Lunch solutions. To the lighthouse. Cultural events. Drizzle into sunshine.

Old habits are perhaps the best. Yesterday we reverted to one from former visits to Figueira: for lunch, instead of a huge meal each, we ordered one serving of grilled fish, inevitably with chips, and one serving of mixed salad and shared them between the two of us. A perfect solution to prevent overeating! At home we tend not to eat lunch but have an early evening meal instead. Somehow in Spain and Portugal we are in the habit of having lunch. 

After breakfast yesterday I walked out to the lighthouse in the sunshine, trying without success to snap pictures of butterflies alongside the boardwalks on the beach. On the coastal path, divided into two sections - pedestrians and cyclists - a lone cyclist pointed at the path and growled “Bicicletas” at me as I was walking on the wrong bit of path. Oh, dear! 

Out towards the lighthouse I tried, with more but still incomplete success, to snap pictures of waves rolling in. 

 

And then, there was the lighthouse!

 

In the early evening we went to the opening event for the chess tournament here. Some tournaments begin with a polite speech thanking sponsors and welcoming players. This one had a musical theatre event first with a Portuguese celebrity singer Paula Sà. It was held in the rather grand Assamblea Figueirense. Some of the audience were videoing the singer and the band, clearly fan! The theme of the evening must has been women’s rights and equality, judging bybwhatvImunderstood of the songs Paula Sà belted out. 

At one point the main organiser of the event, and of the tournament, who had been participating by reading poetry, and the singer more or less swopped clothes and roles on stage. He gave her his jacket and tie. She gave him her loose shirt dress. He put on make up. She tied her hair back to look more masculine. And suddenly couples in the audience were swopping jackets. Men were donning their female partners’ fancy scarves. The place was erupting in role-swop equality. It was rather impressive and no doubt I would have appreciated it more had I understood more that 10% of what was going on. 

It finished with everyone on their feet moving to a samba, an old song originally about the women a man had known, now reworked to praise women of every colour and race and creed. We knew this because we had translated an explanation from Portuguese into English for the organiser.

Only when that was all over did the thanks to sponsors take place and the welcome to participants, mostly giving special mention to chess grand masters from various places in the world, but including Phil as “o britanico que gosta do xadrez”! A little bit of fame! 

Today began dull and damp. As I set off for a run this morning, one of the cleaning ladies told me, “Esta a chuva”. It wasn’t quite raining but it was certainly damp as of the cloud had descended on us. Later in the morning it brightened up and you could see fine rollers out beyond the estuary. That presumably is why surfers come here.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!