Our life at the Casa de Cinco Bicas followed a very pleasant routine.
The Residência, an old world Casa Portuguesa was beautiful. I was struck by the fact that most of the houses in Portugal have façades with the front door opening directly onto the street, unlike houses in Goa there are no balcões nor are there any verandas. Quite often the windows have designs of azulejos all around them; a few have flower boxes, but most have designs with azulejos which give the houses a unique air, a touch of Moorish influence.
Our Residência had its entrance passage patterned with azulejos, if you walked around bare footed the wooden floors were warm and inviting, woven carpets thrown on the wooden floors gave the house a rich look. Our Residência was a large house and we climbed a wooden staircase to reach our rooms on the first floor, one word describes our rooms- elegant.
Maureen and Scarlet shared the most elegant room in the house, painted a pale leaf green; it had beds with high carved headboards, an armoire and an intricately carved table. Two of the windows opened onto the narrow street below. It could have been the Master Bedroom. A single room for Alexandre. Maria Helena and I shared a pleasant room painted a shell pink, we had a walk-in closet! Something Jackie-O must have had. With three windows opening onto the street below, we had pleasant evenings, snatches of conversations floated past our windows. Did Maria from Chemistry no longer love João from Physics? And that rascal Pedro what was he doing with Mariana from Biologia when Carolina was pining for him. Who needed Brazilian telenovelas, we had telenovelas right under our windows. And the songs, young voices without a care in the world. Sara in her single room, Bosco and Herculano in a room much like mine and the two 'hotties', Rahul and Dhruv shared a tiny room with three beds. The passage adjoining the rooms was richly carpeted and had very beautiful inlaid furniture. There was a large statue of Sto. António to intercede for us in our hour of need, although he did let me down, took no heed of my entreaties……. The most pleasant room however was the dining room with its tables laid out for breakfast by Dina. There was such a comfortable sofa where you just sank in, away from the cares of the world, with the lovely Dina chatting about everything and nothing. Yes, there was always someone to talk to.
A large garden with a lot of fruit trees, opened out from the dining room. My first experience of yellow plums picked straight from an old gnarled tree was in this garden, oh the beauty of this garden, with its green grass, warm sun beating onto our backs and the fruit just waiting to be picked, juicy and fresh. A slice of Paradise.
Slowly we grouped and regrouped, there were the avid shoppers whose Mecca was Jumbo. After classes, the faithful rushed to Jumbo, I did accompany Maria Helena and Sara on one of these expeditions, but there was Maria Helena trying out all those Size 0 clothes and Sara in an elegant, biscuit coloured sweater. Pity and concern for me was written all over my friend’s faces. Embarrass them never! So Jumbo was not on my list after that. Others haunted the bookstores, to add to their never ending collection of novels and dictionaries. Some beat a path to Pingo Doce looking out for those strong beverages best had in joyous company; the loners took long walks across the Ribeira just inhaling the essence of the city, mingling with the people, sitting on benches eating juicy, black cherries, chatting with strangers, watching plump pigeons fighting over crumbs, altogether very pleasant evenings.
And the sun… . accompanying us on all our trips, everywhere we went pleasant sunshine followed us, dinner was in bright sunshine, we tucked ourselves in bed after a long and pleasant day with the sun smiling benevolently on us,the guests from the Orient. Never once did it let us down…
The Residência, an old world Casa Portuguesa was beautiful. I was struck by the fact that most of the houses in Portugal have façades with the front door opening directly onto the street, unlike houses in Goa there are no balcões nor are there any verandas. Quite often the windows have designs of azulejos all around them; a few have flower boxes, but most have designs with azulejos which give the houses a unique air, a touch of Moorish influence.
Our Residência had its entrance passage patterned with azulejos, if you walked around bare footed the wooden floors were warm and inviting, woven carpets thrown on the wooden floors gave the house a rich look. Our Residência was a large house and we climbed a wooden staircase to reach our rooms on the first floor, one word describes our rooms- elegant.
Maureen and Scarlet shared the most elegant room in the house, painted a pale leaf green; it had beds with high carved headboards, an armoire and an intricately carved table. Two of the windows opened onto the narrow street below. It could have been the Master Bedroom. A single room for Alexandre. Maria Helena and I shared a pleasant room painted a shell pink, we had a walk-in closet! Something Jackie-O must have had. With three windows opening onto the street below, we had pleasant evenings, snatches of conversations floated past our windows. Did Maria from Chemistry no longer love João from Physics? And that rascal Pedro what was he doing with Mariana from Biologia when Carolina was pining for him. Who needed Brazilian telenovelas, we had telenovelas right under our windows. And the songs, young voices without a care in the world. Sara in her single room, Bosco and Herculano in a room much like mine and the two 'hotties', Rahul and Dhruv shared a tiny room with three beds. The passage adjoining the rooms was richly carpeted and had very beautiful inlaid furniture. There was a large statue of Sto. António to intercede for us in our hour of need, although he did let me down, took no heed of my entreaties……. The most pleasant room however was the dining room with its tables laid out for breakfast by Dina. There was such a comfortable sofa where you just sank in, away from the cares of the world, with the lovely Dina chatting about everything and nothing. Yes, there was always someone to talk to.
A large garden with a lot of fruit trees, opened out from the dining room. My first experience of yellow plums picked straight from an old gnarled tree was in this garden, oh the beauty of this garden, with its green grass, warm sun beating onto our backs and the fruit just waiting to be picked, juicy and fresh. A slice of Paradise.
Slowly we grouped and regrouped, there were the avid shoppers whose Mecca was Jumbo. After classes, the faithful rushed to Jumbo, I did accompany Maria Helena and Sara on one of these expeditions, but there was Maria Helena trying out all those Size 0 clothes and Sara in an elegant, biscuit coloured sweater. Pity and concern for me was written all over my friend’s faces. Embarrass them never! So Jumbo was not on my list after that. Others haunted the bookstores, to add to their never ending collection of novels and dictionaries. Some beat a path to Pingo Doce looking out for those strong beverages best had in joyous company; the loners took long walks across the Ribeira just inhaling the essence of the city, mingling with the people, sitting on benches eating juicy, black cherries, chatting with strangers, watching plump pigeons fighting over crumbs, altogether very pleasant evenings.
And the sun… . accompanying us on all our trips, everywhere we went pleasant sunshine followed us, dinner was in bright sunshine, we tucked ourselves in bed after a long and pleasant day with the sun smiling benevolently on us,the guests from the Orient. Never once did it let us down…
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