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Newsletter June 2005
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by: Nigel Anteney Hoare |
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The proverbial April showers never came and the beginning
of May remained hot and dry. The second week saw a change however with
clouds from the west bringing the promise of rain. Sure enough during the
second week various parts of the Algarve saw some decent downfalls.
Carvoeiro itself had little though which was probably not a bad thing as
otherwise the drainage works would have been affected and the whole place
generally turned into a mud bath.
At the beginning of the month we had a two day visit by a work colleague
from Gibraltar. We frequently get people over from Gibraltar/Spain and
they always seem to enjoy coming to Portugal and to Carvoeiro in
particular. The drive from Gibraltar is now almost all via motorway and
can be done in about four and a half hours so it is no big deal really.
His visit gave us the opportunity to entertain and we met early on the
Tuesday evening in HEMINGWAYS to have a drink, meet some friends and watch
the Chelsea v Liverpool Champions League semi final on the television. We
expected a full house but surprisingly it was fairly quiet. To be sure of
getting dinner after the match we had booked at ELE E ELLA and managed to
get in there right after the game for “last orders”. Very good food as
usual and not that big a bill when you consider the quality.
During the second week we had some friends over from the Isle of Man
staying with us and whilst they were not impressed with the change in
weather, they generally had a good time. This gave us another
excuse/opportunity to get out a bit and we sampled the food in Julios,
China Town and Primavera. We even got our “passports” out and visited O
Teodosio in Guia for chicken piri piri! Packed as usual and still good
tasty chicken although the chickens are so small it is no use ordering one
portion per person unless you have the appetite of a gnat! PRIMAVERA
continues to lead the way in terms of presentation and quality I feel.
We also paid a few visits to the HAVANA BAR. This seems to have a new
lease of life and has built up a clientele of a few regular locals. It is
nice to see the young couple running it making a go of it.
Following our dinner in Julios we hit the town to have a last one in
HEMINGWAYS but were promptly redirected to
THE JAILHOUSE where MURRAY and
HAZEL of Hemingways and some others had gone to see a prize giving for a
local football team. Good atmosphere on arrival with a large crowd being
entertained with the live music. A great time but too much to drink led to
a fuzzy head the next day!
Monday 16th started off very cloudy with a short downpour of rain in the
early morning which cleared rapidly to make another fine day.
The PLUS supermarket I mentioned in the last Newsletter was steadily
nearing completion and the old Lagoa Bombeiros had been totally flattened
and taken away to leave a clear site for the construction of the
INTERMARCHE owned supermarket “NETTO”. There will soon be as many
supermarkets as bars and restaurants!
The drainage work was causing some confusion as, although the workmen were
doing their best to keep roads open, it inevitably meant temporary closure
of some and it was becoming difficult to find a route from Carvoeiro to
the Sesmarias area without encountering a road block!
Saturday we decided to head a little down the coast to the beach at
EVARISTA. This is past the Armaçao and Galé beaches and reached by
continuing down the coast road from Galé. It is a slightly “trendy” beach
where you tend to find well-heeled young Portuguese people sunning
themselves. Plenty of Louis Vuitton and Gucci on display (real or false I
don’t know!) and quality cars in the car park. The beach bar is really a
full blown smart restaurant but they also do good snacks from a separate
bar area. If you are fortunate enough in summer to pass along the coast in
your million euro boat and moor up they will send a small boat out to you
to bring you ashore for lunch. Very civilized!! Late afternoon the brisk
wind coming off the sea drove us away. It seems that the wind often
springs up in the afternoon and the sea also roughens up - the morning is
often the better time for sunbathing on our coast.
The weather seemed to have settled now and had a real summer feel to it. I
became aware that we were almost half way through the year and wondered
what had happened to the first half. I guess I can read the back number
Newsletters to remind myself!
On Thursday 19th I had to go up to Lisbon to see a colleague. Such an easy
trip now. Lisbon was HOT with that city stickiness you always seem to get.
Nice though with a very pleasant business lunch at BICA DO SAPATO right by
the Tagus river. Returning to the Algarve the car temperature gauge showed
32º in the Alentejo with the heat shimmering on the flat golden landscape.
Having seen enough motorway for one day I decided to peel off through
Messines and as I approached Silves I could hear the wailing of the
Bombeiros siren calling the volunteers in to deal with an emergency.
Scanning the sky I could already see smoke coming from behind Silves from
one of the first forest fires of the summer.
Trying to get some sun before a trip to the UK at the end of the month it
was off to the beach again on Saturday. This time to Praia Grande just
beyond Armação. Let me say now that I have nothing against Carvoeiros
beautiful beaches but it is good to have a change now and then! Anyway it
was a glorious day and arriving at about midday there was not a soul to be
seen on the beach. Carlos, owner of the fine beach bar there was sitting
with his chin on his hand looking a bit disconsolate or perhaps just
contemplating the start of another busy summer session. By late afternoon
another large fire could clearly be seen, this time some where along the
Silves/Monchique road with helicopters hovering over head. This looked to
be a big one with the smoke heading south west and blotting out the sun.
It doesn’t look good for the summer does it?
It was that time for the F1 Power boat racing in Portimão again. We
decided not to go this year but I understand it was quite an exciting race
with several changes in the leadership - the usual Italian world champion
triumphing again.
In Lagoa the week long “gastronomic” festival had opened and this tied in
with an equestrian 3 day event held on the flat land where the gipsy
Sunday markets take place. Thursday 26th was a Bank Holiday – Corpus
Christi and dropping my dog off at Jan Coghlans kennels at O CARAVANSERAI
at Vale d’el Rei, she told me she was getting ready to take part in a
dressage event that day, riders coming from near and far to compete. This
horse show gets bigger every year with various displays and demonstrations
as well as the trials and is well worth a look if you are around at that
time. As soon as it is over the council will start preparing for the huge
Fatacil show held on the same grounds.
At this time the PLUS supermarket in Lagoa opened with “amazing” bargains
advertised, huge crowds, cars everywhere trying to get into their car park
and general chaos and confusion. A new roundabout had sprung up at the
fork junction where the roads go to either Carvoeiro or Sesmarias and this
added to the fun and games. PLUS seems to be a LIDL type outlet – stack it
high and sell it cheap but I haven’t had time (or strength of will!) to
pay a visit yet.
Leaving for the UK on at the end of the month for a 10 day trip we
wondered if by the time we returned the summer explosion would have
started as June is usually the month where we see the start of real
tourism and the very hot weather.
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