Madeira News Blog

Today’s photo – Many thanks to Eiryl … Xmas scene from Câmara de Lobos (pt 2).

"The airport was opened on 18 July 1964 with two 1,600m runways. The airport was once infamous for its short runway which, surrounded by high mountains and the ocean, made it a tricky landing for even the most experienced of pilots. The original runway was only 1600 metres in length, but was extended by 200 metres 8 years after the TAP Air Portugal Flight 425 incident of 1977 and subsequently rebuilt in 2000, almost doubling the size of the runway, building it out over the ocean. Instead of using landfill, the extension was built on a series of 180 columns, each being about 70m tall. This airport is also considered the Kai Tak of Europe because of its singular approach to runway 05". MADEIRA AIRPORT ARTICLE

The Diário de Notícias newspaper has published a Christmas colour supplement if anyone would like a browse through it’s online HERE with lots of photos.

The charges for electricity are going to rise by 2.9 percent in 2010 in continental Portugal, the equivalent of a €3 increase for an average bill of €40. In Madeira the increase is of 2.5 percent and in the Azores of 2.1 percent. PORTUGAL NEWS Well of course you already knew, you always hear it here first!

Nothing to do after the new year’s eve celebrations? This might appeal to the younger ones, and might offend the older ones …

Most Levada walks are difficult for anybody with the slightest fear of heights; so when reading  about a short walk described as ‘easy’ and ‘flat’ it already had sounded interesting .  A short ride on  a local bus up to the Palheiro Gardens (Blandy’s gardens)  where you can enjoy the peaceful surroundings of what must be a beautiful garden at the height of summer, a little short on colour in December but still interesting.  A short walk, approximately 45 minutes to the renowned Jasmine teahouse; once there you can  have a refreshing cuppa before catching the bus (conveniently the stop is just outside the tea house) back to Funchal. Funchal Really Easy levada walking

"Higdon Life in Madeira: Jardim do Mar, Madeira Island, Portugal: We live a simple life on the beautiful island of Madeira off the coast of Morocco. We have three beautiful children that God has blessed us with-Kaija, Mikkai and Adelei!" Never post anything private about Madeira on the web … I will find it! HIGDON FAMILY JIG

Yesterday’s news headlines from the front page of the Diário de Notícias :

(There is no newspaper today, as I guess the reporters all had yesterday off … what a luxury, and yesterday’s newspaper just had a handful of stories, some already covered here a couple of days ago).

Rock fall forces family from home. The car was buried inside the garage, and the house damaged, early on Christmas morning in sítio do Calvário, in Estreito de Câmara de Lobos. There were 5 people in the house when it was stuck at about 1.30 am yesterday morning, but all escaped uninjured. The fire brigade attended, but there was little they could do, so the matter is now in the hands of the council to clean up and secure the location from further problems. Also up until early yesterday morning the fire departments were called to Funchal, Tâmega (Ribeira Brava), Fontaínhas and to Quinta Grande to deal with trees that had fallen into the roads. At Levada dos Piornais a wall collapsed. Somehow I suspect there must be many more stories of problems than just the few cited here, but everyone deserves a day off, so bad luck for the firemen as well as for those badly affected.

Expense with unemployment benefit soars – Compared to 2008, this year obliged Social Security to spend 40% more on benefits. With unemployment up around 50% in the same twelve months, they did well to keep the increase in expenditure down to 40% in my opinion. The article is full of facts and figures, but luckily for me the Diário also published them in a table, saving me some work.

Yesterday’s main news headline and with most of the front page with a great big picture of a Santa statue : Bring back the good old times [?] – The period of celebrations has been marked by storms and damage. And the forecasts for the next few hours are not the best. But there are compensations that help to fuel the dream and to maintain the tradition.

Footballers : Living Christmas in the traineeship – Christmas dinner in the home of Cléber. A bit of a space filler methinks. The story looks at  three 18 year old apprentices from Nacional football club of Madeira, who are spending their first Christmas away from home. Their normal home these days is in the athlete’s accommodation at the Choupana Stadium. Everyone else has returned home for Xmas, but these 3 Brazilians stayed on Madeira, using the time to play computer games and play snooker, because it would take too long to return to Brazil with just a short break ahead of them.

At the moment I can’t get into any other online stories, but may try again later.

If anyone else can oblige with any other news stories, Thank you in anticipation.

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