Been wondering what is to be made of the now closed school in Puerto Pollensa's market square (aka church square, aka Plaça Miquel Capllonch)? Well, one element would seem to be a future enhancement of health centre facilities. The central government has approved financing to the tune of 300,000 euros towards the re-development of the actual building. As to what was the old playground, it remains to be seen. There was that talk of an ice-rink, but whether the town hall has the moolah to provide for such frippery is debatable, given the parlous state of the town hall finances. As to its being a bus station - forget it.
And opposite - in different ways - across the square yesterday was José in full "more publicity, more publicity" mode, as in things he can put up in the form of posters. I wonder what he actually does with the CDs he's given, as he was wanting another made up of the various things for which, for my sins, I have been responsible, such as the legs, trousers and clothes-pegs shot and the "olé", sweets-bowl photo. Anyway, Bony is back as though it had never been away - "don't cry". You can't keep a good man down.
Bellevue and the tour operators
It took a couple of weeks, but I have received confirmation from the First Choice press office that it is no longer operating at Puerto Alcúdia's Bellevue. There may be something in this week's "Talk Of The North" about this, which says that a response had not been received. Ah yea, lead times and all that. Anyway, now it has, and it says: "First Choice and Thomson constantly review all the hotels to which we operate to make sure that they meet the high standards we expect for our customers. We can confirm that we no longer operate to the Hotetur Bellevue as it no longer adheres to our selection process".
Well there you go. The statement does not mention anything specific, so it would be wrong to suggest anything specific, but it might be possible to hazard a guess, one I shall leave you to make.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - OMD, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdz0jas03pc. Today's title - or maybe they don't, who is she?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Showing posts with label Bony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bony. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Can You Hear The Drums, Fernando?
That questionnaire from a couple of days ago. You do wonder, where it invites comments, quite what some people might choose to put about Puerto Pollensa. Doogy-doo aside, there is likely to be space found for how things have changed for the worse.
In Puerto Pollensa yesterday I got a feeling of been here, got the football replica t-shirt about a couple of conversations. One related the story of a Puerto P veteran of some 30 years who was bemoaning the fact that, and this was the nub of it, there were on the loose what looked like those who back in the UK would have their collars felt by plod. Not that plod would feel the collar in Puerto P as these "criminal types" would be without shirt and would doubtless be displaying love or hate or dragon or knife or whatever in the form of some body art. "Just like Alcúdia." No it is not, and save us from this snobbery; it is just like many places. And that is probably the main problem that the vets have with Puerto P; it has become or is becoming like other resorts.
Someone else was complaining about the entertainment from the Daina. It used to be relatively restrained, but now an audience-arousing Abba tribute can be heard across the bay, disturbing the gin and tonics of the waterworldists moored off-shore.
"Where are you all frommmmm?" "Eng-er-laaannndd."
"Can you hear the drums, Fernando?" "I can hardly miss them, old chum," would reply Fernando if he were not a Fernando. The Abba-isation of this frontline hotel was, you guessed it, "just like Alcúdia", though he was not being critical of Alcúdia, just pointing out that it was different. Except it isn't, if Puerto P can be "just like Alcúdia." Illogical, captain.
Puerto Pollensa has largely been spared the excesses of other resorts. It is not blighted by all-inclusive ghettoes; it does not have its strip or mile; it does not have karaoke after Delboy-televisual rows of bars, albeit that there is karaoke if you want it and Delboy did actually make his own intervention some years ago. It has retained a sense of decorum. But, and this I guess is the main beef of many, the special character of Puerto Pollensa, its understated and quiet demeanour, has been allowed to be altered. Nothing stays the same, but one is entitled to ask why more of an effort was not made to prevent the place slipping into the mass-resort pit of being much like other places. In truth, it still is not, but the essential Britishness of the resort was, at some point, likely to break out from just a Britishness of shire, manor and manners to one that reflects a more total Britain - one also of Corrie, footy and the boys' bevvy.
The more upmarket nature of Puerto Pollensa is being eroded, I am told. Clients of one operator who I shall not identify says that his clients are neither coming back to him nor to the resort. The reason? Because it's not like it was. Despite this, one is also entitled to ask why are vets of 30 years or so still returning. Puerto Pollensa may have changed, but it is still a place that many treat as a second home and that maintains an intangible feel that many would not swap for anywhere else.
He's back - don't cry!
And so one has to report that he's back. Yep, José is once again Bony-ing. He had been expected to take a rest for the whole summer, but you can't keep a good man down - and he is a good man. "Write on the internet," he insisted. So I am. And to celebrate the great return, everyone will get their first drink free on Friday and Saturday.
