Algarve BlogThis Algarve blog is intended to keep you in touch with the latest in Algarve affairs. Now that I'm living here, I'm trying to keep you updated with what's going on in the Algarve and around those wonderful beaches. So, here's my regular take on occurrences in what used to be my favourite vacation spot...
but is now my favourite place to live.
... Lies and StatisticsI'm always interested in news about the Internet (naturally, since I'm a website owner), so I read the other day that there are 2.7 million Internet users in Portugal. I don't know whether I'm included in that total, since I've never been asked (that I can remember).
Next, I learned that 62% of users have ISDN lines... but, hang on - only 57% of users have fixed lines of any description, don't they? Let's see... 1.57 divided by 2.75 multiplied by 100 - yup, that's 57% all right. And that 62% figure didn't even include cable, so that's even more 'fixed' installations, isn't it? Around about then, I remembered that saying about 'lies, damned lies and statistics' and gave up worrying. The sad fact is, by the time you allow for the inaccuracy of any data gathering system, then add in human error, malice and general office mayhem, there are scarcely any statistics that are worth believing. Just ask the UK government. Oh no, you can't... they lost all their statistics in the post, on a couple of CD-ROM disks. Funny old world, isn't it? Sunday 16 December 2007 Alphabet SoupThey're preparing to mess around with the Portuguese language - just as I'm trying to get the hang of it! I read recently where they've been trying to arrive at an agreement between all the Portuguese-speaking countries (over 50 million people, they say) regarding how the language is written. Since some of the African countries involved have names that include non-standard Portuguese letters, it's likely that all 26 letters of the English alphabet will be adopted. (Currently, the three non-standard letters are 'K', 'W' and 'Y'). There's also been a suggestion that silent consonants (like the 'h' in 'hospital') should be dropped. They don't, however, seem to address the problem of silent vowels (like the initial 'e' in 'estar') which make things so tricky for the poor benighted student of Portuguese! Unfortunately, the article I read also mentioned that this stuff has been in the offing since 1990 (that's 17 years!) and that, while accords have been signed, they include timescales such as 10 years in which the parts of any agreements may be adopted (if at all). Brazil is set to implement the measures in 2008, Portugal - who knows? Yet another reminder, if such be needed, that little in this country happens quickly! Sunday 9 December 2007 Eco-Warriors?I read an amusing article in a Portuguese language newspaper recently (in the hope of improving my oh-so-slow learning of the language). It concerned the prevalence of hunting throughout the Algarve, and suggested that a law should be passed allowing plants and trees to grow up without being surrounded by the smell of gunpowder. Certainly, every Thursday and Sunday, the sound of shotguns blasting away at small, furry creatures resounds around the beautiful Algarve countryside... The problem, I believe, is not the pong of cordite, so much as the discarded cartridges from the shotguns. Nowadays, they're plastic, with metal caps, and they litter the ground anywhere you go off-piste where there are 'caça' (hunting) signs. Around the Algarve, they're pretty good at encouraging recycling, with the multiple-choice green bins everywhere. But it rather defeats the point, when the brave hunters litter the forests and valleys with lumps of plastic that won't bio-degrade within the lifetime of even the next two generations. If the local authorities make a packet out of selling hunting licences, perhaps they should plough some money into cleaning up the Algarve countryside, before walkers and hikers require high boots to wade through the mounds of discarded plastic. Wednesday 5 December 2007 It's All In RuinsI revisited Milreu, near Estói, recently, with a friend who was over from the UK. As you may have read elsewhere, it is what's left of a rural home (villa rustica) from the Roman occupation of the Iberian peninsula. It's thought that, in the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, such properties would have formed the centre of rural life in the area. The landowner who occupied the property would have required it to be large and luxurious, to impress the impressionable. Luxurious, in Roman terms, meant decorated lavishly with marble and mosaics, and such are in evidence in Milreu. Only excavated and revealed to the modern world in 1877, it is thought that, as with many ancient sites, the ruins of earlier buildings and settlements were used as the basis for further building. Milreu shows much of what was built in the 3rd century AD, but it is thought that more lies beneath. What is accessible at present is the living areas of the 3rd century AD, based on the remains of the 2nd century dwellings. From the Estoi road, the first sight that strikes the visitor is the large circular edifice that was the sanctuary. This building has some fine mosaics, and contained a baptismal pool, denoting a private place of worship for the proprietor and his family. As always, with Roman ruins, one is reminded that the descendants of Julius Caesar had standards of personal hygiene that would not be emulated, in large parts of Europe, for many hundreds of years. The bathing areas are sumptuous, even in decay. The Milreu site's one drawback, in my opinion, in the unsympathetic glass and concrete entrance area - a stark contrast to the stylish and timeless architecture of the Romans. If you can ignore the anachronistic and thoughtless first impression of the reception building, I can recommend the investment of a couple of euros for entrance to Milreu, to see how the area was organised and governed so long ago. Saturday 1 December 2007
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It
seems that 1.57 million have fixed access and 1.18 million
have mobile access... Now, doesn't that add up to 2.75
million? Whatever happened to those 50,000 poor souls that
they've lost from their total?
