Jack the lads, Jacks of all trades

Every week you read in the local free papers about people who have been let down by hookey tradespeople. There are enough horror stories from our estate to confirm these reports. Our next door neighbours are a good case in point. They have been let down so often you would think they were jinxed. For example, there was the paver whose business cards offered a two year guarantee. Six months later he had disappeared back to England without leaving a forwarding address. Fortunately he did a good job and the paving is still perfect.

The family in the middle of the estate, who were assured by one company that they could have a pool, were less fortunate. They had been told by the builder that they couldn't have a pool on their plot but choose to ignore him. When they started to dig the hole it was clear that the builder was right so they quickly filled it in. Unfortunately the damage was already done and the houses around now have garden walls that are badly cracked. The builder is blaming the pool people who refuse to accept responsibility.

Why does it happen? Lots of English people come out to Spain to live and to find work. Many of them had trades back in the UK but without the language skills it is difficult to find work with Spanish companies. So they find a niche and set up on their own to earn a living. Electricians become air conditioning installers; plumbers suddenly develop the skills to install pools; ; all without the necessary licenses and registration documents. People hire them because they speak English and in any case you can trust an English worker to do the job properly.

The niche that most find to work in is property sales and rentals. Without any experience or knowledge people set up companies offering their services. In the worst cases the properties they sell are not legal. There is only one conclusion if you have an illegal house; at some time in the future a bulldozer will arrive to knock it down. By this time the company you bought from will have ceased trading. At best you could find yourself paying over the odds for the property you rent or buy.

Of course there are perfectly legal and honest English tradespeople in Spain. They do a good job and offer proper back up. In our case though we would prefer to use Spanish companies and struggle through the language barrier. At least we have a good idea where they will be in six months time.

Pam's new phone

Pam bought a Siemens phone in Carrefour just over a year ago. That was a big mistake! To accomplish the most simple task you had to get the instruction booklet out. For example why did it have a phonebook and an address book and which one should you use? How do you send the same SMS message to more than one person without having to re-write it and where were the pictures that she took stored? The worse feature was the battery which would only hold charge for just over a day.

So yesterday Pam bought a new Nokia because she likes Nokias. Laura gave Pam her old Nokia to use in the UK and she found that a lot easier to use. But not all Nokias are the same - this one has a different menu system. My theory is that they make the menu systems different so that you are forced to spend time with your new phone getting to know it. The menu system on this new phone does seem a lot easier than that Siemens though so hopefully she won't be swearing at it quite so much. For one thing it has just one phone book - that is a relief in itself!

Of course phone menus are a lot simpler to use these days. I still remember how complicated it was to even make a call on my first phone. In those days the menus resembled Microsoft DOS and you accessed them with complicated series of button presses. Now you have a grid of graphic icons and a joystick to play with. Oh the brave new world! Giving you a spanky interface though has allowed them to introduce spanky new features like "Push to talk" , "Flash messages" and "Web connection". Although Pam can be pushy when she talks, I hope she doesn't try flashing her messages.

Yet another

Hi!
I am Tat'yana. To talk about my personal qualities I`l try to look at
myself from aside. So I`m a charming, feminine, romantic,  and sweet
girl. Yet as a person I am open-minded, easy-going, kind-hearted. From
the very beginning I try to behave naturally. I dislike lie and
hypocrisy. Kindness and decency are the qualities that are very
important for me and that`s why I value them in myself. I love my
parents very much as they have given much to me and I am grateful to
them.
I have some questions for you if you want to get to know me closer:
* Are you interested in serious relations with Russian woman?
* Have you ever been to Russia?
* Are you planning to visit Russia?
* Would you like to correspond or to talk by phone?
* I will be waiting for your reply to
* Why are you interested in Russian lady?
* What is important for you in relations and am I right for you?
mailto:admin@newbride4uonline.info
Hope you will tell me about yourself,
kisses from Russia,
Tat'yana

Sorry Tat'yana you sound very nice but I'm struggling with Spanish - I don't think I could cope with Russian as well.

Actually I'd love to know where these girls get my email address from. Does anybody know?

The continuing problem

The Environmental Minister, Cristina Narbona, told the media that the government is looking for ways to encourage 'responsible' use of water and is considering the possibility of setting a new limit to domestic consumption.She went on to say that the new plan would tax 'excessive' use of water. Her interpretation of 'excessive' means that a daily limit per person of up to 60 litres could be applied. According to the new plans, all water consumed in excess of this limit would be charged at a higher rate than the usual price of water.

Reaction to the Minister's declarations has been mixed. The majority of people here are perfectly aware of the serious problem of water shortages and the need to reduce consumption and save water. However, many question the fact that the first measures taken by central government are aimed at domestic use, rather than tackling the hundreds of kilometres of rusty, leaking water pipes all over the country or the continuous growth of new golf courses needing constant watering in some of the driest regions. Agriculture accounts for 77 percent of all water used.

Note: The average toilet uses 12 litres of water per flush and a 10 minute shower uses about 120 litres. Add to this cooking, washing clothes and other similar activities involving the use of water and it becomes apparent that Ms Narbona skipped maths and science lessons on her way to becoming a politician. And anyway, its not a new idea! On 3rd August 1866 the very first 'water law' passed in Spain decreed that every Spaniard would be guaranteed a minimum of 50 litres per day. Such is progress!

Taken from the Round Town News

Basketball club helps out

C.B. Bigastro is participating with the Association of Relatives of Patients of Alzheimer "Acuerdate de Mi"

The Sports Council of the City council of Bigastro and the President of the Association of Alzheimer of Bigastro, Mª Asunción Mesples have signed an agreement to hold a draw for basketball equipment at one of their games.

Members of the association will sell tickets to the fans at the game. The money raised will be donated to the Association of Alzheimer "Acuerdate de Mi" .

"A pile of reasons to say to no".

As part of its campaign to prevent drug dependency, the Council of Social Services in Bigastro has formulated a competition for young people.

The participants will be pairs of students from the 5th and 6th grades primary (San Jose de Calasanz) and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades of the E.S.O. (Ies Miguel Hernandez).

The participants will be asked to write a document in two parts:

- the first a technical part, where they will have to investigate the subject of the drug dependancy using the Internet or the library.
- the second part, where the participants will have to express their personal opinion on this serious problem that exists in our society.

The competition ends on the 30th of November and winners will be announced on the 4th of December.

The Prize will consist of a trip to Terra Mitica including transport and food.

In addition the winners entries and their photos will be published on the Bigastro web site and in the sport magazine " Bigasport "

Let's hope that this helps to get the message across to these young people.

Police called out in Bigastro

The Local Police of Bigastro were called out to stop a fight in the centre of the town. The two men, one a Bulgarian and the other a Romanian, were taken into custody. The Bulgarian had to be taken to the Vega Baja hospital for treatment.

I imagine that some locals feel that the town was better off when it was populated only by Spaniards.

Only for Villas Andrea residents

When we were connected to the new satellite we were told to use Wi-Surf webmail for emails. Whilst you can pick up emails using Outlook Express (or other email client) via the POP3 server at mail.wi-surf.com you can't send emails via the old SMTP server address because it is now the gateway address for the Internet server.

There is a way around this though which will allow you to send emails via your email client. Residents in Spain can get themselves a @bigastro.es email address via the Bigastro Digital web site. To save you the trouble of negotiating their site I have inserted the links you need into the rest of this message:-

You need to click on Más información which will take you to information about setting up a Bigastro.es email address. Clicking on este formulario will bring up a form which you need to complete and return to obtain your user name and password. Once you have your user name and password click on aquí. to get instructions (in Spanish of course!) which will enable you to set up your new account in Outlook Express. NB it is important that you set the account to require authentication.

You can now send mail using your new account via Outlook Express rather than via webmail! If you are really teccy you can even receive mail via Wi-Surf and send mail via Bigastro from your Wi-Surf account by setting the SMTP address for your Wi-Surf account to mail.bigastro.es. Check the box which says the server needs authentication; click on settings and then insert your Bigastro user name and password in the boxes.

Completa

My plastic card driving license arrived yesterday.

As you can see I am now licensed to drive cars and cars pulling caravans for five years but for vans or vans towing a trailer up to the age of 62. Does anybody know what vehicles are involved in group btp?

