It just isn’t cricket

Actually to be correct they are not crickets but cicadas that are trying to keep us awake at night just outside the bedroom window.

Many insect make sounds by rubbing their wings or legs together. The cicadas though use an entirely different method to produce their incredibly loud songs. They have a pair of special sound producing organs called "tymbals," located at the base of the abdomen. Inside each tymbal are stiff but flexible ribs supporting a stout membrane. Muscles attached to the ribs pull the tymbal inward, causing it to pop. The tymbal pops again when the tension is released. Rapid contractions and relaxations of the tymbal muscles create the loud, buzzing songs of the cicadas, which are amplified further by a hollow area in the abdomen.

When we first heard them, we thought it was an short somewhere in the builders cables that supplied our electricity.We now know better. It is almost unbelievable that one small insect can make so much noise.

Fantastic job

In our lessons with Eduardo, we were asked what we thought were the priorities for Bigastro and one of the things we mentioned were the roundabouts at each end of the town which we thought were very scruffy.

What a great job they have done with them. All the palms have been cleaned taking out the dead leaves and the old bark has been removed. Now they have laid a membrane and gravel over it to complete the job.

The roundabout now give visitors a good first impression as the approach Bigastro. Once the new fountain is completed in the main town square, I’m sure that will look a lot better as well.

The age of silver

The world is about to cross a demographic landmark of huge social and economic importance, with the proportion of the global population 65 and over set to outnumber children under five for the first time.

A new report by the US census bureau highlights a huge shift towards not just an ageing but an old population, with formidable consequences for rich and poor nations alike. The transformation carries with it challenges for families and policymakers, ranging from how to care for older people living alone to how to pay for unprecedented numbers of pensioners – more than 1 billion of them by 2040.

Europe is the greyest continent, with 23 of the world's 25 oldest countries. Such dominance of the regional league table will continue. By 2040, more than one in four Europeans are expected to be at least 65, and one in seven at least 75.

With women living on average seven years longer than men, more older women are living alone. Around half of all women 65 and over in Germany, Denmark and Slovakia are on their own, with all the consequent issues of loneliness and access to care that ensue.

Perhaps TV companies should take note. Instead of programmes for the young, they will have to concentrate on programs for the older generation. More “Last of the Summer Wine” and less “Big Brother”.

UPS to the rescue – again!

I don’t know about the rest of the town or Spain in general but power cuts are fairly common here at Vilas Andrea. Some last barely a second, others go on for several minutes. Either way they are very disruptive.

Most items of electrical equipment will survive a power cut without a problem – they go off and then come back on when the power resumes. 

Sky boxes and computers definitely do not fall into that category. We don’t have a Sky box but I understand that they need to be reset following a power cut. That must be a pain in the butt. Computers will generally restart following a power cut but it all depends on what was happening when the power was lost. If you were working on something at the time, then it will be lost. There is also the possibility that programs or even the operating system will be corrupted by a power failure. 

It wasn’t a cheap solution to the problem but the UPS (uninterruptible power supply) I bought from APC has proved to be a godsend in such situations.

Take this morning; the power went off but my computer and monitor stayed on. I could have carried on working and let the UPS do its thing. When the battery became low, the software would have closed down the programs and switched the computer off automatically. Instead I chose to switch off myself since, although my router was still on,  the Internet connection was dead anyway.

Call it overkill but I’m glad I spent a couple of  hundred Euros or so on an UPS rather than face the problem of a dead computer following a power cut.

Santa Ana

We were talking about the programme for Santa Ana only yesterday. Santa Ana was reputedly the wife of San Joaquín, the town’s patron saint and hence the grandmother of Jesus.

SATURDAY, 25th OF JULY

10am Great sardine feast in the Park of Santa Ana

9pm Great parade through the streets by the Sociedad Unión Musical de Bigastro. Their passage will of course be accompanied by firework rockets

From the 10pm - CENA-BAILE (dinner dance I think) with the Quartet MILENIUM

From midnight, the traditional presentation of the 2009 Fiesta Queens and their entourages. Followed of course by fireworks.

SUNDAY, 26th OF JULY

11:30am Mass to honour Santa Ana in the Park

6:30pm Great Children’s Fair

9:30pm Traditional Great Evening of the White Mulberry with “potatoes and wine”.

1am Closing cermeony with fireworks to honour Santa Ana.

Not good for Pete

My friend Pete from Liverpool went to an air show at the weekend. The sun came out for just 20 minutes and he got burnt. He’s posted this picture non Flickr just to prove it.

I think Pete would really suffer here at the moment as the sun continues to shine and the temperatures remain in the low to mid thirties.

Everyone tells me that it was really hot last Friday. Pam and I were down in Torrevieja and have to say we didn’t notice it being hotter than the rest of the week. Maybe we are getting acclimatised!

As you can see, after a cooler start,  it will get hotter towards the middle of this week.

Pressure groups win case

It looks like the scheme to build the CV-95 motorway from Torrevieja to Orihuela through San Miguel de Salinas is going to fail.

The ecologist association La Vega Baja no se Vende and the residents' association from San Miguel de Salinas 'San Miguel Arcángel' had presented a formal complaint to the Regional High Court in 2007. According to the sentence passed by the court, the regional government has to re-start the whole process if they want the motorway to be built, as several irregularities have occurred. 

One of these was that the environmental impact study was presented in March 2007, even though the scheme was approved in July 2006. The scheme included three alternative routes for the road but only one study was carried out - and this was for the route proposed by the regional government.

According to the pressure groups, "Building three new motorways in the Vega Baja - the CV-95, the CV-91 from Guardamar to Orihuela and AP-37 - is not environmentally sustainable and would destroy the countryside and fields."

The news  about the CV-95 comes on the back of the announcement in May by the regional director for public works Ismael Ferrer that the project had been hit by the credit crunch.  He reported that the designated contractors were unable to borrow the 94.4 million Euros they needed from the banks to build the motorway.

The pressure groups suggest that the existing road should be turned into a dual carriageway and the toll on the AP-7 motorway in La Zenia should be lifted.

Simple but effective

Often the most simple ideas are the best. The Ministry for the Interior and the Spanish Red Cross have this week launched a campaign to encourage mobile phone users to store a special 'In case of emergency' phone number onto their handsets.

The number or numbers should be stored as Aa1, Aa2 etc so that they come up first in the phone directory. Emergency services are aware of this and in a situation where they need to contact a relative or friend, they will call these numbers first.

Thank goodness

Orihuela has acquired a machine to remove graffiti as part of their new cleaning contract. They had used a similar machine on the Puente del Rey some time ago and it worked very well.

Removing graffiti can be costly; the council paid 700 Euros to have the graffiti removed from the Santiago and Monserrate churches by a specialised company. Now they can do the work for just the cost of the materials and the labour.

The machine they have acquired sprays a fine talc like sand under pressure at the surface. It is apparently very quick and works on a wide variety of surfaces. Once the graffiti is removed, a quick hose down and the job is complete.

It is annoying that a council has to go to such lengths but at least they can clean the graffiti away now. In the early days at Anfield, we had a policy of removing graffiti as soon as it appeared. Gradually it stopped appearing as the children learnt that it was pointless writing on the walls.

Into the Alps

Well we knew the Tour would hot up in the last week. It was important in the Astana team to set people’s minds at rest about who was the team leader. Armstong or Contador.

Alberto Contador was expected to make an impression on the race on the first day of climbing in the Alps and that’s exactly what he did. He bolted ahead of all his rivals at the base of the final ascent and into the yellow jersey with an impressive display of climbing.

