I am a bit the worse for wear this morning, having unexpectedly stayed out until 2am last night, but I have a good excuse so I am not in the least bit embarrassed.
It was a sort of strange night, as I went into town just as it was getting dark. I was feeling a bit down, after a day when nothing seemed to go right, and in a week I when learned that there is going to be a huge new building constructed across from me, planing consent having just been granted. So what you say? This new building is bigger than the one where I live, and that’s pretty big. So what you say? My building needed many many months to prepare the land, just taking out rock to shape the site, this new bigger project is going to take out much more rock … so there will be months and months of tak tak tak tak as the machines take out thousands of tonnes. If you have ever lived in a narrow valley with pneumatic drills in use, you will know what I mean. Even the elections that were cheesing me off a little, have paled into insignificance compared to that prospect.
Anyway, back to last night … it was sort of surreal as there were no street lights in town for hours, the only source of outside light was from the few bars that were open, and the huge fire in the valley in Tabua. I think that must be out now, as I can’t see the smoke this morning. Why were there no street lights? Because there was an astronomy group near the sea front, and it seems that they persuaded the council to ‘switch off’ for the night, to cut down on the light pollution for the telescopers. You would think there would be more than one switch for so many street lights so those away from the astronomy site wouldn’t be in darkness, but no, the whole town and valley was disconnected .
So I went into a regular haunt for a chat, then I went off to watch some of the late match in a restaurant, when a friend turned up. He told me that Vânia Fernandes was in town, and singing in another restaurant at 11pm. If you don’t know who Vânia is by now, you must have missed a lot of previous blogs. Madeira’s favourite daughter is the winner of last years pop idol competition in Portugal, as well as the entrant for last years Eurovision song contest. I had seen her perform live once before, and I was well up for a repeat performance.
We went to the restaurant, and there she was, with her 4 piece band, sat at a table with friends. All the tables were full, so it seemed there was not much chance of a seated view, but 10 minutes before the performance started unbelievably someone vacated the outside table nearest to the stage area, and I was in like a shot. You would think there would have been masses of people there, but this was like a private performance and there was no publicity. In all, I don’t think there were more than 60 to 70 people there. The 11pm start turned into just before midnight, before the stage was occupied.
Vânia Fernandes in Ribeira Brava May 2009
So anyway, that made my day, and my week. I am promised a copy of the photo of me and Vânia in an embrace, so I might share that when it comes. Vânia said she would check out this blog today, and I know I have said all nice things about her, but they are all true and she deserves them! Thank you Vânia!
As far as meeting Madeira’s most famous people goes, that’s two down, two to go. CR7 and Uncle Bertie might prove to be a bit trickier me thinks.
PS – sorry about the poor photo … I only had my camera phone to hand, and it was very dark
TODAY’S PHOTO : One of mine … Ribeira Brava beach on Thursday.
