At the end of February, Madeira was hit again by another storm. Battered and windswept, the island now so familiar to wet wintry weather in recent years, probably had enough rainfall in three days to solve the water shortage problem in the UK that has been the subject of many a headline in the news lately! Most people come to Madeira either to move or on a holiday for its warm climate and lazy, hazy days of sun, but as with any country, where there is good weather it only makes sense that there should be some bad weather too and Madeira is no exception. Sunshine can never be guaranteed along with weather reports and it doesn’t help either, when Madeira has pockets of mini micro climates all over the island. It can be beautiful warm sunshine in Funchal, cloudy and cold in Nun’s Valley and pouring with rain in Calheta whilst foggy and cool in Porto Moniz, all at the same time. Getting up in the morning and having the benefit of a sea view and judging what the day will bring, can give one an idea of what to wear before going out, but can quickly change as soon as you get in the car. But generally speaking, we do expect torrential rain during our mild winters, the odd lightening storm and hurricane type winds. It was only a few weeks ago, when a storm hit the island in the middle of the night, knocking out the power on the West side of the island, which in turn blew the fuses in my own phone lines, knocking them out for about 4 days. Sometimes, our water supply gets cut off as higher up in the mountains, mains water pipes burst as mini landslides occur, resulting in thick sludgy mud to deposit from the kitchen tap. Rain can be a real problem particularly to owners who live in the older style houses as the winds drive the rain up and under roof tiles causing small leaks to appear where they weren’t before. These roofs were built in the days before membrane materials such as roofing felt were available and tiles are the only protection from the elements. If a tile should crack and it rains, you’ve had it, I should know, I now have 10 leaks in my own house and buckets and pots all over the place!
But there is an upside to bleak weather in that lately our storms have created a most visually stunning sight causing Mother Nature to show off her powers again. That vast ocean that surrounds our tiny island showed us last week how spectacularly angry it can get. Only in recent years have we been able to marvel at the power of the waves that batter the coastline as newly constructed marinas and manmade coastal walkways built beyond the natural line of the coast has created a new wall for the sea to have a go at destroying.
As you can see by the pictures of Lugar de Baixo some of the damage inflicted on the Marina and the problems that the construction has had to endure with our rough weather, but nothing can be so relaxing as listening to the roaring sounds of hefty waves thundering down on the shoreline and washing the pebbles away, as nothing can beat living near the sea!

February flew by without as much as a hello. Maybe that was because we were so wrapped up with our move to our new offices, that I didn’t have time to notice! Even so, February is always a short month and means that we have less time than usual to prepare for the next edition.
We are still in the throws of moving bits over from one office to the other. It’s difficult to know which paperwork needs to be where, the printer, come fax machine, come photocopier is still waiting to be fixed and a whole host of other things still need to be done before the office becomes fully operational. I was looking at the photos today of what the space looked like when we took it on and thought I would share them with you in this article, as the transformation from ugly duckling to duck is for me, quite rewarding to reflect upon. Please don’t be disappointed if you pop along to see us and we are not there as at the moment we have taken the spot to use as a communal base to work from as most of our work is out and about on location and with clients. But when we are there we always welcome new visitors and if you do want to meet us, then simply give us a call and we will tell you when we will be in. (You can find the numbers on pages 25 and 30). Don’t forget to fill in your restaurant voting award as you can always slip it under the door if in the area or pop it into the Balloon or at the Tourismo office on your way home at the airport. But despite February passing us by so quickly, most people were able to enjoy this years spectacular Carnival. Even though the weather had been very unkind to us the day before and part of the morning on the big day, it decided to be good and everyone enjoyed a dry parade.
Let’s hope that the weather improves in the next month or so as it’s the Flower Festival in April with high hopes of yet another successful and most enjoyable event.
Enjoy your holiday!

Saturday 18th March
7.30pm
Rest Sheng (Asian Cook), Rua Imperatriz, Dona Amelia, no 80, Funchal (behind the Savoy and a few doors down from the Prince Albert Pub)

Menu Choice:

1. Peking Soup, Duck/Fish with spicy sauce and rice
2. Spring roll, chicken/pork with sweet and sour rice
3. Spare ribs, Beef/chicken with curry sauce and rice

Desert: Freid Banana or Chocolate Mousse
Coffee

Meal includes a limit on Beer and wine and then Beverages will be charged separately.

