Just taking pictures

All the photos shown below were all taken with in an hour time. I´ve been meaning to take photo of a plane landing in the airport nearby since we arrived in Madeira and by luck it all happened early morning on our last day while i was in the balcony waiting for the sunrise.To my disappointment,no sunrise view as it was a cloudy day but instead I was entertained by the arrival and take off of the folowing planes and also the boat and ships passing by the sea. Guess, it was my lucky day!!



The arrival and landing of the plane passing so close to the hotel



And these were photos taken of a plane positioning and getting ready for take off



A patrol boat and a naval ship by the sea also crossing during that period.Hubby and I wondered why



Ferry on the left side is Porto Santo and the other is called "Nave" which is actually an old ship, for tourist who would like to experience a ride the old way in a sail ship and like the Porto Santo transports tourist at the nearby islands.

Bits and Pieces

During the wet,gloomy days of last week,i decided to take advantage of the rain to clean the balcony where i have a small place for my plants.Its the only open area i have and also for hanging washed clothes.

As its difficult for me to clean that area with out using plenty of water and detergent aside from following rules and regulations re: this matter, that we can only water our plants,clean and let the water run thru the balcony drainage at 8:00 Pm till 8:00 AM which is not practical because there are still people who arrives and also leave for work at this time.(I´ve already received complaints from neighbours who got wet not noticing the dripping water above them)



Anyway,removing old plants and planting new ones to flower in spring was my porpose. To my surprise,i discovered that i had a crop of sweet potato in one of the flower pots.Although i know that they normally yield crop when planted ,i still did´nt expect them to grow in a limited space as this pot.
!!!.
For this,i got encouraged and now i tried to experiment planting this..does anyone recognize it? Its that headpiece of pineapple.We´ll see if i can get this to bear fruit.AM I ASKING TOO MUCH? Just wishing....
Oh!!Weeks ago, i also planted a seed of lemon and its now growing in this pot as seen next to the pineapple plant.

Now,i´m on to herb plants,already bought seeds of parsley,coriander,basil and thyme. They are already in a covered bed ,just waiting for them to start to grow the first 4-5 leaves then i´ll transplant them to thier own pots.

Oh,how i really wish to have my own organic herb and vegetable garden!!!I can only do this backhome to my homeland ( still dreaming and wishing for hubby to come to terms)

By the way,we´ve already eaten the sweet potato yesterday..I prepared a pork loin baked in the oven with small young onions and dried seedless plums(pork is marinated in garlic,paprika,thyme,salt,juice of lemon and orange)accompanied and served with baked sweet potato and rice with garlic and almonds. As for the gravy,you can add white wine,madeira or port wine in the baking pan where the meat was baked.This gives a delicious gravy!!

Rainy days are here again!

Have you ever experienced waking up at night confused because of something that you hear while deeply sound asleep? I did at dawn this morning! Rumbling thunder,lightning and torential rain beating at the shutter window,and also accompanied by the firemens sirene! What a night!!

Water can still be seen in part of the school near our building

This winter,it did´nt rain so much but as the saying goes "When it rains,it really pours" and its what happened today and as the weather forecaster said until the next 3 days.

So,what do we do at home on cases like this? Cant do much ...but i´ll be busy anyway as i have an appointment with my doctor after lunch.

Speaking about lunch,i´m longing to prepare and eat "Portuguese Cozido(boiled)" which consist of pieces of chicken,pork belly,spare ribs,veal meat.Aside from the meats,different types of "Enchidos" like chouriço de carne(pork meat)chouriço de sangue (blood chouriço similar to the english black puding) morcela (meat and blood)farenheira(pork meat and fat and bread).The chouriços are also boiled apart from the meat.Oh,i almost forgot! All these are eaten with rice, boiled with the water from where you boil the chouriços,boiled white beans,boiled vegetables like carrot,cabbage and turnips.

