APAPS 19.10: Earworms or Slow Progress at Bom Homen

Our usual opening panorama view.

Then the same view taken with something called PANA on Paul´s brand new smuggled OnePlus 7 Pro, allegedly a phone but with so many camera lenses that one doesn´t know whether one is coming or going.
The Starters

Ingrid, Dina, Paul, Yves up top, JohnH, Myriam, TerryA and Jill, plus Becky.

It was a surprisingly  chilly morning when we assembled, just in time for the statutory prompt 7.37 am start. Our residential philosopher, Yves, made a welcome return after several months hors de whatever. And those individuals whose absence the previous week had meant a break in the APAPS sequence were also back. 8 starters; Rod still taking it easy but doing a great commissariat job in organising the breakfast; the Whittles´ busy social life prevented them from walking although they did manage to surface in time for the breakfast.

News about Ian Scott´s recent accident was shared and good wishes expressed.

One would have thought that the cold might have encouraged us to get a move on but  progress all morning was slow. One of the lowest average moving speeds recorded.

                                  On up into the hills and out into the sunshine.

The first stop, at the Rest and Be Thankful bench was a lengthy one because Dina had damaged her arm on her walking gear and required medical time out. Luckily, TerryA was fully equipped with bandages.

We climbed higher and caught a view of the Silves windmill in the early light. 

Yves intends to go back to the spot (if he can find it) with his “equipment.”

From there we took a familiar track down to the Silves prison road which, if Janet had been with us, would have brought her happy memories.

Then, rather than follow either of the routine tracks home, both of which would have involved sticking to the low ground, the Leader decided to take what he thinks is a new track for our group, up into the central lump of the Bom Homen Herdade.

Yes, there was a tad more climbing than some participants would have preferred, but it proved to be a good walking track with views down on both sides to tracks which we could recognise. For once, a Google Maps recce had proved to be reliable.

Towards the end, there was an option: a final hill or a bail-out route; all but one accepted the challenge.

We were all seated at the breakfast table in very good time, for it had been a short walk. Rod and the Whittles turned up, but the food was slow in coming. The new Para e Fica waiter, efficient as he is, did not recognise Yves´ prerogative to be served first, apparently holding to the old-fashioned concept of Ladies First.

Except, that is, where Ingrid was concerned ; she began to look neglected.

But eventually, all were served and very good it was too.

The Track

The Statistics
Whatever the machines say, we will take TerryA´s distance as the official record:-
Total distance: 6.1 kms. Total time: 2 hrs 03 mins.
Moving time: 1 hr 29 mins. Average moving time: 4.00 kph. (I told you we were slow.)
Total ascent: 253 metres, including that final optional hill.
Eggs consumed: 20.

In addition to Paul´s new kit, the OnePlus7 Pro, there was a new piece of on display, a cool bit of headgear.
.

And we close with a couple of literary references of a sort.

Keen readers of these pages may remember from the APAPS 19.6 blog that Antje had told us about a Booker Prize entry called “Ducks Newburyport,” a book of over 1000 pages consisting of one single sentence, being an American housewife´s steam of consciousness meanderings. Hard to believe that anyone would take such a thing seriously, even if it is literally a blockbuster, but when your correspondent was in the Edinburgh Waterstones bookshop last week, he saw a man (yes a man!) actually buying four of the things. They were so heavy he couldn´t lift them and needed a sack trolley to get them to his car.

The second thing is that you may have been gullible enough to have clicked on the link given in the previous APAPS 19.9 blog to that saccharine love duet between Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton called “Islands in the Stream”. The literary aspect here is that the song apparently took its inspiration (if that is not too complimentary a phrase for it) from a novel, published posthumously, by Ernest Hemingway entitled “Islands in the Stream.” Quite why the BeeGees (who wrote the song) felt inspired by Hemingway is hard to tell. There seems to be no connection between the novel´s plot and the song´s lyrics.

Mercifully, this week´s link moves us to a rather more sophisticated level of music. In Paul´s case, it is currently an earworm. (An earworm is a term used to describe a song that gets stuck in your ear or head — all you have to do is look at or think about the the lyrics and your brain can get stuck on repeat.)
This song  is Miss Otis Regrets

Lyrics (amended, with apologies to Cole Porter)

“Miss Otis regrets she's unable to breakfast today, madam
Miss Otis regrets she's unable to breakfast today
She is sorry to be delayed
But last evening down in Lover's Lane
She strayed, madam
Miss Otis regrets she's unable to breakfast today.

