WAGS 2025 01 08: Lagos - a Mixture of the Old and the New
An interesting stroll through Lagos learning a bit about the XVth century Portuguese navegadores and looking at some of the town´s modern architectural experiments. And for the second week running, Myriam led the outing. Here is her comprehensive report.
Another new record was set in 2025. The same person led the first 2 walks of the new year consecutively and didn't get lost!! GUESS WHO?
The walk announcement read as follows "Walk notice :
If you don't mind following me again next Wednesday, I propose to start from Porto de Mós at 10.00. The route was established by Paul many years ago when he was a Geocaching enthusiast.
Then Antje led us there many times.
Now I am stealing the route from them.
As long as we keep the sea on our left at the beginning, then turn back to head towards the sea or keep it on our right, we won't get lost!!
Besides, John has agreed to keep me from getting astray!!
Lunch at Atalaia"
4 walkers sent in their willingness to keep the leader company. On Tuesday, having seen the forecast for Wednesday, the leader decided to begin the walk at 9.30, starting at Restaurant Atalaia . There would be 70% chance of rain at 13.00. She thought it prudent to finish before the rain began.
It was a cloudy morning. Trusting that the forecast would be accurate, we all (3 Hopes + 1 Lo) arrived the Restaurant Atalaia on time for a coffee first.
Maria sent an apology:
"Miryam I cannot do the walk Sasha wasn’t very well a couple days. Now she refuses to walk so I cannot leave her in the house for four hours. She will have an accident. Have a nice walk."
When we were about to start the walk, the lady boss Sara arrived. We asked her to reserve a table for 5 or 6.
We set off across the busy Atalaia Road onto the field.
This was one of our dog walking areas when we first moved to Lagos from Albardeira.
I thought it would be straightforward, on trails until the road that leads to Porto de Mós. But no ! It was not straightforward at all. The field was divided into lots surrounded by new fences.
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| Where have all the trails gone? |
At one time we were forced to walk on the road which runs parallel to the Secondary School named after Gil Eanes, a Portuguese navigator who was the first European to reach Cape Bojador at the north western coast of Africa in 1534 and to return home alive!!
When we crossed the Porto de Mós Road and were about to go down into the valley that leads to the beach, our only male walker decided to take over the leadership! He led the gang up the wide tarmac road towards the cliff top of the beach.
He cleverly steered the herd, past roads named after navigators and naus (caravelas) of the glorious period of Discovery. Then zigzagged among luxurious villas and emerged right on the path that leads to the obelisk of Atalaia. Well done!!
And so we managed to avoid the climb up from the Porto de Mós beach!!
The sea and coastlines were as beautiful as they always had been!! One never gets tired of looking at them.
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| How long before that chunk of rock breaks away from the cliff ? |
Normally we would have had no problem in reaching the obelisk in 30 minutes. But not on that day. The West wind was blowing extremely hard against us. At one point, I had to hold onto the wooden railing, otherwise I might have taken off!
At the obelisk we had to sit down to catch our breath. The wind continued to tear at us until we entered the pine woods.
We skirted the fence of Eagles' View and got through the narrow path between two large properties, onto the back side of Boavista Golf resort.
From there, we walked on tarmac roads, which was quite tiring! We passed the back entrance of the golf course, and the exclusive villas.
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| The tentacles of the Boa Vista urbanisation spread ever further |
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| A glimpse of the old style |
At a junction the road forked. The left side said: Estrada Atalaia, the right "Antiga Estrada Atalaia"!!
We chose the right road, flanked by huge villas, reasoning that the old road should be the original one that leads us back to our cars. It turned out to be more windy and longer; luckily it was downhill.
By the end, we were all very tired!!
However we managed to arrive at the restaurant by 12.30, as the table had been booked for then.
Maria and Paul were already seated, waiting for us.
It was a tiring walk because we had to walk against the strong wind and on a long stretch of tarmac at the end.
We had also missed the rain, forecast for 13.00!!
In fact, the rain didn't materialise until 17.00!
Thank you, the Hopes, for being brave enough to follow the leader!
I leave the food critics to comment on the lunch.
The Tack and the Statistics
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The Lunch
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| The Boss Lady Carla takes our picture |
Everybody enjoyed the bread rolls and the soup.
But the rest of the food was perhaps a bit of a disappointment.
