TODAY'S PHOTO : Thanks to Tobi ... some of the Tall Ships moored in Funchal at night. It's like Christmas come early!

Front Page News : source Diário de Notícias 5/10/2008

Many Madeirans are panicking about the situation with many international banks running into financial problems and bankruptcies, and running to the bank to withdraw savings, despite advice to the contrary from the government and Bank of Portugal that they should stay calm. There are protection measures for savers in Portugal with the 'Fund of Guarantee of Deposits' where the first €25,000 of savings is covered against loss by the holding bank (see http://www.fgd.pt/default_e.htm - in English), and that is seemingly against each account held. It is worth having a look at the F.A.Q. section also, as it also covers foreign currency accounts, and also makes up the loss of interest to the date the money is lost.

The illegal extraction sand and inert materials from the Ribeira (river) dos Socorridos continues, despite being officially warned by the responsible government department that what they were doing was illegal. Several companies are involved, and the Diário reports seeing lorries transporting the material away at the rate of one every 15 minutes. The story just goes on and on, whilst substantial damage is being caused to the landscape, and there is potential for big problems during winter storms.

In a scene fit for an action film, Funchal police on Friday pursued a BMW containing 3 men and a kilo of hashish. It started in Ajuda at around 5.30pm after gunshots were heard fired from a police vehicle, and the chase commenced. The BMW drove at high speed through the streets, at one time going the wrong way down a one-way street, and performing other 'risky manoeuvres'. A police car crashed during the chase, but eventually the BMW was trapped by other officers. One of the fugitives is known as 'Popeye'. They went before a judge in Funchal accused of drug trafficking along the south coast of Madeira, but for reasons not made clear all three were released.

Most of the front page was taken up with football, so that's it for the headlines for today.

Other News :

The gardens of 'Dolce Vita' (which I assume refers to the shopping centre in Funchal) were raided by thieves during the early hours of Saturday morning. They stole around 100 cacti plants, that cost around €30 each. The gardens are now being replanted with more common species, with plans to replant more cacti later. The Diário cites other recent cases of plant theft, including Palm trees from the Lido area, and Azaleas from Monte gardens.

Nacional managed a 1 - 1 draw yesterday at Académica, not enough to keep them at the top of the Portuguese league, but after 6 weeks at the top it's probably some sort of record for the club.

Sheila's latest article about SPAD (Animal Protection) and animal welfare is now available online. Please take a look and if you can help with a donation to SPAD, or help in another way,  it is much needed. http://www.madeira4u.com/m4u_RI/resources_i_zz_animal_news_madeira.html

I went into town to buy a new laundry basket a few days ago, and after all the hassle I have had over the years with being overcharged, this time I was recognised and given a discount ... a first for me. A Madeiran friend who lives nearby says she always asks for a discount in the small shops, and she nearly always gets one.

Many thanks to everyone who sent in tall ship photos. I have enough to last the rest of the year, but to keep a variation in the daily photo sorry I won't be able to publish most of them. I did look at every one though and enjoyed them immensely, especially as I didn't get to see the event itself. I did get to see one tall ship over at Ribeira Brava yesterday ... but I can't quite figure out why it was over this way when the rest of the parade was going in the opposite direction.

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The 'contact us' form and the excursion and car hire booking forms on the main website still has a fault. Nothing is coming through to me. If you have to send anything or have made a booking, or wish to, please email me. Very sorry for the inconvenience, I am trying to fix it asap.

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, 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 ... "Santa Luzia Gardens.  The gardens were made when the sugar factory came down, but this wheel from the sugar factory is still in the gardens.  They are quite small gardens, but with some shady areas!  there is also a cafe there".

Front Page News : source Diário de Notícias 4/10/2008

The bishop responsible for the churches of Madeira who it seems was already unpopular, has upset priests and parishioners by a significant reallocation between priests and churches. He is accused of showing favoritism to some, and overloading others with too much work and responsibility. In São Martinho a 500 signature petition was created to protest about the impacts there.

Marítimo football club in the headlines again. Aside from complaining about the standard of refereeing in Marítimo's elimination from the EUFA Cup, the Marítimo's boss complained that the Croatian referee treated Portuguese football with scorn. Commenting on the interference of President Jardim in the rebuilding of their stadium, he states that the original project was for a new stadium budgeted at €125 million, but that had now been cut back to just €45 million.

