It’s Easter Sunday. The day starts with a visit to the supermecardo to purchase eggs and felt tips. Only four survive the boiling but that is enough as all are transformed into characters from a Agatha Christie novel: who will be battered to death on the hillside?

Where to find the right hillside. I wanted to roll down through the banana plantation but I was outvoted. Now wouldn’t this make the best course?

It was a bus trip into town to find the right gradient. A quick exit is required as the park overlooking the harbour flashes by. The gradient is good. Our 4 friends are released from captivity and line up ready for their destiny.

Together they are propelled down the slope.

With youthful enthusiasm they bounce down around each other and all reach the bottom undamaged. The grass is soft and rough, like a mossy rug, able to withstand Atlantic weather throughout the year so no real obstacle for Madeira’s raft of eggs. The process is repeated with the same end – no fractures, no damage, no breaks. Sadly two become hidden in the bushes below. The exercise is repeated with the last two. On this last run they too head for cover and lie undamaged but free. The gardeners will be surprised to find 4 boiled eggs hiding in their bushes. A calming exercise which sums up the day.

From here it is a short promenade down to the harbour for a coffee and then into town before grabbing a bus home.