Entering Philadelphia's City Hall through the southern archway, heading into the central square, you pass a sign indicating the way to a nuclear fallout shelter. I never expected to see that.
Is it still available, operational? I wonder.
No, I'm not being rude about present or past incumbents of Lisbon, London, Seixal or Marco de Canavezes. It just tickled my sense of humour that Philadelphia's mayor is called Michael Nutter...
Not a film revew, like so many others. No! At the ripe old age of fortysomething, I've finally visited the US, in fact this post is being written in the airport departure lounge.
As a Brit, I flew in with a sceptical attitude, and have been pleasantly surprised. Downtown Philadelphia is secure, friendly, not overcrowded and has a lot to see. In fact my only complaint is the unseasonably cold weather this week.
The historical part is, in fact, historical. It goes back to the origins of the country and, at Independence Hall, an apparently balanced view is given of the events that led to the Independence of the 13 original states from Britain and France. The Liberty Bell center then moves the original ideas of independence and freedom, through the battles to end slavery, conflicts with the Native Americans and giving the vote to women.
So all in all, a pleasant surprise and a city to be recommended for a few days as a tourist.
It's sometimes difficult to get time off, but last Tuesday, instead of working, I took my parents to Tomar. It's a very pretty little town, with narrow streets and a river with a variety of bridges of different heritages, but the star attraction is the Convent of Christ, on the hilltop overlooking the town centre.
As a photographer, I could have spent days there, capturing the historic details and sculptured adornments. Our mistake was to have lunch in the town before attacking the convent, so we were rather rushed and tired before we reached the end.
Enough to say the convent is HUGE! Better to arrive mid-morning, explore some, have a snack lunch at the café, and continue all afternoon. Photographers should note that the most famous photographable detail, a huge manueline window, is only in full sun from mid-afternoon. Another hint, take a tripod to capture the atmoshperic interiors - I took one but was in too much of a rush to use it.
All in all, highly recommended - possibly the most impressive historic building I have yet visited in Portugal.
Due to the happy coincidence of only being able to take my third week of holiday when my kids have already returned to school, I had the joyous experience of being able to go to my elder son's school presentation meeting.
Now entering year 10, it is an important year and I was expecting the othe parents to have understood the objective of the meeting - for the school to tell us what will happen for all our children, the rules and any changes from last year.
I was amazed by the lack of understanding of such obvious principles among a number of parents, and their total disregard for the time wasted for everyone present. It was most as bad as those condominium meetings where everyone who goes has something to say and pet hate to air.
With that level of education among the parents, I can't see much point in their paying the rather steep fees charged to have their children at the school. They won't get far setting that kind of example.
The recent wave of bank robberies seems to me typical of the relaxed but opportunistic Portuguese attitudes.
In general, the Portuguese are not physically violent; though very prone to verbal abuse. We can even see this in their approach to bank robbing - weapons are carried but never used. The impersonal institution loses a small amount of cash while customers are rarely victims. This is hardly "violent" crime, as seen in other countries.
Why this sudden wave of crime? Because the media has explained clearly and repeatedly that the probability of being caught is practically zero. The crimes last only a few minutes and the police are unlikely to get there in time. It's similar to the chronic disregard for traffic law, which has fallen significantly as the chances of being caught increase.
I don't think this recent increase is due to the recession, just opportunism, a fad that will wear off soon.
It's holiday time again, and that means getting away from work and pampering the kids. So I took the younger one to see Kung Fu Panda.
Now even at 10 years old, he's understood that such films are better in English with subtitles, not dubbed into Portuguese. So we went to Rio Sul in Seixal, bought our tickets and popcorn and sat in the cinema - first to arrive! 10 minutes later the doors clicked shut and the film started, with just the two of us in a 100 seat theatre! I don't know how the cinema makes money in these circumstances, but we were very comfortable.
As for the film, it's good for 10 year-olds, but has little to keep an adult's attention. The story line is weak, even compared with other recent Disney efforts, the characters rather shallow, and the action and comedy cannot make up for this shortfall. That said, there is action, and comedy, especially in the training sequences, where Panda takes on the master in a fight to get food.
Overall, hardly a Disney masterpiece, barely worth seeing unless you really have nothing better to do with holidaying kids.
The introduction of IMI (Imposto Municipal sobre Imóveis) in 2004 was a great step forward in balancing the taxation of property ownership in Portugal and stopping evasion on property transfers, now subject to IMT (previously SISA). The basic rule was that all transactions would be assumed to have been carried out at a price based on area, location and year of construction. Thus under-declaring transaction values to avoid transfer tax became pointless and practically died out since assessed values were very close to real values.
Property was thereafter taxed annually based on this same value, making property ownership a rather painful pastime, particularly for well-off people with large and new houses.
However, the property crash has caused a glitch in the system. Owners are now being taxed annually based on values that they cannot hope to achieve in the open market.
So what was the government's reaction? Tweak the tax rate downwards! That has a number of political benefits, such as benefitting the middle classes directly, while the reduction in tax revenue is hidden from the deficit calculation as the tax income was allocated to local authorities, not to central government. Of course, the underlying principle is wrong: there was nothing wrong with the tax rate, only with the property valuations, but since when has logic applied when votes are at stake?
I wonder what they will tweak next, as elections approach. Perhaps they should have left this one to next year, as there isn't much room for manoeuvre anywhere else...
I have been a fan of the Via Verde system for many years; since it was invented, in fact. But as a Company, I am less than impressed, since it has a tendency to behave rather like the armed wing of Brisa!
Now it's clear the non-payment of tolls is a crime, but is it so prevalent that drastic measures have to exist to prevent losses to the two companies? I suppose that VV only has to pay Brisa the tolls it receives, not the total value of all cars that pass, irrespective of managing to take their money.
Have you ever tried to tell Via Verde that you want to cancel one of their identifying gadgets? As they can't be switched off, they have to be returned. I have one on my desk at work that belonged to the late Technical Director and was in his company car. I sent the office boy to return it for cancellation, only to find out that huge amount of paperwork would be required. I also have a device, somewhere, that I haven't used for 10 years. It appears on the database in my name, but I can't do anything with that record, as the website doesn't behave in the way set out in the FAQ!
Quite frankly, the site is awful, built on an old version of SAP. How do I know? Because the pages come up with the SAP logo, not Via Verde!
I've also heard that the GPS system the company is plugging has the annoying habit of telling you to slow down as you approach the VV corridor. Good job I didn't buy one, as I would want to return it in that case, which I guess would be impossible.
You might think that a leading, innovative company like Via Verde should be good at customer service. Think again!
Not a very original choice this month, I know. Queen is the classic, the greatest band ever, cliché of the month, superlatives cannot do them justice.
And then there's the song: when Freddy Mercury was starting to become ill, to write this song is just amazing.
Of course, I could have put up the image of Innuendo, which is also impossible to take out of the car when its turn comes around. But this collection of Greatest Hits is, by itself, an amazing collection, full of powerful, fun, well written, well performed tracks, so here it is...
