3 hours? For Tapas????

1. Introduction

We didn’t have any intention of publishing this week.

This was for two reasons, one was we thought that last week’s post – it was one of our most read weeks ever – was too important not to have an extra week on the front page of the blog and the other is that the post did give us a lot of work so we thought we deserved a rest. And intended giving ourselves one.

But as Santa Claus has elves we have our Textusa’s Little Helper, better known as Insane. The same person who almost 4 years ago pointed us, correctly we must add, in the direction of what would be last week's post “Irrefutable proof”.

This week, more precisely on Monday, Insane decided again to give us reason to blog.

So just to acknowledge his efforts in the discovery of the truth as to what happened to Madeleine McCann we gave up the rest which we were lazily enjoying and came back here to write this post.

In his playground in his corner of the internet – where he’s sworn to show things yet to be shown – this is what he wrote on a post (the asterisks are ours):

“Monday, 20 April 2015

Load of Bullen-sh*t

Seems others are noticing that Textusa talks out of her *rse, with forums rightly pointing out that there is no evidence that the person Her Loonyness identified as the ''mystery woman'' was in fact her.

Wait until they notice that for Textusa to be right, the Bullen group would have to have spent 3 hours at dinner.

3 hours? For Tapas????

Posted by Not Textusa at 11:35 No comments”


2. Mystery Woman

First, Insane, we have never said that Dawn Bullen spent 3 hours at Tapas.

As we don’t think the Tapas dinners ever existed as described, we could hardly state that a person was, for whatever period of time, somewhere we didn’t think she was.

We have only shown what others say about where and when Bullen was on that evening of May 3 2007.

They being the Ocean Club and Jacqueline Williams, a Mark Warner nanny.

The Ocean Club alleges, via the May 3 Tapas reservation sheet it handed over to the PJ, that the Bullens (misspelled Buller) reserved a table at 07.00 pm for 4 adults. The same time as Edmonds, Carpenter and Mann.

According to that sheet, they were allocated table #201 and their presence was checked.

You, Insane, are assuming they were punctual and arrived at 19:00.

We have no way of knowing that but have no problem in also taking it as correct that it was around that time the Bullen group allegedly arrived at Tapas. We agree on arrival time.

Jacqueline Williams, about Dawn Bullen that night, says the following:

“That on last May 3 2007, at 22.05, being the deponent performing her functions at the Mini Club, in the service called “dinner period" (sic), together with her colleagues Charlotte and Amy, an individual of the female gender whose name she cannot indicate, only that she was the mother of a child who was there (belonging to the Toddlers2 group), being a tourist lodged in the resort in question and who ended her stay last week, went to those facilities saying she had been informed that a child with the name “Maddie” had disappeared, so the parents of that child needed the help of the nannies in order to try and find her.”

She does not refer to Bullen’s name, that’s true.

But does say two things about this mystery woman that allows us to make a positive identification of her as Dawn Bullen:

- at around 22:00 (22:05 according to Jacqueline or 22:15 according to Charlotte Pennington) she knew Maddie had disappeared;

- she was the mother of a child who attended the Toddlers 2 club.

That mystery woman had to be at Tapas that night unless anyone can come up with an alternative scenario, for someone to have known at that time Maddie had disappeared  According to various statements the alarm took place at the Tapas – nobody else heard it apart from those at the Tapas.

To spread that alarm so quickly, only a diner could have told reception in that timescale.

Having a child at Toddlers 2 club and also in the alleged night crèche that night,  rules out the Tapas staff, which means mystery woman had to be a guest.

The Bullens, as we showed in our “Luz's secret service” post, were the only guests dining  at Tapas who didn’t have their child, who attended Toddlers 2 club, with them during that alleged dinner.

Mystery woman can only have been Dawn Bullen.

Insane, if you – or anyone else – can demonstrate that mystery woman was any other than Dawn Bullen we will gladly correct ourselves. We must warn you that saying simply “it wasn't her” does not constitute enough information to make us change our minds.


3. 3 hours? For Tapas????

people running to get a cover at Tapas Bar

We were surprised by the disdain you, Insane, have shown concerning Tapas.

Wasn’t it supposed to be such a quality restaurant that people rushed and queued up to get one of the only 20 covers available there? 15 if one is to take Kate McCann’s word in her book. That particular week, there were only available 11 covers (or 6, again according to Kate) as the T9 had taken 9 covers off the market, so to speak.

A 3 hour dinner is not unusual for a restaurant that seems to have a much greater demand than its offer. The harder it is to get a reservation the more one tends to savour the moment and prolong the pleasure.

But your 4 question marks make it clear that you think an absurdity for anyone to have spent 3 hours at a place like Tapas:

That conclusion can only come from the fact that you agree with us that Tapas had no further added value than any second-rate fast food restaurant and one does not spend 3 hours in one of those unless one really has to.

Add the fact of eating outside in an esplanade that tunnels the breeze of a chilly evening (for some reason Jane Tanner borrowed Russ' fleece, allegedly) and we totally subscribe to your 4 question marks in your “3 hours? For Tapas???”.


4. The Bullens' Tapas dinner

3 hours? For Tapas????

If the Bullens came in at 19:00 and stayed up until 22:00 – the group had to have stayed until that time otherwise Dawn couldn’t have possibly known that Maddie had disappeared – then, yes their dinner at the Tapas esplanade would have taken 3 hours.

We agree with you that time to have dinner outside in an esplanade like Tapas is absurd, laughable and ludicrous.


