APAPS 18.4. 18 07 18: São Bom Homem, or Shuāng Xǐ

We gathered, in larger numbers than of late, at the entrance to Herdade de São Bom Homem for the start of this week´s APAPS walk.

Here is the Starter photo, which it might not have been possible to publish at all, if it had not been for the happy intervention of Jill and Terry. More on that later.

The Starters: Janet, Chris, Claire, Yves, Maria, Dina (long time no see), Antje, JohnH, Hazel, Ingrid, Terry, Jill, and Rod.

plus regulars Java and Sascha.

The Track

The Statistics:-

Total Distance: 6.12 kms: Total Time. 2.00 hrs exactly.

Moving Time:1 hr 34 mins: Moving Average: 3.9 kph: Ascent: 174 metres

Just Standing Around Talking Time: 26 minutes.

We moved off pretty sharpish at 07.05 hrs. So keen was the Leader to get the show on the road and to get the pack moving that, after the Starter photo and in his hurry, he left his camera still on its tripod on the roof of his car. Luckily for him, Jill took a dislike to the first hill as soon as she saw it and sent Terry back to his car to get her stick. Nothing misses his eagle eye and, as he came back, he picked the camera up and restored it to its ever-grateful owner. (Note to Hazel – “keep an eye out for your husband; he doesn´t multi-task”.)

Meanwhile, the other accredited camera man was lugging a huge piece of equipment with him that nobody could possibly overlook -  a mega-length Canon, the quality of whose lens enabled him to take some fine shots when we reached the top of the first ridge.

Yves Ferrer

Yves Ferrer

A sizeable piece of equipment

Just standing around

H Hope

and standing around again.

It was a fairly uneventful outing along familiar tracks but what was noticeable was that quite a lot of new tracks were being scraped out on the hillsides and that the undergrowth beside the tracks was well–trimmed. Activity by Silves Câmara was evident. Then  we saw the Herdade´s “Mission Statement.”

A few minutes later, this message was to some extent corroborated when Rod and Maria stoppped to interview a Câmera employee who was engaged in strimming a large clump of canes, a rather Sysiphean labour given that Cana simply grows back again, almost impossible to eradicate. He explained that he was working on the site of the former municipal rubbish dump (a lixeira) and that in one of the buildings behind him on the hill they used crush discarded glass bottles for re-cycling. This broken-down material would then be loaded into lorries from the large concrete ramp which can be seen sticking out behind the tree in this photo. And there some of us had been thinking that it was a bridge in search of a motorway!

He also said (I think) that there were now a lot of deer and javali in the area and that nearby was a tree which the javali used for scraping the mud off their bodies.

While the three of us stopped for this interview, Yves took the opportunity to practise his portraiture and focussing skills

Yves Ferrer

Yves Ferrer

Yves Ferrer

Terry and Jill ascended the ridge……………….

Yves Ferrer

…. ……and descended.

H Hope

Yves Ferrer

It was then back to the cars and a short drive round behind Silves Castle to Restaurante Mira Rio in very good time for our scheduled 10 am breakfast.The ladies helped to arrange and prepare the tables and then, just as the hot food was coming out, with perfect timing Paul and Myriam arrived with Mike and Jyll Pease for the double happiness (Shuāng Xǐ) of breakfast and birthday cake. Mike and Jyll were of course the founders of those great annual Sparrowfarts, of which our little breakfasts are a pale imitation.

I have heard no complaints about the food from Paul so far, but who knows; his review is awaited. 

Miike didn´t eat breakfast so he can´t have been asking “Where´s my food?”  in this exchange with Hazel.

Anyway, it having been his 88th birthday the day before, Myriam produced a birthday card.

Although he seemd a bit dubious about the Chinese lettering on it at first, our Dragon Empress has subsequently provided this explanation:-

“8 (八, BĀ) – LUCKY

8 is the luckiest number in Chinese culture because 八 sounds like 發 (fa), which means “wealth”, “fortune”, and “prosper” in Chinese. Multiples of eight are even better, as 88 bears a resemblance to 囍 (shuāng xǐ), or “double happiness”. While the Chinese will go to great lengths to avoid 4 in daily life, they will try to incorporate 8 wherever they can. In the Beijing summer Olympics, the opening ceremony began at 8:08 pm on 8/8/08. Since the number 8 is believed to bring good luck, many airlines in Chinese-speaking countries will use combinations of 8 as flight numbers.”

