Trying to tell us something?

by redrag 08.05.12 22:35

As I mentioned in an earlier post on another topic, I am once again returning to Luz for a well-earned holiday. We usually go late April or September/October (eight previous visits).

As we are going at a (seemingly) busier period, the villa that we regularly rent is unavailable and therefore I've had to find another property.

Having made numerous enquiries I have finally found something suitable but one reply in particular stood out. It was registered in the lettings website under an English owner's name but I suspect the reply was from a Luz based (Portuguese local) property management company.

My enquiry simply requested the weekly price for the holiday dates and I received a reply asking if our group included young children and, if so, to confirm their ages. I replied that indeed our group would include two children, aged 4 and 6 years old.

Here is the (edited for privacy reasons) reply I received:

"Dear ********,

we are sorry but we are not able to make the hire of the property, Villa ****** available to you as we do not accommodate the junior children (<5 years) for reasons of possible injury. The property is modern but has the hard ceramic floors and we do not allow the possibility of harm to the young child. We are sorry for the inconvenience to your plans but this is the rule of the company.

Regards,

*****************"

So, I cannot hire the property because it has 'hard ceramic floors'! That's a first, in 13 years of renting holiday property.

Whatever could have prompted this?[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

by Guest 08.05.12 22:54

Maybe the floors in apartment 5a?

So neat and clean; so ceramic.

We, the researchers from afar, know nothing.

The local population of Luz will know every detail: every worker in the Ocean Club, made redundant because of the McCs will carry a grudge, and will have discussed and analysed what they saw, what they know, and what went on.

It is a miracle not a word has come out. Yet.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

by Ribisl 08.05.12 23:09

Another example of world gone utterly, ludicrously irrational thanks to the MCs. daft1

by tuom 08.05.12 23:25

redrag wrote:As I mentioned in an earlier post on another topic, I am once again returning to Luz for a well-earned holiday. We usually go late April or September/October (eight previous visits).

As we are going at a (seemingly) busier period, the villa that we regularly rent is unavailable and therefore I've had to find another property.

Having made numerous enquiries I have finally found something suitable but one reply in particular stood out. It was registered in the lettings website under an English owner's name but I suspect the reply was from a Luz based (Portuguese local) property management company.

My enquiry simply requested the weekly price for the holiday dates and I received a reply asking if our group included young children and, if so, to confirm their ages. I replied that indeed our group would include two children, aged 4 and 6 years old.

Here is the (edited for privacy reasons) reply I received:

"Dear ********,

we are sorry but we are not able to make the hire of the property, Villa ****** available to you as we do not accommodate the junior children (<5 years) for reasons of possible injury. The property is modern but has the hard ceramic floors and we do not allow the possibility of harm to the young child. We are sorry for the inconvenience to your plans but this is the rule of the company.

Regards,

*****************"

So, I cannot hire the property because it has 'hard ceramic floors'! That's a first, in 13 years of renting holiday property.

Whatever could have prompted this?[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This beggars belied , every apartment , even hotles in Spain/Malta/Menorca, etc etc with four chidren have ALL had ceramic tiles , yes they have falled and bumped their bums , the ones in nappies had a softer landing , I slipped on split sun tan oil one evening resulting in a blue/black/purple/green bum for the entire family , much to the amusement of hubby and kids , all I got was hysterical laughting and no sorry for my poor auld bum [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] still they did make it up to me bless um xxxxxxxxxxxxxx to my grown and flowen vigilianties ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, good holiday [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

by aiyoyo 08.05.12 23:27

Geez, whoever sent you that has gone barking.

All (well, far as I know) of that kind of accommodation (holiday apt that is), the floor is invariably ceramic.
Because it is a beach resort and not practical to have it made of anything else. Can you imagine a carpeted floor or wood floor near a seaside?

That must take the biscuit.
Well, it shows that people in Portugal didnt believe the abduction, but that the hard floor had something to do with Maddie's fate. Ummm .......interesting!

