Justice When Unhindered, Works

Duarte Lima, a very well known and influential Portuguese politician, is, according to the newspaper SOL, the only suspect in a murder case that happened in Brasil.

It seems that the Brazilian Police weren't that much sensitive to his cries of innocence, nor to his apparent lack of cooperation in the investigation, and much less to his social status quo.

I'd advise the McCanns to follow this case attentively. If I were them, I'd even call it "dress-rehearsal".

Textusa's Dictionary: Nauseating

 
nau•se•at•ing [naw-zee-ey-ting, -zhee-, -see-, -shee-] adjective 1. causing sickness of the stomach; nauseous. 2. such as to cause contempt, disgust, loathing, etc.: I’m fed up with the nauseating McCann’s impunity and absolute lack of shame and self-decency.

Tapas Quiz Night, Question #11/?

Question: Besides Maddie, what else disappeared from PdL on those fateful 24 hours, between midday May 3rd and noon May 4th, 2007?
Answer: A whole QUEUE of people.

The “Tapas reservation sheets” provide us, supposedly, with a timeline of events.

As we’ve seen, the IRWINs had to make their reservation three or four days before May 3rd, to appear as they do on that day’s “reservation sheet”.  

Three days, if it was Rachael who did the T9 reservation, four days if it was Russ.

 But it’s NOT ONLY the IRWINs who were able to NOT stand in the famous “Tapas queue”, that supposedly took place every day, except Saturdays, up to 11:00, to get a booking.

Do have a look at the May 4th “Tapas reservation sheet”:
 
The only reason, they say, for the T9 to not appear on this sheet, was because they were already included in the “Tennis Dinner” or "Tennis Mark Warner" for 12 PAX, on that day.

It was cancelled, as can be seen on the sheet, because, at least that's what they say, of what happened to Maddie.

Irrelevant of the obvious differences in handwriting between the first three reservation sheets and the last three, in which May 4th is included (which would make it necessary for two people to be taking down reservations at the same time, one for each one of the supposed “working” weeks), what is important is that whenever the T9 reservation was made, the “Tennis dinner” was already there.

And that was either three or four days before May 4th.

That then means that the BERRYs and the HYNDs, who appear in this particular sheet, were, just like the IRWINs, able to jump the queue and get their reservations for when they wanted them.  

Ocean Club, were you kidding with your clients? You require for people to queue up to get a reservation to a very limited number of covers, and then you go and allow the PAYNEs, the OLDFIELDS, the O’BRIENs, the McCANNs, the IRWINs, the BERRYs and the HYNDs to get a booking BEFOREHAND?

That was very, very naughty of you.

But that’s not the point of this post. We would like you to look again at the May 4th “Tapas reservation sheet”.

 Now that we now know that the BERRYs, the HYNDs and the “Tennis dinner” were all booked before the 4th, it leaves out as having booked that day… NOBODY.  

NOBODY queued up on Friday, May 4th? No, and that's EXACTLY what this "reservation sheet" clearly shows.

We know Maddie disappeared on the night before, and that all available OC help went looking for her, but, as we know, the resort is spread out all over the town, so the news of the events wouldn’t have spread through its customers that fast.

No reason for them to be alarmed, and no reason for those who planned to queue up the next morning, May 4th, not to do so.

And even if it did spread, the news that is, or if for some reason the queuing up was cancelled due to the tragic events, such would have certainly been mentioned about that in those various statements where it’s highlighted the high demand and the great difficulty to get a meal at Tapas.

But there isn’t any such mention in any of the statements.

So we’ve NOTHING to justify as to why NOBODY reserved at Tapas on May 4th.

Maybe this particular queue was “abducted” on the previous night together with Maddie, and that’s why it didn’t show up the following morning.

We think this new piece of evidence, "the missing queue", will relevantly further help the ongoing "leave-no-stone-unturned" search currently undertaken by Edgar & peers.

You see, besides them having to look for an inexistent abducted little girl with an inexistent coloboma in one of her eyes, we now know that she may be found playing in an inexistent queue in her inexistent dungeon near PdL.  

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, or Lewis Carroll as he’s better known, wouldn’t have been able to write a more bizarre piece of literary nonsense even if he tried, when compared with the Black Hat version of the Maddie Affair.  


Post Scriptum: 
Aren't you getting a little bit tired of me PROVING what has already been more than proved, and that is that these "Reservation Sheets" are FAKE, that their only purpose was to confirm the T9's alibis, and that they PROVE the involvement of the Ocean Club Staff, and Guests in the cover-up that followed Maddie's death?

We are.

But do address this issue with the OC Staff as we're certainly not to blame that these sheets contain so much fact and information to PROVE all of the above.

It's our duty, and commitment as stated, to leave to the future generations what we've been able to uncover, so do bear with us, and with our Quiz Tapas Night Questions, as there are many more to come.

However, we'd like to tell you, that besides these "Tapas reservation sheets" we still have a lot of new information to reveal.

Much has been written down and stored, but this is like pulling a string, it just keeps on coming...

Tapas Quiz Night, Question #10/?

Question: Who are the TAPAS' “Teacher’s pet”?  
Answer: The IRWINs.

We’ve been told, that the TAPAS made an exception to accommodate T9’s wishes to have a block booking for dinner at 08.30 in their restaurant.

