WAGS 10.06.2020:;Limited Freedom; End of season.

  



 Quarantine restrictions have been relaxed a little, and the weather is getting too warm for all but early morning capers, so we decided to have an optional walk and a lunch to mark the end of our efforts for the year.

   The walk was to be led by John as a recently legal extension of his clandestine, sanction busting, Irregular walks, and funnily, only the usual suspects volunteered. More on this from John below.

There were two challenges facing us in this week´s WAGS Irregulars Walk.

One was to take and publish a few photographs without attracting another wave of criticism as in the previous week for not maintaining social distancing. Hence this elaborately staged long distance shot – all apart by many times 2 metres.

The other was how to organise a walk that was both short enough so that the ladies could get home in time to doll themselves up for the Regular WAGS Re-union lunch timed for midday, and yet provided sufficient exercise so as to justify our being out on a walk at all. We managed this by making it a short walk combined with a remarkable amount of ascents – all of 263 metres in exactly 6 km. Even Yves was heard to complain about the hills.

So to Herdade São Bom Homem, and four well-behaved and well spaced out Starters.

First ascent was up the Rest and Be Thankful bench. What the Leader had done to offend Hazel, goodness knows, but he certainly got the cold shoulder treatment.

Was it something he said?

Ah well !

Then, as the elevation profile shows, a long gentle downhill stretch to the main Bom Homem road, which it would have been tempting to follow, but the Leader was intent on a climb. So we ignored the easy option and attacked the steep inner ridge.Excellent views up there.

After the customary flower gathering and photographic sessions (conducted, it has to be said, with far greater alacrity than on the the previous week – complaints about excessive delays having been heeded),  we took a sharp descent down to the aforesaid Bom Homem road.

Here, a remarkable amount of work has been done tidying up the landscape. Not exactly all manicured lawns but grass cut and a pleasing variety of new trees being planted.

Two month´s ago, this notice board was to be seen, which tells some of the story. But now the board was no longer in its frame, blown out by the wind perhaps, so the group clowned around a bit.

Up yet another long steep slope. Then Yves spotted a marker stone just crying out for the deposit of a cairn stone. So he laid a flat one.

 Hazel then decided to put a flat stone on on top of Yves´ flat one. Yves retaliated with another flat one balanced on top of hers, followed of course by Hazel´s own retaliation. Tiny things and tiny minds suggests itself. This could have gone on for some time but there really wasn´t all that much time to waste. Maria brought matters to a close by topping it all with an unstable round pebble on which nothing further could possibly be balance.

Well pleased with her work

Then briefly to Café Para e Fica for coffees and a chance to hear of Ana´s latest woes - real enough woes, it must be said, what with her lunch time trade severely reduced.

You have seen the Statistics (above).already. Here is the Track.

Before we fast- forward to the WAGS lunch, there is just time to see some pictures of some strange apparitions that are to be seen in Silves these days, (courtesy of Yves).  Nothing whatsoever to do with the walk, of course.

Back to Paul.

John informed us of the Order of Service on Tuesday:

This is to confirm that the lunch has been booked at Restaurante Mira Rio for 12 noon tomorrow. It will be their normal prato de dia menu, at €8.50. I guess some drinks will be extra. The choices will be chicken, porco, traditional fejão concoction of some sort, and fish. I think that some fish e.g. dourada may cost €10.

The Restaurante has obviously had to introduce some rules because of the virus. These include:

1. Mascara must be worn on entry and when ordering at the counter.

2. Tables are to have no more than 10 people at them, so I have asked for 2 tables of six places. (Myriam can of course have a Separate Table if she so wishes, indeed so too can any one else if they prefer.)

3. The traditional British custom of throwing bread rolls at occupants of other tables is currently prohibited.

We will be sitting inside the restaurante but aperitifs can be taken in the outside marquee.

The WAGS quarantine motto is “In solis sis tibi turba locis.”

The lunch was catered splendidly by Mira Rio, and we certainly weren't short of space. The management had a grasp of The Rules - we were fully mascara'd at all times except when sitting down at the table, as none of us had the new N95 with a catflap for stoking food through.

Arrival of the Dragon Empress under military escort!

No cheek pecking, hugging or manly handshakes. Just the odd touched elbow and we were all inside, looking for sustenance.

