St. Patrick's Day
Paddy's day came and went and to be honest I would hardly have noticed it, except that the mother of one of my students thought I would be 'lonely' as she looked it up on the Web and read that it was our national holiday and a big deal.
She insisted on having me to lunch - very nice of her but she doesn't speak English so it was a strange affair.....steer clear of the parents I say!
It seems to be the norm in Portugal for people to make a career out of a waiter's job. Which means all the restaurants (particularly in Espinho) have the good, the bad and lots of the elderly waiting tables.
Very different to Ireland. It also means that between the 'crisis' as the Portuguese put it (recession is way too nice a word - 'we are in crisis!), and very little turnover in the hospitality/tourism area, students find it very difficult to get jobs during the year or in the summer. And, putting it very diplomatically, some of these career waiters have obviously decided they've had enough of the 'public' and just go through the motions. They remind of of the two grumpy old men in the Muppets.
Neighbourhood Aesthetics
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| Matilde and her mum Jacinta, proud as punch at the 'traditional' St. Patrick's Day feast they produced!! |
She insisted on having me to lunch - very nice of her but she doesn't speak English so it was a strange affair.....steer clear of the parents I say!
Old waiters never die.....
It seems to be the norm in Portugal for people to make a career out of a waiter's job. Which means all the restaurants (particularly in Espinho) have the good, the bad and lots of the elderly waiting tables.
Very different to Ireland. It also means that between the 'crisis' as the Portuguese put it (recession is way too nice a word - 'we are in crisis!), and very little turnover in the hospitality/tourism area, students find it very difficult to get jobs during the year or in the summer. And, putting it very diplomatically, some of these career waiters have obviously decided they've had enough of the 'public' and just go through the motions. They remind of of the two grumpy old men in the Muppets.
Neighbourhood Aesthetics
All of the apartments and houses here have outside window shutters, which you control from inside. They use them to protect against (a) heat and (b) sun damage to the window sills and everything in the sun’s path. But a lot of people seem to keep them down constantly, whether the sun is coming in on that side or not. It makes the streets look like a military barracks. When I first came here I thought it was a ‘dead’ town. Not as noticeable in somewhere like Porto with lots of shops but I’m surrounded by small apartment buildings. I don’t think the apartment across the street has EVER had theirs open (hail, rain or shine).Graffiti
Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere you look - Espinho/Porto - it's endemic. Everyone comments on it when they first come to Porto and then it kind of blends in and you hardly notice it. A lot of it is social/political commentary but much of it is simply random crap - or is it 'art'?? Here are a few examples - I particularly like the one of Angela Merkel robbing the banks!
When I mentioned it to a Portuguese friend she said she had never noticed it was so bad until an American pointed it out and then she really began to see it everywhere she went.
I suppose it depends on your point of view but sometimes it can look awful (bit like tattoos......some are tasteful and then.....you've got Mr. Beckham). What can I say? it's all in the eye of the beholder.
Bare Naked Ladies Nr. 1.......
Well, trees actually. They really prune/cut the trees back here - I've never seen anything like it. Apparently it is to encourage better growth in spring. Although spring has definitely come to some parts of Espinho (love those Birds of Paradise), this is how the plane trees look right now - looking forward to seeing them when in full bloom. These ones in front of the church look as if they're paying homage to the Gods....
Bare Naked Ladies Nr. 2.....or....auld wans in the swimming pool
Ok, so the swimming pool I go to seems to be mainly occupied by auld wans (for the uninitiated that means old people - wan generally referring to the female of the species).
They barely move in the pool but I have to say, they have fun - and they laugh and shriek (and I mean SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEK) in the changing rooms after their aqua 'aerobics' session. They are all shapes and sizes. I'm not dissing old people or anything (hell, according to my students, young is 0-25, middle aged is 25-40 and old is 40+!) but most of these unabashed and unself-conscious ladies of 70, 80+ years of age run around naked with all their wobbly, knobbly bits jiggling all over the place. You may be familiar with the expression 'where are her boobs' (answer: 'they've gone south'). In the changing room you'd be hard pressed to stop with South - South Pole more like it!
