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.]