On returning from Portugal I find that the country has gone to the dogs.
Wales luckily defeat England at Twickenham, Boro extend their winning streak to six games only to be deducted 5 points by the FA for financial irregularities, the Welsh minnows Swansea beat the mighty Manchester City, whose players sitting on the bench are valued at more than the total assets of South Wales, and then, against all the odds, the young inexperienced Lions of England defeat the Frogs on their own patch.
Worst of all, Greene King, the brewery that changed their spots overnight from being a sleepy rural brewery in West Suffolk to a giant organisation hell bent on ruining the great English pub and beer tradition, have unveiled grandiose plans to convert The Fox, yes MY Fox!, to one of their pathetic “Greet and Eat” tart’s palaces!!!
And to cap it all our illustrious leader David Cameron has flown to America to meet with Mr. President, supposedly to plan their “End Game” in Afghanistan, but, with wife in tow, is swanning around in Airforce One watching grown men playing netball and what pearls of wisdom has he managed so far?
"He (Obama) is going to teach me how to fill in my brackets”.and
“Barack Obama has pressed the reset button on the moral authority of the entire free world.”
God help us!
I have to ask myself, “Why did I come back home?”
Which leads me back to our holiday.
We stayed in Fuzeta, a tiny fishing village situated in the East of the Algarve, in between Faro and Tavira, about 30km from the Spanish border and it was wonderful.
Fuzeta has two beaches. The first is a small beach on a lagoon in the town itself and is part of the Ria Formosa nature reserve which runs from Faro to Tavira.
The other beach is just across the lagoon on Ilha de Armona, accessible by ferry, extending left and right with miles of Atlantic sandy beach.
There are no hotels, no fancy bars, posh restaurant or theme pubs. No frills, just a few small street bars cafes, a daily indoor fish, meat and vegetable market and a couple of mini-markets. Being out of season it was very quiet and peaceful with very few tourists. The locals were very friendly and everything is ridiculously cheap, (litre of white wine 1 euro), and we brought back half of our euros.
There’s no bus service but an excellent rail link that runs right along the coast from Lagos in the west to Villa Real San Antonio on the Spanish border passing through Fuzeta.
The apartment we hired was superb, overlooking the lagoon and the nature reserve but only 10 minutes walk to the railway station, village square, beach and quayside.
Wales luckily defeat England at Twickenham, Boro extend their winning streak to six games only to be deducted 5 points by the FA for financial irregularities, the Welsh minnows Swansea beat the mighty Manchester City, whose players sitting on the bench are valued at more than the total assets of South Wales, and then, against all the odds, the young inexperienced Lions of England defeat the Frogs on their own patch.
Worst of all, Greene King, the brewery that changed their spots overnight from being a sleepy rural brewery in West Suffolk to a giant organisation hell bent on ruining the great English pub and beer tradition, have unveiled grandiose plans to convert The Fox, yes MY Fox!, to one of their pathetic “Greet and Eat” tart’s palaces!!!
And to cap it all our illustrious leader David Cameron has flown to America to meet with Mr. President, supposedly to plan their “End Game” in Afghanistan, but, with wife in tow, is swanning around in Airforce One watching grown men playing netball and what pearls of wisdom has he managed so far?
"He (Obama) is going to teach me how to fill in my brackets”.and
“Barack Obama has pressed the reset button on the moral authority of the entire free world.”
God help us!
I have to ask myself, “Why did I come back home?”
Which leads me back to our holiday.
We stayed in Fuzeta, a tiny fishing village situated in the East of the Algarve, in between Faro and Tavira, about 30km from the Spanish border and it was wonderful.
Fuzeta has two beaches. The first is a small beach on a lagoon in the town itself and is part of the Ria Formosa nature reserve which runs from Faro to Tavira.
The other beach is just across the lagoon on Ilha de Armona, accessible by ferry, extending left and right with miles of Atlantic sandy beach.
There are no hotels, no fancy bars, posh restaurant or theme pubs. No frills, just a few small street bars cafes, a daily indoor fish, meat and vegetable market and a couple of mini-markets. Being out of season it was very quiet and peaceful with very few tourists. The locals were very friendly and everything is ridiculously cheap, (litre of white wine 1 euro), and we brought back half of our euros.
There’s no bus service but an excellent rail link that runs right along the coast from Lagos in the west to Villa Real San Antonio on the Spanish border passing through Fuzeta.
The apartment we hired was superb, overlooking the lagoon and the nature reserve but only 10 minutes walk to the railway station, village square, beach and quayside.
If it sounds interesting, check out these links:
FUZETA VIDEO
APARTMENT
Nothing much happens during the day, the odd fishing boat comes and goes, and even less happens at night – except on Wednesdays!
On our first Wednesday evening we were sitting in a small bar on the quay called Bar O’Farol, basically an octagonal wooden hut, when the back doors were flung open and two burly locals started unloading drums, amplifiers, speakers and microphone stands.
Live music we thought, in Fuzeta, surely not. A scruffy local playing acoustic guitar perhaps, but not full electric band.
About half an hour later four long haired youths turned up and started tuning up their guitars and drums.
The bar started to fill up and in another half hour an elder guy arrived with two guitars and joined the group. We had seen him on several occasions walking his dog around the side streets.
It turns out that he is a top Portugese rock musician, born and still living in Fuzeta. His name is Domingos Caetano and is the lead singer and guitarist of a band called Iris. A few years ago he obtained a grant from the government to convert the disused cinema into a music academy and recording studio and aspiring young musicians from all over the Algarve come to the school for tuition.
So every Wednesday Domingos takes a few of his pupils to Bar O’Farol to give them the chance to play to a live audience.
By the time Domingos gets to the microphone the bar is packed.
“Hello, Hello, Hello,
Is there anybody out there?
Just nod if you can hear me,
Is there anyone home?”
Well, I had to pinch myself. Here we were in the sleepiest little backwater listening to live Pink Floyd music. And bloody good it was too. Domingos is an extremely talented musician and did most of the singing. He plays lead on the opening number then reverts to the bass or drums and leaves it to his young charges to take the leads.
What a great night, three hours of wall to wall Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Dire Straits and much more. Needless to say we were back for more the following Wednesday.
Here’s Domingos and Friends performing at Bar O’Farols:
Hey Ho!
