Páscua-super-mare

Easter means different things to different people. For many of us, it means masses of chocolate and two days off to eat it. Over here, its religious significance is given much more attention. I was surprised and interested to see all the little kids in my class dressed in white (why?), although this failed to have a calming New Age effect on them. Revved up by chocolate and the prospect of a short holiday, they yelled just about continuously for the entire hour. My only (slightly pathetic)comfort was that, during the fleeting moments when I managed to get them to stop shouting, we were deafened by the roars from the other two groups in the adjacent classrooms. Ha! None of the other teachers could control theirs either!

I was also buoyed up by the knowledge that I was about to spend the weekend at Meire's family's beach house. Among her many fine qualities is having a pair of loaded parents: see below for why. It was her birthday, so about sixteen of her friends plus a few children all crowded happily into the place (I say 'crowded', but it has six bedrooms, each with a bathroom that makes mine look like a Portaloo), along with three domestics who kept up a constant supply of barbecue (after Good Friday, that is... it was strictly fish-only on the Holy Day), cold beer and other delights. Check it out...



It was excellent. The only clouds on the horizon were servant-guilt, forced inactivity and the usual barrage of Portuguese, but, well, I survived somehow. Frequent infusions of beer helped with the last two, as did an impromptu ride. We were out on the beach on the first afternoon and two boys came riding past, and for some reason one of the guys asked me half-jokingly if I fancied a go. People ride horses a lot here, even in the city, and I've been absolutely dying to have a go, so I leapt at the chance and, amazingly, the boy agreed to let me borrow his horse. And after a minute or so of slightly embarrassing attempts to get the damn thing to move, she responded heroically to a kick in the ribs, and took me for a blissful gallop right up the beach and back, which was a fantastic start to the weekend. Yee-ha.