The tables were split into two so as not to contravene regulations!

Amazingly 12 of us all looking at the camera and no one talking, mouth full or blinking!

Gazpacho salad!

A creditable Frango piri-piri with radioactive chips......

.....and the first fresh sardines of the season for many of us.

As these were the only dishes that appeared on the table, I guess most of us plumped at hearing 'sardinhas' or 'frango piri-piri', so no one got as far as 'the feijao concoction or the porco.

   There were the usual desserts which somehow were unphotographed, but use your imagination. Coffee followed, and there was much banter. A good occasion.

A few random shots of the happy diners

                A splendid lunch, and just suited to the occasion of the end of the WAGS Season coinciding with the partial release from lockdown. Just in time too, as I wouldn't have wanted to go into Edition 13 of the Quarantine Diaries. The 12 diners, apart from Katherine, who had been invited to keep the 'barbe de trois jours' wearer in check, were all the most regular WAGS walkers though Geraldine, Janet, Peter, Dina and Ingrid were missing.
    And talking of beards, one novice barboso has received plenty of beard management advice from a more experienced veteran, but I was astounded to find this short piece from The Edinburgh Encyclopedia:-

The respect in which the Portuguese held their beards during the reign of Queen Catherine, is evinced by the remarkable anecdote of the brave John de Castro pledging one of his whiskers, as the best security he could offer to the inhabitants of Goa in India, for the repayment of a sum of money which he had borrowed for the use of his fleet. The people, however, relying implicitly on his honour, requested him to retain both the money and the whisker. Among the early French, all letters that came from the sovereign had, for greater sanction, three hairs of his beard on the seal. There is still extant a charter of 1121, which concludes with the following remarkable words: Quod ut ratum et stabile perseveret in posterum, praisentis scripto sigilli mei robur apposui cum tribus pilis barbae meae. *
       We shall take leave of the subject of beards, with a word or two on those of ecclesiastics. During the first ages of Christianity, the priests were sometimes enjoined to wear their beards, from a notion of too much effeminacy in shaving, and that a long beard was more suitable to ecclesiastical gravity; and some times they were enjoined to shave, that pride might not lurk beneath a venerable beard. On the separation of the Greek and Roman churches, the practice of shaving has become common among the Romanists, by way of opposition to the Greeks, who have continued to pay great reverence to a well covered chin; and are greatly scandalised at the beardless images of saints in the Roman churches.

*Importune John for translation!      

Neither saint nor Greek!

    A digression to seals is indicated. There is not so much call for seals for letters these days, a good secure mail app is more the order, but in our youth we used to have a much more pleasant way of sealing things than with a blob of wax and 3 beard hairs!

Sit back and soak up the nostalgia. "Lets make a pledge to meet in September and ....."

Meanwhile, a project for the summer. John suggested an Ernest Hemingway look-alike competition, but I suspect it was because he thought he could don a panama hat and get away with it, as Ernest had a good head of hair. 

Ernest Hemingway

   I propose something much broader - a project to find which celebrity you look like, and to publish it on the Group Whatsapp or by Gmail beside the photo of yourself on which it is based.  The best may be culled and posted on a blog.

There are any number of Celebrity Look-alike apps on the Play Store or App Store, some good, some bad and your mission is to find the one which shows you in the best light and compares you favourably with say, David Beckham or Gina Lollobrigida or more likely Audrey Hepburn!!

   After that short diversion the meat of the season - the Stats!

The 2019/2020 WAGS Season this year was almost exactly 8 months and ran from 09.10.2019 to 10.06.2020.

There were a total of 35 Blogs/walks, 10 in 2019 and 25 in 2020.  Of these, 21 walks were full WAGS walks, 2 were lunches and on the other 12 weeks we were in Quarantine and walking separately.

Here is a screen shot of the weekly attendance:

In summary it was a rewarding season, partially spoilt by the quarantine for COVID-19, but on the positive side, it allowed multi-blogger cooperation, and some flights of fancy expressed online.  Most stayed fit.  Lets try and stay in shape for next season, and hopefully we may have some early morning outings to stay cooler and keep from creaking..

Last thought of the season, after last week's 'coddiwomple' this week we need a word that is unique in that it is the only word in the British language that rhymes with purple, and also indicates a style of walking with which I am afflicted currently. Any takers?