All That's Missing Is The Sea

If you can't actually get to Mallorca, then what's the next best thing? Flicking through the pages of a brochure or surfing websites and imagining you were there? Or how about going to a pretend Mallorcan cove in the middle of an English city? If you live in Birmingham you could have done just that. Monarch had created an artificial beach replete with sun umbrellas in Chamberlain Square in the city centre. Visitors, says "The Diario", could listen to music such as flamenco, and there is a supporting website - http://beach.monarch.co.uk.

Of course when the skies are grey and it's chucking it down, it does all rather lose its impact, but this is not such a bad idea - the fake cove that is. The Mallorcan tourist authorities put on a Mallorca show in Manchester some weeks ago. How effective that was in attracting business, we will probably never know, but it was a worthy attempt. The Birmingham beach is an example of businesses doing it for themselves. But don't get carried away with thinking that Monarch is only trying to drum up business for Mallorca - they're now doing something similar for Turkey.

And I would be deserting my duty if I did not of course discover something rather odd for you. It comes from that Monarch website. Go to the bit for Mallorca (Majorca) and you will find that is says, inter alia, that "one of the most famous beaches on the island is in Alcúdia (Playa de Palma)". Eh? Well, Monarch is only, through its tie-up with Cosmos and the Co-op, the third biggest tour operator in the UK. You don't expect them to get things right.


Pollensa - six hundred grand light
Further to the note on Pollensa town hall being in debt and seeking bank credit (18 July: Sick And Tired), the administration has, it would appear, been able to secure 400 grand, less than half the amount that it needs. Cue, as always, the usual suspects among the opposition to voice criticism. The head of the PP does "not wish to participate" in what he considers to be "a farce" (the seeking of this credit), given - as he claims - the town hall is sitting on 3 million's worth of short-term credit policies and unreceived taxes for "urbanistic" infractions. The Alternative argues that the town hall should be looking to cut costs, and in this he is almost certainly correct. We come back, for example, to the spend on the fiestas. It may not be a huge amount in the overall scheme of things, but what exactly is the justification for lavish publicity material for the likes of the music festival and Patrona? There are signs up all over the place for the festival. Why? The design and production costs for the Patrona brochure will not have come in cheap. The publicity should be about information, which indeed it is, but it is information that can be conveyed far more cheaply. The town hall runs two websites; it can use those more effectively for getting the information out. People can download and print off if they want. Then there are the fiestas themselves. The town hall was meant to be reducing its spend, but the programme for this year's Patrona suggests anything but. Is it really necessary to have three separate music events going off at the same time in three different squares of the town? What do they all cost? Apart from the artists, there is erection and dismantling of stages and equipment, cleaning-up, policing.

Town halls such as Pollensa are responsible for a number of public services, such as police. It's not as if they do not need sizeable budgets in order to meet these basic obligations, but one also has to wonder at the size of the administrations. Departments for this, departments for that. Jobs for the boys, you tend to think. In a town of under 20,000 people, it should be possible to efficiently run a town hall with far fewer heads than are employed. I have mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again. To the best of my knowledge there is not a public audit office that scrutinises town hall operations. There ought to be. Not only might this recommend savings, it might also be able to check for or indeed prevent any potential misappropriation - a problem in many town halls that has led to the numerous scandals, though not, I would hasten to add, Pollensa. The town halls operate as their own self-sufficient democracies, which is fine, but there needs to be a body to which they are accountable and not just the legal authorities and police when they unearth potential malpractice. If such an office does indeed exist, one might reasonably ask what on earth it does.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Heatwave", Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE2fnYpwrng. Today's title - had this before, but it's a great song even if it is complete froth.

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Burning In My Heart

Who turned on the oven? It had been forecast that the worst heatwave of summer would be experienced this week; they hadn't said quite how bad. Temperatures of 44 degrees had been anticipated yesterday afternoon; that's around 111 in old money. Sa Pobla is the place that is taken as representative for the interior in the north, and Sa Pobla is where this record high was expected. It is fifteen years since a 43 was recorded there. As it turned out, the temperature was only 42 - only 42. The interior temperatures are higher than those around the coast, by a factor of some five or six degrees very often, but you don't have to go very far inland to get the full effects of that interior heat. In the old town of Alcúdia at midday yesterday, it was unbearable, but back down in the port it was cooler - all things being relative. The weather centre had issued a red alert for the interior, the north and the north-east.

The extreme highs are the result of air being sucked up from Africa. You can feel the heat of the wind or breeze - it grips you, encloses you. This African wind can sometimes just come out of seemingly nowhere and last for only a relatively short period, but when it does spring up it has the ferocity of old red nose giving the hairdryer treatment.

These are dangerous temperatures, ones to be respected. The advice to avoid dehydration is crucial; to not take on liquid is to run the risk of heatstroke or to suffer diarrhoea or worse. Ever had heatstroke - the full dose, that is? I have. I don't much recommend it. The question is, though, what liquid. Much as the thinking is to just take on water, this is not enough. The best drinks are the non-caffeine sports drinks. Eroski does a lemon one. Tastes ok and it has the salts, minerals and vitamins that are as important in preventing the worst affects of the heat. Yet, despite all the advice, you will still see those quaffing back great pints of beer during the day or tucking into a full English or a vast plate of meat and chips. None of this makes any sense. Ok, let's not get too sanctimonious, a freezing Saint Mick of an evening is hugely tempting, and rightly so, just so long as it's not the whole gallon.


What's Cracowing-off in the Cala
Are the Poles the new Brits? Last summer there was something of a street battle involving plod and some youthful Polish holidaymakers in Magaluf. There is now a report of trouble involving some younger Poles in - of all places - Cala San Vicente, but this is all-inclusive Cala, not the genteel old-colonialism of the Moraleja: the Don Pedro in other words. Perhaps it could have been predicted. Put British families together with the nouveau holidaymaking classes of young Poland and it was maybe bound to end in tears. But put them together Thomas Cook have done.

"Talk Of The North" got the story, and it should appear in greater detail in the next issue. From what Graeme tells me it has all been rather unpleasant, a group of Poles effectively terrorising the Brits and causing general mayhem. The boys in green were eventually called, after the Brits demanded that something be done. In addition to "TOTN", you can probably also expect that the forums will be given a bashing by very unhappy Brits, to say nothing of the complaints that will land in the in-tray of Thomas Cook.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Frank Sinatra, "New York, New York", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro7Uz4jEfmg. Today's title - why? It's a line from ...

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In A City That Never Sleeps

There must, you imagine, be a point in the early morning of the second of August when DJ Enigma or Pako passes by a group of worthy pollencin ancients who look aghast at the ponytail and eyebrow piercing and who are weary from the noise of a night of endless partying in three whole squares of the old town, but determined to be there at five am for the traditional alborada. Fiestas are all about the old meeting the new, but not necessarily in the streets as one lot gets up and the other makes its way to bed. Except, that is, in Pollensa. Why anyone feels the need to get up for a tradition that was invented at the end of the nineteenth century in order to herald the final day of the fiesta week is lost on me. They could just as easily, you would think, pack it all in to thirty minutes at some sensible hour, like ten o'clock; time enough for a decent snooze and a lump of lard and sugar together with a stiff hierba for breakfast. But not with Patrona.

The locals have to suffer for their fiesta art, and that may well mean not having had any sleep ahead of a day that features make-believe Christians and Moors rampaging through the streets and a bloody great fireworks do at midnight. It might not be so bad, but the night before there was another grand party - the marxa fresca - that techno-ed across the Plaça Major. Actually, techno may not be accurate. There is a youtube of last year's marxa and that's got Madness playing. So much for traditional Catalan house or whatever the flavour of the dance world is these days. At least on the night of the Wednesday, the provocatively entitled "Decibels Pollença 2009" is confined to the footy pitch. No sound limiters there, one supposes. God forbid that an unsuspecting tourist booked his family of toddlers into the Hotel Juma on the Plaça Major in anticipation of a quiet few days of cultural tourism at the end of July and start of August. He'd get culture alright, Pants Breakers on the stage in the square and DJ Full-Attack larging it within easy sleep-shattering distance in the Monnares plaza.

Pollensa town hall, strapped for cash as it has been for several years now so much so that it is running a regular deficit in the region of a million of your European Euros, was meant to have been cutting its fiesta budget this year. Not that you would think that were you to take a look at the schedule for Patrona. It's like a mini-Glastonbury, replete with sound, Quakerist, saving-the-world enviro children's parties and benefits for Rwanda and the like. All that's missing is the mud, which is a shame as it would allow the Batley Townswomen's Guild to re-enact the Moors and Christians.

