Loud and Proud!

Over the last few months my musical taste has acquired a new slant. On the drive to work and back I often have the radio on, tuned in to the local Cascais station, "Cento e Cinco Ponto Quatro", that is, 105.4. The station plays a mix of Portuguese and English songs, and often with a leaning towards rock music of the 80's and 90's. It is not uncommon to hear bands such as AC/DC, U2, David Bowie and many other popular artists that I would have been listening to as a young boy. Each trip in the car is like a flashback to halcyon days and when a song comes on that I remember well, and liked, I crank it up!

Like I said though, the station plays a mix of songs English and Portuguese music, and consequently I'm getting to know some of these Portuguese songs to the point where I can sing along. However, I am very much aware that I am probably making a lot of the words up and hearing them incorrectly, so occasionally I try and look them up on the internet. One song I managed to figure out was "Cavalos de Corrida", which was written in 1980 by Portuguese rock band UHF. They regularly play the song and when they do you will find me driving along, singing (badly) along to the correct lyrics in the choruses, "Agora, agora, agora, agora, tu és um cavalo de corrida." (Translation: Now, now, now, now, you are a racehorse.)

UHF - "Rua do Carmo"

Another song that is played quite frequently on 105.4 is "Rua do Carmo" which I also recently spent some time on the internet looking for the correct lyrics. I suspected from listening that the two songs were by the same band, and a quick search had confirmed this. "Rua do Carmo" is a song written about a street in Lisbon; a street of some historical importance as a through-fare between the popular districts of Chiado and Bairro Alto and also a very popular shopping street. So this morning, driving down the dual carriageway towards work, there I was, singing loudly along, "Olha como é, a Rua do Carmo," through the choruses! 

So today I decided to try and find out a little more about this group, UHF, and after finding their Wiki page and piling it through Google Translate, I was very pleasantly surprised and quite enlightened. It seems that since they formed in 1978 they have shared the stage (during the 80's) with such greats as The Skids, The Ramones and 999. Since the 1980's the band have grown ever more popular, if not calming down somewhat from their punk roots, and have recently released acoustic versions of some of their more popular songs and an football song for Benfica football club, which presumably has become anthemic among their fans. In 2011 their "Rua do Carmo" became the theme tune for a Portuguese soap opera.

I'm not a good singer, and I really only do it in two places. As already mentioned, in the car, with the windows up. And the other place is of course at the football, singing along with the Estoril Supporter's Gruppo. There are many songs that I do not the words for, but some of them I do, such as the classic, "E só que bate as palmas, Estoril" (Clap, clap!) and the immutable, "Saltar! Saltar! Azul e Amarelo!" There is one other song that the supporters sing, which is of course the memorable, "Come On Yellows," sung in English and I suspect a point of some fun-making for the fans of other teams maybe? It is nothing though. Everyone in the Gruppo is obviously very proud to support the team, in either language.

One thing that occurs to me when I look up the lyrics to a song, or ask a supporter at a game exactly what we're all singing, is the hope that in some small measure, it is helping me improve my Portuguese. Hopefully.

Cycling Proficieny

My daughter wanted a shiny new pink (obviously!) bicycle for Christmas. When we moved out here my daughter's bike came with us and at the time, both it and she were small enough to ride up and down our very tiny cobbled yard. But that was a couple of years ago now and just like all kids, they never stop growing, and inevitably, the bike is now far too small for her. She still rode it around the garden, and even once or twice we stuffed into the car so that she could ride along the promenade, but with each growth spurt she got more and more unstable on the old thing. So, a couple of weeks before Christmas, she and I went down to the local sports shop, Decathlon, to sit on a few bikes, try them out for size and decide which colours were pink enough. Handily, they had a height chart to stand against telling you exactly what size bicycle your little tearaway would fit the best. I was expecting to have to order one for delivery in a week's time or something like that, and have to assemble a half built bike on Christmas day, but no. The helpful young man plainly told me that what I could see were the actual bikes you could buy, right here, right now. So, after choosing of course the pinkest bike with cutest little basket, it fell upon me to choose a bike for me. After all, I'd need to be able to keep up with my speedy little daughter, and (cough, cough), I could do with the exercise too! My choice was easy enough. "Large cheap mountain bike please."

Ten minutes later I was wheeling the pink bike across the car park, folding down the back seats and off we went. I would have to come back for my bike later and ride it home, since it was too large to fit in the car. No matter. It's not far!

Strange! Although I've been driving around on Portuguese roads for over two years now, riding a push bike on the right hand side of the road somehow seemed really odd. Not sure why. And I didn't really notice it until I came to the first left turn, where of course I would have to cross in front of oncoming traffic to turn into a side street. Suddenly, at that moment, it just kind of felt really strange. For the first time in ages, I really had to think about which side of the road I needed to aim for on the other side of the junction. Weird.

Christmas has of course now been and gone, and I've been out on my bicycle a few times now. First time out I cycled up over Monte Estoril and down to Cascais, along the promenade and back up the hill through Estoril. I'm certainly happy that I bought a mountain bike. These hills are fierce! It felt good though.

This afternoon I took it upon myself, after a little cajoling from my better half, to fix the punctured tyres on my daughter's old bike and re-attach the stabiliser wheels so that her little brother had a bike. He came over to me to watch me remove the tyre and inner tube from the front wheel and of course had loads of questions. He followed me into the kitchen to help me dunk the inflated tube under water and spot the bubbles. Lots more questions. It was only when he saw me putting on the stabilisers that he asked the important questions, "What are they for?" and, "So, is this so I can learn to ride a bike?" Oh, you should have seen his little face light up! And so, after that I spent the rest of the afternoon watching my two youngest cycling up and down and up and down the cul-de-sac a few streets away with huge grins on their faces. Better still: No accidents!

I'm itching to get out more this weekend. The last few mornings we have had rain, but I'm hoping to grab a quick trip back down to the seafront, early in the morning tomorrow. The seafront always looks fantastic in the morning sunshine. I hope the rain holds off. Or I could just go anyway. There will be less people on the promenade if it's raining!