13 minute read
BOOK CLUB
ALGARVE BOOK WORMS
Happy New Year bookworms! This year we here at Simply Algarve are going to do our best to keep bringing you more ideas of wonderful words to stick your noses into. But we can’t do it alone. We need you. Yes, you! If you want to continue hearing what your fellow Algarvian literature lovers are reading, then please do write into Simplyalgarve@gmail.com and let us know what YOU are enjoying – and we’ll spread the word.
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This year I’ve decided I’m going to start off every book club with bits from my favourite books. This month I’m going to start with Peter Pan. I’ve always felt a great affinity for Pan. Not only Peter, but also the goat-like Greek God of nature, the wild and mischief, from whom Peter gets his name, and Mike Scott of The Waterboys wrote several songs about. Songs like ‘The Pan within’ and ‘The return of Pan’ where he hints that the God Pan ‘moves amidst us in this modern world in disguise’ and his spirit takes you over from time to time.
For me, the Peter Pan story is a combination of the movie Hook with Robin Williams, where Peter Pan grows up and Captain hook comes back and takes his children away and he has to go back to Neverland and remember who he is and learn to fly and fight and crow again. One of my favourite bits is when Tinkerbell comes flying through the window in a huge ball of light to take him back to Neverland, and before he concludes that he’s very clearly having a nervous breakdown, she knocks him down to the ground and walks up and down on top of him leaving tiny little fairy footsteps on his white shirt - and they have this argument about whether he is actually Peter Pan, or just Peter Banning:
Tinkerbell: Well, whoever you are it’s still you, ‘cause only one person has that smell.
Peter Pan: Smell?
Tinkerbell: The smell of someone who has ridden the back of the wind, Peter. The smell of a hundred fun summers, with sleeping in trees and adventures with Indians and Pirates. Oh remember, Peter? The world was ours. We could do everything or nothing. All it had to be was anything ‘cause it was always us.
And then, of course, there’s the book. I never really read it properly when I was younger, but I read it a few years ago and realized how truly great it is, but also - how clever the movie really was. As what you really want to do as you get older is to grow up, but retain your childlike sense of play and wonder. Grow up, and then, become Peter Pan again. And so, without further ado let’s start off the book review with the first time Peter appears, and next time you are outside at night, watch out for stars winking - they might be trying to tell you something ;)
No. 27 was only a few yards distant, but there had been a slight fall of snow, and Father and Mother Darling picked their way over it deftly not to soil their shoes. They were already the only persons in the street, and all the stars were watching them. Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything, they must just look on forever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little ones still wonder. They are not really friendly to Peter, who had a mischievous way of stealing up behind them and trying to blow them out; but they are so fond of fun that they were on his side tonight, and anxious to get the grown-ups out of the way. So as soon as the door of 27 closed on Mr. and Mrs. Darling there was a commotion in the firmament, and the smallest of all the stars in the Milky Way screamed out - “Now, Peter!”
“Conquerors” by Roger Crowley
How could a small backwater of Europe with limited resources, as Portugal was in the 15thC, become the first western country to discover the sea route to the East, forge an Empire and trigger the development of world trade? In modern terms it would be like Andorra, not Portugal, winning the European Cup!
Underlying the ambition of King João (referred to simply as ‘The Man’
by Queen Isobel of Spain) and his half-British sons was an all-consuming hatred of Islam which first manifested itself in the sacking of the rich trading city of Ceuta in Morocco. The main reason for the desire to find a sea route to the East was therefore to outflank the Muslims wherever they traded and establish an alliance with ‘Prester John’, a mythical eastern Christian king thought to possess great wealth and command a large army. Early attempts to discover ‘the end of Africa’ were terminated by perpetual headwinds south of the equator. It was only a chance discovery that sailing west into the Atlantic (and accidentally discovering Brazil) produced the necessary winds to take the ships back to the east, past the Cape.
On first reaching the Indian Ocean, Vasco da Gama blundered ignorantly into a sophisticated, multi-ethnic trading network which stretched from beyond India to the East African coast. All non-Muslims were thought to be ‘variant’ Christians. Muslim ports and shipping were attacked without mercy. Further east, thanks to their superior cannons, Portugal’s caravels soon gained control of the lucrative spice trade. Future expeditions attempted to blockade the entrance to the Red Sea and Goa was seized and garrisoned.