5. The Carpenters' Tapas dinner

2.5 hours? For Tapas????

Using the same reasoning then Insane must agree with us that the Carpenter family Tapas dinner of May 3 is equally nonsensical, outrageous and preposterous as the Bullens’.

The Carpenters also arrive at 19:00 and say they leave at 21:30.

If a 3 hour meal at the Tapas esplanade for 4 adults is risible, what can one say about one that lasts 2.5 hours of a family of 4 with a toddler and an infant?

Unbelievable? Yes, we would agree with you on that too, Insane.


6. The Tapas 9 Tapas dinner

More than 3 hours? For Tapas???? They would be BORED!

This group is said to arrive every night at 20:30, as per Tapas reservation sheets.

Jeronimo Salcedas on May 6 2007, says:

“When asked, he said that they would normally stay at the restaurant until 23.30 - 24.00, although some of them would leave earlier, at about 23.00. They were people who showed their satisfaction with the food and would consume on average 8 bottles of wine (4 red, 4 white) between the nine of them, which he considered to be normal consumption for a group of such a number.”

The same Salcedas on April 23 2008, confirms the group usually left after 23:30 and speaks of one particular night in which it left after midnight

“Generally, they left the Tapas at 23h30/midnight, at times together and at other times in small groups. On the night in which they drank more than usual, they left a bit later, perhaps towards 00h30-01h00. I remember this detail because I was supposed to finish work at 00H00 and I wanted to go home. They always left on good terms and always wished the staff good night.”

Ricardo Oliveira confirms that night to have been on Wednesday:

“It was also normal for certain members of the group to order dessert. After this, they would normally stay at the table until after 24H00 but would always leave before 00H00, the time when the bar closed. One or more of them, on another night, asked for an after-dinner drink. He remembers this clearly because they asked for Amareto and the bar did not stock it.

The witness served almond bitters to all. He remembers that this happened on Wednesday. He does not remember if they had more after-dinner drinks. He does remember that on Wednesday, certain elements of the group got up, with their after-dinner drinks, and headed to the bar and stayed there until about 00H00/00H10. This was the only night where the group elements were in the bar after closing. He also remembers that they would normally be the last clients to leave. Wednesday was the last night they were at the bar after dinner.”

From these statements, the T9 dinner went from 20:30 to 23:30 or later as the T9 group “would normally be the last clients to leave”.

3 or more hours at Tapas????

We have to agree with you Insane, the T9 dinners are indeed comical, farcical and hilarious. The only reason they wouldn't be bored to death would be because the group spent their 3 ot more hours every night behaving like Jacks in the box!


7. Insane

(image from here)

To new readers, Insane is not just any detractor.

The fact that he has dedicated a significant amount of time of his life to, exclusively, try to discredit us bothers us little. In fact he’s quite versatile in the use of puerile insult which at times provides a distraction and is in rare moments even amusing.

The peculiarity about Insane is what he alleges.

He acknowledges contacts with Mark Warner. In a comment in the post “Truth as Clue”:

“As for your remarks about childcare and Mark Warner - well, as you know, I have a Mark Warner contact. I feel it's only right that they should know about the malicious falsehoods you are spreading.”

Confirms these contacts in 2 other comments, one in Nov 14 2012 11:37:00 PM:

“Oh look here - amazing what one can find out by means of a couple of emails to Mark Warner.

You are toast, lady. Finished.

I am going to enjoy this more than is actually decent.”

The other on Nov 15, 2012 10:47:00 PM:

“One thing I really like about Mark Warner is how helpful their staff are. Really go the extra mile for someone needing information. IYKWIM [If You Know What I Mean]

:)”

The seriousness of these comments are not their threatening nature but their content.

What was in question was a mail sent by one of our readers to the Ocean Club inquiring as a potential customer for details about the Tapas bar and what sort of food they served.

This mail was written after Maddie's disappearance. 

She received a reply from the Ocean Club that Tapas only served snacks and pizza upon request, if memory serves us right.

The mail was addressed to the Ocean Club and the answer came from Silvia Baptista (do note it was Ocean Club's maintenance manager answering on a customer related subject).

What Insane implied was that Ocean Club revealed the content of this mail to Mark Warner (simply a tourist operator) and Mark Warner, in turn, did the same to a completely different person.

Nice for Ocean Club and Mark Warner customers to know that whatever they may inquire about Ocean Club, the resort will keep it for themselves and share it only with their 10, or maybe 20, best friends.

The people they “go an extra mile” for. According to Insane, that is.

Please note that Insane has also put in the following very interesting comments (asterisks and underlining are ours):

Aug 28, 2011 9:27:00 AM:

“…How would any of you idiots like it if your name came into the public domain because you were witness to a crime, and some mad b*tch set up a site in which she called you a liar, and claimed you were actually involved in the crime you witnessed? Just ponder on that for a moment”

Aug 28, 2011 1:09:00 PM:

“…Where is your sense of shame or decency in accusing innocent witnesses of being involved in covering up the death of a child?

I see no shame or decency on here - just an utter indifference to the rights or feelings of others.

I notice no-one had the b*lls to answer my question about how you would feel if this was done to you - if you were a witness to a crime and some deranged cow on the internet accused you of being involved. You are all a complete disgrace.”

Lastly, Insane, we hope the Bullens are pleased with the insensitive, distasteful, rude and immature word play you made up with their name.

With friends like you, who needs enemies?