AWW 20.01.2010: Romeiras: Rain and Revelry

NOT the Algarve’s first Gay Wedding!

Last week we went to the cinema in Portimao to see Julie and Julia, (no not Jules and Sandy) the film starring Meryl Streep as Julia Childs, and based on a blog written by the Julie in the title, Julie Powell played by Amy Adams. You can see much more info about the film by clicking HERE.

It occurred to me that I must have got it wrong – four years labouring on this AWW Blog series, and according to the Viewers Flag Counter installed in the left sidebar, two weeks ago, I have so far had 68 views in Portugal, 14 in GB, 7 in Germany and one each in US, Jordan and Malaysia. I suspect that more than a few are repeat viewings by the two ‘registered’ followers, and the foreign ones are mainly chancers seeking to persuade me to publish their ads for High Yield Investments in the Comments section!

Whereas, Julie Powell had thousands of viewers and followers for her Blog on attempting to cook the recipes of an odd-ball American cook of the ‘50’s!

So in an attempt to garner a wider audience, I have inserted the photo of two fairly recent septuagenarians jointly cutting a birthday cake, prepared by Antje, and placed among the remnants of some coriander-garnished sandwiches and sausage rings, prepared by Marg. If the chefs concerned were to publish their recipes in the Comments section, then I am sure that would boost our ratings!

The occasion was the ‘secret’ birthday party held after our ill-starred Romeiras walk, cancelled last week, mainly because one of the Birthday Boys had dropped out of the walk (and also a little bit of rain!!). Ian S. master-minded the social side, in his absence from walking because of his injury.

We now have four over-70’s in the active walking section of the AWW’s, and Myriam is working on producing a stat on average age for the walkers on each walk. If anyone knows Janet’s D.O.B. please advise Myriam, as it wouldn’t be fair to go on appearances!

Our Senior Member, Mike left for UK today to undergo repairs, for which we all wish him well, and hope he is back soon to boost the Geriatric Stats.

Not raining – yet!

As the 12 ‘in-the-know’ juniors, and the two ‘yet-to-be-surprised’ septuagenarians lined up for John H’s start photo, it was grey but dry, and promised a walk in fairly reasonable conditions. Rod even set off without his trusty brolly and also left his rain proof jacket in the car.

Leader: Paul

Birthday Chorus: John H., Hazel, Hilke, Lindsey, Dina, Yves, Rod, John O’., Ian W., Myriam, Alex, Janet and Chris.

Dogs: Maddy, Tiggy.

Track (Click to enlarge)

Stats:

Total Distance: 14.8 km.
Moving Time: 3 hrs 3 min.
Total Time: 3 hrs 35 min.
Moving Avg.: 4.8 km/hr.
Overall Avg.: 4.1 km/hr.
Total Ascent: 344 m.
Max Elevation: 387 m.

Walk rating (DoD): 2 *

Hazel could do it backwards.

My task was to design the walk to avoid any swimming, and so that we would be away from Casa Pacheco for about 4 hours, to give the ‘caterers’ time to set up. I had 3 options, 15, 18, and 22 km, and was hoping that most of the cast would be able to get round the 18km course in the prescribed time to get us into the 3* DoD., but alas, the going was soft and when the rain started to fall softly after the first climb, I had to curb my ambitions. It was Janet’s first walk back for over 3 months, and she promised to love me forever and not make any more sarcastic comments, if we curtailed it, but I can’t see that lasting!

Red, Amber and …..err… Red

The walk itself was fairly uneventful. apart from meeting one of Julie Statham’s staff doing a recce for her next walk………

……..but after an intense interrogation by Rod and a gang of hoodies, he was allowed to go on his way.
All too soon (about 3 hrs) we came to the option point, and as there were no less than 3 septuagenarians present ( and one had no waterproofs) I relented and took the shorter option. Having plenty of time now, I authorised a ‘banana break’ which was well received.

‘ave a banana!

Maddy, who was under Myriam’s care had managed to get quite muddy on the way round, and while Tiggy jumped in a small reservoir and washed herself, Myriam had to try and get Maddy in by throwing biscuits into the water.

You can just see Maddy sitting on the bank beside Myriam while she throws the bait in – she didn’t fall for it!

We were back at Casa Pacheco a dribble after 1 pm and the cake and food was only just being laid out – Ian S. had graciously managed to test the beer on our behalf already though. We were joined by Antje, Marg, Jyll ,Diane and Ian for the revelry.

Myriam charitably decided that she couldn’t return Maddy to Ian and Marg in her current condition, and did a full service!

Maddy wishing she had jumped in the water earlier!

It was a good spread…

Rod made a small speech, welcoming his fellows to the Geriatric Club, and there was a presentation to the Two John’s……….

….who duly posed with their ‘no-expense-spared’ gifts……

and displayed a sponsors logo!

Calculations were done under the Data Protection Act, and excluding Janet, who was rather coy, the average age of the walkers today was 23350.4 days or 63.9 years. Whether a contribution from Janet would have raised or lowered the average age is for you to guess (and comment). Now if Mike had been there and Alex had a day off then who can guess the result!

“I delight in men over seventy. They always offer one the devotion of a lifetime.” Wilde, Oscar

“To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.” Holmes, Oliver Wendell

“The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.” Eliot, T. S.

John H has added some acknowledgements:
Acknowledgements
As John O’ rightly said, the British are generous; so too are the Belgians, the Chinese, the French, the Germans, the Kiwis, the Portuguese, and those from Yorkshire to boot. Without their combined efforts, where would the Septuagenarians be?
But the AWW is, as we all know, a completely amorphous construct, with no discernable central identity at which a finger of blame could be pointed nor the occasional plaudit be directed. The AWW seems to function ( if that is not too positive a verb ) by way of a plethora of ad-hoc phantasmagorias, known to the cognoscenti as “sub-committees”. These sub-committees (SC) appear and disappear, rise and fall, as if of their own volition - unelected, unobligated, un-pinnable-down - spontaneously generated and dissolved - misty and mysterious - as demmed elusive as The Scarlet Pimpernel or, to be more prosaic, as inaccessible as the bureaucracy of the European Union.
Nonetheless, they do seem to get the AWW business done when it needs to be done. So, here, in no particular order of seniority (logically one can’t rank that which cannot be apprehended ) is a list of those insubstantial will-o’-the -wisps to which John O’ and I owe many thanks for last Wednesday’s post-ambulatory symposium:-
The walk-postponement and curtailment SC
The cryptic messages and subtle hints SC
The birthday cake SC
The sandwiches and sausage rolls SC
The photographic archives SC
The cod-Latin captions SC
The birthday cards SC
The picture framing and gift-wrapping SC
The pecan-nuts and avocados SC
The picnic plates and paper napkins SC
The “I can do you a speech at the drop of a hat” SC
The Lagos condominium dwellers’ arm-twisting SC
The AWW Travelling Supporters Club SC.
(E & O E)"