The people from Villas Andrea who contributed or helped can be justifiably proud of themselves. By the time people started to file past, the Buffet Británico table was groaning with food of every description.
even young children in push chairs join in
One lucky person is sitting on a lottery ticket worth £35.4m after winning the EuroMillions draw.
Camelot, which operates the British arm of the European lottery, said it would be the biggest single payout in the UK's lottery history.
But the holder of the ticket, which was bought somewhere in the UK, has not come forward since Friday night's draw.
Camelot said the winner, who has 180 days to collect their prize, may not even be aware of their good fortune.
The numbers drawn on Friday 10 August are: 23, 40, 42, 43, 49. Lucky Star numbers are: 2 and 6.
THE DGT traffic department will be issuing Guardia Civil traffic officers with new technology in October so that they can report traffic violations immediately to a central computing system.
After completing trials on the hand-held PRIDE (Programa de Informatizacíon de Denuncias) devices in the province of Segovia, DGT officials said that as from 2008 the same equipment will be used nationwide.
PRIDE units will allow Guardia Civil officers to report traffic offences on the spot and motorists who are fined can pay using a credit card thanks to the units’ magnetic band reader.
Officers will also have immediate access to the driver and vehicles details and records on the PRIDE unit screen, information which is currently only available by radio contact with head offices.
The units will be connected to the central computer system via a global positioning system operated by a major mobile phone company.
I hope the signal is better than we get on our mobile phones!
It seems that the low cost airline Ryanair are negotiating to fly to and from Alicante airport. This move will hopefully bring the cost of travelling to the UK down since Ryanair are said to be the cheapest of the budget airlines.
The problem with a lot of the budget airlines though is that the true cost of flights is much more than the advertised price. Once you add surcharges and now baggage costs to the original price it almost doubles.
WEDNESDAY, 15th August
12:00 Brass Band and trips on the "Uncle of the Tractor" through the streets of the town.
12:00 Mass to Honor the Virgin of Asunción
19:00 Entrance of the bands along the calles
19:30 Multicoloured parade of comparsas
01:00 Traditional Dawn announcing of the great day of the patron.
01:30 Performance by David Civera (entrance free) followed by Disco móvil in the Parque Huerto del Cura
THURSDAY, 16th August
11:00 Parade of the Town Band through the streets followed by Holy Mass.
12:00 Solemn Mass to honour San Joaquin, presided over by the Moseñor Fernando Navarro Cremades, prelate of its Sanctity and Parish priest of the Basilica de nuestra Señora de Aspe, along with the local parish priest, D. Jesús Ortu6no. In addition there will be a performance by Chorale Manuel Moya.
20:30 Solemn Procession to honor San Joaquin. Followed by a spectacular fireworks castle.
01:00 Disco- móvil
If we can find it we'll sample the Negra (Alc. 5.6% Vol.) A black beer with a large creamy white head. It has a strong flavour of toasted malt.Around 60 homeowners in San Pedro del Pinatar have been told to demolish their conservatories. Furthermore they were told they would have to pay a 2,670-euro fine.
In most cases the conservatories are too large and in every case were built without licenses. Many of the homeowners thought that it would be legal to build as long as they did not use bricks. It seems a building license is needed even if bricks are not used.
The residents in San Pedro have now been told they have 15 years to demolish the conservatories and that the fine will be reduced. People in other areas may not be so lucky.
The Valencian Government are using aerial photographs to identify illegal building including houses, pools and extensions. During our recent visit to Catastra in Alicante we were shown the up-to-date photograph they have of Villas Andrea. On the photograph you can clearly see every detail of the houses here.
The advice is to not to trust a solicitor and certainly not a builder but to ask your town hall before building.
Worse still though are the illegal homes that have been built in Catral. There are already demolition proceedings in place for 45 houses. In spite of that, over one hundred new houses have just been completed in the area and are being advertised on the Internet for 252,000€ each.
Although some of the illegal houses in Catral may be granted licenses, it is possible that these won't and will have to be demolished at some time during the future.
My comment
How do they get away with building illegal houses? I can understand that if someone adds a conservatory to their house then only the neighbors would be aware but how do you build a house let alone 100 houses without someone in authority noticing?
So if the Council are aware that houses are being built without permission, why don't they do something to stop them? Surely it is too late once the houses are finished and occupied to declare them illegal.
I would like to think that in many cases the buyers are unaware that they have bought something illegal. By the time the Council have decided that the houses are illegal and issued orders for demolition the builder has had his money and gone leaving the buyer with the misery of loosing their home without compensation.
On Wednesday, the environment minister, Cristina Narbona inaugurated the water pump which will bring drinking water from both desalinisation plants in San Pedro del Pinatar to the Vega Baja area.
