Algarve Blog

This 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.

And, let me wish you a Happy New Year for 2008!

January was great!

What a lovely month, weather-wise. It made me remember why I wanted to live in the Algarve all year round.

I'm hoping that, as the Algarve carnivals are happening a little earlier this year, the weather will stay kind. Last February, Loulé's festivities were dampened just a little by the lack of warmth in the air.

We're planning to go to see the fun at Sao Brás de Alportel, Faro and Quarteira (as a minimum), so watch out for more colourful photographs soon!

Thursday 31 January 2008

Ah, the Ingratitude...

Stray and abandoned dogs abound in Portugal. Many exist on scraps and scavenging, and equally many are in a very poor state.

Last July, two dogs were abandoned in our road, so we - and the local builders - started to feed them. They were a couple of scamps - 'hound' type dogs - and had plenty of character, considering they'd been dumped as unwanted.

Eventually, one disappeared and the one that was left seemed terribly distraught. I would imagine they'd been together since birth and were around six months old. Nev and I took pity, and allowed it into our garden, as it seemed to have been injured and was limping. Six months later, it's a fixture and is growing up fast (in attitude, that is).

We thought we'd better see about legalising the mutt, since it spends most of its time on our verandah, so went to the local council offices to ask for a dog registration form... Only to be informed that we would be issued with one only when we turned up with the necessary vaccination forms from a veterinarian!

Preliminary enquiries suggest that, after a check up and vaccinations, plus the cost of the registration, this black pooch will have cost us around 100 euros in legalisation fees. Then, since he's male, he'll need to be neutered - around 150 euros. He has a healthy appetite and chomps his way through several kilos of varied food in a week...

All in all, it's easy to see why locals think it's much easier to dump a dog than to go through the rigmarole of paperwork and expense that the state imposes on anyone who sees fit to clear one stray mutt off the streets!

It's a good job that we like this pooch enough to jump all these hurdles, and I'm sure he's grateful enough in his own way.

But, I'm betting he's going to draw the line when it comes to losing his reproductive bits!

Saturday 26 January 2008

(Almost) Carnival Time!

Yes! It's only a matter of days until Algarve carnivals kick off again...

... And I'm really looking forward to it!

Last year, I enjoyed the spectacles at Loulé, Tavira and Moncarapacho, and this year I'm expecting to make it to some others - just for variety.

Loulé is the oldest and biggest, but some of the smaller, local events have a charm of their own.

If you're going to be in Algarve in early February, check out what's happening near to you.

Algarve carnivals mean fun for all.

Tuesday 22 January 2008

(D)rats!

I missed out on attending the Querenca chouriço (spicy sausage) auction yesterday. Not that I'd have been bidding... I'm pretty sure there would have been no vegetarian varieties on offer. But, it would have been fun to go again.

However, we had to be at home so that the builders could do some stuff on the house. I have a sneaking suspicion that the personnel involved were moonlighting from another company, and had to do the work on a Sunday, as they'd be expected at the normal place of work any other day.

So, I bit back my disappointment and hung around the house until they were done, by which time the big money would have been bid at Querença.

Next year, I suppose... but it's such a long wait.

Monday 21 January 2008

Rats!

Well, mice, actually - but the effect is the same. Yes, we're just back in communication via our landline, after yet another run-in with the wire-chomping rodents of the Algarve!

This time, we were incommunicado for only 4 days(!), but it was annoying nonetheless. The Portugal Telecom man was philosophical about the whole thing, and put the wire through a plastic tube this time. He says it will give the ratos something to nibble at without disrupting my telephone calls.

We'll see. I don't think they'll even regard a plastic tube as a challenge.

What's more worrying is that the poison we put down has been taken, yet the damage still continues. Is there a team of supermice down in that underground pit, I wonder?

Whatever else, it's making us consider changing to Vodafone's 'Casa' option, in spite of Nev's concerns about long-term effects from using cellphone technology.

Come on, PT - sort it out!

Sunday 20 January 2008

You Couldn't Write This Stuff...

... and be believed!

In an unusually semi-organised way, Portugal went smoke-free in public places on January 1st 2008.

Of course, there are the usual get-out clauses, like the public room needing to be less than 100 square metres in area. Larger rooms will be exempt, except that they need to have extraction and filtration systems fitted.

Needless to say, most won't bother to go to the expense of fitting such gear (funnily enough, that's partly because people think there's so much legislation in Portugal that they half expect this move to be reversed - and don't want to have wasted money in hindsight).

