Oh no, not more!

At the risk of boring you, here are the photos taken by my friend from the class, Irina.

Milder weather on the run up to Christmas

	Certainly a lot milder especially at night. Today was actually sunny and very pleasant. Looks like it will get colder again in the middle of the week but then become mild again towards the weekend. The wind could pick up on Thursday making it feel colder than it actually is.
	There is a chance of some light rain overnight tonight with further rain forecast for Wednesday night. Christmas Day should be sunny if a little cold which is good news for those planning to go to La Zenia beach for the Brits party.

We are all blushing

	Actors are always keen to read write-ups of their performances in the hope that they will be good.  To describe us as actors may be stretching the definition of an actor a little however, it cannot be denied that we did “perform”.
	Fabulosa interpretación y excelente mérito es el que tuvieron todos los alumnos de la Escuela de Adultos de Bigastro. No dudaron en subir al escenario e interpretar una obra de teatro navideño ante más de 200 alumnos de infantil del colegio la Paz. La Navidad como protagonista, donde cobraban vida los animales, el invierno, el sol y la luna. Todo querían ir Belén a visitar al niño Jesús que había nacido. Un cruel diablo helado intentó impedirlo, pero la voluntad de los simpáticos personajes fue más fuerte, y la historia, como no puede ser de otra manera, tuvo un final feliz. Todos los alumnos de la EPA participaron; neolectores, alfabetización y español para extranjeros que hicieron disfrutar a los pequeños y no tan pequeños.
	Fabulous interpretation and great merit by all the students from the Bigastro Adult School. They did not hesitate to go on stage and perform a Christmas play to more than 200 college students from the infant school La Paz. Christmas was the star, where the animals came to life along with a snowman, the sun and the moon. They all wanted to go to Bethlehem to see where the baby Jesus was born but a cruel, frozen devil tried to stop them.  However, the will of the characters was stronger than that of the devil, and the story had a happy ending (except for the poor devil of course who melted!) The young and not so young in the audience enjoyed the performance by all the students from the Bigastro EPA courses; basic reading, literacy and Spanish for foreigners.

You can see the rest of the  photos that the lady from the Town Hall took here.

Getting into the sprit

Next weekend at the Auditorium "Francisco Grau" ,the Unión Musical de Bigastro presents its Christmas Concert:

Sunday, December 26th at 6:30pm

I haven’t seen the programme for this but I imagine it will have a strong festive sprit to it.

I wonder what the young ladies gave him for rent

Remember the story about the French farmer who said he was growing cannabis to feed to his ducks well now there is a story in the Telegraph about a British farmer caught out growing the same crop.

The farmer was caught when he unwittingly shot two suspected burglars who were allegedly targeting a cannabis factory, which he didn't know existed, on his property.

The farmer, Mr Tibbs,  who suffers from multiple sclerosis and neuralgia, told detectives he had been awoken by the sound of geese and, after going outside on his mobility scooter, had shot three times into the dark, believing he was firing at a fox.

“It was an accident as far as I am concerned. I was out shooting that night on my land and apparently two people got shot there,” he said.

“I didn’t know anyone had been hit. If I did, I would have called the police. Apparently they went to hospital and police were called and they said where it happened. It happened at 4am, but the first I knew about it was when the police came.”

Police later discovered that a cannabis factory had been set up in a rented outbuilding on Mr Tibbs’s farm and it was thought that the two men were attempting to burgle it when they were shot.

Mr Tibbs, who said he had no knowledge of the cannabis plants, was later released without charge.

The injured men, from Basildon, were arrested on suspicion of possessing a firearm but were also released without charge. Two women who were arrested in connection with the discovery of 50 cannabis plants were also freed after questioning.

Mr Tibbs complained that police had revoked his two shotgun licences following the incident. But an Essex Police spokesman said Mr Tibbs was “unfit to be entrusted with a firearm and may present a danger to public safety and peace”.

Playing it safe

This is the picture on the front of the official Christmas card sent out by the  King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia this year  - a very tasteful shot of the Zarzuela Palace lit up at night.

Previous Christmas cards have shown the King and Queen surrounded by their grandchildren but for this year it has proved too difficult to get them all together for a photo-shoot.

This is not a new problem for the Royals. Five years ago they overcame this by using Photoshop. The picture for 2005 showed the King and Queen sat on a sofa surrounded by the seven grandchildren they had at that time. Unfortunately, whoever was responsible for the composite managed to amputate the King’s right leg – an easy mistake to make in Photoshop but one which you would expect someone would spot before the card was sent out.

Earlier this year the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Felipe, had photographs taken to mark his rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the army and air force and frigate captain in the navy  which appeared to use the same shot of his face juxtaposed above three different military uniforms. The Palace deny this and said that the pictures were authentic. Obviously the Prince was able to exactly reproduce the same expression three times.

Apart from the King and Queen, the rest of the members of the Spanish Royal Family are also playing it safe this year with not a hint of even airbrushing in sight.

Prince Felipe and his wife, Princess Letizia are absent from their greeting card instead choosing a portrait of their two daughters, the infantas Leonor, 5, and three-year-old Sofia.

The infanta Elena, the King and Queen's eldest daughter chose a snap of herself with her two children outside the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela after a pilgrimage at Easter.

The youngest daughter, the infanta Cristina is sending out a photograph of her four children taken while during their summer holiday on the island of Majorca.

Since it is highly unlikely that I will receive any of these cards, I won’t be able to comment on the authenticity of the photographs!

Madrid to Paris in seven and a half hours by train!

Yesterday, the King of Spain and the President inaugurated the new AVE train route between Madrid and Valencia. The train, which travels at speeds up to 320kmph, will carry passengers from the capital to Valencia in 95 minutes. The project means that Spain now has 2,665.kms of high speed track, more than any other European country. RENFE expect over 3 million passengers to use this route during its the first year.

At 11.06 from today the first French high speed train (TGV) will cross the border into the station-Vilafant Figueres, Girona. This will create the first high-speed connection between France. Barcelona and Paris and reduce the journey time to seven hours and 25 minutes saving an hour and a quarter of the previous time.

Renfe and the French National Railways (SNCF) will run two trains per day: at 11.06 and 15.02 from Figueres, arriving in Paris at 16.41 and 20.41. And from Paris Gare de Lyon, at 07.20 and 15.20, returning to Figueres at 12.47 and 20.48. From there to Barcelona you would add add up to two hours by conventional train (the high-speed section Barcelona-French border is expected to be ready by 2012).

Fifty years on

In 1960, Torrevieja was just a fishing town with a population of 9,234 (in 2008 =104,000) . Other than fishing, the main industry at that time was the salt works. There were no high rise flats and very few tourists.

When cars became more affordable, a few of the residents moved away but still called Torrevieja home. Torrevieja held its first gathering for those that had moved away in 1960. Now fifty years years later, many of those who had left returned, some for the first time and the town hall organised a full week of activities for them.

The week started with a visit to Torre del Moro.The mayor of Torrevieja, Pedro Hernandez Mateo, the Salt Reinasde Brotherhood of Alicante, with almost all the mayors of the area, municipal representatives from the cities of Mieres and Pola de Siero and a large group of Torrevejenses, led by Gil Vicente Eduardo Rizo, winner of last years "Diego Ramírez award, unveiled a plaque in honour to those who made the dream of returning to Torrevieja, a reality, exactly 50 years on.

Later on, the entourage moved to Calle Torrevejenses Ausentes, where another plaque was dedicated. The week was celebrated in style with a DVD presentation, Choirs, Orchestras, performances, theatre and dinners.