The Porto Santo Ferry 'Lobo Marinho' broke down yet again, the second time in around a week, delaying the morning departure from Funchal by over 3 and a half hours. This time it was a generator fault, but it had a knock on effect on the Madeira to Portimão Ferry 'Volcan de Tijarafe' which subsequently left 4 hours late.

Other News :

A new publication titled 'Listing of the Fungi, Flora and Terrestrial Fauna of the Island of Madeira and the Selvagens (islands)' has identified the territory as having 7,500 species, of which 1,400 are unique in the world. The book has been prepared over the last year by 80 specialists, and one of the experts said that the range and importance of the biodiversity here compares well to the islands of Hawaii and Galapagos. The book is published in both Portuguese and English. I just checked to see if it was on the Amazon site yet, but no joy.

The Protective Society for Domestic Animals in Funchal (SPAD) reports that it has taken in 2,493 stray and abandoned animals so far this year, with nearly 1,300 coming during the summer months (a traditionally high period for abandoning pets). SPAD are at Madeira shopping today collecting donations of food, and money for their animal sterilisation campaign.

This weekend's football, Nacional play at home against Académica today at 4pm (not on TV), and Marítimo play away to Setúbal on Tuesday (7.45pm SportTV 1). The big game this weekend is Sporting v Porto tonight at 7.45 (SportTV 1).

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Some of you may remember many months ago that I wrote in this blog about a dangerous cliff on the road between Ribeira Brava and Campanário, where there was a high risk of a large rockfall, which could have potentially flattened my house with me in it. A couple of weeks ago several local people mentioned that work was due to start to deal with the problem, and apart from being a few days late, they did start work during the week referred to. As a result the road has been closed, and people who would normally use that road to go to work, or to do their shopping or spend leisure time in town, have the option to park up near the mirodouro and walk down (about 15 hilly minutes), or go to Campanário and use the via rápida to travel the very long way around. OK it's essential work, and if people are inconvenienced until December, when it is planned to be finished, then it is probably worth it, certainly from my perspective. However, in terms of preparing the public, nothing happened. There was no official notification, no signs put up (one or two road signs have appeared since). The busy bus route has obviously been disrupted making journey time an awful lot longer on the old country road route, and of course some of the bus stops are no longer in use, but has the bus company put notices anywhere about diversions, 'redundant' bus stops, or changes in operating and journey times ... have they hell! A few minutes ago a couple of ambulances went screaming past, sirens ablasting, on their way up to the road block. They didn't come back again until later, so the emergency services must have special arrangements to get through. That was probably much appreciated by the person who was dying, or whatever it was.

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The 'contact us' form and the excursion and car hire booking forms on the main website still has a fault. Nothing is coming through to me. If you have to send anything or have made a booking, or wish to, please email me. Very sorry for the inconvenience, I am trying to fix it asap.

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, photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com - anyone can join in! Thank you!

TODAY'S PHOTO : Thanks to Eiryl ... 'Colourful Funchal'

Front Page News : source Diário de Notícias 3/10/2008

'Game against 14 was too much'. The main story was of Marítimo's defeat in Spain on Thursday night, referring to a game against 11 players, a referee and his 2 assistants.

Referred to as another 'mishap of liberalization (of the airways)' Madeira's residents who have brought tickets to travel between Madeira and Portugal are not getting their residents rebate on the fares paid on the new route operated by Easyjet. It seems that CTT (Post Office) that deals with the rebates is not getting the information it requires from the company to authorise the payments. 17,000 tickets have already been sold, and although bureaucracy is getting the blame, it seems that the customers contribution number needs to be printed on the ticket. I thought you couldn't get the rebate until after you had travelled, but as the flights don't start until 27th October, perhaps I got it wrong?

Anyone who heard a lot of gunshots on Wednesday afternoon, through to midnight, you can come out from under your beds now. It was a police quick response unit training exercise. It also involved sirens, and a lot of screaming and shouting, which could be heard in Funchal city centre. The commotion generated a lot of complaints.

Aside from that, just 2 political stories.

Other News :

Bit of trouble with translating this one, but a new law is threatening the future of the government owned daily newspaper 'Jornal da Madeira', due to it's shareholder structure. The Union of Journalists is trying to persuade the government to try and overcome the problem through restructuring, rather than take more drastic measures.

A thief broke into a commercial vehicle this week in Funchal, and must have thought Xmas had come early. He found 3 bags of money under the seat, amounting to €4,000 in coins. As the money was the proceeds of gambling through slot machines I will be shedding no tears, and can only say that 'what goes around comes around', if you get my drift.

