Dress-Up Weekend: Carnival

Carnival. Just when you thought everyone was thoroughly fiesta-ed out, up comes another opportunity for a bit of street party and a DJ or two. Carnival often seems like an after-thought to the revelries of January, but it captures the imagination largely because of the dressing-up. Even more than Sant Antoni, which offers the chance to become a devil for a day, Carnival has the scope to let the imagination run wild. Despite recession, the demand for costumes is high, and the specialist shops are doing a roaring trade, especially where children's outfits are concerned.

Today is "Dijous Llarder", first day of Carnival (in that Carnival can be said to have a first day, as its chronology is lengthy, to say the least). At the weekend, the local towns will have their parades and their costume parties, and costumes are "obligatory", the poster for Alcúdia's party on Saturday night says. TV characters, Disney characters, pop stars, superheroes, these are the most popular, certainly with the children. Political figures have fallen out of favour, except perhaps as the objects of satire or utter contempt. Anyone for a Miquel Nadal?

Carnival in Mallorca is not on the scale of Carnival in parts of the mainland, in particular Seville and Cadiz, or in Tenerife, but any excuse for a bit of a do is not to be sniffed at. Pollensa has its parade on Saturday, Muro and Alcúdia have theirs on Sunday.


Tourism confusion and car hire
Good news on the tourism front on the front page of yesterday's "Bulletin". Or is it? TUI is reported as announcing that summer sales in the UK have risen by ten per cent. Sounds good, even if it's not clear what period we're talking about. When it says that TUI had an "increased first-quarter operating loss" but has seen improved trading in the second quarter, I confess that I am somewhat confused. Are we not still in the first quarter? Whatever. To add to the confusion, I was told yesterday that the figures were rubbish and that someone from TUI had said that the reverse was the case, i.e. ten per cent down. Who knows? You pays your money and you takes your choice, or maybe you don't pays your money and you don't makes a choice - First or otherwise. But look closely at the report in the paper, and you will realise that nowhere is Mallorca mentioned. The TUI announcement refers to sales in general. It also goes on to say that TUI has seen an increase of six per cent in British sales. Six per cent, ten per cent, Mallorca, the world? What is all this? Confused? I am, and so, I'd imagine, are you.

Elsewhere in the paper, one must congratulate a letter-writer for stamping on "the whining of some part-timers and tourists about conditions on the island". He refers in particular to a previous letter about that something about which the authorities should be doing something and about which they have no right to intervene, the apparently inflated prices being charged by car-hire companies. That letter claimed a charge of a thousand pounds per week. So this latest letter-writer, "tired of the whining", did a bit of googling and came up with a couple of quotes (among thousands of hits) that were anything other than unreasonable. Yes, there have been and are examples of high prices for car hire, but the recourse to single cases to seek to prove a point and with which to beat Mallorca with the "too-expensive" stick is tiresome and unbalanced. Look around, shop around and it never is as expensive. Now, just stop it.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Man On The Moon", REM, http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1f9sm_rem-man-on-the-moon_music.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.