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

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