The myth of Prester John eventually materialised in the form of the Coptic kingdom of Ethiopia, by which time Portugal’s domination of the East had begun to wane with the arrival on the scene of the British and Dutch.
Roger Crowley expertly combines well-researched history with page-turning descriptions of battles, shipwrecks, gut-wrenching atrocities and the sometimes ludicrous diplomacy conducted with extraordinary characters the would-be conquerors encountered. Alan Vittery
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
It’s hard to say you enjoyed a book when you consider it is set in such a harrowing time in the history of the world, but I couldn’t put it down. Heather Morris is an author who is passionate about stories of survival, and was introduced to Lale Sokolov in 2003, while working in a large public hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Their friendship grew and Lale embarked on a journey of selfscrutiny, entrusting the innermost details of his life during the Holocaust to her. Set in 1942, it is a story of connection between Lale Sokolov, the camp tattooist, and Gita, a frightened young girl he meets while she waits in line to have her number indelibly scratched onto her arm. This was love at first sight for Lale, who was determined to ensure his own survival and ultimately hers too. So began one of the most life-affirming, courageous, unforgettable and human stories of the Holocaust. Marilyn Sheridan
The Restaurant by Róisin Meaney
The Restaurant is the 17th novel by Irish author Róisin Meaney. Róisin was born in County Kerry. She lived on several continents before returning home to Ireland. She now lives in Limerick. The Restaurant is centred round Emily, who having had her heart broken, opens up a small restaurant in a former hat shop left to her by her Grandmother. She has the great idea of having a large round table in the centre of the restaurant so nobody is ever sitting alone. She decides to call the restaurant The Food of Love. On her first night she has one diner who tells her that whilst communal dining isn’t for everyone if she perseveres people will come. She has some regulars that she becomes fond of.. Bill, who is a widower with a worrisome secret.. Heather, a single mother who left her home in America when she was just a teenager and Astrid... An elderly lady with a tragic past.
Emily lives in an apartment above The Food of Love with a fat cat called Barney. She is helped in the kitchen by the intrepid Mike who is fresh out of cookery school. Emily has a secret that nobody knows.
The Food of Love is more than just a business to Emily. She cares about her customers. Even though her own life didn’t go to plan she hopes for happiness for her devoted regulars.
Unexpectedly a letter arrives for Emily from her ex-fiancé. He is coming back to Ireland. He asks if he can see her. Will Emily give him a second chance? Will she see that everything she needs is closer to home?
This is a heart-warming story that winds its way through the lives and loves in a small town. It has friendship, laughter and an insight into relationships within families. Something to curl up with on a winter’s evening. Teresa Mulgrew
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
I really enjoyed this unusual book. Dark and mysterious. Magic everywhere. In this story, the circus arrives without warning, and no announcements precede it. It simply appears, when yesterday it was not. The black sign, painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, reads: Opens at Nightfall Closes at Dawn, Le Cirque des Rêves, The Circus of Dreams. The gates shudder and unlock, seemingly by their own volition. They swing outward, inviting the crowd inside. Now the circus is open. Now you may enter. But it’s a very unusual tale of a circus. Marilyn Sheridan
SO WHAT NOW..?
