A Short Break – Extended II
While the Pork and Cheese (P&C) are generally a friendly bunch, put them behind the wheel of a car and suddenly a self-centred, kamikaze, incompetent maniac emerges. My sister-in-law (who is Portuguese) informs me that indicators are an optional extra when purchasing a car and most P&C drivers prefer to avoid the expense. Every time you slow to check a road sign, delay for a fraction at a roundabout or hesitate at a junction, a car will inevitably undertake you on the footpath or slam on the horn (and often both), suffice to say that I have been quite successful at upsetting P&C drivers.
P&C food ranges from the excellent to the awful, the sweet ‘pastella de natas” are a little custard tart and are delicious with a strong coffee, although can be overindulged on as I discovered by devouring the remains of a box before our initial boarding. Unable to face any more I moved onto other delicacies from the Café counter such as the sausage smothered in cheese, battered and deep-fried.
They P&C signature dish is “Bacalahu’, cod that is salted and dried, apparently if cooked properly it can be nice, (still searching), the waft of this greets you in all supermarkets which have a whole section devoted to the stuff, this may explain the cod shortage in the North Atlantic. We did manage lobster one evening, the P&C waiters insisting that ‘Pinchy’ was selected from the tank, my wife was having none of this and I must admit I prefer not to focus on Pinchy’s removal from his mates into the boiling water, but the waiters were not for turning (or I suspect picked up on our apprehension) and on three separate occasions I was dragged over to the tank, and then, as if to ensure I’d made the right choice, two live lobsters were brought to the table, nevertheless Pinchy died a noble death and was appreciated.
My wife’s illness continued for a couple of days after our first attempt at flying, finally Imodium was administered which solved the problem, Imodium and Eyjafjallajökull, have any of the boffins in their lab coats thought of this?
Who is flying who isn’t, a lot of posturing going on, although I was puzzled to overhear my wife discussing the implications of Louis Walsh’s test flight going pear-shaped, and “why is he on board a BA test flight anyway?” (and why didn’t he bring Jedward?)
Currently we have the following booked and paid for,
- Flight Lisbon – Cork Friday
- Flight Lisbon – Dublin Saturday
- Ferry Cherbourg – Rosslare Friday
- Ferry Cherbourg – Rosslare Saturday
- 24 Hour Bus Porto – Paris Thursday
Chasing refunds should be fun.
Spending the day trying to book various plane/train/boat/car options can be quite stressful; little else gets achieved (work nor sunbathing). Limiting our choice of transport options were the striking French rail drivers (the firewall would block my choice of words) compare them with the Spanish who have offered to facilitate stranded passengers in Madrid and the New Zealand public who have offered to accommodate stranded Europeans in their houses, I’ve nearly switched allegiance for next years rugby world cup.
Got a text from O2 offering 100 free texts to stranded customers , I received this once flights had been cleared to return, is this a handy way of justifying the huge phone bills run up by many of its customers.
Happythreads have been able to function during this time, with over 90% of scrubs and tunics being delivered on time, thanks to Louise, Ken, Paul and Liezl for all their efforts.
A flick onto the news and the sight of families being stuck in the US, trying to fly to Madrid, hiring a car to drive to Cherbourg (€2,000, good to see car hire companies doing their bit), following this was a piece on a 7 year old girl being pulled half dead out of rubble from the earthquake in China, how small our troubles really are. But, it’s still bloody stressful.
Anyway decision is made, stay put and hope that one of our flights pulls through. The sun has come out, swell has arrived and I have been landed with the stomach bug.
