8 TIPS IF YOU FANCY NEW YEAR'S EVE IN PORTUGAL

 

These pictures were taken on this very day this time last year, December 28, 2014. My family jetted off to good old Portugal for new year. So what can you expect at this time of year?


1. It was colder than we expected at night. Take a coat and scarf for the outdoors and slippers for the hotel room. Tiled floors are no joy on bare feet in winter.

2. In the day you could sunbathe on the beach but at night the temperature wasn't much above freezing, about 4C. This year the temperatures are showing highs of 17C and lows of 10C so it's pleasant but you need to dress for every eventuality.

 

3. But though chilly at night there was bags of sunshine and blue skies, a rarity at this time of year in the UK. A chance to overdose on Vitamin D.

 

4. We had been told that Albufeira was the place to be for a magnificent fireworks display on NYE and that cabs would be hard to come by. We managed to get taxis fairly easily both ways, though you have to be clever and sharp-eyed on the way home. Oh, and maybe we were lucky but cab prices did not double on NYE like they do in the UK. The fireworks were not as impressive as we expected though it's true to say the whole town comes out for them and gathers near the beach. There's music, too, and the festivities are broadcast live on TV. Funny thing is, you could sit in a bar watching the frolics on TV that were happening right outside in the square and it looked as if there were hundreds of people there. In fact, only a hundred or so folk were gathered round the TV cameras at any one time. TV trickery.  I know all about that thanks to my BGT experiences!

 

5. Be prepared for some drunken behaviour. Chavvy Brits let the UK side down in Albufeira on NYE 2014 with one family encouraging their teen son to do an impromptu striptease in a bar. Dear oh dear oh dear.... Not what you want to see just after you've eaten, or anytime!

 

 

 

6. Would we go back to Portugal for NYE? Yes, but I'd go to a different town or city to see in the new year. I have since heard Tavira is good. And surely Lisbon must put on a quality show?

7. If travelling to Portugal out of season, many bars and restaurants are shut. You can always find somewhere to eat or drink but the choice is more limited.

8. Flights are also limited and more expensive. Book early to get a half decent price.

9. If you want a real new year bargain, head off in early January. Amazing deals! Treat yourself to a spa hotel with an indoor pool.

10. If you're a wild party animal, I suspect Portugal may not be for you at NYE. But if you love beaches to yourself, long walks and lazy days, go for it.

 

Below.... me on New Year's Eve, 2014

 

 

6 flying experiences I'd rather not repeat

FLYING is an experience, sometimes for all the wrong reasons! But it certainly gives you something to talk about.... Here are five of my flying anecdotes:

 

THE HOOTERS STAG
I thought I was imagining it. A grown man in the tightest, pinkest, shortest shorts you ever did see, massive curly wig, pantomime dame-style make-up and teeny weeny Hooters' girl T-shirt. And he was heading for passport control. No wonder anyone can get in and out of the UK. He was the stag leading a party of mates on a wild week away. I often wonder what the rest of the world thinks about the Brit passion for fancy dress. Anyway, the drinks were already flowing. It was raucous but friendly raucous. He made it through passport control, as did his chums, and I have never seen a plane drinks trolley emptied so quickly. Bottles of Champagne were bought en masse ... along with gin, vodka, beer etc etc. You get the picture. The funny thing was there was also a hen party on the plane but by the time the drinks trolley reached them the booze had gone. The looks of fury on the girls' faces were priceless, especially when the stag lads toasted them, glasses raised, and said 'cheers!'

THE PORTUGEUSE CHUCKLE BROTHERS
Flight attendants are usually a slick bunch but on one flight I met a pair who were so wonderfully hopeless (I loved them for it) I wondered if they were Ant and Dec in disguise. For foreign readers, Ant and Dec are UK entertainers who often don spectacular disguises to pretend to do other people's jobs (badly) for comedy value. The Portuguese Chuckle Brothers kept forgetting things, got stuck in the aisles, stuck by the trolley, just generally stuck. It was as if they had never set foot on a plane before. The clever mid-aisle gesturing to colleagues for another bag of Maltesers, a skill most flight attendants have, was simply not there. I have never seen two people hurtle back and forth up a plane so many times. It was chaos, but entertaining chaos. Despite it all, they never stopped smiling. those good old Portuguese. Nor did I!

