La familia Grau

I have told you before about our neighbours and how delightful they are. Yesterday we were privileged to enjoy a meal with them in their beautiful house across the road.

Armed with a bottle of wine, we made our way across at the appointed time and were greeted by the two dogs, Luka and Nero along with the daughter who has the same name as her mother. It is apparently quite common here to call a child by the parents name.

Our first stop was the kitchen to see Pepe and Eladia (senior) finishing preparations of the first course which was to be seafood. At the same time, Pepe was preparing a paella for us with pieces of sea bream which had been cut across the fish. I watched carefully as he added the ingredients making mental notes of how a Spaniard goes about this traditional dish. I was particularly keen to learn how you get the rice to be of a sticky consistency.  I think I understand now but could still do with another lesson or two:-)

From the kitchen, we retreated to the dining room where the table was beautifully set out for us. At the table were Pepe, Eladia, Eladia (the daughter) and her boyfriend Quino (I have probably spelt his name wrong).

As I said, the first course or entradas were mariscos served of course with bread, olives and crisps.

Then came the paella which was served on its own but with alioli and a squeeze of lemon to garnish it. There was also a bowl of lettuce of a type that you find typically at this time of year.  See the finished dish here.

For the dessert we had a special pudding that Eladia has adapted from a German recipe. I could best describe it as being similar to bread and butter pudding but with the addition of cinnamon which is a very popular spice here in Spain. It also had layers of apple and a squeeze of lemon inside. Certainly it went down well leaving just sufficient for them to have today.

We rounded off the meal with coffees and brandy. Pepe was clearly in a relaxed mood because he followed his brandy with with a couple of gin and tonics.

A memorable meal in the company of wonderful people. Many thanks to Pepe, Eladia, Eladia and Kino for making our Sunday so special. 

Orihuela is under siege

This time though it is not the Moors trying to capture the city, it is plants and insects.

Apart from rats, mosquitoes and cockroaches; the invaders include the processional caterpillar, the red palm weevil and the Arizona cactus.

Lat year the Environment Department spent 192,000 Euros controlling pests added to which the Health Department spent morey controlling rats and cockroaches.

There are also problems with the paleras that produce chumbos figs, chumberas and agarves* which are being attacked by cochineal beetles that lay white grubs in them. These are not native plants and so are not on the list of protected species. NB You’ll find paleras growing on the side of the road down into the town just before the water station. Once the fruit are ripe, peel the skin off to reveal the sweet flesh inside.

The fruit of the palera is sweet.

However, the major challenge for Orihuela is the red palm weevil because it is in danger of affecting the unique  palm forests of the area. A trip along the road to Los Montesinos will show you what happens to palms affected by the beetle. 

Last year, 36,000 Euros was spent on spraying trees in Orihuela and a further 13,600 Euros on felling affected specimens.

* We had that problem, the plants just pulled out of the pots leaving a disgusting sweet odour. As dug out the soil, I could see it it was filled with fat white grubs.

Further allegations against the ex mayor

The ex mayor of Bigastro, José Joaquín Moya is now being accused of misappropriation of public funds, fraud and extortion. These accusations all relate to the mystery of the VW Toureg which was supposedly given to the mayor as a gift. In fact it transpires that the SUV may well have been bought using public money.

It seems that 14 payments were made to the company Torrebir amounting to 117,000 Euros supposedly for work done in the municipally. However, some of the payments that total 60,000 Euros look as though they could have been used to buy the luxury vehicle instead because no evidence has been provided of work done to justify them. No doubt, the fact that there was no proper records for these payments, will be described by the accused as “simple errors”.  The more you read, the more you discover there were a number of “simple errors” in the Bigastro system of accounting. 

Also implicated in this are the secretary and treasurer at that time, Antonio Saseta and María Carmen Grau because, they along with mayor, would have signed the cheques and the two businessmen, Manuel Nortes and José Almarcha. These people have all been called to give evidence on the 23rd February.

Justice has many faces

Francisco Camps and Ricardo Costa received ‘not guilty’ verdicts in the long-running Gürtel case which involved corruption in the PP regional governments of Valencia and Madrid but Judge Baltasar Garzón did not fare so well.

He was found guilty of recording the conversations as he attempted to prove some lawyers were involved in money laundering. The supreme court said Garzón not only illegally wiretapped the prisoners' conversations but committed a second crime by doing so in the full knowledge that he was breaking the law.

That might be true but other investigating judges have used the same methods without facing charges. Although, Garzón’s supporters admit he might have overstepped the mark, they claim that this was a conspiracy against the judge and the punishment was harsh.

As a running sore to the PP, he had to be dealt with and that is what they have just done.

Security gets in the way

Over the years that I have had internet connections, I have bought hundreds of items online from scores of different companies – it is my favourite way of shopping!

The process is usually quite straightforward; you create an account with your email address and a password, provide the address that your credit card is registered to and then you are ready to go. All you need to do then is to enter the credit card details; name to which it is registered, number from the front, expiry date, the security number from the back and the order is complete. The online seller can verify that all  is kosher and at that point you can sit back and wait for the friendly courier to bring the goods to your door.

Of course there is a lot of fraud going on out there so it pays to be vigilant about the sites you use and make sure that the site is secure (https). It is reassuring when companies use the Visa security systems where you have to enter further details from a password to complete the transaction. 

However, things are not always that easy.

The other day, I wanted to order goods from a well known hypermarket chain in Spain via their online system. Sure enough, I had to register an account by providing the usual information and not unusually for Spain, I had to provide either my DNI, residency card or passport number. When it came to my credit card, the site used the system whereby my bank sends me an SMS message with a six figure security code to verify that I am in fact the holder of the card.

Having done all that, I thought my order was complete and I would shortly receive the goods. In fact I got an email to say that my order had been placed satisfactorily. However, when I went to the online site to track the status of my order, it showed that my data was incomplete. When I checked the small print about setting up an account it explained that, once you had provided details, you then had to send by fax or by email copies of your identity document, your credit card (showing the last four numbers) and a signed note authorising them to use your card for payment.

When I queried this, I got an email confirming what it said online. I dutifully complied and sent an email with the document copies inserted. Sods law, the lady who I am dealing with wrote back and said she needed the documents attached to an email. So now I have sent the documents  both attached as jpegs and as a pdf file they can read with Adobe Acrobat Reader. I have my fingers crossed that one or other of those methods works.

The good side to this story is that the company are obviously keen to protect both themselves and the shopper by making sure that the purchase is genuine. The bad side is that jumping through all these hoops has been a pain in the backside. Without a modicum of IT experience not to mention a scanner and the software to produce the documents in the right format, I would have given up. I know quite a few people who would have had no choice but to cancel  the order and either go to the shop or try elsewhere. Oh yes I nearly forgot, to cancel an order I’m sure you have to send a fax or an email with copies of your documents!!

Keeping their fingers crossed

Winter is a trying time for farmers, even in Spain.They plant crops in autumn to be harvested in early spring and hope that the weather will be kind to them.

Although planting an early crop can bring better prices it also carries risks. A spell of cold weather with ground frosts can ruin vegetables like artichokes, beans and potatoes. On Wednesday night, the temperature dropped down to the point where the delicate crops would have been frozen and thus blackened. Night time temperatures will remain low for the rest of the week. 

The good news for farmers is that second crops, planted to be harvested in March, should be alright.

Spanish artist dies

The Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies, who saw his art as a meditation on 'the void', has died aged 88. His art works have been described as 'highly intuitive, enigmatic images that have the potential to change our perception of reality'.

• In 2003, he won Spain's top art award, the Velazquez Prize.
• Tapies' early work was strongly influenced by surrealist painters like Miro and Klee. But he later developed his own style, featuring built-up surfaces that were often scratched with letters, numbers and signs.
• His gritty and raw art installations often included everyday items, such as his 1971 sculpture Mattress. The work featured a bedspread, which was painted with blood-like stains and ripped in the centre to reveal horsehair stuffing.

