The British are obsessed with the weather. The Spanish are obsessed with the weather. Which statement is true and which statement is false? Answer: both are true, as would be the case for the Germans, the French, or the Maasai of the Serengeti. As far as the latter are concerned, their obsession probably doesn't manifest itself in quite the same way. They aren't umbilically connected to digital technology and obsessed to such an extent that the merest hint of weather demands that they attempt to break the internet.
There has been some weather in Mallorca in the past few days. There always is weather of course - you can't really avoid it, and that has nothing to do with obsessing over it - but there is weather and there is weather. Or perhaps one should say that there is the consequence of weather as much as there is the force or action of weather. Hence and for example, we have been regaled with images of submerged cars. One uses the word "regaled" advisedly. It means to provide entertainment or simply to entertain. Are cars submerged on a flooded road entertaining? Seemingly so.
To return to nationalities' relative meteorological obsessions, this recent burst of weather has been notable for its cross-cultural consensus. Spanish (Mallorcan) media outlets have posted their images and videos of cars in water and have been greeted with rapturous volumes of likes, wows, loves, sad faces, and angries. The full range of emoticon emotions has been shared by a nationality which is supposedly less obsessed with weather than the British. We can most definitely put that notion to bed: an obsession is for cultural sharing, especially if it can be done digitally and involve the result of 100 plus litres per square metre of rainfall.
The dramatic evidence of heavy weather is in contrast with the consequence of prolonged, unchanging weather. This can be and is equally dramatic and a great deal more concerning, but it is not as requiring of immediate hits on the share button. The drought, which the environment ministry will doubtless insist is still at pre-alert levels despite the cars up to their bonnets in wet stuff, has produced endless images of barren stretches of former reservoir and levels so low that a car would struggle to get water to cover its wheels.
What of course is missing is the drama and so therefore all the mobile phones frantically capturing still and moving images of weather and uploading them for an enthralled internet community to respond with "OMG" and an accompanying like, wow (choose as applicable, or not).
Weather in Mallorca, where most are concerned, would be 30-plus celsius, a blue sky and a gentle turquoise sea lapping onto velvety white sand. It's the difference which counts and what might seem unusual or unexpected. Take snow. There's snow in Mallorca? Oddly enough, there is. It may still be waiting to produce a repeat of 1956, but if and when it does, the internet will be broken for certain.
The interest (obsession) with weather has grown exponentially in line with digital technology. This didn't exist in 1956, was most certainly not universally available in 1990 when there was that much weather that Alcudia's City of Lakes became the City of THE Lake, or sufficiently diffused when the hurricane of 2001 occurred and flattened whole pine woods. Even the tornado of 2007 predated the mass adoption of social networks.
Weather is thus a product of technology that fascinates even if the weather event is of no consequence, such as when the Puig Major gets a covering of snow. So technologically-driven is it that it produces an incessant bombardment of non-weather images, such as the here is a photo of some sea and some sun, followed by another photo of similar sea and similar sun. Wow, like, love, share. Non-weather is the typical dish served up by the webcam for its devotees. Here is a not terribly clear image of a cloud in the sky. Goodness, look at that. A cloud. There can be few more pointless exercises known to mankind than to stare at what a webcam is looking at for more than five seconds (if that, or indeed at all). But mankind deals in pointless exercises. If not, there wouldn't be any "X Factor" or the current England cricket team.
An obsession? Totally. Come rain, come shine, come hail, come snow, come wind, it is all there courtesy of technology. Once captured, it whizzes around the world in a frenzy of sharing. We are all Meteo men, women and children, assisted by Meteo cats and dogs (assuming they themselves aren't raining) and other members of the animal community to be digitally found experiencing weather. We can always take the weather with us. It's on our mobiles. Wow, like, sad face. Share.
