Year: 2015

New Year’s Eve program

Tonight will see the second performance of a piece of “music” created for ships – it was first attempted in 2012, rather unsuccessfully if I recall … Read more

Full cost of Banif rescue becomes apparent

The full implications of the forced sale of the “good” part of Banif to Santander Totta at a knock-down €150 million last week … Read more

Miradouro do Paredão

Very little news recently as the holiday season starts for the locals, so this post has been padded out a little! The photo opposite is from the … Read more

Banif to be sold?

According to a statement that appeared on the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission two days ago, Banif (Banco Internacional do Funchal) has reported that … Read more

On Saturday night Madeira was revealed to have been voted the ”World’s Best Island Destination” at the World Travel Awards Grand Final held in El Jadida, Morocco.

In the … Read more

Christmas lights “better than last year”

Most of the Christmas lights have now been installed in Funchal, and seem to be meeting with general approval after the public outrage last … Read more

Walkers warned on dangers of wandering off

The Diario online today carries another couple of stories of tourists being rescued having disappeared when walking alone or deviating from the recognised … Read more

New lido nearly finished

The Journal da Madeira reported last week that the rebuilt Lido, situated at the area generally just referred to as “the Lido”, some 3 kilometres west … Read more

More Pier 8 questions

A cruise ship with 2000 passengers which was waiting to enter Funchal harbour yesterday decided instead to abandon its planned visit and head off to Las … Read more

TAP to increase Christmas flights

JM (Journal da Madeira) reports today that TAP have announced additional flights to both Madeira and the Azores over the Christmas period due to “high … Read more

This morning I am sure that everybody’s thoughts are with the people of Paris. The Portuguese Foreign Ministry have announced that a 63 year-old Portuguese working in tourism, who was … Read more

Lufthansa strike

Only one of the five Lufthansa flights normally scheduled between various German destinations and Portugal will take place today – presumably with repercussions for Germans planning to connect … Read more

Calheta port to be privatised

The Diario today reports that the operation of the maritime facilities at Calheta will be offered to private businesses on the basis of a 30-year … Read more

Democracy at work (at last)

The Diario today leads with the observation that it is normal in most democratic countries and regions for the head of the executive assembly to … Read more

Problems ahead for Portugal’s new government

The Wall Street Journal today reports that Portugal is teetering on the edge of political instability and is in danger of adopting leftist opposition … Read more

Weather app

The recent unsettled wet and windy weather took me to the Czech website windguru, which proved remarkably accurate – even in predicting the amount of rain that … Read more

Both the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph report on-line that a flight from Madeira to Birmingham on Monday was intercepted by a French military jet – apparently this is … Read more

Various on-line sources, increasing over the last few days, report ex-pats having problems connecting to iPlayer using a “VPN” to fool the BBC’s servers into believing that they were located … Read more

The long awaited air-freight service (previous blog) connecting Lisbon and Madeira will commence on the 20th of this month according to the operator’s Facebook page. However it … Read more

Ferry bidders reduced

Today’s Diario and the redesigned “JM” (Journal da Madeira) reports that the seven maritime companies that were interested in re-introducing a link between the island and the … Read more

Refugees

It has been announced that the island will probably take just over 100 refugees as part of Portugal’s quota of 4,500-5,000 under the European distribution system settled upon in … Read more

New ferry connection to operate in spring and summer only?

Miguel Albuquerque, speaking at a meeting with businessmen in Machico on Saturday and subsequently reported in the Diario, revealed that … Read more

Ilhéu da Pontinha for sale

The colourful Renato Barros is to be forced to sell the Ilhéu da Pontinha, the “island” now incorporated into the main port facility in Funchal. … Read more

Madeira’s most famous son, Cristiano Ronaldo, turned on the style over the weekend, contributing all but one of Real Madrid’s six goals against Espanyol. There had been premature talk of … Read more