THE LAD WHO BEGGED FOR MILK
Stags and hens may be wild en route to the sun but coming home is a very different affair. The change in behaviour is immense. One group of stags looked a sickly bunch as they flew back to England. After days of over indulgence, young men who had demolished the drinks trolley out-bound were now pale and pasty wrecks of their former selves.  Some could hardly talk. One lad was particularly delicate. I heard him ask the air hostess in a croaky whisper: "Can I have some milk please?" He then went into a comatose state and, throughout the flights, his 'friends' balanced an interesting variety of items on his head, such as empty beer cans, and then took pictures of him, no doubt to produce a lovely set of holiday snaps to show his mum!

THE MAN WHO COULDN'T FASTEN HIS SEATBELT
I have seen some weighty people on planes before but one chap across the aisle from me was so large his stomach touched the seat in front. There was no way on this earth he could fasten his seatbelt. He was wedged tight. But he never stopped eating for two hours.

THE PICNIC FAMILY
Talking of food, lots of people take their own sarnies on budget flights. I have no issue with that but once found myself sitting among a large group of Brits travelling together. Between them they had the contents of a small supermarket in their hand luggage. It turned out to be intensely annoying. Sausage rolls, sweets, sarnies and crisps were thrust past my face at five-minute intervals throughout the flight and comments like this were yelled in my ear (meant for a woman just the other side of me in the next row): "Mavis, Mavis, MAVIS, ask Mavis if she wants some Maltesers."  I was ready to crush the Maltesers!

LOUD, ROUGH & RUDE
Here's the thing. I detest people who are vulgar, swear, shout, glare, look for arguments and have the manners of a wild beast in public. That's in the street, on a plane, at an airport, anywhere in fact. It's basic manners, basic common sense. It's about respecting your fellow human beings and their space. It's about respecting the fact that parents don't want their toddlers to learn the f-word courtesy of a lewd and uncouth stranger. What you do in your own home is your own business but don't inflict it on the rest of us. I've heard terrible rows in airport queues, effing and blinding, threats of violence, children bellowed at and aggressive nastiness.  Luckily, I don't see it every time I fly but standards of basic human decency are unbelievably low among a minority of people. Jet2 is leading a campaign to stop unacceptable behaviour on flights, which, aside from the drunkenness, has included passengers fighting and stripping off. Force them all to read every volume penned by Jane Austin 10 times, say I. Manners maketh the man, and the woman. Grow up and get a  grip.

Portugal Rules OK!: Portugal cliff collapse destroys my favourite beac...

Portugal Rules OK!: Portugal cliff collapse destroys my favourite beac...: This sight greeted my eyes in Olhos de Agua, Portugal, in October, 2015.... My favourite beach view bench was almost no more. The...

Portugal cliff collapse destroys my favourite beach viewpoint

This sight greeted my eyes in Olhos de Agua, Portugal, in October, 2015....

My favourite beach view bench was almost no more. The wind and rain had taken its toll on the cliff sending huge chunks of sandy rumble tumbling to the ground, closely followed by a few fence panels..... This is how it used to look....

 

Here is the end of the bench you can see in the top picture. I was lying on it on December 31, 2014, sunning myself in  the gentle winter heat.  I used to love climbing up here to take in the glorious views and catch a few rays of winter sunshine.... This is what I could see either side...

 

 

 

This is another shot of the collapse....

 

 

The Algarve suffered some terrible floods and rain in the autumn and this photo was taken BEFORE the worst of the weather. I felt so sad when I saw this. A reminder of nature's might.

But I'll find another perfect vantage point, just you wait and see....

 

JILL