WAGS 10.02.2021: Season Suspended

 

There is a bit of a hiatus in the Saunterers´ blog because Pauladev is having a few technical problems with the Blogger as well as having to spend a lot of time administering or administrating (take your pick of the verbal form) the booming WhatsApp Gourmet sub-group chat.

So, just to fill in while he sorts things out, I thought I would pass a brief comment on the British political scene. Personally, I have found it very encouraging recently that Matt Hancock, the UK´s Health Minister, and Nicola Sturgeon, uncrowned First lady of Scotland, are both prepared to think out of the box and to actually collaborate on ways to boost UK´s faltering economy.

In case you have no idea what I am talking about, consider this. The Health Minister brings in a law to send people who lie about going on holiday to Portugal, for instance claiming to have spent a fortnight in Moldova instead, to prison for 10 years. Just how a Health Minister can rule on prison sentencing is beyond me but let that pass. And then the afore-said Scottish Lady brings in a law that requires all arrivals in Scotland to spend 15 days quarantine in a hotel, minimum 3 star, at their own expense.

Just consider what a boost these measures will bring to to the economy. UK´s prisons are full to bursting as it is, so masses of new prisons will have to be built to house all theses dishonest holiday makers, the result is that the construction industry gets a much needed shot in the arm – lots of building contracts from the Government – and no awkward questions being raised about costings. Many new prison warders jobs are also created for a guaranteed 10 year term, not to mention the civil service and other administrative jobs needed. And in Scotland, where the hotel industry has been on its knees, suddenly they have a whole new captive clientele, and all at no cost to the Scottish tax payer.

Isn´t UK fortunate to have such innovative and creative politicians at the helm, in these difficult times?

Meanwhile, let´s cheer ourselves up by looking pictures of some food. Mongolian Beef Stir Fry topped the charts last week.

and Avocado Cheesecake sem quiejo for afters.

    PS: going back to Hancock and Sturgeon for a moment, if I may; the drawback about Hancock´s scheme is that the returning holiday makers get 10 year´s accommodation free, whereas in Sturgeon´s plan the hotel guests have to pay for it themselves. The woman is wasted in Holyrood. Get her into Westminster asap. She just what the House of Commons needs. Give her a decent sized handbag and she will equal Thatcher.

Paul Writes:-

Well after wrestling with a serious computer problem , and only breaking for a short pause to watch a less than satisfactory England victory over Italy, I am going to attempt to rewrite the work I spent several hours compiling yesterday. Great Theory John. They could also boost Government and business income by allowing Sky to transmit as far as here, AND allow us to keep and pay for UK driving Licences as well as Portuguese!

Anyway last Wednesday - our appointed day for a slightly longer Saunter, I creaked out of bed, threw back the curtains , regarded the grey wet scenery, drew the curtains again and started thinking about an article on how lockdown plus SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) tended to not only to atrophy your abused senior muscles, but also wither your will to get out and do stuff.  

The article was still a twinkle in my eye when Friday, the first day of the Year of the Ox (acceptable), Cow (insulting to Hindus and women)and Buffalo (extremely sexist) burst forth. The Sun was out; the Sky was Blue; and not a Cloud to spoil the view.

What a difference between the drought of 2019 - 2020, when we wondered if the reservoirs would last, and we were praying for rain, and now when we hadn't seen the sun for what seemed like weeks - especially on Wednesdays. Lets hope it stays for a while.

Love the courtesy sub-titles!

And so Dear Reader - I became a Founder Member of the FAGS - Friday (or even better 'Flexible' ) Algarve Geriatric Saunterers, and I sauntered round Lagos for 90 minutes, covering exactly 5 km. Of course 'Flexible' in the temporal  rather than the physical sense. Myriam didn't join me as she was busily engaged in preparing exotic Chinese ingredients for our Chinese New Year Feast. The first time we had it alone.

   Of course 'Fag' is a curious word , when not used as an acronym.  It means a different thing to Americans than to most Brits. We all know about 'Nipping out for a quick fag'. It is the shortened term for 'faggot', ie a bundle of sticks gathered by old women for domestic duties, and has known records since the 16th Century. The homosexual connotation probably derives from the common habit in English of using feminine or insulting words for effeminate men. There is an urban legend which claims that it comes from the practice of burning homosexuals at the stake , fired up with a bundle of twigs. This is unlikely as in England, Parliament had made homosexuality a capital offence in 1533,, and the specified method was hanging!

    The use as slang for a cigarette can be traced back to the 1st World War, again probably to some PTSD minds burning a cigarette was similar to burning a stick from a faggot or bundle of sticks.

