Madeira News Blog

Source : Diário de Noticias 30/12/2007

Apparently you don’t need to go to church these days to worship your God, as doing it through the internet seems to be perfectly acceptable. It seems there are various websites and bits of software that have been developed to help you do this with Mass by ‘Power Point’ already making it possible to pray through the Net, whilst in Caniçal, the mass is projected using ‘Power Point’ .

“Technology communicates the word of Christ more and more through the Internet, the new ‘altar’ of the evangelization.” The Diocese of  Funchal, with the arrival of the new bishop, is apparently well into communion with the new technology (?).    

I guess you have to supply your own bread and wine though.

Not much of exitement in today’s paper, though briefly:

There is an article about a study to be undertaken to consider setting a standard car parking system / tariff across Madeira, whereas at the moment it is set by each municipality. Probably a good idea, especially for my town where the charges are rumoured to be amongst the highest on the island.

Also, lots of controversy raging and correspondence about the ‘killing of the pig’ an old and disgusting tradition in which the slaughter of the pig becomes a public spectacle whether you like it or not, followed by considerable gloating and celebration. Most of the readers letters on the subject are against it, though not always for the same reasons, but that’s hardly surprising as those who partake in such barbaric rituals probably don’t read or write.

So, did anyone go and see Bob Sinclar on Friday night (29th), along with Big Ali and his Sexy Sound System? It was virtually devoid of young people around here that night, so it must have been popular. I have no idea what Bob and his entourage do, but assume it must be something to do with music, and I wonder why it is that you have to buy tickets through branches of Alberto’s Opticians?

I am off to start clearing out my flower pots and start seeding a whole new crop of flowers for the spring. Everything has been infested with whitefly for the last 2 years, so I hope starting from scratch will eliminate the problem. If it doesn’t, has anyone got a successful whitefly remedy they would be kind enough to share with me?

Anyway, I hope everyone who reads this has a great night tonight, and I will be back tomorrow hopefully with some pictures of the celebrations and fireworks in Funchal or anywhere on Madeira, but only if some kind soul(s) send me some : fireworks@madeira4u.com

www.madeira4u.com

Carrying on from yesterdays Queen Victoria blog theme, the cruise ship ‘The World’ arrived yesterday. It is the first of the 12 cruise ships expected to arrive before Monday nights extravaganza. Big deal … I hear you say?

No, you want more? It was built in the year of 2002 at a cost of around €300 million, but it is rather special because it is a ‘Time Share’ cruise ship. You actually buy weeks in an apartment that you can use yourself, rent out to someone else, or sell on your investment at some later stage. Nice, … but I don’t think I would fancy the annual maintenance fees though.

Well I don’t know about the rest of Madeira, but it looks like my little town is going to be totally non-smoking for bars and restaurants come next Tuesday. As establishments that want to allow smokers have to install smoke extraction equipment to do so, one would expect to hear plenty of banging, sawing and drilling going on … but not a peep. A quick visual inspection confirmed the same.

In a horror story from Friday’s news, you will no doubt be mightly disturbed by the report that some bananas were blown off their mother-plant, when a helicopter tried to land at Funchal hospital. He we are worldwide facing stories of new year tsunamis and assassinations, and the big story of the day here is a few bananas falling off.

Did you know that the banana plant is actually a herb, and it’s the biggest species of plant in the world (well that’s what a bloke in a pub told me).

If you want to be where the action is tomorrow night, but want to avoid road closures and diversions and going deaf, then there is some info and maps here : http://www.dnoticias.pt/ . Once you are on the website:

Then click on the link … Edição do dia: DIÁRIO de Notícias on the left

Then click on Madeira on the left hand menu, then click the first item:

Madeira

Madeira: Mapa da festa

You may have register to get access, but it’s free. There are maps of the island where all firework displays will take place, with details, a map of the important locations in Funchal, and lot’s of other useful info.

Please send me some photos to publish … please please (email to fireworks@madeira4u.com) many thanks in anticipation.

Até amanha!

www.madeira4u.com

The Cunard cuise and shipping company launched it’s newest member on the 7th December 2007, and is now on its second voyage. It arrived in Funchal yesterday, from Malaga, having set sail from Southampton the previous Friday. It is now on it’s way to Lanzarote.

I cut ‘n pasted some facts from the Cunard website, and even if you are not the least bit interested in Cunard or Cruise Liners, you might be amused to read until the ‘small print’ at the bottom, which actually came off their webpage.

Maiden voyage 7th December, 2007

Guest Accommodation 990 staterooms

Gross Tonnage 90,000 tons

Length 964.5 feet (294 metres) 

Width 106 feet (32.3 metres) 

Draft 25.9 feet (7.9 metres) 

Height 179 feet (54.5 metres)

Guest Capacity 2,000

Guest Decks 12 

“With the launch of Queen Victoria in December 2007, three Queens will sail together under the Cunard banner for the first time in our history.