Showing posts with label Rain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rain. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
When It Rains, It's Colapso
The weather was a bit iffy last Thursday. Highs only around 23 degrees, some rain about, mostly cloudy all day. What to do, if you're a tourist? Head to the nearest hire-car agency. Look at all those cars that have been brought over from the mainland. Look at them all, many of them from agencies paying nothing in taxes. That's a story in itself. Part of the story means that these immigrant vehicles add to the "colapso", taking advantage of roads and car parks for which there are no contributions.
They love a good colapso in Mallorca. Love talking about it anyway. It has nothing to do with vino, and thank God it doesn't. All those hire cars with all those tourist drivers with little clue where they're going and their task is made more difficult by having had a glass or several. Mind you, it's enough to drive you to drink: driving when everything's colapso, as in the traffic. Logjam, standstill, collapsed: there's your colapso.
It happens all the time when there's dodgy weather. This is what you get from alternatives to sun and beach. When the sun doesn't shine, when the beaches are empty, when the poolsides have not been attacked from the earliest hour by the race to lay the towels, what is there to do? Yep, let's all go to Palma. All those with a hire car, that is; those who are prepared to splash out for one. Pity the poor economy-class all-inclusive vacationer, wandering lonely as a cloud, several clouds, thick clouds and wondering what on Earth to do. Or maybe you shouldn't pity them. That's up to you.
Of course it isn't only the all-inclusive guest who does the in-resort wandering. There are the other hotel occupants. The hire-car drivers are all in holiday rentals, the thousands upon thousands of those. That's what the regional government seems to think at any rate. Whatever accommodation the drivers have, it's always the same: head for Palma.
Someone has suggested - Javier Mato, writing in "Preferente" - that there should be information available for tourists, advising them what to do on an iffy day, warning them that if they go to Palma, they'd wish they hadn't bothered. Jam after jam, nowhere to park. It sounds a good idea, until Javier mentions that this would be information in hotels. Eh? In hotels? It would need to be in holiday rentals - legal or not - because the government says that colapso occurs because of the rentals.
Why aren't there park and ride schemes? Like with the car park that was created for just this purpose but which has since become unused, unloved and unmanaged. Why not? Because local authorities, let's them call them Palma's town hall, are useless. Too busy mucking around with closing roads in the city centre than doing something sensible like providing park and ride. There again, the turning into Antoni Maura off the Paseo Marítimo was bad enough as it was, what with being one lane, there being pedestrian crossings, buses (public and excursion) blocking the way and traffic lights that gave no more than thirty seconds of green.
What would make things really ducky would be for an iffy day to coincide with twenty odd thousand cruise passengers traipsing around the city. Colapso? You bet it would and would include the loos. The system couldn't take all the bar bogs being flushed at one go by the cruise passengers and the hire-car occupants, stuck in jams for hours, haring to the nearest bar to relieve themselves.
Why not take a bus instead? Or the train? Are you kidding? Ever tried getting on a bus to Palma on a good day let alone a bad one? You might succeed, but then there's the getting back as well. The train? What train, if you are in Pollensa, Alcudia, Cala Ratjada, Cala Millor, Cala d'Or, Colonia Sant Jordi, Magalluf, Andratx?
Why go to Palma at all? What about other parts of the paradise island? Fancy Soller? Not by car you shouldn't. The train? A good alternative, if there were space. Large (largish) towns like Inca? Why would anyone want to go to Inca? Actually, there are some interesting parts and it has what seems to be the main reason to want to go to Palma - shopping, though not on anything like the same scale admittedly.
How about mooching around the small towns and villages? Petra, Sant Joan, Lloret and many others? Well, how about it? Does it cross anyone's mind to do this? It should do. You never know, you might be surprised by what you find. Mallorca.
Overwhelmingly though, the choice will be Palma, which will be overwhelmed to a greater degree than it constantly appears to be. Mallorca is geared to two things - sun and beach. Take them away, if only temporarily, and there's colapso.