Google his name and see what you think for yourselves.

Winter fuel allowance

A very thorny subject in our house! Those who by good management or dint of fortune happened to be in England at the right time when they were of pensionable age get it but not Pam and I.

To qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment for the winter of 2011/2012 you must have been born on or before 5 January 1951 and you must have lived in Great Britain or Northern Ireland on any day in the week of 19–25 September 2011*. You can't get a Winter Fuel Payment if you moved to another European Economic Area country or Switzerland and didn't qualify before you moved. But, and here is the sore point, you can continue to get it if you moved after qualifying even if that was in a previous year.

Almost annually, some crackpot MP in Britain questions whether ex-pats in countries like Spain should still get this benefit but nothing comes of it. Clearly, the said MP never lived in Spain during winter! It might not be as cold as it is in Britain but it certainly feels it to us.

So no help forthcoming at Casa El Willo, we have to struggle on manfully paying for our heating without assistance. After Pam reached 60 she would have got £200 per year, now that I am 65, she would get £100 and I would also get £100. That is over 238 Euros per year that would go nicely towards our winter gas bill SIGH!

* Note the word ‘lived’ not ‘visited’. Even if we had been in England during that week, we would not qualify.

PS In case you misunderstood me, I don't hold a grudge against those who continue to get payments now they live in Spain, I just wish we could get them as well.

Better weather is on its way

After a cold weekend which was made to feel even colder by a biting wind, daytime temperatures rose by 6 degrees at the start of this week.

Tuesday was the windiest day with speeds of 49.9 km per hour recorded in Orihuela. On open ground at El Realango, near to Crevillente, gusts of over 100km per hour were recorded. The wind chill on mountain tops would have dropped temperatures by –40 degrees.

Unfortunately the return to  warmer weather was not set to last, yesterday the maximum was 12 degrees (down 5 degrees from Monday). It will continue to be cold for a while but not as cold as last weekend and without the wind, it should feel a lot milder.

I know of quite a few people who forgot to bring coats with them when they moved to Spain. Lulled by the hot summers they had spent here, they thought that summer was all year round. Not so, winters can be harsh here in the Costa Blanca. Generally speaking, the weather is fine up to December with maybe the odd spell to remind you that winter is coming. January and February seem to be the worst months with rain, wind and cold snaps. Come March, things improve although there can still be odd periods where the wind picks up or we face a deluge of rain - how many Easter parades have had to be cancelled because of rain?

April going into May are usually mild, a time when you can get your shorts out and wear just a T-shirt. Then of course we move on to June which is a lovely month.

For those, like Pam and I who love the sun, July and August are the best months of the year. As long as you know how to dress properly and avoid the hottest part of the day, these months are brilliant. September, October and November are like spring again and then we move to December which can be either good or bad – sunshine on Christmas Day beats snow in my book!

The Rock is a hard place

The fact that Gibraltar is still British is a running sore with the Spanish government who are now trying to up the ante by asking the British government to take Gibraltar out of talks regarding sovereignty.

The contrast between Gibraltar and its neighbour is stark.

Gibraltar has a GDP of just over £1 billion, growth is expected to be over 4% this year and unemployment is almost nil. Businesses in Gibraltar are booming. By comparison Spain has an unemployment rate of over 20% and expects growth this year to be in negative figures.

However we must remember that Spanish workers in Gibraltar earned £43m in 2007 – the most recent data available – which would be repatriated to Spain and  Gibraltar businesses imported £174m worth of goods from Spain.

Gibraltar makes its money through offshore finance, tourism, its port and online gaming – and an enticingly low corporate tax rate of 10 per cent has brought businesses flocking to their shores.

For certain, the people on the Rock do not want to be considered Spanish and why should they be? They hope that David Cameron will defend their rights in talks with Mariano Rajoy unlike Tony Blair who came close to conceding joint sovereignty when he was Prime Minister.

The circle of debt

It isn’t just Bigastro that defaults on payments, I read this morning of a complaint by the Green Party in Torrevieja that the company who are building the new Santa Semana museum are owed over two million Euros for the work they have completed.

Although the project is included in the Plan Trust by the Consell in Valencia, it was the city council that contracted the work so it is to them that the company are making the claim. In all, nine certificates for completed work have been issued (they are waiting for the final certificate).  Normally the constructor would expect staged payments following each completed certificate.

The company concerned now say that they have exhausted all dialogue between them and the council and so are considering taking the case to court. However, as we know from reports in the newspapers, Valencia is in a worse financial state than the towns in this area so I imagine, if they do take the case to law, they will join a long list of other pending claims. 

This is all part of a viscous circle of debt.

Since there is no longer any point in building houses, companies rely upon public works to keep going but then they find that the municipalities and regions have no money to pay for the work they commission.  The companies cannot borrow money from the savings banks which are strapped for cash so they cannot pay their suppliers nor their workers and so eventually everything grinds to a halt. The companies go out of business leaving half finished building projects which are just an eyesore.

The new museum in Torrevieja has a budget of 5.6 million Euros to be paid for by Valencia and was supposed to be open for this Easter. Somehow I don’t think that is going to happen!

Not all dogs are dangerous

My neighbour Eladia tells me that I do not need to be wary off their two dogs, Luka and Nero. They may bark a lot when people go past the house but nothing more.

Actually the two dogs are a delight.  They come to the gate to greet Pamela and wait for a word or two and a stroke.  Strangely, the dogs seem to understand both Spanish and English!

Originally, there was just the one dog, Luka, who got all the attention. When Nero came along, he tried to push Luka out so Pamela had to employ both hands and try to separate them thus making sure that each got equal attention.

In the summer, when it is hot, they just lie on the porch and might just look up before going back to sleep.

I have said it before but it does bear repeating, the family that live across the road from us are some of the best neighbours we have ever had, they are just such wonderful people. In fact, all of our Spanish neighbours on Calle Irlanda are good people who we get on well with.

Why I am always wary of dogs

A 35 year old man and a 30 year old woman were admitted to Alicante General Hospital yesterday after being bitten by a dog. The wounds are described as serious and the owner of the dog faces prosecution even though one of the victims was his daughter.

The man was working clearing the garden in the rural cottage just outside Alicante when the dog became very aggressive, broke free from the rope that was holding it and bite his right leg and left forearm. The daughter tried to stop the dog and she too was bitten several times on her leg and arm. 

The two of them tried to escape by getting into a van but the dog managed to follow them and bite the man again on his right foot. Finally they managed to escape and called the security forces. Eight policemen along with members of the Canine Unit arrived and managed to sedate the dog which has now been impounded.

The dog in question has been described as a cross breed and was five years old. Presumably, it was being used a a guard dog by the owner and so was only doing what it was supposed to.

Certain breeds of dogs have a naturally aggressive nature and no matter how placid they may seem to be, there is always the possibility of them turning nasty. There are countless cases of people being attacked and in some cases killed by so called pets. Pit bull terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers, Rottweilers etc, I would not trust any of them. I’m even wary of some German Shepherds. 

At long last

The desalination plant at Torrevieja was supposed to be the ‘jewel in the crown’ and the answer to the shortage of water in this area but it has stood idle since completion.

The issue was the last piece of the jigsaw - the two giant pipes needed to bring water to the plant from the sea and then return the waste water back. The port is managed by the Department of Infrastructure who were demanding too high a price to the State Corporation Mediterranean Basin Water SA, the company that developed the plant.

Now, five years after work began on the largest desalination plant in Europe, an agreement has been reached. The company will pay 1.2 million Euros per year, an estimated 5% of the revenue, to the Government in exchange for access.

