Godzilla's Waffles

Miscellaneous meanderings from Jayne in Northern Portugal!

Christmas: "Tradition here in Portugal dictates that whoever invites the family round at Christmas does a repeat performance on New Year's Eve with exactly the same meal! Boiled 'bacalhau', potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Sprinkled with chopped garlic and olive oil. Imagine eating that while the rest of the (wealthy) world is eating caviar, smoked salmon, Chateaubriand, whatever!" Jayne gets all festive...
Halloween: "Halloween here is usually spent at the cemetery in preparation for All Saints' Day, 1 November. On this day, the cemetery will be alive with activity and the smell of bleach. Come rain or shine the family grave will be washed and scrubbed till it shines, a whole year of dirt and grime and green mossy gunge will be spurged." Jayne looks at Halloween traditions in both Portugal and the UK's Celtic past...
Weddings in Portugal: "The bride and groom don't have the luxury of disappearing before everyone else like they do in Britain. They're there for the duration. More fool them for having planned the thing like that in the first place. I don't know how they manage to cope." Jayne reports on the excruciating torture that is the Portuguese wedding...
Are you an infomaniac?: "Public warning - you may unwittingly be the victim of a new and widespread addiction and be suffering from enhanced stupidity! This insidious addiction is more detrimental to your mental health than smoking marijuana, which induces a four-point drop in IQ in regular users!" Jayne delves into the murky world of infomania...
Friday the Thirteenth: "Paraskevidekatriaphobia - the irrational fear of Friday the 13th (try to get your tongue around that one!)" BE reader Jayne looks into the history of the superstition that Friday the 13th is unlucky...