APAPS 22.15: The Cock Crew or The Grand Finale

 This special blog marks the end of the 9^th season of Breakfast, or APAPS, walks. One wonders how many more there will be. The origins of APAPS are obscure, emerging sometime in the summer of 2014. The early photos, such as they are, tended to concentrate on legs for some reason. This example being one...

….the finalists in the 29^th July 2014 “Pretty Legs” competition. There is no record of who the winner was. 

Later on we began to get up to all sorts of tricks for the Starter photographs....what with our synchronised line dancing routines ....

No one knew quite why we did it.… these carried on for a few years until our insurance advisors recommended that we cease and desist, the likelihood of serious injury from falling over en masse becoming ever more likely as we aged.

Curiously enough, close-up pictorial studies of the breakfasts themselves - an essential feature of today´s blogs - are absent from the earliest records, the first such picture dating from 30^th June 2016.....

….and it wasn´t until 1st August 2016 that the first APAPS blog appeared...

https://hopejohnh.blogspot.com/2016/08/apaps-1-whats-in-name-or-apaps-begins.html

This recorded that there was considerable resistance from the WAGS elder  statesmen to the very idea of having 7 am starts.

But people have become more accustomed to these early starts nowadays and in fact, this last Wednesday, it was Paul and Myriam themselves who arrived at the door of Casa Esperança at the very crack of dawn, demanding entry (which was of course allowed), and they then sat down for coffee just as the sun came up. 

This sequence inspired Paul to suggest the title of this blog The Cock Crew, taking it from one of the verses of his favourite poem, The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam.

“And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before

The Tavern shouted - “Open then the Door.

You know how little while we have to stay,

And, once departed, may return no more.”

Paul's researches have also discovered that the Rubaiyat has even been set to music by one Granville Bantock, a seldom heard British (Scottish) composer of classical music. Now, as you know, this Blogger likes to add the occasional piece of music to his Blogs. However, since the full YouTube recording of Bantock´s composition lasts for 2 hours, 51 minutes and 30 seconds, you will forgive me if I do not insist that you listen to it on this occasion. But, should you wish to hear it for yourselves. you can find it on YouTube at......

https://youtu.be/7RKBGR4tOFs      (2 minutes 20 second extract)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz7eJnWQuwY  (the full oratorio)

Happy listening !

The Whittles arrived with Sacha in tow, which gave Figaro pause for thought.

He decided to make himself scarce and did not re-appear until 4 pm.

And now to this week´s walk, or nearly. The previous week, only three had turned out, and Paul had surmised that that might have been the lowest quorum for any APAPS, WAGS or AWW walk since the last century. But in fact, there had been at least two three-only walks within living memory. One I remembered was on 16^th February 2011 when the only walkers had been me and the two Terrys (plus Rusty).

And Yves remembered one on 31^st October 2018 when only he, Hazel and I had walked.

Both were very wet days, I seem to recall.

And now, for the second time of asking, to this week´s walk.

This week a much more respectable nine were there for the start. Coffee first, and and then we were off, by about 8.10 am, along familiar tracks although the surroundings are considerably changed from the previous year, whole swathes of orange groves having been wiped out and replaced with avocado plantations, all fenced in and impenetrable.

Myriam finds one of the few remaining carob trees

How the Promoting Entity T C Dawborn reconciles planting of avocado trees with removal of carobs and oak tree and calls it protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency, is not immediately clear. Maybe the size of the EU grant helps him.

We saw this sign at the point that Chris left us to take a shortcut home.

The route taken was much the same as in previous years, as can be seen from this composite map.

The white line is the track Chris was meant to take to get home, although it turned out he had ideas of his own about that. The red line is what the rest took, until the cooks and coffee makers left us, they taking the yellow line. And the blue line is what the remaining five walkers took. Hope that is clear.

After a bit we said goodbye to Antje, Sacha, Maria and Hazel as they headed back to the kitchen

And we remaining five continued on the rest of the journey. That we five averaged only 3.4 kph despite being relatively fit is explained by the fact that shortly after the cooking platoon had left us, we were intrigued to see what looked like a very large woodpecker high up on a palm tree, near Casa Barbel. 

This took several minutes to investigate, moving into the undergrowth for ever closer view points until we could conclude that it´s head was not moving and that it was a decoy imitation bird wired to the tree trunk. Whom it is meant to deceive or why, and who put it there, we do not know.

Our route then took us past the extensive Poço Barreto condominium under construction which we had admired two weeks previously, but today the entrepreneur developer was not to be seen, so we could not check how his sales plan was doing. Nor were there any more antique green bottles to be seen. After that, the rest of the walk proceeded without incident.

Janet makes a point about the general incompetence of courier companies

Track and Statistics

In due course, we got back to Casa E at about 10.30 am where we found that the cooking was in full swing and that AWW Emeritus Ingrid had dropped by to check that all was being done in accordance with regulations. Happily, she had also brought with her the recipe for the traditional APAPS tomato juice cocktails, and these she herself mixed most expertly throughout the morning, for which we were very grateful.

Several of you have asked for that recipe so here, by kind permission of Ingrid, it is.

Recipe.

Coloque 500g de Polpa de Tomate na garrafa. Complete com 500cl agua gelada sem gas. Nao mais que 2 gotas de Sacana Piri-Piri Ai Ai (deixe escorrer. nao aperte a garrafa). Adicione uma pitada ou dois de molho Lea & Perrins Worcestershire a gosto. Mexa bem e sirva.

