WAGS 05 04 2023: Ilha do Rosário, or No Lunch at Mira Rio

Six of us gathered at Mira Rio and, before anything started, we were updated by Yves on Hilke´s very unfortunate accident while cruising in the Caribbean. The WAGS Blog wishes her all the best for a full and trouble-free recovery.

This is the time of year when the Algarve is accustomed to an influx of various brightly-hued  migratory species, flying visitors, from Africa, for example the Blue-breasted Bee-eater, 

.....and the Lilac-breasted Roller,

.

.. and the equally colourful CandR Davises

Good to see them all again.

 The Starters at Mira Rio:- JohnH, Hazel, Rachel, Chris, Yves and Myriam.

Apologies were received from Ingrid, Maria and Rod.

We set off round the back of the restaurant which enabled Yves to capture some reflections of the elevated canal

We passed the cottage restoration which still has some way to go

and inspected Yves´ rural property. If he is not careful, the Government will commandeer it.

When we paused after a bit for a group photo, Hazel spotted some strange holes in the ground. Not as big as Myriam´s sink hole near Bensafrim

Their purpose seemed unclear -possibly for fencing but there are already sufficient fences on site and they were very irregularly spaced. Next visit to Ilha do Rosário will no doubt cast more light. 

 Then another group photo.

"I say, my good man!  What´s that machine for ?"  "Aarhh, it´s me ditch digger, sir."

As we drew near to the Clube Nautico, we wondered if Ivan would be opening his café again this year and just as we were wondering this, lo and behold, there he was, the very man, busy painting and restoring the café furniture. Opens next week, 12 noon to 7 pm. closed on Tuesday and Wednesdays. Myriam and Hazel decided on the spot that the WAGs would meet there for Lunch on Friday 19th May. It will be a sort of WAGS end-of-season lunch as well as a celebration for the three 2023 Octogenarian WAGS. Myriam knows who you are and so do you, so mark the date and Hazel will keep us all posted.

After a brief rest in the shade at Clube Nautico and the usual bout of artistic and floral photography,

we climbed up over the top of the Cerro, took in the distant views of Silves and Portimão  

and made our way down to the canal. This, for once, was completely dry, perhaps because a maintenance team were strimming the undergrowth nearby with a lot debris falling into the canal. 

Only half of the group paid the traditional visit to the look-out point at the confluence of the Arade and Odelouca rivers

and then we all made our way back to the Mira Rio.

The Track and the Statistics

There, at Mira Rio, we were met by Paul and the Whittles´ friend Andy, but the news was not good; the establishment´s sole cook was having a hissy fit because a group of 18 or so other walkers had booked a table for lunch and she could not cope with any more. So we all drove into Silves where Hazel quickly and efficiently organised a table for us at the Plazza Caffe (yes, that is exactly how they spell it ) where we had a very enjoyable lunch. While we were there, Chris and Rachel were inducted by Paul into the mysteries of  WAGS and WAGSAL. Whether they understood what he told them is another matter.

Javali and feijão

Chips in a basket

Pescada

Omelette

Now I am not sure how this happened and I am still trying to work it out. There is a sort of tradition in the WAGS that Yves gets served first; indeed Chris mentioned it. But the waitress did not serve him first... in fact she was making a very determined effort to appear  not to serve him at all.

"How long ?"

and when at last she did bring him something, she announced it as "here are your sardines" and Yves can´t stand sardines

All well in the end and here are Yves´ "sardine bones."

But who put her up to it? Chris and Andy seem to share the joke. Was it them?

All in all, good food, good fun and economical too.

We will finish of with some miscellaneous items. First, something from BBC´s "Only Connect."  What´s the connection between these four items?

Answer next week; clue -  Maria´s favourite.

Next, last week Paul tried to post a comment about "lurgi" on that week´s blog but even he got defeated by the increasingly unfriendly Blogger site so he emailed it instead. This is what he wrote:-

Defeated by the blue (Sign in to comment) button for this blog on my iPad. If I can't sign on to comment on the blog which I co-author then no wonder that many others struggle.
Not that I have anything interesting to say, except that the photos might have been edited a little more sympathetically. I was about to expand at some length on the origin and etymology of the word 'lurgi' (sic) as used by John. The spelling is debatable, as it is used here - lurgi, lurgie, lurgy lurgee, lergy or lurgey, and also the issue of the soft or hard 'g' in the pronunciation. However as I am struggling to write this comment on a small phone screen where the keyboard covers the text I am penning, I will leave you with two items for study and discussion.
First: it may be:
A nonce word popularized by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes, scriptwriters for a 9 November 1954 programme of The Goon Show, "Lurgi Strikes Britain", in which Ned Seagoon must deal with a national outbreak of a highly dangerous, highly infectious and — as it turns out — highly fictitious disease known as the Dreaded Lurgi.

I don´t see that many people took up his invitation to study and discuss, but, for what it´s worth, I think that the word was made up by the Goons, a nonce word indeed, and that it is spelled "lurgi" and pronounced with a hard "g."

Paul said he had two items for us. The second was a link to YouTube (I think) which produces the response "video unobtainable," so I haven´t repeated it here.

And to close, a piece of music. Last week´s blog had no music. That blog alluded to sympathy or lack of it and I had in mind a jazz number by clarinettist Edmond Hall called "Don´t give Me Sympathy" which is available on YouTube but, for some reason, in this case just would not download into Blogger. As I noted above, Blogger gets more unfriendly by the day. So I had to give up. And so here is something by the same clarinettist.