Food for your thought

I just thought i´d post something different today..This video was sent to me thru e-mail.

Its about a phone call made by a 13 year old boy whose name is Logan.He lives on a ranch in a small town of Nebraska and he listens to a Christian Radio Station that broadcast from Houston Texas. He called the radio station distraught because he had to take down his calf. His words have wisdom beyond his years.

Since airing the audio of the phone call and now the making of a video clip,it had taken a life of its own and now its being forwarded all over the world.

So young yet so wise...

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Dinner date with a friend and market visit in Funchal

The pleasant day tour was over..As we arrived back to the hotel,hubby received a call from a childhood friend, daughter of his parents close friend in Madeira whom we never saw again since her last visit to our home in Lisbon 15 or 16 yrs ago
She invited us to have dinner with her and will come to pick us up in the hotel within an hour time, hubby accepted.

We had dinner in a place where have been during our day tour that day. As we had fish for lunch,she decided to take us to restaurant where they serve only meat called "Vila de Carne"( village meat) We had meat barbecue,mix salad,milho frito(prepared corn flour mixture,cut into pieces then fried,delicious!) baked sweet potato drizled with honey,local red wine and as for dessert,we had maracuja(maracock fruit) puding.


Before dinner,she brought us in her nice apartment which is in the city center of Funchal and overlooking the the port area.

On her beautiful and well prepared dining table,she had a blue pitcher with liquer,a prepared "aguardente" (brandy or white spirit) sweetened and flavored with any fruit the makers desired.This one taste tangerine and i like it!

Ahh, as the tradition calls in Madeira,every house during the christmas season must have a "Bolo de Mel" (honey cake).In the continent( as they call the people from Lisbon) we have "Bolo Rei" Kings cake. They said that this cake Bolo de Mel, must not be cut with knife instead, use your fingers to cut a piece to eat and so we did.

We had a goodtime and fulfilling day!!

Note: Photos of liquer and cake was not taken in her home,we bought them in the
airport.
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Next day,we hit the road again to visit Funchal at daylight.Our first stop was the "Mercado dos Lavradores" (Farmers market),buying fruit to take with us on a cable car ride to the "Monte" and to see the city of Funchal from above.

I bought three types of fruit that we seldom see in Lisbon. One of them is this one called "Banana Ananas" banana pineapple fruit.And this is how it looks and it really taste banana pineapple.


Hubby likes to see what they have in the fish area and so we went there.


This is what i saw,"peixe espada" a black swordfish (dressed and undressed)that i already know and like to prepare two different ways,fried fish filete serve with tomato rice and another way is also fried served with tomato and onion sauce,boiled potato or fried corn. As far as i know it can only be fished in this part of the world.
A group of tourist watching a fish vendor cleaning and preparing a big salmon with that look of fascination, some are taking pictures and video. I was more fascinated watching their faces, lol!!
Before i came to Portugal i only know the silvery colored swordfish,the black swordfish as i´ve been told only exist in Madeira. In this country,i have also learned to eat fish and shellfish that we never eat in Philippines.

This post is becoming long again,´i will continue next time about the cable car ride .

Sightseing in Madeira Part 3

We left Ribeira Brava at about 11:30 AM.We drove back to the highlands,passing thru a long winding roads while the fragrance of eucalyphtus trees fill the air.

I saw some herds of cows grazing along the way while some are moving towards the other side of the road.We even waited for a few who decided to rest on the roadside while another two decided to rest in the middle of the road.(did´´nt have the chance to take picture,thingking that hubby did so)

Anyway after half an hour of zigzag roads,i was relieved to know that we have to stop for a drink in a Hotel/restaurant at Paul da Serra.The restaurant is called Jungle restaurant and i´ll show you the reason why.
Can you see the couple behind me?That´s King Kong and son guarding the buffet table.

Whereas on another side,hubby was not aware of the danger behind his back.A big elephant coming towards him!There are other animals around like a panther and a lion.Lots of birds too!

The bar on one side offers local drinks such as "poncha" (punch),"caipirinha"(famous brazilian drink),"pé de cabra" (not sure what it was).A leg of "Presunto"(cured ham) on the counter is served upon order as an appetizer.I was so thirsty but i only wanted to drink bottled spring water.

From here ,our next stopover was a site where we got down to view the whole town of Porto Moniz

Statue of our lady of Imaculate Concepcion and St.Anthony´s on the roadside with candle and flower offerings from the truck drivers who frequent the roads praying for safety.