A special exhibition of old photos and artefacts, showing Torrevieja as she was over fifty years ago is on display in the Vista Alegre Exhibition Centre. Entrance is free and the exhibition is open until January 7, 2011.

Years of wisdom

If you want to know what Bigastro is about and what it is really like to live in Spain, then it is ladies like these you need to turn to.

They can tell you a tale or two about life in Spain over the last decade or so, about what has been good and what has been bad. The young may have technology and education but that is easily matched by these ladies lifetimes of experience.

Cock of the class

My photos from the dress rehearsal did not include this lady from one of the Spanish classes, she took the part of the cockerel who was going to Bethlehem with the other animals to see the baby Jesus.

By nature, this lady is quiet and unassuming almost shy but she came into her own in this role. We saw a more exuberant style to her character as she crowed across the stage.

Like all of us, she enjoyed the experience of performing for the children from the local infant school. They enjoyed our little play and so did this lady.

Just when you thought….

Things were bad – they just got worse for the farmers here in the Vega Baja.

The low night-time temperatures which dropped to zero have spoilt the artichoke crop. Estimates put the loss at three million Euros. Add to that the other crops such as beans, potatoes which have been obliterated and and citrus fruit that will have been affected and this is tantamount to a disaster. On a positive note, the more resistant broccoli, celery and cabbage should be OK.

The start of the artichoke season was good with prices at market above production costs. Many farmers, who had planted artichokes because of their good price in previous years, must now be ruing that decision.  

What the devil?

What on earth possessed me to volunteer to take the part of the devil in our Christmas production for the children from the infant school, La Paz? We already knew that learning a new language at our age was a more difficult task than when we were younger. We should have also realised that learning lines for a play was going to be a similar challenge. Still we got there in the end and managed to pull it off without any major hiccups. The main thing was, the children seemed to love it and we were mightily impressed how well behaved they all were.

Even though I was the devil, I got to take this stray cat home with me. Once home, I gave her a saucer of milk and then put her outside for the night. It wasn’t long before she was scratching at the door though – it was cold last night!

PS Some of the children told Pamela afterwards that they liked her as a cat but they didn't like the devil because he was evil. When she explained that I was her husband they were shocked!

Practising for the future

Forty students from the 2nd grade at the Colegio San José de Calasanz visited the Town Hall.They toured the building, visited the Mayor’s office and went into the council chamber where they held a council meeting. I doubt if their session was as fiery as some of the real council meetings.

PS The even younger mayor does look a little serious in this photo!

A helping hand from the UK

The UK government is currently dealing with more than a dozen different action groups made up of thousands of disenchanted expats who have lost hundreds of millions in property scams throughout Spain.

The situation is so severe that the government recently appointed a special overseas property advisor to help deal with it and to better understand the problems of those involved.

As a result, contentious issues such as illegal properties which do not have correct permits, cases where off-plan developments have not been built as specified and the length of time and cost involved in resolving property disputes were recently raised by the British ambassador to Spain with the Andalucian regional government and the Minister for Public Works and Housing.

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Spain said: "The UK government has no authority to interfere in any matters relating to Spanish domestic legislation, whether national, regional or local.

"However, we continue to express concern at the impact these problems are having on the lives of some of our citizens and Spain’s reputation abroad, and we have raised property issues with ministers in Spain and regional governments on numerous occasions.

"We understand the regional government is currently working with town halls in affected municipalities to draw up inventories of illegal properties and to seek solutions.

Playing at being God

Ireland is doomed because of the credit rating system that the world economy puts great store by says so. Moody's had previously rated Ireland as AA2 – the third highest level. Today's downgrade to BAA1 leaves its sovereign credit rating just three places above 'junk status', and follows a similar move by fellow ratings agency Fitch last week.

Now we come to Spain which currently has an AA1 rating.

Who is it that decided upon that? It turns out she is German.

No, the middle-aged German woman playing God over Spain is not Angela Merkel. The German chancellor is central to the battle to defend Spain that was again being fought out at today's Brussels EU heads of government summit.

It turns out, the person whose thumbs-up or thumbs-down can shape Spanish life for a decade or more is one Kathrin Muehlbronner, a polyglot economics graduate of the university of Tübingen.

Muehlbronner is a vice–president and senior sovereign risk analyst specialising in Spain at Moody's credit ratings agency. That makes her the woman whose say-so can plunge Spain into the unknown by the simple act of declaring that Europe's fifth largest economy no longer merits its Aa1 rating.

This week Muehlbronner stopped short of actually making that decision. Moody's believes that the downside risks warrant putting Spain's rating under review for downgrade. Moody's does not believe that Spain's solvency is under threat," she conceded, whereupon both euro and markets rallied a little.

If she had decided otherwise, then many more Spaniards would have lost their jobs, many more would have been unable to pay their mortgages. The austerity measures required would have eclipsed those of Ireland and Greece. In fact the whole Eurozone would have been under threat.

You don’t get closer to playing God than that.

Must get the grapes in

On New Year's Eve about one and half million kilos of grapes from the Alicante region of Vinalopó will be consumed as the clocks strike the 12 hours of midnight.

Unfortunately, this year’s crop of grapes is drastically below that expected because of the hail which fell in this region last May which destroyed 70 percent" of the crop. The initial forecast for this year was set at 43 million kilos.

The reduction has had a disastrous effect on the labour market. In 2009, 10,000 workers were employed to pick the crop, this year, they only need 5,000. Bear in mind that harvesting is all done by hand; the clusters are picked one by one directly from the vines and are kept separate until the time of packaging. Each cluster of grapes then carries the tag “Uva Embolsada del Vinalopó con Denominación de Origen” to certify the quality and provenance.

The main growing areas are Aspe, Hondón de las Nieves, Hondón de los Frailes, Monforte del Cid, Novelda, La Romana and Agost..

Pick a bale of cotton

The EU grants aid for 48,000 hectares of cotton in Spain all of which presently grown in Andalucía.

It used to be a major crop in this region up until the 80s when farmers started to switch to citrus fruits which were more profitable at that time. Now the market for fruit and vegetables has been opened to Morocco where prices are lower, local famers are unable to compete and are having to rely upon producing a better quality of fruit. So farmers are looking to return to growing cotton as a more cost effective alternative.

In 2008 and 2009, research was conducted at the campus Desamparados of the Universidad Miguel Hernández into the feasibility of growing cotton again in the Vega Baja. Tests were made growing long staple varieties suitable for the textile industry. The ten acres of the crop that were planted yielded 30 tons of high quality cotton – a good result.

It is now up to the Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM) to decide whether the subsidy for growing cotton should be applied to the Vega Baja. There is of course a lot of pressure from Andalucía to keep all of the subsidy there.

Growing cotton is labour intensive, it does not require the same quality of water as citrus fruit and is well suited to the soil structure of this region. The conditions are therefore right for more extensive planting here, all that is required is the green light from the Ministry.

Calling all games players

The Youth Council of the City of Bigastro has organised the 2nd Tournament of Board Games for the 3rd and 4th of January 2011 (from 4pm until 8pm).

REGISTRATION: -You can register to play up to the 28th December. -Registration is FREE: players will get 3 free drinks (soda or beer) -Open to anyone over 14 years of age, with the exception of ping-pong which is open to those over 10 years of age. -You can enter for up to two different games. -Entries will be accepted from people living in other municipalities -REGISTER at the YOUTH INFORMATION CENTRE or VIA EMAIL at juventud@bigastro.es, giving your full name, telephone number and the games that you want to sign up for (maximum two).