To set eyes on her sleek outline, with her distinctive black and red livery, is to recognise her instantly as the latest Classic Cunarder, a unique marriage of heritage and innovation.

As one of the first guests ever to embark, you will encounter the dramatic three-tier Grand Lobby, whose magnificent staircase and eye-catching artwork offers a lavish taste of life aboard. Walk around the ship and you’ll see elaborate chandeliers adorn the Queens Room double height ceiling to enhance its calm grandeur.

The Winter Garden is all light and relaxation, very much colonial in tone, with decked floors and leafy foliage – its glass roof even opens to the warm breeze.

Elegant and stylish, every public room will create a unique ambience where our renowned White Star Service will continue to surpass expectations.”

“The Queen Victoria ocean liner is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by The Queen Victoria® Bed & Breakfast, which is on the internet at www.queenvictoria.com.  Furthermore, Carnival plc and its ocean liner Queen Victoria are not affiliated with, nor does Carnival plc sponsor or endorse The Queen Victoria® Bed & Breakfast.”

So the mightly Cunard liner company has been nobbled by the Queen Vic B & B! That must have been some good publicity for them – and they got a free webpage link from me into the bargain.

Many thanks to Tobi Hughes who got up at 6.30 in the morning to take the photograph!

www.madeira4u.com

Source :  Diário de Notícias 28/12/2007

If you have children that go to school here then you will need to be aware that there is a new law governing what weights they can carry to and from school. Clearly for health reasons, and probably not such a bad idea, the limits depend on the cycle / grade that the child is in and is deemed comfortable to carry for the age. Initially it sets a total limit, and also later it covers weights of individual books. I wonder who will enforce it … mum with her kitchen scales? With my fertile imagination I am just thinking aloud ” … Pedro, your rucksack is 200g overweight, let me just take out that bar of chocolate and bag of crisps … you will have to manage with just an apple today”.

Its reported that since xmas day, Funchal refuse collection services have collected 276 tons of rubbish, with the total expected to rise to over 400 tons. That was just the rubbish not separated for recyling, produced for or on Christmas day. On 1st January, once the revellers have started to head home, a team of 70 workers with cleaning machines and dustcarts will make a start on cleaning up the celebrations of the previous night.

You will be pleased to know that I won’t be contributing to that litter in any form, as I now won’t be going, like most of the population outside Funchal. It’s madness to take a car into Funchal that night, taxi … forget it, and there are no buses running to take people home. You would think with over a million euros to blow up with fireworks, that some form of public transport could have been laid on for the rest of the island.

When reading the print edition of the Diário last night (I normally use the online edition) I noticed a story I hadn’t seen earlier. Apparently despite the general disappointment amongst retailers there was one very very busy shop upon reopening after Xmas. I think it was in Madeira Shopping (Centre). It was a women’s lingerie shop, but according to the owners, they weren’t selling anything, just accepting back loads of red and black underwear of manekin size proportions brought by men, and exchanging it for fleshy coloured day-to-day items of more realistic proportions. So we already know that men are truly hopeless at this, but it seems to be international!

You have probably heard me winge before on the matter of fireworks being set off at most unreasonable times, and it’s still going on even with Xmas gone. The Diário reports that despite the financial difficulties families and shops are experiencing this year, the sale of fireworks is well and good, with the busiest days for selling yet to come. So how come with so little money for necessities, there is plenty for fireworks? As I have never yet seen a woman throwing a megabanger into the street, would it be a safe bet to put this down to men?

 www.madeira4u.com

Source : Diário de Notícias 27-12-2007

Front page news today is the poor sales in the shops over the Christmas period … the worst in 10 years for the shops in Funchal. In the last 15 months it claims that 1,300 jobs have been lost and 10 shops have closed.

Perhaps the people of Madeira have caught onto the fact that they can save a packet if they wait until the January sales? There is no mention of the new Dolce Vita Shopping Centre opening with over 50 new shops and numerous jobs. Lets face it, you can open as many new shops as you want, but if the population numbers are static or declining, and there is only so much money to spend, then that expenditure is just going to be spread about more. There may be increased tourism due to more flights and opportunities, but tourists for sure are not going to come here and do their Xmas shopping.

Different article, but linking in with the ‘sales’ theme, is an article about a new law changing the permitted window in which shops here can hold official ‘sales’ for selling off of their reduced price goods. I recall that until now there were winter sales and summer sales that both had to be held within defined dates. Any sales outside these dates had to be called something else (promotions, reductions. etc. … but not ‘Sales’).

So in case anyone is interested, the winter sales will in future be held between 28th December (tomorrow!) until 28th February, and the summer sales between 15th July and 15th September.

So if you have any cash left over after Xmas, or got given cash in lieu of pressies … get yer skates on to get the first bargains tomorrow!

You know, I would hate to be an email spammer … the poor souls didn’t seem to get any time off at Xmas.

www.madeira4u.com