Antje and Hazel produced birthday cakes

and Mike said a few words, as only he can, before cutting the cakes.

Cakes and coffees all round

Now, readers may remember that last week´s Blog included a photograph of a dashingly behatted Ingrid along with the query “Is she a convert?”

Well, something had obviously aroused the suspicions of the Sartorial Standards Sub-Committee, a.k.a. the Tilley Hat Inspectorate, because they seized and scrutinised her titfer.

Disapproving looks. What have they found?

No Tilley, but a French or maybe Aussie look-a-like, no doubt cut-price. Well, genuine Tilleys are, as is well known, proudly made in Canada, “handcrafted with Canadian persnicketiness” no less and Canada have a trade agreement of sorts with the EU. Clearly, if this is anything to go by, they won´t get the sort of trading standards and intellectual property rights protectioon they hoped for out of the EU. We shall see; will Ingrid still be wearing it next season?

Turning now to other themes, last Blog we put forward a few instances of multilinguistic word play. In that vein, Paul managed (just) to acknowledge to Yves through clenched teeth that France had indeed triumphed at the Football World Cup with his “Qu´on gratte tous les jeunes”, which is self-explanatory.

Yves, apart from wearing a tri-colour polo shirt, did not come le coq gaulois as one might have expected but played things very coolly.

As he said, “When it comes to modesty, we French are in a class of our own.”

Someone at the table suggested that France now have a chance of pulling off a magnificent double if they win the Rugby World Cup. There was then the following exchange:-

Paul: “If they do,  we will have to think about changing the composition of this group.”

Yves: “Paul, we will miss you.”

(Dry wit and repartee – within the permitted parameters: Ref)

This week´s multilingual word play:- “Vin Blanc.” = “White van.”

Anymore, please.

And finally, this week´s closing quotation:-

Hi Paul,

I would be grateful if you would include in your Blog for today my thanks and appreciation that I was treated to such special attention. – very much appreciated and entirely unexpected. I thought that ‘old walkers’ simply ‘strode off into the sunset’ and that was that!

Mike

APAPS 18.3. 11 07 18: Ilha do Rosario, or P.Y.O.C.

For the third week running, it was nine who gathered to walk and to breakfast. This time we were at Restaurante Mira Rio and we are grateful to Terry and Jill´s daughter Claire, over from Dubai, for making the numbers up to nine.

Starters: Ingrid, Chris, JohnH, Antje, Terry, Jill, Claire, Hazel and Janet.

Plus Sascha and Java

The Track which was pretty familiar to most of us, so no surprises here.

The Statistics.

Distance: 7.76 kms. Moving Time: 1 hr 51 mins. Moving average speed 4.2 kph.

Total Ascent: 308 metres.

The starter photo and the initial start were well-disciplined, but very soon a near riot broke out when Janet casually tossed a banana skin into a lixo bin, provoking violent protests from Hazel and Ingrid about why had Hazel been deprived of her supply of her favourite garden fertilizer. When calm was restored, and somehow it was, we moved down to the canal where Sascha treated us to a virtuoso display of over-the-water-and-back-again jumping which Java didn´t dare emulate. 

Summer time, and the walking is gentle.

Gentle, that is, until the rejuvenated Chris decided to set the pace and raced up the hill into the nearby Vale da Lama village, and he remained pretty well to the fore throughout the walk.

Time was spent in photographing the flora and fauna

and in reminiscing.

We strolled through the central dip of Ilho do Rosario and then made our way up to the highest spot to get the views over the paddyfields towards Portimão.

Here, some public-spirited individual had installed a sturdy wooden bench at a handy vantage point.

Then we had views into the morning sun towards Silves.

Then over the brow of the hill and down to the Clube Nautico…. bar shut as per usual. When we moved on, back up to the canal, it was noticeable that there was a significant leakage of water out of the canal down to the rear of the Clube premises. Is it in danger of being inundated?

Then there were more opportunities for wild-life photography when a snake was spotted swimming along the canal. A huge beast, at least a foot and a half long.

Fed up with the attentions of the paparazzi , it attempted a vertical exit up the concrete canal wall. What could it get a grip on, and how?

With a bit of a struggle…..it hung on… and…….

and finally made it.

This stretch of the canal brought back memories to some of the older hands of the time when two lambs had fallen into the then dry channel, perhaps alarmed by the AWWs´ dogs, and here is an archive shot of Terry just before he risked life and limb jumping in to rescue them.