So there you go, in five years time I have to go through the whole process again!

El tiempo

I was asked back in England "do you have seasons in Spain?". Yes of course we do including cold winters. This season is supposed to be otono but feels more like invierno. It rained heavily on Friday, wasn't much better on Saturday and has been poor since. Yesterday I saw people out in fleeces and thick sweaters.

Todays forecast

and tomorrows

but the good news is that for Thursday clear skies and sun are forecast.

A blogger's lot

When we first came to Spain two years ago, it was hard to come to terms with not being able to keep in touch with people, especially our daughters. Within a week of moving to Spain our mobile phones were switched off and we had no idea when we might get a phone installed in the house.

We bought Spanish SIM cards to fit into our phones so that at least we could send text messages back to our family and friends in England. Later on we discovered that there were computers in the local library that we could use. Fortunately I had kept my Hotmail account so we were able to send emails to those people who had internet connections. Once we had our own internet connection it became a lot easier to keep in touch with people with a weekly message. We were by then a lot happier.

It was Pete Brooks from Anfield who suggested compiling these messages into a blog. He explained that a blog would allow people to read our news when they wanted to rather than when a message happened to drop into their inbox. He said I could add photographs and link to articles on the Internet. Fortunately, Blogger made the process of setting up a web diary easy. Just a few simple steps and I had an online presence. Refining the look of the blog and adding in the niceties came later as I gained experience.

I know from my blog's statistics that a lot of people read my stories; some on a regular basis. Many are friends and neighbours who check up on what we are doing but I also have visitors from a wide range of countries. People who I don't know and will probably never meet.

As it says in the profile, the original intention was to keep in touch with people. I hope that I have achieved at least that.

Two years on...

We are celebrating tomorrow because then it will be two years since we flew out to Spain to start our new lives in the sun.

On a cold and damp November morning in 2004 we made an early start to catch our flight from Manchester. Saying goodbye to our daughters at the airport was most upsetting because we didn't know when we might see them again. Our spirits picked up though when we arrived in beautiful conditions at Alicante. We collected our hire car from the airport and one hour later we were booked into the hotel which was to be our base for the next week. Thankfully our English mobile phones still worked so we were able to let the girls know that we were OK.

The next day we called into Euro Anglo Sur offices to start the process of completing the purchase of our house. First we were taken to Bigastro to make sure that everything was in order. Our next stop was at Consulting Services Bureau (CSB) where they already had the paperwork completed for us. We had given CSB power of attorney so they were able to access our bank account in Spain and transfer the outstanding balance to the builder. Within half an hour the house was ours.

CSB then arranged insurance for us on both the property and its contents; arranged for a cheque book, credit cards and debit cards to be available at La Caixa bank and finally made appointments for us to start the process of getting NIE numbers and drawing up Spanish wills. By lunchtime everything was complete and the house was ours. After a leisurely lunch we went to Munoz Espinosa, the electricians, to order our white goods and lights. That evening we enjoyed a celebratory drink at our hotel.

The following day we hurried back to Bigastro and collected the keys for our new home. After a more thorough check we just sat on the front porch and enjoyed the sunshine. It was hard for us to believe that we weren't just on holiday but that this was now our home. By Thursday the lights and white goods had been delivered and installed.

On the Friday half of our belongings from England arrived and the rest came on the following Monday. So by Monday the 15th we had moved in. It was the easiest, most trouble free house purchase we have ever made.

Ah now ve know

The power cuts we experienced on Friday night and Saturday started in Germany.

quote from Euronews

The weekend's power blackouts in Europe, thought to have been caused by a Norwegian cruise ship, have fuelled fears that more dark days are to come if the energy sector is not given a boost. Analysts say a huge investment is needed to recharge the continent's ageing power system. German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel thinks this should be up to utility companies.

"The exact causes are not clear yet, electric utilities have to analyse these, but it shows it's necessary to invest more into the development of the networks. That's one of the utilities' duties and I think there's a considerable backlog demand problem here."

It's thought that when a power line was shut to allow the cruiser ship to pass safely, a "domino effect" kicked in and national grids became overloaded, leading to the blackouts. Although there were no serious incidents recorded, with high winter demand experts warn that secure supply of power in Europe is vulnerable.

Cold and wet

I think my theory about people bringing weather with them is true. When Pamela returned from England it was hot and sunny but that soon changed.

For the last couple of days it has rained and rained and rained. Some of the roads are flooded and they were mopping out at the Habenaras yesterday. In spite of that there were tourists about in shorts. Had they forgotten to pack a pair of trousers?

This must be Manchester weather that she brought back in her case. We even had the central heating on last night because the house was chilly. Let's hope the sun comes back soon to warm our aging bones.

New camera

A very wet DHL delivery man arrived yesterday with my new camera.

Those of you who have followed my blog will know that I have a Canon EOS 350D for serious photography. I also had a Canon Ixus I which was so small I could carry it around with me everywhere.

Laura borrowed the Ixus to take to her friend's wedding. So this Fujifilm Finepix A500 is my new second camera.

The intention is to keep it in the car so that it is always available when needed.

How does it compare with the Ixus?
1. It cost a lot less! You can get this blue version from Pixmania for £65 plus postage.
2. It has a 3x zoom lens - my Ixus had a fixed wide angle lens.
3. It has Fuji's 5.1Megapixel Super CCD sensor.
3. It has a larger LCD screen.
4. It has a viewfinder - in bright light an LCD screen is near useless for composing pictures.
5. It takes 2 AA batteries which are therefore easy to replace. Pam took the Ixus to England and the lithium battery died - she didn't have the charger and so couldn't take any more pictures.

but it is larger, it isn't as well built and the LCD screen isn't as sharp. Oh yes, and the manual is in French. (Not a problem I have a downloaded a copy of the English version)

The debate reaches England

A decision by Spanish towns to tone down festivals marking the expulsion of the country's Muslim rulers has prompted conservative politicians to rush to defend the tradition and sparked debate about freedom of expression versus religious sensitivity. The issue echoes the polemic in Europe over self-censorship that followed the cancellation of a Mozart opera in Germany, deemed offensive to Muslims.

The opposition Popular party on Friday called for the government to get the festivals protected by the United Nations' cultural arm, Unesco. Eduardo Zaplana, PP parliamentary spokesman, said: "Under no circumstances can we bend to the demands of people who intimidate us, and we are proud of these festivals." "We don't offend anyone. We've been doing this since the 18th century," said Javier Morales, organiser of the biggest festival, in Alcoi, Valencia.

In recent decades, many towns had eliminated the more provocative elements of the 300-year-old celebrations, including the destruction of effigies of Mohammed. Those who retained them began dropping them this year.

Beneixama, in Valencia, left out of its festival in September the destruction of a papier-maché Mohammed, whose head was traditionally filled with fireworks. In Bocairent, celebrants threw an effigy of Mohammed off the castle ramparts but stopped short of blowing up the head, according to a report in Spanish newspaper El Pais.

Felix Herrero, head of the Spanish Federation of Islamic Organisations, said the aggressive elements of the festivals "had no place in a democratic Spain". Celebrating the reconquest was, he said, comparable to commemorating General Franco's victory over the leftist Republican armies during Spain's civil war.

Mansur Escudero, head of the Spanish Islamic Union, said arch-conservatives in the church and in politics had seized on the current tension over Islam in Europe to create a controversy."They are politicising the issue, trying to provoke a Muslim reaction so they can point and say what barbarians we are," said Mr Escudero, adding that most Muslims had never had a problem with the festivals. "It's a question of balancing freedom of expression and respect for others," he said.
Taken from an article in the Financial Times

No more fish and chips

There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study.Stocks have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries, and the rate of decline is accelerating.

"The way we use the oceans is that we hope and assume there will always be another species to exploit after we've completely gone through the last one," said research leader Boris Worm (unfortunate name), from Dalhousie University in Canada.

"What we're highlighting is there is a finite number of stocks; we have gone through one-third, and we are going to get through the rest," he told the BBC News website.

Steve Palumbi, from Stanford University in California, one of the other scientists on the project, added: "Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean species together, as working ecosystems, then this century is the last century of wild seafood."