Tomorrow there are two big climbs for the riders, let’s see what Contador can make of those.

Walking the plank

Last night it was the turn of the Christian groups to parade in Orihuela.

One of our favourites were the Piratas Bucaneros. I have to say though some of the pirates looked a little ‘mature’- as if they sailed the seven seas a few times over.

PS One of the guys leading his ‘fila’ (line) was a little too ambitious waving his axe about and managed to cut his scalp. He was darned lucky not to decapitate himself. After a few moments he realised that the blood pouring down his face was his and went off for medical attention. Hopefully he is OK. For sure he will have a sore head this morning.

To see more pictures from the parade click this link.

More photos for you

To see more of my photographs from the parade of moors in Orihuela click here. As usual click on the thumbnails to see a larger version.

Lethal weapons

and to think, they worry about people carrying knives in Britain!

The band played on

Last night’s parade of the Moors Comparsas in Orihuela featured our very own band who I have to say looked a darn sight happier than many of the others!

That is Christopher from our Spanish class and Raquel, daughter of our hairdresser Juan, on flute.

The prize for having the biggest drum though must go to this guy. You wouldn’t get that in the back of the car.

Have you noticed?

In the left hand sidebar of my blog is a new item, ‘Translate my blog’. It does what it says on the tin i.e. it produces a Google translation of my blog into whatever language you choose from the drop down list.

Don’t expect a perfect translation though – this is more or less a literal translation from my style of English and as many of you will know some phrases just don’t translate well. Let’s try ‘a pig in a poke’ for example which most of my English readers will understand well enough. Do any of my Spanish readers understand "a ciegas"? Ciegas comes from the verb to blind so really the phrase makes no sense at all.

I’ll try and keep my posts simple but I can’t promise it will always work!

It’s party time!

The programme for the August fiesta to honour San Joaquín has now been published on the Bigastro web site.

FROM THE 13th OF JUNE TO THE 15th OF AUGUST
The Caliche Championship “San Joaquín 2009” (Plaza de la Concordia)

FROM THE 1st OF JULY
Seven-a-side soccer, Fronton and Tennis championships (Municipal Polideportivo)

SATURDAY, 1st OF AUGUST
Midnight – The Second Bigastro Music Festival with local DJs (Municipal Polideportivo) (only for the young and the young at heart!)

FROM THE 7th TO THE 15th OF AUGUST
The nine days in honour of San Joaquín

7:30pm - Solemn prayer
8pm – Holy Mass

SATURDAY, 8th OF AUGUST
9pm  - Coronation of the Queens and their ladies 2009 (come and support Gordon and Ann – this year’s third age monarchs)
Opening address by PEDRO ESPINOSA FERRER

Followed by a disco.

SUNDAY, 9th OF AUGUST
11am The first competition for crazy cars down the steepest hills of Bigastro. (C/ Obispo Victorio, C/ José Nieto y C/ Luis Gálvez)

9pm - Spectacular parade of the CABALLEROS DEL CID de Bigastro along with the Moors groups ; LOS CONTRABANDISTAS and LOS NAZARIES from Denia. ( Calle Purisima)

TUESDAY, 11th OF AUGUST
11am to 5:30pm - Children’s Fair. (Barrio de la Cruz)
8pm - Traditional Gymkhana of the Comparsas (Parque Huerto del Cura)
8:45pm – Trumpet and organ recital by the duo - VIRTUS (in the church. Ntra. Sra. de Belén)

WEDNESDAY, 12th OF AUGUST
8pm – Children’s parade with animation (From Unamuno Schools)
11:30pm - Official inauguration of the barracas (Parque Huerto del Cura)
followed by  Discomóvil.

THURSDAY, 13th OF AUGUST
Midday– Uncle Tractor
12:30 pm - Tapeo in the street (Calle Antonio Perez Gálvez)
2pm- the Fifth Gastronomic Day (Plaza de la Concordia) (join the queue early or risk having an empty plate)
9pm - Traditional parade of the Comparsas (this is when they get soaked!)
1am - the Band Ying Yang (Parque Huerto del Cura)
followed by  Discomóvil.

FRIDAY, 14th OF AUGUST
Midday – the Tractor will be going round the streets of the town handing out very cold beer!
12:30pm - Tapeo in the street (great value for money and a chance to taste traditional food)
7:30pm – The parade of floral offerings for San Joaquín (well worth seeing)
8:30pm – Mass (Plaza de la Constitución)
11pm  Special concert  for  San Joaquín by the Sociedad Unión Musical of Bigastro (Plaza de la Constitución)
1am– Performance by the JUBARS OF BIGASTRO (Parque Huerto del Cura)

SATURDAY, 15th OF AUGUST
9:30 and 11:00am - Solemn Mass to honour the Virgen de la Asunción
11am – Final of the Caliche competition followed by the presentation of the prizes to the (Place of the Concord)
Midday- Last day for the tractor
12:30 pm - Last day to enjoy tapeo in the street
9pm- Multicoloured parade of the comparsas (very popular event)
1am - Traditional Alborada (starting from Plaza Ramón y Cajal) (highly recommended)
followed by the Grupo Bolero 7 and then Discomóvil (Parque Huerto del Cura)

SUNDAY, 16th OF AUGUST
9:30am - Holy Mass
Midday - Solemn Mass to honour San Joaquín
1pm - Traditional Mascletá (very loud firework display) 
8:30pm - Solemn procession to honour the patron saint (carried on the shoulders – this is well worth seeing) 
1am – Variety show including the comedian  Paco Calonge.
Finally Discomóvil.

So, a packed programme with plenty to amuse the young, adults, the not so young and the young at heart.

Just a reminder:- We Brits need to sort something our for the Gastronomic day.

You should be able to pick up your programme for the fiesta from the second lottery shop on Calle Purisima soon. 

Pipican

For those how haven’t come across these.

In the new park (near to the new post office in Bigastro) there is a special dog’s toilet area. Nicely fenced off with a gate, this sand covered spot is where you can take your dog to go to the toilet. I think the idea is that you clear the mess up once the dog has finished but obviously one owner hadn’t realised that and had left the evidence for the flies to examine. Still that was better than leaving the mess on the pavement.

Actually this is a really nice park and a great asset to the area.

 

We noticed though that someone has already vandalised one of the benches by taking a chunk out of it. Such a shame!

¡Enhorabuena!

Congratulations go to Mark Cavendish for his eighth stage win in the Tour de France. He now equals Barry Hoban’s British record of tour stage wins and has regained the green points jersey.

Hungry for a stage win themselves, the rest of the peleton are making it harder for Mark to get to the front. I don’t think they will be successful though. Mark aims to win more stages this year including the final stage in Paris.

Oldest mother dies of cancer

Do you remember the story about the lady who became the world’s oldest mother at the age of 66?

María Carmen del Bousada de Lara gave birth to twins at a clinic in Barcelona in 2006 following in vitro treatment in Los Angeles. Now, at the age of 69, the lady has died of cancer leaving the children for her family to take care of.

Because her mother had lived to be 101, the Spaniard believed that she would be live long enough to raise the children herself. That has not proven to be the case and has lead to questions about the need for stricter controls about the age limits for women to receive in vitro treatment.

It is thought possible that the drugs used for her fertility treatment might have contributed to the spread of the lady’s cancer. 

Why not take the lot

Not exactly local but such a bizarre story.

Thieves have stolen a complete factory from an industrial estate in Sagunto, just north of Valencia. The robbery involved taking the building apart, leaving only the frame behind.

Not even the windows, nor the machinery inside, was left after the metal walls and roof were taken off.They even took the air conditioning.