By now, Chris had reached the spot looking out over the confluence of the Arade and Odelouca Rivers

JohnH assembled his remote controlled photo thingy

and we were all duly shot.

We got back at Mira Rio in good time for our 10 a.m.breakfast, table well prepared and food promptly served

Janet pronounced herself well-satisfied with her austere, eggless, serving of toast and tomato, while, as well as enthralling us with her encomiums in favour of Ikea Algarve´s Customer Service Department, she stoutly defended her use of an antediluvian cell phone against all criticism.

In the absence of the APAPS´ Honorary Breakfastician and Epicurean Arbiter, the atmosphere was a little less tense than previously and I think we were better able to enjoy our  food, without having to provide critical satisfaction ratings. We can rely on his unique critical perspective on the English breakfast per se to guide us through the rest of the saeson´s meals without having to be members of a reality show jury.

But for my part that morning, I was happy with what was in front of me; the bacon was crispy and well drained of any excess oil; the eggs were just to my liking with that exact degree of firmness to the yolks that enables them to be detached in one piece from their surrounding whites and to be conveyed to the mouth on a corner of buttered toast without loss of protein; and, what is more, my shandy was nicely chilled.

The coffees, and the sophisticated presentation thereof, earned favourable comment from those who prefer coffee to beer, as well as several  repeat orders.

All-in price? Euros 5 per head.

We had, of course, welcomed Ingrid back among us after her annual trip to northern parts. Regular readers of these pages over the last two or three years will know that she makes a point on these yearly pilgrimages to the fashion capitals of the world of bringing herself up to date on the latest trends in haute couture, especially on what is going on in the millinery boutiques à la mode, where she always invests with great savvy in la dernière and le plus chic. You get my drift?

But hang on a bit! Just take look at what that new model she is sporting this season really is. Can it be?

Is she is a convert to the cause, at long last? Time will tell, but meanwhile the smile says it all.

And now to the week´s challenge, the translation puzzle. If you remember, this was how it was announced:-

“Only for those who are walking on Wednesday, here is a small puzzle.

Can you translate these French words into an English colloquial expression?

“Pas de lieu Rhône que nous”.

Not a competition, just a topic to take our minds off the result of the Belgium v. France football game.

Not open to Paul (who will know where I got this from) nor to Yves (who is a linguistic professional).”

Paul of course is not one to be put off by any embargo on absentee participation and he had put in an entry along with an internet link “Liberal colloquial translation: 'These shorts are too tight!´“ which had me totally baffled until Ingrid explained to me that the link was to some cheapo clothing company called Rhone which flogs mens´ shorts of the most lurid designs. Even so,very wide off the mark, I am afraid: the Rhône in my phrase has the all-important circumflex.

Nobody at the breakfast table had a clue, so it seemed, so I had to explain. It begins to take shape if one re-arranges the spaces between the words and splits some of the letters so:-

Pasdel ieuRh ône quenous

And so, with the retention of a soupçon of French intonation, the following colloquial English expression emerges.

“Paddle your own canoe”.

There are a lot of different types of word play between English and foreign languages, Franglais, cod-Latin, that sort of thing, and I´m sure Paul and Yves and others will contribute more in the course of this season´s blog. But here are a couple to be going on with.

“Entente cordiale”    and its English equivalent  “In the refreshment tent.”

and that well-known phoney Latin regimental motto

“Illegitimi non carborundum.”  (“Don´t let the b……s grind you down.”)

As for the outcome of the Belgium v. France game, Ingid was stoic, very stiff upper lip in fact. Prepared for whatever le coq gaulois may come up with on his return. Meanwhile, as a neutral, I will refrain from comment on the result of the Croatia v. England game, other that to say that, judging by the pictures in this morning-after papers, Mr Gareth Southgate has learned at least one thing during the course of his campaign – and that is, how to wear a waistcoat properly – not with all the buttons done up, which was how he started, but with the bottom one left undone.

And so to our Concluding Quotation.

Well, that is a bit of a problem but I think that it has to be cod-Latin this time. The first line appeared, genuinely I think, in Kennedy´s Latin Primer, amended by many of its reluctant students with the skilful use of black ink into Kennedy´s Eating Primer, and that line was:-

“Caesar adsum iam forte”  and this, naturally, was rendered into English as

“Caesar had some jam for tea.”

And the whole thing, as elaborated in Geoffrey Willans´  Nigel Molesworth classic “Down With Skool” illustrated by Ronald Searle, went as follows:-

“Caesar adsum iam forte,

Brutus aderat

Caesar sic in omnibus

Brutus sic inat.”

