The Eulogy
Participants in last November´s expedition will by now be quite accustomed to stuff being blogged well after the event. They may possibly still remember that the first TH2 blog promised that they would eventually get the text of the excellent encomium that Ken delivered at dinner on the first night at Naturarte. Now, it´s a sine qua non that all the greatest orators give the impression that they are speaking “off the cuff”, but at the same time most of them take care that somewhere, somehow, their words are preserved for posterity. Cicero had his trusted and highly educated Greek slave Tiro to record his speeches. Edmund Burke and Winston Churchill could rely on Hansard. Ken truly did speak ad lib. but had no Greek slave to hand and, as a result, no copy of his remarks is to be found. However, few who were there will forget Ken´s witty words piling praise upon praise, David L composing his features in becoming modesty all the while, and then the guffaws of laughter when we all realised that Ken was talking about Rosie, not her master.
Ah well! Sic transit something.
The Ode
We were also promised the text of Sue´s Ode to the Leader and that was preserved, so here it is:-
“Ode to David
“Young David has interests a many, Amongst them is walking his dogs, Rosie and Jenny.
In addition he arranges a Wednesday Walk Where we’re certain to have a good old talk.
We walk up hill and we walk down dale, Which David organises without fail.
We’ve walked in the sun and we’ve walked in the rain. We find the latter a bit of a pain.
We have to cross rivers with bags or bare feet, David sure lets us in for a treat.
And when it’s all over we have a drink ‘Cos by then we’re all beginning to sink.
“We’ve walked round the corner and round the bend, When will this walking come to an end?
David’s also arranged the Fishermen’s Trail Where it didn’t rain and it didn’t hail.
In fact sun shone from morn to night, He certainly got that one right.
Walking along we had beautiful views Unsure if sand got in anyone’s shoes!
David arranged a year ago To walk the Trilho Historico.
Trouble was we got rather wet So we left it unfinished, but .......do not fret:
For now we’re giving it another go, Let’s hope the rivers don’t have so much flow.
“Last year we went to two places to sleep But made sure at each others’ we had a good peep.
So this year we’re all at the Naturate Where I THINK we’re all having a jolly party?
After our meal Rui plays a tune, This is, for us, a tremendous boon.
The hotel we stay at is nice and cosy. The two, sadly, missing are ............ Jenny and Rosie.
So thank you David for all your time And I hope you don’t think this too silly a rhyme.
All your organising we appreciate, For next year’s away walk we cannot wait. “
We are lucky that her text has survived. If the AWWs were not so determinedly a non-organised, non-hierarchical, anti-committee type body, Sue would doubtless be given some sort of bardic title. Nevertheless we can, I am sure, rely on her to produce more odes on special AWW occasions.
Finally, Avocado
Your scribe has incidentally received several queries about the backgound to something David L wrote in his narrative of the first day´s walk on the Triho 2015 (TH2). What he wrote was:-
“Approaching the town of Cercal we came across the cottage with the well-remembered avocado sink sitting outside, complete with delightful old lady using said vintage artefact.”
Clearly some people did not well-remember for they were asking “what was all that avocado stuff about?”
Now, what had been written in the narrative of the first day´s walk on Trilho 2014 (TH1) was:-
“Just before we reached Cercal, we came across the only remotely historical artifact to be seen on the whole trip – to wit, a British Home Stores Wash-Hand Basin circa 1949, complete with a choice of desirable taps and the then-fashionable avocado trim.”
So David´s memories were well-founded, even if others´ had faded. In view of their enquiries and by way of scientific enquiry I decided to consult an old friend, Trev Pratt by name, to see if said basin was truly a British Home Stores model 1949. If it was, it might have value as a collectors or museum piece. Trev, by the way, was formerly a lecturer at the Ashby-Under-Rubble Technical College in the British Plumbing Diploma course but, now that the college has been elevated to University status, his standing in life has risen to match and he now prefers to be known as Professor Trevor Pratt-Phauls, holder of the Shanks New Nisia Chair of Ablutionary Architecture. His students can now aspire to a BAA or even a MAA. His mission in life is to restore northern English bathroomery to the glories that it enjoyed in Roman Britain when every villa had under-floor hot water heating, tepideria and calderia, etc, etc, etc; his watchword being “ Ex frigidus lavatio importemus” (“Bring the privy in from the cold!”=
But I digress. So I sent him a picture of the basin.
This was the 2015 picture – note the tap
Trev was immediately able to confirm the BHS provenance of the piece but couldn´t be sure if it was a 1951 export model or a 1949 one, the former actually being the rarer and therefore that more important as a museum piece; “quite exciting none-the-less” he said. What puzzzled him, however, was the tap and he asked if we had other images. So I then sent him this:-
This was the 2014 picture, a close-up of which reveals…
….not one tap but two taps, two different taps!
And that, I´m afraid, knocked the museum piece idea flat. The tap on the left is 1949, the bijou tap on the right is 1951, but with two different taps there is no way anyone could be certain what year the actual basin was. I suggested that it might be a 1951 basin with a 1949 tap added later from spare parts; Trev countered that it could equally well be a 1949 basin with a 1951 tap added later and said that in any case a basin with mixed taps of uncertain origin would have virtually zero antique interest. So much for dreams.
But Trev added, to soften the blow, that if the AWWs do come across other such ablutionary items on their wanderings (the monumental marble works in the men´s loo in Cafe Sustelo, Poço Barreto come to mind) he would like to know about them; he might even come out to do some field work.
Ah well indeed! I wonder what the trip to Spain later this year might discover.
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We had an avocado suite in the 1970s!
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