There are fines for smokers who offend, and for premises that allow such flouting to take place.

Imagine the scene, then, when in the early hours of January 1st, the head of ASEA, the safety directorate responsible for policing this law, was photographed smoking a cigar in a casino. He claims to have thought casinos were exempt, but if he doesn't know, then who should. Will he pay the penalty? I doubt it.

One person who did, though, was the owner of a bar/cafe who telephoned the police when a customer would not extinguish his ciggie. By the time the uniforms arrived, the errant inhaler had departed, so the police fined the owner for not displaying the correct signage concerning the ban...

He must have interrupted their card game, methinks.

Like the headline suggested, you couldn't make this stuff up. Priceless!

Tuesday 15 January 2008

Portugal Calling (but only just)

Last November, we were without a telephone for eight days. When the PT man finally came to fix the line, he found an underground wire - outside our property, thankfully - had been gnawed by 'ratos' (mice).

Well, it happened again! This time, we were only without a phone for five days, but it made me glad that our internet connection is a 3G-cellphone-based thing, otherwise I'd have problems running a website...

So, now we're the proud owners of a bag of 'rodenticidas' and a couple of mouse traps. We had to do it, since Portugal Telecom had no ideas of what to do except replace the line every time it got chomped!

Monday 14 January 2008

The Good, the Bad and the Incompetent...

I was surprised to learn, a few years ago, that there were more cell-phones in Portugal than there were landline telephones. I suppose, in retrospect, that each home might have up to 5 or 6 cell-phone users, but there would be only one fixed line service (or perhaps the occasional fax line for business purposes).

Anyway, I had it in my mind that Portugal was techno-savvy, despite some aspects of life here harking back to the early 20th century.

The Multibanco system is great, for instance. Instead of just hole-in-the-wall cash dispensers, you can use it to pay bills and move money between accounts, all from a single ATM. They're everywhere, too, so you're not limited to queueing outside a bank.

That's the good; now let's explore one instance of the downside.

I investigated whether I could save some money by changing my electricity tariff from the simple, one-price per unit consumed type to the dual tariff type, where you try to consume more units outside peak hours and are rewarded with lower unit costs.

Having braved a session in the Faro offices of EDP (the national electricity supplier) where I learned, despite the language problems, the 2008 prices for the different tariffs, I went home to study and calculate.

Once satisfied that I could make a worthwhile saving by switching, I went online - for, lo, it was possible to switch without filling in a paper form.

map of internet - including Algarve? Feeling like an eco-warrior busy saving the planet, I had almost completed the electronic application when Nev, looking over my shoulder, pointed out that the page wasn't secure.

Sure enough, when I checked for the padlock icon, there it wasn't! Neither was the page's URL prefixed by 'https' with that magic last 's' signifying security.

I was dumbstruck, but I had been on the point of sending all sorts of sensitive information, bank account numbers and so on, over the Internet, unencrypted!

Hastily, I deleted all the information from the online form, then logged out of the EDP website.

So, there you have it. The Internet can be a wonderful thing, but you still need to have your wits about you, just in case the company you're dealing with has left its own wits somewhere back in the hinterland.

Shame on you, EDP! Twenty-first century technology compromised by an attitude to security sloppy enough to qualify for a job handling data for the British government...

Now, I suppose I'm going to have to trek back to the EDP Faro office, get a ticket, queue, fill in a paper form and hope that I've understood all the requirements (in Portuguese) first time.

Hardly saving the planet, is it?

Monday 7 January 2008

Oh, to sleep in - just once!

It's not much to ask, is it?

I like my sleep, and I'm definitely not a morning person (as Nev will attest!) but a bit of a snooze beyond, say, 0800 would be most welcome.

What's stopping me, you ask? Well, I'll tell you...

The house next door to ours is under construction, and has been for most of the year. The builders work six days a week, with the first man arriving around 0730 and banging about preparing for the rest of the crew.

That leaves Sunday - which is when the hunters turn up in the surrounding countryside and start blasting away from daybreak (currently around 0720).

Quite often, they turn out on Thursday morning, too - just in case there were any small furry things they hadn't sent to meet their Maker on the previous Sunday!

I had not previously realised how the sound of a shotgun carries on the cool morning air.

Nev doesn't care, because that's around the time he would wake anyway - and he says it saves him setting the alarm.

I'm thinking of looking on eBay for a Kalashnikov. A couple of magazines emptied and I should get some peace and quiet around here!

Saturday 5 January 2008

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