They love a good colapso in Mallorca. Love talking about it anyway. It has nothing to do with vino, and thank God it doesn't. All those hire cars with all those tourist drivers with little clue where they're going and their task is made more difficult by having had a glass or several. Mind you, it's enough to drive you to drink: driving when everything's colapso, as in the traffic. Logjam, standstill, collapsed: there's your colapso.
It happens all the time when there's dodgy weather. This is what you get from alternatives to sun and beach. When the sun doesn't shine, when the beaches are empty, when the poolsides have not been attacked from the earliest hour by the race to lay the towels, what is there to do? Yep, let's all go to Palma. All those with a hire car, that is; those who are prepared to splash out for one. Pity the poor economy-class all-inclusive vacationer, wandering lonely as a cloud, several clouds, thick clouds and wondering what on Earth to do. Or maybe you shouldn't pity them. That's up to you.
Of course it isn't only the all-inclusive guest who does the in-resort wandering. There are the other hotel occupants. The hire-car drivers are all in holiday rentals, the thousands upon thousands of those. That's what the regional government seems to think at any rate. Whatever accommodation the drivers have, it's always the same: head for Palma.
Someone has suggested - Javier Mato, writing in "Preferente" - that there should be information available for tourists, advising them what to do on an iffy day, warning them that if they go to Palma, they'd wish they hadn't bothered. Jam after jam, nowhere to park. It sounds a good idea, until Javier mentions that this would be information in hotels. Eh? In hotels? It would need to be in holiday rentals - legal or not - because the government says that colapso occurs because of the rentals.
Why aren't there park and ride schemes? Like with the car park that was created for just this purpose but which has since become unused, unloved and unmanaged. Why not? Because local authorities, let's them call them Palma's town hall, are useless. Too busy mucking around with closing roads in the city centre than doing something sensible like providing park and ride. There again, the turning into Antoni Maura off the Paseo Marítimo was bad enough as it was, what with being one lane, there being pedestrian crossings, buses (public and excursion) blocking the way and traffic lights that gave no more than thirty seconds of green.
What would make things really ducky would be for an iffy day to coincide with twenty odd thousand cruise passengers traipsing around the city. Colapso? You bet it would and would include the loos. The system couldn't take all the bar bogs being flushed at one go by the cruise passengers and the hire-car occupants, stuck in jams for hours, haring to the nearest bar to relieve themselves.
Why not take a bus instead? Or the train? Are you kidding? Ever tried getting on a bus to Palma on a good day let alone a bad one? You might succeed, but then there's the getting back as well. The train? What train, if you are in Pollensa, Alcudia, Cala Ratjada, Cala Millor, Cala d'Or, Colonia Sant Jordi, Magalluf, Andratx?
Why go to Palma at all? What about other parts of the paradise island? Fancy Soller? Not by car you shouldn't. The train? A good alternative, if there were space. Large (largish) towns like Inca? Why would anyone want to go to Inca? Actually, there are some interesting parts and it has what seems to be the main reason to want to go to Palma - shopping, though not on anything like the same scale admittedly.
How about mooching around the small towns and villages? Petra, Sant Joan, Lloret and many others? Well, how about it? Does it cross anyone's mind to do this? It should do. You never know, you might be surprised by what you find. Mallorca.
Overwhelmingly though, the choice will be Palma, which will be overwhelmed to a greater degree than it constantly appears to be. Mallorca is geared to two things - sun and beach. Take them away, if only temporarily, and there's colapso.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
When It Rains, It Rains
The German language possesses words which reflect a German characteristic of straightforwardness and directness and a further one of the mysterious. This vocabulary is especially evident when it comes to the weather. What a magnificent word "Unwetter" is. Un-weather. It is brilliant in its clarity, simplicity and lack of complication. It says it all. Then there is "Gewitter", a word spoken with a sense of foreboding, of the gods of Germanic mythology stirring violently and unleashing a terrible force across the land. Both words are applied to storms, though "Unwetter" is more a state of turbulent and bad weather rather than the specifically horrific storm that can be "Gewitter". I have experienced the summer "Gewitter" in the steamy south of Germany on more than occasion. You know it is coming. The wind suddenly picks up from nothing and within only a short few moments the skies change. The speed with which the storm hits and the violence it unleashes over the Central European land mass are awesome to behold, except if you happen to be caught up in it.