The simulation, Pythonesque or otherwise, is - in its billing - something of a curiosity, given that the Moors were anything but Moors. They were Turks, intent on turning the inns of Pollensa into kebab restaurants, but Moors is how we must call them. The term "moro" is one commonly used in the local languages; indeed Patrona features a comedy (ho-ho) called "No Hi Hara Moros A La Costa" which translates, more or less, as the coast is clear, i.e. there are no Moors on the coast. It will be one of the events that attracts rather fewer tourists than others, one would guess. Another more obscure feature of this year's Patrona is a "return to the sixteenth century" with music and entertainment of the period. 1550 was the year that the so-called Moors attempted their invasion. At Patrona they're making music to repel Moors by. They're making rather more music than that - 14 DJs, 20 groups of different sorts, plus some Mallorcan traditional music and that stuff from the 1500s.

Patrona - the fiesta of the sleepless.

Information on Patrona 2009 is on the WHAT'S ON BLOG - http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com.


QUIZ
Today's title - ol' blue eyes, or is that red eyes, is back.

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Swine Flu

The swine flu situation in Mallorca is gathering some momentum. The first death attributed to "Gripe A H1N1" was recorded last week on the island, though the number of cases remains relatively low. There is a belief that, because of the degree of mobility in Mallorca, the likelihood is that it will register more cases than some other parts of Spain. Perhaps. There are plenty of regions, however, that have high levels of mobility - the major cities and of course all the tourism centres. A British tourist from Birmingham is in hospital on the island and apparently responding well.

The reports that started coming out of Germany last week, led by "Bild", have insinuated that Mallorca is something of a hotspot for the virus. This is overstating the case, but the actions of the police (national and local in the case of Calvia) in taking to wearing masks have not exactly lessened a certain sense of unease. It is being left to individual officers' discretion as to whether they don the masks or not. But if there are police roaming around with masks on, the rest of the population is quite likely to ask, then why not us. The health department thinks they are unnecessary. Nevertheless, well over 200,000 masks are being made available in the Balearics. The Partido Popular opposition in the Balearics has accused the health minister of having contributed to a "general alarm". Meanwhile, the ministry says that there is a reserve of more than ten million antiviral treatments - in Spain.

Of course there is alarm, but much of it, as in the UK, is overblown. The effects of the flu virus are not necessarily that harmful, but all that Mallorca needs right now is a dose not just of swine flu but also bad publicity. And images of police officers wearing masks do not exactly inspire confidence, even if there is sense that the police, and especially the police, take what precautions they can. But the same applies to other sectors. They may as well issue masks to everyone.

The regional government has issued its own advice to citizens. Its information provision is not that brilliant. Go to the website - http://www.caib.es - and you will see there is an announcement to click on. Try the Castellano or English pages, and what do you get? The same default information - in Catalan. Only the menu to the side of the page changes language. How useless is this? Well, one of the pieces of advice is that the transmission of the virus is the same as for any other strain, hand contamination being one means. Given the amount of handshaking that goes on in local society, one measure might be to give that a rest for the time being.

Oh, and there's one other thing health-wise. Temperatures are hitting 40 degrees in parts. Stay home, stay out of the sun, keep cool, and you probably won't get heatstroke or swine flu.


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Childhood Dreams - Part 2

One day the dreams of those raised in Pollensa, the next of those from Santa Margalida. Joan Mas and Dragut duly elected to charge around Pollensa with some vigour like a Blue Remembered Hills grown-up small boys' re-enactment, Sunday was the turn of the election for a rather more sedate role - Beata. One Antònia Frontera Pont has secured the highlight of her still short life - the current-day Beata of what we are constantly reminded is one of the most typical of Mallorcan fiestas that climaxes on the 6th of September with the Beata procession. The election of Beata is not a sort-of Miss Santa Margalida parade of the local totty; there is far more to it than good teeth and wishing for world peace. The aspirant, and there were 22 to choose from, has to demonstrate sound religious credentials for seeing off the rest of the field. Senyoreta Antònia has taken part in Beata in one form or another for several years. A minimum of five years participation is a pre-requisite for candidature. This, and having reached the age of 18, which she has.

According to the report from "The Diario", she could not contain her emotion when the mayor read out her name. It is the dream of everyone in the town, she said, though whether she went on to thank her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second-cousins, dog was not reported. Probably though; well, some of them. But highlight of her life it will be and will remain so, as Beatas are chosen but once only. Rather like being chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year, the accolade is bestowed on just one occasion. Nevertheless, it probably looks good on the CV. What prospective employer could turn down a Beata? And Antònia is training to be a teacher. In years to come, girls of schools in Santa Margalida will be inspired by the presence of a one-time Beata, which is actually a rather charming thought. "Miss, miss, tell us about when you were Beata." Yes, it is a charming notion.

And being charming and traditional, one thinks what is there to compare with such an election in decadent, irreligious Britain. Very little. In fact, nothing. The odd May Queen perhaps. Do they still have them? Not much of a gig if they do. In Britain, it would be necessary to invent something. Jade Goody Day or some such horror. Text voting for one of 22 candidates lounging around on sofas under the scrutiny of cameras in a make-believe house. Who's the gobbiest of them all? It's you-who. This year's Jade.

No, being picked as the Beata is all rather lovely, partly because it is such a tradition and an important one not only in Santa Margalida but also on the island as a whole. It's why such an election gets reported. You might think it was pretty insignificant, but it isn't. It matters. And it couldn't be further from something as contemporarily commercialised and profane as a Jade Goody. The only thing is, I wonder what some of the other 21 made of it. Now, there wouldn't be any catty remarks being muttered, would there? Perhaps not, but were there to be then they would doubtless be catty remarks made by the odd Cati, as every other female is called Cati.


QUIZ
Yesterday's and today's title - Nelly Furtado, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGtI8m8hW3A.

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Childhood Dreams

Every year the people of Pollensa gather to vote in the current-day players of an act that is over 450 years old; the Joan Mas and Dragut of the Christians and Moors role game during the Patrona fiestas. They gather not in the Plaça Major but in the Plaça Vella (the old square), a small area that is the scene of some of the more traditional aspects of Pollensa life; it is the Plaça Vella that is the site, for example, of the climbing of the soapy pine tree during Sant Antoni in January. It is a matter of local pride for the youngish male Pollensa citizens to be acclaimed pine-tree victor or Mas or Dragut. This year's Joan, Pep Martorell, said (as reported in "The Diario") that it has been his "dream since small" to be Joan. Some small boys dream of being a train driver, others of playing at the Camp Nou, others, it seems, of being the vanquisher of the Moors. Small boys grow up, but they still enjoy small boy games, such as running around the town pretending to be pirates or defenders. It beats a computer game version, but like all games it is virtual. They are virtual, pretend, play-act Joans and Draguts. But they are also pretend entertainers. Not on the stages of Pirates but on the streets of a real town, steeped in history and antiquity, presenting a show for tourists and residents alike. They should charge an admission fee, for this is historical spectacle performed in a popular fashion by the people for whom it means most, who grow up and live with the tradition, and dream, as small boys, of being the performers.

This is not spectacle stage-managed, choreographed, set to music, served up at a table with a chicken in a basket and a bottle of plonk. This is not removed from context, sanitised and artificial theatre of gleaming entertainers. This is spectacle as real, even if it is virtual; spectacle in context in the very streets of their town. It is an extraordinary tradition. Living theatre created by the people and for the people. Democratically chosen representatives of the local history. Remarkable.


Christians and Moors - what happens
The Christians and Moors event, on 2 August, really gets under way at seven in the evening when Joan and Dragut come together in the Plaça Almoina, Joan calling out to the mother of the angels for assistance for the "Pollencins" in defeating the pirates (led by Dragut). It moves to the church of Sant Jordi and the liberation of women and children held captive in the church. The final "battle" takes place at the football arena Can Escarrintxo where Joan takes the enemy's flag and then leads his men to the main church where the Christians celebrate their victory by giving thanks to La Patrona.


Bellevue - more
It now appears that Thomson is pulling clients out of Bellevue owing to health and safety reasons - as being reported on the forums. This follows the news of a week ago that First Choice was placing clients elsewhere. Now what health and safety reasons might these be? There is sympathy for the hotel, but pretty much everyone locally knows what this is about. The hotel has got a big problem; it could do with some decent PR. In fact, it could do with any PR.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Keane, "Everybody's Changing", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maKVPe677Jc. Today's title - Canadian-Portuguese female singer from her second album.

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Remember My Name

If you cross the main road from the Soller station to the Plaça Espanyol in Palma, you are walking on a symbol of Franco. The road is the Avenida Joan March. The association for historic memory is demanding that Palma town hall changes the name of the road, together with seven others. Why?

March is sometimes referred to as having been Franco's banker. The Banca March of current day takes its name from him. I once suggested, partly in jest, that they would have to change the name of the bank. Maybe it should have been in seriousness. If they can call for a change to the name of a road, then the bank should, logically, also be re-named; it is surely more symbolic than a stretch of tarmac, especially given March's banking association with the dictator. Indeed it would be hypocritical to not do so; hypocritical, that is, if the intentions to rid Spain and therefore Mallorca of symbols of Francoism are to be pursued fully.