This, we were told, had even to have approval from management.

We’ve also been told that it was very, very hard to be able to book a dinner at TAPAS, for many reasons, but, at least according to the PJ Files, one was because it was better than The Mill.

We were told that this was so much so that you had to queue every morning to reserve.

We’re not exactly clear on who booked for the T9. I’ve read that it was Russ on Sunday, but then again I’ve heard that it was Rachael on Monday.

 In any case, we have a "very-hard-to-get booking" the latest on Monday morning.

That’s April 30th.

We’ve seen, in the previous post, that one’s reservation is noted, logically, according with the order with which one arrives in to make it.

Looking at the first THREE “Tapas reservation sheets”, we’ve seen that the Tapas Staff has very methodically created “quarter-of-an-hour” reservation blocks.

I think we all agree that, looking at it in any which angle you wish to do so, that at least within the “quarter-of-an-hour” blocks, the order in which the names appear are according with the order in which they made the reservation.

If for nothing else, this is so because one does start at the top of a page (in this case, block) and continues to write, in an orderly downward manner, whatever one wishes to list.

So, if you look at May 3rd “Tapas reservation sheet”, for the 08.30 “quarter-of-an-hour” reservation block, one is able to see that the IRWINs were able to book BEFORE the T9:

This means, that on Monday morning, the latest, or Sunday morning as is supposedly probable, the IRWINs managed to book a meal 3 or 4 days beforehand.

 That would be fine if it weren’t for the supposedly high demand for reservations, and the apparent required authorization.

That makes the IRWINs reservation look as a shameless line jumping, doesn't it?

Or am I reading this wrong? Weren’t there people that queued up on both Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that weren’t able to get a reservation?

I’m supposing that they wouldn’t be very happy to know that someone who had NOT stayed in line as they did would be able get a reservation, that they didn't.

We’ve also been told that the T9 got that booking because they wanted to be close to the children they left in the apartments.

You may not agree with the reason, or with the meaning of “close” when used in the previous sentence. But it is a reason, and we’ve been told what it is.

But what was the reason for the IRWINs to have been able to book with such anticipation?

I can only see that they were friends with someone from management, and pulled in a favour. We all know that it always pays off to be the “teacher’s pet” don’t we?

Tapas Quiz Night, Question #9/?

Question: You are the reservations manager for a restaurant called “APPETIZERS Bar” (the English equivalent of the Spanish TAPAS). On one afternoon like any other, the following happened:  
At 15:15 a Mr. BROWN walks in and reserves a table for 19:45;
At 15:00 a Mr. JONES walks in and reserves a table for 19:15;  
At 15:45 a Mr. ROBERTSON walks in and reserves a table for 20:30;  
At 16:15 a Mr. SMITH walks in and reserves a table for 19:00;  
At 16:30 a Mr. TAYLOR walks in and reserves a table for 19:30;  
At 15:30 a Mr. WILLIAMS walks in and reserves a table for 20:00;  
And at 16:00 a Mr. WILSON walks in and reserves a table for 20:15.  
By which order would you jot down these reservations?  

Answer:
OPTION 1: JONES, BROWN, WILLIAMS, ROBERTSON, WILSON, SMITH followed by TAYLOR, is if you happen to be working in ANY restaurant in the world, except the most extraordinary one of all;  
OPTION 2: SMITH, JONES, TAYLOR, BROWN, WILLIAMS, WILSON followed by ROBERTSON, is if you happen to be working in Ocean Club’s Tapas Bar in PdL.  

As the “APPETIZERS Bar” is NOT “TAPAS Bar”, the correct answer is then OPTION 1: JONES, BROWN, WILLIAMS, ROBERTSON, WILSON, SMITH and TAYLOR.

In the question, it seems like I’ve given you a lot of information to digest and analyse, but in fact it isn’t.

It’s just describing SEVEN people walking, separately, into a restaurant to make a dinner reservation.

I just chose the CRITERIA of listing the surnames by alphabetical order, and that’s why, on a first look, it looks like it’s all jumbled up and complex (just a side note, the way you present information is VERY IMPORTANT to reach goals objectively).

The CRITERIA with which one lists things is the crux of this post. The logic and the reasonableness of the chosen CRITERIA are of the utmost importance when it comes to analyzing the veracity of the “Tapas reservation sheets”.

What CRITERIA would you then choose to write down the reservations as per question?  

Logic, and all restaurants in the world except one, says that you would take note of the reservations by the order they came into your restaurant.

According to that, your reservation sheet would look something like this (we’ll pretend that desired eating times are needed, which we know they aren't, pretend that contact numbers are not and, as is obvious, what is written in between parenthesis wouldn’t appear, but we've I put in just to help you):  

JONES - 19:15 (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:00)  
BROWN - 19:45 (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:15)  
WILLIAMS - 20:00 (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:30)
ROBERTSON - 20:30 (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:45)  
WILSON - 20:15 (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 16:00)
SMITH - 19:00 (walked in the restaurant at to reserve 16:15)  
TAYLOR - 19:30 (walked in the restaurant at to reserve 16:30)

Mr JONES arrives first, which means he gets the noted first, using the most logical of CRITERIA, which is first come, first served, or in this case, noted.

Mr SMITH, although wishing to have his meal before, appears in the listing after Mr BROWN simply, and LOGICALLY, because Mr. BROWN makes his reservation before Mr. SMITH.