Samira - Puerto Alcúdia
There was a comment left for an old piece that mentioned Samira restaurant in Puerto Alcúdia. It was very complimentary and they were hoping to return. Sadly, it has closed.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Had it before, but what the ... "Viva La Vida", Coldplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvgZkm1xWPE. Today's title - well, you've been given it.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
In Puerto Pollensa yesterday I got a feeling of been here, got the football replica t-shirt about a couple of conversations. One related the story of a Puerto P veteran of some 30 years who was bemoaning the fact that, and this was the nub of it, there were on the loose what looked like those who back in the UK would have their collars felt by plod. Not that plod would feel the collar in Puerto P as these "criminal types" would be without shirt and would doubtless be displaying love or hate or dragon or knife or whatever in the form of some body art. "Just like Alcúdia." No it is not, and save us from this snobbery; it is just like many places. And that is probably the main problem that the vets have with Puerto P; it has become or is becoming like other resorts.
Someone else was complaining about the entertainment from the Daina. It used to be relatively restrained, but now an audience-arousing Abba tribute can be heard across the bay, disturbing the gin and tonics of the waterworldists moored off-shore.
"Where are you all frommmmm?" "Eng-er-laaannndd."
"Can you hear the drums, Fernando?" "I can hardly miss them, old chum," would reply Fernando if he were not a Fernando. The Abba-isation of this frontline hotel was, you guessed it, "just like Alcúdia", though he was not being critical of Alcúdia, just pointing out that it was different. Except it isn't, if Puerto P can be "just like Alcúdia." Illogical, captain.
Puerto Pollensa has largely been spared the excesses of other resorts. It is not blighted by all-inclusive ghettoes; it does not have its strip or mile; it does not have karaoke after Delboy-televisual rows of bars, albeit that there is karaoke if you want it and Delboy did actually make his own intervention some years ago. It has retained a sense of decorum. But, and this I guess is the main beef of many, the special character of Puerto Pollensa, its understated and quiet demeanour, has been allowed to be altered. Nothing stays the same, but one is entitled to ask why more of an effort was not made to prevent the place slipping into the mass-resort pit of being much like other places. In truth, it still is not, but the essential Britishness of the resort was, at some point, likely to break out from just a Britishness of shire, manor and manners to one that reflects a more total Britain - one also of Corrie, footy and the boys' bevvy.
The more upmarket nature of Puerto Pollensa is being eroded, I am told. Clients of one operator who I shall not identify says that his clients are neither coming back to him nor to the resort. The reason? Because it's not like it was. Despite this, one is also entitled to ask why are vets of 30 years or so still returning. Puerto Pollensa may have changed, but it is still a place that many treat as a second home and that maintains an intangible feel that many would not swap for anywhere else.
He's back - don't cry!
And so one has to report that he's back. Yep, José is once again Bony-ing. He had been expected to take a rest for the whole summer, but you can't keep a good man down - and he is a good man. "Write on the internet," he insisted. So I am. And to celebrate the great return, everyone will get their first drink free on Friday and Saturday.
Samira - Puerto Alcúdia
There was a comment left for an old piece that mentioned Samira restaurant in Puerto Alcúdia. It was very complimentary and they were hoping to return. Sadly, it has closed.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Had it before, but what the ... "Viva La Vida", Coldplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvgZkm1xWPE. Today's title - well, you've been given it.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Paris Is Calling
Rafael Nadal, darling of the Balearic tourism promotion courts to the tune of around six million euros worth of forehand, has inadvertently unleashed a back-handed lack of compliment to a French market to the Balearics that amounts to some 300,000 visitors. Or rather, his uncle, Toni, has delivered an overhead smash of a potentially damaging sort. Given that the islands' tourism bods had diverted 400k of promotion via the French Open - in the form of a video of Rafa inviting the French to come to the Balearics - it does seem a bit unfortunate that Toni should call the Parisian public "really stupid". On the back of Nadal's defeat at Roland Garros, his uncle and trainer, miffed at the apparent support of the tennis-goers for Roger Federer, launched his invective. To make matters worse, the director of Spanish tourism in Paris seems to have agreed with the Nadal uncle, saying that the Paris public has no style. The tourism ministry back on the islands is keeping a somewhat stupefied silence.
