WAGS 2025.03 26; How Fortune Does Banter Us, or Is There Anyone Out There?

 First of all, let me get this week´s strangest photographs out of the way before I continue.

As to the heading for this week´s Blog, not much of note happened on this last walk, (except perhaps that, although we as AWWs and as WAGS have walked from Café Martins on many occasions and although Hilke as AWW and as WAG  has also walked with us on many occasions, this was actually the first time she had walked from Café Martins. I hope that she enjoyed the surroundings.)

Well, since nothing much had happened, I thought that I would write something about our "banter" during the walk. Then, for some reason, I happened to look at Blogger and clicked on last week´s Blog for 19th March and found that, as late as 5 pm on 31st March2025, only one person had bothered to read that Blog. only one reader ! and that reader may well have been me !!!

I wondered if I had been black-listed by the WAGS Mafia for stepping over the mark. Yes, I had possibly been cheeky, perhaps slightly offensive about Myriam  and about Lesley, and was now reaping what I had sowed. But no, they would have had to have read the Blog to see my insolence and they obviously hadn´t. So, neither blacklisted nor sent to Coventry. Pure and simple, just ignored.

Ah well. The conclusion is obvious. If nobody is going to be bothered to read these Blogs, I can write what I alone want and I need pay no heed to what I think that the non-readers might like to read. So here goes.

First off, I thought that I would look up quotations about the word "banter" itself. I had imagined that banter was quite a modern English word. There are quite a few modern quotations using the word, including one by that smug know-it-all ,the recently knighted Stephen Fry, but I will not waste space on him.

Instead I have hit on one by Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678 - 1751) who was that rare thing, an English Jacobite. He is remembered inter alia for having written "What a world this is, and how does Fortune banter us." Then there is Edmund Burke, (1729 - 1797) like Bolingbroke a statesman and philosopher, who wrote "All Government is founded on compromise and banter." If people had listen to Burke then, America would most likely be a member of the British Commonwealth like Australia and Canada. Hey ho.

Time for a break.

The Starters

As we went, we could see the progress or lack of, of many of the new Poço Frito buildings.

In November 224

Glass added

 is from Jean de la Bruyere (1645 - 1696) who, although he sounds a bit like a French cheese, was in fact a philosopher who wrote "Banter is often a proof of want of intelligence." I haven´t yet worked out how it was that Jean wrote that in English or what the 17th Century French word for Banter was but let that rest, except to say I disagree with him.

Why?

Because on last week´s walk alone the following topics were ´´bantered" about.

The Isle of Man and the Jersey parliaments. 

The explorers, Marco Polo, Ibn Batuta and Marshal Zheng Ho.

Flowers various.

Assisted dying.

 Grammatical particles (again, briefly and finally).  "What Ho ! Jeeves."

New Houses. 

Car Parking - Patricia our hostess at Café Martins had been eloquent on the subject earlier on.

The Northern Territories of Australia and their welcoming ethos. 

Canela, orange blossom and rape seed oil.

The abundance of sunshine, and hold luggage. The value of second hand cars.

Cats and rabbits, and who eats who?

Broken zip flies and paper clips.

All male ballet corps in Swan Lake. 

More flowers and trees.

Our big tree in April 2015 

Our big tree today.

Lesley took pictures of us by the tree but her agent hasn´t released them yet

but now they have been released.

Myriam found a big tree and ....

and then she and Maria hugged it.

We met an Aguas do Algarve water engineer who let Myriam and Rod see inside his control room

This was the control panel controlling water in the Silves aquifer. How, we don´t know.

Later on we came across a new stretch of tarmac - more tracks are disappearing.

Freshies and Salties. 

Freshies are Australian fresh water crocodiles - if you see one, no need to run because they do not attack humans. Salties are Australian sea water crocodiles - if you see one, don´t bother to run - it´s seen you and it´s already too late.

Chinese computers and their limitations.

Merino wines.

Yes, I know, Merino normally refers to a type of sheep and the wool therefrom which Rod swears by (although there are reports that New Zealand possum fur/merino blend is superior) but in this case it is an Alentejano vinho tinto. 

And these were only some of the things that were talked about within my earshot. Doubtless there were countless other topics discussed among the other walkers, all of which goes to show that Monsieur Jean de la Bruyere´s remarks about banterers´ lack of intelligence were wide of the mark. 

The Track and the Statistics

The Lunch

For once, there were no non-walking friends waiting for us and champing at the bit for their lunch when we got back to Café Martins which we did almost exactly at noon.

Omelettes were in demand

The frango received a thumbs-up

And of course, there was arroz de pato

and a special arroz de pato con salada

Desserts were colourful and showed some flair