Even more astonishing is the fact that the robbery, which must have taken a few days to complete, happened in broad daylight, during typical factory opening hours, without arousing any suspicion from other workers on the industrial estate.

The owner only discovered the theft by accident. As he was driving past the industrial estate one day he saw nothing but four pillars left where his soon-to-be head office used to be located. That must have been a weird moment.

Police are searching for the culprits and presumably the factory.

More fish – less money

The fishing fleet from Torrevieja brought in 600 more tons of fish in the first semester of 2009 than they did in the same period 2008. However, because of the lowered prices at market, their income dropped by 50,000€.

From January to June of this year the boats brought in 1.623.863 kilos of fish – mainly melvas (a variety of tuna). Captures of sardines and boquerón (a small fish like whitebait) are down to about half of what they were last year.

Tempted?

All sources tell us that the new Windows 7 is HUGE improvement on Vista and is an awful lot better than XP.

However, Vista now runs smoothly on my PC - it didn't to start with. So do I upgrade or not. Since it is not actually an upgrade but a clean install which basically means reformatting my hard drives and then installing Windows 7 followed by all the programs I use with my fingers crossed that they all work - the answer is probably NO. For others who are experiencing problems with Vista or XP it may be a different story.

Those of you keen to try it will be interested to hear.

Officially the new upgraded software will go on sale on October 22 to the general public. However, a pre-sale has begun today for all eager Microsoft early adopters.

Prices have been considerably lowered which means for this limited pre-sale period Windows Home Premium is available for £49.99 instead of £149.99 and Windows 7 Professional for £99.99 instead of £189.99.

The company has said stocks are limited of the product and will be sold on a first come first served basis. The offer runs from July 15 to August 9.

All editions are all single-license, meaning they can only be installed on one computer.

All UK versions of Windows 7 will come without Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser pre-installed due to the company’s ongoing battle with the European Union.

This means that computer users will have to download and install a web browser of their choice when they upgrade their computer to Microsoft’s new operating system.

People can buy the software at discounted prices from shops and ecommerce sites such as: Amazon.co.uk, Comet, Currys, John Lewis and Tesco.

The price of fuel

According to the Costa Blanca News - petrol prices have climbed by nearly 10 per cent in the last month, in part thanks to a 2.9-cents-per-litre tax hike approved by the government in June.

Prices at the pump started the week at 1.083 Euros a litre for 95-octane petrol and 0.953 Euros a litre for diesel, up 7.7 per cent and nine per cent, respectively, from the beginning of June. The increases were despite a slight lowering of prices over the last week, by 1.5 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively.

Nonetheless, we are paying nowhere near as much for a fill-up as we did at this time last year. A 55-litre tank of petrol costs 59.50 Euros now, down 13 per cent from a year ago, and the same tank-full of diesel costs 52.40 Euros, down 26 per cent.

Prices peaked in July of 2008 at 1.276 Euros a litre for 95-octane petrol and 1.329 Euros a litre for diesel, after oil prices had shot up to nearly $150 a barrel. They then began a steady decrease, with monthly drops up to February of this year, when petrol hit a low of 0.85 Euros a litre. By May, the price for petrol had climbed back up above a euro a litre.

The new fuel tax hike of 2.9 cents per litre on both petrol and diesel was approved in mid-June by the cabinet in an effort to providing some relief to the government's recession-stricken coffers. Officials expect it to generate nearly 1.1 billion Euros a year in additional tax revenue.

The weekly shop

Finding the best value in supermarkets is always a problem. Some items may be cheaper in one and others more expensive. The advent of ‘3 for 2’ offers makes the situation even more confusing. If you were being sensible, you could shop around and save money but who wants to waste their days visiting supermarkets for the weekly shop? Like many, I prefer to shop to live not the other way round.

However, in the current economic climate, which in our case means a weak pound against the Euro, we do have to consider getting the best value for the money in our pockets. In a recent survey it was found that Eroski had made the largest cuts in the price of food products between April and June (6.6%).

In all the supermarkets prices had been reduced but by less in El Árbol (1,3%), Maxi-Dia (2,2%), Supercor (2,3%) and Hipercor (2,9%) than they had in Sabeco (4.7%), Alcampo and Supersol (4.3%) and Mercadona (4%).

Although Supersol, El Árbol and Alcampo had reduced the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables by 21%, Mercadona and Carrefour were still cheaper.

The bottom line is that, for a typical shopping basket, Mercadona still leads the field; followed by Alcampo and Sabeco. El Corte Inglés continues to be the most expensive.

Catch 22

There has been a lot of debate and protest about the proposed new roads for this area. Clearly the intention of the national and regional government is to produce a better infrastructure that will help the camarca develop and ease congestion at peak times.

What might have suited a rural Vega Baja will not be sufficient for a region moving forward and looking to the future. There has been talk of the Vega Baja becoming the ‘Silicon Valley’ of Spain - a marriage of high tech industry with a rural economy. Whether that is feasible or not, I can’t say. What I can say though is that this sort of development couldn't happen with the existing road network.

As far as I can gather, there are three new roads which are at the centre of the debate; the CV-95 from Orihuela down to Torrevieja and the coast, the CV-91 from Orihuela down to Guardamar del Segura and now the AP-37 linking Alicante to Murcia.

Each will of course cut across land that is currently being used for crops and will necessitate demolition of houses. Each will cause a great deal of inconvenience whilst they are being constructed.

In addition there is the new high speed rail link to consider. The AVE also ploughs across the region affecting, amongst other places, Callosa del Segura. Apart from the problem of the Sierra de Callosa, there has been a lot of debate about whether the route should be above or below ground as the train passes through Orihuela.

The catch for the planners is that no town wants to be left out by being isolated from the improved network of roads. At the same time, they don’t want the roads to cut across their territory. In other words they want the benefits without the attendant problems. The planners need to get it right but they also need to make sure they don’t miss the boat by starting the projects too late. In twenty years time it may be too late to consider how the economy of the Vega Baja can be boosted.

New layout

I don’t know – sometimes you embark on a new project and you quickly realise that far from being a simple ten minute task this is going to take a good hour or so.

As I said yesterday, it was time to update the layout of my blog. Not that there was anything wrong with the layout I was using but it was just a stock template with a few minor tweeks. It was a bit like a Marks and Spencer shirt – fine but you do see a lot of them around.

Those of you who visited this blog during the early part of the process would have found the banner picture way too big. On some screens you may have had to scroll across to see it all.

The question was, by how much to reduce it? Eventually I decided that it had to fit on my netbook so it came down to 1024 pixels wide. At that size it looked a bit awkward on my higher resolution desktop screen so I made a few changes to the picture which I hope you agree looks a lot better.

Many thanks to Pete for his suggestions and his input and to Maz for her kind comment about the new layout. I hope you like it because it could be some time before I change it again!

Nearly forgot again

Basically business as usual. Any day you want to put the sheets out to dry will be fine. Friday might be  little more cloudy but nothing too serious.

Watch it live

The good news for those of you who enjoy the Habaneras competition that Torrevieja holds each year is that you can now watch it online in real time.

Go to www.habaneras.org from the 23rd to the 30th of July to watch the whole programme of music and choral singing as it happens. 

Help with a new blog

I got this email last night.

Hello Keith,

My name is Peter Little and I live down the road, so to speak, at San Miguel de Salinas. I very much enjoy your blog, and would like to create my own, but am having trouble getting the elements right.

Could you possibly help me? My blog is called 'the view from san miguel' because my house has a nice view out across almonds and oranges, and as a retired advertising copywriter and freelance journalist I have a lot to say about Spain and the world, but so far I've only managed two posts because I'm unhappy with the layout.