Of the other seven roads deemed symbolic, three have names of countries - Alemania, Portugal and Argentina, each of which supported Franco in some form or another. This is ridiculous. That the names may have been granted during the dictator's regime and that Germany in particular was highly important to Franco during the Civil War does not mean they should now be changed. How many would have been aware of this connection had the historic memory association not chosen to cite them? It is not as if Germany is not now unimportant to Mallorca for entirely different reasons. There are many Argentinians now living in Mallorca. Portugal is a neighbour. There are other towns that have streets which bear the names of these countries, Alcúdia for example. And you can chuck in Italy as well; the Italians were hardly neutral when it came to matters nationalist during the Civil War.

Ok, change Avenida Joan March, but then make the bank change its name as well, or the demand to change the road name will smack of choosing an easy target. As for the countries, just leave them alone.


Smashing pumpkins
Do you like pumpkin? Pretty good I reckon. Normally you expect the pumpkin to be of the circular variety with eyes and mouth gouged into the skin and the fruit scooped out to allow for Hallowe'en lanterns. They can grow in a different way, such as ... Well, you should see for yourselves. My mate Diego Qüerio has taken a photo of a pumpkin that is over a metre long. It has been cultivated by a chap in Pollensa. You can see him in the photo as well. I leave you to offer your own captions. There are, I fancy, some rather obvious ones. Go here:

http://www.diariodemallorca.es/secciones/noticia.jsp?pRef=2009071800_3_485513__Part-Forana-calabaza-mide-metros


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Cardigans, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8paAUN6lC3I. Today's title - from one of their first hits; the title is about changing.

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Sick And Tired

They're gone. The scratch-cardists. The office in Puerto Alcúdia has closed. No-one will be lamenting the loss. All that remains for the moment is the sign - To Holiday and Real Liberty, sometimes known as right liberty.

There has been a fair old turnover of the street sellers this season. More seem to have been taken on in an attempt to generate ever more business. Maybe it hasn't worked. Maybe tourists are more resistant. Maybe those taken on did not like what they were doing. Maybe there were too many and they were not making their commissions. If there is any sympathy, it is for those who took up this employment in the hope of making some summer dosh. They may have antagonised a lot of people, but they were only the frontline operators for the backroom selling. I am told that there has been a fair amount of dashing around by people looking for transfers and flights out.

It was quite an impressive set-up. The offices were large. A kiddies area, the sales area, the separate offices, the plaques displaying some major names, such as hotel chains, the staff with ties. One looked familiar. There is a youtube knocking around of an exposé by the BBC in the Canaries. The salesman shown by the hidden camera looked similar to one from the Alcúdia office.

The website, for those who succumb to the sales pitch, is still up. It says that To Holiday is operated by Elite Holidays Royal Travel in the Canaries. The site is visually the same to that of Travelsafe, a company that the forums have been less than complimentary about. The revealing thread on the Holiday Watchdog site that has embraced To Holiday also has the names of Real Liberty and Elite in its title; its content also embraces an outfit known as Carpe Diem, which appears to be the company higher up the "organisation" above Elite.

The local police have, apparently, been issuing fines. Maybe they - the fines - have mounted up. Maybe business has just dried up. Maybe the pressure had been growing. Whatever. The office is closed. The police, who had grown "sick and tired" of the whole issue (as said to me,) may, from 2010, have more clout if the issue arises again. There is due to be a change in European law to deal with holiday clubs as from next year. Timeshare selling had been outlawed, but the holiday club was not. This appears to be set to change. The problem of the scratch-cardists in Alcúdia may now be over. We'll see.


Town hall troubles
Two town hall things lurking in "The Diario". Pollensa town hall, which may or may not have yet set its budgets for this year, is one of a group of town hall administrations seeking credit - to the tune of slightly less than one million euros. The deficit that the town hall is running is partially due to an historic shortfall dating back to 2005. According to the head of finance, there is now also an issue in respect of unpaid taxes from bars and restaurants with terraces. And in Sa Pobla, the town hall, which had said that it would be pursuing a strategy of low- or no-cost acts in order to keep its fiesta programme intact, has more or less "exhausted" its budget of just under 350,000 euros, claims the opposition Partido Popular.


QUIZ
Today's title - charming song by a charming (Swedish) group; well, Nina was/is charming.

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Ten Years After

So finally it would seem that the golf course in Muro is going ahead. It's only been a decade or so. These things do tend to take some time, especially when there is so much environmental squabbling. But now the overseers of flora and fauna have said that the protection of the orchid seems guaranteed, and the environment ministry has effectively given the green light. The new mayor of Muro, Martí Fornes, has confirmed that, environmentally, everything is in order. Indeed his remarks have been reported in rather perfunctory fashion, as though he is saying that enough is enough. Good for him. Despite his connection to Grupotel, a key shareholder in the development, he is right to take a firm stance. If the development is to go ahead, then let's get on with it. GOB, the environmental pressure group, is presumably rather green, suitably so you might say, around its organic gills.

Though I remain unconvinced as to the necessity of another golf course, there is nevertheless an argument in favour of the course as a potential generator of more tourism in Muro, and also in favour of a less tangible aspect - that of a general upgrading in the appeal of Muro and Playa de Muro. The latter already benefits from the sophistication of much of its hotel stock and from a more up-market style than some other places; the golf course can only enhance this.

Unconvinced as I have been as to the business case, I have never been particularly convinced by the environmental counter-argument. So long as certain species are protected, a golf course does not have to be environmentally harmful; indeed it can be the opposite. Habitats can remain unmolested alongside an environmental landscape change that, one hopes, has aesthetic appeal and style.

Work on the course could begin as soon as September, assuming, that is, the enviro lobby doesn't drag up even more objections. Yep, just get on with it.

Meanwhile, the hotel association of Playa de Muro's website, the one that has been talking of the creation of a golf course for some while now, has yet to update the good news. But in its absence, there is something else that is a bit of an oddity. Welcoming all to Playa de Muro and to the "congresses" that can be enjoyed, it mentions that also at one's disposal is the "recently built Alcúdia Auditorium". How recent is recent? What is the year of the auditorium's inauguration? About as long as they have been talking about the golf course. 1999.


Can Picafort's frontline
And another green light. One in Can Picafort. A while back I mentioned the opening of the walkway from Son Bauló and remarked that rather more pressing was an upgrade of the frontline in Can Picafort. What do you know - three and a half million euros or so are to be spent doing just that. Work is due to start on 1 November and finish before May. There is some debate as to whether cyclists will be able to use the paseo; the plan seems to be exclusively for pedestrians. The bulk of the dosh is being stumped up by the environment ministry. Ah yes, now we know why the environment minister it was who cut the ribbon to open the Son Bauló phase.


Swine flu
Well sad to say that the first death has been recorded; a Nigerian woman in Palma. She had gone to emergency and been sent home with a prescription for paracetamol. Wasn't quite enough it would seem.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Who, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX8uCdenpgU.

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Join Together

Starting on Saturday, Alcúdia will be celebrating its annual Sant Jaume fiesta, the events climaxing on Saturday 25 July, the day of Sant Jaume, with the fireworks that bring the fiesta to its close. There is a further dimension to this year's fiesta. Indeed there is a double celebration. It is eighty years since the town hall building was opened and thirty years since local democracy took off following the period of Franco's dictatorship. To mark these anniversaries, there will be an act of commemoration during the fiesta week and the presentation of a book that looks at the building of "la Sala", the town hall.

These two anniversaries - of 1929 and 1979, half a century apart - are in themselves significant as they top and tail, as it were, the period of descent into turmoil, Franco and finally the restoration of the monarchy and the establishment of democracy. Though overshadowed by who and what was to come, in 1929 Spain was governed by another dictator, Miguel Primo de Rivera. He presided over the inauguration of the building, praising its "sumptuous construction". He was accompanied by Jaime, one of the sons of King Alfonso XIII. It was an ironic pairing, and whether Jaime knew anything of the compliments lavished on la Sala by Primo de Rivera is doubtful; he was a deaf mute. By the time of the inauguration, 10 September 1929, Primo de Rivera was on his last dictatorial legs. He had assumed the dictatorship in 1923, thanks to the support of Alfonso, but the king was reaching the point of wanting to sack him. A few months later in early 1930, the army failed to back the dictator: he resigned and died in March of that year; the Republic was declared the following year; the monarchy abolished and the path to Civil War created.