The Spanish "tormenta", with its implication of the tortures of the Inquisition, is frighteningly apt because of that implication. My, how vocabulary can describe the mental state that storms provoke, either through literal implication or through onomatopoeic suggestion, and German and Spanish do so far more strongly than English. The monosyllabic "storm" lacks a potency. A storm brews, just as tea does. It is a more sedate state of turbulence.
We are in the season for the Mallorcan storm. If there is any predictability with weather, it is that the island is going to be subjected to the torment of the tormenta at its most inquisitional, and it typically occurs around the middle of September. The high humidity and the paraffin-vaporous great heat of this September, the great warmth of the sea surrounding the island: the elements are there. The perfect storm is not brewing, it is being slowly and maliciously stirred before the whips of frenzy finally crack from an apocalyptic sky.
Local terminology requires us to believe that there is a "gota fría", a cutesy meteorological expression which massively understates what this cold drop can be. Strangely enough perhaps, given the German linguistic propensity for playing up the power of storms, it is a term which owes everything to German - the "Kaltlufttropfen". But even the understated in German sounds worrying and vaguely mythical, as though the Brothers Grimm invented weather.
Though the middle of September is often when the "gota" makes its coldness evident, it can be earlier or later. Just recently, we experienced the 25th anniversary of the 1989 weather event, one so extreme that five lives were lost and almost 200 litres per square metre of rain fell within two hours along the eastern part of Mallorca. It was 6 September in 1989. The anniversary has passed. We are waiting for the 2014 version, and we might well be waiting with some trepidation.
Of course, anyone who can claim an association of some years with Mallorca can point to the dramas that nature has for us in late summer and early autumn. Take 2003, for instance, a summer that was excruciatingly hot. The highs actually peaked in June, around 40 degrees, and didn't fail to exceed 30 degrees for weeks and weeks until, right on cue at the change of the month, 31 August brought with it a change. Bang, crash, wallop. "Donner und Blitzen". Or take another example. That of 4 October, 2007. The "cap de fibló" tornado which claimed the life of a worker at Son Espases, ripped roofs off buildings on the Can Valero industrial estate and hurled along a route mapped out by the motorway heading northwards. The damage was great as the swirling blackness of meteo-four horsemen of the apocalypse propelled itself with what seemed like the speed of sound.
Though there are extreme weather events, they tend not to repeat themselves with such ferocity too often. This, though, was not the case after the 1989 event. The following year, a month or so later in early October, there were the disastrous rains which affected the north of the island particularly badly. So bad were the floods that the army had to be mobilised. The city of lakes that is Alcúdia became the city of the lake. It was impossible to see where lake or canal finished and where road or pavement was supposed to be. This did, though, lead to a greater appreciation for the need to attempt to limit flood damage.
When it rains, it does indeed rain. The season is with us. We should be scouring the maps of the AEMET meteorological office for the signs. The tormenta will be with us. It's a case of when and how fierce. My, how we love to talk about the un-weather.
The Spanish "tormenta", with its implication of the tortures of the Inquisition, is frighteningly apt because of that implication. My, how vocabulary can describe the mental state that storms provoke, either through literal implication or through onomatopoeic suggestion, and German and Spanish do so far more strongly than English. The monosyllabic "storm" lacks a potency. A storm brews, just as tea does. It is a more sedate state of turbulence.
We are in the season for the Mallorcan storm. If there is any predictability with weather, it is that the island is going to be subjected to the torment of the tormenta at its most inquisitional, and it typically occurs around the middle of September. The high humidity and the paraffin-vaporous great heat of this September, the great warmth of the sea surrounding the island: the elements are there. The perfect storm is not brewing, it is being slowly and maliciously stirred before the whips of frenzy finally crack from an apocalyptic sky.
