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Newsletter May 2006 - archive
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by: Karen Telling |
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The warm, sunny weather at the end of March continued into
the first few days of April, on Saturday 1st we took my mother-in-law to
Algar Seco Bistro for dinner – taking advantage of the lighter evenings to
admire the view of the coastline at sunset. The restaurant was very busy –
obviously lots of people had the same idea! The following day we had a
barbecue and it was warm enough for several of our guests to have a swim,
followed by an impromptu table tennis tournament - unfortunately we were
all beaten by a 13 year old!
The fine weather broke on Tuesday 4th; however the cooler temperatures and
sharp showers didn’t stop us having lunch at Bar Bacchus in Porches with
friends. The bar was busy as usual, and we enjoyed the home made soup and
enormous salads that they serve.
The good weather returned for the weekend and we took my parents and
mother-in-law to Galé beach for lunch, it was a beautiful day and the
beach was very busy with lots of people sunbathing and swimming, and
fishermen balancing precariously on the large rocks and boulders. We had
lunch at Pedras Amarelas beach bar, at first glance it appeared to be
full, but after a short wait we were shown to a table on the terrace with
a great view of the beach, and we spent a very pleasant few hours
people-watching and enjoying the delicious, fresh seafood.
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On Tuesday evening we went to Cheers for cocktails and
rosti – delicious and excellent value as usual, and the following evening
we were invited to a barbecue by Roy4eyes. His wife, Carol, was totally
unaware that her son was arriving for a surprise visit, and that Roy had
arranged the barbecue to welcome him. We had a lovely evening with some of
the other forum regulars, and Carol’s surprise (and maybe shock) was
evident as we all arrived with our contributions of salads, potatoes etc
to add to the mountain of sausages, chicken and ribs that Roy provided.
We took advantage of both us having a day off on Good Friday, and decided
to paint the living room. We got up bright and early, moved the furniture,
covered everything with dust sheets and got the paint and rollers out – to
save masking the windows my husband decided to take them out of the frames
– and we set to work. The morning had started out overcast, and the
weather quickly deteriorated until a howling gale was blowing rain through
the gaps where the windows should have been - of all the lovely days we
had had recently, we had to choose the wettest, coldest day to
re-decorate! That evening our reward for all our hard work was a few
cocktails in Rascals, it was still quite a blustery evening, but we had a
warm welcome from Rachel and Sergio.
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Fortunately the weather improved on Easter Saturday as the
big day had dawned at last – The Inaugural Carvoeiro.com Car Treasure
Hunt! We arrived at Fatacil to meet my parents – the other half of our
team – and collect our instructions, we were one of the last to set off
and were given the clockwise route, heading towards Portimão then turning
off towards Monchique. Our first stop was at the natural spring at Caldas
de Monchique, where we had to collect a sample of the famous water, then
on to Monchique itself in search of a ‘chopper’! From Monchique we climbed
up to Foía, the highest point in the Algarve – the views are spectacular,
but the temperature was noticeably lower than near the coast. We then made
our way down to the Quinta de São Bento where a very confused Portuguese
woman was wondering why they were suddenly so popular (the building was
previously the summer residence of the Portuguese royal family – the
answer to one of the questions).
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Registration - please find the photos
here |
One of our next stops was a bar in the middle of the countryside, where a
young boy was waiting for us. According to our instructions we were
looking for Wendolin, and although he didn’t speak any English he
indicated that we should follow him. We had no idea who Wendolin was, but
we went round the side of the bar, and up some steep steps cut into the
side of the hill, at the top we finally found Wendolin – a pig. And there
was us wondering if it was going to turn out to be the owner of the bar!
We went back to the bar and ordered a round of drinks while looking at the
general knowledge questions that we also had to answer. They all related
to Portugal and Portuguese history, fortunately my parents had recently
spent a weekend in Lisbon and they were able to provide the answers to
quite a few of the questions.
