Madeira News Blog

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Alan. A scene from the Trapalhão Carnival parade on Tuesday.

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 27/2/2009

The story about the unauthorized works on the Calheta Beach Hotel is back, after the regional government told Calheta Câmara to stop the works a week or so ago. According to this report, the work is still carrying on at a brisk pace, with both the president of the Câmara and the director general of the hotel refusing to answer questions on the matter. The hotel is building an extension on one of the roof terraces, having never submitted any planning application. It does however now have permission to build an air bridge from the hotel to the other side of the main road. This issue seems to be attracting a lot of interest from Diário readers, and I wonder if there is a sniff of corruption in the air that is agitating them?

The auditors delivered a report on the two companies, Via Expresso and Vialitoral, to the Legislative Assembly on Thursday. These companies are the giants of roadworks on Madeira, but the report was just financial with nothing particularly juicy or untoward highlighted, but you do wonder about this part of the statement made : The audit shows that the balance of the consolidated accounts has a deficit of 256.4 million euros, “an improvement in the order of 22.4 percent compared to 2006.”

The auditor has also reported that the regional government incurred over €17 million in late payment interest charges, particularly in the area of public works. It’s a bit of a complex article about financial issues which I am not going to attempt to translate, but as a result of the audit the government has accepted 7 recommendations from the audit. What that is worth I don’t know, because the article also refers to 19 unfulfilled previous recommendations, which included the timely payment of it’s financial commitments!

Expropriation, or compulsory purchase of land, is causing controversy again, with the public complaining about the lack of consultation and information for the project called Cota 500. 55 of the 125 plots of land needed in the area at the back of Funchal, in the road construction which involves 7 tunnels and 9 bridges, are still to be resolved. Work on the first phase has already started, with suspicions of changes being made to the plans without any consultation, affecting the pieces of land that need to be purchased. It just goes to show how careful you have to be when you buy land or property here, as not only will someone build through your garden or even your house without meaningful consultation, you will also be underpaid for what you have lost, and into the bargain may lose scenic views or have to put up with a busy road on your doorstep.

The football story was that Sporting Braga had gone through to the next stage of the UEFA Cup, after a 1 – 1 draw. They will play Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of the competition.

Other News :

The Portuguese are not too keen on sport, with physical exercise appearing in 8th place in a survey of free time activities, conducted by Coca-Cola. Internet activity is the number one activity. Of those who do sporting activities, football is the preferred option (30%) with men, whilst with women it is walking / mountain trekking (20%).

There was me singing the praises of policing yesterday, only to read that one officer has received a one year suspended prison sentence for filling up his private car on the police petrol account.

In a survey conducted by DECO (consumer defence) it has concluded that the taxi service on Madeira has improved since the introduction of taximeters. In 600 ‘mystery shopper’ taxi trips in Portugal and the islands, it concludes that 20% were overcharged, and in 18 cases they were refused receipts when requested. Other serious problems reported were improper application of surcharges and fare rules, and charges higher than those shown on the meter. The biggest victims of taxi fraud are by far foreigners. DECO have appealed to the police and other authorities to fight back with more enforcement actions, singling out Lisbon airport for special attention.

PT, or Portugal Telecom have said that they will start transmitting digital TV signals in most of Portugal from the end of April until the end of this year, including Madeira. The switch-off of the analogue signal should be possible at the start of 2011.

This weekend’s football : Nacional v Académica today at 5.30pm, on SportTV2. Tomorrow Marítimo host Setúbal at 8pm, that’s on SportTV1. Unusual for both our teams to get home TV coverage.

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Thanks so much for all the carnival parade photos sent in, and sorry I can’t use them all, but I have given all contributors at least one slot. Please don’t send in any more carnival photos, if I used all the ones I have, there would be enough for nearly 6 months.

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses (you can reply direct using the form at the bottom of each blog comments page), please send any unreported Madeira news, topical photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – anyone can join in! Thank you!

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Helen … taken at the featured village of the week, Porta da Cruz, but no mention yet in the Diário of the Smurf family that seem to be living there.

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 26/2/2009

Main Headline : ‘Hospital takes years to return possessions’ – follows a story about a family in Jardim da Serra who were asked to come and collect a small amount of money (equivalent to €60) and other items that they had ‘kept safe’ for a patient there 26 years ago, in the hospital safe. The patient who owned the money died during that internment years ago. At the time it was a lot of money, but now somewhat devalued, and of course in the old currency of ‘escudos’. The hospital says there are many other such cases of stored property still to be returned.