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| Para fora |
For your blogger, the big disappointment was the bacalhau......far too salty for my taste.
I thought that I would describe it with the phrase
"the piece of cod that passes all understanding, "
a witticism based on Paul´s Letter to the Philippians 4.7. And I wondered where and when the pun had first appeared. I thought that it might have been in a mid-X1Xth century Punch, contemporary with the Curate´s Egg, and that there would be a Punch cartoon to go with it. But no - not in Punch. Then it is attributed to Sir Edwin Lutyens, the architect who designed much of New Delhi, apparently said in a London restaurant mid-1930s.
But then I find it attributed to Nigel Molesworth of "Down With Skool" fame, or at least to his author Geoffrey Willans who published the book in 1953.
Perhaps Paul - our Paul, not the letter writer - might know from his Quote - Unquote expertise.
Anyway, it is now available on T-shirts and coffee mugs.
Very good pun about the cod!! 😂
ReplyDeleteIt may take a little longer to root out the written origin of John's quote, but I though I would try AI first.I decided to try Gemini to determine if he/she/it had any ideas and it swiftly fired back with this:
ReplyDelete'The earliest known attribution of the pun "The piece of cod which passeth all understanding" is to the British writer, and humorist (sic) Stephen Jones. He used it in his 1978 book "The Complete Farrago".
Not good enough Gemini, so I tried the 'advanced' version of Gemini which was a little more cautious:-
'The pun relies on the similarity in sound between "cod" (the fish) and "God." This kind of wordplay is certainly not new. People have been making puns and playing with language for centuries.
It's likely that the pun emerged in a context where religious language was common, perhaps even in a setting where fish was a frequent food. This could suggest a possible origin in a fishing community or a time when religious discourse was more prevalent in everyday life.
Where to look further:
Collections of jokes and humor: If you have access to historical collections of jokes, riddles, and humorous anecdotes, those might be a good place to search.
Literature with wordplay: Examining literature, especially comedic or satirical works, from past centuries could reveal similar puns or wordplay that might shed light on the origins of this one.
While pinpointing the exact origin is challenging, it's safe to say that the pun is likely quite old and reflects a long tradition of wordplay and humor.'
At this point I decided to write to Nigel Rees - the compiler of "Quote .....Unquote" as he is normally the authority on these matters. He came back with:-
Paul -
Good question but I can't find any earlier attribution to Lutyens before 1962 or to anyone else - except Geoffrey Willans and Molesworth. In Down with Skool, Chap. 7 (1953) It comes in 'SKOOL FOOD' OR THE PIECE OF COD WHICH PASSETH UNDERSTANDING. However, I just field that Willans got it from Lutyens.
I'll put it in the mag. and
Best regards,
Nigel
Nigel is clearly in a pre-AI world but should the 'mag' come back with anything in future I will apprise those keen readers who get as far as the comments to this blog.
However , "his verbis dictis", I thought I would look at 'codpiece 'rather than cod. I suppose that the closest modern equivalent is the cricketer's 'box' which as far as I know is not supplied in different sizes, unless perhaps in the West Indies. However on record and fondly displayed in the Tower of London, is the codpiece from Good ole 'Enery VIII', who perhaps really was a bit of a swordsman, given the way he ran through his wives. This magnificent piece of equipment from his armour weighed in at 2lb 9oz, and probably did his raging ego a lot of good. Whatever, do not tell the Donald, as he is the sort that might bother to outdo him.
The definitive professorial history of the cod piece has been glorified in You Tube which you can link to with this:-
https://youtu.be/pJXSEGIinAU?si=2vswYYxzUg9JIeOl
Enough said!
Having has my curiosity wetted by Gemini I decided to try another AI, Chat GPT and got further.
ReplyDeleteThis pun was first attributed to the British humorist and wordsmith Samuel Butler in his poem 'The Way of All Flesh, published posthumously in 1903.
So there!!
At last some serious comment. However, it may try the patience of some readers if Paul and I continue our discussion on the Piece of Cod on the Blog, so I will switch to email until , that is, we reacha final conclusion about the origin of the pun, when everyone will of course be informed. One small side note, however. The next time we eat at the restaurant near Lagos railway station, you will note in their English menu that they can´t make up their mind to serve bacalhau with the letter "c" or with the letter "g."
ReplyDelete