Creatures Roaming Lisbon's Downtown

 

I haven’t written anything for the New Plague Journal in a couple of weeks. I feel guilt about not creating updated content. But I have written other things. Spurred on by a poet friend I have been writing fiction. Now mind you it is fiction that will probably never see the light of day except when I pass it off to him to critique. But crafting those words takes a couple of hours each day. Me, I personally think it is good to create worlds out of memories and ether, keeps my mind active. But like I said I have neglected other things. I apologize.

Yesterday morning I walked to my weekly 10 am LAGS session. LAGS stands for Lisbon Area Gentlemen's Society. We meet Saturday mornings and I get there at about 9:40. Most meetings have about 25-30 cantankerous and prickly older immigrants whose first language is English. We drink coffee, bitch about life’s irritants, we offer guidance. We stare at the joggers in their spandex outfits who have obviously spent time doing up their hair before heading out. Insert sarcastic conversation about hair care before running seems at cross-purposes with real exercise. Insert hands pounding on the tableand gents yelling, “Aye, Aye, Aye.”

I arrive there early to grab a large enough table for the lot of us. The manager of the place puts a number of the bistrotables together in an uninterrupted row to accommodate us. However, if I don’t get there and drop my notebook, hat, water bottle and purse at various points on that table there is a significant chance other patrons will simply pick up spots in the middle denying us our dominion of curmudgeon-ness. After staking my claim I grab my milky coffee, muffin and agua fresca to see me through the morning.

At some point yesterday the conversation turned to the festival and parade of Iberian masks downtown in the afternoon. LAGS is an excellent place to pick up information on such cultural events. Lisboa is a great place to experience such events.  One week it is lunatics trying to hang glide over the Rio Tejo and the next it is grown assed men and women dressed as woodland trolls parading through the center of the city dressed as woodland trolls and other weirdo creatures. The parade lasted for 45 minutes and was a hoot. Friends you gotta get out and experience life I am telling you.

The pictures accompanying this post are NOT the LAGS members. They are from the parade except for one. That picture is of Mike Johnston a travel blogger who is heading back to the US to be closer to his grandkids. Travel safely Mike.  You will be missed on next Saturday morning and for many Saturdays to come.