Madeira News Blog

TODAY’S PHOTO & COMMENTARY : Thanks to Josie … Saturday’s military manoeuvres to mark Funchal 500.

“Apart from the speeches, (lasted about 1 hour) it was really good, roads from Santa Catarina gardens to end of Ave de Mar closed and sailors lined the route, after speeches they paraded along then we all rushed down to the ‘beach’ where they gave a superb demo of precision manoeuvres in inflatables, a ‘drugs’ raid on a small navy vessel and search and rescue with two helicopters whose pilots were fantastic. At the end the helicopters hovered above and did a ‘bow’ then came down onto the two ships which obviously were aircraft carriers.  The two tall ships are still in harbour but not been able to find out, it looks like one is one of those training vessels, it is carrying many national flags for different countries.”

(Thanks Josie … Sagres & Creoula are the names of the tall ships I am told, and the first one is a training ship – Der)

Source : Diário de Notícias 24/5/2008

Bus drivers for the company ‘Horários do Funchal’ (yellow buses) are threatening to strike on the Friday of the Rally Vinho Madeira, in a dispute over rest days. I think the Madeirans are nearly as bad as the French when it comes to threatening strike action, with bus and coach drivers, hotel workers, teachers, and public services frequently in the headlines.

New laws come into effect today that impact all utility suppliers (gas, electricity, water, sewerage, internet, telephone, TV). They will be prohibited from applying standing charges (meter hire), and also prohibited from charging a minimum consumption. Exactly how that will affect bills and overall prices I am not sure, but a quick flick through this month’s bills shows a meter (contador) hire charge for gas and water, so I shall be watching to see what happens in the future. I remember paying a hefty sum (>€100) to the Câmara for our water meter, which I thought was a deposit, so maybe I will get that back too?

The 7th Festival do Atlântico starts next month (7th) with Italy, France and Poland invited to light up the skies with their top of the range firework displays. The shows will be on Saturday nights at 10.30, and last for 20 minutes. The total cost will be €700,000.  Various orchestras are programmed to perform as part of the festival.

The Department of Tourism are patting themselves on the back having achieved an 80% hotel occupancy rate for next month, which is traditionally the lowest month for tourism every year. Whilst visiting England recently I looked in the windows of several travel agents, and was surprised to see how Madeira and Portugal holiday prices compared with other holiday destinations … considerably lower in most cases.

Those nasty mosquitoes are prevalent again in Santa Luzia, but despite of a number of suspected cases the dreaded ‘dengue’ disease has not yet been detected.

The Pingo Doce supermarket in the Anadia Shopping Centre (Funchal) reopened at the weekend after a €4,000,000 refit. One of the new features is a new larger restaurant that can seat 100 people, and you can choose how much you want to order of your chosen dish (I presume they must weigh it?).

Any previous users like to report back on how the €4m spent has improved their Pingo shopping experience, and do the staff working there for €2 an hour look delighted with their new surroundings?

Pingo have also announced refurbishments of their older shops in Lido, Calheta, Câmara de Lobos and Ribeira Brava.

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