Robert Bijker, managing director of Yellow Homes - Land & Houses Algarve, discusses the future for rental properties
The past year has been difficult for many people this type of service, but this may change. and businesses all over the world due to the pandemic. Lockdowns, closed borders, curfews If you bought a rental property in the 2nd half of 2019 or in and quarantine measures have put many lives 2020, it is highly likely that the rental income was below your upside down. As the Algarve´s economy is highly expectations. Properties which have been available to rent longer dependent on tourism it was badly hit. According have the benefit of having established marketing channels in to Rita Marques, Portugal´s Secretary of State for addition to the benefit of repeat customers. An additional benefit Tourism, tourism has been set back by 10 years due to Covid-19 is being open minded to accepting long stays in combination and lost 7.7 bn Euro in revenues in 2020. with short term lettings. There are many home owners who There are always hotels which normally close during the winter that they pay a higher tax rate of 28%. However, and if booked months but not to this extent. At the end of December only 80 correctly, you can invoice long stay income under the AL regime out of the 400 hotels in the Algarve were open and these had and benefit from the lower rate of 8.75%. very few guests. With so few holiday makers in the Algarve it makes financial sense to temporarily close as the fixed costs of With the roll out of vaccines and ongoing safety precautions running a hotel are relatively high. The local lodging sector is also eventually things will normalize. How long this will take suffering, albeit at a lesser extent than hotels. Income may be is everybody’s guess. In the mean time we believe that down year on year, but the operational costs are also much lower holiday makers will continue to have a preference for private compared with hotels. Only very few owners of rental properties accommodation such as apartments, village houses and villas had rental income equal or higher than in 2019. The majority with private pool as it offers their families a more protected registered a fall in income of 30 to 35%. There were also some environment. If you are the owner of a good quality property who sadly did not have any bookings at all in 2020. with or without swimming pool and would like to have more Mr. Elderico Viegas of the hotel association AHETA expects it will and regulation and taxation please contact us. We are currently take 4 to 5 years for business to return to levels enjoyed before listing homes for the upcoming season to add to our portfolio. the pandemic descended. However, we believe that the local Best wishes for the New Year and stay safe and healthy. lodging sector will recover faster for two reasons: - A shift has been noticed in holidaymaker’s preferences for Yellow Homes – Land & Houses Algarve self-catering accommodation owing to the fact that during the www.algarvepropertysearch.com pandemic people prefer to avoid the shared facilities that hotels www.algarve-portugal-immobilien.de offer. (Who wants/needs a stranger to go in to their bedroom to make the beds every day?) Vilamoura Office - Increase in demand for long stays from both retirees and EN 125, Benfarras Boliqueime people preferring to work from home. This trend started long 8100 - 068 Boliqueime before the pandemic but the latter is gaining traction due to Tel: 289 301 294 increased acceptance of working from home) Few hotels offer do not accept a long stay booking as they wrongly assume information about the do’s and don’ts of local lodging, rules
MODERN LIGHT DRENCHED 4-BED VILLA WITHIN A SHORT WALK TO THE CENTRE OF ALMANCIL. The villa with 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms stands on a fenced plot with automatic gates and an open plan, fully developed basement comprising of a bar, entertainment area, bathroom, a games room with snooker table and a garage with space for several cars. Swimming pool with a shaded summer kitchen and BBQ, perfect for outside dining. Really a great house! Ref: TNH Price €795.000 EC class B-.
UNIQUE CONTEMPORARY VILLA UNDER CONSTRUCTION FRONTLINE GOLF IN VILAMOURA. Excellent villa of contemporary architecture covers around 350 m2 with high quality construction and plenty of natural light due to the windows and generous terraces that allow you to enjoy magnificent views over the golf course and the pine forest. In the last stage of construction. Truly unique property. Price: €1,850.000 Ref: R-VDS-V EC: A+.
PROPERTY OF
Real Estate Agent since 1995 T: +351 289 301 294 E: info@yellowhomes.com www.yellowhomes.com
EN 125, Benfarras Boliqueime (opposite DHL)
AMI: 6232
THE MONTH
Unique, modern 2-bedroom apartment in TOP location at the Marina Vilamoura with large communal pool and in walking distance to all amenities and Falesia beach. PROPERTY DETAILS
• Private condominium in top location at the Marina • Building with modern architecture and luxury finishes • Imposing glass façade • Large communal swimming pool and landscaped garden • Built in 2009 / 4th floor • Common lobby that operates 24 hours • 2 double bedrooms • 2 bathrooms (1x en suite) • Entrance hall with cloakroom • Large living-dining room • Large glass doors • Modern, fully fitted and equipped kitchen • Central Aircon, electric blinds • Security door and alarm • Communal roof terrace • Car parking space • Perfect holiday retreat or rental income • Excellent value for money • Construction area: 115 m2 • EC: B-