When she woke up and found
That her dream of love was gone, madam
She ran to the man who had led her so far astray
And from under her velvet gown
She drew a gun and shot her love down, madam
Miss Otis regrets, she's unable to breakfast today.

When the mob came and got her
And dragged her from the jail, madam
They strung her upon the old willow across the way
And the moment before she died
She lifted up her lovely head and cried, madam
Miss Otis regrets she's unable to breakfast today.

Miss Otis regrets she's unable to breakfast today.”


Click on this link

https://youtu.be/KIW1ZrDio7M

APAPAS19.9: Tumblers at Mira Rio, or Snakes Alive

The first thing to tumble was the average age record, be it WAGS or APAPS. Our Starters line-up included Reuben 10 years old and Zach, 6 years old. And with some elderly and semi-elderly walkers absent (Rod and Janet still pleading family imperatives and Yves skulking at home after France´s defeat by Scotland), it was scarcely surprising that the record fell. The new average age record, according to our learned age-statistician,  is now  56.2727.
That record is likely to stand for some time. None of us is getting any younger and even the young grow older.
There we were, back at Mira Rio by popular request and, thanks to a considerate Leader, on parade 15 minutes later than normal.

The Starters:  Dina, PaulaDev, Jill, Tom H, Myriam, Reuben H, John H, Ingrid, Zach H, TerryA, Nic H.
Number of men: 6. Ditto Women: 5. Ditto Hopes: 5. Ditto Tilleys:3.

We started as always along the canal; there were figs ripe for the picking. The Leader told his younger grandson (trying to make things interesting for him, you see) that sometimes one can spot snakes in the canal.

And,then, as if by magic, there one was! That´s leadership for you. Pure genius of course.

This rather familiar walk took one of its many routes over the hill, then down through the tricky and prickly stuff just to annoy the wearers of shorts – nobody yet has turned up in the eco-robot shorts designed to enhance your uphill performance by 17 per cent, they say.

The younger ones coped very well with the rougher terrain.

We paused for a few minutes at the Clube Nautico where Ingrid posed for a fashion shoot with a banana.

The result.

The bar was, as always, closed, although there is now a sign on the wall setting out opening times. Only time will tell.JohnH went to the loo and a burglar alarm went off. Cause and effect? Who can tell? What is there that needs to be  protected?

                                                   Whoops
We then climbed a hill, quite unnecessarily in Paul´s view, because all that track achieved was that it led us back  down to the canal level again. 

And it is at the canal level that things are interesting.

There are spiders that build web bridges across the water.

And there are floating islands that remind you of one of your favourite singers. Click on the link at the end of this blog. I will leave it to you to decide if the favourite is Kenny Rogers or Dolly Parton. Your vote, on a postcard please, to the usual address.

Breakfast was ordered for 10 am so, after the obligatory posing at the View Point, the really hungry raced away home, leaving one or two some way behind.

Even so, young Zach put in a sprint a the end and got there in good time.

The breakfast was served with the promptness we have come to expect from Mira Rio.

A comment on that  breakfast? Well, I will leave that to The Algarve Good Life Magazine´s  Fine Food Correspondent. 

                             “A staggeringly good meal…… a real knock-out!”

Note how he carries on dictating his copy over the phone even as he takes a dive. Such dedication!

And that, of course, was the other thing that tumbled.

Click here for " Islands in the Stream"

https://youtu.be/HQW7I62TNOw

Oh, and I nearly forgot: The Maps and The Statistics

• Total Distance: 7.78 kms (= 4.85 miles)
• Total time: 2 hrs 40 mins
• Moving time: 1 hr 51 mins
• Average moving speed: 4.2 kph (= 2.62 mph)
• Total ascent: 278 metres
• Unbroken eggs: 22.

APAPS 19.8: Pushing Off Promptly From Pescadores

The evening before, there had been an email rumble of discontent about our still having a 7 a.m. start. But when I arrived at Retiro dos Pescadores just as the sun rose, I was pleasantly surprised to find 4 people were there before me and there was no rebellion. 

Coffee in hand, Paul was seen scanning the horizon for the first signs of Lo the Hunter.