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Caldas da Monchiques / Wendolin - please find the photos
here |
We left the bar, and must have left our concentration behind too, as we
missed quite a few of the following clues, however, we thought we were
back on track when looking for the ‘orange seller’. We stopped at what we
thought was the right place and bought our kilo of oranges – but the clue
asked for the name of the woman selling the oranges, and we were served by
an elderly man! Undaunted we got back in the car only to see another
orange stall a few hundred metres further on, so we stopped again. This
time mum and dad got out, bought a kilo of oranges and asked the woman her
name – she looked at us as if we were mad so we gathered we still hadn’t
found the right place. Directly across the road was another fruit stall
and the couple there seemed to be looking at us expectantly, so we turned
the car round and bought yet another kilo of oranges. This time the woman
happily told me her name, which was quite unusual, and even spelt it for
me so we got back into the car satisfied that we had answered that
question correctly at last.
We headed back to Fatacil and dropped mum and dad off to go home and walk
their dogs, whilst we went into Carvoeiro to pick my mother-in-law up as
she was going to accompany us back to Fatacil for the dinner and prize
giving. We were almost last to get back and arrived just as the soup was
being served. After the first course had been cleared away Thunderbolt and
Gambrinus started handing out the prizes – unfortunately we didn’t win
anything but forum regular Steve and his family, ably assisted by their
golden retriever, were the winners.
During the rest of the meal we compared answers with the other teams, and
found that we didn’t do too badly overall, but despite 3 visits and 3
kilos of oranges we still hadn’t found the right orange seller! I wonder
what those three stallholders thought we were doing, buying 1 kilo of
oranges from each of them – and none of them were in on the joke!
The meal continued with a choice of main course, followed by a selection
of desserts, coffee and liqueurs, the food was plentiful with waiters
continually re-filling our plates and replacing empty wine bottles with
full ones – unbeatable value and an ideal place for us to end up to
discuss the day. I understand the party continued at Rascals, but,
lightweights that we are, we went straight home to put our feet up.
Roy4eyes, Gambrinus and Thunderbolt had spent months organising the event,
and thanks to them, we raised 500 euros for the orphanage in Albufeira, as
well as having a lot of fun in the process.
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Roy4eyes / Fatacil - please find the photos
here
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the winning team - please find the photos
here |
Easter Sunday was another beautiful, sunny day and we took my
mother-in-law to my parents’ house, where we enjoyed a lovely lunch
sitting out on their terrace in the peace and quiet of the countryside.
The following week continued warm and sunny and we ate out at Maxines on
Monday evening with friends, Bella Vita on Tuesday, A Vela on Friday and
Ele Ela on Saturday – all excellent as usual. The weekend turned cloudy
and showery, and unusually for here, we had a ‘uk style’ barbecue on
Sunday – dodging the clouds and the showers - although it stayed dry for
us to eat outside in the afternoon.
The last week of the month was warm and sunny again, Tuesday 25th was a
bank holiday commemorating the anniversary of the revolution in 1974, so
the village was busy with quite a few North Portuguese taking advantage of
the long weekend. As it was my mother-in-law’s last evening we went to O
Cantinho for dinner, then on to Havana for a nightcap. The next day my
husband picked her up in plenty of time for her flight back to Gatwick, he
waited while she checked in and made sure everything was ok before
returning home. I was checking the Faro website departure board, expecting
to see the flight was boarding, when it suddenly flashed up ‘cancelled’!
At first we wondered if they had made a mistake, but after a call to the
airport we found out that the incoming flight had been diverted to Lisbon
due to fog at Faro. The airline planned to take the passengers to Lisbon
by coach, but as it was already 9.30 in the evening we decided to go back
and pick her up, and re-book her flight for the following evening. I know
she had enjoyed her stay, and had talked about extending her visit, but
what a way to squeeze in an extra day’s holiday! Thankfully the flight
took off on time the following day without any further problems.
On Saturday 29th we were back at the airport – my husband was flying back
to the UK for ten days, leaving me in sole charge of the house and
animals, and hoping for a quiet and uneventful week!
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