Expoluzia

When we first moved here I actually believed that I would be posting on this blog far more often as I was confident I would have lots of time on my hands. As you may have gathered from my previous posts ( or lack thereof) this has not turned out to be the case. Our social life is one long whirl of dinner, lunch or evening drink invitations and the rest of our days are taken up with the extensive pursuit of rest and further recreation.........It's bloody hard work and the hours are very long!!!
I will have to find time in this busy schedule next week to take in the delights and many diversions of  EXPOLUZIA. 
The week before the traditional Festa Dos Pescadores (Fishermen's festival) sees the promenade of Santa Luzia lined with stalls offering arts, crafts and traditional foodstuffs from all over Portugal and much further afield.
 The evenings see a full itinerary of entertainment and the village is thronged with visitors.
In modern parlance at this time of year Santa Luzia is "Banging".
No sooner does EXPOLUZIA close than Festa opens. It is a good idea to do your sleeping during the day for the  duration of these festivities as the chances of quiet before 4 or 5 am are very slim.

Today the knife grinder was in town. Many visitors wonder what his enigmatic pan pipe calls are as he wanders up and down the streets extending his invite to the locals to come out and have their knives sharpened.
 You need a keen blade to effectively fillet fish, dullness in the knife leads to a poor cut and a lot of waste, so he is never short of customers.
 We elected to have a selection sharpened and I could not resist taking a few photos as the last time I saw anything like this portable setup was back in the Hunslet district of Leeds in the late 1950's when I was just a toddler. My recollection is of a man on a three wheeler bike who us kids were assured was a gypsy who would happily test his newly sharpened blades on our throats should we give him or any of his travelling companions any grief. We treat him with the greatest of respect!!