Madeira News Blog

With the new year approaching rapidly, the time to think about quitting smoking as a new year resolution has come to the fore, one reason being the change in the law due that affects bars, cafes & restaurants, due to come into force in January 2008.

Portugal has a high average for the number of smokers. In 2005, around 31% of the male population were smokers, showing a small decline over recent years (32.8% in 1998). Women smokers were on the increase, up from 9.5% to 10.3% over the same period.

Apparently, 55% of those smokers intend to quit.

A bar owner explained to me last night his dilemma in the situation, saying that the total ban that has come into force in several European countries should have been the model for the new Portuguese law, and not the half baked measures now proposed. The bar in question has no outside seating area, and if he banned smoking he would lose all his smoking customers to the bar up the road. If he allows smoking, it will cost several thousand euros for the smoke extraction equipment and installation required by law, a price he cannot justify, and possibly not afford.

The madeira4u blog & news research team is going to go to great lengths and expense to research the situation further, with a visit to a European country that has recently introduced a total ban on smoking in pubs & restaurants. There, between beers, we will sample the smoke free air in many establishments, and report back on the effects the ban has had on businesses, customers, and smokers in general. This is expected to be a tough assignment,  spending long hours in real live situations, but we think you madeira4u blog readers are worth the trouble and expense, and deserve real quality on-the-spot reporting. Monitor this blog for exciting updates!

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A bad weekend for football on Madeira, with both Nacional & Marítimo losing their games. Porto seem to be running away with the points at the moment, but it’s still early days.

The draw for the 2010 World Cup group qualifiers has been made. Portugal are in group 1, along with Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, & Malta. A stiff challenge, but could have been much worse.

www.madeira4u.com

No major stories in todays press, but still plenty of aftermath about the big rock fall in Câmara de Lobos last week. Did you see the size of those rocks?!?

Well that seems to have started a bit of a panic, with the whole island now in danger of collapsing into the sea. I saw a map in yesterdays paper, with a number of red bits and tags. Unfortunately my head wasn’t switched to translation mode, owing to the effects of two large glasses of this years new red wine, but I did notice that the town where I live there was a big big red tag. But we already had a big rock collapse 2 years ago, when half a mountain slipped into the harbour. Surely it can’t be our turn again!

Anyway, in todays paper there an interview with a man who has his house precariously perched on the top of a wobbly looking cliff, somewhat concerned as to when its come to come down.

Other weird happenings stories of the day are :

CaboTV now has 88,000 homes ‘wired up’  … they sting me for nearly €60 a month (including internet) so lets see … if TV costs about €20 a month for the basic package, that’s comes to €1.8m per month, or 21 million eurobucks a year, and that’s leaving out the premium channels, the internet, and their new phone service. Not bad work if you can get it … it’s nice to be a monopoly!

Anyone tried that new TV company on Madeira yet ? (There’s a blog about it a few weeks back)

Apparently, if you buy vegetables at the various Sunday markets, you will pay 25% less than you used to … I wish someone would tell them at Sã-doce-modelo, their veg just seems to go up and up. I am even eating the potato peelings now in an effort to save on our weekly shopping bills.

There was one more story, but I seem to have lost it, about the rise in the numbers of twins / multiple births in Portugal increasing by 70%, I think it was in about the last 10 years. Now that has to be global warming, even the the collapsing island and potato prices aren’t!

www.madeira4u.com

Just reading a travel bulletin board where someone wrote in complaining about the pesky timeshare people in Funchal, and the amount of times they got stopped whilst here on holiday.

Having lived here for 4 years, I can honestly say I have never been stopped once, let alone been hassled by anyone. In fact the last time I remember ever being stopped was on the Canary Islands, many years ago, and although I wasn’t rude to the guy (I just said I was too busy and not interested) he then proceeded to follow me through town and try and tell me that the scratch card he was holding was a guaranteed winner for a video camera. Eventually he lost interest … that is until the next day when he saw me again.

I am not keen on this sort of hassle, especially when on holiday, so I can sympathise a bit with the people who complained.

Now I hear you ask … how have I managed to go 4 years without ever being stopped. The answer is easy … I just don’t into Funchal. I have a close friend who works in time share, so I hear a lot about what goes on, and it sounds a fascinating world, with a sprinkling of alcoholics and drug addicts, where everyone knows each others business, and where after work meet-ups with a few beers are used to analyse the days events and soothe the stresses.

I hear times are hard at the moment, and that success and failure are seasonal beasts, yet I also hear of new ventures and shake-ups in the timeshare world that would indicate the industry is alive and well.

You guys have a tough job, and I admire you for your courage in doing something I could never do … and it just remains to say that with a bit of politeness and mutual respect from both sides, I don’t see why anyone should have cause to complain.

www.madeira4u.com