Help! I hope you can.

Best wishes,

Peter Little

First off, I am by no means an expert on blogging, far from it. There are blogs out there which are way better than mine.

I took the easy way out when setting up my blog and used one of Blogger’s ‘off the shelf’ templates – Harbour by Douglas Bowman, made a few tweeks to the lettering sizes and colours and added a couple of boxes into the sidebar. Nothing too complicated.

When you visit other’s blogs you can see they have hand crafted their layouts with pictures and elements not available from Blogger. I've had a go at mine. Not sure about the result yet.

One good tip that I can offer is to use Microsoft Live Writer to compose your posts. It is WYSIWYG which makes it a lot easier to get the posts as you would want them. You can get is as a free download from Microsoft’s site.

Peter, I look forward to seeing your blog once you have it sorted. Please send me the address and I’ll make a link in my sidebar. Oh and best of luck.

I bow to an expert

Yesterday I showed this photo of classic cars taken from one of the local papers. My friend Pete, back in England, identifies them from left to right as:-

VW Karmann Ghia (and what a beautiful colour it's in!)
Seat 600
Mini Cooper
MGB
MGA
Possibly another Karmann Ghia (but the black roof is unusual and it's rare to see two, even at a classic car meet).
Gorgeous Citroen DS21
Citroen 2CV
Another Citroen 2CV
Morris Minor?
Does anyone know?

I’m sure he is right. Of all those, I think I’d be hard pressed to choose between the classy Citroen DS and that yellow car that Pete thinks is a Karmann Ghia. In reality though, I’d rather stick with my Skoda Roomster. Sad I know but it is such a good car.

From crystal clear pools to selling crystals

I’ve had an email from John Reid who, amongst other things, used to clean pools up at Villas Andrea. Many of the Brits here, along with a lot of Spanish locals, knew John and Gladys well – they are really nice people.

A few years ago, John and Gladys moved to the Dordogne where they bought a large property in extensive grounds. There was a lot of work to do to get the house and gardens into shape. Thankfully, the work on the place is nearly finished now so they can enjoy the benefits of this beautifully area of countryside. In this green part of France, John says they often have deer and boar in the garden and have a nesting pair of hawks at the back of the property.

It sounds like John and Gladys have settled well in France and have even been invited to join the dinner club that meets each month in a local cafe - sounds wonderful. I expect venison and wild boar regularly feature on the menu!

John tells me that he has taken to helping some of his neighbours out with their pools but doesn’t really want to go back fully into that business. Instead, he is running a small crystal jewellery business visiting fetes, markets etc. much as he did with those wonderful candles that he used to sell.

John goes on to explain that he has been working on this new enterprise for about four months now and has set up a website at www.sparklingcrystals.co.uk. I’m sure he is doing well, John has a lot of imagination and drive which, combined with his charming personality, will win him many clients.

He concludes by sending Darren and Hazel his best wishes in the hope that their venture up at La Pedrera is a great success for them. I’m sure they will appreciate that.

So do drop by at John’s website and see what he has to offer. I’m sure he will give you a good price!

Thank you for the email, it was great to hear from you.

PS John tells me that if anyone wants to buy anything from the site they should enter SPCR1 at checkout to receive a 10% discount on purchases over 15 euro (easy to do !)

That is really nice jewellry that John is selling at prices are low enough already. With a 10% discount, you are getting quality items at bargain prices.

Oh and John and Gladys' house in Bigastro is still up for sale if anyone is interested. I don't think you can use that discount code to get 10% off the price though.

Tale from the Tour

Watching the stage yesterday was a reminder of the tale of Eugène Christophe, who in 1913 was well placed to win Le Tour. He rode the first part, from Paris to Cherbourg and then down the coast to the Pyrenees cautiously. He was in second place when the race stopped in Bayonne on the night before the first day in the mountains. The field set off at 3am with Christophe 4m 5s behind Odile Defraye, of Belgium. The route that day included the cols; Oschquis, Aubisque, Soulor, Gourette, Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde.

Christophe’s Peugeot team attacked the rival Alcyon riders from the start. The tactic worked and by Barèges, at the foot of the Tourmalet, Defraye had dropped out leaving Christophe in first place well ahead of the rest of the Tour. He stopped at the top of the Tourmalet and reversed his back wheel to pick a higher gear for the descent.

Then in Christophe’s own words:

I plunged full speed towards the valley. According to Henri Desgrange's calculation, I was then heading the general classification with a lead of 18 minutes. So, I was going full speed. All of a sudden, about ten kilometres from Ste-Marie-de-Campan down in the valley, I feel that something is wrong with my handlebars. I cannot steer my bike any more. I pull on my brakes and I stop. I see my forks are broken. Well, I tell you now that my forks were broken but I wouldn't say it at the time because it was bad publicity for my sponsor.

And there I was left alone on the road. When I say the road, I should say the path. All the riders I had dropped during the climb soon caught me up. I was weeping with anger. I remember I heard my friend Petit-Breton shouting as he saw me, 'Ah, Cri-Cri, poor old lad.' I was getting angry. As I walked down, I was looking for a short cut. I thought maybe one of those pack trails would lead me straight to Ste-Marie-de-Campan. But I was weeping so badly that I couldn't see anything. With my bike on my shoulder, I walked for more than ten kilometres. On arriving in the village at Ste-Marie-de-Campan, I met a young girl who led me to the blacksmith on the other side of the village. His name was Monsieur Lecomte.

It took two hours to reach the forge. Lecomte offered to weld the broken forks back together but a race official and managers of rival teams would not allow it. In those days a rider was responsible for his own repairs. So Christophe set about the repair as Lecomte told him what to do. It took three hours to complete the work and then the race judge penalised him 10 minutes - reduced later to three - because Christophe had allowed a small boy, Corni, to pump the bellows for him.

Christophe eventually finished seventh in Paris. The building on the site of the forge has a plaque commemorating the episode.

Today of course, riders are mollycoddled. No longer do they have to start a stage at 3am, just so they can climb seven high mountains. Certainly nobody would dream of them doing their own repairs. Taking part in the Tour in the early days was only for real men!

Not a pretty sight

In spite of a persistent campaign, leaflets printed in English and notices on lampposts, the estate continues to be littered with dog muck.

Just who is to blame? I can’t recall seeing dogs roaming around without their owners and people from outside the estate are unlikely to bring their pets this far (this is on Calle Le Vegan) so I can only conclude that it must be people living here.

It isn’t a pretty sight and it is downright unhygienic. I’m afraid I don’t have an answer to this one. If someone has, then please let me know at keith@bigastro.es and I will post any sensible ones on my blog.

What a delight

To be able to go for a walk in the morning and be intoxicated with the aroma of pine.

They’ll need a rest after this

Yesterday's trip through the mountain of the Pyrenees caused little upset to the main contenders who were happy to roll along in the peleton. However, it was a good win for Spain's Luis Leon Sanchez who timed his sprint just right to beat Sandy Cesar at the line.

Of the British riders, Bradley Wiggins looked good again but sadly Mark Cavendish lost the green jersey to the Norwegian Tor Hushovd.

Today there are two major climbs; the Col dAspin followed by the Col du Tourmalet. These should test the legs of the contenders a bit more and maybe give us a clue as to who might be the eventual winner.

Sorry about that

In reply to the question about fiestas that are going on at the moment I should have remembered the one in Algorfa  which is in full swing at the moment.

Yesterday it was the return of the classic cars to the streets – I see there are a few Brits in there.