Primo de Rivera is sometimes considered a bit of an irrelevancy. He was far from that. Franco learned from his regime and was thus ruthless in crushing unions and Catalanism in a way that his predecessor had not been. Primo de Rivera had also headed a period of economic advance, much of it based on extravagant public spending, which partly contributed to the collapse in the peseta and to his demise. But that spending was what brought about not only la Sala but also significant other works in Alcúdia. Much restoration and construction in the town dates to the period of the first dictatorship.

La Sala was not to be the location of an actual "ayuntamiento" ("ajuntament" in Catalan) of Alcúdia until 1979. That was when the first democratically selected mayor, Pere Adrover, came to office - fifty years after the building which houses the town hall's meetings had been praised by a former dictator for its sumptuousness and for being "extremely artistic". The words "ayuntamiento" and "ajuntament" come from the Castilian and Catalan verbs ayuntar and ajuntar, meaning to join. It took half a century for them to truly join together in la Sala.

Information on the Sant Jaume fiesta and also the Sant Jaume and Santa Margalida fiestas in Sa Pobla is on the WHAT'S ON BLOG - http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com.


Swine flu
How's your swine flu doing? Want some? Then come to Mallorca. Only kidding. Not that the German newspaper "Bild" seems to be kidding. It is saying that around ten cases of swine flu in Germany have their origins in Mallorca, specifically in the Playa de Palma area. The local health authorities on the island are flatly denying that it has been contracted in Mallorca. Officially, there are, to date, six cases that have been reported in Mallorca and two more in Ibiza and one in Menorca.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Jackson Five, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYx3BR2aJA4. Today's title - who, er, yes?

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ABC Is Easy As ...

Anyone who might have been hoping that the all-inclusive (AI) would just close the tap on its endless lager and go away should think again, especially if they happen to be aware of the brochures being issued for 2010. Thomson and First Choice have got theirs out. There is a dedicated all-inclusives brochure for both operators. These do not mean a sudden rise in the number of hotels offering AI - they are more a case of packaging the package - but they indicate the direction in which the tour operators are going, even more than before.

For those alarmed at the inexorable march of the AI, there is no solace from the press release coming from Thomson and First Choice. Indeed there is more to be alarmed at. Using findings from the market research organisation Mintel, this says that "the main increase (in AI) has been within the affluent ABC1 socioeconomic groups who have previously favoured self-catering accommodation". There is now a growth in 4- and 5-star AI that provides far more than just all that lager and dodgy nosebag, attracting those who want "variety, convenience and superior standards". For the customer seeking some certainty as to his budgeting, the AI makes money "go further", says the head of short and mid-haul and product development. The release goes on to say that, "AI holidays now make up 20-25% of all package holidays, with bookings having grown by 32% in the last five years".

Whilst much of the attention is turned towards the AI ghettoes of the likes of Alcúdia, it is perhaps easy to overlook the fact that AI is on offer in the higher-standard hotels. Go to the Iberostar site, as an example, and you will find "all-inclusive" clearly buttoned. The Iberostars cater for the type of clientele that the Mintel research is referring to. It is precisely the sort of clientele that local restaurateurs can ill afford to have staying ensconced in a hotel lapping up a superior level of service - all of it pretty much pre-paid. Value for money and convenience are just as attractive to the more elevated levels of the socioeconomic food chain as to the deltas and epsilons.

Mallorca has long craved a so-called "quality" tourist, and many have held the view that it is this market which will re-invent the tourism economy. But if it finds its way ever more into all-inclusive exclusive enclaves with spas and I-Pod docking stations, it, too, will contribute less and less to the wider economy. It is instructive to consider the findings in Hawaii where it has been calculated that more than 80% of an AI traveller's "fees" go to airlines, hotels and international companies - meaning, in the latter instance, the tour operators - and not to local businesses or workers.

As part of the recent plan to consider the island's tourism economic model, the regional government and others are meant also to be addressing the role of all-inclusives. They're meant to be, but whether anything comes of it must be extremely questionable. We've been here before, and nothing has been said beyond the initial announcements as to concerns and looking at the issue. While true that hotels' board offers are subject to licensing, this has hardly had any effect in slowing the pace of all-inclusive places. It is, however, not necessarily the case that hotels yearn for all-inclusive clientele. One hotel in Alcúdia, for example, declined a request from Thomson to have an AI provision this year. Some seem to have been pressed into doing so by the current economic situation, while others are pretty much wholly subject to what the tour operator wants.

Just take note again of those figures - 20-25% of all package holidays are all-inclusive, a 32% increase in five years. What about the next five years?


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Could have been The Tavares, but of course Take That, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouH-VQwok3o. Today's title - a ropey lager and pizza from a ropey AI for anyone not getting this.

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It Only Takes A Minute

Or a second, or not even that really. I have this in my mind as I drive the roads. Only takes a second for potential oblivion for someone, myself included. I commend it as a thought for everyone to hold in their heads. It only took a second for the driver of one of the vehicles involved in the smash in Alcúdia the other day to not observe the stop sign and end up in a collision with a van and a people-carrier, with a three-year-old left in a serious condition.

The accident took place at the junction of the Avenida Tucan (the Hidropark road) and the bypass by the mountain. It is not an accident that is hard to understand happening. Some of the junctions are confusing and downright dangerous, no more so than the one at the turning into the road for Cala San Vicente. The combination of fast-moving traffic, filter system and means of turning left from one road makes these junctions accidents in waiting. They should get rid of all of them and replace them with roundabouts. The locals may not be too clever where roundabouts are concerned, but at least they slow traffic and create less confusion. Roundabout accidents tend to be confined, at worst, to shunts, but they rarely cause multiple pile-ups; the filter junctions do. And while on confusing road layouts, can someone try and explain to me what in God's name one is supposed to do on those roads by the Eroski on the outskirts of Pollensa going into the industrial estate; it is a complete shambles of confusion.

It only takes a second, but if you need several seconds to be really sure, then take them, regardless of the idiot behind doing the gesticulating or giving it large on the horn.


Thirty-three ... the interior ministry
Ever ones to try and interfere with the previously unmolested workings of fiestas and tourism, different ministries seem intent on finding new ways of generally hacking everyone off with the irrelevant and the stupid. Let's run this one by you. In the municipality of Marratxí, there has been a tradition during the fiesta in Pòrtol of holding a street bingo. Money raised from the event this year has been earmarked to go towards renovation work on the local church. In step the heavy boots of the interior ministry, via the local police, which says that it cannot take place as it is illegal; these bingos take place in many other villages and towns. The ministry reckons that they have got out of control, that their prizes are too valuable and that they do not exclude those under eighteen.

The street bingos are something of a tradition, and frankly what harm do they do? If there was really a desire to eradicate some traditions, then the authorities should concentrate on more questionable aspects such as those involving genuine animal cruelty (and no not the ducks in Can Picafort, which is even more potty than it was now that rubber ducks are involved). Anyway, the bingo in Pòrtol did take place, and seemingly no-one tried to intervene to prevent it.


No flights?
And something of a follow-up to the piece of two days ago about the hoteliers and the so-called "catastrophe" that is this season. I am told that many hotels, those contracted to certain tour operators, have no real problem with occupancy, in that they are contracted for their allocations. A problem lies with the airlines providing sufficient flights. One hotel in Alcúdia has places but is unable to sell them - and there is demand - because flights cannot be obtained. Or that is what is being said. Not sure. On a different matter, I am also told that one tour operator, First Choice, is pulling tourists out of Bellevue and placing them elsewhere - Sea Club or, in the case of guests signed up for all-inclusive, Jupiter. There are, apparently, "certain problems".


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - For example, The New Christy Minstrels, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vXmx3A1SyA. Today's title - no clue needed.

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Michael Row The Boat Ashore

The Unió Mallorquina party has a new leader. Again. Some eighteen months since the last one came in, in comes the latest new one - Miquel Àngel Flaquer who replaces another Miquel, Nadal of that name. Flaquer has promised that the past two years of instability in the party will now be put behind them. There is not just a sense of déjà vu about the election of a new leader, it exists also in that Nadal said much the same thing when he assumed the leadership. Flaquer had some words for Nadal, suggesting that he had used the party as a "personal instrument". There will be a resumption of "munarismo" in the party, a reference to the matriarch of the UM, María Antonia Munar, now the president of the Balearic parliament and former president of the party. She was a founder of the party in 1982 and now looms over it in Thatcherite fashion, ready to handbag anyone who steps out of line. The leaders of the UM benefit from her patronage. Nadal was one; he was very much Munar's boy when the last election was held. Not that it got him very far - well about eighteen months.