The water will be delivered to Almoradí, Algorfa, Benejúzar, Benijófar, Bigastro, Daya Nueva, Daya Vieja, Formentera, Guardamar, Jacarilla, Los Montesinos, Orihuela, Orihuela Costa, Pilar de la Horadada, Rafal, Rojales, San Fulgencio, San Miguel de Salinas and Torrevieja.
The pump is included in the huge water supply network which is being built in the Vega Baja area and Murcia.
The water will be pumped to the main water distribution installations in Jacarilla through 29 kilometres of pipes which are currently under construction.
They will distribute the water produced by the desalinisation plants in San Pedro and Torrevieja through the water purifying plants in La Pedrera and in Torrealta along with water stored in reservoirs in Murcia and Los Montesinos.
More than 24 million euros have been invested in the water pump works which are included in the AGUA plan.
Minister Cristina Narbona confirmed that tap water will NOT be cut off this summer despite the serious drought.
The improved 'return delivery service will be launched today and promises that passports will be secure in transit with a built in monitoring service from leaving Madrid until delivery.
New biometric passports will be returned via Bpack, one of Spain's leading courier companies. To meet strict new delivery standards, passports will no longer travel with Correos, the Spanish postal service, or other courier companies. However, you can still collect the newly issued travel document from the Consulate-General in person.
In addition, you will have immediate access to despatch information, by going to Bpack's tracking system via the British Embassy's website www.bpack.net/britishconsulate.aspx or telephoning Bpack staff at the Consulate-General on 91 524 9757 during office hours.
You can still send your application to Madrid by whatever means you choose but the Embassy suggests using Bpack ; making the arrangements by calling 91 524 9757. The cost will be 11 euros for returning passports to addresses in mainland Spain and the Balearics, and 15 euros to the Canary Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, and Andorra. However, as the Bpack charge is per package and not for each passport, couples and families will not pay more when making multiple applications.
The Consulate-General will charge people's credit or debit cards for the Bpack service when taking the passport fee on receipt of the application form. They stress that it is important to get your application right before sending it in because any incomplete or incorrect applications would have to be returned by courier and charges would be levied. It is also important to note passport application guidance - particularly on required standards of photographs, countersignatures, and documentary evidence of nationality. This is available online from www.ukinspain.com and clicking on the passport icon, or from any British Consulate.
The association of builders Procosta appealed yesterday to the political and social forces of the region to defend the image of the Costa Blanca and save the future economy of the Vega Baja
They maintain that the economy of the region depends on residential tourism and its derived services.
Procosta blame the sluggish sales of houses on the poor image that the region has in the UK press.
Procosta demand a Plan of Territorial Action for the Region (PACT) that sets out the city-planning development for the Vega Baja.
Procosta claim that development of urbanizable land should be seen as part of an overall plan which takes account of the problems of each municipality. Too often, they say, the development of towns becomes embroiled in social and ecological arguments that lead to piecemeal development. In other words it isn't just about building houses without considering the other services that go with them.
The first was Andrew's 18th birthday party. Andrew ,who is the son of our very good friends and ex neighbours Angela and Hugh, has been having adult parties for his birthday since he was born. Sadly this one may be the last because hopefully he will be going to University later this year to study law. For the first time the party had to be held inside the house, not because it was raining but because the lawn was too wet to walk on. Still it didn't dampen the atmosphere.
The second party was for Dave who is the boyfriend of our youngest daughter Laura. Laura and Dave live in a flat in Sale so the party was held at his friend Liam's mother's house. 
A kind break in the gloomy weather provided us with warm sunshine all day.
Many thanks to Jane for inviting us and hosting the party in the first place.
In between partying we did a bit of retail therapy at the Trafford Centre, the Outlook Village and in Manchester.
I also furthered my knowledge of English beers courtesy of Dave who kindly introduced me to Dizzy Blond at the Railway and reacquainted me with Robinson's at the Volunteer. 
I also sampled Bombadier at the J.P Joule (the man who gave his name to the unit of electricity). We also visited The Waterside in Sale for a pint (or two) of Tetley's. The highlight though was Sam Smiths Tadcaster brewed best bitter at Sinclair's Oyster Bar in the heart of Manchester. Dave's father apparently used to go there before every United home game for a pre match drink. I could see why. It had to be both my favourite pub in the area and my favourite beer of the trip.
We also popped over to the Wirral to check on Pam's father and whilst we were there met up with my good friends Dave and Pete Brooks who I used to work with. It was great to chew over old times and to catch up on their news.
Of course the main purpose of our visit was to see our daughters Jemma and Laura. We are lucky to have such wonderful daughters who look after us so well when we visit. We miss them a lot and look forward to seeing them both here in Spain and on our trips to England.
We'd like to thank all those people who made our stay so enjoyable especially Dave and Laura who put up with us in their flat. We were sorry that we couldn't see more people - maybe another time.
