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.

APAPS 22.12: A Chinese Take-Over, Europeans Outnumbered

 Well, last week´s minor Eastern Influence became a full-scale Chinese Take-Over this week. Read all about it.

Luckily, things were made easy this week for the Blogger because, quite unprompted, our anonymous contributor has once again provided a comprehensive report on the latest APAPS outing, saving the Blogger from too much compositional thought, with only a few other  incidental comments being required. 

Here is our contributor´s masterpiece, in full, unedited and unexpurgated. Do not worry if some of the references and words are unfamiliar to you; a glossary is appended to interpret.

Confucius, he say: "The world belongs to those who get up early. "

Aristotle, he say: “I agree, old chap!”

Europe Men 2 - Asia Ladies 4. Outgunned.

Faye, Hazel, Myriam, Yves, Rachael, JohnH

Having thus established the basics, the happy troop of early-rising walkers and their Leader left the sleepy café in the hope of a dry outing.

 The sky looked ‘mi-figue, mi-raisin’ with broody clouds surrounding a hazy sun, somewhere in the East… As if to underline that we were surrounded and outnumbered by Eastern ladies; we did not mind: we IS mens!

Myriam spotted a hollow tree and truied iot on for size.

We soon realised also that among these ladies were at least TWO World Champions: one Squash player with never-ending legs and enough reach to floor Cassius Clay and one Apnoeic talker with enough lung capacity to outlast anyone daring to put in a word edgeways…

Aristotle mark 2 gives a horticultural lecture on the prickly pear

We won’t mention Figaro’s Mum who was recovering from his injuries: apparently, the Young Moggie gets into noisy scrapes that do worry Mum as she tends to hurt paws and feelings!

As is his prerogative, the Leader had instructed the troops that 07.30 was good enough and that the outing would be ‘easy walking’: Pah!
Before we even left the tarmac area, we encountered the first 1-in-3 slope! ‘Easy walking!’ Mercifully, it was only 12-feet long… A marker had been laid.

This was followed by a couple of 1-in-4 reaching almost 10 yards! Where was the Leader? In front, well out of earshot, that’s where!

Big dogs and.......

small dogs.

As the terrain eased up, the ladies found their natural gait: leisurely to lazy, with many stops to scrump figs and pomegranates................ 

Indeed, there was so much scrumping going on that a poor scarecrow decided that he was not up to the job

and gave up.

........to admire the surroundings, to chat with field workers and delay them as they race to finish their ploughing before the rain,.......... 

a month ago, this field was full of stone terracing

now it is completely flat. 
Myriam and Hazel asked the farmer and her dog where the stones were

She had tried to sell them but nobody was buying, so she dug a large hole in the field and buried them. She will now plant strawberries in October ready for sale in the spring.

.....to pet dogs, to have a chat, to explore the bushes off-piste, to reminisce about the markings on cork trees, as is ladies’ wont…

Back to school?

Unfazed, the leader guided his charges back to the café with unerring punctuality.

´Àllo, ´Állo. I shall say  wear this only wance

 

We were met at the café by Chris and Antje who shared breakfast with us.

Rod then appeared, too, and he suggested that he might start walking again: good man!

There he is, at the far end.

Breakfast was the usual happy, noisy, joyful mêlée of food shared, jokes exchanged and general banter that our hosts are familiar with by now: ‘It’s that lot of Estrangeiros, led by a Scotsman…Smile at them.’

As some had to leave, the heavens opened and the dash to the car was sufficient to negate the need for a shower at home: drenched, your writer was!

Never mind, it had been another good morning; thanks to all!

Your Glossary as promised

 Confucious: Kong Fuzi. a clean shaven Chinese sage: c.551 -c. 479 BC.

Aristotle: a bearded Greek philosopher and polymath: 384  -322 BC.

Aristotle mark 2: a bearded 21st century AD Francophone walker, photographer, wit and raconteur: extant.

Mi-figue: half fig.

Mi-raisin: half grape.

(Aristotle mark 2 is here using a French  expression "mi-figue, mi-raisin" (which is a way of saying of a person´s character that he behaves in an ambiguous way) to describe a morning sky that hasn´t yet decided to be clear or rainy. I told you he is a wit, didn´t I? ´) 

Apnoeic: describes one who, when talking, does not pause to catch breath.

Thanks to Rachael and Yves for some excellent pictures. Here are two more:-

Our closing music continues on our recent theme of atmospheric conditions and is in recognition that the rain held off during our walk but did eventually arrive.

Falling Rain Blues, by Lonnie Johnson:-

                               Finally, a moment for reflection

                                         Requiescat In Pace