AND THE GAMES:

-Billiards -Table Football -Poker -Darts -Ping-pong -Chess -Ludo

Damn I won’t be available on those dates and times but then I am no good at any of those games anyway!

A letter to Santa

I remember sending letters to Santa and I remember my girls doing the same (Our youngest daughter Laura went to the trouble of quoting the catalogue numbers from Argos in her letters) but they were no where near as funny as these ones printed today in the Daily Mail.

I want sausages for dinner every day, all year round.

From Elsie

I want ducks with no teeth.

Love Ellen

PS: I'll take geese if it's a hard task - but remember, no teeth!

I want to buy a spider in a pet shop, so tell me that you'll come there and pay for it. The shop closes early on Christmas Eve. Is that all right?

Regards, Nathan

I wish not to have holes in my teeth for the rest of my life so I can eat as many sweets as I want all Christmas.

Christmas hugs from Violet

I wish to remain 12 years old for the rest of my life if possible.

From Dan

I only wish for one thing and that's for IKEA to open and give me a job when I'm grown up.

From Claudia

I want a dog. But I don't know which. I hope it's obedient, but not too big. Could you please tell me what the perfect dog is?

Love Maria

Could you make me a lot ­prettier than my friend Sabrina? That's my biggest and only wish!

Love Diana

Do you have baby pigs in store? If I can have a baby pig from you, that's what I wish for -- but you have to sort it out with Mum.

Love Cicilia

AWKWARD QUESTIONS

Do you think Mrs Santa can come instead of you? I'm so scared of you. Sorry.

From Jonas

Mum says you won't come if I swear. Are you allergic to swearing?

Regards, Victor

When you're finished, could I perhaps become the new Santa?

Your friend, Callum

Could you call me when you're close by so I can come and say hello to your reindeer? What's your phone number?

Love Rhiannon

Could you tell me what you did in the last World War? You didn't fly around the world! Were there any presents then?

From Andy

Santa Claus, how often do you change your clothes?

Regards, Tom

How often do you take a bath?

From Elisabeth

Did you come from the basement last year? Could you say a password when you come this time? You can say 'chocolate cake' - then I will know you're the real Santa, because I don't want Dad to be Santa.

Regards, Jane

Do you say 'Ho! Ho! Ho! because you don't speak other languages?

Greetings from Pauline

When you give us money, do you print it yourself? Isn't it fake money which is against the law?

Regards, Sonny

My dad and grandad are bald. If that's inheritable, will I become bald? Are you bald?

From Jens

HE KNOWS IF YOU'VE BEEN GOOD OR BAD

I know I haven't been nice this year, but I promise to be next year. So would it be all right to give me something in advance?

Regards, Joseph

If Mum and Dad have sent you a letter saying that I haven't been nice this year, it's true. But remember that I really pulled myself together two weeks ago.

Best regards, Richard

I've been good all year and I'm planning to be good next year as well. So could you throw a yo-yo in an envelope and send it to me?

Sebastian

Do you keep a file of all the children in the world? If so, do you store it on a computer? What program do you use?

From Luke

I'm writing to you on behalf of my little sister who's afraid to do it because she hasn't been that nice this year. But she hopes that you'll give her one or more presents anyway, because she promises to be nicer next year.

From Megan

How would you define good and not good? Is it allowed to tease once in a while? I do have four brothers and sisters.

Best regards, Amy

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

Will you bring me the presents I wish for this year? Last year you disappointed me. If you ­disappoint me this year as well, I'll lock the door so you can't let any more Christmases in.

From Martina

Why did you give Richard a PlayStation 2 and not me? Do you think that's fair?

Ted

Thank you very much for the presents last year. This year I would like to have twice as many.

Love Naomi

Why didn't I get a hairdryer from you for Christmas? I wanted one last year, but I didn't receive one. Now both my sisters have hair­dryers. How long will I have to ­borrow theirs? Could you tell me?

Love Eva

GPS system helps women sufferers lead a more normal life

Domestic violence which often involves a battered wife and a violent husband is an issue that Spain takes very seriously. So much so that the country has invested in GPS devices that track both the victim and the assailant.

If the battery on the device  runs flat, the assailant  tries to remove his tag or enters the safety zone of the victim, an alarm is set off in the surveillance centre in Madrid and the police contact the victim and  act quickly to offer protection.

The surveillance centre receives around 1,200 serious alerts a month (tag removal or safety perimeter intrusion), triggered by the 450 tags currently fitted in Spain, out of a total of 3,000 that the government purchased in 2009. "We need to improve the courts' appraisal of the risk before enlarging the scope of the system," says Miguel Lorente, a ministry specialist on gender-based violence. Since the beginning of the year, 63 women in Spain have been killed by their partners. Fourteen of them had already lodged a complaint with the police, but none of them had received a GPS phone.

It is hard for the majority of us to understand what prompts men to act violently towards their wives/partners. Certainly the economic crisis has not helped by depriving men of their pride in  maintaining the position as provider for their families.

Whatever the reasons for the violence, it is good to know that there is now a system that can protect these women and save them from the inevitable conclusion of this form of torture. 

Next stop the real thing!

The time for rehearsal is over. Today we had the dress rehearsal, Friday we perform in front of the children from the junior school La Paz.

The costumes look great, the lines are as good as they are going to get – everything is set for a fun packed performance.

Here are just some of the actors that will be taking part.

		On the left, the snowman having a last look at her words. As the star of the show with the most lines to deliver, she is damn good. On the right are the the ladies from Bethlehem, a shepherd and the angel of the Lord in the centre.
		From the left; the sun, the sheep and the moon. The snowman looks magnificent with her colourful buttons and that top hat.
		On the left; the cat, the moon and one of the directors, Ana. On the right one of the ladies from Bethlehem and the shepherd with the moon rising from behind.

Missing from the photographs are the dog, the cockerel, the other director, Sandra and me of course as the devil.

Now it is time to wish all who are taking part to “break a leg!”

I am an admirer

When we were new to Bigastro, the town hall seemed to rely upon people like me to chronicle events and send in photos for the gallery.

Now there is a young lady, armed with a high quality digital SLR, who attends these occasions to make an official record.

At first I was only vaguely aware of her presence but now we have got to know each other, I try not to get in the way and aim not to duplicate the photos she takes which, as you will see from the albums in the gallery, are excellent. Her pictures provide an invaluable record of life in the town.

Here are a couple of the events that the official photographer has covered recently:

• It looks like the Gala last weekend was a great show. You can see photos here.
• Also the new Police Station was opened with all due ceremony as you can see here.

PS Note to the town hall: the built in flash on the Sony DSLR has a very limited range which extends no more than a few metres. Without an external flashgun it is a real struggle to get a decent picture in poor light. Even a relatively inexpensive external flash would help your photographer to get better shots particularly indoors.

Music to your ears

The following items form the cultural programme at the Municipal Auditorium  "Francisco Grau" this weekend:

Saturday, December 18th at 6:30pm

Christmas Festival by the students from the School of Music of the  Sociedad Unión Musical de Bigastro.

This concert will be packed with parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles etc.

Sunday, December 19th at 6:30pm

18th Century Music Concert

Four sopranos and a string quartet interpret musical compositions typical of the classical period.

PS If i am not mistaken, these singers, who are blessed with beautiful voices,  form the group “Mare Selenitas”.

Yum yum

The Department of Women in collaboration with the Progressive Women's Association have organised the Christmas Baking Workshop 2010.