Terrace law - Pollensa
Pollensa political life has its own rent-a-quote politico. He has been mentioned several times before. He is the "alternative", the leader of the one-man United Left and Greens, Pepe García. He is a sort of Roger Gale of the local political scene. Anything needs saying, and up pops Pepe to deliver it. Not always without some justification, it must be added. I have previously drawn comparisons between local politics and those of university days, and Pepe reminds me of the Workers Revolutionary Party of my alma mater, albeit that there were two of them. But they were like Marc Almond and that bloke who played the keyboards who looked a bit dumb (indeed they had the same name, Dave Ball). Anyway, even the other hard left groups treated them as idiots, which is not to suggest that Pepe is one, just that he does make rather a lot of noise, as did the WRP - to no great effect, well to no effect at all in fact. It should be remembered, in his defence, that he was one of the most vocal critics of the aborted pedestrianisation scheme.
Whereas one was inclined to agree with him where that fiasco was concerned, his latest entry into the local press is unlikely to attract as much favour. He has had a go at the Pollensa town hall administration for not enforcing its own by-law in respect of the spread of tables and chairs on restaurant and bar terraces, arguing that the administration is looking to avoid confrontation. The question is, of course, why did they introduce the law if, seemingly, they don't want to antagonise business owners by seeing it through? I don't have the answer, but it was and is a petty law. It would mean, for example, restaurants in the square in Puerto Pollensa having to cut their terrace size substantially. Why? To do so would mean loss of tables and therefore potential loss of earnings and, just as importantly, the loss for tourists of the chance to sit outside on terraces, which is what most of them want to do in summer. Pepe reckons this all gives off a bad image. Sorry, he's wrong, and the town hall is right, but was also wrong in the first place.
Back in March, I drew attention to this law (20 March: Sitting Here On The Bench). It was then that one of the square's traders, José of Bony, met with the mayor who'd come on a recce. One might have expected José to have been in fighting mode, but he seemed strangely subdued and resigned to the whole thing. Around that time he also mentioned his problems, which many will know about. It's just sad that he is unlikely to be at Bony this season. It won't be the same.
Bellevue fire
There was a bit of an incident at Bellevue the night before last. It was a fire in a laundry room that led to an evacuation of some guests. It all seems to have passed off without any great problem. These things do occasionally happen. There was a fire at one of the Playa de Muro Iberostars last year. Quickly discovered, quickly evacuated and quickly dealt with.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Simon & Garfunkel, "Sounds of Silence": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZGWQauQOAQ. Today's title - French in the title.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Terrace law - Pollensa
Pollensa political life has its own rent-a-quote politico. He has been mentioned several times before. He is the "alternative", the leader of the one-man United Left and Greens, Pepe García. He is a sort of Roger Gale of the local political scene. Anything needs saying, and up pops Pepe to deliver it. Not always without some justification, it must be added. I have previously drawn comparisons between local politics and those of university days, and Pepe reminds me of the Workers Revolutionary Party of my alma mater, albeit that there were two of them. But they were like Marc Almond and that bloke who played the keyboards who looked a bit dumb (indeed they had the same name, Dave Ball). Anyway, even the other hard left groups treated them as idiots, which is not to suggest that Pepe is one, just that he does make rather a lot of noise, as did the WRP - to no great effect, well to no effect at all in fact. It should be remembered, in his defence, that he was one of the most vocal critics of the aborted pedestrianisation scheme.
Whereas one was inclined to agree with him where that fiasco was concerned, his latest entry into the local press is unlikely to attract as much favour. He has had a go at the Pollensa town hall administration for not enforcing its own by-law in respect of the spread of tables and chairs on restaurant and bar terraces, arguing that the administration is looking to avoid confrontation. The question is, of course, why did they introduce the law if, seemingly, they don't want to antagonise business owners by seeing it through? I don't have the answer, but it was and is a petty law. It would mean, for example, restaurants in the square in Puerto Pollensa having to cut their terrace size substantially. Why? To do so would mean loss of tables and therefore potential loss of earnings and, just as importantly, the loss for tourists of the chance to sit outside on terraces, which is what most of them want to do in summer. Pepe reckons this all gives off a bad image. Sorry, he's wrong, and the town hall is right, but was also wrong in the first place.
Back in March, I drew attention to this law (20 March: Sitting Here On The Bench). It was then that one of the square's traders, José of Bony, met with the mayor who'd come on a recce. One might have expected José to have been in fighting mode, but he seemed strangely subdued and resigned to the whole thing. Around that time he also mentioned his problems, which many will know about. It's just sad that he is unlikely to be at Bony this season. It won't be the same.
Bellevue fire
There was a bit of an incident at Bellevue the night before last. It was a fire in a laundry room that led to an evacuation of some guests. It all seems to have passed off without any great problem. These things do occasionally happen. There was a fire at one of the Playa de Muro Iberostars last year. Quickly discovered, quickly evacuated and quickly dealt with.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Simon & Garfunkel, "Sounds of Silence": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZGWQauQOAQ. Today's title - French in the title.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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