MARKETS AND QUIZZES

20th MARCH 2012

P&M departed following a lunch at a restauarant run by an aged frenchman with approx. 3 teeth left in his head. The €7.50 daily menu included a Bacalhau (salt cod) dish that the GF had to try with mixed results and I had the Boeuf Bourguignon which was superb. And these prices include 1/2 litre of wine, bread,olives,dessert & coffee.

Sunday saw the previously forgotten trip to Cacela to meet Bob & Carol which was a great success.Cycled to the station and caught the 9.41 train, the return trip €3.60 each which can't be bad for a 45min journey along the coast.. Bob & Carol had not forgotten and were there to meet us and show us the monthly street market that takes place on the 3rd sunday.Largest market I have ever seen and undoubtedly selling everything you could wish for and a few other things beside such as a horse,a new honda rotavator, live chickens & ducklings,snails,clams,salt cod by the ton,cheeses,meats,fruit&veg,clothes etc.etc stretching all round the town. Lunch was taken communally at long trestle tables under awnings erected for shade, in a large square where huge oil drums were bbq'ing whole chickens split in half and pork chops & ribs. You picked up plates of meat & bread as often as possible and refilled your cup from a wine box as required and when you had enough you asked someone how much you owed which was €5 a head. Great fun. Bob & Carol have a super apartment in the town bought 6 years for €125,000 when the euro converted to £85,000. 2 bedrooms etc, balconies and access to the flat roof from where you can see the beach and sea about 15 mins walk away whislt you cook lunch on the BBQ. Very nice. So we repaired to the bar downstairs for a couple of glasses before catching the 16.20 back to Olhao where our bikes where still chained to the railings.

Quiz night. I said I would explain the unusual quiz. First you play Bingo or not. Then you buy a quiz sheet for €5 which contains 4 games of 25 questions each. However, each game on your sheet has only 20 numbers and the 20 numbers are listed randomly. The questions are asked randomly so that in any game, 5 questions will be asked that do not have space on your sheet for an answer. Winner is the first person to correctly answer & complete a block of 5 consecutive questions on the their sheet for that game. Do keep up. So as people complete a block of 5 they go up to the front to be marked and if, as happens frequently, they have not got 5 correct answers in a block, the game continues. No alterations are allowed on sheets. The randomeness of this means that you can have blocks of 4 and still have to wait for the right question to come up in order to complete the blockand it gets very frustrating. Last week we got nearly every question right but never had anything like a block of 5. Anyway, this week not only did we win one game for the magnificent sum of €10 but we had another win on the bingo of €26 so we are well ahead of the game here, our winnings now totalling €71. Roll on Las Vegas.