Up for breakfast including that delicious yogurt in a glass topped with local honey. Delicious. A very quick pack up and off we roared in our Renault Megane getting lost on the way in Liera. Densely populated Portugal is for sure with village after village. Clay quarries with many trucks on the road. It was no quaint little fishing village when we arrived. Small town but packed with tourists. We have a large room with a commanding view of the ocean below. Alex and I headed out after check in to buy some water, fruit juice and wine right across the hotel at a minimart. Tried some red wine from the Däo which I found fruitier and lighter than wines from the Douro. After a glass of wine headed down the steep slope to the village below. Very picturesque whitewashed homes and narrow streets. Andrew and I checked out the beach while Fotini and Alex walked along the main street. The beach is large and well populated! The sand on the beach is coarse and the water clear but cold.
We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant with a marvellous view of the town and beach below. Fotini had a battle with her crab. Tasty but a job extracting the meat. Andrew complained about the guts in the grilled sardines while Alex ate her sardines and me my an Robalo without complaint. So far the best food has been in homey local restaurants. While the pousadas have the charm their meals, apart from breakfast, just can’t compete with the smaller local restaurants.
Ted Evans (Adam Beach) is a remorseful man consumed by guilt but then again he may be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder veering into a serious delusional. Too much vodka one night behind the wheel he crashes into the car driven by Mrs. McGrath killing her and her two children. Ted is convinced in serving his 5-year prison sentence for vehicular manslaughter Mr. McGrath warns him in a prison lineup that since you have deprived me of my life I will deprive you of your life and if you have relationship with any one I will kill them.
Enter Sarah (Camille Sullivan), Ted’s wife, who tracks down Ted missing since his release from prison after serving his 5-year sentence. Ted is hiding out in a remote cabin outside of Powell River, British Columbia convinced a hermit life is safest for his family.
Sarah can’t believe his “bizarre” story about McGrath on a watchful hunt. We veer into Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” where no one believed Cary Grant’s story or “Rear Window” where no one believed Jimmy Stewart’s story. But what about that man in a sailboat with binoculars? Red herring? A Hitchcockian cameo appearance?
Logic dictates here we can’t believe Ted and his behaviour and actions bolster our view of his delusions. The Hitchcockian tradition compels us to support Ted but there is sufficient character deviance where one swings to a conclusion he is a psychotic pervert. Should Ted Evans be Tud Bundy? But then he might be the true Hitchcock protagonist although his liberation from his “apparition” is based on a lie!
Interested? You should be. Suspenseful and replete with mind games yet truly Canadian with grit. Sullivan is forceful. Beach is convincing as the imperfect one.
Directed by Jason James. Written by Michael Beaton.
After another long sleep jet lag has been defeated. I was up at 08:00 working on this diary and the rest of the gang up at 09:30. I read a description about the history of Quinta Lagrima where we are staying including the grisly murder of Innes de Castro and the revenge of her lover who tore out the hearts of her two murderers. An excellent breakfast yet again but with white asparagus. Excellent yogurt topped with honey. After breakfast headed to the old convent Convento de Santa Clara-a-Nova. A bit of a narrow if not treacherous road. The convent is somewhat barren and austere in some parts yet lush and luxurious in others. Unfortunately the batteries in our camera needed some recharging so we had to return to the hotel to recharge then back to the convent. There is some very detailed metal and woodwork. We skipped the military museum next store as it was closing.
We then drove to the University of Coimbra. We parked down below the hill where the university is located and walked up to the university. The path is of inlaid stone. The original university building sits in a beautiful courtyard with a tremendous view of Coimbra below. The chapel has walls of inlaid bluish tiles. Rushed back to car to avoid the meter expiring. We inserted more money and walked to the municipal market which was impressive but almost deserted. Then took a break at a local café where two lattes, two Sumols, two bottles of water and ice cream for about $9. Beverages at outdoor cafes are inexpensive in Portugal.
Next to the old town parking the car in an underground garage. Traffic in Coimbra is a killer with omnipresent traffic jams and difficult to navigate traffic roundabouts. Back to the Donald Duck restaurant we ate at last night “Restaurant Casino”. Mom and Pop were delighted to have us back. There was one couple finishing off their dinner when we arrived. Fotini had grilled chicken with outstanding fries. I had the octopus, Alex the arroz marisco and Andrew the swordfish steak. We stopped at the café in the art gallery for desert and returned to Quinta Lagrima.
