I’ve had many smiley moments over the last week so to keep this short I’ll only share three.
Onions – A Lost in Translation Moment
How can onions make you smile when they are renowned for making you cry?
I always grow red onions as they are quite expensive to buy in the shops. So last month I went to our local market to buy some red onion plugs – no luck. I thought the stallholder said (my Portuguese is not brilliant) that he would have onions next month.
Ever the optimist I returned this month to buy the onions, still no luck with the onions but somehow I bought fifteen red cabbages. WHAT? Why on earth did I buy red cabbages, yet alone fifteen? If three survive they will last me a year. So that’s twelve for the slugs and snails, and three for me. Anyway, it made me laugh that rather than tell the guy in my best Portuguese I wanted red onions rather than red cabbage, I just bought them for a quiet life.
2. Poetry
I have finally finished revising my poem which attempts to highlight plastic pollution. It’s now almost ready for submission to a couple of LitMags. Fingers crossed. If the poem gets accepted I won’t be smiling I’ll be doing a happy dance! The poem was inspired by the TV documentary ‘Drowning in Plastic’. Anyone else watch the program?
3. Sunday Coffee With a View and a Surprise!
This is a place of the soul and to feel at one with nature. While the photograph was a little hazy due to the sea mist, the view still made me smile and feel at peace within.
As I can’t walk along the beach and estuary at the moment, or master steps, my creative spirit must be content with the view. A flask of coffee, my writing notebook and a camera is the next best thing.

As we were about to leave we noticed this sign which made us roar with laughter!
“The Weekly Smile”, is a shared blogging event over at Tren’ts blog. What a great idea!
What a stunning view!
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Whoa, that’s a lot of cabbage! LOL. Love this post.
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Beautiful photo (Amoreira). The place looks serene. Thanks for sharing.
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thanks, Spinster! It is a beautiful beach and is totally unspoilt – at the moment
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As we are both ex.pats ( and Chester is my old stomping ground) I thought you might enjoy this story as a complimentary article to your anti-plastic poem and documentary mention.
https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/whats-on/new-supermarket-chesters-first-ever-15475758?fbclid=IwAR1fKAdyaMOIdWJk2J34CYK_Bst6Uc7-TE1ctZmlKvnNXw_uMO5_t4_2GQM
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Ha,,, one of my Pet Peeves is packaging and waxy apples. The store sounds a brilliant idea. I hope more supermarkets make the effort.
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My old town is becoming quite progressive in small steps.
It has (at least) one Vegan Restaurant.
Both steps in the right direction, I reckon.
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I’m sorry you can’t walk that now – it is so inviting for a long walk! But it is also a great view. Good luck with your poetry. And I am sure you are spending a lot of time with Google and finding exciting new recipes for dishes with red cabbage! 🙂
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YEs, the walk was wonderful I miss it but hopefully next year my operation will work. That WILL make me smile! As for red cabbage recipes – yes. No doubt I will be sharing one or two 🙂
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I watched the Drowning in Plastic documentary too.
Beautiful view, it would make me smile too.
Good luck with getting your poem published and good luck with your cabbages, lol.
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Thanks, Sami. I think the snails will enjoy the cabbages.
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Brilliant!
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PS There are plans afoot here in the east to start a plastic free campaign in the Algarve. The individuals behind it are the same ones who led the successful anti fracking campaign, and have also started the brilliant scheme REconomia Tavira – http://portugalresident.com/join-the-community-exchange-and-create-local-resilience
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Thanks for the link, Becky. I’ll take a look. Maybe there are local contacts in the SW they can point me to.
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I can always ask on your behalf as some of them are friends 🙂
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Yes, please!
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Just love the idea of a kind of smile journal. This made me think that I have not smiles moments to remember in a while. This post will push me to fix that, so thank you very much.
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Hey, Edson. I bet if you thought about it you would have a ‘smiley’ moment to share. 🙂
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