WAGS 11.11.2020: Remember!

 

This begs the question 'If a picture is worth a thousand words and silence speaks when words can not - Can Silence speak without being seen?'

Just saying! Answers in a comment please.

      Rarely does Remembrance Day fall on a Wednesday - probably about 1 in 7 if the truth be known. It did this  year. Formerly, if I had been leading a walk, I would stop and call for 1 or 2 minutes silence, for those who wished to observe the occasion. This year, 11:11am caught the two halves of the Lagos bubble in Cafe Trindade, and Chris and I were silent anyway.

       The Chris and Antje component of the Lagos Bubble were at the end of their walk - a short outing at Ponte de Piedade, with no recorded stats,  and the Paul and Myriam semi-bubble had not quite got round to starting their walk when Antje called to invite us to meet for coffee.

Start/Finish photo featuring the complete Lagos Bubble (thanks to the miracle of the Delfie Art App) and the 50c cups!

       Why we went to Cafe Trindade for coffee is a question that has to be asked of the usually parsimonious Whittles, because at €1,20 per abatonado, it is way in excess of our normal expenditure locally!  It used to be 70c at Trindade, but they have seized on a device to augment their flagging Covid Era takings. It is the first cafe I have seen here that has moved entirely to disposable cups, and one has to purchase the cup as well as the coffee. It is certainly not a 50c cup, and I doubt whether they will allow you to use it twice, but I didn't test that theory. never mind, We Shall Remember - and visit another establishment next time.

       Some of you may Remember, that as long ago as in last week's blog, I Googled 'Ode to a Bubble', and came up with over 8,000,000 results in half a second, some of which I quoted in little bubbles of their own. One that Google didn't display will surprise you!

   Ladies, (and certain gentlemen) Dust off your Barbie boxes, and turn out your bedside lockers because you may have a Forgotten Source of Wealth.

   During my in depth research for this blog, having met Rod at HPA Alvor, and admired his Christmas haircut, I remembered vaguely a style from my youth, known as 'The Bubble Cut'.

Bubble Cut:  

• A style in which the hair is cut short and formed into small, tight curls.

Origin

1940s; earliest use found in The Oakland Tribune.

Examples of Bubble cuts on Barbie

Bubbles at Christmas

    Now this is a long way from Rod's style, but the search for a picture of a Bubble Cut, uncovered the info that a genus of Barbie Dolls from the Bubble Cut Barbie era from 1961 to 1967 could be worth quite a few Squid

Vintage Barbie dolls on the market from 1959 to the late 1960s are especially prized among collectors. Often, these Barbies had bendable legs or red hair, and they are considered some of the most rare and valuable. Today, the price of a mint condition Barbie from this era can run close to $25,000

There is definitely an attraction to bendable legs and red hair!!

For those that want to know as much as I do on the subject, you can find an illustrated run-down of the 30 Rarest Barbie and Ken Dolls and their approximate worth at at:

https://www.thegamer.com/rarest-barbie-ken-dolls-worth-much/

Now don't you wish you hadn't abused yours!!

At #1 is the Original Barbie Doll. Released in 1959 and costing $3 at that time, the best examples are worth up to $27,000 at auction.

  I seem to have digressed. Our original intention was to do an approximately 90 minute walk 5-6km, and end up at Sergio's  Ruby Pedra Alcada (no cedilla on my keyboard) for lunch.  However, having been in conference with Chris and Antje, if we wanted to make it to Sergio's before the artisans descended for lunch, our walk would be rather curtailed. We arrived there at about 1215 only to find out it was the same menu every Wednesday and we had already sampled it on 28th October, so we walked on. But not too far as we came to Atalaia, another venue for WAGS post walk refreshment in the Good Old Days! Getting picky, we decided against their selection, walked back to the car and drove towards Brito's and Maria Petisco, to see what was on offer there. Fortunately we passed Prato Cheio on the way, and on the board outside Myriam's Eagle Eyes noticed 'Lingua de vaca estufada' and the decision was made.  I also fancied Lulas Recheadas, as I admire the amount of work that goes into gutting, stuffing and sewing up the squid corpses, for very little money and a wonderful flavour, especially if served with hand-cut chips.

Lingua de Vaca Estufada

Lulas Recheadas

You may have noticed that the paper place mats used by Prato Cheio were rather unique. Well there were just the two patterns, but set out as an old-style advertising paper. They made for interesting reading while we waited to be served

For some feminist reason, Myriam highlighted three of the adverts (below).

I am not sure what her point is, but then, the workings of the female mind are but a mystery to men!!  Maybe a couple of you can work it out!

A Must Have for every Walker

From the Scientific American:  

'Researchers have begun to explore the cognitive impairment that men experience before and after interacting with women. A 2009 study demonstrated that after a short interaction with an attractive woman, men experienced a decline in mental performance.' 