The fractious nature of the UM was in evidence prior to Nadal's elevation. At one point during the leadership battle that he won, he actually took his bat home and withdrew his candidature, only to come back with the Munar handbag of approval and trounce both Alcúdia's mayor Miquel Ferrer, who rictus-grinned through his gap-toothed smile having lost, and Miquel Grimalt, he of the notorious "Decreto Grimalt", now the environment minister. All these Miquels - all these Michaels rowing the boat ashore into the rocks of political turmoil. Maybe now there is a Micky who will steady the ship. You wouldn't really bet on it. But the UM does need to be stable. It does, after all, form part of the coalition that governs the islands, if govern is quite the right word - Nadal is also in a position of some importance as tourism minister.

As always, or seemingly as always, there was something a bit odd about the reporting of all this. Flaquer also had some words for the current state of Spanish politics, dominated, as it is, by the ruling PSOE and the Partido Popular. It fell, as all too frequently, to "The Bulletin" to provide the oddness. It referred to the PSOE as the National Socialists. Yep, the "n" and the "s" were capitalised. For anyone who might be a tad concerned, the PSOE is not a Nazi party. What should have been said was something along the lines of the nationwide socialist party - national socialists most certainly not.

Finally on the UM, just as a reminder, it was the matriarch Munar who once complained about the "invasion of foreigners" into Mallorca. So, if you happen to be foreign and are planning an invasion, just bear in mind that María and her party are not among your greatest fans.


And coming back to our favourite newspaper. What exactly are we to make of its propaganda for the Calvia bar association and this association for "Europeans", which now seems to be called "Europeos por España"? (It probably always was called that, just that it was reported wrongly as "Europa" rather than "España.) Once more, this propaganda appears in the Calvia section. The first understandably so, but the latter? But more importantly, are we to conclude that newspapers locally are mere vehicles for whatever association wants to publicise itself? Maybe we should. There was a very revealing interview in yesterday's issue with a journalist from the Bulletin's sister paper "Ultima Hora" who is due to retire next year. He said, inter alia, that journalism is "not about typing press releases". How right he is. And if you really must, you can google and discover that there is a website for this esteemed European association. And no, I'm not giving out the address; what do you think this is, a propaganda exercise?


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Chris Isaak, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4KHqg_gq4s. Today's title - take your pick with this one.

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Blue Hotel

Mallorcan hoteliers gathered in a restaurant in Puerto Portals to discuss the current situation in respect of the island's tourism, says "The Diario". I wonder what they ate. Humble pie for any that had been saying things would be ok-ish this season.

The word to come out of the meeting was that things, far from being ok-ish, are catastrophic. Seemingly, only one part of Mallorca is enjoying more than 90% occupancy, and that is Soller. Elsewhere there are reports of figures of barely 40 or 50%. Not that this elsewhere is defined. It does all rather depend: there are hotels, e.g. in Puerto Alcúdia, that are full, but presumably those which are far from full. The hope of last-minute bookings seems illusory, and the back end of the season is looking poor, with hotels suggesting that they will close at the end of September. The hotels are having to lower prices and want to revive the notion of offering condos as a means of avoiding going belly-up.

Might there be an element of some special pleading in all this? The hotels are never slow to voice their views, often with justification, such as with regard to the new application of the coasts law in Alcúdia and Muro. Arguably they form the single most powerful lobby in Mallorca, again with justification; it is they who help to drive the island's economy. But these figures have a precedent. Try last year. In Alcúdia there were reports of 40% occupancy at one well-known hotel, another had provision for under 60% at the end of July. Soller is unrepresentative; it is not a town and resort that has an abundance of mass-style hotel stock. It also has a rather different tourism profile to the likes of Alcúdia. Therein probably lies a story.

The question is to what extent these lower figures are simply a result of current economic times or a trend. One only needs to go back to 2007 which was, allegedly, a record year to believe that a bounce in the economies of Europe will return occupancy figures to the status quo. But one also has the niggling suspicion that figures which have been declared until now have not always been completely accurate. That the hoteliers are talking again of condos and also of a change in use - to living accommodation (for which, presumably, one can read privately owned apartments) - leads one to surmise that perhaps they recognise that there has been an underlying trend, and one, moreover, caused by over-supply. Much as one hears that there are too many bars, restaurants and all the rest, it is just as appropriate to suggest that there are too many hotels. Indeed this very point has been made to me where the hotels of Playa de Muro are concerned. That some hotels are not even opening this summer supports the fact that demand is down this year, but it is also indicative of too great a supply.

Against this background, it is small wonder that hotels seek to compensate for a fall in the number of places being taken up by increasing offers of an all-inclusive or a "plus" basis in order to generate greater occupancy and more additional revenues that might otherwise find their way into the tills of local bars and restaurants. It is quite understandable, and one does have some sympathy. The hotels represent colossal investment. To have them under-utilised or less than totally productive means a diminishing return on that investment, which in turn results in a cut in employment opportunities. The hotels, collectively, are hugely significant in terms of their being creators of jobs. Idle stock has an impact in terms of jobs. But so also would a change of use. Where we seem to be going, if these latest statements from the hoteliers can be taken at face value, is towards a contraction in the tourism industry - at least in the short term. One of the potential ironies of, for example, converting hotels to apartments is that there would be increased pressure to permit holiday lets, something which galls the hotels to the extent that they are the strongest voice in pushing the government to act against private rentals. They are, however, misguided in this. Local tourism needs a mix in types of accommodation, not just hotels. Perhaps the hoteliers are, inadvertently, seeking to promote this; or maybe they actually realise the importance of such a mix but don't want to admit it.

If contraction is the conclusion, then there needs to be some serious planning for it, and pretty damn quick. Criticism for the regional government came from the meeting of the hoteliers, albeit from representatives of the Partido Popular, but it may not be misplaced. What this season is showing, and really it should not have been necessary, is that an over-reliance on one industry, and one industry, moreover, that has over-supply, cannot sustain the local economy in the longer term. The time to act is now. Sadly, one hears only the snores of inertia, the back-slapping of complacency and the sounds of spin of government and others missing the point, as with the announcement that seasonality (low winter tourism) is the "principal problem" facing the island's tourism economic model. It is spin because they know - or should know - they have a far more serious problem; the hoteliers' announcement adds force to the fact that it is the main summer season which is the problem.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - U2, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2WIglVo9KY. Today's title - probably had this before, so here it is again ...

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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.

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How Can I Resist You?

The re-development of the commercial port in Alcúdia is entering its last phase. The new infrastructure - building, terminal, expanded dock facilities - will open at the end of summer in September, but not completely. The walkways need some more time, and so the whole project will be finished off in the winter.

At a final cost of close to 24 million euros, the port will be capable of accepting much heavier tonnage, thus taking some of the merchant trade from Palma, and of doubling the number of passengers on the Barcelona and Menorca routes. It will have been a major infrastructure investment project that, theoretically, will propel the port to a different level of importance. Also theoretically, it will prove to be a boost to the local economy. The question is - how much of a boost.

There has been talk of the new port becoming a stopping-off point for cruise ships. This, perhaps more than anything, could be highly significant, but it is only a possibility as yet. Despite the impressive commitment to upgrading the infrastructure, one still does have to ask what it is all going to mean. New jobs should be created especially for handling merchant shipping, but otherwise? The recent track record where major projects are concerned is not that encouraging. Go and take a look at the industrial estate in Alcúdia for instance. Not that there's anything to see. Other local estates, Pollensa and Can Picafort, are hardly full to overflowing with units.


Still on matters maritime, there is a somewhat alarming application of tax on non-Spanish boat owners. I admit that it is confusing. It was explained to me at some length yesterday. It all revolves around length of boat (15 metres or more or less), charter or non-charter, exemption licence previously granted or not. This is too tricky an area except for those steeped in the industry, but I am told it has a political dimension and is also indicative of how laws in Spain tend to be passed, forgotten about and then returned to with some vigour. And that vigour involves some swingeing demands directed, or so it would seem, against a sector that might be able to improve the size of flagging governmental coffers. I recommend following it all on the website of "The Islander" - http://www.theislander.net.


The musical has become the almost default summer entertainment mode. Around the hotels it is possible to stumble across the likes of Hairspray and Mamma Mia. The auditorium in Alcúdia tomorrow takes this one stage further - a two-hour spectacular described as "a journey through the magic of Broadway". I confess that I don't quite get it with musicals, despite a past influenced by the older musicals of Oklahoma, West Side Story etc.; the influence largely manifested itself in the form of drunken student evenings and their related singing (so-called). It is something of a mystery that the musical has made such a strong comeback, but come back it has to reinvigorate not only Broadway and the West End but also to give employment to troupes of entertainers at the auditorium and in the tourist resorts.

How can I resist you? Hmm, well actually I can. But then I'm not everyone.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Del Shannon, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D4N6YvjD9Y. Today's title - and this is from?

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Stranger In Town

Alcúdia has more residents of foreign origin than of those born in the Balearics. Of a total population of 20,395, 7,847 come from outside Spain, 80 more than those from the islands (the missing four and a half thousand or so come from the mainland).

