WAGS 2025 03 19: Transport Of Delight, or Lost For Words

 We open with a seasonal picture by Yves, to remind us that he takes excellent photos even if he seldom graces our walks with his presence these days. The rain drops are particularly apt this year.

And we will continue with the Quote of the Week from last week´s WAGSAL WhatsApp:-

"I wrote for a living, my entire adult life. I even won a couple of awards. But I would not be able to name more than the verbs and the adjectives (if any). Oh, and the tense, though perhaps not more than past, present and future. Thankfully, no-one ever asked me. If they had, my response would have been, "I´m a copywriter. We don´t care about those kind of things!"

This was from Lesley who was taking part in the discussion about English adverbs and prepositions, instigated by Myriam, into the use of the word "up" by Rod when he said that he would "turn up." In my best pedantic vein, I had then intervened to say that in that context "up " was neither an adverb or a preposition but was best described as a particle, something that can seem somewhat redundant or lacking in meaning but yet an integral part of the phrasal structure. At this stage the conversation began to become as abstruse as a discussion of the Higgs Boson particle might be, despite Myriam´s attempt to get DeepSeek (which I understand to be some sort of Chinese computer) to adjudicate on the matter, although for my part I fail to see how a Chinese computer could possibly fathom the subtleties and nuances  of English grammar. But it is probably now time to move quickly on from all that. You see, Lesley´s remarks enabled me to understand at last why she has treated with such disdain any invitation from us mere amateurs to contribute to the blog. I hope that she doesn´t mind being quoted, also that she doesn´t expect royalties for the quote. After all, any quote is better for a writer that no quote, according to Mark Twain and Winston Churchill.

Mark Twain famously stated, "I can live for two months on a good compliment," and Winston Churchill also had views on the power of words. He once said, "Words are the only things that last forever." 

Both Twain and Churchill (who are always being quoted for saying things which they did not in fact ever say) might not have explicitly discussed the idea of being quoted, but their words and sentiments imply a recognition of the importance and value of being remembered through quotations. (Source of the above quotes:- Chatbox, of course.)

So now, without any further ado, let´s move quickly on to this week´s WAGS walk and to Antje´s report.

Chris, Fiona, Myriam, Rod (behind M´s hat), Antje, Vanessa, Hazel and JohnH.

"I had learnt from past experience to ignore doomsday weather forecasts and so decided to go ahead with my advertised walk, whatever the outlook.
Starting from Lagos station were Rod, John, Hazel, Myriam, new to our group Vanessa and her visiting sister Fiona and Yours Truly.
We set off, almost on the dot, negotiating some narrow plank bridges over recently flooded ground which the Camera were trying to drain with a small tanker truck and hosepipe.

We then passed alongside the little lagoon to the area with the newly refurbished Shell garage. 

Cormorant in the Lagoon

There we crossed the road and headed  for open ground. Soon we noticed a large herd of cows, some with calves, in our intended way. Therefore, a detour uphill was called for if we were to reach the small pine wood without incident, and this safety route was approved by the cowherd who was watching over his herd from the comfort of a large Mercedes. 

She didn´t seem to be too bothered by us

The cowherd got out of his Mercedes to have a chat with Rod and Myriam

The remainder of the path to leading us back to Meia Praia and its railway station was pretty straightforward, although a few large puddles needed slightly alternate routes.

This vehicle won´t get us very far.

Before setting off, I had checked the train time-table in case the  promised heavy rains materialised. One was due to arrive within 5 minutes of our arrival at the station. That tempted 3 walkers to wait for it. But Vanessa and Fiona set off immediately, walking home along the boardwalk, no discussion there, Rod followed them soon after, determined to have his full exercise. Your Leader then decided to stay with the remaining 3 of the group. 

But the train was a few minutes behind schedule and this proved too much for Myriam who despite our protests hailed a passing bus.  Well, a new experience, I must say, because neither of us (Myriam and me) had been on  this little bus before. Not terribly comfortable, I would add.

"Hi, Chris ! I´m on the bus."

And of course, as soon as we had set off in the bus, we saw the train arrive at the station we had just left.
And at the Lagos station, both the train passengers and we, the bus passengers, arrived at exactly the same time. I was told that the train fare would have been less than half of the €1.20 bus ticket.

"Well, that was fun."

Lunch at Tasca da Lota was reasonable in all aspects, as always. We were joined by Lesley, Chris, Paul, and Vanessa’s husband John."

The Lunch

This was a meal of two halves: those at one end were abstemious and co0ntented themselves with soup, bread, and water.

Those at the other end went for wine and fish, fish, fish.

 

There was tuna salad.

Bacalhau a bras

Cavala

Peixe espadada preta, (I think)

and Bacalhau com Grão

There were desserts which, in your Blogger´s opinion, were overpriced but they did look good.

The service from the young lady who looked after us and took our picture as well was excellent.

The Statistics

are meaningless because mine include the bus trip, and the walking group split up anyway. But the bus reached nearly 53 kph on the flat.

Maybe next time Antje can fix us up with a train ride ?

Closing Music

A difficult choice this week. Because so many of us had gone for fish at lunch, I had thought of choosing the Fats Waller classic "I Want Sea Food, Mama!" However, in the end and because of the unusual end to the walk, I went for the classic Flanders and Swann hymn of praise to the London Transport (omni)bus.

Post-Scriptum Apologies

It has, post-publishing, been brought to my attention that I may have offended the sensitivities of some of our more delicate readers by including a photograph some might find inappropriate. If so, I am mortified and hasten to offer my apologies.

It comes of my having overconfidently entrusted the blog writing to Artificial Intelligence. In the AI brief, I had included Yves´s photographic skills, translation between English and Portuguese, and culinary images.  Nine times out of ten, it worked very well and I was totally relaxed about it .Too much so, and instead of what was intended to be a picture of "Bacalhau á Bras" what came out was one of Yves´s archive of slightly risqué pictures entitled "Cod in Bras."

This is the picture which should have appeared:-

 More palatable, I hope ????