On - off -on

First we had rain starting light but getting heavier as the evening progressed. Then when we were going to bed the electricity went off; it came back on; then it went off; then it came back on. We quickly got ready to go to bed because without electricity the place is in total darkness - no lights in the street to shine through the windows etc. The electricity went off again and I fumbled round to find a torch only to discover that the batteries had gone. I found a second torch which thankfully worked and made sure it was by the bed.

The electricity came back on and then must have gone off again sometime in the night because when Pamela got up to have a drink the place was in total darkness. This morning it had come back on but went off again briefly and then returned. It has been on now for about 40 minutes. Who knows how long it will stay on though?

It is going to be one of those days.

Christmas present

The girls have bought me a digital camera for Christmas. I already had a Canon Digital Ixus for that job but Laura borrowed it early this year and I can't see me getting it back.

Actually to save currency problems we buy our own presents so my camera is coming from Pixmania in Spain. Ordinarily it should have arrived yesterday by DHL but of course the 1st November is All Saints Day, a public holiday in Spain. Traditionally on this day families visit the local cemetery to pay respect to their departed friends and family. They take flowers and candles housed in red plastic pots. The older people even take chairs so they can sit. Of course everyone is dressed in their Sunday best.

Last year we decided to go along to see the flowers but felt very much under dressed in shorts and t-shirts. So this year, rather than embarrass ourselves we stayed at home and did some jobs.

Anyway hopefully the camera will arrive today if the driver can find our road.

Have you noticed

There are some subtle changes to the appearance of my blog. These are because I moved over to the new beta version of Blogger which allows me to edit the layout of the blog without having to mess about with HTML.

I had made changes to the previous layout by altering the code but nothing too drastic. For example I added in the links to my other web sites and the link to my Blog Explosion counter.

Now I can move bits around, add bits in, change the fonts etc without having to resort to HTML code. Thank you Mr Google for all that.

The best thing about this version though is that the spell checker works automatically. When you misspell a word a red line appears under the word just as it does in MS Word. A right click on the word brings up suggestions for correction. Best of all it does that as you type. Of course it isn't that I misspell I just mistype!

Update: The spell checker is actually a Firefox 2 add-in and not part of Blogger so it works with Webmail as well as Blogger. Mine now spell checks in Spanish and English - how cool is that?

PS Mozilla Firefox is such a good browser. I hardly ever use Internet Explorer any more. I've now moved over to Thunderbird to read and send my emails. Again it has some distinct advantages over Outlook Express including a spam filter that works.
Get your own copies of the software at Mozilla software

All done

Pamela comes back today. I will be picking her up from the airport at approximately 1:25.

I'm pleased to say that I managed to get all the jobs I had planned to do done. The garden walls are all snowy white again, the pool is clean for the Winter, the garden is tidy, the furniture on the roof is all sanded and re-oiled, the washing is done and the house is clean and tidy.

It won't take Pam long though to find something that I haven't done. Last time she was in England I spent two days dusting and polishing everywhere. Within ten minutes of her return she found the one shelf that I had missed! My excuse was I had to leave her something to do.

In any case I was doing all my own jobs and her jobs as well. If I went to England would I come back to find the pool cleaned or the bougainvillea tied back to the fence?

Update: Pam's flight has been delayed and won't arrive at Alicante until 15:20 (approx.)

Ahead of the game

It looks like Bigastro was already anticipating problems with water supplies back in July and posted these notices on their web site. Of course building more and more flats and houses doesn't help!

More teccy suff

Yesterday I got the opportunity to complete the re-installation of Windows on my laptop. My Dell Latitude is five years old and has never been reformatted. So Windows was crawling, startup was so slow you could have made and drunk several cups of coffee before the thing was ready for work. It was time for a complete clean out.

Re-installing Windows itself was a pain. It took me three installs to get it working properly . The video driver seemed to be the main root of the problem. Finally I was able to get a new driver from the Dell site which sorted that out. For the satellite connection to work with sites like Microsoft Update you have to set the MTU value of your network card to 1135 (the default is 1500). Fortunately a program called Dr TCP allowed me to do that.

So yesterday I was ready to update Windows. It took all day to download and install all the 80 plus updates for Windows but I finally got there. My reward is a fully restored laptop which starts up like a tiger.

Bloody hell

I got this email today.

Hi, Daniel

Very seldom people are happy being lonely, so I decided to take my chance and send you a letter. Once I've seen your ad in the internet, but couldn't have the temerity of sending you my note, especially without your interest in me……
But still you were in my mind... And now I am sending my letter to you.
I can say that I am quite happy with my life, but I am missing my one and only special man. Loneliness is what I want to get rid of. If you are looking for a smiling face, sparkling eyes and heart full of love, write me to
http://beonlylove.com/mydearfriend

See you!

Karolina

Well Karolina sorry but
a) my children call me Wilf, friends at my old school called me Willo, my Spanish teacher calls me Quique and my real name is Keith. Nobody has ever called me Daniel.
b) my wife comes home on Tuesday and she is enough for me to cope with!
c) a smiling face etc. sounds nice but what I am really looking for is a quiet life.

So please excuse my temerity; I've put your message on my blog in case someone reads it who is called Daniel and wants to take advantage of your generous offer.

PS Be warned she might just have an infection or two to pass on to you so visit her at your own peril.

Doh

I wondered why I had so many vists from the same person in Spain to my blog until I realised that my blog counter was now counting my own visits. The fact that this person was using the same browser, operating system and screen resolution as me was a strong clue. The fact that he was using the Blogger dashboard as a referring link was an even better clue!

The change of satellite provider has meant we now have a new IP address. The counter was of course blocking the old IP address. I've sorted that now so that my visits are not counted.

Update: Well I thought I'd sorted it but then our IP address changed. It looks like the Wi-Surf router is using a dynamic IP address to connect our network to the Internet. I just can't keep up with this!!

Check out our pictures

There are quite a few new pictures in Our Spanish Album. Click on this link or the one in the sidebar to view the album. Click on the thumbnails in the album to get a larger picture.

The continuing problem

Some consumers are reporting that they are experiencing cuts in their water supply already. However, the main administrative move has been the decision of the water management body, La Mancomunidad de los Canales de Taibilla, to warn town halls that cuts could be necessary and that they should make arrangements soon to be able to introduce them. The Mancomunidad is responsible for supplies for some 2.5 million people in Murcia and Alicante and it has now introduced a drought order in view of the situation in the rivers Segura, Júcar and Tajo.

All the town halls of Murcia region, about half of those in the Alicante area and two in Albacete, have been warned that interruptions in supply may be needed. However, the Spanish cabinet is meeting today to decide whether to approve an emergency transfer of water. Recent rains in Spain, although not in the south east, have led to a small increase in water stocks and the environment minister, Cristina Narbona, says she recognises the seriousness of the situation facing Murcia and Alicante. That is why the emergency move has been proposed.

The government currently sees desalination plants as the solution to the water supply problems of Murcia, Alicante and other coastal areas. A second unit at the desalination plant at San Pedro del Pinatar is being brought on stream this week and will soon be pumping water into the distribution pipes. This unit and the existing unit will each provide 24 hectómetres of pure water each year, which is enough to supply just under half a million people.

The argument that desalination will be the solution hasn't impressed local consumers and politicians at all. Desalination requires large amounts of energy for the plants to work and currently that means energy from oil. There is talk of renewable resources, such as wind power and solar energy, contributing but for the foreseeable future the main fuel is going to be oil-fired electricity. As the price of oil goes up so will the price of desalinated water, critics say. It has even been claimed that the cost of the energy to replace current supplies from transfers with desalinated water would equal the entire existing energy bill of the region of Murcia each year. Environmentalists don't like desalination either, saying that the brine discharged into the sea after treatment harms marine life.

Taken from an article in the Round Town News

El buho, el sol y la luna

Following the story about the mouse looking at the moon, our teacher brought us a script for a children's play about an owl, the sun and the moon. For some reason there is a cricket playing a violin, a wolf howling, a courting couple and a poet writing poems in the play as well.

The moon hatches a plan to take over the job of the sun in the daytime as well as at night. The owl doesn't think it is a good idea but the moon confronts the sun with the plan and the sun agrees. This is OK for the courting couple, the poet and the nocturnal animals but the children are cold and the plants are not growing. In protest the cricket decides not to play his violin. Even the courting couple decide that enough is enough. So it is down to the owl to convince the moon that the plan is not working. By this time though the sun is fast asleep and needs a bit of a shake to get him going. It does all work out in the end though and the sun returns to light the sky in the daytime.

