Book Review

Just finished reading The Golden Era by Gore Vidal (in Portuguese). Awful book. Stodge from beginning to end. I received it for Christmas 2004 but, as I could only face a couple of pages a day, only finished it now.

It's about as good a read as (imagine) Nicholas Nickleby translated by Dostoevsky: too many characters, over-elaborate phrases. I was half way through the book before I understood who the major character is. A lot of it is opinionated rubbish, particularly the introduction of the author himself as a minor character who metamorphoses into the star of the anti-climatic final chapter. Even the explanations and justifications in the epilogue fail to compensate the reader for the purgatory of having read that far.

I can't believe that the translator is to blame. I only occasionally found myself translating back into English to find the correct translation for non-sensical phrases, which considering the historical context and obscurity of many references is quite an achievement. She successfully reflected a different style in the epilogue to the main text.

All in all, a complete waste of time.

Crazy Advertising

What is Vodafone thinking of with its new "Mayfly" advert? How does that relate to me, my lifestyle, my mobile phone?

It's time for TMN to seize the advertising initiative. The "We like life as it is" campaign is a valid criticism of Vodafone's advertising philosophy, regardless of the dubious taste of some of TMN's images.

Galp's Hidden Prices

Record profits for Petrogal, taking advantage of the motorist and its dominant market position.

How would the profits look if Galp stations advertised their prices like other companies. When prices started rising, they covered the advertised prices with a picture of an alien, which has been there ever since!

Galp's prices are consistently higher than others. How can they get away with this cover-up? Hasn't Deco, the consumer watchdog, complained?

No point asking what the Government's role is in this - just look at the number of political appointees at Petrogal...

Bird flu reaches Britain

It may be a very serious subject, but I couldn't help remembering this:

The Dead Parrot Sketch

More power to the taxman

Apparently the tax inspectors will have even more power to fight evasion from 2006. That could be a waste of everybody's time.

Over the last couple of years, the tax offices have issued thousands of assessments dating back years, which they are unable to collect. Some because the assessments were already outside the legal time limit when they were raised. Others due to incompatibility between computer systems - Contribuição Autárquica and IMI are separate systems, requiring duplicate introduction of data by overstretched staff.

The overall effect is to clog the tax offices with taxpayers who wait hours to be told that their assessments will, indeed, be cancelled, one day. Meanwhile, many innocent taxpayers are prevented from carrying on their business due to the services' inability to process cancellations.

Those who praise the performance of Paulo Macedo in beefing up the taxman's powers have clearly never tried to contest an assessment, in person, at a tax office.

Recycle with Continente

Congratulations to Continente supermarkets on their recycling initiative. Aware that most customers later use their free carrier bags for household waste, the company has produced yellow bags for recycling packaging and blue bags for recycling paper.


This is the first post where I have nothing negative to say - better go and lie down for a while...

What a day...

"...
Oh, as voltas que a gente dá,
Oh, p'ra não sair donde está,
..."

(Paulo Gonzo, Sete Vidas)


Says it all really...

Lusoponte, again!

Who's the f***ing idiot at Lusoponte who decided to now remove all the Via Verde systems in Almada except in lanes 1, 2, 14 and 15? THAT'S NOT ENOUGH FOR THE VOLUME OF TRAFFIC.

How can anybody get away nowadays with giving a lower level of service - aren't services supposed to improve as time goes by?

You can complain here: http://www.lusoponte.pt/contacts.htm. I did.

Awful Goalkeeping

Looks like José Peseiro can do something right after all: Leave Ricardo on the Bench.

Scolari should take note.

What price progress?

Just out.

If José Sá Fernandes is elected mayor of Lisbon, he will be opening a public inquiry into the reconstruction of the city centre after the 1755 earthquake. It seems the Marquês de Pombal forgot the environmental impact study before authorising reconstruction work....

Anfield Road?

Strange phenomenon this blogging. Makes me research what I thought I already knew.

I hate those Portuguese football commentators who insist that Liverpool FC's ground is called Anfield Road. As a loyal fan, who has never been there, I was sure the ground is Anfield, always has been. Looked it up on The Stadium Guide, which confirms I'm right except that it has another entry for Anfield Road - the name of the stadium prior to 1892!

So I will continue to rant, especially if the Reds lose to Chelsea.