Monday 26 November 2012

From my own correspondent

Hi, have you missed me?  I promised you Portugal and stuff, but instead of me you'll have a report from my own roaming correspondent.

It all happened like this. We were all ready to go, well I was, and he was running around like a mad thing doing 16 hour days and stuff, so when the day came to go off they went and I didn't.  Now Prudence you mustn't be angry.  I was upset it's true, but he was really unhappy when realised I was still at home. He was so tired that picking up a bear slipped his mind.

What to do?  He telepathed that he was sorry and asked me what to do. So I thought and thought and sent him back this message. "It's Children in Need time, so why don't you see if there's a Pudsey on the loose?" "What a brilliant idea," he thought and so he picked up a Pudsey and he became my special correspondent. Here he is:
Hello everyone, my name is Pudsey, and I'd like to say a big thank you to Jock for making me his special correspondent.  Alan donated a nice sum of money to the Children in Need Appeal so that I could come with him along with my friend Blush, who's off travelling with Ann in Helsinki at the moment.
First Day
We stayed in a little village south of Lisbon called Alcacer do Sal and it was really very pretty indeed, all white houses with contrasting colours.

At first the sun was hidden a little by the clouds but then it burst forth and made the whole place seem so cheery.  There were two pretty boats on one side of the river and when we went over there Alan got a nice picture looking up into the village.  Just down from there we looked at the lovely reflections and then we noticed something on top of the church towers.  There were some storks over there and if you have a big magnifying glass you might just see them standing on their huge nests.  They were there on the Saturday, but by Monday they'd all flown away on their holidays in Africa.




 We really liked the village, but one thing we noticed in every town was the washing. All the houses seemed to have frames on them to take washing lines and in lots of places the washing was out and sometimes it nearly dripped on our heads!

After lunch we went to the seaside at a place called Troia. It was a bit boring so we went down to the beach and that was lovely.  I thought about Sebastian on his beach way across the other side of this ocean.  At the high water mark there were lots of seashells, big one, little ones, pink ones, yellow ones, broken shells and complete ones too.  It was all very pretty.  Alan says he thinks the picture below would make a fiendish jigsaw for someone to do.
Day Two
We had a lovely dinner that night in the village and next day we went to a World Heritage place called Evora.
We all liked Evora very much even if it was Sunday and pretty much closed.  The sun shone but there was a cool wind blowing - we think it blew away the storks 'cos it made them shiver.


Evora has Roaming Ruins (Sorry Pudsey they're Roman). Look, I'm a roaming reporter so they're Roaming ruins, do stop arguing. After all who forgot Jock?  It has an aqueduct built way back when and the people have built houses into the arches.  I think they look very pretty and funny at the same time. There were other nice corners too with orange trees and everything!

When we went back to the square before we went home we saw these two interesting contraptions with chimneys on the back. Can you think what they are?  Go on have a guess.
 Have you got it yet?  No? Well you'll just have to wait.

Day Three
The next day it was sunny again, but not so windy so off we went to Setubal a pretty port north of where we were staying.  I got quite excited when I saw this chap.  I thought I'd get all splashed when it went back into the sea, but Alan said he wasn't a real dolphin, no matter how lifelike he looked. He and his friends did look very pretty.

 We walked along the quayside and saw the fishing boats bobbing in the harbour and the fishermen mending their nets too.  I liked the reflection of the boat and also the tiller of one of the older boats.  Alan got a nice close up of this boat's tiller - but he didn't get wet 'cos it was a dry land boat. Well I suppose it wasn't really, just out of the water for the winter.
 This amazing mural is on the front of an old fish warehouse.  It has no roof just this amazing painted wall.  Near there we sat out in the sun for a lovely lunch as we watch people fishing and one man actually catching something - an octopus. Cor, that was exciting.
 Soon we headed back to the hotel in time to buy some pine nuts to take home and for Alan to get a sunset picture or two  - no make that or lots.  Still, it kept him occupied.
Day Four
Next day we said goodbye to Alcacer do Sal and headed into Lisbon for the day.  What a HILLY place and we went up on the hill towards the castle to see what we could see - the sea, well, the sea and lots of houses.
We went up the impossibly steep streets in a tram just like this one. Isn't it a nice yellow colour. Alan says they shouldn't be able to make it up hills like that, but they do and with lots of people crowded in too.  They take eighteen sitting down and FIFTY standing up - just like sardines.
 Sadly, this was our last day and we went back to the hairyport to catch our nairyplane back home. Well back to London.  Ann went home to Blackpool next morning while Alan went to Amsterdam.  He go pictures there, but he did manage a few in London.
We were walking from Victoria to Trafalgar Square and, as we walked past Buckingham Palace where the Queen lives, there was a kerfuffle and when we looked around there was a troop of Royal Horse Artillery coming back from firing their gun in Hyde Park.  No, they weren't trying to hurt anyone, just making BANG noises to celebrate Prince Charles's birthday.
When we reached Trafalgar Square there was someone else on horseback and I think that he was having lots of fun.  This is called the fourth plinth statue. Every few months the art work on this plinth is changed.  They've had ships in bottles, real live people standing there for a bit, a statue of a pregnant lady who'd been born after her mum had taken Thalidomide, and other fascinating things.

Well that's my report.  We  hope that next time it will be Jock who's doing the reporting.

Pudsey

 Have you guessed what was in those contraptions yet?  They are selling hot chestnuts.  They roast them on plates under those chimbleys and add sugary stuff to them.  Very tasty but quite sticky.  Jock would have loved them - lots of sticky goo to get into his paws for later.

 P.S.  A big thank you from me Jock to Pudsey.  Children in Need raised £26million for needy children in the UK and other countries so well done him for helping with that.

Till next time,

Jock