Credit card cloning seems to be becoming a problem, as the Diário reports on incidences occurring in South America and the Middle East using cards that are registered to Madeirans. The police are currently investigating 10 complaints involving cloning and fraud, and have established that they are being committed without the PIN numbers being disclosed. One person has lost €938, and her bank (Banif) refuses to accept responsibility because a PIN code was used, even though the card owner had not disclosed it. The problem is arising with people who have travelled and used their credit cards abroad.

Three dolphins has been washed up dead on the coast in a week. The latest was young, nearly 2 metres in length, weighing around 100 kilos. They have appeared at Reis Magos, Ponta Delgada, and the latest at Calheta. The latest casualty will be taken for autopsy, but was found with fishing tackle in it’s mouth. The three dolphins are of different species, so it is believed that their deaths are not connected.

The front page football story is about the embarrassing 0 – 5 football scoreline for Sporting in the home Champions League fixture against Bayern Munich.

As predicted, Carlos Carvalhal has been appointed the new manager of Marítimo.

The featured town or village of the week, Porta da cruz, tells more of it’s story about it’s lack of facilities. In fact why these accounts make headline status is beyond me, and if I were the editor I would make this feature disappear and I don’t think anyone would notice.

Other News :

As mentioned a few days ago, the Portuguese airline TAP has now published its new ultra-low prices. You can now travel from Lisbon to Madeira for €41, and return for €47, all taxes included … “the cheapest prices ever for Madeira”. The trouble is now that because the base price (before taxes / surcharges) may be below €30, residents and students will be unable to claim back their ‘mobility rebate’, an entitlement for locals travelling on the Madeira – Portugal route.

I see Easyjet are having yet another sale of up to 25% on flights taken between 25th March and 30th June, including Easter, if booked by midnight on Tuesday. I didn’t look to see what was on offer for Madeira, but I know on previous sales people have been disappointed.

A new recycling initiative is launched today, called ‘Green Cork’. The collection of used corks will be used to produce other materials, such as insulation for buildings, being more environmentally friendly than synthetic materials. A collection container will be installed at the Dolce Vita shopping centre in Funchal.

“The appeal to employers (by President Jardim) at a dinner was not to employ only the Madeirans, but to give priority to those living in the region, whether naturals of Madeira or not.” An advisor to the Presidency of the Government, says the original statement caused some confusion. “In fact, the president asked that work is given to people who live here, and that companies do not need to bring workers from outside. It was never said it was only for Madeirans, it was for residents, born in the region or not”. The same explanation has been given to associations of African peoples, the peoples of East, and to the group SOS Racism.” Considering Bertie was alleged to have made that statement a couple of months ago, it has taken a long time to issue a statement clarifying the matter. I am sure that immigrants must now feel much happier, even though this ‘clarification’ was buried deep in the rest of the local news, not to be seen by most employers.

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I referred yesterday to a response to an old blog news item (10th January) which came in on Wednesday :

Blog : ‘Something else that has gone quiet for sometime is the muggings in Pico da Torre, a popular tourist haunt in  Câmara de Lobos. But they haven’t gone away, as two tourists were mugged there at knife-point on Thursday. Two rucksacks were taken and were later found by police with nothing missing except money.’

Anonymous blog response : “You will be amazed, but my wife was robbed in Pico da Torre and the police recovered the purse, credit cards and all there, except the cash. Purse mailed internationally home about 4 months later for Christmas…”

What can one say, even though 4 months is a long time, but maybe that’s the fault of the post rather than the post.

We live in a land of old fashioned ‘cops and robbers’, where crime is relatively rare and unsophisticated, and the police are in touch with the people and nearly always know what is going on. We don’t need separate ‘community bobbies’ because our police know the people and the problems, and know those who commit the crimes and where to find them. The problem is usually proving it, but even so they nearly always get their man, and justice prevails (whether it be a good kicking in a police cell, or a visit to court, depending on the nature of the crime and the person who did it).

So reconstructing this story is simple :

1. Tourist visits Madeira and gets mugged on a levada walk. The matter is reported to the police.

2. The police visit the scene almost immediately, take the details, search for the stolen items nearby until found, and pay a visit to the mugger (where justice is then administered).