The workshops will be take place on the 14th and 15th December at the headquarters of the Association, located on the ground floor of the Municipal Auditorium from 4pm.

On Sunday, December 19 at 5:30pm, in the Multipurpose Room of the Municipal Auditorium, you will be able to sample all of the desserts made during the workshops.

You know what, I think I am up for that – the tasting that is not the making!

In a town near you

Adverts for the Costa Blanca have now been posted on 104 billboards around Britain in areas where they will get maximum exposure to traffic.

The campaign is aiming to reach 5.9 million inhabitants in Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Nottingham, Newcastle, Derby, Leicester, Sheffield and Cardiff.

If you see one please let me know.

PS I hope they don't all come for the summer - the place might get a bit overcrowded!

No let up for the next month

Locals complaining about the cold here in Bigastro find it hard to contemplate how bad it might be in Britain this winter. So far the country has seen some of the coldest temperatures and heaviest snowfalls since 1981, but with no let up on the horizon, it could end up being the worst winter since 1910.For the next few days

Today
A chilly and often cloudy day, locally foggy at first, though brighter in the south and the northwest with some lengthy sunny periods in western Scotland. Occasional light rain for some eastern areas, most frequent along coasts of eastern England.

Showers continuing in many eastern parts, especially near coasts. Elsewhere dry with variable amounts of cloud, with icy patches on some roads and fog developing locally under cloud breaks.

Tuesday will see showers near eastern coasts, with outbreaks of light rain spreading further inland across central and southern parts. Turning clearer and colder in southeast England later. Dry with variable cloud elsewhere.

Wednesday will be mainly dry. Heavy rain sweeping southwards on Thursday, giving way to frequent snow showers and a risk of widespread ice later Thursday and on Friday. Turning very cold again.

Friday 17 Dec 2010 to Sunday 26 Dec 2010:

Very cold and unsettled on Friday and through the weekend, with strong northwesterly winds bringing frequent snow showers to many places. Some significant accumulations are likely in places leading to some disruption, and with strong winds in places, there is a risk of drifting leading to temporary blizzard conditions. It will be very cold with icy stretches and widespread overnight frosts, these perhaps becoming locally severe through the first weekend as winds fall lighter. During the following week, it will stay mostly cold or very cold with further wintry showers in places and the risk of freezing fog. There is however a chance that some southern and perhaps central parts may become less cold for a time, but with a risk of rain, sleet and snow, particularly in the southwest.

Monday 27 Dec 2010 to Monday 10 Jan 2011:

Continuing unsettled and often windy with further wintry showers and perhaps some longer outbreaks of snow in places. Temperatures look set to be generally below average for much of the UK, with a risk of frost and ice in places. However, some milder spells are likely with rain rather than snow, especially in the south.

I won’t be posting photos of this

If you visit Torrevieja, Orihuela or even the church hall in Bigastro, you will see just how much work goes into creating a Belén. The figures, the scenes of everyday life and the attention to detail are just remarkable. It obviously takes a lot of time, effort, skill and creativity on the part of the authors of these masterpieces in miniature.

There is however one group that goes even further to create the ultimate Belén. They climb up 600 metres above sea level, almost to the Alto del Águila on the Sierra Callosa to create their depiction of the birth of Jesus. And they have been doing this for 48 years. Did they have fleece, GoreTex and Vibran soled boots back then?

Each year more an more people take part in the climb. Yesterday, four hundred climbers of all ages made the ascent and completed their work. Then of course they had lunch, a huge picnic accompanied by wine brought up in wineskins. They even raffled a leg of ham. I bet they were hungry after carrying that lot up the mountain.

PS Please don’t hold your breath waiting to see my pictures of the Belén they created. My days of climbing mountains are sadly long past. It would take a lot more than the promise of a good lunch to get me up that mountain.

Get ready for the big chill

	Just as we have got used to this mild weather with some sunny days to look forward to, it is set to change this week.
	Mid week looks like the time when temperatures will drop but then will pick up again by the weekend. By Saturday the big chill should be over.

New doctor

Those of you who have been to the  medical centre recently will have noticed that Dr Cartegena, who had most of the English patients on his books, has now left and has been replaced by Dr Mauriz Caratini, Grushenska Ofel who I understand speaks a little more English than her predecessor.

Pam and I had few problems with Dr Cartegena possibly because we took the trouble to try and speak to him in Spanish. The only complaint we would make is that he seemed reluctant to conduct any sort of examination: often he would prescribe for you based simply on your description of your problem. He also seemed to be of the opinion that the British drank too much and that this was the root of their health issues.

Why I won’t be buying an iPad

I am a great lover of all things Apple and have been for a number of years. I had several Apple computers, I had a Newton and have two iPods including an early iPod Touch but I won’t be rushing out to buy its much bigger brother, the iPad for several good reasons.

In comparison to the Kindle book reader which I mentioned in a previous article, the iPad would seem to be a much better proposition mainly because it has a wonderful colour screen. It also has a lot of amazing features not offered by the simple book reader. With its backlit screen it would be more of a strain to use as a book reader than the Kindle with its E-Ink but for everything else it would be gorgeous.

The main stumbling block for me is the price of iPads which start at £429 for the 16Gb WiFi version and go up to a staggering £699 for the 64Gb WiFi/3G model. For that price you can get a very respectable notebook computer with a speedy Intel Core i5 or even i7 processor, 4GBs of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. A notebook might not be so portable nor as sleek as the iPad tablet but would probably be easier to use for lot of my routine tasks better especially since they come with a proper keypad and not a virtual one.

Did I mention that the iPad does not support Adobe Flash? Well it doesn’t and that is a bit of a mistake on Apple’s part. It might be tiresome to watch on some web pages especially when it overdone but without its support, there is just a blank square on the screen.

Having said all of that, if someone was to buy me an iPad for Christmas, I would be like a “pig in muck”.

Cleaning up the past

The Law of Historical Memory introduced by the socialist government in 2007 was an attempt to heal the wounds of the 1936-39 Civil War and ensuing dictatorship. Fascist symbols have been withdrawn from public view and streets and plazas honouring Franco and his henchmen have been renamed.

Although the Palace of El Pardo, an old royal residence set in hunting grounds on the north-eastern outskirts of Madrid, served as el Caudillo's home following his victory in the Spanish Civil War until his death in 1975, Guided tours around the palace will no longer include a look into his private rooms.

Spain's department of National Heritage, which manages the site said tours would still be offered to those parts of the palace dating from between the 16th and 18th centuries because they had "high artistic value". But, a spokesman has confirmed that the monitoring committee of Historical Memory has decided that the tours will not include Franco's quarters, (which were redecorated in 1950s), because they say they are of no value.

This move does not extend to the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) the vast basilica in the hills outside Madrid built by Republican prisoners, which houses the tomb where the dictator himself is buried.

National Heritage this week announced the reopening of the controversial memorial following repair works. The memorial will now have tightened security measures, including airport style scanners, after calls by victims associations for the site to be destroyed.

The Civil War clearly left deep scars on the country which the Government want to remove and that is understandable. However, I would argue that you cannot simply erase the past as if it never happened, remnants of it  should remain to serve as a lesson for the future.

Many countries have suffered from dark days of repression at some point in their history, some still do. These are the times that define their nature today.

Words fail me

From today's papers:

On the day when the vote was to be taken about raising tuition fees in Britain, up to 30,000 students laid siege on Parliament Square and, in chaotic running battles with the mob, one mounted officer was knocked from his horse, another suffered a serious neck injury and others were attacked with flares, sticks, snooker balls and smoke bombs.