If for anything else, the reason for ordering reservations by the times they are made is because, for example, when Mr. WILLIAMS makes his reservation nobody in the world can guess if Mr WILSON is to appear or not.

He does, but we only know that after he walks in.

Nobody did come after Mr. TAYLOR, did they? He was the last one to reserve, thus is the last person on the list for the day.

Irrefutable logic, right?

Wrong. In the OC, reservations are, according to the Tapas Bar management, to be noted in the order in which the clients want to have their meals.

Why do we say that?

The first three “Tapas reservation sheets” seem to be templates, in which there are boxes of 4 lines for each quarter of an hour, from 19:00 to 21:00.

But is it really so? We’ve discovered that the apparently handwritten “Das 7 p.m. ás 9 p.m. Mesas lá dentro – 4 Mesas com 4 pax máximo” on the top of the May 1st, May 2nd and May 3rd “Tapas reservation sheets” clarify absolutely nothing with the exception that it confirms that these pages are photocopies of each other:

 
This would reinforce the thesis that we were before an unique template that was used from May 1st until May3rd.

However, a closer analysis (and not that attentive of one) at that shows that it isn’t exactly a template.

Look at how the differently the times are written down each day (left column. May 1st, center, May 2nd, right, May 3rd):
  Will enlarge the 19:15, and the 20:15 times so that you can better see what we’re trying to show you:
 
It’s unquestionable that each one was written separately.

They’re NOT copies of each other.

So, EVERY single day, whoever was responsible for the reservations would write down the times, defining then, and only then, the 4-lines-per-quarter-of-an-hour “reservation” blocks.

This means that it was EXPECTED to have only an average of 4 names, or less, per each “quarter of an hour”.

If, on a particular day, it happened that all supposed 20 vacancies wanted their meal at 20:30, then all this work of anticipation, and so neatly done, would have been rendered useless.

Here we have to go back to our “doodle” post, where it was shown how “boring” it must have been to work at Tapas.

You had time for doodles, and now, it seems, you had time to write down the times in a preemptive manner.

But it wasn’t just any writing down the numbers on blank spaces. Oh no. Please do take notice of the numbers “7” and “8”.

The number “7” is typed, identical in all 3 entries, which means it was already in the template, while the “8” is handwritten.

That is a big difference. It means that with the “7”. whatever number for the minutes that was there was tippexed, and written over, while the whole number that was where the “8”s now are to be seen, was totally tippexed.

To our Portuguese readers, to “tippex” is to pass on “white corrector”.

It seems that the Tapas, besides having its own separate reception, it also had it quite well equipped with stationary. And with a photocopier.

So we have someone, who takes the time, and the care, to tippex numbers beforehand, EVERY single day on what are supposedly reservation sheets.

I would like to remind you that anywhere in the world, “reservation sheets” are documents NOT meant to be subject to any inspection or external presentation. Their purpose is to register reservations. As such, they are INTERNAL working documentation, to which practicality is given primacy, which certainly is not given to neatness.

If that were the case, the lack of care for neatness in the last 3 reservation sheets would’ve resulted in severe punishment, or possibly heavy fines.

On the previous post, Question #8, I showed, or tried to show, how irrelevant it is to book meals with a quarter of an hour precision.

A time specification is required in restaurants that, as I said, wish to make as many servings as possible, and want an idea from when on they should consider a guest is late, so that they can get some profit out of what is to be then considered as an unused table.

As a reader exemplified, restaurants are that when a table vacates and whoever reserved isn’t there, they lose their turn and go to the end of the line, so to speak.

When a time is asked, it's NEVER more precise than half the hour.

I believe that in the U.S., restaurants that have a daily high occupancy rate, in order to maximize the use of their tables, don’t accept reservations at all (the finest restaurants do reserve, and if what we see in the movies is true, do it with weeks and months in advance), but do, when you walk in, give you an electronic gadget that lights up and vibrates when there’s a table for you.

That way, you can always spend some money in the bar while you wait…

You run a business to make a PROFIT, that's the bottom line.

Ok, let’s disregard the complete lack of logic and usefulness of filling in quarterly hour reservation times, and consider them essential.

You may then say that the Tapas could have filled in the customer's surname in according to its “box” as the reservations appeared. This way, the sequencing is not per whole page, but only per each “quarter-hour” box.

This would, indeed, provide some logic to the sequencing as it appears, as I said, on the first three reservation sheets.

And we’ll leave at that, although there are other some details that contradict this, but we'll leave these for another post. There are, however the three other reservation sheets. And they throw this whole logic straight out the window.

On these, nobody has, strangely, decided to write down the times before the guests appeared to reserve, like it was done with the first three.

But the times ARE SEQUENCIAL.

Look at how they appear for those 3 days:
  
Friday, May 4th: 19:00, 19:30 followed by 20:15 
Sunday, May 6th: 19:00, 19:20, 19:45, 20:00, 20:15 followed by 21:00 
Monday, May 7th: 19:00, 19:15, 19:45 followed by 20:30

It's not possible to establish any coherence in the time intervals, or their respective spacing within the pages, with these last three reservation sheets, except for the fact that they’re CLEARLY sequenced in the order in which the clients wanted to have their meals.