The moral of the story is "cada cual debe estar orgulloso de ser como es y no ansiar lo de los demas". Everyone should be proud of what they are and not long to be someone else.

Fascinating stuff! I just wonder how long it will be before we can progress to adult stories though.

Casa Eloína

Rachel and David are setting off back for England today so last night we went out for a typical Spanish tapas meal in Bigastro.

Casa Eloína is not the easiest of places to eat tapas at because there is no menu and no display of tapas on the bar itself. You just have to ask for what you'd like and hope that they can make it. In fact because we have been in there a few times the girl seems to know what we want anyway.

So plenty of food washed down with a bottle of the house red followed by coffees cost us 28€ for the three of us. Not bad for an evening out!

Sometimes the bull wins

For those of you who thought that the bull always comes off worse just check this video.

Bully bull

PS No animals were hurt during the making of this video

Auditorio Municipal

Our new theatre/concert hall is now open for business and will be inaugurated this Friday.

It is named after Francisco Grau Vegara who has been the Director of the Banda de Musica de la Guardia Real since 1998.

Francisco Grau was born in Bigastro and started playing music at the age of 7 in the local band. He has written over 700 pieces of music including the National Hymm of Spain and is the holder of many military and civil honours. The building is a fine tribute to this famous Bigastrense.

Francisco Grau Vegara

Early tests

The good news is that the internet connection is stable so far. The bad news is that the speed of the connection is a lot less than that which we had before. I've tested it using the same sites that I used with the previous connection and tried it several times at different times of the day. On the basis of that, the telephone certainly would not work.

SPEED TEST

Ah well we will have to wait and see. For the same monthly fee I could potentially have a 4Mb connection using ADSL. Sorry Mr Wi-Surf but we originally signed up for 2Mbs not something approaching 512Kbs.

Of course there is still the issue of distance from the exchange as illustrated in this graph. There is not much point switching to ADSL using the phone line if we are too far from the exchange.

Feria de Otono Sunday 22nd October

Last year’s Autumn Fair was very good. This year it was even better with more stalls, more entertainment and more people. Apart from the fair itself, a lot of the shops were open – on a Sunday!

The Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) had set up a stage at the entrance to Calle Purisma especially for the fair where they put on street entertainment including this flamenco dancing class. The entrance archway to the fair was built on Friday and will be knocked down on Monday. As you can see there was a wide variety of goods on sale including food stuff, clothing, cooking pots and jewellery. The herbs in the bags are cures for every conceivable ailment.

Both nights the Ayuntamiento put on concerts in the new theatre including a special tribute to Mozart by a Valencian orchestra.

All the entertainment was of course free.

Hispanamerican day (14th October)

The local free paper told us that the 12^th October was the day that Torrevieja celebrated links with Spanish speaking American countries. This year the event was to take place at the Eras de Sal and would include dancing and singing along with food drink and crafts from South American countries. So we went down to Torrevieja only to find that it was in fact the 14^th when the event would take place.

So we went back to the Eras de Sal on Saturday. There were a few stalls selling crafts, food and drink but not many. The setup inside though was something else. The event was being televised for broadcast in the Hispanamerican countries so the back wall, as you can see, showed the profusion of sponsors. There was also some very serious sound and lighting equipment.

We stayed until about 7:30pm when the place was becoming crowded. Spaniards, fresh from their siesta were arriving in their hordes all dressed up in their best clothes ready for a night of partying. The acts taking part came from the full range of Spanish speaking countries including Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Columbia and Peru. The dancing in particular was quite spectacular and well worth seeing. One slightly confusing item on the programme was Joe Black’s Brass Band from England. Maybe they meet to rehearse at a Mexican restaurant!

A good night's kip

I don’t understand it. When Pamela is here I sleep well most nights. I maybe get up once to have a drink or go to the toilet but that is it. When she is not here I can wake up two, three or more times. Sometimes I can get back to sleep almost straight away but other times I lie awake for what seems like ages. In the morning the bed is an absolute mess. Even the mattress has moved over to my side and I feel like a wreck until mid morning.

I’ve tried going to bed a bit later, I’ve tried having an extra brandy but neither has any effect. Maybe it’s because I am missing Pamela and worrying about how she is but she would never believe that!

They're back

When we came over in November ’04 to complete on our house we stayed in a hotel in Guadamar and met Rachel and David. Just by coincidence they were completing on their house at Villas Andrea as well. So with such a good point of contact we made friends.

Rachel and David are not residents but do come out for several weeks at a time. Normally Rachel will email me to let me know that they are coming but with the Internet down that hasn’t been possible. Anyway we met up with them at the market and they came round to sample my paella the following Saturday. We had a great time catching up on news and events.

We ate outside in the warmth and chatted until it went dark. I knew then that we should either come inside or I should spray myself with repellent. Although Pamela had brought out the citronella candles to keep the mossies away, I still have a dozen bites on my arms and ankles which prove they don’t work. The mossies, like Rachel and David, haven’t been about for awhile but they are obviously back now. I was bitten the week before so I should have known better but there you go.

PS none of the others were bitten. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me feel!

Super bugs

We get a lot of weird insects in the garden. Some of these pests eat the leaves on the palm trees and the hibiscus and are therefore most unwelcome. Others seem to be less harmful.

This little fellow was new to me though. I was painting the top of the wall and noticed him sitting on the new paint. He was struggling to move which wasn’t surprising given that the paint had hardly dried. Does anybody know what he is?

The benefits of living in the town

Of course we love our location on the hill up to the Pedrera. It gives us good views; the plot is big enough for a pool and a garden and it very quiet up here.

A lot of Spanish people though seem to prefer living in apartments and houses in the towns. You can see why when you go down in the evenings to Bigastro. During the daytime Bigastro is very quiet except Mondays and market days. From 2 o clock until 5 during siesta it is deserted but then each night at about 7 it becomes a thriving community of folk. The children play out in the park, the teenagers meet each other in the streets, the parents go out for walks and the grandparents sit outside their houses watching the world go by. The shops are open and the bars are busy. By nine o clock Bigastro becomes quiet again as the people return to their apartments and houses to eat.

The Spanish, like the French and the Italians, love to paseo. Our Spanish teacher can’t understand why we Brits up the hill don’t. She can’t understand why we disappear into our houses during the evenings. Of course our eating habits are different. Spaniards tend to have their main meal at lunchtime whilst we have ours at night. So when they are out socialising we are tucking into our main meal for the day. Mainly though we are not used to going for walks at night. For most of the year in England it is too damn cold to go out in a T-shirt and shorts. I mean who wants to go out for a walk in the cold and the rain?

Maybe in time we will adapt and the park at the bottom of our estate will become a meeting place where we will sit and chat. Somehow I doubt it.

Rolling your “r”s can be difficult in tight pants

In our Spanish class we read passages from a book intended for young children. The first story was about a mouse looking out of his bedroom window at the moon and the stars. The second was about King Midas and the “midas touch”. It was embarrassing that I couldn’t even pronounce some of the words let alone understand what they meant.

We then went on to extend the story about the mouse and say what he did next. Pamela had the advantage there because of her primary teaching background. She explained (in very good Spanish) that the mouse thought there was a man in the moon (el hombre de la luna). She told us that the mouse thought the man was eating the moon because it was made of cheese (la luna está hacer de queso) which made the moon smaller (mas pequeña).Very impressive stuff I can tell you. My best effort was that the mouse closed the curtains and went to sleep.

Anyone who has tried Michel Thomas’ CDs to learn Spanish would be led to believe that you only need to understand about 600 words to read most newspapers. I can assure you Mr Thomas, you’d need a more extensive vocabulary to read that children’s book.

New license

Well I am nearly there with my Spanish driving license. I had a letter from Traffico telling me to go to Alicante to trade in my English license for a Spanish one. What I actually got though, after a three hour wait, was a temporary license. Apparently my plastic card license will come in the post within two months. In the meantime I can use the temporary one in Spain as long as I carry valid ID with me. So nearly there but not quite.

