WAGS 17.11.2021: Rodelouca

 

No, Rod has not gone mad. The title of this blog is an Answer Smash ( similarly to WAGS 27.10 Terry Amessines)

Category: WAGS Blog Titles

Picture:

 Clue 1 

Clue 2:  The Area WAGS walked on 17.11.2021: A river near Silves.

The Smash is answered by the title. Now has anyone not understood this little game?

Certainly as one has more birthdays, it is inevitable that some of us will experience a slow degradation of faculties - putting names to faces, losing your keys or your phone, failing to hear your wife's/husband's/ binary partner's commands and failing to respond instantly ( or is that just me?)

  I personally believe that many of these symptoms are not just a product of having survived for too long, but from being over-medicated over many years. Our physicians reach for  their prescription chits not just to assist with quelling a medical problem, but also to meet the needs of patients who crave some concrete treatment to be satisfied or for getting rid of patients who ask too many questions about the dark arts of medicine.

    Currently, I am taking 12 tablets a day for various real or imagined ailments and some are playing with my physical status by interacting in an unforeseen fashion or just by published side effects which by law are printed on a leaflet in each box. These are very general and non-specific usually, so most bases are covered and the manufacturer cannot be blamed. Rarely does the physician himself mention or elaborate on these 'side effects'. Is that because he knows the pill is a placebo and unlikely to affect anyone, or because he knows the anxiety it may cause?

   Anyway, it was when carefully scouring one of these leaflets that I came across this 'serious' side effect:-

'Tell your doctor if you experience unlikely but serious side effects including:

• unusual strong urges (such as increased gambling, increased sexual urges, excessive spending and buying unnecessary items),'

Now I haven't bothered the Doctor with this explanation for why I collect Tilley Hats. and coffee paraphernalia, or even Zebra Finch hoarding, but it is definitely a good excuse!!

Seriously as you become aware more keenly of changes in your body and mental state with age, it leads to a realisation of how finely balanced is the chemistry of your being, and how even overthinking it can lead to not so imperceptible chamges in your personality and outlook. That is if you allow yourself to dwell on such things, One thing that I find to be very beneficial is something that I scoffed at in my youth - meditation, I have been following guided meditations on a daily basis via the Calm App since 1st May 2018 ad feel that it has done me a lot of personal good. This is not an advert, but it may be worthy of your consideration, though there are 'other Apps available!! eg the Balance Sleep and Meditation App.

The Walk

Now the Walk. Rod led in an area known for hills and managed to get away with only 102 m of ascent ( according to John's thingummajig). Mind you, the distance covered was not a normal Rod walk, but more in keeping with the times and the worries about whether we would get a bifana, as signs of a large party were observed when starting at Cafe Oriq.

Starters: Janet, Rod, Ingrid, Maria, John, Hazel and Yves

I had sacrificed myself to tend to a disabled person as her personal chauffeur and purse carrier, so missed all the fun, only arriving when a worried looking leader was investigating where to lunch  as an alternative. Oriq appeared to be over busy.

Here is Rod's account of the walk, and as I was not there I will insert John and Yves' pictures as I can hoping some refer to the text!

         Yet another unseasonably warm and sunny November morning when John & Hazel, Maria, Yves, Ingrid, Janet and Rod gathered at The Cafe Oriq.   Although it actually was open nobody seemed short of caffeine we set off reasonably on time. The walk was not a particularly original one  but was in part chosen to see what damage to the countryside the  enormous solar panel site had done.  Since this whole area had once ..25 years ago...been designated as a recreational and hunting park for the benefit of the citizens of Portimao it is sad indeed to see what this endless campaign for renewable energy can do to once pristine rolling hills.

Before we got that far however most of the unexpected side events of the walk occurred. First of all a car stopped beside us and  a rotund but very friendly Teuton greeted us warmly and held forth for quite some minutes  on the assumption, it became obvious, that we must be itinerant tourists. That we were not having been established he moved on and started again with Maria, who happened to be some way behind the rest of us.  She learned, as she would, that he had a house nearby,  actually lived or had lived in Porto, and had an English wife. Whether the silent female passenger with him was the said wife seemed unclear. 

Then round the next bend we could see a blazing funeral pyre and hear the grinding roar of a large excavator. This was approached by a track which John had seen on Google Earth and long wanted to explore so we headed off in that direction.

This meant  scrambling through a gap in a hedge and scaling what had been a wire fence where we were faced by this enormous excavator busy digging a ditch away from what appeared to be a prolific spring in the hillside.

 So to the fore went our redoubtable cameraman from L'Agence France-Presse hot after a scoop. 

Yves before the fight!

Sadly we were never able to see the evidence of this bravado for out of the excavator, breathing fire and brimstone, leapt what might well have been a heavyweight Ukrainian boxer,  apoplectic with rage that anyone should have the nerve to record his activity. He demanded  that all fotos  on mobiles should be immediately deleted with such threatening malice that discretion was deemed the better part of valour and we slunk away only able to guess what had riled him. The evidence  would seem to suggest however that he was  probably guilty of trying to divert the course of water for his own ends.

 

Poise regained we slowly ascended the long track up to the ridge marking the current limit of the solar panels, a sea of which stretched to the very horizon. They are well defended  with heavy duty wire mesh fencing and every 2 or 3 hundred metres a steel post with cameras and floodlights....fearful no doubt that panels would be too easy to nick. 

Anti -dog fouling camera

 We followed the upper contour perimeter track for a while before descending via a path we had used before, and made our way  along the main return track.  

The little house  just before we dropped down to the Restaurant has recently  been securely fenced in and  the wooden «Salon» which ostensibly provided a hairdressing service but which of course might just have been a front for some other service, has been totally removed. 

'Salon' Taken on 26.11.2020 and......

........what remained on 17.11.2021

There was so much clearance  and ground markers in evidence that it is not difficult to believe that further expansion of solar panels may be expected making this an area we are unlikely to want to return to.

Stats.

Was this a new low average speed record?

The Oriq terrace tables were unusually all occupied or reserved so after some discussion we went off to the Parreirinha Bar near the bridge where we were joined by Paul & Myriam and Chris & Antje for a 'prato do dia' lunch.

The lunch!  At last something of which I have first hand knowledge. As I arrived with Myriam (to our surprise they were already back) , Maria and Yves were striding determinedly towards the small restaurant which had been quite dark and dingy last time I visited, but was showing signs of enterprise and new ownership!

Hazel, Rod and John were standing outside cafe Oriq, following their progress attentively. Ingrid and Janet had already left. Very soon Maria had secured a deal with the owner to accommodate us in a front annexe, brightly lit and handy for the loo.. Chris and Antje were still on the way, so were diverted from Cafe Oriq. Only Prato de dia was available as it was now a serious eatery, and not a snack bar, so Rod tried to maintain his lunch embargo........

......but failed when his bitoque proved to be a full plate of belt strainer.

Before the Whittles arrived - we couldn't wait.....

Don't worry - the happy couple  soon caught up after this photo.

The Pratos da Dia - excellent and good value.

Arros do Pato

Lulas com arroz (Hazel)

 Calamar avec pommes frites (Yves), Tintenfischringe mit chips (Antje)

I don't recall what Chris had - perhaps he does!

Now the related music to finish. About Squids of course!!

This song tells you most of what you need to know about The Squid Game.