If for the first three reservation sheets we could have the excuse that there are blocks for each quarter of the hour, for the last three, the CRITERIA used is clear: simple and straighforward sequencing according with the desired meal time.

This means that in our little exercise, the reservations, if made in the TAPAS Bar way, would have been written down the following way:
  
19:00 – SMITH (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 16:15)
19:15 - JONES (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:00)  
19:30 - TAYLOR (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 16:30)  
19:45 - BROWN (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:15)  
20:00 - WILLIAMS (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:30)  
20:15 - WILSON (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 16:00)  
20:30 - ROBERTSON (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:45)

Seemingly impossible, Mr. SMITH, who arrives 45 minutes after Mr. WILLIAMS, to make a reservation, is to appear first on the reservation list.

This listing would ONLY be possible if the people who made the reservations arrived in the EXACT same order of the time that they wanted to have their meals, otherwise it would be COMPLETELY ABSURD, as only after is known the TOTALITY of reservations for the day is it possible to order the names by desired meal times, the CRITERIA used to list the reservations on the "Tapas reservation sheets":
 
So, for the "Tapas reservation sheets" to be filled the way THEY WERE, with the SEQUENTIAL CRITERIA they present, it would have been necessary, on those various days, for the people who wanted to reserve to have been standing in the queue in the EXACT same order in which they WANTED to have their meal!

And this, when all these people are supposedly strangers to each other.

Coincidence or what? That’s stretching the concept of coincidence even beyond the McCann margin of tolerance for coincidences.

Other than this, I can only see two other possibilities for it these listings to be feasible.

One would have been in auction-style bidding for hours. Whoever was responsible for the booking would address the “crowd” and ask “Let's start with who’s for 19:00? Please step aside and come forward…”

This would be practical but rather unfair. If one wanted to dine at 21:00, one would have to bid for an earlier hour just to make sure that one would make it and be able to have a meal at the renowned Tapas Bar.

Also, I just can't see how it would be possible for people to be able to get the 21:00 timeslot, which some did get, without surpassing the 20 available seats figure.

There was a queue wasn't there?

The other possibility would have to have been for this whole "reservation process" to be done “military” style.

In this, the Tapas management would come out, this time to address the whole line and inform “The reservations today are up to this gentleman/lady. The rest of you please go home and try again tomorrow”.

And then turning to those that remained in line “And you, you lucky nincompoops, do organize yourselves in which time you want to have dinner, and be quick about it as we have many other important and useful things to do such as doodling and tippexing…”

Is either possibility feasible? Well, as we’ve seen, in “McCannland” it’s like with Peter Pan: ALL is possible as long as you believe in it.

No, not really. You really don’t have to believe. All you have to do is pretend that you believe, and defend that, regardless of reason or logic.

And preferably with some help from your friends. INFLUENTIAL ones, mind you.

Post Scriptum:
For those who've tried to fool others with the vain attempt of stating that we were running out of material, let me disappoint you by telling you that there's still very much to be shown about these fake reservation sheets.

For example, this post, and this post alone, makes it there to be four or five additional pertinent questions.

Can you see them?

Well, they have to answered if these documents are to be REAL, otherwise... they're NOT.

Next Post - Tomorrow Morning

I was feeling a little naughty tonight, so I decided to leave here just a little teaser, dedicated to all those who I wish will have a wonderful and peaceful night. G'night and see you in a few hours.

Tapas Quiz Night, Question #8/?

Question: Which is the ONLY Restaurant in the whole world that serves “Every-Quarter-Hour-Dinner-Specials”?  
Answer: Obviously the Ocean Club's TAPAS BAR at PdL, the ONLY restaurant where so many ONLY things do happen.

On the "Tapas reservation sheets" there’s one thing that stands right out as surplus data: the precision with which the time the guests wished to have their meals is registered.

On the other hand, these documents lack of a piece of information that is usually required for reservations, and that is a contact number.

About the latter, we can be tolerant to its nonexistence, as we’re talking about foreigners in a foreign land, and there are roaming costs associated with the use of cell phones there.

 But this is being really tolerant, because, business wise it makes absolute sense that a restaurant demands some way of contacting whoever that reserves in case they don’t show up.

This contact is usually made under the circumstance of having waiting clients and all other tables are occupied. If you have tables, and a guest doesn't show up, you just have to accept that fact.

Calling him will probably only annoy him, and the chances are that client, already lost for that evening, would be lost for forever. But although the probability of use is almost nil, it's the norm to ask as is any other safeguard of expected minimal use.

And if you do take the McCanns as an example, it seems that with the exception of the evening and late night of May 3rd, they had absolutely no restrictions in using their mobiles in PdL, BEFORE and after Maddie died, so shouldn't have any qualms in leaving their contacts. Not because of money, at least.

You can say that leaving the room number is sufficient, as the OC Reception would then contact the guest at fault.

Is that really practical? Call the reception to pull up the cell phone of the client, have the reception call the client and then call the restaurant to say what the client said... Certainly not as much as asking the person directly for the number. Quick, painless and, most of all, practical.

All in all, it’s just not understandable why on the "Tapas reservation sheets" that we’ve been shown there are no contact numbers. But we’ll pretend it is and move on.

Today, what is important is the precision of time in which the guests made their reservations with.

What's the difference, for any restaurant, to know that a certain person wishes to dine at 20:00, or that she wishes to do so at 20:15 or 20:30? ABSOLUTELY NONE.