3. The recovered stolen envelope is then popped into an envelope and returned to the owner.

RESULT : CRIME SOLVED, OFFENDER PUNISHED, STOLEN GOODS RETURNED, MINIMUM POLICE EFFORT AND COST REQUIRED (

Now imagine a Madeiran getting mugged in a foreign country, lets say England for example.

1. Tourist gets mugged, and telephones police. He or she gets given a crime number, and the police may or may not attend the crime scene, sometime in the next week or two.

2. The police are too busy because there are too many other muggings and more serious crimes, so the crime report is filed away and they don’t have a clue who did it or really care.

3. Some weeks after an honest member of the public finds the stolen purse and takes it to a police station, where it sits in lost property for a few weeks, or on someones desk.

4. A bright copper, looking for change for the coffee machine, then puts two and two together and matches the recovered purse to the crime.

5. The purse then gets tagged as evidence, and sits around for another few weeks while the police continue not investigating.

6. Having allowed the case to go cold with no chance of an arrest, it is then decided that something needs to be done with the purse. This decision making process involves several senior officers, a committee or two, and probably a great deal of legal advice.

7. The legal advisor decides that because the purse is made of leather, it may have come from an endangered species, so it is sent to a labatory for analysis. The analysis result is that it is cow skin, so it is deemed free to be released.

8. The police then contact the Madeiran, who
by this time has returned to Madeira (and quite possibly expired), and told that they will need to return to Madeira to collect the purse, so it can be signed for. The Madeiran (or family of) says returning to Madeira is not possible because it is too expensive. This sends the police into a frenzy, but after a lot more top brass involvement and a few committee meetings, they decide to post the item to Madeira, despite breaching strict police proceedures.

9. The police then have to requisition a larger than normal envelope, a process that will take several weeks, but eventually put the purse in the post.

10. The mail company return the envelope undelivered, because of insufficient postage to an overseas address : OR the package gets lost, stolen, or sufficiently damaged that it cannot proceed on it’s journey.

€10,000)

So now you know why I think that the police here are great? 

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses (you can reply direct using the form at the bottom of each blog comments page), please send any unreported Madeira news, topical photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – anyone can join in! Thank you!

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Jessie … Funchal kiddies carnival from last Friday

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 24/2/2009

The Diário refers to Tuesday’s ‘trapalhão’ free-for-all parade as the ‘Satire Parade’ (that was the word I wanted yesterday but couldn’t think of). Full of political and social criticism in the costumes and props of the two thousand participants. Cristiano Ronaldo, José Sócrates, Alberto João Jardim were among the favourites portrayed (though I also noted many Barack Obamas), and one ‘float’ also enacted a marriage between the two Portuguese politicians. One thing I didn’t realise was that this year the parade was open to tourists, though quite how they would have stopped them in the past is beyond me. Some tourists did join in, as I saw them interviewed on TV. Tourism came off quite well during the carnival season, with a hotel occupancy rate of 74%.

‘Senhora do Mar’, or in English ‘Lady of the Sea’, the Portuguese entry into last years Eurovision Song Contest, sung by Madeira’s favourite daughter Vânia Fernandes, has been voted the best ever piece in the song festivals. Vânia claims to be surprised by the distinction, and the writer of the song says its success was purely down to Vânia. I presume it was a vote only in Portugal, but even so I would agree with the decision, with an interpretation by Vânia that send shivers down ones spine. On the other hand, it is the only song in this category that I know!

The story from a week or so ago about the conflict of interests of a councillor of CMF (Funchal Câmara) who was also a lawyer representing the development plans for the new Savoy Hotel, has raised it’s head again, as a judge and the Bar association chip in on the matter of professional standards. Apparently this is not the first time that this lawyer has caused controversy, at he did a similar thing in a project linked to the University of Madeira.

According to a report from the Bank of Portugal, Madeirans are the best when it comes to avoiding bad debt, and are the best customers of the banks. In fact to quote the article on repayments of debt “it shows that Madeiran customers are the most compliant in the country, and that the crisis has not in fact reached the family budget. Furthermore, the Madeirans – citizens and businesses – are generating more wealth and consequent savings.” Madeirans only represent 2.3% of the total population of Portugal, yet the deposits made represent 4% of the total in the economy, showing an anomaly that makes Madeira the sixth region in the league table of the biggest depositors. One of the reasons for these clearly distorted statistics and inaccurate assessments on the financial affairs of Madeirans, is the savings and deposits from immigrants, that were up 14.3% on the previous year. How can the Bank of Portugal make such an inaccurate interpretation of Madeiran finances? Perhaps the president of the Câmara of Calheta has a seat on the board?