One student urinated on the Winston Churchill statue in the square, which was also daubed with offensive graffiti, including messages saying “racist warmonger” and “Churchill was a ----”.

A plastic booth thrown on to a bonfire of placards exploded into flames, billowing smoke across Westminster. The riots spread to surrounding areas and several buildings were attacked, including the Treasury, the Supreme Court and Topshop, owned by the billionaire Sir Philip Green.

The car in which the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were travelling through the West End was attacked. Police managed the situation and the couple were unharmed. However, demonstrators kicked the Rolls-Royce as it travelled to the Royal Variety Performance in central London. White paint and bottles were thrown over the car and a window was shattered.

The police were repeatedly attacked by surges from a hard core of mask-wearing anarchists and charged back on horseback. Several of the horses were repeatedly struck by missiles, and firecrackers were thrown in attempt to startle the animals.

Scuffles began as early as 2pm, ahead of the debate, as tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through London. One officer was seen being dragged to safety by colleagues after being hit on the head in Kingsway.

Hundreds of students pushed through the barriers, and flares were lit, as they streamed through metal gates on to the green in the square. As darkness fell, gangs of teenage vandals, some brandishing hammers, formed among the protesters.

About 20 individuals systematically began smashing every pane of glass in each telephone box despite female and male students ordering them to stop. The Supreme Court building was attacked by protesters brandishing shovels, a Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square was set on fire and, at the height of the violence, BBC news reporters were forced to don crash helmets for protection.

It is easy to understand the cause they were fighting for but not the means by which these students protested. I would hope that the majority of the students were neither involved in nor condoned the violence. It seems likely to me that there was a hard core of people, who may not even have been students, who were using the protest as a vehicle for their anarchic behaviour.

Unfortunately, they will all be tarred with the same brush and the public will not look on favourably at students and their plight in the future.

The picudo rojo is still with us

Every where you go you can see the evidence. palm trees that are dying, trees with their tops removed and gaps where the trees have been taken away. The red palm weevil, which is devastating the Mediterranean palm trees, is far from being under control.

The Government recognizes the seriousness of this pest, but rarely provides specific data about the extent of the problem.

Yesterday, the multinational cement company, Cemex shed some light on the seriousness of this problem by saying that, in the past 10 months, it had burnt around 6,000 tonnes of palm weevil affected trees in its  kilns. Translated into units that would be about 3,100 trees.

However, botanists and nurserymen estimate that the actual number of trees affected may well be  double that.

On a positive note, the cement company says that by burning palm trees rather than fossil fuels they have reduced the carbon dioxide output from their Buñol  plant by  5,000 tons between February and November.

It’s on its way

The early winter caught most of Northern Europe out. The demand for salt from Nueva Compañía Arrendataria de las Salinas de Torrevieja (NCAST), the Torrevieja company that produces salt from the lagoons is high.

Five thousand tons a day are being shipped out by lorry and by boat.

Hundred of trucks line up waiting to take salt to the north of Spain and the boats queue up to come into harbour to carry salt to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France and the UK.

The WikiLeaks cables reveal

US officials offered to help Spain claim an undersea treasure haul of gold and silver coins discovered by a controversial American exploration company in return for Spanish assistance in the recovery of valuable art looted by Nazi Germany, according to embassy cables released by WikiLeaks.

In a conversation with the Spanish culture minister, César Antonio Molina, the US ambassador in Madrid, Eduardo Aguirre, sought to tie the treasure found off the Iberian peninsula by Odyssey together with attempts by an American citizen, Claude Cassirer, to recover a painting by Camille Pisarro that hangs in a Madrid museum.

"The ambassador noted also that while the Odyssey and Cassirer claim were on separate legal tracks, it was in both governments' interest to avail themselves of whatever margin for manoeuvre they had, consistent with their legal obligations, to resolve both matters in a way that favoured the bilateral relationship," the embassy reported in a cable on 2 July 2008.

The offer was made after the Spanish government claimed ownership of half a million gold and silver coins found on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean by Odyssey's underwater robots. The company had provoked Spanish fury by landing the treasure at Gibraltar and flying it straight to the US.

The so-called Black Swan treasure, which Odyssey said came from an unidentified shipwreck, had been valued at about $500m.

Molina refused to tie the Odyssey case to the Pisarro painting, according to the embassy. "The minister listened carefully to the ambassador's message, but he put the accent on the separateness of the issues," the cable reported.

He promised, nevertheless, to meet Cassirer to discuss what could be done about the painting, Pisarro's Rue St Honoré. Après-midi. Effet de Pluie, which currently hangs in the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum in Madrid.

Spain claims that the Black Swan treasure find comes from a Spanish galleon, the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, which sank off Portugal's Algarve coast in 1804. The vessel had just returned from Montevideo when it was attacked by four Royal Navy ships, and was carrying half a million coins that had been minted in Peru.

Descendants of the 249 Spanish sailors who went down with the ship joined the Spanish government's case against Odyssey in a court in Altanta, Georgia. The court ruled that the cargo belonged to Spain; Odyssey has appealed.

The company claims that up to 70% of the treasure the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes was carrying did not belong to the Spanish state at the time, and so the vessel was effectively on a commercial mission. That means the cargo cannot belong to the Spanish government today, it argues.

The leaked cables reveal that the US embassy had the previous year handed over to Spanish authorities the customs documents filed by Odyssey when it flew its hoard of coins into the US in mid-2007.

Embassy officials warned Spain's director of customs, Nicolas Bonilla,"that the information was confidential and to be used only for law enforcement purposes".

58 years in gaol

Vlad Costel, known as “the Rumanian Godfather”, directed one of the major networks for prostitution in Alicante, a Mafia operation that deceived, threatened, tortured  and exploited women, some below the age of consent.

The girls were recruited in Romania and brought over to Spain by bus; Costel’s son in law,  Constantin Aurelian Tudor, otherwise known as 'Tarzan' was in charge of this part of the operation. He was also responsible for placing the girls once they were in the country.

Some of the girls knew that they were coming to Spain to work as prostitutes, many though were told that they would be working in the hotel trade or in people’s houses. Some were even given false contracts for three months. The ones who were under age were given false passports to get them here.

If the girls did not earn enough money or tried to escape, they were told their families back in Romania would be killed. If they tried to enlist the help of one of their clients, they were beaten with copper cables. The ones in the clubs would be locked up to prevent the from leaving.

The centre of operations was the Godfather’s house in  Gran Alacant from where the network spread across the whole province and beyond including the Las Palmeras (El Altet) and El Castillo (Alicante) clubs. 

The Godfather is now behind bars. However, we know that when one criminal is caught, others will  step up to fill the gap. Hopefully, the sentence that Costel  and his gang received will be sufficient to deter too many from following in his footsteps. 

The digital book is not for me just yet

Writing about all the things you could do with newspaper got me thinking about what other items are now becoming redundant in this digital age.

Records were largely made redundant by CDs which are now under threat by MP3 downloads. Cine film was superseded by digital tape which is now falling foul of DVDs, built in hard drives and memory cards and of course films on VHS tapes have given way to DVDs. I am sure I have missed a few things out there and left the odd gap but not to worry.

What is interesting me most at the moment is the digital book.

Before we came to Spain we had loads of books, enough to fill a large bookcase twice over. We pruned that down to three shelves full (in total about 3m). Amongst those there are reference titles which get thumbed from time to time. The rest are all non-fiction and cover everything from gardening to barbecuing with a fair emphasis on cooking. Some of the books have been read from cover to cover, some have been dipped into and others barely touched and yet they all take up space and gather dust.