Is the table only set 30 seconds before arrival? No, it’s set at the start of the evening.

Does the cook start five minutes before? No. First the guests arrive, and only then do things start at the kitchen. After all, a guest may not arrive at all.

And unless in the reservation is written down which dish chosen, nobody but the guest (each one of them) knows what is desired to eat that particular evening. We haven't seen any such choice in any of these sheets...

That’s why there are appetizers. You arrive, you sit and you chose. And have appetizers (or Tapas) while you wait for the main dish to arrive. If you don't order Tapas, then you just wait.

 Is it because the ice could melt? It could be. I’ve heard so many lame excuses for so many things that I imagine that that could be it. The guests had to give the exact time they wanted to eat to avoid needless ice melting.

 If not for that, then FOR WHAT are the reservation times specified?

Restaurants usually have two servings per meal. You either are able to book for the first serving, or if you’re only able to get a table on the second serving, the person responsible will give you warning such as “we’re only able to accommodate you after 21:00, if that’s alright with you”. It’s implicit that you’ll get a table as soon one other vacates that evening, and you either accept that or you don’t.

The finest restaurants usually have only one serving, as they can’t pressure their clients to leave, they will not risk not being able to sit clients that had reserved. They do charge enough to cover their losses.

Could it be an "obsession" with this precision due to customer demand? A meal just had to be served at EXACTLY the desired time?

We do have an indication, from Tapas bar itself, that the exact arrival time was indeed a completely irrelevant detail, as, at least on May 3rd, the T9 practically only were ready to eat after 21:00, although they booked for 20:30. .  

Nobody complains about this, because there's nothing to complain about.

Nobody notices it, as there's nothing to notice.

Much like there’s no reason to book a meal at an exact time in an evening.

Yet it's something that is demanded, even if not enforced. Customer are fitted into PRECISE "quarter-hour" slots, at least according with the first 3 "Tapas reservation sheets". And who on earth knows at 11:00 if they're having dinner at 19:15, and not at 19:30?

Not even at home.

Whenever Fred asks if dinner will take too long, I politely tell him that it will take only 5 more minutes than it will take him to make it if he started there and then. Maybe that's why he never asks, poor, but dear soul.

Me, when we go out for dinner I just care where we're eating. Somewhere posh always gets my preference. If the person there that's noting the reservations asks "For what time?" my natural reaction is to ask "What's the limitation?".

One reserves for dinner, and that's that. But that's me, and I'm weird as everyone knows.

Dinner out is leisure time, and when I'm in leisure time, I like it to be me who manages my own time, and am not pleased if I'm to be pressured to meet a certain schedule for food.

No way would I ever allow that to happen on holiday.  

A restaurant is NOT a boarding school.

We’ve seen before that it may have been possible for the FICTIONAL character, Arsene Lupin, to have dined Tapas, so, could it be possible also that yet another FICTIONAL character dined there too? I’m talking about Phileas Fogg, of course.

We all know how pressed for time Mr Fogg is known to be.

Looking at the "Tapas reservation sheets", we see that there’s no FOGG mentioned, nor a PASSPARTOUT , so it can only mean that back in October 1872, this gentleman, and his valet, on his way through to the Suez, demanded to have dinner on the quarter of the hour, not a minute after, and with this started a trend in PdL that has upheld to this day, that of specifying the exact minute in which the client wishes to dine.

Unfortunately, for the defenders such theory, according to the charting of Fogg’s trip, he didn’t come anywhere near Portugal:
 
Jules Verne was French, because if he was a Brit, then a string could be pulled and “someone” could be arranged to “talk” to this author convincing him into changing his novel just to "fit" the events at PdL…

The fact that he’s dead since 1905 would certainly be a minor detail that could be easily overcome. If only he wasn’t French…

 So we have yet another curiosity that happens ONLY in PdL, which is the time specification, to the quarter of an hour, of restaurant bookings.

And they say that, in Portugal, Entroncamento is where all strange phenomena happen. But that was before Spring 2007.

Did I say "quarter of an hour"?

We do have, at least, one exception and that’s our friend Arsene Lupin/Thomas Cook.

He asked for his meal (never, ever to be billed) 20 minutes after the hour. Not on the hour, not a quarter past or to, not half past, but 20 minutes past.

Devious, devious character isn’t he?

There’s absolutely no reason for these times to appear. For a restaurant it’s completely indifferent if you eat at 20:00 or 21:00 if there are tables available and they can fit you within the same serving. You arrive, you sit, you eat, you pay and you leave, and the time boundaries to do all that are generic as they always should be.

 Do you want to know why these times were used?

Well, who hasn’t seen a crime movie/TV episode where the murderer turns to a bystander and asks “I’m sorry but my watch has just stopped and I have these pills to take, do you happen to know what time it is right now? ”

This will obviously enable the bad guy/gal, the criminal, to have a witness which will later confirm the fake alibi created but that the good guy/gal, the brilliant detective with the title-role, unravels all before the credits start to roll.

In FICTION, that phrase is used, but in REAL LIFE it seems preferable to make up absolutely irrelevant times on absolutely fake reservation sheets.  

Next Post: YOU be a Reservation Manager.