Porto Moniz is another one of the neat and small village with so many things to offer to any tourist who wish to have calm,tranquility and beauty of nature.
We had fish fillet for lunch served with rice and salad.
Photo of the restaurant where we had lunch that day,As you can see,a clear seawater pool around the building.


There were at least several artificial swimming pools to enjoy where you can have a swim as i saw some people doing that day even on a cold and windy day.

More photos from Porto Moniz.A Forte that is now the towns Aquarium.

A helipad nearby
We left the town after spending 3 hours in the area. A beautiful place indeed! But so with all the other places we visited in Madeira.

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This space is to thank all of you who come, visit and leave comments to my blogspot.

To those who come and leave their comments,I thank you and i just want you to know that i may not able to answer your comments and return the visits as often as i wanted too but deep within my heart i am very pleased and appreciate your visits.Thank you all!!!

And to those who come and read without leaving comments,please feel free to do so and i hope you continue your visits and enjoy the read..Thank You!!!

Sightseing Part 2

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From Fajá dos Padres,we drove down to another charming town called Ribeira Brava.I requested the driver to take this picture of hubby and I

Here,we were free to explore the town for 30 minutes.Nothing much to explore though except to appreciate and enjoy the beauty of nature,some cafes,souvenit shops,an old church.a hotel,bank.and oh,we forgot to go see the market!!

I went up to this spiral staircase to see the lighthouse above and from her i took these photos of the town..
Hubby called me crazy when i asked him if he would like to come with me."i´m done with climbing up and down!!" he said.And to think that we were only on our second day in madeira,lol!!Actually.he was right,after the stairs,the next climb up was even more difficult and dangerous.
´One last picture before we leave this nice and neat town of Ribeira Brava.Hubby with the small forte in the background which is now a tourist infotmation office and myself at the bayside.

Then,off we went on our way again to drive back up the mountain to visit another place which will be posted next.

Day tour to the western region of Madeira

We booked for a day tour on our second day in Madeira,taking our breakfast in the hotel at 7:30 to be ready and meet our driver/guide who will take us around.
After our breakfast at around 8:10 AM,i look outside to see the sun rising at the horizon so i run outside the restaurant to take this photo

Our driver/guide arrived a bit late but we left the hotel at about 8:30 and along the way while passing the port of Funchal,i saw this passenger ship docked since our arrival day before.
Our first stop was the small and charming town of Camara de Lobos as shown on the photos below
Our guide had a problem speaking with us due to sore throat but my guess town used to be a fishing village
Hubby on a sleigh ride and nativity by the roadside.Photo on the top left was taken at Cabo(Cape) Girão which is said to be the second highest promontory in the world.As you can see at the town we left behind.

The trip to this western side of Madeira is only winding roads,climbing up and down the mountains and passing through a lot of tunnels that connect the town or villages.
Then our third stopover was an interesting place called Fajã dos Padres,said to be a touristic village with restaurant and agricultural exploration owned by just one family.Its an isolated village ,where the people can only go up and down by taking the elevator as shown on the picture at the lower lefthand side.Food supplies and other needs are also taken down by another elevator made for that purpose as shown in another photo.
The beach as you can see below is of fine black sand and pebbles.The only place where you can find golden sand is to cross another island called Porto Santo.
Although Madeira is an island,dont expect to see coconut trees or white/golden sand beaches.The water is warm and crystal clear, summer is comfortable enough and you can enjoy a mild winter( most tourist even wear shorts and sleeves shirts or blouses).Its the peak season of the year for Madeira.Several passenger ships on cruise are docked at Funchal Port to give their passengers a treat to enjoy the fireworks display on New Years Eve This post is getting quiet long ..I guess, i have to stop and try to continue the second part by tomorrow....Meanwhile,i hope you enjoy this sightseing with me as i did.

Note:Pls click the photos to enlarge and enjoy the photos

An Island known as Madeira

As mentioned before in my last post,we spend the last week of year 2007 in the autonomous region of Madeira in Portugal.

Hubby spent 6 years of his life in the region when he was young and only after 50 years that he managed to come again and also to show me the island as he promised years back to show me the spectacular fireworks display on New Years Eve.
Photo takenfrom the plane while on landing course

Making reservations for flight+hotel package tour was not easy.I started my search from September and only in November that i finally managed to confirm our trip for 6 days/5 nights package tour.