Just as well that Pam didn’t get her letter because she could not have used a temporary license in the UK when she visits there next week. Her letter will hopefully come whilst she is in the UK. We can then go back to Alicante for another three hour wait!

Still we had a good day out, did a bit of shopping in El Corte Ingles and had a nice lunch in Alicante at a “buffet libre”.

New television

The Sony 20 inch Wega screen that we bought looks good, has a surprisingly good sound system and is fine for normal broadcasts. It is hard work watching widescreen films on it though. All you get is a narrow strip of picture across the middle with a black band at the top and bottom. On reflection we should have spent the extra money to buy a 26 inch widescreen set but at the time they were so expensive.

Prices of LCD screens have dropped a lot. The ubiquitous 17inch LCDs have all but disappeared and you can now get sets up to 60 inches. So we bought a Sony 32 inch Bravia V series set and have confined the 20 inch set to the bedroom.

When I first set the new television up in the lounge it looked so big. It seemed to dominate the room and made the hi-fi speakers look so small. Now we are used to it and it fits in well. Movies are a joy to watch; we can even read the subtitles at the end.

It isn’t just the language that she teaches

At our Spanish class the other week we did a bit of work and then we had a discussion (in Spanish of course) about the differences between living in Spain and England.

Inevitably the conversation came around to the girls who offer their services on the roundabouts and alongside the main roads. Actually I have to confess it was my fault because I raised the topic. We explained that this practice would not be allowed in England. Whilst the Guardia Civil happily ignore what is going on, the police in England would arrest any girl attempting to solicit so openly on the roadside.

It isn’t just at night that you see these girls, there is a day shift as well. In fact the day shift is growing in number. Once you might have seen two girls on the way to Torrevieja, now you spot half a dozen. They each have their own patch, presumably with regular customers. Some are well set up with a brolly to shade them and a chair to sit on whilst others just stand in the baking sun. Most are dressed in jeans or shorts but we have seen some in tiny little skirts that do nothing to hide their naked bums. A lot of the girls on the night shift wear just white underwear so you can easily spot them in your headlights. I suppose some of the girls feel that you need to see the goods before you decide to buy.

Prompted by our teacher, we concluded that some men take time out of work to avail themselves of the services on offer whilst others have an extra course at lunchtime. It explains why some Spanish drivers are in such a hurry. They are obviously making up for lost time.

The discussion then moved on to hygiene. Our teacher suggested that maybe they had a bottle of water and possibly some soap to clean up between customers. The idea of being the last customer without such measures was not a pleasant one. We then asked what rates they charged but she said she didn’t know. We imagined it might be anything up to 50 euros but a better informed member of our class suggested the normal price was more like 30 euros. Apparently you pay more for the girls in the clubs but then you don’t have to struggle in a car with them.

It is important to know about these cultural differences.

Getting to grips with it

I bought my new camera when we went to visit Cartagena in early June. I’ve used it a lot since then and even bought an external flash and a telephoto zoom lens to use with it.

It is only now though that I am getting used to it and finding the best ways to get the photos I want. Like all digital cameras it has a fully auto mode where you just point the camera and shoot. With my Olympus I used to use that mode for most of my pictures because it was the easiest way to use that camera.

With my new Canon the manual settings are much easier to achieve than they were with the Olympus so I am using them a lot more. For example you can easily select which of the five focus points are going to be used for auto focus. Choosing the right points ensures that what you want to be the main subject is rendered sharp. On the Olympus you could choose spot or average focussing with or without assistance. The process required a lot more button pressing so I tended to forget to do it.

The simplest way to use the external flashgun is to set it and the camera to auto. The camera sets itself to 1/60^th second shutter speed and the widest aperture of the lens. That gives the flash the longest possible range but doesn’t necessarily give the results I want. Like all lenses, mine work best at the mid range of apertures so even for normal flash it is best to set the aperture manually. For fill in flash where the flash is used to lighten part of a daylight photo setting the aperture manually is essential. Fortunately setting the camera manually is very easy to do. Set the camera to aperture priority and then once the flash is attached, the camera selects the right shutter speed to use. The flash then sorts itself out according to the chosen aperture. For fill in flash I can therefore choose the right aperture to balance the flash and daylight exposures.

The biggest improvements over the Olympus though are the speed at which the camera works and the lack of digital noise in pictures taken at higher film speed ratings. Auto focus on the Olympus could be very slow on pictures with limited contrast especially in low light. The Olympus also produced pictures with distinct digital noise at 400ASA. The Canon focuses very quickly and is still useable at 1600ASA.

There are a lot more features that I haven’t delved into yet. Using these features might take me longer to get my photos but it should be worth it. Hopefully when I have mastered the camera you will see the improvements in the pictures that I post.

Mayday

We watch programmes on the National Geographic channel and have learnt a lot from them. One of the series they run is about aircraft disasters. Now those are scary especially when the aircraft involved are the same ones we use to fly back to England in.

During the programmes they examine each crash in great detail to determine exactly what caused it. In some cases it is human error but too often it is a design fault or a faulty repair to an aircraft. The other night it was the rear of the plane that had been repaired by Boeing and they had only used one row of rivets to fix the new panel instead of two. On a previous programme it was the cargo door that opened outwards instead of inwards to make loading quicker. A failure in the hydraulics seems to feature all too often.

Next time I fly I might just ask the pilot “has this plane been repaired properly”, “when was it last checked”, “which way do the cargo doors open”, “are all the hydraulics routed through one part of the plane”. Never mind the stewardess telling us “in the event of landing over water” – most of our trip is over land – what happens then? I think I know the answer to that one from the programmes we have watched.

Home alone (19th October)

I took Pam to Alicante airport last night. When we got there I went up to the upper level parking because you can waste a lot of time looking for a place at the lower level. However, you now have the same problem at the front of the upper level. Where there used to be loads of free places, these are now filled because new hire car companies are parking vehicles there and are working out of what look like ice cream vans. To make matters worse though people have taken to parking on the roadways which make it difficult for you to even get around the car park. Give me Murcia airport anytime; the parking there is much better.

PS Pam has phoned to say that she arrived in the UK with just a short delay. Surprise, surprise though Manchester has grey skies and rain.

Not for tilting at (1st October)

We decided to go to Lo Pagan where we had promised to take John and Joyce. We’d been there before on our coach trip to the market at San Pedro del Pinatar and also when we went to watch Aire 06 but had not had a chance to explore the area fully. Just as well we didn’t take John because we walked for miles and came home shattered.

First we parked at the fishing port at Lo Pagan and walked along the promenade to Santiago de la Ribera. After a refreshment stop we walked back to the car and had some lunch and then set off to the Parque Reg. San Pedro del Pinatar which is a series of salt lakes populated by flamingoes.

There is a very long path which we followed that goes out to sea with the park on one side and Mar Menor on the other. When you get to the end you are only a short distance from the strip of land which separates the Mar Menor from the Mar Mediterraneo. On this strip are the posh hotels and apartments.

On the salinas side of the path we followed, crazy Spaniards (and possibly others) cake themselves in the mud from the bottom of the salt lakes and then let it dry on them. We are told that the minerals in the mud are good for the skin. Even stranger though are the people who sit in a brackish water channel bathing in stinking brine. Note the lady who has even taken her chair to sit on whilst she bathes her feet in the water. Sensible people of course just lie in the sun or go for a swim on the Mar Menor side of the path.

As you can see the molinos or windmills are way past there best and wouldn’t stand any tilting.

The little yellow plane

Sounds like a title for a children’s story but it isn’t. The plane in question flies over our estate and I dare say a lot of other houses at what looks and sounds like 50 feet up. Some days it arrives at a respectable hour but on others it will fly over at the crack of dawn (8 am is very early for retired people). Pam says the pilot must be a man because no woman would be so stupid enough to fly over houses at that time of day. It does make me wonder though what time the he has to get up to be over Villas Andrea at 8 in the morning.

People tell me that the purpose of the plane is crop spraying for insects. If that is the case, why do we still have hundreds of flies and mosquitoes not to mention grasshoppers and other undesirables buzzing round the garden? The flies are the worst especially when they persist in landing on your face. So get the flies and the mossies Mr Yellow Plane otherwise buzz off round some other people’s houses.

