APAPS 22.13: Three Green Bottles and One Green Hat

 

For our breakfast walk location on APAPS 22.13, we chose to start from Poço Barreto railway station, somewhere we hadn´t been for a considerable period of time. Why we chose it on this occasion was because we wanted to investigate the newly opened Café Victoria nearby and its promise of a Full English Breakfast menu, cooked English style.

In its previous incarnation this café was called Café Sustelo. This  became one of the Covid Lockdown´s casualties and had remained closed and deserted for these last two years. Café Sustelo was of some historical interest, because it was here that Vitor and Dina first introduced a certain French photographer to the AWWs. Whether that was a Good or a Bad Thing, time will tell. Meanwhile, here are a couple of photos of that red-letter day, 23^rd May 2007 to be exact.

Starters 23.05.2007

Beating the Retreat

That walk was led by Ian Scott who, I recall, distinguished himself by leading us a kilometre or so along the main road before realising he had missed a vital side turning and he had to lead us back into the village to start again. Our walk this week luckily had no such misadventures and was relatively uneventful, although not entirely without incident.

Starters 21.09.2022

Only five starters, although numerous reinforcements were expected for the breakfast. We set off into the dawn light

and  a bit later enjoyed the sight of a magnificent group of trees

and generally ambled along looking at odd things here and there taking plenty of pauses.

Bling ?

An abandoned recipe book

Those who are familiar with the area behind Poço Barreto will know the rather shambolic building project that has being going on since time immemorial at a very slow pace. Every now and then a new window or door might appear, but seldom any sign of any occupants or building team.

But on this occasion we were surprised to find someone actually working on the site. So Myriam was quick to conduct one of her ad hoc interviews. Last week it had been a strawberry farmer who had had to face her inquisition. This week it was a cheerful Portuguese guy up on the roof who had a grilling. He, so I gather, told her that he was constructing a condominium with 11 en-suite apartments, and, in total, 16 casas de banho. The apartments are already available for purchase, so now is your opportunity. Just hope he´s got a good water supply and a good septic tank---with all those toilets to flush.

There he is

Janet did not seem particularly impressed by the development but Yves spotted some rare green glass flagons, possibly of decorative use, and asked if he could have them.

Permission was readily forthcoming as well as a sack to transport them. On the way back to base Yves offered one of them to Janet who accepted the offer.

The Track and the Statistics

We got back to Café Victoria at about 10 am where the staff seemed genuinely delighted to start preparing a variety of breakfast choices for a group of about ten.

Then the green bottle incident happened. There was time before our 10.30 breakfast for us to sit and have a quiet chat and a coffee, when JohnH, from where he was sitting, just happened to get a fleeting sight of some chancer nicking the green bottle which Yves had placed carefully by the boot of Janet´s car.

At this point, let´s go back to the Starter Photo. There in the right background, you can see Janet´s navy blue saloon parked next to JohnH´s rather more flashy sky blue Honda. The green dot shows where Yves had left the bottle at Janet´s boot. 

Somebody dumping lixo had spotted the bottle and, quick as a flash, had grabbed it. Alerted to the emergency, Yves rushed over shouting “That´s not lixo” but they didn´t understand English. They turned out to be French tourists, however, so use of the language of diplomacy helped smooth over a possibly awkward moment.

By this time, the Whittles, Rod, Paul, and TerryA plus carer had arrived (note the careful use of the Oxford comma there, just to be topical) and breakfast soon commenced.

The service was efficient and friendly. The verdict on the food was varied. Those who had black pudding with their F.E.B.were delighted; those who had toasties did not seem quite so impressed. Not sure what the verdict on the vegetarian breakfast was; some of the vegetarian sausages were smuggled back home. Was this because they were so good, or was it out of concern for Sacha?

Spinach, tomato and something Toastie

The Vegetarian Full English Breakfast

Hazel´s less than Full English Breakfast  - no bacon, extra egg.  

The common or garden Full English Breakfast

and the Full English Breakfast with black pudding!

Pity the draught Guinness had not yet been delivered.

Worth another visit????? Opinions please.

At the end, JohnH got lumbered with the bill. Not to pay, one hastens to add, but to calculate individual dues.

This involved more mental arithmetic than he had had to cope with for years and years!

And what about the green hat, you ask. Well, nearly half way home, JohnH´s mobile rang .It was Antje saying Hazel had left her green Tilley behind, so back we went. Had Rod saved it for Hazel, or was he too looking for a souvenir from the lixo?

This could be a worrying trend if Hazel continues to leave her Tilleys lying around. They are not that cheap. Apparently, there are circumstances where Tilley will replace lost Tilleys, but probably not where one just leaves them in a café. Tilley veterans have one piece of sound advice to offer

 “Always keep your Tilley on your head. Can´t go wrong.”

And to close, one more in our series of moon music.