Travelling Fool.....SPAIN:
Santiago de Compostela: sadly I never made it to the Hash weekend away in Santiago in March. I had to work on Saturday morning and no one was driving up in the afternoon. That's one of the drawbacks of English language teaching, it usually includes Saturdays in one shape or form so weekends are impossible to arrange. But cannot complain as I have the life of Reilly during the week with lots of free time. By all accounts it was a great weekend. Maybe I'll get up there myself at some stage.
BELGIUM
AUSTRIA
Holzgau//Warth: I couldn't see myself spending the two-week Easter school break in snoozy Espinho, so headed to the slopes - my 'second home' in Holzgau in the Tirol. It turned out to be a good move, (particularly as the weather in Portugal was pretty awful during the break).
The snow was terrific for that time of year - visibility not great all the time but you can't have everything. It was brilliant to catch up with everyone. I can honestly say it is the place I feel most comfortable in (besides Ireland). 
There are so many great places around the world, some much easier than others to live in (weather, finances, etc.), but this does it for me. A small village in beautiful surroundings with lots of friends and acquaintances. In particular Josef, Helga and their ever-expanding family. My friends' kids are now having kids themselves and I'm beginning to feel like the granny from Ireland!
I speak reasonable German and have picked up the local dialect over the years but was surprised when I attended the local play (a farce set in Holzgau) which was performed using the local dialect and I understood about 95% - it was terrific, and unbelievable when you consider it is a small village with about 400 inhabitants.
New baby Maximilian for Lukas and Helgid and another on the way for Maria and Tomas in early June.
For fun, Helga, Josef and I discussed at length how it would work out when I retire and go to live with them - we started the blueprint for successful living a trois....we set up a column each to record our contribution to the household. Josef and Helga's columns contained tasks like cleaning, cooking, ironing, shoe-polishing, plant watering, etc., all the things Austrians LOVE to do to keep everything spic and span. My column contained having fun as the main task, with a bit of cooking under the 'all three' column as a token gesture. We'll update the blueprint on a regular basis!
Thanks again Mr. O'Leary - Ryanair flights this time from Porto to Memmingen in southern Germany where I was picked up and dropped off.
That's about it for now. The teaching is still going strong. We're on the home stretch now - finishing on June 17th. The teenage groups are still driving me demented and it will be a fight to the finish as to who survives until year end. I still don't have a clue as to what I'm going to do after that but I have a couple of ideas I'm working on (it felt good writing that - whether or not it's actually true and I'm being proactive about it is another matter).
No travel planned between now and June 17th, but the weather has suddenly picked up in Espinho, after being quite unsettled since Christmas - although nothing like the rest of Europe. It was always mild (about 12-14 deg) which made it very comfortable, even if it did rain a fair amount. I seem to have missed the two really bad bouts of rain during the Christmas and Easter breaks, thank God.
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| Long-term forecast from Sunday 13th April! |
But today took the biscuit....at least 20 deg with brilliant sunshine - and here's the forecast for the following week - bring it on......!
Looking forward to -
- Walking home while it's still light in the evening after classes and heading to the sea for the sunsets
- Lots and lots of great fresh fruit and veg at the market
- Signs life in Espinho - it will start to come alive over the next month or so (hopefully)
- Deciding what I'm going to do after June!
- Fio coming for a visit at the end of May for a few days....I'll put my tour guide hat on for Porto and the surrounds
- Swimming in the sea (when those big bad waves aren't crashing down on me).
Until then........throw off the winter mantel and get out and embrace spring (no matter how chilly it is!). I'll finish with some random images of Porto, Espinho and the surrounds....
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| These guys are having fun in the park |
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| Lighthouse at Aguda near Espinho Fantastic breaking wave action at high tide |
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| Fallen petals in the grounds of Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art
And finally, the cloaked university ladies putting on a show
down by the river in Porto. Loads of groups of students do
this on a regular basis to raise money for various things. This lady
was on a roll.........giving it welly - Riverdance where are you?!
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