We headed to Hamilton, Ontario on Saturday night checking in at the Imperial Hotel the night prior to the big Grey Cup game on Sunday at Tim Horton’s Field. After being in so many European cities on promotional tours for the Disney film “Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog” I would say Hamilton is a bleak city. It has a smog and less than wholesome stink to it. I suppose that must be in part to the untreated raw sewage spilling into Hamilton Harbour. But the citizens are amazing. Warm. Affectionate and joyful Hamiltonians greet me like one of their own. And to be fair arriving in the twilight on a gloomy and cold night tells me Hamilton deserves a closer look. Perhaps if we visit Niagara-on-the Lake we can stop in there or even make a weekend of it in the summer and watch a Hamilton Tiger Cats match. I bet you they want another shot at the Grey Cup next year!
We arrive at the Imperial Hotel and there are cameras popping flash bulbs. I hear murmurs of “Nicole Kidman” and some movie “How a Dog Saved My Life”.
There is a huge assortment of gifts and fruit baskets in our suite. The mayor of Hamilton has sent a case of Gamay wines from Malivoire Winery in Beamsville which is where Penny lives. The mayor of Winnipeg has sent us some perogies and two beds with a big Winnipeg “W” on them! Dylan the Westie jokes and says W is for Westie. We settle in and chow down. Dylan the Westie and I have our chicken kibble and two perogies each. Bob and Fay watch a movie while we dogs snooze. At 11 p.m. Bob takes us out for a walk. While we are ready to sleep the city of Hamilton is on fire! Groups of fans from all over Canada are crowding the bars and streets and the air is chock full of beer fumes and happy vibes.
While Bob walks us he tells us Canadian football is one of the few facts that separates us from our American neighbours. As I know really nothing about football I can’t understand what he is talking about. Bob says Canadian football is more fast paced as there are only 3 downs? As I have not watched a BBC documentary on Canadian football I am ignorant about this! We go for our pee and poop and head up to our room for a sleep.
We are up at 9 a.m. and the mayor of Hamilton has sent us a special breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, blueberry waffles and a keg of local Hamiltonian brew! And all of us get a Hamilton Tiger Cats jersey even Dylan the Westie and me!
Dylan the Westie and I go out for a long walk after breakfast and many Hamiltonians stop us and say how much they love Reggie and his best friend Dylan the Westie!
There is a little stink from the steel mills in Hamilton but then again dogs have a sensitive nose!
At 2 p.m. we join the Trudeau’s for High Tea. This Prime Minister is as smooth as silk, like an actor. We have some great jasmine tea and cucumber sandwiches with lots of little cakes. We dogs get a bite or two of these English sandwiches. I feel like I am back in London! And Dylan the Westie and I get a half a cup of jasmine tea.
At 4 p.m. we are picked up by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police escort to go to the game. The Trudeau motorcade is ahead.
We are taken to our seats by the Trudeau’s and their children. The crowd is wild and the smell of beer envelopes us. The fans are crazy with bizarre outfits. Quite frankly I have never seen such a good-hearted frenzy! Many Iranians in Tehran chant in a wild frenzy “Death to America” but in Hamilton it is,” Go Cats. Go Cats”. Not to be catty but who would name a team after cats?
As I told you after the national anthem Dylan the Westie and I do a round across the field with team flags in our mouth then Penny’s Oodlecopter does a fly over.
The crowd chants “REGGGGGEEEEE” and then “DYLAN”. Almost a billion people have watched the Disney film “Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog” but the chanting chills my bones and makes me shiver. Canadians have their problems and issues particularly with those nasty residential schools for its aboriginal children but tonight many Canadians are ready just to have some simple fun.
What is real is that after gobbling chunks of burgers, fries, perogies and pizza with all the excitement from the field I am becoming a bit dizzy and my stomach wants to expel the human food I have ingested. I gotta puke and the limo driver pulls aside as I empty my stomach on the streets. Dylan the Westie comforts me and says “You pups can be so silly sometimes. You shouldn’t have eaten a whole piece of pizza one of the Trudeau children fed you when no one was looking”.