All there was by way of protest was some passing remark about a certain Caecus seeing no reason to get out of bed just because the sun was up, but that was all. Later on I received this picture on my phone.

I didn´t really kow what to make of that but at the back of my mind was the thought that in Latin “Caecus” means “blind.” A little bit of research has since revealed that there had been a Roman patrician by the name of Appias Claudius Caecus “The Blind” (340 – 273 BC) who had been responsible for some very large construction projects in Rome - buildings and roads - and he was too proud to appear before the Senate when summoned to explain some of the expenditure so he pretended to be blind. And, if you know your  Appian Way, he´s the very man.
Any way, there we were all there in good time time ready for a very relaxed Starter photograph at the appointed hour.

The Starters: (Front row) Paul , John H. TerryA with Becky. (Second Row) Myriam, Jill, Ingrid, and Dina.
Note the laying on of hands in the back row.

The plan for the day was to repeat, in reverse and in full, the 1st of August walk (APAPS 19.5) which we had had to curtail for various reasons. That day, we had done a minimal 5.65 kms; this one today was going to be a little bit longer than that . 
The first stretch was comparatively easy. Trees were beginning to recover from last year´s fires.

Then came the hills.

And so it was, as I struggled up a particularly unforgiving hill, that my thoughts turned to a recent article in The Daily Telegraph about a new scientific breakthrough headlined:-

“Science strides forward with invention of ‘robo-shorts’.  Robotic clothing could help the frail to walk again, while also giving soldiers a leg up on the battlefield.”    

In brief, this article was about the development of what they call an “ecosuit” which apparently is a pair of shorts  developed by the US military to help soldiers patrol for lengthy periods in “rugged and uphill terrain while wearing bulky equipment”.  The device works through a series of electronically activated pulleys and thigh wraps attached to a belt that helps lift the legs at the hip joint, making each step slightly easier. And, if it can help soldiers, what about us Walkers?
Let´s read on.
 “In treadmill tests, the shorts reduced effort in walking by 9.3 per cent and in running by 4 per cent – equivalent to a person walking or running with up to 17lb less weight. Sometimes soldiers on patrol must carry up to 100lb in equipment. And as the shorts can work on varying gradients, they could also be harnessed by climbers to help them uphill, or to help the elderly climb the stairs at home….. Experts believe that the shorts will open the door to implants that can activate muscles without the need for an external exosuit.”

Now I am not or one minute suggesting that any of the APAPS, or indeed any of the WAGS, are actually frail or do need of help in getting a leg up, over or whatever. Nor am I advocating that we should even contemplate running (Heaven forfend!) but there are surely possibilities for us.Wouldn´t it be nice to get up hill with 9 per cent less effort? We might even increase our average moving speeds from 4.2 kph to 4.8 kph and still find it enjoyable.

We do rely on one of our number in particular to keep us abreast of all the latest trends in walking gear, and so it´s a bit surprising that he hasn´t already told us that he is investigating this scientific breakthrough. Maybe, after his forthcoming visit to the U S of A, he will be able to give us more detail. Pricing for apiece of kit so beneficial will surely not be an issue, but there are other considerations. Some of us, whether out of modesty or a wish to protect our delicate skins,  do not habitually wear shorts; will there be a hard- wearing but fashionable long-trouser version? And the strapping on of all those “electronically activated pulleys and thigh wraps” could threaten delays to starting times. Electronics!  - how heavy will the batteries be and will they last a whole two hours?  One wouldn´t want to be faced with a cataclysmic loss of power just when taking on the final hill before breakfast. We shall have to await further input.

Meanwhile we carried on climbing. As we did so, the Hunter did finally manage to catch the Sultan´s Turret in a Noose of Light, or as my French translation of the Rubaiyat has it:-
“Le soleil a dressé l´échelle du matin.
“Le roi du jour a mis dans sa coupe du vin.”

i.e. the sun caught the upper hillsides with its light.

The rest of the walk was fairly straight forward. All those initial ascents were naturally rewarded with substantial long downhills as we neared home. One thing that puzzled us a bit as we walked was the recent crop of “Passagem Proibida” notices on quite  a number of the tracks. 

One wonders who they are meant for and what they intend. However, as none of the notices quoted any law or decree, and as we are all law-abiding citizens, we paid them no heed.