(Photo credits: Antje, Hazel, JohnH)

APAPS 18.2. 4 7 2018: Aguas Belas, or A Rocky Start

It´s the crack of dawn and a bunch of Wags arrive at the starting point, a large pile of red rocks.

having walked an extra 250 metres already.

The Starters: Paul, JohnH, Myriam, Antje, Jill, Hazel, Ingrid, Chris and TerryA: plus Sascha and Java.

Chris, in particular, was full of beans after his restorative week in Torres Vedras. More of that later.
The walk itself was nothing special, although a bit miscalculated as regards timing. If this had been a WAGS event, the Leader would have come in for some bitter criticism for offending against their strict limitations of time and distance but, as this was an APAPS outing where the dictator can make up his own rules as he goes along, on this occasion everyone held their peace. For that my thanks.
The Track

The Statistics
Total distance: …………………Breaking News !……….Breaking News !….
I´m sorry but we have to interrupt this transmission with some dramatic news just in from our very own Kitchen Correspondent:-
“Paul A. de V. Quits.
“I have just learned that this Blog´s eminent Breakfastician has stepped down with immediate effect, after scarcely two weeks in the post. I understand that an official statement is to be released very shortly. That this is indeed a heavy blow will be appreciated when one reads the profound and detailed nature of his contribution to the Blog only this last week and I quote:-
“Having had the honour of Honorary Breakfast Statistician conferred on me by the BlogMeister, I had expected to analyse the stats collected at leisure and in detail, and duly submit them to be included in the blog. Alas John has been conditioned by the New AWW ethos of submitting a Blog while the walk is fresh in his memory and hasn't been coloured by the rose-tinted spectacles of Time, and published the blog before I had even located my copious notes.
On this occasion a brief and factual summary (my underlining- “brief” and “summary”. I ask you !!!) will have to suffice. Breakfast at Retiro dos Pescadores consisted of eggs, bacon, tomatos, toast, coffee tea, figs and oranges. Of these the greatest cause of controversy would be the preparation of the eggs. !8 eggs were served to the 9 walkers, most of whom ate two, except Terry had one of Jill's. A public survey was held on marks out of 10.
Matters for consideration. 1. First breakfast of the season and marks were as optimistic as an England Football supporter after the Panama match.
2. Contributors did not allow for the fact that we have a long season to go and many eggs to assess, and (in my opinion), overmarked not leaving themselves room for manoeuvre, should Nigella Lawson turn up and cook a breakfast for us later on.
Nevertheless fried egg quality is a subjective experience, and we have the numbers. The marks ranged from a 10/10 from Maria, because she cooked them herself, to a 5/3 from myself who was fully aware of the factors above, and moreover favours an easy over with soft white and less grease.
Overall average per egg came in at 7.1 out of 10, but frankly, could easily have been better.
Bacon was judged good, but again, the more experienced Full English connoisseur would aim for thick cut unsmoked British Back Bacon rather than the available thin fatty smoked bacon again almost deep fried.
Tomatos were peeled and really tasty, toast crispy and properly buttered whereas the fruit is not in my professional sphere of breakfast foods.
A good start, but hopefully like the England team will improve as the season progresses.”
and more:-
"some people like it like that!" the perennial Portuguese answer to the question 'Why isn't.......' All great cuisines have a multitude of ways to cook and select the raw ingredients. I sincerely hope that we will get a range of breakfasts to rate. All readers of my critical preferences are free to disagree, although they will be interviewed at length to realise a rating for their experience. If they are too busy chatting or too tired to pay attention then my own subjective opinions will be utilised!”
Back to you, BlogMeister; When I have more, I will let you know.
K. C.”
Where were we? Ah yes The Statistics
Total Distance: 10.6 kms (not including the walk from and to Para e Fica)
Total time.. an excessive 2 hours 58 minutes. Average Moving Speed: 3.6 kph
Ascent: 313 metres.
The first part of the walk, as far as the Old Medronho Factory, was flat. We paused at one spot in memoriam of when Hazel had once taken an involuntary bath.

