|
| |
Newsletter October 2006 - archive
|
by: Karen Telling |
|
Well, for me, just about the whole of September has been
dominated by our adopted street dog, Barney, and his seemingly endless
trips to the vet – unfortunately the first operation at the end of August
wasn’t entirely successful and had to be repeated a couple of weeks later,
followed by a third op towards the end of the month. As he panics if he is
left alone in the house, and we couldn’t leave him in the garden while he
had stitches in, I barely went out at all. However, I can’t really
complain at being forced to sit in the garden, enjoying the heat
wave that covered Portugal at the beginning of September, with
temperatures between 32 and 38 degrees. The forecast was for the weather
to break around the 12th of the month, and sure enough we had quite a
heavy shower on the evening of the 13th - just as my mother-in-law’s
flight landed at Faro!
After a few weeks at home with the invalid, cabin fever set in, and as
Barney’s condition improved, we decided to try taking him down to
Carvoeiro for an evening. The weather was much better again, and the
evenings still warm enough to sit out, so we sat at one of the pavement
tables outside A Vela while Barney became something of a celebrity,
attracting a lot of attention with his ‘lampshade’ collar on, and one of
my husband’s old T-shirts worn over his rear end to protect his stitches!
The outing was a great success which we repeated a few more times later in
the month, once back to A Vela and another time at Oasis, followed by a
nightcap at Imprevisto. Barney seemed to enjoy his new social life, so we
will probably take him out even more once he is fully recovered.
|
|
 |
Carvoeiro seemed very busy and parking spaces were still at a premium –
almost as bad as in August! The summer season generally seems to have been
quite good this year, with the Tourist Board reporting the highest number
of visitors to the Algarve since 2002. In particular there seems to be a
return of Dutch and German tourists, and the number of British, Irish and
northern Portuguese choosing to spend their holidays in the area,
continues to grow. I understand that from next year, due to a new banking
agreement, German, Spanish, Italian and British tourists will be able to
use their debit cards in Portugal, just the same as they would at home –
how things have changed since the days of standing in queues for hours,
waiting to cash travellers cheques in the bank!
For many people, part of the fun of a holiday in Portugal is hiring a car
and discovering some of the more remote beaches and picturesque inland
villages in the area, however, driving here can sometimes be something of
a challenge! Hopefully this is improving now as, despite the increased
number of visitors this year, road deaths have dropped dramatically. In
the last ten years the number of people killed on Portuguese roads has
almost halved, and the figures show a particularly marked drop between
2005 and 2006 – perhaps we can now leave behind the reputation of having
the most dangerous roads in Europe!
On the 21st of the month, the Algarve felt the effects of the tail end of
Hurricane Gordon, which swept across most of Western Europe, and brought a
few unsettled, stormy days. After an early shower on the 23rd, the weather
improved again, and continued fine until the end of the month. Although
still warm, around 25-28 degrees daytime, the cooler temperatures at the
end of September also mean the end of the fire season. The Algarve
continued to escape any serious fires this year, although the north of the
country was more severely affected and around 58,000 hectares of land were
destroyed, this seems a fairly high figure, but it is only 20% of the
300,000 hectares lost last year, and considering the high temperatures we
had in August, it’s a great improvement on 2005.
There is yet more good news, with signs that the Portuguese economy is
finally improving, albeit slowly. The last few years have been quite tough
and although there are very high levels of personal debt in the country,
government figures show inflation is dropping and output is growing at
last. Let’s hope it continues! There certainly seems to be no shortage of
foreign companies investing in Portugal – the new Carrefour hypermarket at
Portimão Retail Park is finally due to open at the end of October, C&A
will open a store at the Forum centre in Faro in the middle of October,
and Tesco are rumoured to be investigating the possibility of opening
several outlets across Portugal – including Albufeira and Faro. With a new
branch of Modelo already under construction near Slide and Splash in
Estômbar, we’ll soon be spoilt for choice! |
|
archive |
|
|
