Pequena coisas 3: conversations over coffee

Today is a public holiday. The first I knew was a sign in the gym Monday saying "We're open for the holiday". My diary says its a holiday in Angola. Only after asking everyone at work did I find out that its a public holiday just for this town/area. So all of my fieldies are having a holiday but all the geos are at work as they are from different areas and would rather have the public holidays set down for that area. Confused? Well thats why Im at work as I dont know whether to have a day off or not - also since I wasnt expecting to have a day off Id just waste it anyway. But then when do I have holidays? Maybe I should take all the Australian public holidays from now on.

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One of the great things about living in Europe is the chance to watch quality football live e.g. Barcelona-Chelsea last night. Of course the game was made more enjoyable by a few glasses of wine in a cafe eating a good dinner - I dont get cable so I had to procrastinate over dinner to watch the game. The Mourinho factor mean that the game attracted more interest in Portugal than England v Spain usually would - the man is revered here. I loved his reaction after Ronaldhino's magic goal - one of the trainers was frantically telling him what they could do and he seemed to just shrug his shoulders and say "What can we do? The guy is brilliant and the game is over".

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This conversation is typical when ordering food in Portugal:
Waiter: How many portions (doses)?
Us: Well what do you think? How many will we need?

(the size of servings in Portugal range from large to huge - its always nice to have an idea of just how big)
Waiter: Well do you eat a lot or not much?
Us: Well normal, I mean theres 5 of us and we came for lunch.
Waiter: Right 5 servings then.
5 servings appear each big enough to feed 2-3. This is one of the reasons lunch takes twice as long in Portugal

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Portuguese Guy: Wow what are these things in my tea?
Me: Cloves.... ummm I dont know the Portuguese. You use them in fruit, sometimes in stews?
PG asks waitress what they are. Answer is "crevinho" for those playing at home.
PG: Ah yes I know these. My mum uses them for roasting meat. You know the Portuguese discovered these and brought them back to Europe?
I explode with laughter at his confidence/pride in Portugals discoveries since 30 seconds ago he didnt know what it was.

Although he's probably right - historically the Portuguese were one of the worlds great seafaring nations and explorers and many spices, countries ... were discovered by them. Portuguese pride dictates that I must be made aware of exactly who/what is Portuguese at all times (the actor who played the bad guy in 24? Portuguese). It reminds me of that skit in Goodness Gracious Me where the dad walks around pointing at things and telling anyone who'll listen its "Indian".

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Not that I should pretend to be smarter:
Me: So turkey is "peru" right?
Portuguese Guy 2: Yes thats right
Me: Hmmm thats weird. You know for me Peru is a country
PG2: Yes well for us Turkey is a country.
*me looks at toes sheepishly

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Of course urban myths are largely spread by either stupidity or deliberate misinformation. Australian tourists specialise in the latter. I assume that when I was asked last weekend "Do you have cats in Australia?" it was because some top Aussie has spread the story about keeping roos and koalas for pets instead of cats and dogs. Of course its the truth ;) Have I ever told you about the drop bears......