Back in our suite Dylan is soon in his fancy Winnipeg Blue Bomber bed and happily snoring as 13-year-old dogs do. Bob pours some ginger ale in my water bowl and asks me to drink some. It is sweet and tickles my throat and excuse me I let out a thunderous belch but my stomach feels much better. I hit the sack and fall asleep in a flash. I remember Bob giving my jowls a rub and he says,” We are so proud of you Reggie. You have come a long way!” By the way the Hamilton Tiger Cats won the match in overtime.
“There were many women at the time, upon whom the time laid a dreadfully disfiguring hand; but there was not one among them more to be dreaded than this ruthless woman, now taking her way along the streets. Of a strong and fearless character, of shrewd sense and readiness, of great determination, of that kind of beauty which not only seems to impart to its possessor firmness and animosity, but to strike into others an instinctive recognition of those qualities; the troubled times would have heaved her up, under any circumstances. But imbued from her childhood with a brooding sense of wrong, and an inveterate hatred of a class, opportunity had developed her into a tigress. She was absolutely without pity. If she had ever had the virtue in her, it had quite gone out of her.”
Dylan the Westie and I have been invited to the 108th Grey Cup in Hamilton, Ontario on November 12. Prime Minister Justin “Black Face” Trudeau has invited me as his guest along with Dylan the Westie, Bob and Fay to watch the championship Canadian Football League game. We start off with high tea at the regal Imperial Hotel in Hamilton with Justin and Sophie Trudeau and their children. Sophie is distant and unhappy looking. I know I can smell unhappiness. We will visit the dressing room of the Hamilton Tiger Cats and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers who are competing for the Grey Cup. At the beginning of the game Bob and Fay will walk out to centre field and Dylan the Westie and I will sit by Lola Larue as she sings the national anthem of Canada. Then Dylan the Westie and I will take small flags and run around the field. Dylan the Westie will carry the Hamilton Tiger Cats flag and me the Winnipeg Blue Bombers flag. Dylan the Westie carried the gay pride flag once at the Gay Pride Day parade in Toronto years ago and says it will be easy. We will be practicing on Saturday afternoon.
Bob and Dylan the Westie have watched almost every Grey Cup since Dylan the Westie was born 13 years ago. There was always a small family party with potato chips, Cheesies, BBQ wings, fajitas and corn chips and salsa and of course beer.
Bob loves the Hamilton Tiger Cats and is excited but he has struck a deal that the 50/50 draw charitable cut will go to Reggie’s Dogs Foundation.
I will be watched on national television by millions and 25,000 noisy and excited fans most likely in winter conditions. Canada as been suffering with COVID for too long and although I am very nervous it is time for Canada to party like its 1967! Bob has promised that Dylan the Westie and I can split a cheeseburger and a few French Fries. WE DOGS LOVE MEAT! And yes, GO BOMBERS GO!
And it will be Penny in her Oodlecopter flying the pass over instead of the Canadian Snowbirds. GO PENNY GO!
Bob also says to us dogs he has a big secret. It is a BIG SECRET and it involves Joe and Jill Biden! What could it be?
I have travelled the world promoting the Disney film and Bob’s novel “Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog”, receiving a Nobel Peace Prize and meeting the Pope and all sorts of politicos. I think Dylan the Westie and I have peed and pooped all over the world. But at times it is a blur and it is very tiring and sometimes stressful. Time for a vacation! Bob and Fay decided during this silly COVID mess to take Dylan the Westie and I on a real vacation. No paparazzi, no television shows or hours long photo shoots. And we are going to Niagara-on-the-Lake to a fancy inn called the Oban Inn and Spa.
It is about 90 minutes away from Toronto on some busy highways but I love a good car ride especially when I have something to look forward to! Off the highway on country roads we had to stop at a drawbridge and watch a huge ship pass through the Welland Canal. A massive ship! Then the bridge lowers and we cross it. I am not at Niagara-on-the-Lake but am so excited already to see that ship! As we pass through some town called St Catherine’s I think it is called, the scenery gets very nice and I feel like I am in the country. Dylan the Westie and I remark how clean smelling the air is even in the winter.
I hear Bob reciting the name of the wineries we pass. Humans like to drink wine and Bob writes about wine as a hobby and he says this and that winery make good or mediocre wine. There are so many wineries here!