Local terminology requires us to believe that there is a "gota fría", a cutesy meteorological expression which massively understates what this cold drop can be. Strangely enough perhaps, given the German linguistic propensity for playing up the power of storms, it is a term which owes everything to German - the "Kaltlufttropfen". But even the understated in German sounds worrying and vaguely mythical, as though the Brothers Grimm invented weather.
Though the middle of September is often when the "gota" makes its coldness evident, it can be earlier or later. Just recently, we experienced the 25th anniversary of the 1989 weather event, one so extreme that five lives were lost and almost 200 litres per square metre of rain fell within two hours along the eastern part of Mallorca. It was 6 September in 1989. The anniversary has passed. We are waiting for the 2014 version, and we might well be waiting with some trepidation.
Of course, anyone who can claim an association of some years with Mallorca can point to the dramas that nature has for us in late summer and early autumn. Take 2003, for instance, a summer that was excruciatingly hot. The highs actually peaked in June, around 40 degrees, and didn't fail to exceed 30 degrees for weeks and weeks until, right on cue at the change of the month, 31 August brought with it a change. Bang, crash, wallop. "Donner und Blitzen". Or take another example. That of 4 October, 2007. The "cap de fibló" tornado which claimed the life of a worker at Son Espases, ripped roofs off buildings on the Can Valero industrial estate and hurled along a route mapped out by the motorway heading northwards. The damage was great as the swirling blackness of meteo-four horsemen of the apocalypse propelled itself with what seemed like the speed of sound.
Though there are extreme weather events, they tend not to repeat themselves with such ferocity too often. This, though, was not the case after the 1989 event. The following year, a month or so later in early October, there were the disastrous rains which affected the north of the island particularly badly. So bad were the floods that the army had to be mobilised. The city of lakes that is Alcúdia became the city of the lake. It was impossible to see where lake or canal finished and where road or pavement was supposed to be. This did, though, lead to a greater appreciation for the need to attempt to limit flood damage.
When it rains, it does indeed rain. The season is with us. We should be scouring the maps of the AEMET meteorological office for the signs. The tormenta will be with us. It's a case of when and how fierce. My, how we love to talk about the un-weather.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Lack of rain affects Albufera
A lack of rain both in spring and since then, combined with contamination from farming activity, has contributed to a reduction by almost a quarter of the number of ducks in the Albufera nature park and therefore to their breeding activity.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Summer Rain
Following the glad tidings of the announcement of work moving towards completion at the commercial port in Puerto Alcúdia, come the less glad tidings. Employees say that there is a lack of security provision - only one guard for the night times who has to patrol on foot despite there being a vehicle which, apparently, is not being used.
If indeed this is the situation, it does perhaps reinforce the point from yesterday - that these grand schemes are paid out for at grand cost but are then not exploited fully (if indeed they ever could have been) and simply not resourced adequately. Too often one has the impression of projects being undertaken, completed and then someone asking, "right, well now what do we do?"
Rain, come on, rain
Rain finally fell yesterday. Chucked it down in Puerto Pollensa at lunchtime. It was the first appreciable rainfall for a couple of months; it was badly needed but shortlived. The curious thing was that, though the skies glowered elsewhere, the clouds seemed only to burst over Pollensa. The bone-dry earth of Alcúdia, that which partly contributed to the fire on the Puig Sant Martí earlier in the week, remains bone dry.
But when it does rain, tourists are thrown into disarray. There is little alternative to the sun and its trappings, i.e. the beach and the pool. It might be a time when the bars and restaurants will be rubbing their hands with glee at the anticipation of the tourist diaspora wandering aimlessly under clouds and opting for a beer or several. In the past this would have happened. Now, even less-than-glorious weather fails to encourage tourists to turn the contents of their pockets out in return for a few cold drinks. And this despite the cricket. I can think of few better ways of idling away several hours than watching The Ashes, but unfortunately bars are geared more for the short bursts of sporting activity like football than the all-day grind of a test match. There should be bars with sofas or perhaps corporate hospitality boxes.
