Salazar Rules!

I know that I am a little (maybe 40 years) late on this one, but I couldn't pass up the choice of António Oliveira Salazar as the greatest Portuguese of all times.

There were, of course many factors in his favour:

• The average age of the TV viewer who is likely to watch such programs is unrepresentatively high.
• The inevitable, and clearly justified, protest vote against the modern generation of politicians and specifically against the current government's policies, which are particularly hard for that age group.
• The polarisation of the second round, with many voters surely voting against the unbearable Odete Santos.

I never lived under Salazar, but from an academic (financial) viewpoint have heard much praise of the financial and administrative structures that he created from the 1930's onwards. As with many who wield absolute power, his regime turned to dictatorship after doing much good.

In honour of this public recognition, that places Salazar on the international stage alongside Churchill, de Gaulle and Washington, I propose that they replace the iconic letters on his greatest landmark - Ponte Salazar! That would surely make the taxi drivers happier.

CD of the Month (3)

Josef Haydn is the recognised master of the symphony, having written at least 104. The best known is number 104 itself - the "London" symphony, so called because it was written in London (along with eleven others). Despite having had to study it at school, I still never tire of listening to it, which is how it has come to supersede Lighthouse Family.

My recording of it is probably considered rather dated now - Christopher Hogwood conducting the Academy of Ancient Music, which were really the first to make a serious attempt to play period music in a period style on period instruments - a 1980's obsession. Nevertheless, I think that this CD sounds better than my other recording (Colin Davis and the Concertgebouw Orchestra). I'm only going to upload one of them though, so you'll have to take my word for it.

From easy listening to popular classics, we're on a slippery slope now...

Out of the Box

After years of resistance, I finally gave in to temptation and joined the "more money than sense" community of TV Cabo powerbox users this weekend. The girl in the TV Cabo shop was very efficient, but I was appalled to see her copying personal data off a computer screen onto a pre-printed triplicate form so that physically sign it and then take away the duplicate copy. The form would then have to be input to the system, so why not let her do that part up front and then just print one off for me to sign? PT Group, don't you just love it!

I rushed the box home and set it up in time to see England beat the Welsh at rugby (hurrah), but from there onwards it's not been a good weekend. Porto's feeble effort in losing to SCP, failure to stay awake to watch the Grand Prix and then a dismal match between Aston Villa and Liverpool left me wondering if the 24 euros per month for the next 12 months will be a good investment. At least the Ferrari that won the GP was not driven by Schumacher. Looks like it will be a good season there at least.

Preço Verde?

FNAC's Preços Verdes are supposedly a guarantee that their price is the lowest for the item in question. What's the guarantee, apparently none!

Yesterday, to use up a credit left over from exchanging Christmas gifts, we went to Toys R Us and bought a 32MB memory card for the PS2. Now Toys R Us is known not to be cheap, even when they give a 10% rebate to loyalty card holders. So for the rest of our shopping we went to Fnac.

At Fnac, the same memory card was 15 euros (43%!) more expensive. And the GBA that we ended up buying was 2 euros more expensive, but I wasn't going to walk all the way back to Toys R Us for two euros. Both items had Preço Verde stickers. So I pointed out the price discrepancy to the cashier - met with total indifference. He had no idea what I was talking about, nor why! Now Fnac is also not cheap. You pay for their huge product range and supposedly for their knowledgeable service. In that case, they should really be more careful with their "Best Prices".

Spring is Sprung

It just crept up on me. One minute I had my head buried in accounts, textbooks and the like, the next everything in the garden is budding, sprouting, flowering away, like the ornamental cherry tree here, the weeping willow, the bulbs I planted only last month.

The downside is the huge quantities of yellow dust given off by the pines, covering everything and getting into our lungs. 10 cm of growth in a week on the lawn is a daunting prospect too. We could do with some rain to settle the dust. Strangely, only last week I was saying "I'm sick of all this rain" - not something you would expect to hear from an Englishman in Portugal.

And the days are getting longer - more light for golfing! Now all I need is some time off work (fat chance) to make the most of this beautiful time of year.

Red Nose Day

Anna Pickard has suggested that bloggers and their public should join an initiative to publish a book of funny blog quotes, with the profits going to Comic Relief.

I think it's a good idea. Not that I would expect any (either) of my faithful readers to submit anything I have ever written, since I'm only good at one-liners that generally owe their funniness to the circumstances of a specific moment, but if you happen across any side-splitting posts, submit them for publishing - it's in a good cause.

Volvo C30

I went to see the new Volvo C30 yesterday, at Volvo in Sacavém. The decision was easy - choose something else!

The plastics are hard and cheap-looking, the boot is tiny, the boot cover is a rag cheaper than a beach towel and the price is ridiculous. The only positive thing I can say is that it will sit four adults.

The salesman didn't help. We went at lunchtime, and he obviously hadn't eaten. He was surly and uncommunicative. "What are the competitors to this car?", I asked. "Audi A3 and BMW series 1." came the reply. I managed to stifle a laugh. There is absolutely nothing in common between an Audi A3 and this feeble effort, except the price. He has to be joking.

So don't buy it, that's my recommendation. Worse! Don't even bother to go and look.

Love in the Time of Cholera

Not surprising that there's no time/incentive to blog when I'm given books this good for Christmas.

Initially I thought, "Not my kind of book", until I read the first chapter (60 pages). Then I realised it's one of those books you just can't put down. Superb, captivating writing that stays in your head long after putting the book down. The characters are developed gradually, letting us get to know them through their actions, rather than being forced down our throats like other "great" novelists. The story is funny at times, erotic at others, the best book I have read for years.

Credit is due, of course, to the quality of the translation. It's a shame I cannot read the Spanish original.