Aside from all that factual stuff, Pam is an avid reader of novels and regularly stocks up on paperbacks to see her through a season or two.

Wouldn't it be great if all those books could be stored on a simple device the size of a very slim notebook computer? Well of course they can and there is a growing choice of tablets you can buy which do just this.

The one I have investigated in a bit more depth is the Amazon Kindle which is not badly priced, has good capacity and some interesting features.There are a couple of stumbling blocks though.

First off, the device is grey scale which would be useless for all those travel and photography books in my collection. For Pam’s novels though that would not be an issue. What would be though, is the fact that many of titles she would buy are just not available in digitised format yet and those that are cost more than the paperback format. Over 480, 000 or whatever Amazon claim might seem like a lot of titles but pales in comparison to the number of books that are actually in print.

All that means is that I am kind of put off the idea, at least for the moment. It might be worth watching for developments though.

Was it a party or an propaganda campaign?

The Mayor of Orihuela, Monica Lorente invited the residents from Orihuela Costa to a pre-Christmas lunch last Sunday but the opposition party CLR suspect her motives.

They say that the party (free transport, drink and food) was to be all paid for out of local taxes. Further more, the party just happened to coincide with a pre-election function to weigh up support following the outbreak of the Brugal scandal. They describe it as a dirty trick to drum up support for the PP party.

To be fair, I think that the comment smacks of sour grapes on behalf of the CLR party. If people went and had a jolly good time and had to endure a bit of propaganda, then that was a small price to pay.

The ex-mayor faces the possibility of more time in gaol

On the 10th April 2006, the mayor of Bigastro at that time, José Joaquín Moya approved a special plan for the construction of a solar farm in the public park, La Pedrera. On the same day he went ahead and granted a licence to Eurener to build the solar farm; no other company was given the chance to bid for this work. On the 16th November, heavy machinery arrived and started to plough up the land in preparation for construction.

When the Servicio de Protección a la Naturaleza de la Guardia Civil (Seprona) complained to the CIty Council several days later, Moya signed a decree suspending the licence for the work. By this time though, much of the local flora along with pine trees had already been destroyed.

In order for this work to go ahead on non urbanizable land, there had to be a declaration of community interest and a declaration of environmental impact approved by the Generalit. The City Council and Eurener therefore sent the file to the Valencian Autonomous Government for approval and they turned the plan down.

Also implicated in this affair was the municipal technician who, according to the public prosecutor, should have been aware that what was being undertaken was contrary to the norms of city- planning – in fact illegal.

In relation to this issue, the Anti-corruption public prosecutor for the Vega Baja, Pablo Romero is seeking a prison sentence of 15 months for the ex mayor and a ban on him holding public office for nine years.

Other investigations

There are other on-going investigations related to city-planning irregularities involving both the current mayor and the ex-mayor: the exchange of land in a green zone to allow factory units to be built, the installation of gas tanks in an area designated as park land and the authorisation to auction rustic land to build an aparthotel – all of which took place between 2005 and 2008.

This weekend in Bigastro

	Saturday 11th at 8pm A recital by the wood and wind quintet, “Manuel Moya” Ana Belén Sánchez Mazón (Flute) Germán Moya Pomares (Oboe) Germán Guillén Alcocer (Clarinet) Diego Carillo Soler (Horn) Antero Ojanto (Bassoon)
	Gala for the disabled The Association of Disabled La Pedrera, along with the Council of Social welfare and Culture have organised this gala to raise funds. Price: 5 € (which goes to the Association)

So many uses

I have to admit that without the help of online newspapers, I could not write this blog. Most of the newspapers I read are local to be in keeping with the title of my blog. However, I do read the British papers as well.

Amongst the ones that I read online used to be the Times but not anymore because now they charge for it. I can understand why, after all you do get the same news that others have to pay for when they buy the paper version. However, I would argue that there are several important differences between the online paper and the paper copy which justifies you paying for the latter.

For one thing, you can’t easily read the online edition on the way to work by train or by bus and not at all on a plane. Even if you have a snazzy smart phone, you need a decent 3G connection to download the pages.

Secondly and perhaps more important, when you have finished reading the paper copy it can be used for a great many things.

• you can screw the paper up and use it to light a fire (my father taught me how roll it properly to make the paper burn longer)
• you can also use a newspaper to draw the fire up the chimney to get it going (a highly dangerous practice my father also taught me)
• you can use it to wrap items up that you want to store (not recommended for items that might get soiled by the newsprint)
• you can lay it under carpets to stop the floorboards wearing the backing (with the added bonus that when you come to change the carpet, you can relive the old news)
• in fact you can lay newspaper under anything that needs padding
• you can make party hats out of them
• use it in the garden to blanch celery or to protect plants from frost
• put it on your car windscreen to stop it frosting over
• in school you’d use newspaper to make papier mache and to cover the tables when gluing and painting
• they are great for making the tails of kites from (not the kite itself though)
• fold one and use it as a fan to keep you cool
• stuff your wet shoes with one
• crumpled newspaper and vinegar is great for polishing windows and mirrors
• put a paper over your head when it is raining to keep your head dry or to keep the sun off at cricket matches
• on the terraces at Liverpool FC they would roll up the Daily Post and use it as a funnel when they could not get to the toilet (not recommended if the person in front is bigger than you)
• my mother used newspaper to copy paper dress patterns
• if you were our grandparents you might have cut it into squares and used it as toilet paper (only if you had an outside loo of course)
• again, if you were our grandparents you would have used it to cover the windows when you were decorating (why did they do that?)
• poor people (not our families you understand) used to line drawers with them
• you can convert newspapers into logs to burn (my father tried this and then found that it was cheaper to buy coal)
• you can use it to stuff up a draughty doorway or window
• you can lay it on the floor to keep it clean when you come in from the garden or workshop (I am desperately trying to remember who used to do that in “Last of the Summer Wine”)
• put newspaper on the floor when you polish your shoes
• according to our teacher, the British use newspaper to wrap fish and chips. We did have to point out to her that the fish and chips are actually wrapped in clean paper - the newspaper was just to keep them warm on the way home
• you can stuff it down your jersey when you are cycling downhill (many a rider has relied on a copy of L'Équipe to keep his chest warm whilst descending the Col de Tourmalet)

That is why I believe they are justified in charging for newspapers because they are a value added item – online news just isn’t.

How would the police find a stolen snowman?

Since the weather has been bad in Britain, the police have been inundated with calls from people requiring assistance.

Last week, people were phoning the police to report children who were snowballing. To be fair, a well hurled icy snowball can do some damage if it hits your windows, your car or worst of all you.

Although the police might have tolerated those complaints, a lady in Chatham, Kent went too far. She phoned the emergency 999 number and told the police that someone had stolen the snowman from her garden. Apparently she genuinely believed this was serious because she’d used pound coins for the eyes and teaspoons for the arms. The lady in question has now been advised about what constitutes a genuine emergency.

The story begs the questions "How would you find a missing snowman?" Missing snowman - description - white, made of snow about 1.5m tall when last seen (could be much smaller by now) and "How on earth do you steal a snowman, it's not like you could bundle it into the back of a van is it?"