Today it is the romeria of the Virgen del Carmen to the hermitage – that is at 8:30am returning at 7:30pm. There is a lunch today of sardines from the barbecue.

More stats

Ianinspain asks in relation to the item I posted yesterday about “the state of play”

Hi, any chance of you knowing a web site where I can download this 'Study', I'm intrigued as to see the raw stats. Thanks in advance.

According to the source, the study was undertaken by Caja España but doesn’t seem to feature on their web site. So I am sorry but I can’t help.

No contest

Because of the economic situation, Almoradí is cutting its fiesta down this year by one day.

Even still, on Saturday 25th July, after the Fiesta Queens have been crowned, they have booked Soraya (Spain’s 2009 entrant into Eurovision) to perform.

I ask you, who would you rather go to see on a Saturday night: some cheesy English singer past their prime on the coast or a hot Spanish bit of totty giving it (and almost showing) her all?

PS Sandy Shaw never looked that good!

Who leads the Astana team?

Some years the Tour de France is, if not boring, a little predictable. The race favourite gets into yellow early on and keeps the jersey all the way to Paris. Not this year though. Fabian Cancellara won the jersey in the first stage and managed to hold on to it until the race turned towards the mountains.

Yesterday, the Frenchman Brice Feillu won the stage to Andorra and Rinaldo Nocentini, who was in the breakaway group, took the yellow jersey.

The surprise though was Alberto Contador who shot off the main group with two kilometres to go leaving Armstrong behind. Of course, being in the same team, Armstrong didn’t respond. The 22 seconds that Contador gained over Armstrong by virtue of this move put him ahead of his team rival by 2 seconds.

The other surprise was Englishman Bradley Wiggins who was outstanding on the climb and now lies in fifth place overall just 46 seconds off the pace. C’mon Bradley!

Today, the Tour is back in the mountains and back into France with Stage 8 Andorre-la-Vieille Saint-Girons.

We will have to wait and see what drama unfolds today.

This is gripping stuff – far better than any football match! There are tactics, politics and team loyalty involved in Le Tour. Added to which you get to see breathtaking views of the countryside.

Hopefully there won’t be any drugs scandals this year!

Fiesta time

I was asked yesterday whether there were any local fiestas coming up. I do not claim to be an expert on these matters, I only report on what information I find from local news and obviously miss quite a lot.

On the 15th June mentioned the Turivega web site project that Convega is working on. This is probably the best source of information about what is going on and when.

http://www.convega.com/

They don't have full information about all 27 municipalities yet but that will come.

There is a fascinating section about Moors and Christians on the site which is worth looking at - http://www.convega.com/morosycristianos/2009/.

In our opinion, of all the fiestas for Moors and Christians, the one in Orihuela takes some beating.

1. For those who like fireworks and loud bangs; on the 14th at 11pm at the Glorieta de Gabriel Miró in Orihuela they will be re-enacting the taking of the castle by the Christians.
2. At 8:30pm on the 16th you can watch the children’s parade in Orihuela. Then on Friday 17th it is the turn of the Moors groups to parade at 8pm. On Saturday 18th at 9pm the Christian groups will follow the same route.

For a taste of what to expect, click on the link in the sidebar to see my pictures from last year.

The state of play in 2008

San Fulgencio had the highest percentage of foreign residents in Spain with expats making up 76.9% of the population.

The figures - along with others relating to expat numbers in the Vega Baja - are contained the annual study published this week by the bank, Caja España.

Other municipalities with over half the registered population being non-Spanish included Rojales (73.9%), Algorfa (68.7%), Benijófar (58.5%) and Torrevieja (53.5%).

Numbers of Brits

Algorfa held the highest percentage of Brits amongst the foreign residents with a whopping 83.3%.

It was followed by San Fulgencio (65.9%), Catral (61%), Los Montesinos (59.6%), Rojales (56.7%) and Benijófar (55.1%).

The British also made up more than half of the total population in Algorfa (2,361 out of 4,125) and in San Fulgencio (5,882 out of 11,594).

The municipalities in the Vega Baja with the most registered Brits were Orihuela (16,327), Torrevieja (12,550), Rojales (8,070), San Fulgencio (5,882) and Pilar de la Horadada (4,282).

In Bigastro we hardly figured. According to the data for 2008, there were 226 Brits which represented 22% of the foreign population. The total population in that year was 6,967 of which 971 (13.9%) were foreigners and 3.2% were Brits.

All the figures are taken from data relating to the 2008 municipal census (padrón).

I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the percentage of Brits, if not the numbers, in Bigastro has gone down this year because of the virtual collapse of sales of houses to Brits and the number of births to nationals.

Be warned

Motorist need to be aware that DGT in Alicante announced a crackdown on drink driving which started last Monday. Trafico say they will carry out 15,000 random tests on drivers in the period up to the 15th July.

In a similar campaign in the two weeks before Christmas lead to 182 drivers being found over the limit.

The penalty for being over the limit can be a prison sentence of between three and six months, a substantial fine or community service and a loss of your licence of between one and four years.

As in many countries, drink driving in Spain accounts for many deaths on the roads.

A fine of 90 euros

The ex Deputy Mayor of San Fulgencio, Manuel Barrera, who was ousted from his position following an alleged corruption scandal late last year, has been found guilty of threatening to kill his former colleague, Mark Lewis.

A judge in Orihuela ordered Barrera to pay a fine of 90€. The denuncia was made by Mr Lewis against Mr Barrera on January 6th this year, following a confrontation in the street whilst he was talking to a friend.

According to the court papers, Mr Barrera stopped his car adjacent to where Mr Lewis and his wife were chatting to their friend and made a gesture with his finger going from one side of the neck to the other, indicating that he was going to cut his throat and implying that Mr Lewis’ life was in danger. A guilty judgement was passed and a fine of six euros per day for 15 days was handed to Barrera by the judge but a request for 600€ damages by Mr Lewis was rejected.

I wonder how much public money it cost to get this case through the court.

The Tour goes up.

Yesterday the weather was just awful for Le Tour. It was  lashing it down in Barcelona during the morning. The weather improved by the afternoon but the roads were still treacherous so plenty of crashes.

Today sees Le Tour enter the mountains with a stage from Barcelona to Andorre Arcalis. As you can see there is a bit of a hill at the end of the stage which should sort out the wheat from the chaff.  

Actually, even if you are not a cycling fan, the Eurosport coverage is so good it is worth watching just for the views.

Every day is bin day

Well every weekday that is.

- HOUSEHOLD WASTE: leave depositing your rubbish until 7pm to avoid having the bins stinking all day in the heat. Bins are emptied Mondays to Fridays at about 10pm.

- CARDBOARD AND PACKAGES: this bin is emptied Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at about 8am

- ELECTRIC HOME APPLIANCES, EQUIPMENT, ETC.: these can be left by the bins on Monday nights and are then collected on Tuesday mornings.

- THE ECOPARQUE:  is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 in the morning until 1pm.

I don’t know the schedule for the bin for plastics nor the bottle bank which on our estate seems to get pretty full. Quite why that is, I wouldn’t like to say!

It shouldn’t be a matter of luck

The building bonanza on the coast has left many urbanisations with serious problems. Without the licence for first occupancy ( cédula de habitabilidad) from the city council which regularises their houses, the residents can’t move off the builder’s supply of electricity and water. Neither can they have their post delivered because they are regarded as "diseminado” i.e. without a proper address. If there was a medical emergency or a fire on these estates nobody would be able to find them.

Although these residents do not appear on the census and therefore can’t vote in elections, they are still paying their Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles (IBI) – local council taxes and in some cases have done for years. These owners will be paying a lower rate because they are classed as diseminado but they should still be entitled to some services beyond having their bins emptied.