Yet kate claimed they have plenty support in Portugal. Well maybe she was referring to father Hubbard (sp) and his wife as supporters and two is probably one too many, hence the plenty support she was referring to. Oh I forgot, of course ID supports them as well. That still makes 3 supporters, hardly plenty!

by **tigger** 09.05.12 6:52

Perhaps you could still get the villa if you make it a 'hard hat' area?

Gosh, I'm now having visions of OC with everybody exept the locals (who seem to be able to survive their lethal floors) wearing different colour hard hats, even - nay especially indoors.

Only thing think I can think of - it's an English owner. Elf and Safety addict?

From now on I'll only enter my kitchen and bathroom wearing a hard hat - bit weird really as I live in a country full of cyclists who never wear any kind of head protection.

by nomendelta 09.05.12 8:52

Very odd - the hard tiled floor is prevalent throughout Spain and I imagine most of Portugal. It's very pleasant to put your feet on a cold tile during a hot day!

by **PeterMac** 09.05.12 8:56

Does anyone here live in a house with "soft" floors ?
Surely you would sink through into the basement !

by david_uk 09.05.12 9:04

Im curious Redrag.. Have you responded and ask why exactly ? and maybe say you have stayed there before and can they tell you when this rule was bought into force.

by aiyoyo 09.05.12 11:22

tigger wrote:Perhaps you could still get the villa if you make it a 'hard hat' area?

Gosh, I'm now having visions of OC with everybody exept the locals (who seem to be able to survive their lethal floors) wearing different colour hard hats, even - nay especially indoors.

Only thing think I can think of - it's an English owner. Elf and Safety addict?

From now on I'll only enter my kitchen and bathroom wearing a hard hat - bit weird really as I live in a country full of cyclists who never wear any kind of head protection.

You will need to use motorcyclist helmet to enter your kitchen and bathroom.

Can you imagine holiday makers given that as head gear for safety measure?

I'm trying to visualise myself with protective headgear walking round my marbled-floor apartment, hilarious, lolx

by aiyoyo 09.05.12 11:24

david_uk wrote:Im curious Redrag.. Have you responded and ask why exactly ? and maybe say you have stayed there before and can they tell you when this rule was bought into force.

Can one hazard a guess that this rule was brought into effect post 3rd May 2007.

by **PeterMac** 09.05.12 11:28

If you have a soft floor you should wear snow shoes, to stop you sinking in too deep.

by redrag 09.05.12 11:29

I have replied to the company in question and have asked if this is a new safety policy they have adopted and, if so, when it was introduced?

What surprises me most is that it was perfectly acceptable for me to bring young children to properties with swimming pools, balconies, terraces, apartments on higher levels (fourth and fith floors). I thought it very strange (LUDICROUS[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] even) that 'hard ceramic floors' would be a barrier to young children. I have no doubt that this is linked to the events of 2007.

Aiyoyo, with regards to Kate and her 'support from locals': on my last holiday in Luz I was speaking with an Irish chap, a plumber, who works in Lagos. He was able to tell me that the subject had become taboo and that none of the locals (in Luz or the Algarve in general) would speak about it anymore. They just didn't want to hear about it. That said, he did inform me that his business partner, who operates a jet-washing and grafitti removal business had never been so busy as he was in the summer of 2007, having being called out on over ten separate occasions to remove anti-McCann grafitti from walls and buildings in and around Luz including, most notably, the perimeter wall of the church and the glass-fronted noticeboard outside the church. Support? I think not...

by redrag 09.05.12 11:33

PeterMac wrote:If you have a soft floor you should wear snow shoes, to stop you sinking in too deep.

Yes PeterMac, flip-flops out - snow shoes in for Luz in June! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

by Shibboleth 09.05.12 12:40

PeterMac wrote:Does anyone here live in a house with "soft" floors ?
Surely you would sink through into the basement !

I think there are some people from another forum, who have a house with soft floors. Also, soft walls, a soft roof and everything else soft.

by Guest 09.05.12 20:30

redrag wrote:As I mentioned in an earlier post on another topic, I am once again returning to Luz for a well-earned holiday. We usually go late April or September/October (eight previous visits).

As we are going at a (seemingly) busier period, the villa that we regularly rent is unavailable and therefore I've had to find another property.