What do we make of these figures? Anything? There will probably be those who want to make quite a bit of them, minded if they are to bewail an undermining of traditional Mallorca or Alcúdia. A related issue is that it is not unreasonable to assume that Catalan is not the majority language. Most but not all those native to the Balearics will use it as a first language. Most of those from elsewhere will speak Castilian (if they speak anything other than their original language), unless they are from Catalonia. The largest single foreign grouping is the Argentinians - more than a thousand; the British represent nearly a thousand, itself an advance of over 100 since the last figures were issued. Just on this, I recently sent an email to the organisers of the "Trobada de Músics per la Llengua", the Catalan music event in Pollensa. I apologised for using Castilian and received a perfectly helpful response - in Catalan. There is an increasing number of the locally born who pointedly refuse to use anything other than Catalan. That's their legitimate choice, but to not use Catalan does - sometimes - make one feel as though offence is being caused.

This locally born often comprises younger Mallorcans, those who are involved in the organisation of events that are thoroughly commendable, such as the "Trobada". There is a confidence and a degree of defiance in their insistence on Catalan. It makes one a little uneasy. There is an element of the locally born young that favours a back to the future policy in terms of language, tourism restriction and also a constraint as to the number of incomers. It's all perfectly understandable and idealistic, if not totally pragmatic.

A more assertive Catalanism may well represent a reaction to the shifting demographics of a town like Alcúdia. It's the sort of assertiveness that has spawned the likes of the "Trobada" and the "Acampallengua", alongside the at-times dogmatic refusal by local authorities to use anything other than Catalan (they are meant to use both languages for official documents). There is an impression that there is a lack of concession made to the increased cosmopolitanism, while other manifestations of Catalan promotion, such as its use in the public sector, reflects a determination to hold on to the cultural emblem that is the language.

Yet there is no denying the cosmopolitan nature of even relatively small towns such as Alcúdia. There is also no turning the clock back; no back to the future. But there is a growing sense of polarism, not just in terms of language but also in political and societal attitudes, the latter being reflected in a possible radicalisation of the locally born young. If indeed it is the case that Catalan speakers are in a minority, one fancies that there will be those who are minded as to its implications.


QUIZ
Today's title - a '60s American singer, whose biography used this minor hit as its title. Think runaway.

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The Costas' Lots

The rumpus that has erupted regarding the new definition of limits under the demarcations of the law on the coasts (Ley de Costas - see previous 5 July: Saltbreakers) has all the makings of a major conflict between the Balearic Government and the hoteliers of Alcúdia and Muro. As soon as one was aware of these new definitions, it didn't take much to realise where all this could lead - conflict yes and possibly also the courts. To sum it all up, these new definitions encompass the salt lands and what is private or public land and go beyond the previous application to the beaches and distances from the shore line. The Costas authority has not so much moved the goal posts as erected a whole new goal and a penalty area. As reported by "The Diario", the directors-general of Iberostar (with five hotels in Playa de Muro and one in Puerto Alcúdia) and Grupotel are not happy, the former hoping that the director responsible for demarcation will respect the "tourism sensitivity".

There may be some special pleading emanating from the hoteliers, but who, frankly, can blame them? If developments, both existing and future, are to become confused by interpretations of law, where do these all leave what is the single most important sector of the local economy, one largely created by the hoteliers? The logic of these interpretations could be that hotels have to go. That is highly unlikely to happen, but there could be ramifications of different sorts, such as modifications and constraints on development or renovation. Why, though, is the Costas authority apparently determined to create an issue that will have an unclear conclusion and to cause a confrontation? The authority would argue, legitimately, that it is acting within its remit to protect the environment and to right any errors of the past and to prevent future building errors. Fair enough. But it also, surely, has a wider responsibility within the framework of the government to act in the best interests of the economy - locally and island-wide. Joined-up government? Probably not.

One needs to also consider that there has recently been a relaxation in respect of allowing hotels to undertake certain new developments - a relaxation intended to help boost the ailing construction industry. There is also governmental finance on hand to assist with this. Which department agreed this relaxation? The tourism ministry, not the environment ministry of which the Costas authority forms a part. There is a further twist to all this. The environment ministry, via the so-called "Decreto Grimalt", has established changes to procedures in respect of some construction (it is the same "decreto" that has caused the fuss about bar noise). Initially, this law was going to permit building in tourist areas during the summer. It was the vocal criticism of the hoteliers that brought about a retraction. While it seems that there are forces pulling against each other within government, one also wonders at the timing of the latest intervention by the Costas a month or so after the passing of this "decreto" minus its provisions for summer building work. It might also be noted that the president of the association representing the hotel chains, which was a powerful voice against the summer building, is also the director-general of Iberostar.

There are some powerful figures on the hotel side, not least the boss of Iberostar, a company it should be remembered that has enjoyed number one status as the most profitable of Mallorcan businesses. One might argue that big business needs to be confronted sometimes, but in this instance one detects a sense of jobsworthing taking on powerful business with no sensible outcome. All the more curious then when one realises that the director responsible for demarcation at the Costas is a former tourism minister.

On a different note, though there may be some question marks as to the precise legal interpretations of the status of the land on which hotels have been constructed, could anyone seriously argue that the hotels of Playa de Muro constitute something that is environmentally unsympathetic? For the most part, the hotel stock in Playa de Muro is of a superior standard to many resorts. Aesthetically, the hotels are generally appealing. Not all, but many: the Iberostars, Grupotel's Parc Natural, the Palace de Muro, the Viva Blue, La Dorada, and so on. The far more important issue regarding the resort, and its hotels, is securing its future as a thriving tourism location. The Costas' intervention is unwelcome.

I have had some words in the past against the hotel lobby, not least in respect of all-inclusive offers and the pressure to limit holiday lets, but on this one I am in complete agreement with them. It is the hotels that have created the resorts' and the island's wealth, not a government authority which seems hell-bent on acting against that wealth.


The SPCC and the Ashes
I should just mention that one of my correspondents has asked why the Sa Pobla Cricket Club, through my good offices, has not been given space to offer its thoughts on the Ashes. I can report that the SPCC is giving 15-8 on 2-1 in favour of ... the Australians! But ...

"And Fred is coming in on from the Fred (cold in Catalan) End ... and he's got Ricardo Ponting pierna delante de, er, wicket."


QUIZ
Yesterday's title, adapted slightly for today - Alan Sugar.

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Costalot

"It's more expensive."

An increasingly familiar refrain and complaint. Mallorca is more expensive. Of course it is, or it at least seems so if you are a British tourist. It's all that pound and euro carry-on. In real terms, it is not necessarily more expensive than 2008, even if some insist that it is, and there are of course those who are "outraged" at the increase in tobacco prices - more of that in a bit.

On the Holiday Truths forum there is an exchange, quite a pedantic one at that, as to the relative costs of holidaying in Mallorca and the Costa Brava. As usual much of this boils down to anecdotal evidence - it cost me so and so for a pint of this and that. The pedant in the exchange is not actually wrong to demand rather stronger evidence as to Mallorca being more expensive. It's fair to challenge statements that may have no more support than the experiences of prices in one bar.

One can go and hunt for cost-of-living comparisons. It is possible to compare certain prices for Palma to those in Girona. It doesn't get you very far. Some are higher and some are lower. From memory, official statistics have always placed the Balearics towards the top of the relative costs of living for the regions of Spain, but so they also have for Catalonia. So no real clues there.

Someone in that exchange argues that prices are bound to be higher in Mallorca because of costs of transport from the mainland. There is sense in that view, but not totally. Take, for example, wine. If you want a decent bottle in Mallorca, one from the mainland will invariably be cheaper. The reason is simple. Vineyards on the mainland benefit from economies of production, i.e. they can create far greater volume. It comes down to one thing - land. That bottle of wine may be fractionally cheaper in Girona than in Mallorca, but the shipping element is incidental, especially if one factors in the bulk-purchasing capacity of supermarket chains and others. However, many restaurants in Mallorca will offer Mallorcan wines; more expensive ones than from the mainland.

Land is an important factor. Not only does it impact on the costs of production of local produce, it also affects costs of property and availability of property. On top of this there is the use of technology which is not always at the cutting-edge in Mallorca, as typified by the production of almonds which can be supplied more cheaply from California.

Certain costs do not differ between Mallorca and the mainland, such as those for employment. Social security costs are as high in Mallorca as anywhere else. Certain goods are subject to centralised price controls - tobacco for instance. The prices have risen recently as the Spanish Government seeks to increase tax revenues. That certain tobacco brands have increased substantially is not a consequence of "pressure" to limit the tobacco runs to the UK. Rolling tobacco and some low-cost cigarettes have gone up significantly because they were too cheap. To hear some tourists moaning and expressing outrage is absurd, especially when the moaning relates to the fact that the profit on their "orders" would be slashed. Whatever. The prices are still no higher in Mallorca than on the Costa Brava.