Work began on the 25th of January with eleven trucks a day bringing rock from a quarry in Murcia to build the platform on which a reinforced concrete box will be constructed to  house the tubes. The whole structure will then be covered with a boardwalk which will stretch out to the lighthouse.  Although the constructors are working flat out to try and complete the work as quickly as possible, it is likely that there will be disruption on the Castaway beach during the tourist season.

The main hold up to the work was of course caused by a political clash between the socialist Government and the conservative controlled Generalit in Valencia with the government opposing the plant on environmental issues.

This area has, for some time, relied upon transfers of water from the Tajo to the Segura via the pipelines which run the other side of Orihuela. The regional government of Castilla-La Mancha have always opposed that arrangement which had to be renegotiated each year. Once the desalination plant is complete, it will be capable of producing 80 hectometres of drinking water per year which will mean that  the area will no longer be reliant upon the Tajo/Segura transfer.

Candles are not just for decoration

We have a number of candles in the lounge/dining room; on the coffee table, in the fireplace and on the dining room table. Mostly they are there for decoration but occasionally we need to use them for light.

Yesterday evening, just as we came back to the house at a few minutes after 8pm, the electricity for the whole of Villas Andrea went off. it had happened twice already during the daytime and on both occasions the power returned within seconds.

Last night though the power stayed off for over an hour. It came back on and then went off again a couple of times more but only for a few seconds. We have no idea what caused the problem but it was a pain in the backside because a) it delayed our evening meal and b) it stopped the television box from recording Boardwalk Empire.

Each time it happens, not only are we plunged into darkness; the television box has to reset itself, the Internet router has to reset itself, the Voip phone has to reset itself and we have to reset the clock on the oven because that won’t work if the clock isn’t set. To be honest, I don’t bother setting the time properly  on that clock anymore – just set it to zero.

My next job, when it gets light, is to find out which of the pots on the roof has moved because every time the wind gusts hard something rattles on the roof terrace just above the bedroom. Not a huge problem in the daytime but it is at night when it wakes me up.

Life in Spain is mostly ‘Esto es Jauja’ but not always!

A top tip for residents of Villas Andrea

If you are going to put your washing out this morning, make sure you use strong clothes pegs because the wind is blowing quite hard:-)

Shaken but not stirred

Even though it was well outside of living memory, the earthquake of 1829 which destroyed Torrevieja and killed 389 people still has a profound effect on people’s perceptions of earthquakes in this area.

So, when the earth started to tremble in Torrevieja yesterday at 5:43 in the morning, people went outside as a precaution. The first signs were apparently a loud noise which increased until it sounded like thunder. In some cases, furniture inside houses moved. Luckily there was no damage reported and no casualties.

The quake, which measured 3 on the Richter scale had its epicentre 3kms off the coast of Torrevieja and was 11kms under the sea. The effects were reported to be felt in Benijófar, Rojales, Los Montesinos, Almoradi, Benejúzar, Torrevieja, San Miguel de Salinas, Algorfa and Crevillent.

Torrevieja is in one of areas of greatest seismic activity in this region and often has minor quakes of up to 3 on the Richter scale.

Some say that a series of minor quakes is good because it means the earth is shifting a little at a time rather than building up to a larger 5.1 quake like the one in Lorca, 11th May 2011 which was only 1km below the town.

Roads closed in Spain for snow!

Not to be outdone by other countries, there has been some snow in the interior of Alicante province which has closed a few of the roads.

In Alcoy, Biar, Ibi and Xixona there have been significant snowfalls creating problems for motorists. The CV-780 between Alcoy and Benifallim has been closed along with the road between Elda and Monóvar. Driving through Muro de Alcoy, Ibi and Banyeres de Mariola and surrounding areas is also described as tricky.

DGT recommend care when driving in these areas, be on the lookout for snow and ice sheets. Me - I am going nowhere near those places!

Don’t be fooled

Looking at the three day weather watch in the left hand sidebar you may be thinking that the cold weather is going to be over with but the long term forecast tells us something different.

By the middle of next week the lull of warmer weather will come to an end and we will be back to single figure daytime temperatures and cold nights again – sorry!

Shake up in the Socialist Party

Having lost badly in the last General Election, the Spanish socialists have had a bit of a shake up as follows:

President: Jose Antonio Griñán

General Secretary: Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba

Deputy Secretary General: Elena Valenciano

Secretary of Organization: Oscar López

Secretary of Foreign Policy: Patxi López

Secretary for Equality: Purificación Causapié

Ministry of Economy and Employment: Inmaculada Rodríguez Piñero

Secretary of Institutional Relations and Regional Policy: Antonio Hernando

Secretary of Participation, Networking and Innovation: Maria González Veracruz

City Secretary and Municipal Policy: Gaspar Zarrías

Secretary of ideas and programs: Jesus Caldera

Secretary of Social Policy: Trinidad Jiménez

Secretary of Education and Culture: Maria del Mar Villafranca

Secretary of Planning and Sustainability: Hugo Morán

And in the other departments will be Rafael Simancas (Training), Juan Moscoso (European Union), Marisol Pérez (Cooperation and Immigration) and Carmela Silva (Emigration). The Executive will also have twenty members : Eduardo Madina, Jaime Lissavetzky, Emiliano García Page, Sergio Gutierrez, Carlos Perez, Carolina Darías, Jose Zaragoza, Francina Armengol, María Teresa Noguera, José Miguel Rodríguez, Esperanza Estévez, Alejandro Soler, María Gámez, Javier Fernández, María José Fernández, Carmen Montón, Maite Fernandez,  Maru Menéndez, Pachi Vázquez and Dolores Gorostiaga.

All smiling faces now, let’s see how they look in just over three years time when they face the vote.

Peace at last

The kitchen door to our house is made of aluminium* and has vents top and bottom. They are there because we have gas; not necessary for the boiler which has a balanced flue but if we had a gas hob then they would be essential (there are no air bricks in the kitchen).

Since our hob and oven are electric, in winter I cover the vents with pieces of foam rubber. That stops the wind blowing through and prevents the hot air from escaping. However, even with the foam in place, the wind from the west was still howling through the door. At night we had to  turn the television up to drown the sound out. It has been like that for over seven years but not any more.

One night, when the wind was howling through the door, Pam pushed her foot against the bottom of it and miraculously the sound stopped. Although there is a rubber seal all round, the bottom of the door is slightly out of line and so the seal was not effective there. So, on my next trip to the ferrateria I bought a roll of one of those self adhesive foam strips and last night found the right place to apply it. Instantly, the howling stopped and peace returned to Casa El Willo – great result.

It has only taken me seven years to work this one out, just think what I might accomplish over the rest of my life!

* In case you are thinking – aluminium door – that is easy to break into;  we have a steel security gate outside it which has been heavily reinforced with extra locks, bolts into the brickwork and industrial strength hinges. 

A return to what they know best

Our teacher told us that, before the housing boom, the area of the Vega Baja was dedicated entirely to agriculture. It was the lure of rich pickings from selling houses that drove owners to sell their land and young people to working on building instead of in farming.

The fact that, once you have sold your land that is it, the income from it has gone did not seem to  matter because there was still plenty of land left to sell.  Everyone hoped there would be a never ending stream of buyers for the houses they planned to build and for a number of years that was true.

The two things that killed off the dream though were greed of the constructors who thought they could continue pushing their prices up and of course the economic crisis. Both of which mean that, those of us who bought during the boom years, have seen the value of our investments plummet as house prices returned to 2002 levels.

It wasn’t just constructors who became greedy, all the allied industries (carpenters, electricians, painters etc) also wanted a piece of the action and with their new found wealth, they bought expensive cars and big houses. Life was good in the Vega Baja; people who had faced poverty for years were suddenly rich and they took to new money like ducks to water. 

