Madeira News Blog

Today’s photo – Many thanks to Tobi for sending them in : I don’t actually know who took the second photo … Serra de Água. You will have already seen the ‘after’ photos? But here are the ‘before’, and ‘during’ … taken on 20th February 2010 … staggering.

"Here’s something different. Local Madeira spider, may be someone can tell me what type it is?" Pete.

Many thanks to Becky for these videos :

How to find the British Cemetery in Funchal

Tragedy in Madeira – Before and After  (interesting side by side photos accompanied by some truly awful music… has anyone ever written a song about Madeira that was any good?!  Come on, Der, I’m expecting ‘Ribeira Brava, Ribeira Brava’ to buck the trend…).

Many thanks to Paul for this :

Cedary, layered 1780 Borges Bual Madeira ($2,450) that could have been drunk by Thomas Jefferson.

Image caption: A bottle of 1843 Bual Madeira

John Pierpont Morgan likes to sip old vintages of Madeira with his fellow industrialists while cruising New York harbor on his steam yacht Corsair.

Why vintage Madeiras have begun to attract more collectors in the past three years

Image caption: Thomas Jefferson, portrait 1791, the 3rd President of the United States.

“The wine is surprisingly delicious, its caramel and candied fruit flavors and lively acidity intact after more than two centuries.

Which is why vintage Madeiras have begun to attract more collectors in the past three years. For several hundred to several thousand dollars, you can sip pieces of history that still taste good and aren’t in enough demand to inspire fakes.” Link to full article

Sheila sent in these photos of the ‘Garajau dog’ abandoned at home by his owner :

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

Storm interrupts holidays holidays of the deputies – The Peoples Party pressured and the parliamentary recess will be suspended to approve urgent assistance to those harmed.

Arsenal supportive towards Ribeira Brava – The shirt of footballer Eduardo delivered to the ‘face’ of the tragedy. The photo shows Ismael Fernandes, president of Ribeira Brava, presenting the Arsenal shirt to José Feliz, the lad that lost 7 family members and was badly injured himself on 20th February in a landslide in Pomar da Rocha. The official shirt of the number 9 of Arsenal of London, Brazil born Eduardo da Silva, was given to young José Feliz. All of the Arsenal team signed the shirt, which was first of all auctioned for £600 and then given to Ismael, who was in London for a weekend fund raising event.

Today’s main news headline : Taxman and Social Security facilitate reconstruction – Reduced bureaucracy in response to the storm : based on a legal counsel the Directorate of Finance waives the bank guarantee for traders and businessmen engaged in reconstruction. Social Security will also facilitate.

[Recovery] Works in all the city except in Laranjal – The complaint continues. After the street clean the machines just disappeared. The debris remains there. And there are three bodies to be found. That’s the big picture today, and it’s certainly not the first time the Diário has given front page coverage to the plight of Laranjal in Santo António, that seems to have got left behind in the clean up and rebuilding. There are not even any men or equipment there on clean up work, whilst the rest of Funchal is still busy in that respect. The Diário refers to it as a "scene of death and destruction". Still missing are a young lady and her 9 month old baby, and a 16 year old neighbour. Few of the residents have been able to return home, through damage to their homes and fear of new landslides.

United Nations widens campaign to Madeira – In April, there will be launched here a mineral water for commercialisation to help in humanitarian causes of the ONU. The ‘Earth Water’ brings Fátima Lopez, the boyfriend of Madonna and maybe Luís Figo. As for who that is in the yellow dress in the bottom right hand corner to today’s front page, I have no idea, as it doesn’t appear to be Fátima Lopez (I thought she was older with shorter hair). The launch of the initiative will be at the Vine Hotel in Funchal on 14th April. All seems a bit odd to me … Madeira itself will be targeted to raise money for the ONU and it’s causes, at a time when it needs money raised for itself?