Tourists now see destinations such as Turkey and Bulgaria offering cheaper alternatives. Tourists benefited for many years from Mallorca - and indeed Spain - being a cheap destination. Gradually, because of the development which meant that Spain was no longer an economic basket case, wealth has accrued, no more so than in Mallorca. That wealth has been reflected in property prices and increases in costs - of all sorts. The point is that Mallorca is more expensive, because it is not a cheap place.

Once upon a time, back in the '60s when whatever you drank cost ten pesetas and workers lived in shanties, the tourist never had it so good. The costs of the original mass-tourism packages were ludicrously low as were the local prices. Without them, then mass tourism would probably never have kicked off and nor would the wealth that came from it. The tourist benefited from the exploitation of extreme low cost. It could never last - and of course has not. But there remains something of an expectation that things should still be cheap. It is an unrealistic expectation. Nowadays it's payback time.

I don't know about property prices on the Costa Brava, but my guess would be that they are lower than in Mallorca which is one of the most expensive parts of Spain. The resultant rents are probably the main difference in making the island more expensive, if indeed it is. With some produce it is, but mostly - there's no real difference.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Who, "Won't Get Fooled Again": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zydAs5bRW1U. Today's title - who, preceding this with "Carlos", came up with this?

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Meet The New Boss

Muro has a new mayor. You're forgiven if you are underwhelmed by the news. Bear with me. The change follows the retirement of the previous incumbent, Jaume Perelló (Unió Mallorquina - UM). His replacement comes from the Partido Popular and Convergencia Democrática Murera (CDM) which garnered the support of the UM at Muro town hall in order to vote in the new mayor. His name is Martí Fornés. I wouldn't necessarily normally bring such news to your attention, and wouldn't have had it not been for the opaqueness of the reporting of his ascendancy to the mayoral office. This opaqueness was summed up by "The Diario" which merely said that Sr. Fornés is (was) an "experienced manager" with an "important hotel chain". The hotel chain was not named, nor was it in any other report I came across. I did some research. Among other things, I found a forum in Catalan and Castellano in which someone asks "where does he work?". The question posed was a while ago, but it was in connection with the planned golf course in Muro. After nine or ten pages of googling, there was an entry for the El Mundo Eldia website from 5 March 2007. There was the answer. Sr. Fornés was the finance director of Grupotel, the chain based in Muro and with four hotels in Playa de Muro - Alcúdia Suite, Amapola, Los Principes and the five-star Parc Natural.

Why this reticence to disclose the hotel chain? It is a Muro business, a successful one, an employer of people. Let's put it down to a media determination to not publicise the company. Perhaps. Or is naming the hotel chain somehow breaking a confidence? Surely not. It's a matter of record. It's information in the public domain. The reticence only adds to a certain intrigue. And why? Go back to that forum thread about the golf course.

In "The Diario" Sr. Fornés was open about his views as to the development on the Son Bosc finca. To sum them up, he's in favour of the golf course and believes that it will create employment and will meet environmental requirements. Fair enough; everyone knows where he stands. But the hotel connection does raise some issues, such as the fact that the largest shareholder (with 43%) in Golf Playa de Muro SA, the company behind the development, is Grupotel. (22 December 2008: That's Just The Way It Is.) Not really that it is anything unusual to have a mayor from this hotel chain; its president, Miquel Ramis, is a one-time incumbent.

It doesn't bother me in the slightest that one hotel chain or another might stand to benefit from the development. Experienced businesspeople are probably just what a place like Muro needs. Otherwise you might end up with some old farmer whose idea of a tourist attraction is to boil a goat and hand out lumps of bread to scoop up the broth. And if they are experienced businesspeople from within the community who have played a role in generating wealth for the town, then I see no problem, especially those with a tourism background. It may sound inappropriate as one has to assume at least some vested interest, but is it really?

I am not opposed to the golf development, certainly not on environmental grounds. What I have yet to be convinced as to is the business case for the development. Presumably one exists, and Sr. Fornés says that it will create more employment. But it would be nice to have it spelt out. Sr. Fornés was a finance director. Maybe he's the person who can do just that, always bearing in mind that 43% of any business case is Grupotel's.


In case you were wondering ... Mayors are actually selected by councillors, which is how Sr. Fornés comes to now be mayor.


And still down Muro way, a curious thing in "The Bulletin". It had its "beach of the day" yesterday. Platja de Muro (platja being the Catalan for playa). One could sense that something was not quite right about this, apart from calling it Platja as opposed to Playa as one might expect or the fact that the beach length was stated as being 430 metres; a zero seemed to have been missed. But it read a little oddly, for instance describing Can Picafort (in the directions to the beach) as a "village". No native speaker would call it that. It's not so difficult to find the answer - much of this came from the illesbalears site.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Laura Veirs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcIz2iZXJFs. Today's title - had this before.

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Saltbreakers

Albufera once stretched as far as the port area of Alcúdia. The remaining undeveloped wetlands near the port are those close to the horse roundabout. Albufera was created from the sea; its water is partly salt, the Lago Esperanza is one of the few saltwater lakes in Spain. The sea has influenced the geography, the landscape and the ecology of Puerto Alcúdia and elsewhere on the bay of Alcúdia - Playa de Muro and Can Picafort, for example. Albufera is essentially a lagoon, divorced from the sea by the formation of dunes, forest and dried-out areas of salt deposits ("salinas").

This is no idle lesson in geography. Take some words from the above - "the sea has influenced", "dried-out areas of salt deposits". Why take them? Well because they are fundamental to what is threatening to become a major legal issue. The law on the coasts, that law under which, for instance, the chiringuito in Puerto Alcúdia is deemed illegal and therefore to be demolished, applies not just to beaches and what may or may not be built on them or within a certain distance of the shore line, but also to land - public land - that is deemed to be influenced by the sea. And this brings us to the "salinas".

Some 1,400 "private fincas" in Puerto Alcúdia, reports "The Diario", are potentially sitting on what is such dried salt land. Fincas, in this context, refer to plots of land, on which real estate has been built. This may all sound rather arcane, but being understood by few (a definition of arcane) could well lead to a legal minefield. Those who had not understood are likely to understand rather more clearly and are already being made to understand.

We have to track back a bit. The law on the coasts was actually enacted in 1988 but for all practical purposes it was hardly applied until 2004. It is now being applied with far more vigour. The law is a national one and was designed - in the late '80s -to attempt to rectify the building mistakes of the preceding three decades of development - mistakes in terms of the effects on the environment and in terms of legality. There is a distinction, under this law, between property developed before and after its enactment. It has already been established that certain properties, seemingly built legally before 1988, are in fact on so-called public domain. Owners have been granted rights for up to 60 years but they are unable to sell the properties. Under the law they would be demolished at the end of this period. After 1988? Well that's a different matter, and it is what has led to the horror stories of developments on the costas being flattened.

But to come back to those "salinas". The debate now centres on whether these were naturally or artificially created; if the latter then there is not a problem, if natural then there is. How on earth are they ever going to sort this out? Because of the geography in the bay area, it is only natural to conclude that much if not all of what is now Puerto Alcúdia and Playa de Muro is indeed on land that was influenced by the sea and in some way in the public domain, naturally created dried-out salt land or not. 1,400 fincas constitute a whole load of properties.

The good news is that the director responsible for decisions on demarcation under the law seems to respect the fact that some of these fincas are of "cultivation" and generate "riches", by which one presumes he is referring to hotels. On the other hand, there are fincas felt to be "unproductive" and "abandoned". What is unproductive? Someone's house? He, the director, is in discussion with various owners and the likes of the hotel assocation in Muro.

Unlikely though it is that this will lead to orders for mass demolition, the fact that the discussions are being held emphasises how seriously the law is being taken. But to what end? That there may have been breaches, indeed have been, no-one really doubts. Yet to pursue this with the vigour that is being suggested in this instance can lead only to colossal legal wrangling. The very fact that the 1988 law was basically held in abeyance for some 16 years only goes to prove that Spanish land laws over decades have been a complete mess and usually disregarded, and that land rights were, in all likelihood, the subject of anything but the law. To now be invoking something as obscure as what may or may not be public domain dried-out salty land just adds to the mess.


QUIZ
Today's title - you may have to be a keen blogotee to get this. Hers was the final title before Christmas last year.

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Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

As it's the fiesta season, more on fiestas following on from yesterday.

Financial reality is biting. The budgets for some towns' fiestas have been cut. Pollensa is apparently reducing its budget by some 25%. This in itself is quite an achievement given that the town hall has still to approve its budgets for 2009, but whatever. The music festival is unaffected, it is not seeing a reduction. Let us be thankful for this. Otherwise there might not be the wonder of, er, Tony Hadley. Alcúdia, meanwhile, will be exerting "control" to ensure that there are no excess costs. The same sort of control that led to the Can Ramis fiasco perhaps. But let's give them the benefit of the doubt.