‘Reduction in vacancies for foreigners worries immigrants living on Madeira’ – Ukrainians have asked for their embassy to intervene, and Africans voice their displeasure about the situation. The call to give local jobs to Madeirans, combined with a large influx of non-europeans (four thousand in 2007), and the closing of many businesses is causing great concern. Referring to President Jardim’s speech on keeping jobs for Madeirans, a Ukrainian spokesman says he does not know whether this will contribute to an increase in discrimination and xenophobia on Madeira, but he is certain that pockets of discrimination already exist, mentioning cases with the police. Aside from more recent ’suggestions’, in 2005 Jardim went public in saying that Chinese and Indian traders were not welcome on Madeira as they created unfair competition for Madeiran entrepreneurs. Recent statistics on immigrants living on Madeira are not available, but in 2007 the figure was 7,242, or 1.65% of the population, with more recent statistics coming available next month.

The long awaited confrontation between Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) and José Mourinho in the champions league fixture Tuesday may have fizzled out into a goalless draw, but CR won the main honours of the day when he was named ‘man of the match’.

Other News :

The cable car at Garajau now has an operating licence, two years after it’s inauguration, and nearly one year after grinding to a halt after storm damage.

The European Commission yesterday gave it’s endorsement to a package of budgeted measures submitted by the Portuguese government, aimed at boosting a flagging economy. It has also agreed not to take action against Portugal for an ‘excessive deficit’.

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I think the police here are great … but why am I mentioning it? There was a response to an old blog yesterday, that made me think about the policing here. I will reproduce it, along with the original news clip, tomorrow, and maybe we can have a bit of a laugh too!

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses (you can reply direct using the form at the bottom of each blog comments page), please send any unreported Madeira news, topical photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – anyone can join in! Thank you!

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Sarah … who had her photos in within a couple of hours. These ‘orange ladies’ may be making a political statement, or perhaps they just like oranges?

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 24/2/2009

There are conflicting weekly reports about the unemployment situation on Madeira, depending on who provides the statistics, but this article comes up with a staggering statistic. It alleges that since December unemployment has increased by 6.8%, and by 12.4% since January last year. In a headcount, that represents 630 more unemployed from one month to the next, and 1,100 over a year. The current unemployed figure is 9,932, although trade unions report numbers well over that. Over a year, the number of job vacancies has dropped 44%. These figures come from the Instituto de Emprego e Formação Profissional (IEFP) (institute of employment).

Aside from that not a big news day, but I will persevere a little longer …

‘Oscars far from the Madeirans’ : Aside from lamenting the lack of Madeiran Oscar winners, the Diário seems a little peeved that the winning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, or in Portugal ‘Who wants to be billionaire?’ has not yet arrived on Madeira, despite hitting the continent on 5th February.

The Marítimo manager, Lori Sandri, has been sacked along with his assistant after a meeting with the club president on Monday. An ex-manager of Sporting Braga is favoured to take over. No reasons given for the sacking, as Marítimo are in a comfortable 7th place in the league, just 3 points away from the European placings. I bet President Bertie had a hand in it though, as there is nothing he hates more than to see his favourite team trailing behind Nacional.

The Diário sent a reporter out with one of the three ‘Rapid Response Teams’ that are part of the Public Security Police. The teams each have 9 officers, and have been in place since 2004, but the three teams are unable to provide 24 hour coverage, being two teams short. Unlike the normal police, the team works across the island, concentrating on ‘problem areas’. A decision is awaited on whether to set up two more teams.

The other story is about the nervousness of the social democrat politicians in Santa Cruz, where President Jardim has left his people hanging in terms of election candidates for 2009. The other concern is the lack of public works in the area, presumably seen as an important factor in winning votes from the local electorate, as election years are famous for a flood of inaugurations.

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Anyone join in or watch the ‘trapalhão’ parade yesterday? Any good? I watched an hour or so on TV, and was very impressed with some of the entries, quite a few of which were protests (against Bertie, the cable car at Rabaçal etc.). Many thanks to those who sent in photos.

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses (you can reply direct using the form at the bottom of each blog comments page), please send any unreported Madeira news, topical photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – anyone can join in! Thank you!