The principal principle
A few days ago I had cause to mention ESRA (28 June: Nothing Lasts Forever). I happened to see a copy of the annual handbook - not that I am the proud owner of one; it so happened to be sitting on a table in an office. This was put together with the help of dosh from Simon Cowell, for reasons I am not entirely clear as to, but be that as it may. But it is good to see that the X Factor-meister has dug into his pockets to support a publication that starts off with something as priceless as its explanation that the handbook is the "principle publication" of the association. I suppose that a "d" might have been missed, in that it is a "principled publication", but I suspect not. ESRA is the English Speaking Residents' Association. The principle is the wrong one; it should have been the other one - principal, meaning, in this context, main. There again, it is a speaking association, not a writing one. At least they didn't get their abbreviation arse about face.
False alarms?
A footnote to the Bellevue fires story of a while back. I am told that the alarms did go off. But not in the affected block - Minerva. They went off in Neptuno. How does that all work?
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Mamma Mia", Abba (again): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY57jGNCN8Q. Today's title - some old friends of this blog.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
If indeed this is the situation, it does perhaps reinforce the point from yesterday - that these grand schemes are paid out for at grand cost but are then not exploited fully (if indeed they ever could have been) and simply not resourced adequately. Too often one has the impression of projects being undertaken, completed and then someone asking, "right, well now what do we do?"
Rain, come on, rain
Rain finally fell yesterday. Chucked it down in Puerto Pollensa at lunchtime. It was the first appreciable rainfall for a couple of months; it was badly needed but shortlived. The curious thing was that, though the skies glowered elsewhere, the clouds seemed only to burst over Pollensa. The bone-dry earth of Alcúdia, that which partly contributed to the fire on the Puig Sant Martí earlier in the week, remains bone dry.
But when it does rain, tourists are thrown into disarray. There is little alternative to the sun and its trappings, i.e. the beach and the pool. It might be a time when the bars and restaurants will be rubbing their hands with glee at the anticipation of the tourist diaspora wandering aimlessly under clouds and opting for a beer or several. In the past this would have happened. Now, even less-than-glorious weather fails to encourage tourists to turn the contents of their pockets out in return for a few cold drinks. And this despite the cricket. I can think of few better ways of idling away several hours than watching The Ashes, but unfortunately bars are geared more for the short bursts of sporting activity like football than the all-day grind of a test match. There should be bars with sofas or perhaps corporate hospitality boxes.
The principal principle
A few days ago I had cause to mention ESRA (28 June: Nothing Lasts Forever). I happened to see a copy of the annual handbook - not that I am the proud owner of one; it so happened to be sitting on a table in an office. This was put together with the help of dosh from Simon Cowell, for reasons I am not entirely clear as to, but be that as it may. But it is good to see that the X Factor-meister has dug into his pockets to support a publication that starts off with something as priceless as its explanation that the handbook is the "principle publication" of the association. I suppose that a "d" might have been missed, in that it is a "principled publication", but I suspect not. ESRA is the English Speaking Residents' Association. The principle is the wrong one; it should have been the other one - principal, meaning, in this context, main. There again, it is a speaking association, not a writing one. At least they didn't get their abbreviation arse about face.
False alarms?
A footnote to the Bellevue fires story of a while back. I am told that the alarms did go off. But not in the affected block - Minerva. They went off in Neptuno. How does that all work?
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Mamma Mia", Abba (again): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY57jGNCN8Q. Today's title - some old friends of this blog.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Saturday, May 24, 2008
What Have I Done To Deserve This?
