Monday, 5 August 2013

Mid-life crisis


On my 25th wedding anniversary, I was in the grip of a mid-life crisis and told my wife:

"Darling, 25 years ago, we had a small old car, a tiny apartment, we slept in a sofa-bed and watched TV on a 14" black-and-white set. But every night I went to bed with a hot 25-year-old blonde."

I continued:

"Now we have a mansion, two Mercedes, a king-size bed and a 50" plasma TV. But I go to bed with a 50-year-old, grey haired woman. It seems to me that you're the one who's not evolving."

My wife, a very sensible woman, replied:

"I don't see a problem. You should leave home and find a hot 25-year-old woman who would like to go to bed with you. It would be my pleasure to make sure that you will, once again, drive a small old car, live in a tiny apartment, sleep in a sofa-bed and watch a small black-and-white TV..."

My mid-life crisis was cured immediately. Nothing beats the wisdom of a mature woman!

Sunday, 4 August 2013

Há caracóis

Dora arrived in Lisbon at 5 am and I arrived at the hotel around 2:30 pm. The room wasn't ready when she arrived, so she left her luggage at the reception and went out for a walk. She noticed many restaurants, bars and cafes displaying these signs, which mean "We have snails."



She told me about it and we were intrigued... were these caracóis similar to the famous French escargots? We decided we had to try them. We asked about caracóis everywhere. The answer was invariably that they had them but they were finished, we could try again in a couple of hours. On the last evening, we were walking in Praça da Figueira, doing some window shopping, when we spotted a restaurant with tables outside. Two women at one of the tables had a pile of empty shells in front of them. Caracóis! We asked them if they had enjoyed them and they said yes, so we sat down and ordered some.


The waiter, who was quite a character, informed us that they HAD some, but we'd have to wait an hour until they were available again. We couldn't leave Lisbon without trying the caracóis, so we ordered a couple of beers and waited. They arrived and looked nothing like escargots. They were tiny and looked like snails fresh from the garden, but in a sauce with some bay leaves.




We didn't know how to eat them, so we asked the waiter. He said that most people picked them out with toothpicks, but he had a different method, and asked if he could pick one of them to show us, we said of course, and he just sucked the critter straight from the shell. We started eating, using both methods. They were delicious, but there were far too many. We ate and ate and ate, but the pile stayed the same... Then a couple sat next to us and we noticed they were American. We started chatting to them.

They were from Saratoga, but had a house in the Algarve, where they had lived for many years. Their daughter was raised in Portugal, but decided to go to university in New York, so now they spend their time between the two countries. We asked them if they liked caracóis, they said yes, and we quickly asked for their help with our perennial pile. I mentioned my blogs and when a certain name came up, they burst out laughing: "What a ridiculous person!"

We had to leave because we had a reservation at another restaurant, but we really enjoyed the caracóis and meeting progressive Anne and Larry.

We had met another American earlier on the trip and he was very different from Anne and Larry. I'll tell you about him some other time.

[All photos are from google images.]

Friday, 2 August 2013

Back to normal... but a bit boring!

Today's post is late because we went to Brive to take Dora to the station. Her original ticket was from Uzerche, but she would need to change trains (with only 10 minutes to spare), carrying the luggage from hell (CC knows all about this type of luggage), so we decided to make life easier for her. We have just returned and the house feels very empty. We're going to the beach now because it's very hot.

I'll leave you with photos of last night's dinner.

Migas de pan, a Spanish peasant dish

Dora saying cheers and bye bye...

Thursday, 1 August 2013

Donzenac

There's a medieval extravaganza every year in Donzenac, on the first weekend in August. The residents get dressed in various medieval costumes, ranging from peasants and servants to the landed gentry and aristocrats. There are many stalls all around the village, where they show the popular trades of the time, such as blacksmiths, swordsmiths, falconry, etc. Many musical groups meander through the narrow streets, playing medieval instruments. There's also theatre and singing on the squares. On Saturday they roast a calf (or two) on the spit and have a banquet. On Sunday they serve the leftovers for lunch.

Unfortunately, Dora will return to Miami tomorrow and will miss all the fun. But we went to Donzenac yesterday and enjoyed the village in its natural state, which is better than nothing...











There are slideshows of previous fetes HERE. Just click on the poster of each year and enjoy!

[We attended the fetes on 2007 and 2008. If it's not too hot, we may go and have a look on Sunday.]

Wednesday, 31 July 2013

I can't resist cat humour

We're off to Donzenac for some sightseeing, and as I had saved a couple of funny pictures of cats, that will have to do...



Tuesday, 30 July 2013

Hobby

I saw this on Facebook and I think it's quite funny and a good alternative...


Monday, 29 July 2013

A quick funny picture

There's a storm approaching, so I can't stay connected very long. If another computer gets fried, the insurance company is going to have a fit...


Sunday, 28 July 2013

Lisbon

The trip to Lisbon was incredible! The Portuguese are very hospitable, funny and generous. Lisbon is a beautiful city, with little surprises around every corner. We tried to see as much as possible in four days, but it's a very tall order...

The food is fantastic, but we had to be careful after the first dinner. Somebody recommended a restaurant, praising the sardines, something my sister was very keen to eat. We arrived and there were only a couple of people in the restaurant, and they didn't look very happy. There were no sardines. We ordered some prawn rissoles for starters and they were still frozen in the middle. We sent them back and ordered Bacalhau à Brás. It wasn't too bad, but we had better before... The only nice part of the meal were the desserts. We decided that from then on, we were going to check the atmosphere of the restaurants, watch people's faces, see if they were eating with gusto. All the other meals were really good, it proved to be a good system.

I took my camera, but, for some inexplicable reason, I left it at the hotel for the first two days. Some of the photos were taken with my sister's i-Phone.


We had to pose next to Fernando Pessoa, a great Portuguese poet


This guy's make-up gave him the appearance of rubber. 
He would stay suspended like this for hours...



Torre de Belem

The Jeronimos Monastery

We went to this expensive restaurant for some good food and fado. We got neither... 
The food was mediocre and the woman couldn't sing to save her life! 
The guys playing the guitars saved the evening.

Entrance to the Museu do Azulejo (The Portuguese make the most wonderful wall tiles)

We think they took some mind altering substances in the XVIth century... 
This panel is about the marriage  of a hen, organized my a load of monkeys!

The leopard hunt. Please note the second leopard, waiting to look in the mirror. 



Castelo de São Jorge

We also visited Sintra, about 40 minutes from Lisboa by train. The old kings of Portugal had their summer palaces there. The village is very beautiful and well preserved.






We took a tour on a very old jeep and went to Cascais to get the train back to Lisbon.

This  is Cabo da Roca. It's the westernmost place in Europe

Dora has a cheeky smile

The next three photos are of a place called Boca do Inferno (Hell's Mouth). We found it quite dramatic.




I was so impressed with the friendliness of the Portuguese, so taken with the beauty of the country, that I wouldn't mind moving to Portugal...

Sunday, 21 July 2013

Beauty

Amy sent us a very large collection of photos and I selected a few for this post.






I'm going to Lisbon tomorrow to meet my sister for a few days of gastronomic indulgence. We'll be back here on Friday the 26th and she'll spend a week with us.

See you soon!