It doesn’t matter which country you buy a house on a new estate in, it is still going to take time for everything to be sorted out. When I worked on the post, I delivered mail to new estates before they were complete and had to work out which house was which from just a plot number. They might have had to wait for roads to be completed but at least they all had mains electricity and water from day one and they knew that their new home was legal.

Pam and I have asked ourselves this question, “if we had known about the problems buying houses here in Spain, would we have still moved here?” Between the illegal houses built next to the beach, the houses built illegally on rural land, the owners who have suffered from the so called “land grab laws” and these people who have legal houses but can’t get access to basic services – the answer would have to be NO. The risk of finding ourselves in the situation of many, who bought in good faith, would have outweighed the great benefits of living in Spain.

In the circumstances, we count ourselves lucky that the process of regularisation of our houses went smoothly. We got our certificates and were connected to mains electricity and water within a reasonable space of time. Eventually we got our phone lines and now have our post delivered to the estate. Those that followed and many of those that bought on the coast have been a lot less lucky.

Whether the faults lie with corrupt builders, corrupt councils, corrupt lawyers, archaic practices or unfair laws (LRAU) doesn't matter; it shouldn’t be down to luck whether things work out fine for you. At some point you have to be able to trust that the people you are dealing with are honest and are working for your benefit.

Admittedly, in some cases, buyers should perhaps have been more aware of the situation they were getting themselves into but in many, the new owners will feel they have been swindled. If the salesperson didn’t advise them of the pitfalls, then perhaps the solicitor or someone else should have.

Le Tour

I’m not sure where John and Carol were positioned yesterday to watch the stage from Le Cap d'Agde to  Perpignan. Hopefully, wherever they were, they were able to catch the news of what was happening.

It is always good when a Frenchman wins a stage and yesterday, following a breakaway early on in the stage, Thomas Voeckler made a bid for victory in the last five kilometres that paid off. The peleton did make some attempt to chase the escapees down but left it too late to draw them back in for a sprint finish.

Today the stage reaches  the southernmost point that the Tour has been to – a 181.5km ride from Girona to Barcelona.

Near completion

According to the assistant representative of the Government in Alicante, Encarna Llinares, the new dual carriageway section of the N332 between Torrevieja and Pilar de la Horadada will be opened today. There is still plenty of work to complete but at least traffic flow will be eased during the summer with two lanes in each direction.

The work which had a budget of 24.332.898 Euros was scheduled to be completed within 32 months. At present 11 of the 12kms are completed. There are still road markings and traffic signals to install. The cycle track isn’t finished and the new roundabouts will need landscaping.

The tour rolls on

I didn’t see John and Carol during yesterday’s coverage of the team time trial from Montpellier to Montpellier.

What we did see though was a nail biting finish. It looked like Lance Armstrong could have just taken the leader’s yellow jersey as team Astana came in  faster that team Saxobank. The deficit that Armstrong had on Cancellara was 40 seconds. At one point Astana were 41 seconds up on Saxobank but as they crossed the line that vital extra second was lost. So Cancellara stays in yellow for the moment.

John and Carol will be somewhere out on the stage today which runs from Le Cap d'Agde to Perpignan. A couple of hill in the middle of the course followed by a long flat run will favour the sprinters.

Unlike yesterday when John and Carol would have seen action for most of the afternoon, today the peleton will just zoom past them and be gone. At least they will enjoy the caravan that precedes the tour each day and may even come back with some freebies.

Blue dresses this year

Do you remember there was a competition to design a dress for the fiesta queen?

Well here is the winning design by Joaquín Rodríguez Martínez which we will be able to see made up on Saturday 8th August.

Summer madness

The first of this year's bull runs at Pamplona took place this morning without incident. The six bulls arrived safely at the bullring ready for the corrida this afternoon.

Here the partygoers are preparing to spray each other with red wine prior to the start of the Fiesta de San Fermin. 

Meanwhile in Denia they have been celebrating the Bous a la Mar – bulls to the sea.

 

Don’t worry bulls can  swim!

Proud mother

Numbers are swelling up at La Pedrera duck pond.

 

Yesterday, this proud mother took her brood of ducklings out for a swim.

 

 

 

Whilst father watched on.

 

 

PS I hope the don’t turn out as ugly as him!

Our scout is on the course

Yesterday’s stage in Le Tour was a bit of a thriller. With just over 20kms to go, a breakaway group set off from the peleton and managed to hold on to their lead until the end of the race.

Team Columbia – HTC did the lion’s share of the work at the front to put their rider, Mark Cavendish, in the right position for his sprint finish.  So another notch on Mark’s belt as he romped home for his sixth stage win in the Tour.

There was controversy in the Astana team. Lance Armstrong was in the breakaway group leaving Alberto Contador in the peleton. This wise move by Armstrong means that he now lies 3rd in the general classification – 19 seconds ahead of his team leader.

Today we have the team time trial. Chief scout, John Thorpe has travelled to France with his wife Carol to watch the stage live. So somewhere out on the course we may see John and Carol – who knows. I hope they have a great day.

Aren’t we lucky?

For those reading this blog who wonder just where it is we live, here we are.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

It’s worse than cruel, it’s dangerous

It is no wonder that many Brits here are of the opinion that Spaniards are not very kind towards animals. Forget the bulls that get killed in the corridas, it is the number of dogs that are abandoned on the roadside that upsets animal lovers. Not only is it cruel to leave dogs by the road, it is downright dangerous.

According to the Traffic Department, abandoned dogs wandering the roadways caused nearly 3,000 traffic accidents in Spain in 2008.

Abandoned dogs were the cause of nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of all accidents related to animals on the roadway, behind only wild boars (javalí), which made up 31 per cent of the 12,000 incidents last year. 

The number of animal-related accidents has doubled since 2004, when there were a total of 6,000.  Last year eight people were killed in accidents caused by animals on the roadway.

Ninety-four per cent of animal-related accidents involve the vehicle hitting the animal, while the remainder are caused by the driver manoeuvring to avoid hitting it, said Aurora Cedenilla, deputy director of the Traffic Department (DGT).

Last week, Trafico launched a campaign against pet abandonment in collaboration with animal protection groups and pet food maker Pedigree. Let us hope they have some success.

Forget tennis and football – cycling is THE sport.

Well it seemed predictable that Federer should win Wimbledon. He didn’t have things all his way though. In the longest men’s final in history in terms of games played, Federer beat a valiant Roddick.

What this means though is that Federer is now the greatest player in Grand Slam history but more to the point has knocked Nadal off the top spot.

As I said on Friday, a Spaniard desperately needs to win in the Tour de France to restore glory to Spain. It is unlikely to come today though as the Tour moves from Marseille to La Grand Motte. Another day for the sprinters, another day perhaps for Mark Cavendish to gain some glory for England.

PS Is it just me or do others find Federer a bit ostentatious in his gold and white with emblazed F crests?

A little cooler

Those who were complaining it was too hot last week (shame on you) will be pleased to see that this week it should be a little cooler.

You’ll notice there is a 30% chance of rain for Wednesday. Let us get this in proportion though – we are talking little more than half a millimetre.

An alright lad

Remember I mentioned Mark Cavendish on Saturday as a man to look out for? Well blow me, he only went and won Stage 2 of the Tour de France this afternoon.

Mind you Mark is rated as the fastest man in the world on a bike and notched up 4 stage wins during the 2008 tour in only his second year as a professional. He also won the Milan-Sanremo spring classic earlier this year. 

Best of all, although Mark was born in the Isle of Man, he now lives in Manchester.