Our Sincere Apologies

Beloved readers, As you know we’ve had here lately and persistently the contribution of someone who is obsessively interested in our blog as seems to have a direct interest in what is written here.

Clearly a Black Hat, we’ve come to know this person by an adjective which is quite aggressive in nature. Not talking about the person, but the actual adjective by which we identify this individual.

And it’s exactly for allowing into the blog this aggressiveness, one that constantly, and most likely purposefully, accompanies this individual’s comments, that we're here to apologise.

To disassociate ourselves from all the aggressiveness contained in that particular adjective by which this individual is called, we, henceforth, shall refer to this person as “The Character” or simply TC.

Not to be mistaken with Thomas Cook. In doing so we hope to contribute to the clearing up some of the pestilent air caused by all this unpleasant and disagreeable aggressiveness that has here settled.

Avoid the use of unnecessary violent language.  

Violence, as you know, is the most common weapon used by the weak. Bravado, in its essence, is nothing but a cover for fear. That alone says much about the intent of who has posted the referred comments.

The decision to post TC's comments was not an easy one, and many of them remain unpublished.

When we decided to publish those that we did, we did it for two reasons. The first was that we thought best to allow our readers to realize the constant abuse and insult that our blog is constantly subjected to, and the other, was for you to feel and understand all the despair contained in them.

This despair is for us a clear indication that we’re on the right path. TC’s comments bring nothing new, are abusive in their interpretation of posts and comments and rapidly slip into offensive generalizations.

They cling to every single possible flaw as if their life depended on it, in a desperate attempt to make a whole building crumble with a single firecracker. They’re unreasonable, because it’s impossible to quench the demands.

Not because they’re not answered, but because the answers are always deemed unsatisfactory regardless of their logic, reason and completeness.

This, together with the permanent bullying and intolerant speech, has dominated lately the comments in our blog in a very argumentative nasty way, and brought quite an unpleasant aggressive aura to it. TC’s comments are indeed off-putting.

It spoils our blog and dilutes excellent contributions from our polite readers, discouraging them from further participation.

This is obviously TC's intention, to drive away readership and readership participation. Some of our readers fell into this trap and have lapsed into arguing with TC. It’s completely understandable, as no one likes to see muddy feet in a spotlessly clean living room. Some of our readers have engaged in a quite passionate argumentation with said individual.

It is commendable for their dedicated protection of this space which is all of all of us, but has to be reprimanded for further contributing to allow this person to play his/her game. And the first to be reprimanded, are we, who published the comments, and myself, in particular, for responding needlessly to one or two of them.

Here we must pay a huge compliment to all those readers who remained calm and poised, and continued to post polite and useful comments, ignoring completely the turmoil set by TC's comments.

Thank you.

We were called to reason by our wonderful readers.

And when reason calls, we pay attention.

When one is wrong, the only acceptable way forward is by correcting the error as best as is possible to be done.

Thus our heartfelt apologies, as we've indeed allowed TC space to field his tactics that targeted our most polite and educated readers.

Life is hard as it is so we fully understand that there's no need to come here to obtain further anguish. So we blame no other than ourselves for distancing some of our readers.

But not all is bad, as TC has provided us with very valuable information. We’re talking obviously about TC’s recognition that the guests were indeed witnesses to a crime that involved the death of a little girl; about TC’s bringing on scene a very interesting guest, Mr. Philip Edmonds, who, as he says himself, not only photographs Maddie on May 3rd, but also says he was a “first-hand” witness to the events although he exits the scene in the early hours of May 4th.

Also about TC’s confirmation that the dog did react to blood in a spot on the floor located behind the couch in apartment 5A’s living room and  about TC’s very useful mix-up between oval and round table shapes.

But that is not all we've been provided with. TC has also led us, or better said, insisted, as you’ll see, that we go, down a particularly valuable path of information.

Without TC’s indication and insistence, I don’t think we would ever discover what we did. Let me tell you as an appetizer, that it is worth all the unpleasantness that our blog has been subjected to. But that is no reason or excuse to have allowed TC’s comments.

We’re fully aware of the fact that one can learn a lot from a car wreck, but that isn’t in any way a reason for one to drive a car into a tree.

Information can, and should, be obtained by much more reasonable and sensible manner, as we've done in the past and intend to continue to do.

We hope we can recover as quickly as possible all those readers that were driven away because of this unfortunate mistake, and hope that the possible damage done to the structure of our, yours and my, blog is not significant.

Yours respectfully, Textusa

Update on Sep18, 2011, 20:24:
From reading the feedback we've received, it made us have the feeling that our readers would like us to publish BH’s comments.

Not an indiscriminate publication, but one subject to the adequate filtering and censorship.

Let us tell you that your reaction pleases us immensely.

What pleases us is not what you’ve suggested, but that you suggested it.

In fact, some valid suggestions were against what is above written. What did please us is that you’ve revealed that we’re achieving what we’ve intended, and that was, and is, to have our readers be stakeholders of this blog.

You may not share ownership, but you’ve certainly shown sharing its best interests. You’ve demonstrated that the success of this blog is not ours, as in its authors, but is ours, as in Textusa family.

We will continue do a case-by-case analysis of comments, and publish those we deem constructive or revealing, censoring them if need be.

As we’ve said, we’re fully for freedom of speech and opinion, just not for freedom of insult. Our censoring will never affect content.