You must be saying "WHAT? ALL THIS FOOD IN ONE MEAL? Yes,its true!Im not joking,we eat all this in just one meal.Even if it has to be a just piece of each of all the ingredients i mentioned above.That will be still a lot of things in your plate.Of course eating cozido will not be the same if you dont have a good portuguese red wine to go with it.
This photo shows the different types of chouriços

So,you see,how can i go on diet in this country? My husband would tell me,EAT! its a diet food because they are all boiled! True,except that the chouriços are with pork fat.Anyway,i really like this dish and i always try to eat more vege than the meat itself.Now im getting hungry and i have no more time to prepare this dish so i´ll just eat some leftovers from the week end.Besides,the doctor advice me to reduce my weight of 74.5kgs( need to reduce 10 kgs.How?HELP!) with my 1.69 height and take care of my diet as im on medication due to high blood pressure.I just check my BP now its 153/93 a bit lower than yesterday.Guess i must control my cravings for "Cozido" LOL!!

By the way,as for the filipino readers,"Cozido" is similar and a richer version of our more simple "Nilaga" in Philippines.Whenever i go on holiday to my country ,i usually bring with me chouriços to make my nilaga at home prepared the portuguese way and my family adore it!!They always asked me to bring chouriço and bacalau (cod fish)and also caned sardines.

Back to reality...We also started our day without water and no cable tv.The later is not important but water yes! Its a good thing hubby realized the situation when he got up earlier than usual that he managed to save a bit of water for his bath. And myself? I always have a reserved of 2 containers with 5 liters each of water on standby in cases like this.

I heard on the radio that a lot of flooded areas in Lisbon,an old building collapse. that made some people homeless and landslide by the riverside has also taken two lives and the usual heavy transit all around.

In Your Eyes

">

I enjoyed this song and video of Peter Gabriel,i hope you do too!!!

Tauromaquia ( Bullfight )

Bullfighting or tauromachy ( from Greek tauromachia ),Spanish toreo as in "corrida de toros" or "tauromaquia" in portuguese tourada is a traditional spectacle of Spain, Portugal and several latin american countries.Its órigin is unknown although there are some inconclusive theories about its origin.


This building is called "Praça de Touros do Campo Pequeno",the bull ring of Lisbon built in the year 1892 and has a capacity for 9,00 people and wherein i first witness my first bullfight.Till now,it is still being used for the same porpose and other events during summer.Renovated in 2006 to add some shops and restaurant inside and around the building.

The tradition, as it is practiced today, involves professional performers (in Spanish "toreros or matadores", in Portuguese "toureiros") who execute various formal moves with the goal of appearing graceful and confident, while masterful over the bull itself. Such maneuvers are performed at close range, and conclude often with the death of the bull by a well-placed sword thrust as the finale. In Portugal the finale consists of a tradition called the pega, where men (forcados) try to hold the bull by its horns when it runs at them. Forcados are dressed in a traditional costume of damask or velvet, with long knit hats as worn by the campinos (bull headers) from Ribatejo.

Bullfighting generates heated controversy in many areas of the world, including Spain. Supporters of bullfighting argue that it is a culturally important tradition, while animal rights groups argue that it is a blood sport because of the suffering of the bull and horses during the bullfight

Potuguese style bullfight


Most Portuguese bullfights are held in two phases: the spectacle of the cavaleiro, and the pega. In the cavaleiro, a horseman on a Portuguese Lusitano horse (specially trained for the fights) fights the bull from horseback. The purpose of this fight is to stab three or four bandeirilhas (small javelins) in the back of the bull.


In the second stage, called the pega ("holding"), the forcados, a group of eight men, challenge the bull directly without any protection or weapon of defense. The front man provokes the bull into a charge to perform a pega de cara or pega de caras (face grab). The front man secures the animal's head and is quickly aided by his fellows who surround and secure the animal until he is subdued. (This part is what scares me most)

The bull is not killed in the ring and, at the end of the corrida, leading oxen are let into the arena and two campinos on foot herd the bull along them back to its pen. The bull is usually killed, away from the audience's sight, by a professional butcher. It can happen that some bulls, after an exceptional performance, are healed, released to pasture until their end days and used

Football Night!!!