Growing faster than the children

When we arrived less than two years ago and I started to turn over the soil in the garden I couldn’t believe what I was dealing with. At best the soil was heavy loam full of rocks at worst solid clay. My neighbour was so disgusted with his soil he went down to the local garden centre and bought soil to replace the rubbish that he had to deal with. In his opinion nothing would grow successfully in the soil we had been given so the only sensible course of action was to replace it. I told myself if the locals could grow produce in this soil then so could I.

In England I would have rough dug the soil, limed it and let the winter frosts break it up. Without a winter frost that wasn’t going to work. So the best I could do was break it up by hoeing and raking and hope for the best. The soil is still poor in patches but is a lot better than it was. In any case the good thing about heavy soil is that it needs less watering and any fertilizer I apply doesn’t get leached away.

There are still areas of solid clay where nothing will grow well but as you can see in less than two years the plants have done well. These two pictures were taken just about a year apart. Some plants have done too well and I now have to cut them back to stop them smothering the rest of the garden.

The most gratifying plants are the ones that looked as though they were dead or dying like the cycad and he phoenix palm which both have new leaves in abundance. Even the hibiscus which looked as though it was just a bunch of twigs at the start of the year has flowered for months.

You always take the weather with you

Peter Kay tells the story of holiday makers taking the sunshine back in their cases to the UK. Is it possible that you can take the weather with you? Certainly when our visitors came this year the weather here changed from brilliant sunshine to a mixture of overcast days with some sunshine. Once they returned to England the weather changed back and we had brilliant sunshine again. Had they made a big mistake and brought their English weather with them?

The day that John and Joyce left the skies were blue and the sun shone from early morning to dusk. It was much the same every day for at least the following week. Whilst they were here we had half days of clear skies at best. If it was clear in the morning it had clouded over by the afternoon and vice versa. It might have suited them but it didn’t best please us.

It was the same for the girls in June. We even had a few dullish days when the Hugh, Angela and Andrew came in August.

For next year please leave your English weather back home. Don’t bother packing it in your suitcases to bring here. We don’t mind you sharing our Spanish sunshine just as long as you don’t try and take it back to England with you and leave us with English gloom.

Six rashers Johnnie and four balls Joyce

Whilst we didn’t know the outcome of Pam’s mother’s stroke, the visit of our John and Joyce was in the balance. As it happened Pam had been back nearly a week before they were due to arrive so they were able to come. We were glad because they are long standing friends. Pam has known John for 45 years and I’ve known him for 38. We’ve known Joyce for over 18 years.

Last year their flight was cancelled and they ended up arriving 12 hours late at 2:30 in the morning. This year they arrived on time in brilliant sunshine. The excellent weather didn’t last though and so we had a few days when it was cloudy at least for part of the day. It didn’t seem to spoil their time here though. We lazed around the pool, ate, drank and chatted. Generally it was just a relaxed week with a few visits to break up the pace. As you might expect, they left in brilliant sunshine.

Why “six rashers”? Well John likes a bacon buttie for breakfast and is quite happy to make his own. Normally he would have a few rashers perhaps with an egg to make it more interesting. On the Sunday though there were six rashers left in the packet so he decided to cook them all rather than leave some. In fairness we are not talking Danish back bacon slices but even with Spanish bacon, a six rasher buttie is serious business!

Why “four balls”? Joyce was tempted to go for a late night swim the first night they were here but then changed her mind. The deal on subsequent nights was that if four of the floating pool lights came on she would go for a swim. On the last night four of the lights came on but Joyce baulked on the deal. Perhaps on a future visit she might be tempted again!

Thank you for your company. We hope you enjoyed yourselves. We also hope that you have a fabulous time cruising through the Panama Canal. It won’t be the same as a week in Bigastro but we’re sure it will be OK.

Recycling

I have to eat my own words. Pam’s father’s hoarding has paid off. When Jemma and Laura looked through the old clothes that Marjorie kept they saw a potential to make money. Apparently there are shops and web sites that specialise in clothes from the seventies and earlier. I didn’t know that.

Jemma and Laura carefully went through the wardrobes at Arthur’s house and selected those items which they thought would sell easily. Jemma photographed them and sent the pictures by email to the owner of one of the web sites she had found. Her reward was a cheque for £300 plus postage for clothes that we would have either taken to the charity shop or more to the point the skip.

I dare say there are even more items that are saleable especially the crockery and glasses which in some cases date back to the 20s. I ask you though, who would have thought that crimplene would come back into fashion?

Beware the voices of doom and gloom

The pipework to carry the telephone cable is laid. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I even asked the foreman who was supervising the job if the pipe was for telephones. It runs to the first Telefonica box at the bottom of the estate. From there the pipework goes round the whole estate. Each house is connected to the boxes and the phonepoints are already installed in the lounges and main bedrooms. If you lift the covers on the Telefonica boxes in the road you can see the cables. They have now put the cable in at the bottom of the road. A friend of ours saw them do it and again confirmed it was for telephones.

Still people are not convinced. First there was a rumour that only the builder was to get a phone. The rumour goes on to say that a vote was taken at the Council meeting which proved 9 to 1 against phones being connected to Villas Andrea. Now why on earth would anyone go the trouble of laying 500metres or more of pipework just to connect one house? More to the point what would anyone in the council gain by denying us our phones? Of course it is election time next year. Could this be an early smear campaign to discredit one of the candidates?

Still the rumours persist. We can only have radio phones at Villas Andrea. That is because two people have just been offered radio phones by Telefonica. One resident already has a radio phone. He didn’t need a cable to be laid up from the village to get it. Then we are told the cable that they have laid isn’t thick enough to supply a line for each house. Oh and yes, there aren’t the green boxes that you find in England where all the connections are housed. Yes there are boxes – we have one just around the corner on Calle Le Vigan which says Telefonica on it. I dare say there are others if you go round and look for them. I’d guess that there are more experts on telecommunications living here at Villas Andrea than there are in the rest of Spain.

Anyway it appears that we should have phones by Christmas. All we need to do is to register our interest at the Town Hall and they will process he requests to Telefonica.

Back on line

My father always said “don’t speak too soon” and I certainly did when I said that we would probably keep the connection from Wi-Surf because it had become reliable. Our Internet connection went over a month ago. At first we were told that it was a satellite connection failure following a thunderstorm and that the provider was working day and night to fix it. Then we were told the provider had gone bankrupt and a new provider would need to be contacted: estimated time for reconnection 14 – 28 days. This was like déjà vu because the last time we had a long period of disconnection the provider had gone bust and had been taken over by the present company.

Anyway we were then told that we would be reconnected within 7 days (sic) by ADSL rather than by satellite. Now that was good news because an ADSL connection should be more reliable. An ADSL connection would also make the phone useable. The question was then, how were they going to provide us with an ADSL connection? Obviously we would still use the existing wireless setup to connect to the Wi-Surf server up at the Pedrera but how were Wi-Surf going to connect the wireless setup to ADSL without a cable? There is no cable up to the Pedrera and it doesn’t look as if there will be in the near future. Apparently their plan was to use a hybrid system that would relay an ADSL connection from a site where there was a cable via microwaves to our site at the Pedrera. The hybrid system, although not as good as true ADSL, would make the phone useable.

It seems that for the moment that will not be possible so Wi-Surf have had to resort back to a satellite connection with a different provider.Since VOIP is useless over a satellite connection, we will definitely move over to Telefonica for the phone as soon as we can. We will keep the Wi-Surf connection for the Internet though for two reasons.

1. Internet providers in Spain work with much higher contention ratios than Wi-Surf i.e more users share the connection speed.
2. Although Bigastro has an ADSL enabled exchange we don’t know where that is. If the exchange is too far away then our potential speed will be limited.

I’d like to see what other people’s experiences are like before making the decision to move from Wi-Surf.

The Town Hall has now collated the names and mobile numbers of all the people at Villas Andrea who want a phone. These will be passed on to Telefonica who should contact us to let us know when that will be possible. Since all the cables are now laid we are told that could be before Christmas.

Pam´s visit

Pam is due to have one of her regular checkups at the hospital this month. So she will be back in the UK from 18th to the 31st of October. She will be spending some time with Laura in Sale and then moving on to Wolverhampton where she will stay with Jemma.

Meantime I will be "home alone" again making sure the fence stays up and the plants don´t die.

