Always take the weather with you, as the song says, and there were plenty of holidaymakers who would have wished they hadn't. Weather featured heavily last week. Very heavily. Other main topics were a holiday from hell, a meeting in Madrid that wasn't as hellish as it might have been, and a very different hell - the humanitarian crisis of refugees.
Stormy September
Wednesday's edition gave an inkling of what was to come. "Yesterday's storms just a taster of a damp autumn" was the headline. These storms had not been island-wide and had not been that savage. Nevertheless, they gave a good hook for reporting the autumn long-range forecast. "It is 'probable' that there will be more rain than is typical," suggested weather website Eltiempo.es. Of course, we are still in summer, but autumn and that probability were unleashed on Friday. Yesterday's edition highlighted what was one of the most severe storms in terms of actual rainfall that has been experienced in September. Enormous hailstones, widespread flooding, including inundations at the airport, fallen trees, traffic chaos. "Freak storm havoc" it had been.
One consequence of the wet conditions is that mosquitoes become more abundant, but while there are parts of the island where the locals are used to their annoying presence, they are not used to the danger posed by the tiger mosquito, which has been detected in areas of Majorca. Awareness and advice campaigns were being launched, one of them by the town hall in Palma, as we reported on Wednesday. One key piece of advice is not to keep any water in containers of whatever sort - watering pots, water bowls for pets, etc. - as the mosquito needs only small amounts to be able to lay eggs (hundreds of them).
Holiday hell
It wasn't the weather that the Wolton sisters, Emily and Daisy, were cursing but an apartment they had rented in Palma. It was not as had been said on the tin, or rather on the website. The sisters, not knowing what to do, having been met by less than positive response from the agency in question, turned to the "Bulletin", and we highlighted their plight and the list of deficiencies with the apartment. Help was to hand in the form of British resident Gary White, who most generously offered his small finca in Biniali to the sisters for free.
The story formed the theme for an analysis in the Week in Tourism column on Friday, as it reinforced a great deal about what those on different sides of the private holiday apartment argument have been saying. Though these views do differ, there are aspects of commonality: the need for quality standards and proper regulation. Opponents of holiday apartments - the hoteliers and organisations such as Exceltur - could find ammunition from the story, as could advocates, like the Aptur association and the regional tourism minister, Biel Barceló.
Balearic financing
Since becoming president of the Balearics, Francina Armengol has been beating the drum in calling for improved financing for the Balearics by Madrid. Finally, she had her meeting with Mariano Rajoy, ahead of which we said on Wednesday that this meeting would represent "showdown talks". Having taken place, on Thursday we were able to report that Rajoy had been amenable to most of the demands that Armengol had been making, with one notable exception: there would be no flexibility regarding the Balearic deficit ceiling. Nevertheless, Armengol "declared herself satisfied with the outcome".
Refugees
And then there was the intensifying refugee crisis in Europe, one that was heading to Spain and the Balearics, with - as we said on Thursday's front page - Palma offering to help with taking refugees in and on Saturday that the regional government was preparing to co-ordinate refugee admission. It is a subject that creates its strong opinions, ones that were noted in a letter from an unnamed writer on Friday. Earlier in the week, last Sunday in fact, the Reverend David Waller expressed what many will feel: "There is a sense of desperation and an invasive and consuming fear in their fleeing from terror that is difficult to understand, I guess, unless you've actually experienced it".