Just before the breakfast was served, we all gathered outside for the customary group photograph, which got delayed for a few minutes while Myriam took close up pictures of Antje´s legs, quite why, we are not at all sure.

By popular demand, her photos are now censored.

Photo over at last, then a truly delicious and very filling breakfast was served. Compliments to the chefs Hazel and Maria, and thanks also to all those who contributed.

Earlier, Myriam had reminded us that that day, 5th October, was Portugal´s Republic Day (officially called A Implantaçao da Republica) , so it was quite fitting that, at the start of the meal, we desisted from the usual banter for some moments and drank four serious toasts. The first, to the President of Portugal: the second, to the memory of Queen Elizabeth: the third, to King Charles 111:and the fourth - thinking of those no longer with us, those unable to be with us because of ill health, and those overseas - to Absent Friends.

Normal banter then resumed.

The meal was accompanied by the tomato juice cocktails, of course, plus Buck´s Fizz, beers etc., etc. There was masses to eat and the sausage selection was particularly memorable:

 congratulations to those who provided that.

Where to begin?

Janet and Rod engage in a tête-a-tête

Ai Ai !

Chris looks cheerful despite having just been told that he is not getting any lunch.

Then we finished off with breads, various jams, coffees, and fruits from Hazel´s garden. 

Is that what they call a selfie?

A collection raised Euros 100 for Portimão orphanages; well done.

As mentioned earlier, these blogs have this year mostly included some closing music. We have had, I think, some good tunes these past few weeks, among them....Moonlight In Vermont, Moon River, Fallin´ Rain Blues, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, It´s Only A Paper Moon, plus one Chinese classic by Lang Lang´s father.

and most of them with a  common atmospheric theme of the sunrise, the sunset, the moon, etc. After last week´s Hoagy Carmichael classic of Stardust, I had thought of putting in another of his compositions, called Winter Moon, but hearing it I found it just too gloomy for words, so I won´t inflict it on you but instead for the finale we will conclude with a repetition of that cheerful little number

                         “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise”

in a version for by Benny Goodman (clarinet) with Teddy Wilson on piano

and another version by that other great Belgian, Django Reinhardt (guitar) with Stèphane Grappelli (violin)

Thank you all for taking part in APAPS this season; maybe we will do it again next year.

APAPS 22.14: Then There Were Three

 There are two main types of walker. There are those who, to paraphrase the old Punch cartoon,

when asked about their style of walking, reply

“Well, sometimes I plods and thinks, and then again sometimes I just plods.”

But this type certainly do not talk a great deal while walking.

And then there is the second main type of walker, those who obviously look on the walks as an opportunity to have a good old chin-wag. And nothing wrong with that.

This last week, our walking numbers were very considerably reduced below the normal complement, and the Leader was a trifle concerned about the potential for silence during the walk, particularly given the absence of those stalwarts of the second main type, Janet and Yves. But he need not have feared, because Myriam was there to meet the challenge, which she did most valiantly. Virtually single-handedly, she kept the flow of conversation going for almost the whole of the two and three quarter hours, only put off her stride (so to speak) for 5 minutes or so when the Leader attempted to tell, uninterrupted, the story of how Geraldine aged about 11 had managed to fly unaccompanied from Edinburgh to Dubai without a passport. Even then there were interruptions.

Anyway, to be brief, there were just the three Starters at Herdade de São Bom Homem..

The paths and the views were familiar, of course, we have been there very often.

What was refreshing, however, was to see the greenery after the recent spell of rain.

The dams are, of course, not nearly full enough but the trees, washed of their covering of dust, and the revived grasses are freshly green.

Also good to see is the success of Silves Camera´s tree replanting efforts.

Myriam also took over Yves´ duties as official portrait photographer, and did a very good job too. 

There were hills to be tackled but we took things very gently  with lots of pauses for rest, as the average speed stat will tell you.

Myriam captured a shot of JohnH managing to stand balanced on one leg.

"Stans pede in uno"   (Horace, Satires 1 iv 10)

 

The trick is the two poles of course.

.And now two more of her portrait shots.

How she talked us into that one I am not sure; but with her patter and camera skills she should be able to get a job with one of those glossy society gossip magazines.

The Track and the Statistics

After the walk, we drove to Poço Baretto in just under 15 minutes, for a second visit to Café Victoria, arriving there at just on 10.30. There we found Maria, just off the plane from Istanbul, and Rod waiting to join us for breakfast.

Our choices were various, which puzzled the staff a bit..

Vegetarian breakfast without vegetarian sausages but plus black pudding.

(Does that still count as vegetarian ?)

Full English without egg yolk

Full English without bacon and plus a second egg

And the Full English with an extra egg yolk and black pudding.

There were coffees which I understand were acceptable, sauces and English mustard.

AND the draught Guinness had arrived !

The Guiness Caneca went down extremely well...

The breakfasts are not bad but, on the minus side, there is only white bread of the Bimbo type, no brown or integral bread, and the small Guinnesses were very small, not good value. General verdict - not a place to visit too often. 

Music to close. Last week, we had Moon River which Myriam said was one of her favourites. This week and continuing our atmospheric theme of sun, moon and stars, we have Hazel´s long time favourite, Stardust.. with Django Reinhardt (guitar) Coleman Hawkins (tenor sax) and Stèphane Grappelli (on piano for once), What a combination!

and, for good measure, a vocal version by Hoagy Carmichael who it was who wrote the tune in 1927, so Wikipedia tells us; the lyrics were added by somebody else two years later.