Who was it that let me be a weather forecaster? Who was it let me say something like, oh well, there may be a bit of a shower but then it'll be nice and sunny? Who was it? Hmm, yes, well me. Take no notice. Want to know something certain about the weather. Rain. Today. Rain. Crap. You might believe that poor weather would not unduly concern me, given that there is always next week, or the week after, or the month after. Well it does. Apart from the fact that I genuinely do feel sorry for the visitors, there is what I do. Today. Rain. Crap. Only some spits and spots to begin with, then more, and more. Going around Puerto Pollensa with "El Puente", making drops all over the town. Getting wet. Trying to shield the books. And succeeding at my expense. Wet. And venturing onto the front, the chill off the sea hits at the sweat of having marched about the place for an hour or so already. The combination of a cold. I know. It's happened before. Wet. Sweaty. Windy. Chilly. Fever. What I go through in the name of clients. Get up. No breakfast. Get out. Get wet. Eventually I gave up. And stopped off for something to eat - finally. And saw Emma from Sea Club. How do you keep a hotel full of over 1000 people happy with this weather? Well, they're managing, she says. This is when the hotel staff, the receptionist, the entertainers really earn their crust. When they can also be reduced to tears. The story goes of the receptionist at the Jupiter (or was it Marte or Saturno, doesn't matter, you know where I mean) who was so bombarded by the misery of the guests and the accusations that it was all somehow her fault that she just broke down. I can understand frustration, but - odd though it may seem - there is not a lot that hotels, receptionists, entertainers, bar owners, restaurant waiters, excursions operators, tourist office personnel can do about the weather.
And so where were we? Yesterday. Remember those good figures for visitors in the first four months but the decline that had occurred during April? Well today comes what might have been expected. Holiday sales to the Balearics have gone into "recession" in the UK, according to the head of the Mallorca hotel federation (as reported in the "Diario"). To compound the external problems and that of the euro-pound imbalance, there is also the issue of local inflation. As a consequence, prices have risen, as some anecdotal reports have suggested, not that these price rises are necessarily going to translate into profit growth; the contrary in fact.
But you know, even with all this bad news knocking around, you talk to a bar-owner who really works his place and you hear that things are better than last year. Which bar? Try guessing. Puerto Pollensa. And moreover, though this bar does very well thank you from sports television, there is not a concern about the absence of British Isles teams from the upcoming Euro championships. He knows you can't rely on this. I know it, too. Run a good house. Be reliable. Provide a good atmosphere. And despite the apparent problems, turnover can still be increased.
QUIZ
Chain - Roger McGuinn to The Byrds and "Turn, Turn, Turn" to "Turn Of The Screw" by Henry James which was filmed as "The Innocents". And how do you get from that film to George Michael? Yesterday's title - Bob Dylan. Today's title - who?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
And so where were we? Yesterday. Remember those good figures for visitors in the first four months but the decline that had occurred during April? Well today comes what might have been expected. Holiday sales to the Balearics have gone into "recession" in the UK, according to the head of the Mallorca hotel federation (as reported in the "Diario"). To compound the external problems and that of the euro-pound imbalance, there is also the issue of local inflation. As a consequence, prices have risen, as some anecdotal reports have suggested, not that these price rises are necessarily going to translate into profit growth; the contrary in fact.
But you know, even with all this bad news knocking around, you talk to a bar-owner who really works his place and you hear that things are better than last year. Which bar? Try guessing. Puerto Pollensa. And moreover, though this bar does very well thank you from sports television, there is not a concern about the absence of British Isles teams from the upcoming Euro championships. He knows you can't rely on this. I know it, too. Run a good house. Be reliable. Provide a good atmosphere. And despite the apparent problems, turnover can still be increased.
QUIZ
Chain - Roger McGuinn to The Byrds and "Turn, Turn, Turn" to "Turn Of The Screw" by Henry James which was filmed as "The Innocents". And how do you get from that film to George Michael? Yesterday's title - Bob Dylan. Today's title - who?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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