.
This sunday 03.02.08 was raining all day in most part of Portugal.A day we chose to watch a football game between teams that hubby and I suports ( hubby on one side and I on the other)after so many years of absence in the stadium.We just renewed our membership in a club called FC Belenense in Belem,where we regularly use their swimming pool facilities for our exercise.
Photo of the stadium before the game

The stadium is located in the historical area of Belem where the 500 yr old Tower of Belem and Jeronimos Monastery is also located,From the stadium,we can also view the River Tejo,the Ponte 25 de Abril brige and the Cristo Rei facing the river.


Day before the game,hubby asked me if i would like to watch football in the stadium and i answered.." I prefer to watch the game on TV besides,i heard a weather forecaster saying that tomorrow will be rainy and windy day!" He argued we need a change and enjoy the game live in open air,so i gave in and we bought the ticket.
I was never exposed to football games before( in Phil.we like to watch basketball) until i met hubby, we were still in Dubai at that time.And as i have this shirt that i like to wear a stripe of green and white color,he always remind me of a club in portugal who wears that color Club is SCP(Sporting Club of Portugal).Since then i became a fan of this club..Team in green and white is Sporting and blue and white is Belenenses team

Policemen with his dog around the premises Team playing that evening is FC Belenense/Sporting Club of Portigal.Hubby is a faithful suporter of the club being a hockey player of Belenense in his young days.And I became a Sporting fan since my arrival in Portugal just to tease hubby and to contradict him.

This half naked guy with the flag is an avid fan of Belenense,he likes to exhibit his bare torso even on a cold winter day

The day has come,we both prepared ourselves to face the cold,windy and rainy night.We left home 30 minutes before the game starts ,hubby tried to get a parking space closer to the stadium but it was not possible.Anyway, we did´nt mind walking a bit..At the entrance gate we showed our ticket to a person in charge,few steps ahead was a police control where we were body search for dangerous weapons( just like in the airport control,really!!)another check point for ticket then we were inside.

And myself all geard for the ocassion with some men in the background curious and speaking about me until they made up their mind and decided to think that im a chinese in transit,came to watch football for experience so that i can tell my people backhome in china about european football.GRRRRR!! Cant they hear hubby speaking with me in Portuguese? And i also have to put up with all their screamings and swearing when the referee makes mistake and so and so forth...
Anyway,luckily for us, rain threathened us a bit but later stoped all through the game.I also did´nt feel much cold although it was about 13ºc and my team lost and hubby happy about his team winning 1-0 over my sporting.

Well that is football,who marks a goal wins!! Better luck next time...

D-Day Of an Sport Event

Jan.4,2008 THE LISBOA- DAKAR RALLY ( originally Paris-Dakar rally),a yearly event that started few years ago here in Lisbon wherein the area of congregation is in Belem and about 5-10 minutes drive from where i live


Hubby and I prepared early morning to go to Belem to watch the participants leave Lisbon to start their adventure to Africa.Unfortunately for them,while on our way to their venue,we heard on the radio that the event was cancelled.

The dakar rally is about endurance and navigation skills of the partucipants like motorbikes,cars,trucks and quads,incliding 15 stages.The rally starts in Lisbon and ends in Dakar.

The organizer of the event has to cancel due to terrorist threat to the participants that the organizer cannot control and protect them from these threats without the help of the proper authorities especially in the areas when they cross the african villages,the forrest and the sahara desert
And it seems that the goverments in concern could not guarantee the participants safety as even their own soldiers on patrol in the desert went also into trouble and been killed and so with another incident in December last year that a French family was also killed somewhere in Mauritania i think.

It must have been a big disappointment and losses to all the participants and their sponsors when the event was cancelled but hubby and I had fun that day as you can see in the last photos,we get to take our ride to the desert too!
Myself on my own journey

And hubby showing his joy with his trophy.

Latest information i heard was that the organizers decided to change the course of the event for next year.It will no longer go to Africa but instead will start as usual here in Europe and ends in South America.