We´ll be back soon (we hope)

As you have already guessed or found out our Internet connection has been down for nearly four weeks. First we were told that the satellite provider had a problem following a thunderstorm. Then the provider had gone bankrupt. No problem though because we were to be connected via ADSL within seven days. Since then though they have had a problem with the antenna and have a replacement ordered. So we are waiting for the replacement to be installed.

The good news is that it looks like the phone lines are installed and just waiting for connection. Either way I have a stack of messages stored on my computer ready to upload for you to read.

A house husbands work is never done

I've washed all the bedding and the towels so they are nice and clean for Pam's return. I'm about half way through cleaning the house. I did have a bit of a setback though when the new washing lines that I had put up at the front of the house fell down. Not only did I have to screw the lines back up I also had to wash the bedding again. Oh the trials and tribulations of a house husband. Time for a quick cup of coffee and then back to dusting and hoovering!!

Almost there

Although Pamela is flying home tomorrow that is not what I am referring to. No, the long awaited event is the telephone line which is now getting closer. What a joy that will be.

Whilst the Wi-Surf connection is good for the internet at the moment it is hopeless for the VOIP (voice over internet protocol) phone. Calls using it are cheap but the quality is so poor it is almost unuseable. At best there is an echo of your voice at worst the conversation breaks up so the recipient only hears parts of words. You end up having to repeat everything at least twice. I haven't tried it to make calls in Spain but I am told that they are even worse. Actually Peter Forrester Reed, ex MD of Wi-Surf, admits himself that VOIP is not suitable on a satellite connection. I just wish he had told us that when we had it installed!

I don't know about changing over to landline based ADSL though. It all depends how far we are away from the exchange. More that 5kms and it just won't work. Even if we are less than 5kms it may not be any faster than the satellite connection we have now which seems to average about 1.7mbs per second. Only time will tell. I certainly don't want to be first to switch over just to find I have a slower connection.

Will it pass inspection?

I spent most of yesterday working in the garden. I also mopped the porch to get rid of those paw prints that were annoying me and cleaned the car. By the time I had done I was pretty well knackered. Working outdoors when the humidity is high and the temperature is 28 degrees saps the strength out of me. Watching the locals working on building sites makes me wonder just how do they do it. I've come to the conclusion that Spain is a better place to be retired than working.

Anyway I now have a second boot full of rubbish to get rid of. Once I have got rid of that, I need to vacuum the dead flower heads of the roof terrace. Oleander was perhaps not the best plant to use up there. They drop dead flower heads daily and make a mess of an area that used to be pristine. Still they are there now and unless they die off they are staying there.

The question is though; will Pamela think I've done a good job. Maybe I should have taken before shots with my camera just to show her how much work I've had to do.

PS Good job I finished that fence on Saturday because there were people around next door all day yesterday. If they had spotted me twisting my bits of wire they might have called the police. I'm not sure how I would have explained what I was doing in Spanish.

On to the next job

I finished the fence yesterday. Just by a stroke of luck whowever had been to visit next door hadn't locked the gate. That meant that I could add some extra wire ties poking them through from my side and twisting them tight on their side. Hopefully the fence will stay up this time!

Today's job is the garden. I've already made a start removing the larger weeds. Now I've got to hoe the smaller weeds, do a bit of pruning, replace some of the dead plants (mainly lavenders) and tie up the bougainvilleas which have grown like mad since I went away.

Then I need to clean the car which looks like it has been on safari for a month, jet wash the paving and clear up the dead flowers from the roof terrace. Oh yes and mop the porch where next door's cat has left its muddy prints.

Pam comes back on Wednesday so by then I'll also have to get the shopping, change the bedding and towels and generally clean round.

My apologies to friends in the UK but I won't be coming for a two week stay in August again. Apart from all the work I've had to do on my return, I missed the end of the fiesta!

Taking forever

I didn't realise how much of the cane fencing had come down until I inspected it properly.

The sections that are still secure are the ones where the ties were pulled tight. I imagine therefore that it is a combination of the sun and the chaffing against the wire netting that has caused the ones in the sections that weren't tightened so much to snap.

Anyway after a second day working at it I have managed to get most of the fencing back. Strange thing though the panels are now short so I have had to buy a new roll to fill in the gap. Amazing the difference in colour between the old (six months) and the new. Still the new will quickly fade to the same colour.

It is nice to have privacy back. The log term solution though may be to have the wall built up by a metre or so.

Protest

When I arrived back on Tuesday night I noticed a gathering of people on Avenida Europa where John and Jean live. What I thought was a party of sorts was in fact a protest meeting.

Avenida Europa has been dug up both sides to lay piping. The first pipes were the drainage from the Road up to our estate. The second lot are for the telephone cables that we have long waited for at Villas Andrea. It looks like they are planning to dig a third set of pipes for water. Once the pipes are laid they fill the trenches in the road with soil which of course becomes mud when it rains and blows dust storms in the wind. At the moment there is a 6 foot strip of tarmac in the middle the rest is just a dirt track.

The people living on Avenida Europa (all Spanish except for John and Jean) have decided enough is enough. The meeting on Tuesday was to present the local police with a petition. The deal was if they haven't had a satisfactory reply by Saturday they are going to blockade the road on Sunday. I'm not quite sure what that will achieve but I suppose they feel they have to do something.

Update

Apparently it will be two weeks before they get an answer from the council so the blockade has been delayed until then.

At last

It's a given fact that Spain is the noisiest country in Europe.
Why talk when you can shout seems to be the main way of thinking.

However, one thing that manages to annoy even the noisiest Spaniard is the souped-up motorbikes, which damage eardrums wherever they go.Police in Yecla have decided on a course of action to deal with noise pollution. They have taken on patrolling in plain clothes and then sweeping down on the unsuspecting offenders as they ride past. In one day alone last week, they arrested six bikers.

Many of the bikers have tampered with their exhaust pipes in order to create that hellish roar. This in itself is illegal and if caught the perpetrators face a fine of 150 euros. As well as a fine, the bike itself is confiscated until the owner arranges for a police approved mechanic to convert the exhaust back to normal. Afterwards the rider can have his bike back.

The police say that going undercover is the only option available to stop the nuisance bikers, because whenever they see a marked police car, they will take any measures to avoid arrest, endangering both their own lives and those of innocent bystanders in an attempt to escape.

It is time that other Town Halls took a leaf out of Yecla's book and authorised similar measures to beat these selfish louts who are oblivious to the annoyance and misery they cause.

Not just a problem in the UK

The Association of Relatives of Patients of Alzheimer of Bigastro has programmed a series of activities to celebrate the World-wide Day of the Alzheimer.

These days all we will be able to collaborate and to participate, among others with these activities:

INFORMATIVE TABLES

Thursdays 14 and 21 of September
From 10:00 to 13:00 hours
Calle Purisma

FREE BINGO

Friday, 15 of September
21:00 hours
Parque Huerto del Cura

FACTORY OF GAMES FOR CHILDREN

A factory that consists of a series of fun activities directed specially to children, so that they can include/understand the symptoms that affect the patients of Alzheimer.


INFORMATIVE TALK

" How Alzheimer disease affects families "
Wednesday, 20 of September
Salón de Planos del Ayuntamiento
20:30 hours
Speakers: Marina Baró (Psychologist)
Silvia Ortiz (Social Worker)

Waiting for me

The mossies were obviously waiting for my return deprived of their drop of blood for two weeks. I was only out in the garden for ten minutes or so on Tuesday night when I got back but that was long enough for the buggers to give me four bites. Damn.

Mostly the garden is fine and some things have done well whilst I was away. I should have staked the tomatoes though because the fruit has rotted on the ground. The pool had some leaves that had crept round the cover and some dust on the bottom otherwise it was also OK.

The biggest problem has been the cane fencing. Quite a few sections had come down whilst I was away. John from down the road had spent a few hours putting a lot of it back up but there are still quite a few sections to put back . The problem is that the nylon ties I used have rotted in the sun and snapped.

John reckons I should abandon the cane stuff and put the green fake hedging up because it is lighter and lets the wind through. We hate that stuff though. It looks tacky and the colour fades badly in the sun. If we continue to have a problem I might have to find a builder who will build the side wall up to 2m. That would give us total privacy when we are by the pool.