 Let us give you an example. One of the last comments from "The Character" (TC) that was published, was censored.

This is its original version (in bold, what was censored):
@ anon(and deranged) 2.12pm Produce any evidence that shows that booking is in any way suspicious. This is s bit different to the ''blood'' spot that wasn't - there are forensic reports which illustrate that. This is nothing more than a bizarre theory, which you can't prove.  
@ Anon 2.35 Not implying anything. You seem to be doing quite enough of that to go around Also, you don't seem to understand how this works. It would appear that the tapas bar had an agreement with Mark Warner to provide dinner for up to 20 covers per night. What makes you think there was anything to prevent them accepting bookings from Thomas Cook over and above this? 
There is nothing to indicate anyone got preferential treatment. Reading this blog is at times like reading the deranged nonsense on the 9/11 sites, where people seem to believe in holograms and conspiracies and missiles. It's all nuts. This entry on the booking sheet, three days after Madeleine disappeared, is meaningless. But do go on kidding yourselves, it's amusing.

This is the censored version we published:
@ anon(and (censored)) 2.12pm Produce any evidence that shows that booking is in any way suspicious. This is s bit different to the ''blood'' spot that wasn't - there are forensic reports which illustrate that. (censored).  
@ Anon 2.35 Not implying anything.(censored) Also, you don't seem to understand how this works. It would appear that the tapas bar had an agreement with Mark Warner to provide dinner for up to 20 covers per night. What makes you think there was anything to prevent them accepting bookings from Thomas Cook over and above this? 
There is nothing to indicate anyone got preferential treatment. (censored) This entry on the booking sheet, three days after Madeleine disappeared, is meaningless. (censored).

As you can see, only the insulting, offensive or aggressive language was cut out, leaving the relevant content intact.

Also it has become much less off-putting than certainly originally intended.

It would be naive of us to believe that TC is a single person, although it certainly does appear to be just someone who, unable to withstand the heat of the frying pan in which he voluntarily jumped in, has decided to lash out like a cornered animal.

From now on, any BH now knows that he either abides by the basic rules of education or accepts that his/her comment will not be published, or, if it is to be, it will be censored.

We also receive comments from readers who're not blatantly BH that we think best not to publish. Here is an example (by the way, it’s the only one we’ve withheld with reference with the present post this far): Can we stop this discussion about some idiot and get back to the real object of this forum please. You have a little girl still waiting for justice.

The reason for not publishing it (well, we’ve done it now, haven’t we?) is the unnecessarily aggressive language used.

If it’s from coming from a WH, than s/he should rephrase it. As we have no way of asking to have that done, we’re limited to not publishing.

It contains language we can do without, and its tone reveals a kind of support we do not seek or even want to associate with us.

If, as it appears to be, it’s from a BH, and most likely from TC, it brings nothing new, and seeks only to divert the attention away from him.

Hope this pleases who we aim to please, and that’s you, for we need your help in trekking this path.

One last note for clarification's sake, and that is to think, or even mention, that the TC acronym is referring to our friend Totally Confused is to be transparently abusive and ill-intended.

Tapas Quiz Night, Question #7/?

Question: Who was able to steal from the Ocean Club, or, more precisely, from its Tapas Bar, at a time exactly when the eyes of the whole wide world were upon that exact resort?  
Answer. Arséne Lupin, or maybe not. It's a trick question, as we honestly don’t know who really did it, but the whole thing is so preposterous that if you did happen to answer something ridiculous as Bugs Bunny, we’ll give you the full marks.  

Maddie was abducted on May 3rd, so her parents say, and as both friends and strangers and do seem to confirm.

The latest person that we got to know that did exactly that, thanks to our own private and exclusive Insane, was a Mr. Philip Edmonds, apparently a stranger to the couple, who has, so says he, a picture of Maddie taken on that exact same day.

One has to wonder if it was taken after the famous “last picture” by the pool.

If it was, then it should be the one to get all the publicity instead of that one, shouldn’t it? Obviously, to protect the privacy of this gentleman’s sons, their faces should be blurred upon its publication.

We, on the other hand, say that if we must use the term “abduction” to describe what happened that night to Maddie, then it was God who used a human hand to abduct the child from this life and call her to His side.

On May 3rd, Maddie left this world, our world, and the world was violently shaken by its collars and made sure that it was fully aware of that exact fact. If you didn't know, then the world media, led by the British Media (who knew exactly what they were doing) made sure you got to know. We may then allow for some ignorance in the first 24 hours, but as of May 5th there wasn’t a living soul that didn’t turn his/her eyes towards PdL.

On May 6th, all those not included as "living souls", such as those that had worked the whole previous day in some mine, or in any other job, or situation, that excluded any social contact with the outside world, joined the remainder of us in this collective hysteria of looking for a girl that, unfortunately for her, hadn’t gone that far after all.

And what else happened on May 6th, the peak of attention from the whole wide world on PdL? A Tapas dinner, of course. And what is so peculiar about this Tapas dinner, that is worth mentioning?

Well, as the world was explaining where EXACTLY allegedly the parents and friends sat when the alleged abductor did the alleged dastardly deed, a person was able to steal, I repeat, STEAL, two meals from the Tapas Bar! Who dared such, ask you? We don’t know who, but whoever it was s/he had guts. That, we must give it to him or her. First, s/he stands in line to be able to reserve, and it seems to have been the 4th in line.

