After the party – slob-time!

The idea is wonderfully simple – for a number of days, in a closed compound, a stage is constructed for live concerts (some in dubious taste) where the masses can enjoy themselves as they partake of sardine or shellfish delicacies (which may or may not have been frozen).

The plan is to promote tourism, and the money spent by local authorities in these grandiose summer events is always justified by the number of visitors that flock to buy tickets.

And of course, after the razzmatazz of all these parties that are so much part of our national culture, infrastructures come down gently. Very gently. None of this is new, but it can cause pain to those who aren’t up to speed with our customs and traditions…

Particularly if they stub their toes on one of the many iron posts that litter the “Jardim do Pescador Olhanense” for example - a full five days after the close of the town’s Shellfish Festival!

Of course, on a Sunday morning that one imagines would be peaceful, not even I had taken account of the dangers rife in the garden/builders’ yard/ former festival venue at an hour normally frequented by families with young children.

That’s to say, I hadn’t noticed until I decided to cross the road on one of the pavements – where, to my surprise, I came face-to-face with a pile of nuts and bolts that literally blocked the way.

They had simply been left there – an anarchic dumpsite of electricity boxes and metallic frippery. Transparent proof that those who worked here couldn’t be bothered to finish the job properly. They just got up and went…

And in the end, “what’s the friggin’ problem, mate”? If anyone hurts themselves, who’s to blame? Probably the person who gets hurt, as “they should have had their eyes open”!

And so we live comfortably, at peace with inefficiency; content with the lack of pride that people have in their work here; accepting of the non-compliance with the most basic of society’s rules; relaxed in the huge lack of respect for one’s fellow man…

Otherwise, how could one accept a high voltage electrical box being left open to the skies, right in front of a 5-star hotel complex – the pride of the city?

Could anyone really bother to electrocute themselves in the face of such slob-like behaviour?