Not so deep now as it then was

Myriam Medico give Antje a bit of technical help



Then a pause before the hill.
And then upwards

The climb up to the ridge, although not particularly arduous, went slowly and, by the time we had worked our way round and back down to the crossroads, it was clear that we were going to be late for breakfast scheduled for 9 15 am, but a phone call to our hostess, Ana, who seemed to be in a particularly sunny mood, soon put that right. And so it was, in over-due course and about an hour behind schedule, we all got back to Para e Fica, in most cases, ravenous for food.
Breakfast orders were taken, and pão caseiro was served, still warm from the oven, along with proper butter in butter dishes.
While we were waiting for the rest of the meal, Chris regaled us with stories of his experiences up in Torres Vedras, what with nubile Brazilian babes in the pool doing zumba routines and, apparently, a carefully calculated technique of exponentially increasing the heart-beat by the skillful deployment of attractive young blondes to take blood pressures, certainly aroused our interest. I´m sure that there is more to learn.
Turning our attention back to Para e Fica, we were trying to keep the conversation serious in accordance with this year´s mantra, but outbreaks of frivolity kept occurring, particularly from the distaff end of the table. Then breakfast arrived and Paul did his best with his rating examination. Some looked undecided and not greatly enthusiastic:


.
As for myself, I had extra bacon, thanks to Myriam, and my eggs - while looking a trifle wrinkly - had that perfect balance of moistness and firmness that is neccessary to anchor them to the buttered bread.


Wrinkly

Less wrinkly
In general, I myself think the meal was well up to our normal standards and most plates were completely cleared by the time coffees came out. But then, there are normal standards, and then there are Paul´s standards. And now, I have more coming in from our Kitchen Correspondent following on from the shock! horror! news of said Paul´s resignation.
“KC, is he quitting the walks or just the breakfasts? It´s becoming too frequent, this business of people leaving on matters of principle.”
“No. BlogMeister, it´s not quite as bad as it might have seemed at first sight.What I think has happened is that he has found it almost impossible to get reliable ratings from breakfast participants and, something I have from an anonymous source, his design of an artistic and sophisticated spreadsheet on which to record his findings has proved to be beyond the processing capabilities of even the most advanced modern computer and that proved to be the last straw. But here is his latest statement which gives a bit more info and which he has titled:-
“Breakfast appreciation politics
“Having done some rather deep and profound Boketto on the subject, I have formed the opinion that breakfast stats are a bit of a cul-de-sac for the APAPS, in terms of a meaningful overall picture of the standards. We each have different standards, motives and priorities when it comes to the finest of breakfasts, and to be frank, many of our members don´t have an ideal to live up to, unless of course they came to the end of season Esperanca breakfast last year.
   And so it is with a heavy heart that I withdraw from in depth interviews, consultations and attempts to quantify the simplest of sensory pleasures in numerical form.  I suggest that it be replaced with a satisfaction index, by way of comment,  based on my personal opinion as a Trip Advisor Restaurant Expert Level 69 (really!). Others might be encouraged to add their breakfast thoughts, but I don't anticipate a deluge of responses.
     I see the AWW are Sparrowfarting again.  Well, we do that every Wednesday!!”
Back to you, BlogMeister.
KC”
Well, that will take a bit of time to digest, I guess.
I´m not sure what “Boketto “ is but it seems that we shall still have the benefit of his pensées culinaires. I for one am thankful for that because, when Paul is in full flow, I don´t have to write so much myself. Of course, there is always the possibility that he is beginning to turn his attention away from food and more onto how to deal with it in the Blog when England lose to France in the final of the World Cup. How will that affect his palate? We shall see.
Meanwhile, to those APAPS breakfasteers who might feel a little bit upset at the suggestion that they don´t have ideals to live up to, in the breakfast context that is, here is Paul´s picture of his ideal breakfast dish, one to which he awards a score of 10 out of 10.

The Perfect 10
Clockwise from the top right:-
Indeterminate crispy things ( tuilles of mashed potato?)
Bacon
Mushrooms
Cherry tomatoes
Baked beans
Three perfect sausages
Two fried somethings on top of
Two slices of black pudding
In the centre two perfect fried eggs, sunny-side up if I´m not mistaken
And, to the right, triangles of toast.
Ten ingredients, no less, all presented with colourful paper doillies. Perfection on a plate.
Not to be found in the Algarve, I fear. One probably has to embark on expensive P & O cruises to get such bounty.
Ah well, food for thought.
And now to close on a suitably sombre note, here´s a picture by Hazel with chiaroscuro that Caravaggio would have been proud of.

Photocredits: Antje, Hazel, JohnH, Paul.
And, after we´ve had another look at the 10 out of 10 breakfast photo, our quotation has to be:-
“To eat well in England, you should have breakfast three times a day."
(W.Somerset Maugham)