In the first 6 months of this year 190 babies were born prematurely in Funchal central hospital, and every one survived.

Preparations are underway for next years carnival in Funchal, 21st to 24th of February. The key events are the grand carnival at 9pm on Saturday 21st, and the free for all 'Trapalhão' is at 4pm on Tuesday 24th. The theme for the event this time is astronomy, to coincide with the 'International Year of Astronomy'. It's 3 weeks later than this year, anyone know why? If you fancy a reminder of this years grand carnival, take a look here:

http://www.madeira4u.com/m4u_RI/resources_i_zz_carnival_2008_funchal.html

Yet another tourist mugging at the miradouro at Pico da Torre, Câmara de Lobos. This time it was a Spanish man, who was threatened with a knife and forced to hand over money (€140) and a camera. He is now in hospital suffering with shock (I think!). That place  seems to be the worst location on Madeira for this sort of thing, but the police say they have increased vigilance there, and the mugging numbers have in fact declined.

The Regional Secretary for Human Resources said on Thursday that unemployment had fallen to 6.1%, emphasising that the rate nationally was 7.3%.

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The 'contact us' form and the excursion and car hire booking forms on the main website still has a fault. Nothing is coming through to me. If you have to send anything or have made a booking, or wish to, please email me. Very sorry for the inconvenience, I am trying to fix it asap.

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, photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com - anyone can join in! Thank you!

TODAY'S PHOTO : Thanks to Tobi ... One of the tall ships moored in Funchal this week. Thanks for all the photos sent, I think we have enough tall ship photos until the end of the year now, so I apologise for being selective in what has turned out to be a 'nautical week', what with all the Spanish Navy traffic as well.

Front Page News : source Diário de Notícias 2/10/2008

Old statistics (Feb 2007) and probably recycled news, but in total the councils (câmaras) of Madeira owe in total €276,000,000 in what the Diário calls 'hidden debts'. The Tribunal of Accounts on Madeira has carried out an audit of the debts, and made recommendations as to the way forward. Amongst the debts highlighted are €11 million owed to contractors by Funchal Câmara, and €20 million owed to contractors for work completed in Ribeira Brava. I make that about €1,100 for every single person living here, in case it is ever shared out amongst us, considerably more each when it comes to billing just the the council tax payers, then add that to massive regional government debts then lets hope that Madeira isn't 'sinking'. It makes getting out of recession look somewhat tricky. If this happened in the private sector, (obtaining goods and services) without the means to pay, heads would roll for sure.

The top other stories are The Diário blowing its own trumpet about an event it has organised to announce the 'Company of the year' for 2007, more build up for Marítimo's game last night, and an article about a new soap opera which has just started being filmed here (I guessed you wouldn't be reading this blog if you were interested in that).

Other News :

Whilst most of us are feeling the economic gloom, the 4 year old Euromillions lottery is not feeling the pinch apparently, with €400,000 still being wagered by the people of Madeira every week. Peaks and troughs occur according to the size of the jackpot, but in a normal week 200,000 'bets are placed' being on average €2 a time. However it's not a particularly good gamble for the Madeirans, because for every Euro spent, the prizes won here only amount to under €0.85 in return. If anyone is thinking of taking it up, here are some tips that might help ... number 50 is the most popular number chosen, but number 1 is the number that comes up the most. Number 34 has not been drawn for 49 weeks.

The summer police campaign called 'Safe Night' has published the results of its efforts between May and September. Using over that period 735 officers, it managed to breathalyse or test 2,157 drivers suspected of drink driving, finding 203 over the legal limit. Of these 164 registered between 0.81 and 1.19 grammes per litre of blood, and therefore were liable for a fine of at least €500 and loss of licence, whilst 39 were between 0.51 and 0.8 g/l, whilst 1,893 had been drinking but were below the 0.5 g/l threshold. In total 7,134 vehicles were stopped for inspection, and the other offences found were not wearing a seat belt (561), and irregularities in documentation (64). Some of the operation also covered night clubs and similar activity in Funchal. Hardly a raging success in account of the costs and resources involved for such a small number of 'hits', but I guess the deterrent value is incalculable.

The first couple of cruise ships of the last quarter of 2008 have come and gone, with another 135 predicted to stop over here before the new year (29 in October, 58 November, and 48 in December), bringing around 160,000 tourists. The 4 months just gone brought just 23 visits. For the whole year 268 are expected, 22 more than in 2007, bringing nearly 350 thousand passengers.