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Sarah … a show in the municipal gardens of Funchal on carnival Friday

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 23/2/2009

Main headline : ‘Calote Italiano’ which can translate to swindle or bad debt, depending how you want it to. This follows on from last weeks story that the Italian tour operator has restarted it’s charter flights and holidays on Porto Santo Island, albeit for now just until next month. It seems the company has a million €uro debt with hotels, local services, and suppliers. That situation is understandably generating a little apprehension with local businesses. The biggest debts are over €100,000, and include the Hotel Vila Baleira.

Most of yesterday’s front page was taken up with a photo from the Marítimo game on Sunday, announcing that as a result of the two losses for our local teams, Sporting Braga had sneaked above them into 5th place in the league.

The social democrat party of Madeira (PS-M) has said it has uncovered more cases of corruption in the public sector, which it will be taking to the authorities. Letters have been received, highlighting corruption cases, from members of the public. The president of PS-M says that a change in administration is needed to combat such cases, saying that the public will no longer accept behaviour from the time of Salazar (the dictator from more than 30 years ago), when stealing from the state was the norm rather than a crime.

More on the carnival parade on Saturday of course, again with another mention that President Jardim joined in dancing with a troupe(s), but again with no picture.

Another article is about the neighbourhood of Romeiro overlooking Funchal. It talks about alcohol abuse, drugs, social problems, poor maintenance and services, adolescent pregnancy, all the usual stuff that the Diário has been highlighting recently. It looks like the newspaper has taken on the role of bringing these matters to public attention on a near daily basis, and whether this a political motivation in a year of elections, your guess is as good as mine.

Around 27 thousand Madeirans (16%) have benefited from training and education initiatives, supported by European social funding, during 2008. The beneficiaries are aged between 15 and 64, have already consumed over €43 million in funding under the programme for lifelong learning. Some of the funding is aimed at the fight against failure and early exits from schools, by diversifying and increasing the number of vocational options for young people. Altogether the EU has €125 million allocated for approved projects in education and training.

Other News :

There is video footage of one of the carnival floats from Saturday causing a scare when it started to run away backwards downhill. It eventually regained control, and thanks to a number of the crowd intervening to push the vehicle, it managed to complete it’s journey.

The restaurant fire, early Saturday morning in the ‘Marina Shopping’ centre in Funchal, has revealed some weaknesses in the safety procedures for the building. Although the fire was quickly controlled and extinguished, instead of venting out as it should, the smoke went to apartments above the mall, and forced the evacuation of residents. Add to that that the smoke detector didn’t work, nor the fire alarm, then it is a miracle that there were no casualties.

Remember some months ago a report that a new Madeiran based airline was being formed, called ‘Madjet’? Well that has now moved on a stage with the arrival of it’s first aircraft, a brand new executive jet ‘Hawker 900XP’, last Friday. The Calheta based company is expecting it’s next aircraft, a Beechcraft King Air 350i, to arrive next year.

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Aah … nice sunny public holiday, just what the doctor ordered. Someone brought me a huge bag of lovely looking bananas this morning, enough to last me three months if that was possible. If anyone wants some, come and collect, otherwise they will end up rotting.

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses (you can reply direct using the form at the bottom of each blog comments page), please send any unreported Madeira news, topical photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – anyone can join in! Thank you!

TODAY’S PHOTO : Many thanks to Josie … Friday’s children’s carnival parade in Funchal, which Josie took and had to me by midday the same day!

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 21/2/2009

Main Headline : ‘Finanças terrorize those who legalise what is theirs’. “To receive a letter from Finanças is a moment of terror”. This story is about some citizens in Caniçal that decided to legalise the ownership of some small plots of land with buildings that they had owned for decades, not knowing that they were going to get stung with huge tax demands in stamp duty. The fuss is about people on low incomes, pensions of €300 per month, being billed €3,000 or in some cases much more. Hurts I know, but we all get stung with that whether we are rich or poor, but perhaps waiting 40 years to formalise the ownership is not the best way to avoid taxation when property values tend to rise.

A fire has burnt out a restaurant in the Marina Shopping Centre in Funchal. A electrical problem started the blaze early yesterday morning on the ground floor, but nobody was hurt. 

The chief coach at Marítimo says the club will not be investing to ensure a place in Europe this season. The club cannot compete with the superior budgets of others.