Having made numerous enquiries I have finally found something suitable but one reply in particular stood out. It was registered in the lettings website under an English owner's name but I suspect the reply was from a Luz based (Portuguese local) property management company.

My enquiry simply requested the weekly price for the holiday dates and I received a reply asking if our group included young children and, if so, to confirm their ages. I replied that indeed our group would include two children, aged 4 and 6 years old.

Here is the (edited for privacy reasons) reply I received:

"Dear ********,

we are sorry but we are not able to make the hire of the property, Villa ****** available to you as we do not accommodate the junior children (<5 years) for reasons of possible injury. The property is modern but has the hard ceramic floors and we do not allow the possibility of harm to the young child. We are sorry for the inconvenience to your plans but this is the rule of the company.

Regards,

*****************"

So, I cannot hire the property because it has 'hard ceramic floors'! That's a first, in 13 years of renting holiday property.

Whatever could have prompted this?[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Another thought.

No doubt local owners of properties to let have som inkling of what happened too. If, in the long run, at some moment in the future, the McCs are shown to have covered up a death in apartment 5a caused by the child slipping on the ceramic floor and fatally bumping her head on the floor, then they, the McCs, will want to claim damages from the owner of the apartment.
Just consider their track record.

Presumably the owner of the property in question, who will not accept small children EXACTLY Maddies age, has that possibility, that risk at the back of his head, refusing you and your party of children.

Clearly, the tiles are a matter of general concern, or rather, the risk of foreign children coming to harm because of them.

by roy rovers 09.05.12 23:29

Good point Portia. Do you think the word on the street is that Maddie got a head injury and whilst nobody DARES say it they are saying it in roundabout ways?

by aiyoyo 10.05.12 12:54

Portia wrote:
redrag wrote:As I mentioned in an earlier post on another topic, I am once again returning to Luz for a well-earned holiday. We usually go late April or September/October (eight previous visits).

As we are going at a (seemingly) busier period, the villa that we regularly rent is unavailable and therefore I've had to find another property.

Having made numerous enquiries I have finally found something suitable but one reply in particular stood out. It was registered in the lettings website under an English owner's name but I suspect the reply was from a Luz based (Portuguese local) property management company.

My enquiry simply requested the weekly price for the holiday dates and I received a reply asking if our group included young children and, if so, to confirm their ages. I replied that indeed our group would include two children, aged 4 and 6 years old.

Here is the (edited for privacy reasons) reply I received:

"Dear ********,

we are sorry but we are not able to make the hire of the property, Villa ****** available to you as we do not accommodate the junior children (<5 years) for reasons of possible injury. The property is modern but has the hard ceramic floors and we do not allow the possibility of harm to the young child. We are sorry for the inconvenience to your plans but this is the rule of the company.

Regards,

*****************"

So, I cannot hire the property because it has 'hard ceramic floors'! That's a first, in 13 years of renting holiday property.

Whatever could have prompted this?[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Another thought.

No doubt local owners of properties to let have som inkling of what happened too. If, in the long run, at some moment in the future, the McCs are shown to have covered up a death in apartment 5a caused by the child slipping on the ceramic floor and fatally bumping her head on the floor, then they, the McCs, will want to claim damages from the owner of the apartment.
Just consider their track record.

Presumably the owner of the property in question, who will not accept small children EXACTLY Maddies age, has that possibility, that risk at the back of his head, refusing you and your party of children.

Clearly, the tiles are a matter of general concern, or rather, the risk of foreign children coming to harm because of them.

If they are shown or proven to have covered up her death, hell will freeze over before they can claim damages for anything.

It would mean her demise was not self caused. Cover-up means her parents action brought about her death. So how can they claim for their action they covered up?

Think about it! If is was self caused there is no need to cover up.

by Guest 10.05.12 18:45

roy rovers wrote:Good point Portia. Do you think the word on the street is that Maddie got a head injury and whilst nobody DARES say it they are saying it in roundabout ways?

Sure.

Blood spatters on the tiles behind the sofa and on the wall, indicating a blow, or force being experienced/ used.