   There is also the use of the term 'fagging' was also endemic in the English Public School system, where it was applied to younger boys who served the Senior boys by cleaning, fetching and carrying among other duties, some of which we won't allude to here (allegedly).

  And they turned out to be the backbone of British Government, Commerce and Industry.

While we are restricted, and just yesterday the current restrictions were extended until at least 1st March and no doubt longer, unlike the craziness in UK., we need to find other ways to amuse ourselves. My Email group from those that suffered with me in Cranwell have been reminiscing along the lines of " Eeeeh when I was a lad......" about all the moaning in UK about cold weather, mental health and deprivation. As I am increasingly finding, many of my contemporaries have much better recall of our days in 1967/8. Most is discussions of outdoor survival exercises in N Yorkshire, Scotland and Central Germany. Survival was the key word and I remember slogging through snow near Catterick, and snuggling up to a pair of hairy overdressed tentmates, in my only attempt at an all male 3-some. Now they have female cadets at Cranwell, but even so, 'Elf and safety would forbid what we went through. Two Royal Marine Exercises were cancelled in the area, but the Powers That Be thought it would be character building to expose 40-odd  under equipped Flight Cadets to the sort of weather that stopped the invasion of Russia. We had several cases of hypothermia, most woke up and had to defrost boots and sleeping bags to escape, and two of the canniest lads had decided only to take space blankets to save weight in their 35 kg backpacks! They were the days! And the Escape and Evasion exercise in Germany! I hope our interrogators are outside the Statute of Limitations as they certainly didn't stick to the Geneva Convention. And the Exercise in Glen Shee was billed as 'Learn to Ski at RAF expense'! Little did we know the horrors that awaited us.  Is it any wonder that I have sought out warm climates ever since I left the RAF!

   

        Enough biography, the WAGS WhatsApp Group identified a need to diversify - mainly due to comments from senior members about chats that varied too far from walking and social matters. So I opened a 6 Nations WAGS WhatsApp sub-group for Live Chat before during and after 6 Nations matches, and it achieved  153 posts on Day 1, 6th February alone. No sooner had this Group opened , than there were mutterings about going off topic, when we began describing our dinners and cooking them. So, the WA Gourmet Sub-group was created. This led to a tongue-in-cheek review of existing topics with please for a Birthday and Anniversary Sub-group (BAGS), Technical Appliance Sub Group (TAGS), and a Flower Arranging Sub-group (FAGS).  

 New Rule ' if you want to narrow the general WAGS Chats to a Single Subject,  Special Interest Sub-group then nominate, get it seconded, invite participants and administrate it yourself.

And I will finish off with a few photos from my Friday journey round Lagos, partly to illustrate the effects of  the State of Emergency, and part to brighten your mood and appreciation of our chosen retirement Paradise.

Nothing ostentatious!!

Your place or mine?

Placid Harbour

The 'Old' Bridge aka 'The Roman Bridge' aka 'Ponte Dona Maria II'  

Its origins are shrouded in mystery, but it has traces of Roman construction and suffered significant damage in the 1755 earthquake. . Recently repaired 2012 to 2015, and before that in 1960.

This cormorant has taken possession of the mid-channel buoy for his observation point.

Lots of money tied up and unused.

The Avenida is deserted!

Prince Henry the Navigator's current view over the fountains. The seagulls seem to be practicing lockdown too!

Praca Gil Eanes - deserted.

And Lindsey was the only one apart from the Blog authors who sent in a contribution. Here goes:

Yet another wet, muddy walk!  Nobody around except myself and the dogs - Tasha & Duque.

Where's Wally? or Tasha. or Duque?

 The dogs had fun though - somewhere in this photo are 2 dogs chasing a hare and in the lower one, Duque has gone back to see/smell where he went wrong!

Not a very interesting walk but they enjoyed though!

 

And finally, Turismo Algarve's 2020 effort to attract tourists to the Algarve Why wouldn't you come ?     Oh I get it!

Now back to JohnH for a few closing remarks:-

Nice photos.

Also nice to see that the WAGS WhatsApp group has been expanded to include a Gourmet sub-group. In fact, that may be the way that this blog will have to go as we all of us walk less and eat fewer bifanas. Obviously, then, we will be eating and drinking more at home and the Blog can celebrate those festivities, much as Paul and Antje in particular are doing on WhatsApp.

Of course, there will be those kill-joys who will advocate austerity and self- denial, but here is a reasoned argument (which I found in The Spectator the other day) against such a misery-guts approach to life:-

“Giving up sugar and booze may add years to your life. But those years will only be added on at the end when you are old. No one gets extra years of being young.”

                                 " Carpe diem quam miminum credula postero."    Cheers.