My that was hot

Was is just me or was it hotter yesterday than it has been all week? I reckon it was 36 degrees C outside and obviously hotter in the sun.

Pam and I love the summer weather and don’t mind the heat. You will rarely hear us complaining that it is too hot!

Yesterday though was a bit different. I cleaned the pool in the morning and did a bit of gardening. Having done enough work for the day, I put up the sun umbrella and laid out in the shade for awhile. After an hour or so I realised I was too hot to be comfortable so reluctantly, I retreated inside to watch the first stage of the Tour de France.

By about 5pm, the temperature had dropped, the sun was lower and cloud had rolled in so I was able to go back out and enjoy a swim in the pool. Early evening, it was very pleasant outside.

The perfumed garden

Apart from colour, it is good to have scented plants in the garden. In our garden we have rosemary, lavender, lemon blossom, honeysuckle, curry plant and my favourite jasmine. On the roof terrace there is the sweet smelling oleander.

For those who lack the space for aromatic plants, there is a new park opened in Torrevieja dedicated to scented plants. At the garden, in Torreblanca situated to the north of the city, you will find, amongst others; rosemary, orange blossom, basil and lavender providing a delightful sensory experience for the visitor.

The park is open from 9am until midnight.

Of course, if you don't fancy a trip to Torreblanca, you are welcome to walk past our gate and catch the drift of the scent from our plants - evenings are best.

Who do you fancy?

The Tour de France starts today with the 15.5km time trial Monaco to Monaco

Of course last year’s winner, Carlos Sastre starts as number one for the Cervelo Test Team. Others to watch are Cadel Evans in the Silence-Lotto team, the Schleck brothers - Andy and Frank in Team Saxo Bank and Denis Menchov for Rabobank. British hopes are pinned on Mark Cavendish for Team Columbia and Bradley Wiggins and David Millar riding for Garmin- Slipstream but favourites - team wise - must be Astana with 2007 winner Alberto Contador and seven times tour winner Lance Armstrong who makes a return this year after a four year rest.

The Spaniard, Contador, is team leader for Astana but of course if Armstrong starts winning stages, that may change.

One thing for sure there will be lots of drama, plenty of action and a long wait until the gruelling last week and stage 20 Montélimar – Mont Ventoux to find out who will eventually rise to the podium on the Champs-Élysées.

My money is on either Sastre of Contador. After loosing to USA in the Confederation Cup and Nadal pulling out of Wimbledon, Spain needs a sporting win to raise the spirits.

Rabies injections

 

It is time to have any dogs you have that haven’t been vaccinated down to the Plaza de la Constitución for their jabs.

The dates for the vaccination are the following:

- Thursday , 2nd of July  from 6pm to 8:15pm
- Saturday, 4th of Jul from 10 in the morning until 1pm

Jet2.con

Pam flew to Manchester this morning with Jet2.com. We flown with them quite a lot and always found them reliable and cheap. Like all airlines they apply airport surcharges and charge extra for hold luggage.

What we weren’t prepared for this morning though was a surcharge of 8€ because Pam hadn't completed her booking online.

When we first booked the flight, we couldn’t complete the booking online – it actually said so on the website. I later found that you had to click on a small box next to the traveller’s name and fill in the so called API information which basically means the passenger’s date of birth and passport number. I did this but then did not follow through by printing out the completed sheet. Pam prefers a window seat and the one that she was being allocated was an aisle seat.

Even if I had completed the process, Pam would have still have had to wait in the queue to check in her luggage and collect the actual card needed to get on the aircraft.

Because Pam hadn’t got the form printed out, the girl at check-in gave her a hand written bill for 8€ which she had to take to the Jet2.com desk to pay and get a hand written receipt in return. Pam then had to take the receipt back to the check-in desk and collect her boarding card.

What utter nonsense – it had nothing to do with providing information about her passport number or date of birth – both of which are on her passport anyway. It seemed to be just another way to extract more money for the flight hence the title Jet2.con!

PS The only good part ot the story is that the flight arrived 19 minutes early. Pam is flying back with Monarch thank goodness.

Streetwise Spanish

I used to get regular emails from Peter Christian at the Streetwise Spanish website and then they dried up. Now he is back with some good tips on using verbs.

“They're an essential part of learning to speak Spanish but if you're anything like I am, you'll also regard them as one of the most boring parts! I'm talking about verb drills of course and another problem with them is that many common verb uses aren't taught in formal language courses, uses that will add an authentic flourish to your spoken Spanish. Here's 10 really cool verbs you can add to your vocab that'll help you make a fantastic impression with the native Spanish speakers throughout the Hispanic world!

First up we have the verb Andar - To Walk. This is the straight-forward usage, as in: Ando a las tiendas - I'm walking to the shops. But what if you were asked:

¿Por dónde andas?

This is a cool way of asking: "Where are you" and not "to where are you walking?". Andar has many more uses like this but one I like refers to how things are working:

- Mi reloj no anda bien - My watch isn't working well."

- ¿Qué tal anda tu moto nuevo? - How's your new motorcycle going?

And one more very cool phrase is to use Andar to say "have a nice day" - Ándale pues - which is common in the Americas.

Here's a verb that is a big favourite of mine. The reflexive form of Antojar, Antojarse, means to have a craving for something, to have a real desire for something. I use this a lot when it comes to food and on one memorable occasion I left the (very attractive) camerera very impressed when I said:

- Se me antoja una hamburguesa con queso - I really fancy a cheeseburger.

You can also use to say you're not in the mood to do something, like this:

- ¿Por qué no vas a ir a la fiesta? - Why aren't you going to the party?

- Porque no se me antoja. - Because I'm not in the mood for it.

Like I say, I use it mostly when it comes to eating and if you use this in a restaurant you will make a very good impression - and get excellent service!

Dejar, - To Leave - provides us with a couple of great phrases that are really useful to have when you're being pestered by all manner of sales people and con-artists on the streets of major cities like my adopted home city of Barcelona. In summer, rarely will a week pass by without me needing these phrases:

- Déjame en paz - Leave me alone

- Déjalo - Leave it (You can also use this when you want to drop a subject from conversation.)

The verb Echar - To Throw - has a multitude of uses, way too many to list all of them here. And some uses just aren't appropriate to be included here, such Spanish is a little bit tooooo streetwise if you know what I mean! But here's a couple of really cool phrases involving Echar that you can easily introduce into your daily conversations.

Echar de menos - is to miss someone or something. I was enjoying a pleasant evening out with a very good Spanish friend of mine who is married to a Brazilian. As we were talking, she suddenly looked very sad and I asked my friend:

- Qué pasa con Cleo? - What's wrong with Cleo?

He replied: - Ella echa de menos a su familia en Brasil. - She's missing her family in Brasil.

And a nice quick usage of echar for those times when you want to say to someone: "Put some elbow grease into it", or "make an effort" or even "go for it", you can simply say: "¡Echale ganas!"

But this is an absolute beauty. You know when something happens that makes your blood boil - say, someone steals your car and you're in a foul temper and you're shouting and ranting and raving? Here's what the Spanish say:

- ¡Mira! Alguien ha robado el coche de Pablo, ¡Él echa espumarajos! -

"Hey! Someone has stolen Paul's car, he's fuming!"

Echar espumarajos - To be foaming at the mouth.

Here's a a cool little verb you will rarely discover in formal courses. Lograr means "to manage" and it is a handy little verb to acquire. A couple of examples for you:

- Si yo logro salir de trabajo antes de las cinco, llegaré a tu casa a las seis - If I manage to leave work before 5 I'll be at your house for six o' clock.