If there may be some cuts to the likes of Virgen del Carmen and Patrona, these will not be to the cultural highlight that is the sophistication of the Pollensa Music Festival. It is a fine series of events, but whether it can be bracketed together with the fiestas is questionable. It is cultural and traditional only in the sense that tradition can be said to be less than 50 years old; it is cultural (Mallorca-wise) only in that there is a smattering of local talent; it is cultural (internationally) in that it is cultured and of a musical culture and tradition.

The fiestas are the epitome of local culture and tradition. For there to be cuts to their budgets is sensible in the current climate, but is not sensible in that the fiestas represent precisely the type of "alternative" tourism attraction that the Mallorcan tourist authorities keep banging on about. One might, however, legitimately ask whether less lavish fiestas and therefore spend would materially affect tourism in terms of numbers. I have my doubts.

But to come back to the music festival. This differs to the fiestas in one very major way. Though there is a budget for its staging, there are also revenues generated. Tony Hadley, for example, will set you back 40 of your European euros or 30 if you prefer to slum it in the one and nines. Only one event during the festival is free. The fiestas do not generate revenues, well not directly.

At Puerto Alcúdia's Sant Pere fiesta there was, for instance, the Mallorcan performer Tomeu Penya and his ensemble. The Orquestra Mediterrani was at Sant Pere; it will also be at Virgen del Carmen to serenade the fiesta-goers after the sun has gone down. These are just two examples of perfomers. Then there is all the rest, especially the fireworks. It's all free. And there's nothing wrong with that; the more that's free the better. The only problem is that someone has to pay. There's no such thing as a free lunch for the elderly fishermen of Alcúdia - for example. They (Pollensa town hall) can probably get away with not cutting the music festival budget because they're getting something into the coffers; the only something they get into the coffers for the fiestas are local taxes, some grants and maybe some sponsorship or some badgering of local businesses.

Conspicuous by its absence in the list of town halls mentioned in "The Diario" is that of Santa Margalida. Last year, some of you may recall, it was reported that the town hall was planning to increase its fiesta budget by well over a half from the 512,000 euros spent in 2008. It will be interesting to see if it has; it will also be little short of scandalous if it has. Or rather, it wouldn't be if there were a mechanism for recouping at least some of the outlay, and not through local taxes. I have no good practical suggestion as to how, but some sort of levy might not go amiss. If the fiestas are to remain and if they are to become more spectacular with ever more money going up in smoke in the form of fireworks, then those who enjoy them should be prepared to put their hands in their pockets.

The alternative view is that, if nothing else, the town halls should exist for staging grand fiestas. Perhaps that is where both the problem and the solution lie. Budgets for fiestas may be having to be cut, but one does wonder about the waste that leads to these cuts being necessary. Control, anyone?


Incidentally, the programme for Virgen del Carmen this year is now available on the WHAT'S ON BLOG - http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Marvin Gaye, "What's Going On?": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtUMa0FtuWY.

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Mother, Mother

On the forum for thealcudiaguide, there was a question about supermarkets and which fiesta days affect their opening hours. I suggested that there were only two, during the main season, that meant they closed for the whole day in Alcúdia - Pedro and Jaime. There are, of course, the other holiday days that you do tend to forget. Like yesterday. Mother of God, it's another fiesta. And that was it. Mare de Déu de la Victoria that is celebrated next to the hermitage in the mountains above the town of Alcúdia. I knew it was the fiesta, but I had never cottoned on to the fact that it affects openings. Oh yes it does - banks closed, chemists closed, some shops and offices closed, supermarkets (the main ones) closing at two in the afternoon. How inconvenient is all this? I only realised all this as I happened to be at the paseo tourist office (which was staying open all day - the others were closed). San Pedro was on Monday; three days later there is another, and hardly anyone knows about it, unless they are truly immersed in the local traditions. I admit, therefore, that I am not, as - Mother of God - I wasn't aware. I am now.

The fiestas are an essential ingredient of the local way of life, they provide colour, spectacle and interest. No-one, least of all myself, is suggesting that they are abandoned. But how sensible is it that they disrupt the normal flow of commerce to the extent that they do? Profound changes have taken place and have impacted upon society and business, and yet, while these changes have occurred, the society itself has refused to change; it is caught in a time-warp. You can argue that the continuation of tradition and of the lack of change to society is an admirable thing in face of voracious commercialism, and you would be right, but there is a dissonance between this maintenance of tradition, this lack of change and the complaints about economic circumstances and all the rest. Now, the fiestas do not fundamentally affect the tourism economy, and so you can also argue that their regularity is at best neutral in terms of productivity, but they are indicative of a psychology that wants everything as it was while keeping all the commercial gains as well. But the poor tourist is inconvenienced. If he has schlepped up from Bellevue to do some economical supermarketing only to find the nearest Eroski shut, he has every right to feel hot, sweaty and more than a bit hacked off. The point is that, in a tourist resort, the tourist should take precedence. It may not be a view that everyone is comfortable with, but it is the tourist who pays for Alcúdia, not a bit of ball de bot by the hermitage.

In the wider context, it would seem that, finally, something is to give where shopping hours in Palma are concerned; it's been a point of debate and criticism for some while that the opening hours are so limited. It's a start I suppose. On top of societal conservatism, one can add the role of unions and Church in opposing change. Some years ago, the Germans, under Gerhard Schröder, attempted a liberalisation; it was burnt down in the flames of Hades by the strength of the religious and union lobbies and quickly dropped. It was a mistake. Of course, you can also argue that the Anglo-Saxon view of market liberalism and the combination of Thatcherite union bashing and religious indifference led to the 24-hour shopping and commerce culture of the UK, and that to view the local situation it is necessary to adopt a different cultural perspective. You would be right in this regard as well. But there should be greater compromise and willingness to change. Last year, as the storms of crisis gathered and there were moans coming from businesses, it was revealing that moaners were happy enough to clear off to Menorca for two to three days to celebrate Sant Joan. Go figure.


QUIZ
Today's title - the first two sung words from one of the greatest songs ever.

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The Grateful Dead

Were you aware that in the grounds of the aerodrome and military base in Puerto Pollensa there is a stone plinth that lists, in tribute, the names of members of the Condor Legion who died during the Civil War? The Condor Legion, lest it has been forgotten, consisted of German Luftwaffe pilots and personnel who came to the aid of Franco's Nationalists: Guernica was razed thanks to the bombs of the Condor.

Does it matter that this plaque is still in the military base? Pollensa's mayor Cerdà thinks so and took the opportunity of the arrival of military personnel for their annual vacations at the holiday camp that is the military base to reiterate a demand for its removal. Damn right he should. It contravenves, allegedly, the law on historic memory that is designed to rid Spain of symbols of the Franco era. The "monolith" carries the legend "they fell for the liberty of Spain in the battle against the Bolsheviks" (reporting from "The Diario"). It does more than that; it contravenes all sense of morality.

The law on historic memory, applied in its strictest way, might be considered to be excessive, if only for practical reasons, such as the re-naming of streets with Francoist connotations. But in the case of the military base roll of honour, its observance should apply; the monolith should go. There might be a sense of unease were the monolith to be destroyed; unease in respect of the sensitivities of the families of those pilots who died. But the Condor dead go beyond a mere Spanish issue. It was the bombing of Guernica that finally alerted the Allies to what would lie in wait if Nazi Germany went to war - and did lie in wait. The Condor was the export of Nazi militaristic ideology, and the Puerto Pollensa monolith has as much a European dimension as it does a Spanish.

Germany has not sought to erase all memory of Nazism. Anyone who has been to Dachau can testify to that. Preserving the obscenities of the Nazis remains a way of educating and countering a re-emergence ("never again"). The Condor memorial is on a totally different scale, of course, and it is of a different type, but it is still stone engraved from the same wretched quarry of inhumanity. (It should be noted that it is now more than ten years since the Germans legislated to remove the names of members of the Condor from military bases.) Moreover, it is a reminder as to how close Europe might have got to following a different course of history. Franco may have been grateful for German assistance in his fight against the Republicans, but his personal dislike and mistrust of Hitler (and the feeling was mutual) was a strong factor in Spain staying out of the Second World War.

The continuing presence of such a memorial in what is essentially a non-military military base, one frequented by personnel from Spain and other countries and used as a holiday camp, is anachronistic and offensive. For the plinth to still exist within the grounds of a base for holidaying militaries that serve current-day democracies is frankly a disgrace. There may be a vague moral issue attached to its removal, that relating to the families of the dead, but the greater morality lies in the wider context of what that memorial represents. They should get rid of it.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Abba: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8bm6XlxuCY.

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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.

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