PS and they talk about Scousers - build a snowman in Liverpool and it will stay there until it melts; Southerners obviously have no scruples about such things :-)

Dull but mild

	You can’t have it every which way at this time of year, it is after all winter.  It is either dull and mild or sunny and cold.
	A cloudy start to the week with drizzle. Temperatures will be mild.  However, by Friday, temperatures will drop again. By next weekend we should see clear skies and sunshine return. With clear skies though, the thermometer will plummet.

Even more red faces

When you find an article advertised at way below its real price, it is tempting to think that you have hit upon the bargain of the century. My daughter bought some jewellery from what she thought was the Hong Kong branch of Tiffanys only to find that it was fake. Still only she (and you now) know that.

I read in the papers today that eighty people bought what they thought were brand new campervans from an Alicante businessman for between 12,000 and 15,000 Euros. The official price of these vehicles is 40,000 Euros. They must have thought all their Christmases had come at once.

Initially, a Barcelona company had sold the vehicles to France, but they were damaged in a flood in 2008 so sold to a junkyard.

The vehicles apparently ended up in the Czech Republic and Germany. Their plate numbers where changed and then put up for sale. Many of these campers had undergone ITV inspections in various Spanish provinces, leading Guardia Civil investigators to believe these were ‘fixed’. The vehicles were then sold as new, as though they were fresh from the factory.

The campervans parent company became aware of the alleged fraud when they received requests for vehicle parts for vehicles which had been taken off the road.

Now, following an investigation by the Guardia Civil and the Police, the 80 people who bought the campers are not able to drive them. In addition to the possible fraud and forgery, the Guardia Civil have deemed them un-roadworthy.

The moral: anything that seems too cheap to be true often IS.

That’s not the way to do it

The Spanish government declared a "state of alarm" yesterday for the first time in three decades, assuming sweeping powers that allowed the military to take control of the country's airspace and order Spain's striking air traffic controllers to work or face prison.

Military law was applied from midday yesterday, allowing them to be arrested and charged if they did not return to work. Spain's military code allows sentences of up to two years for those who disobey an order to work from the defence ministry. "If they do not go to work, they will be committing a crime of disobedience according to the military penal code," the deputy prime minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, warned after an emergency cabinet meeting.

The measure appeared to work. By late yesterday evening, Rubalcaba said that more than 90% of the controllers had returned to work. But he added that it could still take up to 48 hours for air traffic to return to normal after Spanish airspace reopened during the afternoon. It was also unclear if strikers would seek fresh ways to continue their protest.

In a country that has 20% unemployment and is suffering massive cuts in government spending, the 2,300 well-paid air traffic controllers are hardly gaining public sympathy for their cause. They earned an extraordinary average of €350,000 each last year, thanks to generous overtime rules. Those who worked most overtime earned up to €900,000, with 160 earning above €600,000.

So what has upset them? The government passed a law restricting overtime and tightening working conditions earlier this year. They also plan to privatise Barcelona and Madrid airports. Even if they only receive their basic pay following the changes, that is a hell of a lot more than 90+ per cent of Spanish workers not to mention the 20% who are unemployed.

For a union trying to make its point, calling a wild cat strike at the start of a public holiday was perhaps not a clever move. Most unions will tell you that the only way to win your cause is with public support. Without it you are battling with two enemies of which the public are the ones you need to worry most about.

Going nowhere

The Spanish military was called in to take control of the country's airspace yesterday after air traffic controllers staged an unauthorised walkout over working conditions. The controllers called in sick en masse.

At 9:30 am, an emergency Royal Decree was signed ordering the Ministry of Defence to call in the army to take control of air traffic in all the national territory. An emergency cabinet meeting was scheduled for 9am this morning where they will likely declare a State of Emergency.

The controllers, who are the best paid in Europe with annual salaries of up to one million euros, have been in dispute with the socialist government for a year over plans, ratified this week, to partly privatise the Spanish state airports authority, AENA.

Their timing could not be worse. There are two public holidays next week on Monday and Wednesday with many taking the Tuesday off as well, so Spaniards along with other travellers would have been at the airports ready to get away.

The good and the bad

The bad news is that it is going to be really cold again tonight with temperatures hovering just above zero. The good news is that the cold spell will then give way to milder weather with daytime temperatures in the low 20s and at night time in the teens.

Health and safety issues

Bigastro City Council set up a table at the weekly market on Thursday to mark the International Day to Combat AIDS.

The Councillors for Health and Welfare, Isidro Ricart and Mª Carmen Alonso were on hand to give out information about the preventative measures that people can take to avoid the disease and of course to pin the red ribbons onto lapels.

A week last Thursday, 25th October, the two councillors were at the market giving out information about the Day Against Violence (especially violence against women). On this occasion the ribbons were black.

Next Friday, 10th December between 5:30pm and 8pm you can do your bit by donating blood at the Auditorium “Francisco Grau” . In Tony Hancock’s time you used to donate a pint*, I’m not sure how much they take now that we have gone metric.

* Recall the classic line from “The Blood Donor” – one episode of Hancock’s Half Hour from 1961 -"I don't mind giving a reasonable amount, but a pint! That's very nearly an armful! I’m not going around with an empty arm.”

The new nick

The new location for the local police station will be opened next Friday, 10th December, by the Assistant Representative to the Government in Alicante, Dña. Encarna Llinares.

The current location, although centrally placed, is way too small and offers very little parking facilities for the police vehicles. The new location, situated on the ground floor of the old San José de Calasanz school building, offers a lot more space and better parking.

As an aside, the young men in cars that used to gather outside the San José building have now moved up to the park at the bottom of our estate. Particularly at the weekends, there are as many as half a dozen cars parked either in the San Isidro park or on the two roads alongside it.

It makes you wonder why these young men choose to congregate in this way. I find it hard to believe that they drive up here just to have a chat but I would not want to accuse them of anything more sinister. No doubt the police are keeping an eye on the situation.

PS Nick is English slang for a police station - so called because that is where you get taken when you get caught or "nicked". Like in Spanish, there are a lot of colloquial terms in English.

That’s not (n)ice!

This satellite picture from today’s papers in Britain shows the country covered in a blanket of snow and ice and weathermen predict that it could stay that way for another week.

Petrol stations are running out of fuel, shops are running out of stocks, cash machines are running out of money, ships bringing toys for Christmas can’t get into port and stocks of salt are running low. There are problems on the roads, on the trains and at the airports.

Most bizarre of all though, amidst all this chaos, the police are being inundated with phone calls from people complaining of children throwing snowballs.

Will she give refunds for dull days

Angeles Duran, 49, from Vigo in the north-western region of Galicia, applied for ownership of the Sun after learning that similar claims had been made by an American on the Moon, Mars and Venus.

Although the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 prevents any government from staking their claim over celestial bodies it does not extend to private individuals, an opinion backed by her notary after consulting legal bodies in Spain.

Last week Miss Duran was issued with a document that declares she is "the owner of the Sun, a star of spectral type G2, located in the centre of the solar system, at an averaged distance from Earth of around 149,600,000 kilometres" (93 million miles).

She now plans to profit from her property and wants to charge those whose benefit from its energy and claims to have met representatives from Spain's Ministry of Industry to discuss levying a fee on photovoltaic plants for converting the sun's energy into electricity.

"When you have a property it makes sense to make use of it. Power companies profit from the rivers which belong to everyone so I hope to take advantage of the sun."

Miss Duran has come up with a plan that will distribute profits made from the Sun across Spain with half the proceeds going to the government, 20 per cent to the nation's pension fund, 10 per cent dedicated to ending world hunger and ten per cent on research. She says she will keep 10 per cent of the earnings from the Sun for herself.