This explains quite a lot for those of us that have been interacting for a number of years. What chance did we have?

Just to finish off my 5 eggs worth* (Nice phrase that - from days of yore - another nice phrase)

*A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words
  By Walter William Skeat, Anthony Lawson Mayhew
pages 148 and 128

five eggs : in phr. to come in with one's. five eggs,
to break in or interrupt fussily with an idle story ;
' Persones coming in with their five egges,
how that Sylla had geuen ouer his office ',
Udall, tr. of Erasmus's Apoph. , p. 272 ;
' Another commeth in with his fiue egges ',
Robinson, tr. More's Utopia (ed. Arber, p. 56).
The orig. phrase had reference to the offering
of five eggs for a penny, which was a trivial offer,
and not very advantageous to the purchaser
in the sixteenth century ; see eggs 

See how easily I get sidetracked (another reference to locomotion)!

Enough, I will finish with a nice picture and promise to try to walk further next week and blog more about "Keep it simple, funny, interesting and straight forward please about the walk." as bidden two weeks ago by one of the SWMBO's.

That were some hill!! - I'm knackered!"

PS.  Having taken good care not to advise anyone of his presence, in case he was coerced into joining a walk, Hedley called on Wednesday evening to announce that he was on an essential business trip to his son's new (and his old) place in Carvoeiro. At the time, Portimao and not Lagos were slated to be under special restrictions, so we decided to meet in Lagos, and in the open air in case he had flown in with a suitcase full of Covid Virus from UK! We met on Friday at Oliva and enjoyed a particularly nourishing repast of authentic Moldavian Italian food with Portuguese connections. 

If you want to hear the Full SP on Hedley's latest news, ask Myriam!

and now over to our Silves correspondents.

Well, it wasn´t as bad as I thought it might be last week when I wrote a few words in defence of the right of bloggers to wander far and wide from the subject when writing about walks, SWMBO did not wield the rolling pin or the saucepan and was very gracious in defeat, I mean, in the end. So, in thanks, this part of the blog will contain no foreign language, no bad jokes, and few irrelevant diversions; it will also contain lots of pictures of flowers and such things.

The start was at Café Martins where the Magnificent Five desperadoes of the Silves Bubble met at around the hour of High Ten.

Yves had left his gear outside while he propped up the bar indoors while taking a pre-walk strengthener. Maria then came in to tell him that a man had run off with his hat. Yves rushed out to give chase but soon returned, leg well and truly pulled. Not sure if the hat or cap would have been much of a loss in any case, but there you are. The proper Starter photo was then duly taken.

 The upright pole between Rod and Yves is apparently just as effective as a sheet of perspex for social distancing purposes, in case anyone is worried.

We walked up to the Caravela housing development where new buildings are increasingly encroaching on one of our favourite access paths. There were increasing signs of renewed activity in the development. For example, we had to step smartly aside when a lorry came by carrying two mobile toilets for the work force

a clear indication that serious work was underway. There are also a lot of new “for sale” signs to be seen, hinting that a new marketing effort is under way. 

So, in an a attempt to get away from this modernity, we went a bit off the beaten track and briefly explored a large abandoned property 

before having to return to the more familiar track. But the Leader proved to be not so familiar with it as he would have liked because he soon went astray. Here we will let Rod take up the story...............

“We headed up one track which nobody seems to to have ventured up before....probably because it headed directly towards a busy looking farmhouse. The farmer appeared to see who was invading his property and, upon being politely (but of course!) asked if we might pass by, he responded that it was indeed private property but that we were more than welcome to walk round behind the house and exit via the back entrance, so to speak.

 Of course this necessitated a lengthy stop to discuss the problems facing the local farming industry, what he felt it was best to grow, what other farmers were doing....of course everyone else was wrong. An affable fellow indeed and, as often the case, from whom difficult to disentangle yourself as they all have much to say even if of no great consequence. Two females of the family were ensconced on the veranda and showed signs of coming over to join in but, with a quick wave and farewell, we were off, just managing to escape what would surely have been a further lengthy delay.”

Yes, indeed; it could have developed into as long as the conversations as we´d had the previous week with the good lady Palmyra and the Medronho Man. So we walked on and soon became interested in some seriously small fungi. 

           I thought that coco de mer is found only in the Seychelles 

and then we paused to study some flowers, one of which had the colours of Spain and one of which, I am told, is a Passion Flower.

It was shortly after this that Yves transmogrified into a sort of latter day Henri Cartier-Bresson (for you who don´t recognise the name, sorry about the reference: H C-B was a renowned French photographer) and managed to persuade Maria to risk life and limb by scrambling across a wilderness of boulders and old trees just to pose for an extra artistic picture. This took him quite a few minutes before he was satisfied. Here is a shot of the maestro in action.