Marjorie Fenton

1923 - 2006

Wife of Arthur, mother to Pamela and nana to Jemma and Laura; Marjorie died peacefully on Thursday, 24th August at The Countess of Chester Hospital. The church service for her was held at The Methodist Church, Little Sutton on Friday, 1st September followed by cremation at Blacon. They say that the sun shines on the righteous. It certainly did for Marjorie because the sun shone on the day she passed away and again on he day of her funeral.

Marjorie first met Arthur at the age of 15 when she was Head Girl at her school. On her way home she would pass the shop where he worked. Later she worked in the shop next door and their frendship blossomed. They were married shortly after the war and had Pamela, their only child a year later when they lived in Derby Street, Macclesfield. Early this year they celebrated their Diamond Wedding Anniversary.

Arthur's job in the Fire Service took them to many places including Hoylake, Northwich, Ellsmere Port, Crewe, Chester and then Little Sutton. Marjorie had worked in munitions during the war and then in a gents' outfitters in Hoylake but latterly preferred to be at home to be there for Arthur on his days off.

Marjorie enjoyed dancing. With her partner Arthur was awarded gold medals and trophies to prove how good they were. Marjorie also enjoyed their holidays abroad. They visited many European countries including France, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Madiera, the Balearic Islands and the Canaries always staying in four star hotels.

Marjorie was an active member of the WI in Crewe and the Bright Hour in Little Sutton. She was a much loved member of the church.

Her last years were difficult following the stroke she suffered 17 years ago from which she never fully recovered. In spite of her difficulties though she was always cheerful and an inspiration to others. He grandaughters particularly learnt a lot from her wisdom.

Marjorie will be sadly missed by all who knew her. She is now reunited with her parents Jack and Violet and her friends from Macclesfield with whom she will be at peace.

Pam's father

Arthur has many good points. He is methodical, generous and caring. He has spent the last seventeen years caring for his wife following a stroke which left her with little use in her left arm and leg. Having said that though he can be very stubborn and unwilling to accept help and any point of view other than his own. He is also argumentative and can be sarcastic. Apparently his father was stubborn and his brother displayed similar traits. Arthur is also a hoarder.

He has a severe hearing problem but won't admit to it. Arthur has a hearing aid but refuses to wear it. Having a conversation with him his is therefore very difficult. If he is not in the same room as the phone he doesn't hear it and if he's not in the hallway he doesn't hear the doorbell. The main worry though is that he can't hear high pitched sounds like fire and smoke alarms. Pam has tried to get him to wear his hearing aid but has been met with point blank refusal (stubborness).

Arthur also suffers from short term memory loss. He can remember things which happened thirty years ago well enough but has difficulty remembering things which happened last week. The way that he gets around this is to have a set routine which he follows slavishly each day. I wouldn't be surprised to find that he has taken Pam two cups of tea this morning because he will have forgotten that I left yesterday.

He doesn't like driving anymore but refuses to part with his car. It is now three years old but has done so little mileage that it looks like new. In order to tax it he had to take it for an MOT. The guy at the garage where he had the MOT done could hardly believe how clean it was under the bonnet. Every week he charges the battery up and then doesn't go near it until the next week. When he does eventually sell the car someone will get an absolute bargain.

Shopping for food is a problem for him because within walking distance there are only a couple of small supermarkets. That combined with the fact that he is too impatient to spend time preparing meals means that he lives on a diet of available microwavable food. No fresh vegetables, meat or fish and very little fresh fruit. He buys half a dozen eggs each week and throws them away before the next week's shop. His idea of lunch is a round of sandwiches made with thin sliced brown bread and one slice of meat. He accompanies this with an apple which is cored, peeled and cut into thin slices. Dinners are just as lean which is why both he and Marjorie had lost a lot of weight when we last visited them in July. Whilst I was there he told me that I needed to loose weight on several occasions and even offered to teach me his army exercises. I of couse politely declined this offer. I don't do thin!

Arthur doesn't seem to like fresh air and will close any window that you open to prevent its intrusion into the house. Again on our visit in July he had all the windows and doors shut during the very hot weather. It was unbearable especially in the conservatory. We like fresh air and sleep with the window open wide. In the mornings he would come in to bring us a cup of tea and if he spotted the window open he would close it without asking. There was a note on his central heating boiler from the Gas Board telling him not to use it because the ventilation was insufficient. He has chosen to ignore that advice.

Worst trait though is the hoarding. Every cupboard and drawer in the house is full of "junk" most of which he hasn't used in decades. For example we found dozens of hotel soaps and shower caps from the 70s when they went on holidays along with sun cream bottles that were almost dried up. His kitchen cupboards that should be filled with food etc have masses of old bills dating back to the seventies. The wardrobes upstairs are the same. If the BBC decided to make a programme about the 70s he could supply the whole cast with several changes of clothing. The garage has dried up tins of paint and rusty screws that just might come in someday!! De-junking his house would take weeks if not months and would require the largest skip that is available. At eighty two yeasr old I doubt whether he will do it. Mind you my father is just as bad. It must be something to do with the metality of people who lived through the war and rationing.

His shirts are worn at the collar, his shoes have the soles loose, the sheets on our bed had holes and the towels you could see through. Pam had been there four weeks before he allowed her to change the bed and even then he put her off washing the dirty sheets. The towels in the bathroom hadn't been washed since Pam got there. Mind you he's probably right not to wash them; the sheets and towels would disintegrate in the washing machine.

It would be easy to assume that Arthur is poor and has very little to live on. His bank balance though proves that is far from being true. It's not that he is mean in fact he is generous. He just doesn't see the necessity to throw out things that he regards as perfectly good and replace them with new.

Over the weeks that Pam has been there he has near driven her to dispair. The neighbours, who are excellent, worry about him but he won't accept their help. He doesn't even let them in the house most times. Parents - who would have them!

The full story

I got to England on Tuesday 15th August and stayed at Laura's for the night. Pam collected me the next day and took me to the Wirral. We visited Marjorie in hospital that afternoon. She was quite lucid and clearly recognised me, even signalled a comment about my tan. She was on a saline drip but had refused feeding by a tube through the nose.

There were several touching moments during the week that followed when she would point to her heart and then point to Pamela or me to tell us that she loved us. She also told us that she wanted us to look after Arthur as she looked upwards to signal where she knew she was going. We told her that we loved her in return and that everything would be alright.

Her grandaughters came to see her and you could see that made her very happy. The Minster from the Church also visited her and brought a smile to her face. Even at this stage she was bringing joy to other people's lives.

As the week progressed though she was becoming weaker and was having difficulty breathing. There was also a problem with the saline drip. She therefore refused to have any further attempts to have fluids. She knew the consequence of her decision and was clearly prepared to accept it.

We met with the doctor the following Tuesday who basically told us that she was dying but obviously not in those terms. On the Thursday morning she passed away peacefully at 10:35 am. We fuly believe that was what she wanted. The second stroke had further paralysed her left side and left her without speech or the ability to swallow. If she had survived her life would have been intolerable and she knew it. The church service and subsequent cremation took place on Friday 1st September in glorious sunshine. The service was well attended and the mourners made generous donations to the Stroke Unit at the hospital. Strange as it may seem it was a happy day because we were celebrating someone who had brought a lot of pleasure into people's lives.

Arthur has had difficulty coming to terms with his loss but is gradually accepting it. As I have said previously he has a problem with his short term memory to such an extent that the other day he asked when Marjorie had died.

Pam is staying until Sunday and then goes back to Laura's for a few days before flying back home to Spain next Wednesday.

Throughout the whole harrowing perdiod of her mother's illness and her subsequent passing, Pam has been an inspiration. She organised the funeral, notified the relatives, registered the death etc. She even bought the neighbours gifts to thank them for their support. All of which she did in a calm and considerate way. I am very proud of the way she has handled a very difficult time in her life.

Living with her father has been to say the least difficult for Pam but more of that in my next post. In the meantime I am very happy to be back home here in Spain. I missed the place an awful lot when I was in England.

Back soon

It feels like I have been away from Spain for months - in fact it is only two weeks. Still I have a ticket booked for Tuesday to return. When I get back I will update you all.

Sadly Marjorie passed away last Thursday peacefully at The Countess of Chester Hospital and was cremated yesterday. Pam is staying with her father for a further week to make sure that he is OK.