However, as fast as the boom developed, it came to a halt. The market for new houses stopped almost overnight leaving the construction industry with large tracts of land which they had bought up in preparation for building more houses. At least they had assets, the allied industries were left with nothing but what were the companies to do with the land they owned? The savings banks had taken a big hit on loans for construction and were no longer in a position to lend money for further developments. Although on paper, the companies still had huge assets in the land they owned, they no longer had the cash to develop it.

In the last couple of years, some of the construction companies that survived the economic crisis have decided that, since there is no point in building, they might as well use their land to grow crops instead. You can see the evidence of this in the areas of land that would have been covered in houses but which  are now planted with artichokes, lemons, onions, broccoli, oranges and lettuce. Of course the returns are not as great but using the land in this way is at least profitable and there is the added bonus of creating employment.  

The Vega Baja may well return to the situation our teacher told us about, an agricultural area where people do not become millionaires overnight but enjoy a life that they were once happy with.

In years to come, when the economic crisis has resolved itself, there may be a need for more new housing. Hopefully though, the Vega Baja will have learned the lesson and will not rush headstrong into a construction boom again; rather it will stick to what is knows well. Land used for agriculture may not bring the same returns but at least the income from it is year on year; whilst the demand for new houses fluctuates, the need for food remains constant. 

Come to the market

What is in store for those of you planning to go to the Medieval Market today or tomorrow?

You will find lots of places to eat and you’ll find lots of interesting characters wandering about. For the first time, as far as we know, you’ll be able to warm up with some mulled wine (it is going to be cold in that bitter wind so you’ll need it!)

There are lots of things to buy and did I mention, there is lots of food to eat.

You will find all these pictures and more in my Flickr album.

A bit of old news

The Gürtel case filled the front pages of newspapers in the region for some time. The allegation made was that the former regional president, Francisco Camps and the ex regional PP secretary general, Ricardo Costa had received gifts including bespoke suits in return for political favours. If I remember correctly, the issue was about the awarding of contracts to the promotion company, Orange Market for the Volvo Ocean Yacht Race. 

After the six week trial, the jury found them not guilty by a narrow 5-4 verdict. The case faltered because no documentary proof was given that showed they hadn’t paid for the clothing. Added to which, the relationship between the two and Francisco Correa, Pablo Crespo and Álvaro Pérez, alias ‘the moustache'  were deemed to be ‘purely commercial'.

It seems to me the case eventually floundered on a purely technical point which does not necessarily mean that the two men were regarded as being entirely innocent.

See you there

In case you missed it, the Medieval Market opens today in Orihuela at midday. With 350 stalls on the 3-4km route, there will be plenty to see and spend your money on.

Taking advantage of the number of visitors, Orihuela have prepared 40,000 brochures, in both Spanish and English, outlining the tourist features of the city from the gastronomy to the Moors and Christian celebrations. For more information, the Tourist Office will be open all weekend.

Whilst Pam will no doubt be looking around the stalls finding things to buy for our granddaughter, I will be there with my camera, trying to get that once in a lifetime shot of something interesting.

We will of course meet up for one of those roast pork sandwiches filled with succulent meat that just oozes juice and flavour. Apart from my photographs, it is all that I go to the market for!

Worthy winners

	I was right, Evaristo was one of the people who gained a prize for his story, "Cludy and the Snowman" and here he is in the Library for the presentation of prizes.(He's the one in the rust coloured jacket)
	The Councillor for Culture and Library,  Maria José Sarmiento Juan presented the awards to the winners of the 23rd Christmas Story Contest. PS She is the lady on the right of the photo.

Just send them back!

In October 1804, a Spanish frigate, the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, was sunk by a British squadron off Cape St Mary, Portugal. The cargo was gold and silver coins from Lima Peru which were being sent to Spain to finance Spain’s European wars.

In May 2007, the American treasure hunter, Odyssey Marine Exploration found 594,000 of the coins, shipped them to Gibraltar and then secretly flew them on to Florida.

The company claim that the coins were so scattered that they could have come from any wreck. However, since the coins were all minted before 1804 and matched the cargo of the Mercedes, the courts have now decided that the treasure trove rightly belongs to Spain and in particular to the descendants of the 250 sailors who were on board the ship at that time.

As you might expect, Odyssey are appealing against the decision. They say that, if they comply with the court order to return the coins within 10 days, then they do not stand a chance of seeing the coins returned.

PS Apparently 400,000 coins from the Mercedes still lie somewhere on the sea bed. Finding those would be better than winning on the Euromillions lottery.

Aurelio paints the picture for us

For those, like me, who were not at the Council Meeting to witness the attack on the previous council, Aurelio Murcia has outlined the financial situation the new council faced when they took over. You can read the whole article in today’s Informacion newspaper.

In the article the councillor talks about bills for work that was not budgeted for being left in drawers, about council workers who had not been paid for months, about people who were paid Social Security by the council*, workers who were paid but did not have contracts, even two societies that received money but were not included in the council’s accounts.

According to Aplem Consulting SL, there was no system for accounting in Bigastro, even the leaders of the Socialist party had no idea of the  level of debt the town faced. 

The bills which total 9.45 million Euros range from one due to HV Ingenerios for 1 cent to one of 1.86 million Euros due to D-6 UTE General. Because of the inept way that the previous council settled its bills, 356,000 Euros is now being claimed in interest, in charges for returned cheques and promissory notes that were not paid on time to suppliers.

Sr Murcia goes on to say that the previous council even managed to pay 96,592 Euros for bills that creditors did not claim as debts. However, in the meantime, they owed 924,000 Euros to the Treasury for Social Security and 734,000 Euros in tax. As a result, Bigastro is not receiving its monthly quota from Central Government.

Council workers are owed 354,000 Euros added to which 3.2 million Euros  is being claimed by the courts for unpaid works and services. There are ten judicial proceedings pending against Bigastro.

The largest claim will be for the 35,000 square metres of land sold to Idearco to build an hotel, an apartment complex and golf practice ranges at La Predrera. Since it was deemed ilegal to build on that land,  Aurelio Murcia says that will be an impossible case for the council to win.

The total of debt on paper is around 17.2 million Euros. When you add on the further debt that could ensue from the court cases etc, the figure could be as high as 35 million Euros.

Knowing the level of debt is one thing, what we really need to know is how did this debt come about. The previous council must have known how much income they would receive year on year and so how much they had to in their budget to spend.

Two questions I’d like to ask:

1. Presumably the town was solvent at one point, when and why did things change?
2. Why did the Socialist Council embark upon expenditure plans that far exceeded their income?

* There is a pun on the word that locals are spreading around. Split the word socialista into two and you get social lista referring to the list of people who were paid Social Security by the council.

Que frio!!!

The heavy cloud and  cold air coming in from the north will bring the coldest weather this area has suffered since January 2005, the first winter that we were here.

Nought degrees at night rising to  only nine during the daytime is bloody cold and with a dewpoint as low as -10 it will feel even colder!

Then, just as things start to improve a little by Sunday, the wind will pick up making it feel just as cold!

I am so glad we had our boiler serviced last Monday because it will be working flat out to keep us warm.

PS Yesterday was mostly sunny and so felt warm unless you were stood in the shade. As I post this, it is pouring with rain outside and work has stopped on the house next door.

Unless the rain stops, Pam and I are going nowhere today!

Some would say it was a lively debate

Having read an account of the council meeting in Bigastro, it sounds like it ought to have been televised. Even the best TV script writers could not have come up with a story like this.

The hall was packed with people waiting to see the battle they knew would ensue. The audience were naturally divided between those who supported either side of the argument. As the present team taunted the socialists their supporters booed and as the PP/UNPLC gained points their supporters cheered. 

The main target was of course the ex mayor, Raúl Valerio Medina who side stepped the accusations made against him by shifting the blame to his predecessor, José Joaquín Moyá.

One particularly stinging attack was made by Antonio González who is now in charge of Finance. Amongst other things he said that, such was the chaos of the socialist accounting system, some bills had been paid two or three times.