We arrive at the Oban Inn and Spa which is a small but really comfy and they have a couple of dog friendly rooms which have a nice backyard and Dylan the Westie and I go for a badly needed pee there when we arrive. It is so peaceful and quiet here and after checking in we go for a walk along the waterfront and meet a Westie called Tucker. It is December and it is cold but Dylan the Westie and I have coats and Fay has given us fancy collars and leashes so we are prancing and bobbing around like kings oblivious to the cold.
We are tired from the trip and our waterfront walk so Bob and Fay decide they will eat in our room and Bob goes to pick up the pizza at some bistro called Bistro Six One and some wine as after all we are in wine country. Bob is tired from the stressful drive so he sits outside and has a cold local beer from Oast called “Farmbrew”. We go outside and sniff and run about. The pizza smells so good! And after our kibble Dylan the Westie and I have a small piece of pizza and is it ever grand!!!! Bob has a glass of Malivoire Farmstead Gamay and Fay a glass of Malivoire Lady Bug Rosé. They really like it and say we are having a special dinner tomorrow night with the master and mistress of PENNY!!!!!
We have a very good sleep but Dylan the Westie barked to go pee at 4 in the morning. He had taken his monthly anti-parasitical medication before we left which makes him tired and very thirsty and what water comes in must go out. I am sleepy but go out with Dylan the Westie to keep him company and since I am out in the backyard have a pee myself! Bonus time as we jump into bed with Fay and Bob and drift off in a happy and warm sleep.
In the morning Bob figures out the coffee machine and makes some coffee for Fay and grabs a tea and pastry a few minutes from the Oban and we are off to Niagara Falls! I have seen the Falls on a BBC documentary but seeing them up close is both terrifying and exhilarating! The roar. The mist. The power. I will not forget this wonder ever! Then we go to the Botanical Gardens for short walk and stop at various scenic lookouts and see the power of the river. And that floral clock must be a sight in the summer!
We return to the Oban Bob telling us there is going to be a SHORT RECEPTION at the Oban restaurant with local dignitaries wanting to meet me, Bob, Fay and Dylan the Westie. Bob had insisted all the wines being served are Malivoire wines because as he said, “They make damn good wine!” Fay loves the Moira Chardonnay and Bob says the Analog Gamay is amazing. Thank goodness there are some children there and we get lots of pets. And Bob slips us a bit of delicious crab cakes. Who is the chef at this place? He knows his food for sure.
We have an hour before dinner with the mistress and master of Penny so Bob and Fay catch up with their phones and e-mail. You humans spend too much time looking at your phones! I have seen it all over the world. More than a dozen times I have seen couples at restaurants not talking to each other and instead looking at their phones? Bob and Fay never do that.
The restaurant has been closed to the public just for our special dinner with Penny and her “parents” and they arrive. Dylan the Westie, Penny and I are allowed to stay at the restaurant and it is so exciting to see Penny. We talk all dinner long. Penny is very excited about her new Oodlecopter especially with its missile launcher capable of firing Iranian X 600 mini rockets. She shows us her new headphones she will be wearing in her Oodlecopter.
Penny happily shows us her new Oodlecopter headset!
The food arrives and there are crab cakes, shrimp and scallops, chicken with mushroom and truffle risotto and confit of duck. All three dogs get a small piece of duck. We dogs LOVE MEAT! And boy it is really fantastic!
After dinner Bob and Fay watch the CBC news and incessant stories of more unrelenting COVID crap.
It has been a long day and I feel like I am on my first real vacation! Good food, interesting people and a nice quiet sleep without planes flying overhead. Bob and Fay we should be going to Greece for our next vacation. Bob says it will help with his next book “Mutantism on the March” some of which is set on the Greek island of Samos.
Yet another great sleep waking up at 09:00 and we headed down for a buffet breakfast. Seems in Portugal breakfast is always included in the room rate. We take our breakfast in a side room but unlike the Pousada in Viano do Castelo we don’t eat outside on a terrace. The dining area seems gloomy lacking the light as the Pousada Santa Luzia had. Even the service was better there than here.