According to one taxi driver quoted in Saturday's newspaper, "we live in the worst moments ever in the taxi business". The Diário suggests that people are walking or taking the bus to save money during hard times, and that competition from tourism companies (hotel minibuses etc) has taken away potential customers, and also the loss of transportation of non-urgent patients to hospital are all causing the problem. No mention of the few bad eggs that give the business a bad reputation amongst tourists, or should I say foreigners, though.

Marítimo were within 15 minutes of a historic victory over the Spanish club Valencia last night, but conceded a goal and then with a couple of minutes left were punished with a penalty, the result of a very poor refereeing decision

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The 'contact us' form and the excursion and car hire booking forms on the main website still has a fault. Nothing is coming through to me. If you have to send anything or have made a booking, or wish to, please email me. Very sorry for the inconvenience, I am trying to fix it asap.

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, photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com - anyone can join in! Thank you!

TODAY'S PHOTO : Thanks to Tobi ... The Spanish Navy aircraft carrier on manoeuvres last weekend. It had at least 5 fighters and 2 helicopters on board.

Front Page News : source Diário de Notícias 1/10/2008

A strike of public workers (yesterday?) particularly affected the health sector, with operations cancelled due to a lack of up to 80% of nurses. In education the impact was much lower, whilst in waste collection 90% of the night workers took part. The strike was in aid of better salaries, to improve precarious working conditions, and to show their dislike of new labour laws.

Easyhotel, the group that announced the provision of a a new budget hotel in Funchal has said that it will not go where it is not wanted. That was the comment of the representative for the franchise in Portugal, in response to President Jardim's comments about not allowing low cost hotels on Madeira.

As from yesterday, the cost of using state owned sporting facilities has gone up by up to 33% compared to last year. In reality the prices have had the discounted levels removed that were in place to attract users after complaints they were too high. The government here has a policy of encouraging all to use sporting facilities to support physical fitness and good health ... well that makes sense then!

Other News :

Theoretically generic medicines sold in pharmacies were to have been 30% cheaper from yesterday, but the reality is that very few if any new supplies have been received because of the governments requirements for the revised packaging and pricing shown. It is expected that up to 90% of the generics will be lowered in price.

Next Monday sees the beginning of a campaign to tackle the problem of rats in Funchal, with 6 tons of raticide ready for distribution. 2,500 'rat traps' will be loaded with the bait, which will be well protected for health reasons. The plan is to start on Monday, and then a refill or relay the traps every 10 days, finishing in November. I am surprised the Pied Piper of the PSD-M has not been called upon to deal with this ... he seems to have a knack of ... no! I can't go there, it's just too risky. On the subject of rats, I saw a large one in the street last night, strutting around as bold as brass. A friend and I approached him for a closer look and he just sat there and looked at us, got up on his back legs and paddled his paws at us. We eventually for his own safety shepherded him to safety, but he wasn't keen to go. I reckon that is only the second rat I have seen in 5 years, apart from the odd one flattened on the road.

The story about the new beach at Machico not having changing rooms and showers is not true according to the government secretary responsible, who says they do exist and are ample in number. Apparently there is there are two, at the west and east ends of the beach. The Diário is accused of writing an article that contains lies, was of frivolous form, and was also irresponsible. Of course the the government owned Journal wouldn't dream of such behaviour. Anyone been along for a look yet?

Another new website that you might find useful if you know some Portuguese or have a dictionary to hand is called 'Automóvel On-line' at : http://www.automovelonline.mj.pt/AutoOnline/

This allows car owners to do various things on-line that would normally involve a day trip spent in horrendous queues in pokey little government offices. Mostly it's about vehicle registrations and transfers (sales and purchases), and the associated documents which you can now apply for can be posted to your home or business. You can also apply to have a vehicle 'impounded' due to outstanding debts, or manage a do-it-yourself importation of a car from another country. I couldn't get the links to work when I paid a visit, so I couldn't tell you any more, but obviously there is a registration process to verify that you are who you say you are, so for the first time it may take somewhat longer than a few minutes mentioned.

The second and away leg of the UEFA cup takes place tonight, Valencia v Marítimo, (agg 1-0), at 9pm. It's not on TV as far as I can see. G'luck boys, you need it!

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The 'contact us' form and the excursion and car hire booking forms on the main website still has a fault. Nothing is coming through to me. If you have to send anything or have made a booking, or wish to, please email me. Very sorry for the inconvenience, I am trying to fix it asap.

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, photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com - anyone can join in! Thank you!