What had been noticeable all morning that Dina and Myriam were always lagging behind, deep in conversation. One of my confidential sources told me that they were having “uma conversa de treta.” Sounds quite elegant. In English English, that might translated as “prattling away:”  in American English, the far cruder “talking bulls**t.”  However you take it, they kept falling behind and did slow the group down somewhat - see Statistics later.

Then, there were further delays. Down on the valley floor, we came across an ugly sight – a whole pile of building rubbish just dumped by the track side. 

Absolute eyesore. Difficult to conceive of why anybody would drive two or three kms into the woods just to dump stuff like that. 

                                                 The Committee Ladies

The ladies formed a committee on the spot and searched the pile for incriminating evidence of the perpetrator. As a result, a decision was taken to refer the matter to the authorities.
See Postscript One

Nearing base camp, we passed the house with the old lady who had been photographed by Yves last year. 

Myriam and Dina stopped to talk to her and were invited inside. They must have been there for twenty minutes because some of us were on our second beer and already sitting down to breakfast before they finally made it to Pescadores. For what they were talking about,......
 See Postscript Two.

The Pescadores breakfast was well up to standard, with lots of toast and absolutely oodles of bacon, plus grapes and large figs courtesy Senor Bento.

The Track

The Statistics
Total distance: 9.23kms. Total Time: 2 hrs 49 mins.
Moving time: 2 hrs 14 mins. So 35 mins just standing around.
Moving Average: 4.00 kph, well below our usual 4.2 kph.
Ascent: per Leader´s SatMap: 432 metres. (Per Viewranger: 292 metres.  per Garmin: 284 metres )
Unbroken eggs: 14.

Postscript One
Good morning, John,
I am forwarding Dina's to letter to the Câmara de Silves. She sent it on Wednesday afternoon. Very efficient!
Photos to follow as rejected by your mailbox because of size
    Myriam
Sent from Mailbird
------ Forwarded Message --------
From: Dina Peres <anid43@gmail.com>
Date: 21/08/2019 18:24:43
Subject: LIXO abandonado em caminhos pedestres no concelho de Silves
To: gabinete.presidente@cm-silves.pt
Cc: Myriam (Gmail) <myriam.lo@gmail.com>, Ingrid Bonte <ingridmbonte@gmail.com>, Almargem <almargem@mail.telepac.pt>
Hoje, numa caminhada com um grupo de estrangeiros pela zona Nordeste de Silves, relativamente perto do café Retiro dos Pescadores, Pedreira, exactamente no ponto de coordenadas N 37 graus 13' 25'', W 8 graus 24' 29'' (N 37graus 13,392', W  8graus 24,283'), ficámos bastante preocupados e desiludidos com o lixo de obras, essencialmente ripas velhas de madeira, que tinha sido abandonado.
Com vista a denunciar esta situação anexamos fotos comprovativas, numa tentativa de melhorar o AMBIENTE.
Também tivemos oportunidade de encontrar em vários caminhos que percorremos a Sinalética que pode ser identificada em algumas das fotos anexadas. Pretendemos confirmar sobre a sua legalidade.
Com os melhores cumprimentos
Postscript Two
John,
As requested, here is a very brief account. Dina has already contacted the Centro da Saúde. She will call the social services tomorrow. She has started the ball rolling.
"Whenever we walked past the house (the name?) with the glorious bougainvillea on the way back to Retiro dos Pescadores, we stopped to chat with the 91-year-old Dona Maria Reis at the gate. Last Wednesday, she called us from the front door and asked us to get through the garden. She was wobbly in her gait and complained of a pain on her hip and said there was a growth. After some more chatting, we understood that she is the sole carer of her handicapped son who spends most the time in bed. She is worried about her pain and repeated that she needed help. The social welfare, Santa Casa de Misericórdia delivers food to her daily, but does nothing else. Dina took note of her name and address and offered to contact the social services for info. Then we, as private individuals, will see what we can do. 
This is, sadly, not an uncommon case of old parents looking after the younger generation with very limited resources!!"
Myriam.


Good work , Dina.

We close with a quotation from our old friend Appias Claudius Caecus who was apparently a bit of a writer as well as being a road builder.

“Quisque faber suae fortunae.”
(Every man is the architect of his own fortune.)