Then a little later, there was a rather more serious moment as we paused for two minutes silence, this being Armistice Day as well as the centenary of the burial of the Unknown Soldier in his grave at Westminster Abbey. Then we were off on another exploratory loop which brought us another conversation piece. Once more I will pass the narrative over to Rod.

"We came upon another obviously newly created track heading in the right sort of direction. Lest it too turned out to be private we shouted out greetings to some good ladies working in a newly planted strawberry (or were they tomatoes?!) field.

As is of course customary with such an obviously harmless and exemplary mannered looking group they instantly responded that although it was indeed private we were more than welcome to pass through. This we did and it came out behind a farmhouse on a well known stretch of main track whereupon we came upon a senior citizen, clearly the family patriarch, hobbling towards us on a stick.

"Mario, as it transpired, had been around there for quite some decades and now boasted 86 years. He was most assuredly fully on the ball.... even remembering seeing Susan Frew passing by on her steed a few times...despite having suffered 6 heart attacks in his life... the first being when he was still in his 30´s...and the most recent only a few months ago.  He had twice had angioplasty or stents administered through arteries in his arms as he indeed showed us! A sterling fellow indeed and with the right priorities too; when being asked if his dear wife was still around and well, he responded with a twinkle in his eye and waved his stick towards one of the good ladies in the field on her knees!"

                   This neat weather vane could be seen on the top of Mario´s house

A little bit later, we took a diagonal route back home, shortening the intended track because Hazel´s foot was beginning to play up and so it was that once again we passed the familiar landmark of the old bent oak trees where there appeared to be an cork expert in there, studying the potential crop.

No, not an expert, just Rod.

Our arrival back at Café Martins coincided with the end of the lunch break for the local workers who´d been there for their pratos de dia. The poor proprietress, Senhora Vera, became overwhelmed what with trying to collect payment from those leaving, providing coffees and spirits to those who still wanted more, taking drinks orders  and food orders from our gang of five, and relaying the food instructions to her cook, all at the same time. Five to ten minutes of chaos ensued.

Meanwhile Yves showed us some of his historic photo albums while we waited.

Eventually, we got our drinks and then there was the matter of getting the food. The cook had to cope with demands for two variations of bifana, in papo seco or pão caseiro, and two choices of tostas mistas, with either pão caseiro or pão de forma. I think four out of the five got what they had asked for. All a bit of a muddle, but the quality and flavour were excellent.

So there we were, another walk which had almost as much talk as walk. One puzzle remains. You remember that bit where Yves took several minutes to take a posed picture of Maria. Now, Yves is usually very keen to show the results of his picture taking but on this occasion he has not released the results. I wonder why not. Either they are of such high quality that he is keeping them as a special reserve, or they are no good at all. If the latter, never mind; he can take comfort from the words of the afore-mentioned Henri Cartier-Bresson who helpfully seems to have been in the habit of recording his thoughts in English (I could have used the words “pensées” or “bon mots” but I had promised not to use foreign words this blog). H.C-B therefore has the closing quotations.

“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”

“It's seldom you make a great picture. You have to milk the cow quite a lot to get plenty of milk to make a little cheese.”

My thanks to Hazel and Yves for photos and to Rod for details of the conversations.

Average speed 3 kph an improvement on last week´s 2,4 kph.

And now a new bubble The Salir Bubble has emerged. After John and Rod's Silves Bubble had done a very lucky 8.88 km walk, Terry and his  3/5 of a bubble exceeded the brief by weighing in with a walk just over 9km. I almost wish we Lagobrigensans had managed to keep up with these efforts,

Terry wrote:

Myself, Jill & Ingrid met at our usual Cafe in Messines for a 10 o’clock start, I was looking for a almost new walk in the large lump of countryside between the railroad and the road that leads to the Arade bridge. A lot of land cleaning has been made in that area plus new tracks, too much to tackle all at once so more to explore later. We made a good Wag type circuit, lovely warm morning for walking. Cafe now under new management, soon able to put a good 

Tosta Mista on the table. 

Take care keep safe.

  

and included the following pictures:-

No track but a good set of stats

And of course the obligatory bifana photo.

Thanks Terry. 

By the way, certain Algarve Concelhos are subject to  increased precautions from Monday  16th at 0001am. I suggest that given the dispensation for exercise and the emphasis on Civil Resposibity and Social distancing, this should not affect our Bubble walk as long as we remain in our own Concelho if it is named. This is for 2 weeks from Monday, initially, but may be adjusted at any time. so it is entirely up to leaders to use their common sense when walking if they decide to do so.

Stay safe and folks - Let's be careful out there!