- Logré fijar la tele asi que podremos mirar el fútbol esta noche. - I managed to fix the TV so will we be able to watch the football tonight.

I'm sure your familiar with the common usage of Parecer, to seem, e.g. me parece bien - it's good with me. But the reflexive form, paracerse is another cool verb to master and it means "to look like." So:
- Me parezco a mi padre - I look like my father.
Pero ¡cuidado! If you want to say "it looks like" then you need to use parecer que, like this:
- Parece que va a ser un día calorazo - it looks like it's going to be a very hot day or - Parece que va a llover - it looks like it's going to rain.

Next up is a power verb with a myriad of meanings. Quedar is sometimes called a "catch all" verb and with good reason! But here's a couple of nice and easy phrases relating to money that use the reflexive you can add to your vocab right now:

- Me quedé con diez euros - I kept ten euros

- Quédase con el cambio - Keep the change

which can be shortened to: Quédatelo - Keep it.

Next up is a cracker that will demonstrate to Hispanic people that you possess the highly respected quality of "Educado/a", meaning not that you are educated but that you are well-mannered and polite. This simple but very polite phrase is a use of Querer - "To want" - that took me a year to discover it!

It's something that happens to all of us. You're walking along minding your own business when you accidentally bump into someone. Normally, you can just say "Disculpe" o "Perdona" - both of these are fine. But to convey that extra-special educad@ quality you say:

- Perdona. Sin querer - I'm sorry, it was an accident. The literal translation is:

Sorry, it wasn't intentional.

Quick, easy but it's one very cool, very important phrase to have under your belt.

Seguir, - To Follow or To Continue - gives you several cool phrases to sprinkle into your spoken Spanish, especially with the "to continue" meaning. No ceremony here, just a quick-fire list of "plug-and-play" dead-easy expressions for you to dial-in:

Sigo bebiendo - I keep drinking, ¿sigues creyendo en dios? - Do you still believe in God?, Pablo sigue comiendo - Paul keeps eating, seguimos riendo - we keep laughing, seguís gritando - you all keep shouting, ellos siguen cantando - they keep singing.

Muy fácil, ¿verdad?

This is another favourite cool verb of mine that'll really win you the admiration of native speakers. Soler doesn't really have an English equivalent and it used to describe your regular habits and actions. Examples will work the best here:

- Suelo ir al bar saliendo del trabajo - I normally go to the bar after work

- Suele cenar a las ocho cada noche - He normally has dinner at 8 'o' clock every night.

- El aútobus suele llegar a las tres - The bus usually arrives at 3 'o' clock.

It's a great little verb and fun to play around with and form your own phrases that reflect your daily routines."

You can visit Peter’s site at http://www.streetwisespanish.com/.

Pass the salt please

The Consejo de Administración de la Nueva Compañía Arrendataria de las Salinas de Torrevieja (NCAST), that manages the operation of the salt lagoon under administrative concession from the State, has recently approved an investment of over a million Euros to introduce improvements to the facilities for salt production in Torrevieja.

This is apparently just the first phase. There are plans to spend a further one million Euros  in a second phase. Of course, the cold winter and spring  helped the company in these difficult times by increasing demand for salt for the roads. Production at the plant currently exceeds 700,000 tons of salt.

Under new management

At the meeting last night, José told us that Darren has now taken over the running of La Pedrera. Having been introduced as the new manager, Darren then went on to explain his ambition plans for change.

First off the place will be open each day both during mornings and at night. The restaurant will be open each day except Mondays. In the mornings they will serve English breakfasts, at lunchtimes a menú del dia and at night a menú de la noche. Fridays will still be fish and chips, Thursdays- theme night and Sundays – roast dinner. Bar snacks are of course available at all times.

Most days there will be some sort of activity both during the daytime and at night. These will range from darts competitions to line dancing and include the popular quizzes. There will still be live entertainment on Saturday nights.

The price of drinks will be reduced!

Apart from reducing the price of drinks, Darren explained his newly introduced loyalty card. Each time you buy a drink or have a meal in he restaurant, you get a stamp on your card. Once you have sufficient stamps, you get a free drink or meal.

The lottery has been changed.

You now get tickets for the lottery each time you go up to La Pedrera. The more times you go up and take part in the events – the more tickets you accumulate. The draw for the lottery will take place on Saturdays but will not run over as it did previously. Instead, tickets will be drawn until someone wins the 100€ prize. As with the previous lottery though, you have to be at La Pedrera on Saturday night to win.

A lot of changes

There was a lot to take in – a lot of new ideas and a reshuffle of existing ones. Darren very kindly gave us sheets to explain most of the changes, so I’m sure we will figure it all out.

Taking over the running of La Pedrera is a big step for Darren and Hazel to take. They have obviously thought this through very carefully and have come up with ideas that they think will work. Only time will tell.

One thing for sure – they won’t fail through lack of trying.

Tweet 3

Mel says the source of the explosions could be the quarry near San Carlos the other side of the Sierra de Callosa.

Tweet 2

Courtesy of Chief Scout John. Perhaps I should reconsider my decision no to sign up for Twitter!

Do I need to tweet?

I keep seeing references to Twitter on the Internet.  Apparently Stephen Fry twitters regularly as do a host of others, so why don’t I?

What the hell is it though?

Twitter is a  free  service which lets you send a 140-character message, or "tweet", to a site where anyone can read it, though it will only be sent directly to those who have chosen to "follow" you. It’s a bit like Facebook but more instant, it is microblogging.

You can go to the Twitter website and see some of this “conversation” for yourself or install a program  such as Madtwitter,Twitteroo or Twitterlicious to help you sort through the maze of tweets. Those of you who love gossip will be enthralled.

Do I need to tweet? In case you are interested, I’ve took  Pam her cup of tea about ten minutes ago and Ron Wilshire has just called to say he will come and clean the windows tomorrow. Now I’ve paused to take a sip of my tea. Fascinated? I thought not!

Plan for the worst

The more time you spend on your computer, the more you realise how much you would loose if anything happened to it. It wouldn’t just be the data, it would be all the programs and other things that you use when running your machine.

Sometime ago I started using Acronis Home 2009 backup software to make regular copies of my hard drive on an external disc. That means that, in the event of a hard drive failure, I would be able to restore the contents of the disc to a new disc.

In order to restore my computer, I’d need some software to get started. Apart from Windows itself, there are a few other programs I’d need. In the days when the Internet was slow, software came on CDs or DVDs. Now the favoured method is to download software direct from the seller. I have quite a few programs that I have bought and installed in this way including my backup program, Acronis which I would definitely need to restore my computer.

Of course, I hope that the hard drive won’t crash. However, even if it doesn’t there is always the possibility that I might want a new computer someday ( I say might for the benefit of Pam). In that event, all this software I’ve bought would be lost so I have made copies of it all on CDs along with copies of any updates that have been made available.

Starting from scratch; installing all the software and the device drivers for all the bits and pieces I own would take quite some time but at least now I should be able to do it.

Not hearing things

I’m sure we heard an explosion yesterday somewhere towards the coast. Pamela says the windows shook as well. I’ve tried to find out the cause but can find no reference in the local newspapers.

I’ve also checked for earthquakes in the region. There was one of 1.8 between Elche and Alicante on the 22nd June and one of 1.9 near Pinoso on the 28th June but nothing since then in this region.

So, it remains a mystery unless chief scout Thorpe has any information.

My first tweet: John has just phoned to say that he thinks that what we heard was quarrying. He also tells me that there is a meeting tonight up at the Albergue. Notices about this are in the post boxes.

Stand by for anothe tweet about the content of the meeting.