8 am precisely , i.e. Rod, ChrisD and Rachel, Myriam, Maria, Yves (a.k.a. the I.C. Bacon), Hazel and JohnH. 

Yves proudly displayed his new stick - not to be lost, please.

The walk itself was fairly uneventful. Some newly installed irrigation containers were observed at one stage

 - no one was quite sure how they are filled up prior to irrigating but our attention was diverted when the I.C. Bacon announced that he had left his smartphone/camera in his car. Not his day to be sure. So if you are expecting the usual gallery of artistic pictures, tough luck – not today. But this time he managed to get his share of feminine consolation from the ladies

About half-way round Hazel and Maria jumped ship and went back to take care of the cooking duties.

Some scrumping was done.

All around, the avocados are growing fast.

A modest walk, as the Statistics show.

Back at Casa Esperança by 10.30 am, Antje, ChrisW and Paul were impatiently waiting, Paul having occupied himself taking pictures of the sky.

He says the writing is Aramaic; more likely a secret message from HuaWei.

 and then a quick photo of the Breakfasteers was taken.

From the left: Rod, Hazel(with Figaro), Antje, ChrisD, Maria, ChrisW, Rachel, Paul, Yves, Myriam and JohnH

Coffees, tomato juice cocktails and bucks fizzes were dispensed

 and then Hazel and her team of helpers laid out the banquet.

Difficult to remember what all the topics of conversation round the table were, but I seem to recall lengthy debates about what constitutes sourdough bread – naturally fermented or kick-started with baker´s yeast. We learned that Japanese script derived from the Chinese (of course), and then our Kenyan experts explained to the assembly what a duka is and what a dukawallah is.

A duka is a general store in Kenya and other parts of East Africa and the proprietor, the dukawallah, would always be an Asian i.e. from India. JohnH and ChrisD surmised that the word would be of Gujarati origin, but to their surprise John´s Hobson-Jobson had no entry for it. They shouldn´t have been surprised because it´s not an Indian word at all but Swahili, 

From Swahili duka, from Arabic دُكَّان‎ (dukkān), from Aramaic דּוּכָּנָא‎ (dukkānā, “dais”), from Akkadian 𒆠𒍇 (/takkannu, dakkannu, dukkannu/, “dais, platform, bench; niche, bedroom, private chambers or quarters”), ultimately from Sumerian 𒆠𒍇 (/daggan/, “chamber, doorway or its frame, niche in a wall”)..

The meal was rounded of with platters of fresh fruit.

Hazel´s charity collection raised Euros 87.75; thanks to those who contributed and also to those who contributed bacon , etc., etc., for the breakfast.

Last Week´s Quiz

The question was "what is the connection between theses clues?"

The answer is: 

The winner was, of course, Myriam - who else?

There was some discussion during the walk about Middlesbrough and Sheffield, one who knows these things saying that Middlesbrough is in Cleveland and not North Yorkshire as the Quizmaster thought. But Cleveland would make a nonsense of the clue. "Cleveland and South Yorkshire" would not work. In actual fact, Middlesbrough was in North Yorkshire until 1974 when it became part of the new county of Cleveland. But then Cleveland was abolished in 1996 and Middlesbrough became part of North Yorkshire again. And if you find that all rather confusing, just imaging how the poor inhabitants of Middlesbrough must feel.

This week´s Quiz Answer

They are all things a modern Major General knows, according to Gilbert and Sullivan´s Pirates of Penzance.

And that´s it for APAPS for the season. Thanks to all who took part and supported it. Maybe next year again?

P.S. Oh! and there was even some bacon left over.