Swan Lake is "an extraordinary challenge" – The Diário watched two scenes of the ballet that joined together the Moscow Tchaikovsky Ballet and the Classical Orchestra of Madeira. It must have been a spectacular two and a half hours with 50 rather fit Russian ladies, probably some blokes too, and that was just the dress rehearsal. But unlike the Diário, Der’s blog doesn’t get free tickets for reviews, especially for the real thing tonight, so no review from me. There are still some tickets left (€50) if you are quick.

The main sport / football headline today : No sport headline … that’s two days running!

If anyone else can oblige with the translation of any of the ‘blank’ or sparsely filled headlines, or other news stories, here is the link. All contributions much appreciated. 

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If you can, please contribute something Madeira related. A funny story or good or bad experience, a news item, or a story from a Madeira newspaper, a teaser, news of a bargain flight or item in a supermarket. Please help keep this blog going … without user contributions it won’t survive. Please don’t send in automatic translations (like Google translator) without checking them through and correcting them first, thanks.

You can email blog@madeira4u.com with any large contributions and other material.

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Please use the comments here for general chit-chat, or feel free to ask any questions … someone usually has an answer.

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TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Tobi … This, according to Tobi, is the Porto Santo Wolf Spider. I actually wonder if it is a wind-up. Can anyone confirm? Talking of animals, you should take a look at this page of animal photos, all taken on Madeira, all taken by Tobi. YOU WILL BE SURPRISED

I went to a bit of a do in Serra da Água Saturday night, but through lack of transport I decided to make the return journey on foot, thinking it was an hour or so at a brisk pace, which was actually far from the reality. Having got a little lost at the start of the town itself, which is a lot bigger than I thought, I stopped somebody to ask directions, and he ended up taking me the last couple of kilometres in his car. Then on the return walk, after about half an hour of walking, someone stopped and picked me up and took me home, but that was after buying me a beer en-route. What kindness and generosity indeed!

A couple of today’s main headlines :

The main news headline in today’s Diário : Pain Unit Without Resources – The lack of human resources and changes made in the field of work contribute to the reduction in capacity of the unit in Funchal Central Hospital. The unit should work with three full time anaesthesiologists, but for the last year has only had one. The monthly average of procedures carried out so far this year is 1,064, compared to nearly 1,500 in 2007 and 2008. The lack of trained staff and specialists means the unit has to turn to other specialists in the hospital for help, but that is not sufficient to fill the shortfalls.

The other main story continues from yesterday (see below) : Haemorrhage In Caniçal – Burst piping in the transfer of fuel oil leaks an undetermined quantity of spillage in the sea. The transporter was pumping fuel into the tanks of Companhia Logística de Combustíveis da Madeira (CLCM), when a union burst. The official opinion is that the spillage is not large, as the problem occurred at the end of the transfer, and teams were quickly on the scene to deal with the matter.

New Disappointment – Marítimo again falls by the wayside in the first round of the cup. Camacha and União continue in the competition. Marítimo managed a shock result yesterday in the Azores, losing 2 – 1 to lowly Santa Clara, in the Portugal Cup. The other two local União and Camacha teams won their games on Madeira and go on to the next round. Machico and Canicense also got knocked out.

Today is the big day for Portugal, who will learn their opponents in the 2010 World Cup play-offs, to be played on 14th and 18th of November. The home leg will be played in the Stadium of Light "Luz", the home of Benfica. Portugal are the clear favourite in FIFA rankings, whichever opponent they meet.

Yesterday’s top news stories, many thanks to Elaine :

Apple Festival to change date next year. On Saturday afternoon, there were few visitors to the festival in Camacha. There were 1,500 kilos of apples from 14 farmers for sale. The main interest to visitors was the traditional cider production/selling. The President of the Parish admits that the festival has been loosing strength in the past three years despite increased production and quality of apples. The organizers will attempt to revitalize the Apple Festival next year and by request of the producers, want to hold it in late September/early October as the apples mature early. They are hopeful that Sunday will bring more visitors. —-I hope they can resurrect the festival. Perhaps trade was better on Sunday afternoon. Did anyone go?