Price: Members - 16 euros
Non-members - 17 euros

Tel Sam on 918593061 to reserve your place and your order

AFPOP Dinner

Saturday 18th March, 7.30pm

Restaurant Sheng, Asian Cook, Rua Imperatriz, Dona Amelia, Funchal (behind the Savoy, a few doors down from the Prince Albert Pub)

3 Course meal

Tel 918593061 for more details

alt="Click for Funchal, Madeira Islands Forecast" height=60 width=468/>

Follow the links to see the film on the Fireworks from this New Year sponsored by Don Amaro

New Year Fireworks Madeira (music version)

New Year Fireworks Madeira (uncutted version)

Click on the links above

The first ever AFPOP tax semiar will be held on Saturday 21st January 2006 in the form of a luncheon that will be held at:

Restaurant O Tonels in Funchal (behind the Hotel Vila Ramos in Rua Casa Branca, Lido)

1pm for a set menu at 25euros per person

The Seminar will be hosted by Dennis Swing Greene from EuroFinesco SA

The cost of the actual Tax seminar is FREE to AFPOP members but there will be a small charge of 15 euros to non members.

There are a limited number of spaces available and we are taking bookings NOW on a first come first serve basis.

To book your place on the seminar you can contact any of the numbers below:

EuroFinesco: 289 561 333 or email info@eurofinesco.com

AFPOP: 282 458 509 or email info@afpop.com

Madeira Area Rep - Samantha Cox: 918593061 or info@themadeiratimes.com

Don’t forget to contact us now to secure your place! 

Dare I mention the weather again in this month’s editorial? I have yet another hole in my roof thanks to my very old Palm tree and have just received a horrendous quote to have the thing trimmed. It’s unbelievable that a tree trimming exercise can run into lots of zeros, I am sure it would be cheaper for me to fly a Jamaican coconut cutter over to climb up the thing and hack away at those enormously dangerous branches, but unfortunately I don’t have any contacts in the Caribbean!
This month I flew back to dear old Blighty for a week, the first time I have set foot on British soil in three and half years. As was expected it was pouring with rain when I got there and Gatwick airport seemed to have grown as I traipsed for a mile (or so it seemed) before I hit passport control. It was very weird being back after so long away from what I used to call home and the first of couple of days I felt like I was in a foreign country.
After mastering the knack of driving on the wrong side of the road and negotiating another growing addition of roundabouts in the wrong direction, I wondered why people were so worried when they got to Madeira about driving on our roads here. Night time driving anywhere on the island is a doddle as nearly every road has street lighting. In my area of Surrey you have narrow and very dark winding lanes and only street lighting once you hit a built up area.
My trip to England was blessed with the warmest day in October for over 150 years and after the first couple of days of rain, the weather became very sunny and pleasantly warm. Seeing family and friends was a delight after so much time had passed, but as you can guess most of my spare time was spent shopping or wandering around looking at all the new gimmicky gadgets that us Brits have seemed to become so fond of.
My first visit to the supermarket took 2 hours as I marveled at the extent of convenience foods, something we don’t see much of in our supermarkets here. But I still filled my trolley with rubbish and stuffed my face all week with sausage rolls, pasties, pork sausages, packaged potato salad and coleslaw. English chocolate biscuits like penguin bars, wagon wheels and Oxo cubes that now come in a variety of different flavours.
Clothes shops were definitely on the itinerary during the week as I find it difficult finding clothes here that fit properly. With most of the shops holding sales and some with as much as 70% discounts I was able to pick up quite a few bargains.
But putting consumables to one side and reflecting on what I enjoyed and had missed about my old home apart from my family and friends was to be able to walk with bare feet on warm and bouncy carpets and to wake up to the birds singing in the mornings. To watch the plump little bunny rabbits that were grazing in the garden and the delight of watching a fox sitting in the grass and basking in the early morning sunshine. Friendly squirrels foraging for their winter store of nuts and acorns quite ignorant of me sitting and watching while they went about their work.
After an emotional goodbye to everyone at the airport and a 3 and a half hour flight back to Madeira, driving home in the car confirmed how I felt about my life here on the island. Fantastic weather (most of the time), lovely people, healthy fresh air and natural food, amazing scenery and an un-commercialised consumable lifestyle with the odd treat of whale watching thrown in. And as the song says, this is where I laid my hat and this is most definitely what I call home.
Enjoy your holiday!
Sam