More red faces

Art thieves drove off in a van filled with 22 sculptures and paintings worth an estimated €5m from a warehouse in Getafe near Madrid.

The van carrying the artworks had been parked inside a warehouse belonging to the Crisóstomo transport company on Friday after arriving from the Stefan Röpke gallery in Cologne, Germany. The thieves drove off using a key left in the van's glove department.

Only about half of the artworks, which were being returned to Spain from a gallery in Germany, were insured, according to David Fernández of the Juan Gris gallery in Madrid. "I have been furious and upset about this since Monday," he said. Monday was the day when some of the works should have been delivered to his gallery and five others in Madrid and Barcelona. "Nothing like this has happened to us in 40 years."

Christmas in Orihuela

The Christmas lights in Orihuela will be turned on December 13th - worth a visit I think. And those who might worry about the cost of all the electricity consumed by the lights, don’t  worry, all the bulbs are low energy.

Another must see is the Belén, situated in the plaza Marqués de Rafal which this year will commemorate the poet Miguel Hernández with a figure that reads some of his poems.

Brrritain grinds to a halt - again

The British government have ordered an urgent audit of the country's snow-readiness today as much of the country struggles with the early winter weather. Road, rail and air links are all reportedly in chaos.

Yesterday:-

• More than 2,000 schools closed and the NHS trust in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, was reduced to appealing for local people with 4x4s to help transport medical staff. Midwives went to work in Hexham, Northumberland, on a dairy farmer's tractor. In Scotland, Forth coastguard said it used a 4x4 to collect intensive care nurses from their homes and transport them to the Queen Margaret hospital in Dunfermline.
• Britain's second biggest airport, Gatwick, was closed all day and not expected to reopen until this morning after runway clearing was repeatedly foiled by fresh snowfalls.
• Network Rail conceded that a third of trains were delayed or cancelled by early afternoon, after earlier estimates that 80% of services were on time. But a spokesman said that both the group's own staff and train operators had their "full severe weather mitigation measures in place".
• On the roads, four hours of continuous snowfall in Yorkshire, Kent and parts of the east coast saw motorways close or shrink to a single lane, while cities such as Sheffield spent most of the day without buses and the Humber and Forth bridges were closed.

How do other countries cope?

Drivers in Sweden are required by law to fit their vehicles with winter tyres, local authorities have to keep the roads clear, and shop owners have to ensure the pavement outside their business is non-treacherous.

As soon as there's snow or ice, the councils are out putting salt on the streets as a legal requirement. In the very north of Sweden, that doesn't work, so they get out the snowploughs instead. When things get really bad, she added, the snow chains come out and warm sand is scattered over airport runways.

The Canadians, too, are well adjusted to the cold.

When winter comes, snow tyres, chains and studs are snapped up, some streets are declared no-parking zones because they lie on snowplough routes, giant snow melters are fired up for the winter, and caravans of snowploughs are dispatched to runways and highways.

Britain never seems to expect or be prepared bad or good weather. When it is too hot, too cold or too wet, chaos ensues. People throw their arms up in disbelief and say “how are going going to cope?” And the answer is they don’t.

To be fair, Britain does not normally get such extremes of weather so it could be argued that the measures taken in countries like Sweden and Canada where they expect large snowfalls are justified.

However, the estimated cost of the current freeze is £1.2bn a day. Surely it would make economic sense to at least be reasonably prepared for this sort of bad weather at least get the gritters out on the roads as the snow is falling not two or three days later when hundreds of motorists have slid off them.

Medina believes it is unfair

Our mayor wants to know why it is that the Generalitat in Valencia is allowing city councils like the ones in Catral and Orihuela (both governed by the opposition PP) to legalise thousands of houses without proper infrastructure and at the same time they are contemplating denouncing Bigastro for supposed administrative irregularities in Sector D-6. You will note that the Generalit in Valencia is also governed by the PP.

As Raúl Valerio Medina explains, the area of Sector D-6 in Bigastro is an extension of the town centre, it is included in the general plan for the town, it has all the necessary infrastructure in place; lighting sewerage etc. and yet, because there is no land allocated for social housing, full permission is being held up.

Unfortunately, building in Sector D-6 commenced without clearance by the Conselleria de Territorio in Valencia. However, it is fair to point out that building without full permission is something that a lot of towns in Spain are guilty of. However, that doesn’t excuse the practice in the case of Bigastro or any other town for that matter.

As I have pointed out before, these are issues which we Brits have never experienced before.

Nobody in Britain would even contemplate building a housing estate without full permission let alone go ahead and sell them to unsuspecting buyers who are then faced with the prospect of a legal battle to prevent their homes from being demolished. But then nor would any competent solicitor in Britain complete the purchase of a house on behalf of his or her clients without ensuring a) its legality and b)that the deeds (British equivalent of the escritura) were properly registered to the new owner.

PS In Spain, there are situations where a property can be legally purchased without an escritura for perfectly legitimate reasons.

For example, fast-track conveyancing was one such situation. In this area, during the boom years, the whole infrastructure was devoted to marketing new property yet to be constructed – buying off plan. Procedures involving the purchase of new properties were speeded up. The final payment was made direct to the builder, possession was taken immediately and the parties to the purchase sort out the paperwork (escritura) at a later date.

Just as important (or perhaps more important) is the Licence of First Occupation, in Spanish Licencia de Primera Ocupación orCédula de Habitabilidad). This is is an Administrative licence granted by the Town Hall at the town/city in which the property is located, and enables the owner to dwell in it legally. It also means your house can be connected to electricity and water supplies.

They do read my blog

And as proof of that, I got a message from my friend Germán at the Ayuntamiento telling me that they have resolved the problems with Gmail and @bigastro.es addresses. That is good news for me at least and I will explain why.

Perhaps someone who has an ADSL connection via Telefónica can help me.

I use a program to read my emails rather than check them via a web page. The one I use is Mozilla Thunderbird and have done for years. It does a good job of picking up emails from various accounts, sorting them out into boxes according to the sender, filtering out any spam into the trash box as it goes along.

The program works fine in every way except when I try to send an email via Telefónica’s SMTP server (for the non techies out there that is the outgoing one). An ordinary text email is handled OK but if I try to reply to an incoming email or forward a message on or attach more than one photo, I get an error message from the server telling me it can’t deliver the message.

That is why the Bigastro server is so important to me because, no matter which of my email addresses I am using, I direct all my outgoing emails through it and that seems to work perfectly -10 out of 10 to Germán and Bigastro Ayuntamiento for that.

You may ask, “what is the problem then?”. The issue is that I hate being beaten by something like this. There has to be a simple reason why some of my outgoing mail is refused.

PS Please don't tell me to check my settings because I have already done that.

A useful number to know

The health centre in Bigastro has changed its telephone number. The new number is 966904400.

Tell me a story

Do you have the burning ambition to be a writer? Do you have a story about Christmas to tell?

If so, then you could enter the 22nd Competition for stories about Christmas organised by the Ayuntamiento in Bigastro.

The competition is open to people of all ages and is divided into three categories:- infants from 6 –14, Juniors from 15 – 18 and adults 18+ with prizes in each category (150€ in the adult category).

Your masterpiece should be five pages long and should have a card cover with a drawing related to your story. Your story can be either hand written or word processed just so long as it is legible and presumably in Spanish!

On the last page you should put your details: name, address, age and telephone number.

Be sure to hand your completed work in by the 15th December either in the library or at the main desk in the Auditorium.

Best of luck. Oh yes I nearly forgot, you will be able to see the entries in the library once the competition is closed.