During the election campaign, many socialist supporters accused Aurelio Murcia of being a thief, last night he told them, “now we’ll see who comes out of this a thief”.

I imagine that everyone who was at the meeting needed a good stiff drink to get over the three hour session.

Something for the weekend

I can’t find a web site dedicated to the Medieval Market this year, what I can tell you is the it runs from this Friday to Sunday.

From past experience, Saturday and Sunday are the most popular days so, if you want to look around without the crowds, perhaps Friday is the best day to go.

No doubt there will be all sorts of events taking place but as I say, without a programme, I can’t tell you what or when these will be.

The thing I am most looking forward to is one of those roast pork sandwiches – naughty but very tasty.

The Russian takeover

According to the newspaper Laverdad, the Texas Oil Company Ltd is owned by Russian capitalists and investors and has its headquarters in one of the luxury villas built by the Jesus Quesda family in Ciudad Quesada.

Apart from marketing fuel, oils and lubricants for cars, they also market food and beverages; sell, service and rent all types of vehicles and run hotels and restaurants.

The paper goes on to explain that Texas Oil SL  are currently in the business of acquiring petrol stations in the Southern Costa Blanca region, particularly those that are showing low profits. They have just bought a station in Mutxamel and are looking at one in Los Montesinos along with further stations in the industrial area of Babel and Apollo Street in Torrevieja.

These petrol stations were previously owned by Tamoil, a company linked to the family of Muammar Gaddafi.

The good news for consumers is that the newly acquired Texas oil stations offer the lowest prices for fuel in the province; for example their biodiesel is priced at 1.229 Euros per litre. Just a pity that Skoda warns you not to use this fuel in their diesel engines because it can cause damage.

A neat product

Whilst writing this blog, I often find pictures that I want to incorporate into my stories. If they are my own photos, then I simply insert them into Windows Live Writer (the best blogging tool out there) but when the pictures are screen grabs, the process used to be a lot more tedious. When I had Vista, I used to grab the whole page and then edit it using Photoshop to crop out the unwanted parts. It was the same when I wanted to use a screen grab for my Flickr 365 project.

For those who still use earlier versions of Windows, there is a better solution that comes in the form of a program called SnapIt.

Read the description of what this program does and see whether it could help save you time.
Capture anything you see on your PC screen with SnapIt. It is convenient tool for graphic designers, bloggers who capture and crop images for their posts, for tech writers who need to describe menus and interfaces of applications, web designers and those who work with graphics every day. It captures and auto saves images with one click. * Supports hotkeys, auto-saving, clipboard * Automatically copies screenshots to the clipboard * Tracks capture history, auto-saves captured images * Saves files in BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG and TIFF formats * Auto-names captured images

You can find out more about this product by clicking this link Screen Capture Software.

PS If you have Windows 7 on your computer, you will already have a similar program called Snipping Tool which does much the same thing. SnapIt is really for those with older versions of Windows up to Vista.

Romance is not dead

For Valentine’s Day, the Department of Commerce and Hotel in Torrevieja will be installing a giant screen in the Plaza de la Constitución.

Anyone who wishes, can make a video declaring their love which will then be shown on the screen between the 10th and 14th February.

Tell me a story

These are the winners of the competition for Christmas Stories:

INFANT CATEGORY:

Two first prizes:

Carmen Navarro Andréu Dunia "The First Christmas"

Monica Torres Belmonte "Christmas Lucia"

Second Prize:

Rosa Maria Moya Anton "Christmas cakes"

Special Mention:

James Van Ravenstein Grau "Santa's Dream"

JUNIOR CATEGORY:

First Prize:

Pablo Perales Andreu "It happened at Christmas"

ADULT CATEGORY:

First Prize:

Marina Medina Esquiva "Man of the Park"

Special Mentions:

Belén Antolín Rodriguez "The Miracle of Three Kings Day"

Evaristo Moya Moya  "Cludy and the Snowman"

SENIOR CATEGORY:

First Prize:

María Esquiva Belmonte "Migratory Birds"

Special Mention:

Teresa Garcia Gracia "The Miracle of Christmas"

I recognise one name in particular there – Evaristo Moya Moya who got a special mention in the Adult Category. I know he reads this blog so to him I offer my congratulations.

Close to home

Included in the documents published by Aurelio Murcia are those related to the sale of municipal land by our house. The project was to build a hotel complex along with golf practice courses at La Predrera. As it turned out, this was deemed to be illegal and so the company concerned, Proyectos e Inversiones Patrimoniales Rambla  SL, sent a document to the Ayuntamiento on the 7th April last year claiming 7,405,283.01 Euros in damages for the losses they have suffered.

This is, you will recall, the subject of one of the cases against the former mayor, José Joaquín Moya Esquiva, yet to be examined by the courts.

Figures rarely tell lies

Monday at 8pm, there is a Council Meeting scheduled at the Ayuntamiento in Bigastro and so with perfect timing Aurelio Murcia has published on the town’s web site the audit report that was commissioned by the PP just after they were elected. The sorry picture of the town’s situation is there in black and white for all to see.

What the new government team asked Aplem Consulting  to do was to provide an accurate picture of the state of finances for the town as of the 31st May 2011.

In the report, the auditors highlighted the difficulty they had in obtaining accounting data from the people responsible because normal accounting procedures had not been strictly followed.

Still Aplem Consulting came up with figures which show that 7,770,888 Euros was owed to creditors – that debt is pending legal action. The financial debt was calculated at 4,924,174.30 Euros; which when interest for late payment is added on rises to 5.7 million Euros. The total of debt for Bigastro is a staggering 31 million Euros.

You can find the report, along with other relevant documents by following this link.

PS Now I understand why there are no budget figures on the web site for the town after 2008. I think it is fair to say that there could be some red faces at the meeting on Monday!

For the literary types

Calling all bookworms!

For the benefit of those of you who like a good read, Maxine and Carol have agreed to take over running the “La Pedrera Book Club”. This club, which was started by Allan White, has quite a lot of books to choose from to suit all tastes.

The important thing though is to know when and where you go to borrow or return your books:

Sunday once a month between 3 and 4pm in the bar up at La Pedrera starting today.

Que frio

The main topic of conversation in Bigastro is how cold it is at the moment.

If the forecasts are correct, it will get a whole lot colder towards the end of next week. One forecast shows temperatures at night plummeting to –1 on Thursday night. I’d rather go with AEMET’s forecast which says it will drop to 2 degrees on Tuesday night and then pick up slightly to 3 the days afterwards. Temperatures in the daytime will not be what we would regard as mild – 14 degrees is not good.

The only crumb of comfort for us is to look at weather conditions for England which is in the middle of a cold snap. According to forecasts, temperatures will barely rise above freezing in the daytime and will drop to minus 3 or 4 at night in Manchester where our youngest daughter lives. If it is any comfort to her, things will be worse for our eldest daughter who lives in the Midlands. The forecast for Wolverhampton is for daytime temperatures of minus 4 in the daytime and minus 8 at night by the end of next week. 

Cheeky buggers

Trying to fiddle the electricity is something that has been going on for years. I remember hearing of people in Britain who used magnets  and other devices to stop the wheel in the meter from turning. I also heard of people trying to connect to the supply before the meter and even hooking up to street lights to get themselves free electricity.

Where the cables are underground, it is very difficult to get yourself free electricity but of course, in many parts of Spain, the cables are still carried on poles especially in areas where there would not have been a supply before the houses were built. Making a connection to a pole is obviously a whole lot easier.

I read in the papers this morning that engineers from Iberdrola, accompanied by officers from the Guardia Civil, visited houses in Orihuela, Bigastro and Benejúzar where the owners had connected up to the poles that carry overhead cables to get themselves free electricity. The houses were apparently in the poorer areas of the towns.

