Wednesday Algarve Geriatric Strollers: WAGS 17.01.2018:Not Much Happened at Casinhas

I find it quite a daunting task to contribute to this blog site when I realise that one is following in the literary footsteps of a deeply philosophical thinker whose recent meditations have ranged from sandcastles in Cornwall, over the merits of sem-alcohol beers, to the present-day social implications of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Paulo a Pé can mine unexpected riches from such themes but, although his ruminations on the Three Bears touch briefly on their toilet preferences, he doesn´t go overboard on the subject. For instance, on an earlier walk there was a lengthy and cultured discussion on the sanitary practices, or lack of, of the early Portuguese maritme explorers, some tenacious Hong Kong toilet paper, the comparatively enlightened construction of Roman lavatories, and the appalling lack of bidets in the UK but, since our Paulo can produce volumes from his own material, he felt that he had no need of any of that extra stuff.

Now, I have little idea how to emulate such discernment. The best I can do is resort to an old chestnut, i.e. how was this week´s walk publicised and wing it (i.e. make it up) from there on. If you recall, the walk announcement went like this:-

“Acting in response to imperial command of the Dragon Empress herself (a.k.a Myriam Lo), I kowtow and hasten to obey; I hereby confirm that I will be deeply honoured to lead the WAGS on their walk next Wednesday.”

Over bifanas after Rod´s walk the previous 10th January, Myriam had been at her most imperious when she decreed that I would lead this week´s walk – hence the light-hearted comparison to the Dragon Empress. Perhaps the tone of that publicity worked, because the turn-out was unusually large for WAGS at 15 and, if two potential walkers had not had to do airport runs (“Who flies in or out of Faro on a Wednesday?’”), we might even have had 17. But who was the real Dragon Empress?

Born in 1835, a Manchu not a Han Chinese, her name was Cixi. In 1851, she was one of the few winners of a selection process involving over 60 candidates vying to become concubines of the Xianfeng Emperor of China. (A similar sort of thing goes on today in Swaziland where every year the King selects a new wife from a group of competitively dancing virgins – he has currently got on to wife number 14.) The ranking system for concubines seems to have been almost as elaborate and mysterious as the pecking order among the WAGS is. Cixi started in the sixth rank as a concubine with the name “Noble Lady Lan”.Three years later, she was promoted to the fifth rank and was named “Imperial Concubine Yi “ Two more years, up she went to fourth grade as “Consort Yi.” One more year and there she was in the third grade as “Noble Consort Yi.” My source (Wikipedi, of couse) is discreetly silent about what skills she had to use to make such progress, but apparently she had the special ability, unusual among Manchu women, of being able to read and write Chinese.The Xianfeng Emperor entrusted her with passing state documents to his ministers and she made use of the opportunities this gave her to learn politics.

He died in 1861. He had a first rank wife but his heir was his 5 year-old son by Cixi.This son became the Tongzhi Emperor; both the formal wife and Cixi were promoted to the status of Empress Dowager – Cixi was now 27and by various machinations she became the power behind the throne, the phrase in use being “ruling from behind the curtain.” She didn´t like her son greatly and when he died aged 19, and his wife happened to die too around the same time, Cixi adopted her own 5 year-old nephew and he became the Guangzu Emperor. Incidentally, at one stage, the Guangzu Emperor tried to assassinate her and she put him under house arrest but, otherwise, they seem to have got on reasonably well for many years. Over the years, several other powerful people seem to have died, unexpectedly, suddenly and, for her, conveniently. So, when Empress Dowager Cixi died in 1908, she had in effect been supreme ruler of China for over 45 years. The Guangzu Emperor was presumably due to become her successor as real ruler of China although she didn´t much like his liberal, reforming and pro-Western leanings. But it just so happened that he died just one day before she did. Forensic tests in 2008 revealed that he did so because of acute arsenic poisoning. Oh dearie, dearie me!

She sounds as if she was a tough old coookie.

But enough of that; let´s move smartly on to the Starter photo.

Present, Standing:- Terry, Jill, Peter, JohnO, Chris, Lindsey, Rod, Ingrid, Paul, JohnH, Janette, Hazel, Tony, Geraldine,

Present, Enthroned:- Myriam.

Hounds:- At least 4 names which will be entered if I can be advised of them.

The indications had been that this was to be a cushy walk, which was probably why this experienced participant had swapped his hard-going Salomon 4D GTX Goretex Walking Boots for this softie pair – Salomon brand name unknown

Green countryside, blue skies - perfect scrumping weather.

After a small unrecce´d detour, our way was blocked by a sturdy gate; the Empress demanded admittance. A neighbouring landowner let her in and guided us up to his own personal Trig point where a traditional Trig photoshot was taken.

Hazel does a Maria.

The Landowner`s private pool?

Croissant manteiga, possibly.

Checking water supplies more and more necessary these days.

We went down into a small valley where Hazel spent some time collecting mushrooms. (Luckily for me, they didn´t look greatly appetising when we got them home, so they didn´t make it into the pot.)

“It was to be a Cottage with a Country View, but then he lost my blueprints.”

(with apologies to Fats Waller).

Another cisterna; inspecting, not jumping.

Trying a touch of that old black magic.

Peter managed to resist temptation.

Waiting for the bifanas.

By chance, Casinhas was open and in due course 10 bifanas appeared. The WAGS food critic gave them a score of only 5 out of 10, so they don´t merit a photo.

Photo caption, anyone?

The food was organised so that hoi polloi had consumed their common fare before her Imperial Excellence could eat in undisturbed seclusion, served with a fitting feast of roast pheasant, together with special decorative table mat et al, a dish that did merit a photo of its own for the archives.

So, as you can tell, not much did happen on the walk. However, we do have two tracks from Google Earth, the first very clear one being from Paul´s Garmin Oregon 5500, I guess, the second being from my SatMap 12.