He reserved, show the records, a meal for 2, for 7:20.

Provides NO room number, and then does one defying move, which, for us, makes us think that it was Arsene Lupin indeed, that FICTITIOUS gentleman-thief, that pulled this off: he goes and identifies himself as “Thomas Cook”, the booking agency that competes directly with Mark Warner at the OC!!

Is that a daring move or what?!? It certainly is. Either folly or utter bravado!!

At 7:20 Mr. “T. Cook” arrives, is CHECKED and allocated table #209. He then has his meal, accompanied by someone, certainly a partner in crime, or, possibly a damsel to be seduced by being swept off her feet by the luxury offered by the Tapas Bar.

Done his evil deed, exits, never to be seen, never to be billed. What audacity!! You think I’m making this up? Check it out for yourself:
 
Unless, of course, this piece of paper is anything BUT a reservation sheet, and its only purpose, as with all other “Tapas Reservation Sheets” was to provide the idea that there were dinners that never happened.

But that would mean that both the guests whose names appear on these sheets, as well as the OC Staff who wrote them up and handed them to the PJ were in on something, wouldn’t it?

Finally, there’s only one thing that makes us be skeptical about Mr. “Thomas Cook” being Mr. Arsene Lupin. The latter is totally and completely FICTIONAL, while we believe that the first IS NOT.

We think that Mr. “Thomas Cook” happens to be real, very real. And not only real, but REALISTIC, because s/he chose not to be involved in this whole HOAX and made sure that his/her real name didn’t appear.

Post Scriptum: My personal situation remains unchanged, unfortunately. So please do continue to consider me "absent". Each day is just each day. Thank you so much for your messages of love and support. They've been a decisive strengthening factor, and show how caring humanity can be. Thank you.

Textusa has been called away

Even though Textusa has to go away for a few days to attend to her relative, who has taken a turn for the worse, she is still thinking of you readers.

She asked me to tell you that she needs to spend the next few days with this dear person. It is a very distressing time for all the family and Textusa is the person who shoulders most of the burden to lessen the load for the others.

I know you will join May I and me wishing and hoping that the person will show signs of recovery soon.

We still have lots to share with you and I will be publishing comments until she is back with us so please do keep sending your comments.

For those of you who believe in the power of prayer your devotions would be most welcome.

The "Adultch" Triangle

Foreword: this post is intended to be understood ONLY by a very selective group of people who we know follow very attentively this blog. To all our other readers, our apologies for this "enigmatic" post.

In the most famous triangle of the world, the Bermuda Triangle, things disappeared without explanation.

There’s another triangle, known to few, which we’ll call the “Adultch" Triangle, which is defined by AMSTERDAM – VENLO – ROERMOND, which as unlikely as it seems, may have played a significant part in the Maddie McCann Affair.

In this triangle, "Adult Only" interests are catered for. Very, very adult interests.

"Adultch" is the resulting compression of the word "Adult" with "Dutch".

The first, is the intent, the latter the location.

Mind you, we believe that this is but one of many existing "Triangles". But this one is very well known within the few we know know it.

The thing about this particular triangle, is that, unlike its Bermuda counterpart, it might explain many, many unexplained things.

You see, in the Bermuda Triangle, people from the outside, came inside it and unexplainably disappeared.

 But in the "Adultch" Triangle, people come mainly from the outside, gathered in a "somewhere" inside, and come out as if they were never in it.

But while they were there, there were many, many a story to be forever untold, and we're not going to be the ones to tell them.

Not that we know any, that is.

What we know is from hearsay.

But this "Adultch Triangle", just might explain the cover-up of a disappearance. Both, the cover-up and disappearance, or disappearance and cover-up to put them in the correct order, happened many, many miles away.

It brings to memory a certain song, which we've taken the liberty of adapting: Down by Reuven (an adaptation of the song “Down River” by The Temper Trap) 

Finally 
We have seen some things 
Some awfully nice 
Some dreadfully bad 
But we will sing 
Wash the blood, off our knees 
Cause our love breaks 
Through ruff seas, our ship will sail it 
I, don't, understand 
How this world will work 
Cause time will tell us nothing 
I'll take a chance on something 
 (Fill them up Fill them This time take you) 
Down by Reuven 
Down by Reuven 
Down by Reuven Down.. 
 (Walk these stairs Put the pieces back together) 
Go, don't stop 
Go, don't stop 
Go, don't stop 
Go don't stop 
Now go.. 

Finally 
We have seen some things 
But bells in your hallways 
Don't move you in the right place 
So we will sing 
Cast our hopes out to sea 
Though our hears break 
Through violent winds, our ship will sail it I, don't, understand 
How this world will work 
Cause time will tell us nothing 
I'll take a chance on something 
(Build them up Build them This time take you) 
Down by Reuven. 
Down by Reuven 
Down by Reuven 
Down.. 
(Walk these stairs Put, the pieces, back together) 
Go, don't stop 
Go, don't stop 
Go, don't stop Go don't stop 
Now go.. 
Go, don't stop 
Go, don't stop 
Go, don't stop 
Go don't stop 
Now go.. 
Go, don't stop 
Go, don't stop 
Go, don't stop 
Go don't stop 
Now go..

This world really is one filled with insanity.