In some cases Iberdrola suspect the fraud may well have been going on undetected for years. The neighbours knew what was happening but were afraid to report the cases for fear of reprisals.

The company say that it will be very difficult to work out exactly how much electricity was consumed without payment because they have no no way to meter an illegal connection to the poles that carry the cables.

The engineers from Iberdrola dismantled the connections and warned the individuals of criminal proceedings but they know it will only be a matter of days before new connections are made. They now need to find a way to prevent these people from making a connection to the overhead cables.

The importance of the bar

We learnt yesterday that there is no such thing as a Spanish town, no matter how small, that doesn’t have at least one bar. The directory of companies on the Bigastro web site lists 30 bars, cafeterias and restaurants in a town of 7,000 people.

The bar is the centre of social activity in the town, it is the place where Spaniards go for breakfast, for an aperitif before lunch, for tapas during the evening and at the weekends it is the place to meet up with friends.

There are bars that open at 7am to serve breakfast to workers, there are those that open just in the evenings to serve tapas and drinks and yet others which are open during the daytime to serve people around lunchtime. A few are open both during the day and also at night.

It isn’t all about alcohol though, visit any bar to observe the locals and you will find many of them drinking water or soft drinks. When they do drink beer, it is usually in a small glass or cana. Pint glasses are normally reserved for foreigners - notably Brits. The other thing you will notice are the families, children are just as welcome in a bar as adults but usually only during fiestas or at the weekends. Where do you go after mass on Sunday – to the bar of course!

Most bars serve food in the form of snacks and sandwiches, some though will have an area where you can enjoy a cheap but cheerful menu of the day. Remember that the main meal for Spaniards is taken between 2pm and 4pm. La cena, in the evening is usually just a snack of some sort. All that is changing though in cosmopolitan areas where tourists want a main meal during the evening and just a snack at lunchtime.

Back to square one

After closing the market at the Recinto Ferial and looking to move it to the area by Ociopia, it now seems that Orihuela’s market will located back in the Recinto Ferial. Plots for the stalls are being marked out in readiness for January 31st.

There are also plans for Orihuela to hold a Saturday market in the city centre. This would only have 150 stalls so it will not compete with the regular Tuesday market which has 295 stalls.

Every little helps

I read this morning in the Costa Blanca News about a scheme that Carrefour are running to help pensioners during the economic crisis. The hypermarket chain are offering over 65s a card which they call Plan 65+ which you can apply for in store. The paper does not explain just how you apply or what documents you will need to prove you are a pensioner.

Using the new card at the check out will apparently take off the tax (IVA) from all fresh products. The reduction applies to meat, fish, bread, pastries, fruit and vegetables, cheeses and eggs.

The standard rate of IVA in Spain is 18%, 8% for most foods and 4% for essential items like bread, milk, eggs, fruit, vegetables, cereals and cheeses.

Apparently the card can be used for online purchases as well as those made in store and can also be used by someone who is doing the shopping on your behalf.

You know the tax saved may not be much per item but every little helps.

Step 2

Having got myself a flash brolly kit, I needed to work out how to use it.

The first thing I had to do was to make sure that the flash filled the brolly (not much point having a large brolly and only using part of it).  That meant using the zoom facility on my flashgun to set the widest angle (smallest number) possible.

Since the flashgun was off the camera, I had to set the exposure manually.

Flash on my reflex camera will only work properly if the shutter speed is set at 1/200th of a second or slower so I set it to about 1/150th. Since the duration of the flash is much less than that, the speed set will not affect exposure. The exposre will be determined in this case by setting the aperture and the film speed (ISO).

Apart from controlling exposure, I use the aperture to control depth of field so I will want to set that accordingly. A smaller aperture (higher number) gives greater depth of field i.e. more of the subject will be in focus and a larger aperture (smaller number) will give less. Sometimes I want more and sometimes less. So I set the aperture first.

That leaves the film speed as the means to control exposure. A lower ISO number will give less exposure and a higher number more.  I could calculate the correct ISO number to use by using the guide number of the flashgun and the distance of the flashgun from the subject but to be honest, with a digital camera it is just as easy to use trial and error and examine the results on the screen at the back of the camera. Start with a rough estimate and then fine tune it is the way to go.

Ah but surely, having to use a high ISO will create a lot of horrible digital noise. That is true, anything less than about 1600 ISO is going to be OK on my camera. However, in those cases where I am going to use a small aperture which will mean setting a high ISO to compensate there is another trick I can employ. My flashgun can be set to different power levels ranging from full power to 1/128th power so, when I use a large aperture I can still use a low ISO speed by turning the power down.

You know this all sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is in practice.  As I said, it is all a matter of trial and error.

Step 3 Using the brolly as a reflector or as a diffuser.

That is some title!

A Classroom/Workshop Recital, "Ars Musicandum." will take place on Saturday 28th of January 28th at 5pm in the Auditorium Francisco Grau

Cost 2 Euros to cover the expenses of the Recital.

Let me explain; my late mother-in-law used to describe certain forms of classical music as “arsey”. To her ear, music by e.g Shostakovich was like, “rubbing your arse (backside) with a brick”. It was a colourful expression which  summed up beautifully the pain she felt when listening to certain contemporary composers.

I feel sure that Ars Musicanbum will not inflict the same sort of pain!

Orange and lemon trees can be fickle

For those who want to learn how to control pests and diseases that affect citrus trees, Bigastro is organising a 12 hour course.

The course for 25 students will be run by professionals from the Valencian Institute of Agricultural Research and will take place between the 23rd and 26th April in the Municipal Auditorium Francisco Grau - 7pm until 10 o’clock.

I would like to know why my lemon trees have yellow leaves in winter and why they only produce a small crop of fruit. However with only two trees and with insufficient Spanish to understand all that is being said, I’ll probably have to look elsewhere for an answer.

Actually, a friend of mine did point me in the right direction last year. He noticed that my trees were surrounded by limestone chippings and explained that lemon trees are not lime tolerant.

His solution was to remove the chippings and to feed the trees with some acidic material. He suggested collecting vegetable waste and old tea bags, let them rot well down and then spread the mix around the base of the trees.

A further suggestion was to add sulphur to the soil because that will loosen it and reduce the ph level. 

A noisy protest outside the town hall

Yesterday, a group of parents, students and teachers from IES Miguel Hernandez and the Colegio San José de Calasanz protested outside the Town Hall in Bigastro.

The headteacher at IES Miguel Hernandez, Paul Perales, said that the protest was about the cuts in spending by the council. He explained that his school has not received any money since May and that meant he could not even plug a heater in because there was no money for the diesel which runs the generator and added that his school is short of vital supplies like copier paper, chalk and even toilet paper. Inevitably, companies are reluctant to  keep supplies to the schools without payment of arrears.

The headteacher at San José de Calasanz, Solomon Rivera, painted a similar picture at his school. In his view, the two vital services in any town are health and education and these should not be affected by cuts in local council spending. The cuts, he says will lead to a decline in the quality of education provided.

It is all in a flash

Like a lot of photographers, I prefer to use available light when I can. However, there are times when the available light is either insufficient or is in the wrong direction for the effect you want to create; that is when you need a flashgun to provide light.

Many cameras have built in flash which you can use on these occasions but of course these have their limitations. The first is the power which is usually quite low meaning that they will only work within a relatively short distance. The second is the position, which is by definition close to the lens. Apart from the red eye effect this creates, this means the light produced is harsh, flat and unforgiving. My compact camera has built in flash and no alternative so when I need extra light, I have to put up with the unnatural effect it produces.

The obvious solution, with a camera which has a hot shoe or flash socket, is to buy an external flashgun which will have a lot more power. Mounting it on the top of the camera though still gives that unforgiving light and at the same time creates ugly black shadows especially if you use your camera in the vertical position. In a sense, moving the flash a little further way is worse than having it close. 