In comparison, they said that several hundred people took advantage of the sunny afternoon to attend the Regional Meeting of the Philharmonic Bands in Ribeira Brava. Yes I can confirm Elaine, lots of people there, as this event goes from strength to strength each year. This year seating was provided for everyone, and yet amazingly there was still enough space for the drunks to dance. Also, they used the super-duper big stage this year, with the roof that goes up and down. That must be the fifth time this year, so they might as well just buy the darn thing.

ARMAS has carried 24% fewer passengers per trip than last year. The average per trip this year has been 24% less than last year and 40% less than 2007. The highest average was in 2007 when it was 280 passengers per trip but this year has only been 166. There have been 40 more trips this year but with only a gain of 563 passengers (25,959 passengers this year so far). Although the total number of passengers has increased, it has been offset by the cost of an increased frequency of service. The major increase in trade has been Portimão / Canaries (57.9%) and Funchal / Portimão (17.3%). The only decrease in passengers was 3.4% less on the Las Palmas / Funchal route. The transport of vehicles is slowly increasing each year. Cargo transport has increased over 500%, so helping revenue.

In addition, the airport had 4.9% less passengers and 3.6% less flights in the first nine months of this year, compared to last year. Domestic passengers increased 12.7% and a decline of 18% international passengers.

No candidates for the City of Culture 2010 award. Eight municipalities could have entered by the deadline in June but none did, possibly due to elections. Last year, Santa Cruz, Machico, Funchal and Câmara de Lobos entered and the latter won. The award was started in 2007 by the Government and they must either end the award or invite a particular municipality.

Less patients had to travel to Portugal for treatment. Since 2006, an average of about 2,000 patients had to be diagnosed / treated in Portugal. So far this year, only 1,200 have had to go. The Health Department  pay for air fares at short notice, local transport, subsistence and also the transportation and subsistence of a companion. This year, no patients had to be referred out of the Continent. This is partly due to the opening of the new Radiotherapy Unit in February, which they hope will save more than 1 million Euros by the end of the year in costs.

Two sharks born in Madeira Aquarium. A shark, commonly named Caneja, gave birth to one on Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday morning. This is an unusual event and the mating sharks have been in the aquarium in Porto Moniz for ten months.

Pilgrim statue goes to the regions.  After a Mass, the statue of Fátima goes to Boaventura, accompanied by a procession of about 300 bikers from the Madeira Biker’s Club. The police hope that the quiet traffic on Sunday will not lead to too many queues.

Suspected murderer returned to freedom. Continuation of the case of a man killed in Nogueira on Wednesday after an argument. The deceased man was from Mozambique and had gone to the alleged murderer’s house with a knife in his hand, where he was killed. The suspected murderer has been freed as long as he regularly reports to the police, as they pursue enquiries, and his family have moved out of the area for their own safety.

Ecological Park has planted 63,000 species. A daily activity between Autumn and Winter, involving employees, schools and associations. The projects have EU support. They aim to eradicate evasive alien species and restore natural vegetation cover, especially in areas to resist erosion. The Ecological Park is a protected area of Funchal, founded in 1994. The Reception Centre was developed in 2004 and has had more than 4,000 visitors.

Shipping news. After two failed attempts, the 290 tonnes generator engine has finally been unloaded at Câmara de Lobos. In another event, during the transfer of fuel from a supply ship to Caniçal, there was a spillage which meant the emergency ‘absorbent blanket’ (looks like foam) was sprayed into the sea around the spillage.

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If you can, please contribute something Madeira related. A funny story or experience, a news item, or a story from a Madeira newspaper, a photo or video, a teaser, news of a bargain flight or item in a supermarket. Please help keep this blog going … without user contributions it won’t survive. 

You can email blog@madeira4u.com with any large contributions or comments and photos / videos, or if you can contribute regularly, I can give you a special account that allows you to create your own blog postings.
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Please use the comments here for general chit-chat, or feel free to ask any questions … someone usually has an answer.

(more…)