Packed up and on the road to Coimbra at 11:30. A mysterious 17 Euro charge for a call to Porto that we never made. After that was cleared up on a small scenic road then onto the A1 towards Lisboa. So many small villages on the way. Portugal is a very densely populated area. Very few wide open sparsely populated areas here in the North. Once you get on the beautiful new toll road there is almost no traffic. Clear sailing with one stop at a rest area for a desperately requested WC break. Not having a map of Coimbra it wasn’t easy to find our Relais & Chateau Quinta Lagrima. A narrow gate with a road lined by oleander trees in purple bloom. An old aristocratic palace with grand steps leading up to the reception area. Old wood throughout with wonderful plaster ceilings.
We have rooms in the new section. What an enchanted place. While Alex and Andrew had a swim in the pool Fotini and I scouted out a place for dinner. Picked up a bottle of wine and two Sumols for the junior crowd.
The restaurant we selected for dinner was a 10-minute walk. We were the only customers until the time we left. The outdoor terrace had a few gas cannisters rather unsightly. A real family run restaurant. There was also a large inflated Donald Duck looking at us. Dinner was excellent. I had the salt cod (Bachalau a la casa). Andrew had the shrimp rice and the girls a mixed grill. Fotini and I had a bottle of Casal Garcia a vinho verde. Dinner for 4 was $60. I think my cod with a tomato green pepper sauce was the best. The mixed grill consisted of pork and various sausages. Stopped at a café on the walk home and I had a cold beer while the girls an excellent coffee. Walked home and down the lane with oleanders and off to bed.
In Canada in terms of American Cabernet Sauvignon we are hostage to California Cabernet Sauvignons. I am sure Texas produces some notable Cabernet Sauvignons but timid buyers for our state liquor monopoly the Liquor Control Board of Ontario would rather sell their mother than look to Texas or 48 other states for American wine. My my. Let’s not spook our customers. Chambourcin from Pennsylvania? Cabernet Franc from Virginia? Merlot from Long Island?
Thank goodness for Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon but even then it is barely flowing in like a severe BPH manifestation.
What about a Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon? 11% Syrah in this.
Aroma: Think blueberries and blueberry pie. Generous overlay of cassis and blackberry zipped up in coconut.
Palate: More of that blueberry and blackberry. Ok with me so bring it on! Short and smooth finish. Jammy every once in awhile is fine.
Personality: Don’t compare me to Cali Cab Sav. Comparisons are odious in the wine world. Respect the terror of terroir and not a state!
In a small Indian village Kiran, a 13-year-old, is savagely beaten and raped by three young men and then threatened with death if she tells anyone about the rape. Kiran tells her father Ranjit of the gang rape and he notifies the police. The lads are arrested and jailed. Given the prevalence of rape in India where it is estimated 90% of rapes are unreported and a woman is raped every twenty minutes Kiran is not alone. Kiran’s position is that she would fight to the death for justice and her father Ranjit pursues the case in the criminal courts with dogged determination.
The villagers wish to bury the matter in the customary way of having the rapist marry the victim “as after all” she is already soiled and no one will ever want her. And it is the women “that asks for it”. The boys just “made a mistake”. Ranjit and Kiran are upsetting the harmony of the village and its traditional ways. The family is ostracized for advocating for Kiran, taking the case to the police and pursuing the case in court. Ranjit’s life is threatened by the perpetrators’ families because he won’t “compromise”.
The result is that the misogynist tigers are “killed” and sentenced to a groundbreaking 25 years in prison rather sensational news in India. Since the decision women reporting rape in the administrative region where Kiran resides has doubled.
The rampaging Indian rapists have taken a blow but nonetheless gang rapes and sexual assaults in India of a particularly vicious nature continue. A question of “Sleeping Tiger Hidden Dragon”?
I am left thinking the documentary has not addressed a crucial question as to why many Indian men are so brutal. Where is the requisite need to beat and rape women as young as thirteen. After contemplating the film the answer may be because they can “get away with it”.
Some of the attitudes of the villagers stubbornly remain in contemporary Canadian society today but those relics hopefully are receding to the point we can soon hope the misogynist tiger is finally severely wounded at least here in Canada. The end of misogyny is unfortunately but a dream and the tiger continues to prowl.
“To Kill a Tiger” is nominated as the Best Documentary Feature Film in the 96th Academy Awards.
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