To soften the effect you need to make the flash appear to be larger which you can do with various clip on attachments. The simplest and cheapest of these is the Stofen which is made from translucent plastic. Pop it over the flash and point the flashgun head  upwards at about 45 degrees and bingo, the light is a lot softer and the shadows a lot less harsh. I use one of these a lot when I am out and about.

Even better though is to move the flashgun off the camera. Of course you then need a way to communicate between the flash and the camera. This can be in the form of an extension cord which fires the gun and transmits the data at the same time. You also need long arms, an assistant or a light stand/tripod to mount the flashgun on. If your camera is heavy like mine, holding it with one hand and a flashgun with the other is a no no.

Taking this all a step further, you can eliminate the trailing wire by using wireless flash triggers. The market leaders in this field are Pocket Wizards but these cost a fortune to buy. Fortunately, there are cheaper alternatives which may not be as durable but do the job equally well. The downside of most wireless triggers is that the flashgun no longer works in automatic mode meaning that you have to set the exposure manually. This is what we used to do anyway before TTL and then ETTL flash became the norm so it is no big deal. In any case, with digital cameras it is a lot easier than it was with film because at least with digital you see the results immediately and can make adjustments as necessary. 

So, now that you have the flash off the camera, it is time to consider other forms of light modifiers. The cheapest and simplest to set up is a brolly. Just like the kind of brolly you use in the rain but this time made of white, silver or gold material, these are used as a reflector to give a broader spread of light. You can also use a white translucent brolly the other way round i.e. you shoot the light through it to give an even softer, broader effect. Those professionals who have expensive soft boxes and beauty dishes may scorn them but the truth is the flash brolly is a very versatile tool.

That is where I am up to now, experimenting with ways to improve my flash pictures and capture better portraits of my granddaughter Molly. My next step is to consider a second flashgun either to be placed behind the subject to give a rim light or on the opposite side to the main light for cross light effects. That is very much for the future though, I need to master using one light and a reflector first!

For those who are interested, the Strobist blog explains all this a lot better than I do.

That is so cool

This picture taken from the Daily Telegraph shows the Northern Lights as seen by specialist photographer Reed Ingram Weir from the A1 near Anick, Northumberland.

The aurora borealis normally appear above Iceland and Norway but were seen further south this weekend due to unusual solar activity.

To quote the Telegraph:

“The sun is in the middle of an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle and is therefore becoming more unstable.

A powerful flare erupted from the sun last Thursday, unleashing a plasma wave that supercharged the Northern Lights into high latitudes.

Auroras occur when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's upper atmosphere, releasing visible light in the process.

The particles are funnelled toward Earth's polar regions by the planet's magnetic field. The glow is caused by high-energy electrons colliding with oxygen atoms and nitrogen molecules.”

Apparently, it is possible that the phenomena will be visible throughout Britain by the end of the week.

I do hope my friend Pete and his wife Laura are able to capture a picture or two in Liverpool for their Project 365s. 

Signs of a revival

The good news is that 9,290 houses were sold last year bringing 65 million Euros of revenue to regional and national government by way of taxes. The bad news is that only 500 new houses were sold.

Most of the sales were in Orihuela and Torrevieja. In fact these two, along with Guardamar, Pilar de la Horadada and Rojales, accounted for 81% of the sales with a further 510 houses selling in Ciudad Quesada.

It is in therefore in the coastal strip and tourist areas where the sales were generated presumably by people mopping up on low prices to obtain a holiday home.

So, whilst these figure are not encouraging for the construction industry, they do show an improvement over the situation of the last two years.

Surveying our needs

I have received an email from Maria José López Robles, the Councillor for Third Age in Bigastro, telling me that she will be bringing copies of a questionnaire to Villas Andrea for us to complete. The idea is that we provide the information required to allow the council to give us the services we deserve.

Maria José would like many returns as possible so that she can form a complete picture of our needs.

Thank you

PS Knowing that the council in Bigastro faces a huge black hole in its finances, we may need to be creative and circumspect with our responses.

Spaniards do not know fear

In the east and north east of Spain, towns celebrate their fiestas with "toros embolados," or "flaming bulls,".

Basically, large balls of flaming wax or fireworks are attached to the bulls horns and then they are set loose to rampage around the streets. Although the crowds at these events taunt the animals, in the end the bulls' lives are spared.

Such a festival took place in the small town of Navajas on Saturday but it all went horribly wrong when a 45 year old man tripped just as the bull was released. The bull gored him and then trampled on his head causing irreversible injuries.

The mayor of the town offered condolences to the family and arranged for black bows to be tied to the town hall flags. What he did not do was cancel the similar event scheduled for Sunday. 

Why would he? If you choose to chase angry bulls in narrow streets, then you have to know that there is a risk involved. The man in question had travelled 70km to the event, it wasn’t like he was an innocent bystander who just got caught up in what was going on. Some would say he was brave, I would just say he was stupid but that is just my opinion.

Vueling offer more flights from Alicante

The airline Vueling will be operating three daily flights to Paris Orly airport between June and September. They are also offering new flights to Cardiff, Palma de Mallorca, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Ibiza.

At the moment, Vueling have a promotion going on with tickets selling from 19.99 Euros each way for flights between 23rd January and 28th March. The tickets, which are on sale until next Tuesday, include destinations such as Marrakech, Moscow, Nantes, Naples, Amsterdam, Paris, Venice, Lisbon, Malaga, Sevilla and Tenerife (some with connections via Barcelona).

You can buy tickets for Vueling from travel agencies, by calling Customer Services (807 200 100) or online at www.vueling.com.  For iPhone and Android users the portal is m.vueling.com.

I was an early victim

Because the school I taught in had a no smoking policy, I had to go out onto the pavement to have a puff on my pipe.

I was out there one afternoon with a colleague enjoying a pipe of my favourite tobacco when three youths on bikes came along the pavement.  As they passed us, one of the cheeky beggars snatched the pipe from my mouth. Within seconds the hooded thieves were gone leaving my colleague and I standing in disbelief. All we could do was watch them disappear down the road.

Figuring that they had just stolen the pipe for a laugh, we followed their tracks in the hope that they may have simply tossed it away but we never did find it.

Unbeknown to the thieves, that was a hand made pipe worth quite a lot of money – I don’t go in for cheap machine made jobs that smoke harsh and bitter. In any case, pipes are like cherished friends – each with its own characteristics – they give a lifetime of pleasure to the smoker. None of my current pipes are less that twenty years old and each has got better as the years have progressed except of course that one!

Moving on many years from that sorry incident, people in the streets of London and for all I know other cities as well are suffering the same problem that I did but this time it is mobile phones that are being stolen. In particular it is smart phones that cost several hundred pounds that the thieves on bikes are targeting. The modus operandi is the same though; the thieves spot a victim and then ride past snatching the phone as they go. The phones are quickly switched off and the SIM cards are removed preventing services like “track my  iPhone” from working.

Eventually, the phones are shipped to countries where the phone barring service won’t block the operation of these handsets. The price of a stolen iPhone in India is high so that is where many end up.

It may look cool and impress people to walk along the street with your iPhone pressed to your ear but it is risky. Far better to use one of those geeky handsfree cables and keep the phone in your pocket. You may look as if you are talking to yourself but at least your phone will be in a safe place. Alternatively, get yourself a ten quid Tesco phone like Pam did – no self respecting thief would dream of snatching one of those. 

As for using a flashy 3G iPad in the street, well that would simply be asking for trouble.

Lemons sell for next to nothing

Lemon growers in the Vega Baja are having a hard time of it. They are having to compete with crops from Morocco and Algeria where labour is much cheaper and from Turkey where the growers receive financial support which allows them to sell their crops at below the cost of production.