Skipping the politics story about the leadership problems in the socialist party (a temporary leader has been appointed to stand until July), the other story is about some final year students wanting to go on the Easter holiday to the Canary Islands by plane, but something was causing problems and they were having to go by boat instead, but I was pushed for time. This is a Portuguese tradition from what I understand though, with final year students who can afford it going off abroad together before their final term.

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 22/2/2009

The carnival parade is of course the main story, with nearly everyone delighted with the razmataz. Thousands of people turned up as always to see the seven troupes perform to the theme of ‘astronomy’, along with President Bertie, who also danced alongside some of the the participants (anyone get a photo of that?). The Diário has some nice photos, but nothing like our blog readers contributions. Take a look here if you haven’t already :

www.madeira4u.com/m4u_RI/carnival_2009_madeira_funchal.html

It seems that Porto da cruz, population 2,793,  is the featured location this week, “Lacks so much” is the headline. It has an elderly population who want a decent supermarket and a chapel for the cemetery, and there is nothing to occupy the young people in terms of leisure, who want a cinema, sports facilities, and bars to use at night. A mother of three says the village lacks a health centre and nursery.  That’s pretty much it … that’s all the article says, so it’s not going to be an action packed week in Porto da Cruz by the sound of things.

Last year the Madeiran homeowners with mortgages owed on average  €70,000 to a bank, and the borrowing for homes for the whole island amounted to 2,471 million Euros (there is no continental Portuguese word for ‘billions’). The article illustrates how the demand for home-loans has fallen, in Portugal as well as Madeira. Likewise bad debt is on the rise, with the Bank of Portugal reporting a 32% rise over a year. Funny how continental Portuguese has no word for ‘billion’, yet there is a word for ‘billionaire’ according to the coverage of the Oscar award ceremony!

Other News :

The first day back in the legislative assembly of Madeira next month will be a busy one, with 40 matters of business for discussion … the last one caught my eye … presented by the New Democratic Party … the construction of a 50 metre statue of ‘Jardim’. This is one time when my translation skills must have gone to pieces I thought, but I tried an electronic translator and got the same result. If it is true, the sheer fact that it is tabled by the PND (Rabbit’s party) must mean that it is another one of their political stunts.  

One article covers the comment from a trade union official that the restaurant trade is not doing very well so far in 2009, but when you read a later story, about one restaurant that has been robbed six times in less than two months, it puts a different perspective on the matter. The restaurant ‘Jardim da Carreira’ (it looks like it is Funchal from the photo) had €200 in cash and €150 in spirits taken this time, but in the last two months the owner estimates the total loss to be around €5,000, including the damage caused during the break-ins.

There were quite a few articles on carnival activities, particularly the various children’s parades that took place on Friday, and an interesting admission from the chief of police that Saturday night his officers were going to be more tolerant with driving and parking matters for those going into Funchal.

In football, both out teams lost yesterday. Marítimo lost 3 – 1 at Academica, and Nacional 1 – 0 at Amadora.

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I had an unsolicited  lesson in Fado appreciation on Friday night, and whilst I can think of better ways to spend my weekend, it was actually quite interesting. According to the man who was controlling the music in a local restaurant, there are two types of fado : ‘Coimbra’ and ‘Lisbon’, and he was ‘kind enough’ to play me several tracks of both types. I wasn’t wild about either, but with a gun to my head I would have picked ‘Lisbon’ as being slightly more bearable. Apparently there is no such thing as Madeiran fado, although for sure I have seen fadistas performing here several times so it must have been the other types.

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses (you can reply direct using the form at the bottom of each blog comments page), please send any unreported Madeira news, topical photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – anyone can join in! Thank you!

What a great surprise to wake up this morning and find my email account jam packed with carnival photos, over 60 so far and it’s only 11am!

I did prepare today’s blog, but how could I possibly pick one photo of the day from all those. So a decision was made between the blog editorial team and myself to focus today’s blog effort on showing all the photos (well, at least until the space runs out).

I have around 30 photos on as I write this, but will add more as the day progresses, so feel free to send in more, and keep checking back on the webpage, as I will add any new ones at the top until I run out of space at least.

And please don’t forget to send in your carnival thoughts and stories through the blog comments, as we couldn’t all be there to see the great spectacle.

All the photos and action is here!  :

http://www.madeira4u.com/m4u_RI/carnival_2009_madeira_funchal.html