Not knowing that i also captured the hotel site ( building in the middle with pool) from these photos although a bit blurd.

We had a charming hotel situated in a small town of Sta.Cruz,about 5 minutes drive from the airport in Machico.The hotel has a mountain view front rooms and sea view rooms with terrace, we were lucky enough to have a room with sea view and terrace as i always hoped to have. We can also watch the sunrise at about 8:00AM from our room or at the restaurant when we take our breakfast or watch the planes on their arrival, landing and take off at mid day or about 5:00 PM, where we took a lot of photos on our last day.

The city of Funchal as seen behind during our sightseing tour of the city

History of Madeira below as copied on madeira-web.com site.

When the Infante Dom Henrique, better known in English as Prince Henry the Navigator, gathered together the finest cartographers and navigators of Portugal at the beginning of the 15th century, his plan was to extend the knowledge of the coast of West Africa. Armed only with square-rigged ships, compass, hourglass and astrolabe, the initial sea captains were severely handicapped in their endeavours. But in the course of their ventures, the finest hour of Portuguese maritime history, luck brought greater riches than the purities of science and logic.

Two young sea captains, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, were blown off course on their journey around the African coast and after many days at sea found land on a small island that they named Porto Santo - the very first of the many discoveries made by Henry's school of navigation. On reporting to Henry they were promptly ordered to return and colonise the island. The year was 1419.
Seductive as are the charms of the golden sands of Porto Santo it seems somewhat incredible today that it took a further year before the next discovery was made. The captains had reported a dark mass of clouds visible on the southern horizon. They were now encouraged to explore this foreboding mass. As theories to whether the world was flat had yet to be completely disproved, it took an enormous leap of faith to cross the traverse.

As they approached, the huge Atlantic rollers breaking along the north coast and the boiling turbulence of the cross currents at the Ponta de São Lourenço cannot have eased the concern of the superstitious sailors. But on rounding the headland they discovered the bay of Machico, the threshold to the heavily forested island that they named Madeira. Prince Henry immediately organised the colonisation of the island, with the first families coming from the Algarve region of Portugal.

Today the statue of Zarco looks down on the descendants of the first colonisers as they navigate the corner in front of the Bank of Portugal building in downtown Funchal. As the Portuguese overseas possessions have shrunk, so the relative significance of this first of the great discoveries has gained in importance. To find a needle in a haystack can be trying, but to find Porto Santo in an Atlantic storm was a lucky prize indeed.

Lisbon Night Out

One evening,three days before christmas hubby and i decided to go downtown to see the christmas lights in lisbon.Weather was good and not so cold,that is why we ventured around and besides hubby wanted to experiment his new toy (camera).As for me,i always carry my handy camera in my bag..



We had a good time taking pictures of anything that pleases our eyes.The municipality of lisbon has reduced the christmas lights presentation in the streets so as to saved expenses but just the same, Lisbon still beautiful at night.
Here are some photos taken on our night out..

My photos were lost when my pc crashed next day and luckily for me,i still did´nt know how to handle hubby´s camera that i was not able to download it immediately as i did with mine that evening



This building is one of the most beautiful in the area now owned by a bank and as for me, the most beautifully decorated building.




This is a picture of a century old elevator.designed by the same architect that made and designed the Eifel Tower in Paris



Lastly is a photo of a residential area which is only lighted with a commonly seen street lamps of lisbon attached to the buildings.As you can see its quiet dark..steps are made to help the people to reach their houses.
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The following day Dec.23,was a stressful day for me.The computer would´nt start,hubby was the last one to use it and i dont know what happened.I was getting more nervous because its my only way of communication with my family thru messenger using video conference, especially on christmas eve in which philippines we have time difference of about 8 hours.

I checked the warranty of the computer,it was two years and it ended in dec.19.As i dont want to put it in a PC clinic,we went to the shop where we bought the equipment and the salesman asked me if i made a back up security copy of the computer and i said i did.He was kind enough to give me instruction in writting what to do, in which i followed but as hubby was always behind my back while doing the task when we went home.I made a big mistake, i recovered the programs in the computer but i lost all my documents & files.

The first thing i tried to recover is my messenger to be able to talk to my family.In between christmas preparation at home,preparing the room of my mom in law who will spend the holiday season with us,the sweets and food and other things.I finally had the computer ready before Christmas Eve in Philippines.

Dec.24 mid day here in Portugal about 8:00 PM in Manila, i was already happy speaking with my family for 3 hours ....