At six cents per kilo, the current market price, farmers in Alicante province are loosing money. Their only hope is that there is a frost in those other countries because that always pushes prices up or that there is a frost here in Alicante because then the local growers can claim on their insurance.  In the meantime some farmers are allowing people to pick the crop for nothing as long as they leave the trees clean – at least then they don’t have to pay pickers to collect the fruit.

Olympic tickets for sale

Tickets for the 2012 Olympics are hard to come by in Britain. If you find any on the Internet then it is likely that you will pay well over the odds for them.

However, here in Spain, things are different because the Spanish Olympic Committee decided to sell its allocation of tickets through 20 Fnac music and book stores. Even though they have been on sale since December, very few have sold and so tickets for premium events are still available.

I suppose the nearest Fnac shop to here is in Barcelona.

David who?

Unless you are young, Spanish and female it is possible that you have never heard of him.

David Brisbal is a Grammy winning pop star from Almeria. He first appeared as runner up in a reality TV show called Opercion Triunfo.

Since then he  has released four albums, toured Europe and Latin America and has sold more than 5 million records gaining 30 platinum albums, 15 gold and two diamond.

Brisbal will be performing in Torrevieja on Saturday, 25th February but don’t expect to get a ticket because the 1,100 available for the show at the International Music Auditorium were sold out within an hour of release.

As luck would have it, the town hall in Torrevieja have managed to persuade BrIsbal to perform on Friday the 24th as well so that more of his local fans can see their star.

You want to know more about him? Go to http://www.davidbisbal.com/es_ES

My reputation goes before me

At yesterday afternoon’s Spanish class, our new teacher clearly knew exactly who I was without me telling him. He explained how I was well known for taking photographs for the town which were well liked by bigastrense. He went on to say that my contribution to local affairs was much appreciated.

I have already received praise for my work by councillors for example in this email:

Soy María José, concejala del Ayuntamiento de Bigastro, y en nombre de la Sra.Charo Bañuls y la Nueva Corporación quiero agradecerle todo el trabajo que está haciendo por este municipio, porque es un gran fotógrafo y una excelente persona. Su colaboración es primordial y esencial para nosotros, puesto que ahora más que nunca necesitamos la ayuda de las personas que como usted se prestan a colaborar, por ello quiero expresar mi más sincero agradecimiento por su gran ayuda y espero que siga colaborando con nosotros.
También me gustaría que pudiéramos ponernos en  contacto y conocernos mejor, porque,  la verdad no nos han presentado y me encantaría conocerle, porque hace un ¡excelente trabajo!

Those were very kind words which made me blush!

Down at the market yesterday, Pam and I were talking with some of our neighbours. Our discussion centred around what we found attractive about Bigastro and we came to the conclusion that it was the people. We all agreed that we have never lived anywhere before where we were made to feel so welcome and where people, who you hardly knew, went out of their way to help you. In the end, it is not smart buildings and beautifully manicured parks that count, it is the welcome you feel that is most important in the place you choose to live.

The PP in Orihuela fight back

You might have guessed that the party who are now in opposition in Orihuela would come back with their own spin on the accusation that the Medieval Fair last year cost the city 300,000 Euros – a figure which they deny is true.

They go on to accuse the present government team of having already chosen a company to organise this year’s fair in spite of the fact that there are five days left for tenders to be submitted. They say that the proof of this lies in three web sites which lead to the same company “Fusion Medieval” who are inviting merchants to apply for stalls. 

The PP also say that it is nonsense to say that the market this year will be held at no cost to the city, pointing out that there are bound to be expenses for water, electricity and security services.

Although all politicians will deny this, it seems almost to be a prerequisite for the job to be colourful with the truth.

Judge seeks High Court trial for Moya

In 2005, the ex-mayor of Bigastro, José Joaquín Moya approved the plan for Sector D6 which included a plot of 1,170 square metres designated as parkland. A year later, Moya signed an agreement with Repsol Butano which allowed them to install two gas tanks holding 46,500 litres of propane on the same land.  Moya went ahead with the order and the tanks were installed in October 2007 in spite of the fact that he knew that the work was not covered by a licence.  Also implicated are the council technician and the secretary who also signed the paperwork.

The case against José Joaquín Moya  has been examined in the District Court No 3 in Orihuela.  The judge has now concluded that the case should be tried before the High Court and has set bail at 75,000 Euros to cover the costs of demolition should the defendants be found guilty. The anti corruption prosecutor has asked for two terms of prison of one year and ten months and four years for the alleged crimes.

Still to come are two further cases against the ex-mayor; one for accepting the gift of a Volkswagen Toureg which was allegedly paid for out of public money and the irregular auction of protected land at La Pedrera to allow the building of a residential complex and a golf practice course.

Lack of money could affect the Medieval Market

The Medieval Market in Orihuela cost the city council 300,000 Euros last year; 150,000 was paid to the company that organised the market and a further 150,000 was spent on the various shows that took place during the three day event. This year the council say that the market will be run at no cost to the city and in fact they expect revenue from the company to cover labour costs incurred by them. They also say that the Moors and Christian groups taking part will not have to pay for their stands.

That decision leaves the cost of staging the market in the hands of the organisers who will either have to pass that on to stall holders or charge for entrance to the market. Apart from the stalls selling food and drink who no doubt will see a good return for their money, I imagine this may well hit those selling specialised products who probably earn very little.

The market has become a very popular event that attracts a lot of tourists to the city. Each year it has grown in size and popularity. Let us hope that the lack of money on the part of the council does not adversely affect this trend.

Look out for the blossom

My Flickr picture for Tuesday was the toasted almonds that Ana and Marisu brought us as a gift for taking photos of their children. As I explained, the almond is an important local crop here in the Vega Baja. Before the transfers of water from the Tajo to the Segura it would have been the principal crop because the almond tree only requires rainwater to survive. The citrus trees that took over require irrigation and of course the fields of broccoli and artichokes need regular watering.

The biggest nail in the coffin for almond growing though was cheap imports of Californian almonds. 

In this area you find most of the almond trees in San Miguel de Salinas, Pilar de la Horadada and to a greater extent in Orihuela on the northern slopes of the Sierra Escalona, ​​port Rebate, Torremendo, near the dam of La Pedrera and the valleys between the mountains of Pujálvarez and the Cristo on the border with Murcia. You can also find almond trees in Benferri, La Murada and on the path of the Albatera a los Hondones.

They are easy to spot at this time of year because the bare trees of winter are becoming loaded with white and pink blossom as the warm weather of Spring arrives. In fact you may find that the trees are flowering early this year brought on by the unusually warm weather of the last few weeks.

Let us hope that we don’t experience the same cold snap we did last year because that badly affected the artichokes which were blackened by the frost. Broccoli is hardier and those survived. The citrus trees were slowed down but ultimately came into flower a little later.

Internet sites blacked out

If you visit Google today or Wikipedia, you’ll find messages that warn about the dangers of two bills that are going thought the US Senate. Many other sites on the internet will be blacked out for the day. The bills aim to curb online piracy but say many, they will also severely restrict freedom of expression on the web.

As you might expect, the bills have received broad support from the entertainment industry who loose millions to online piracy every year. However opponents of the bills say that they will restrict freedom of expression and increase the risks to cyber security.

The controversial clause contained in the bills requires internet service providers in the US to block access to foreign sites that infringe copyright. Giving ISPs these sort of powers would allow them to censor the internet and that would be bad.

A big thank you

After the problems we had with the first teacher that Aurelio found for our Spanish class, we thought that was it – no more lessons. We hadn’t counted on the resourcefulness of the councillor for education though because he has found another ex-teacher who just happens to have the same name as the first.

Pam and I missed the first meeting with the new teacher because we were in England at the time. Apparently, he pitched the lesson too high for the students in the class and so vowed to prepare something more suitable for this week.

Yesterday was our first lesson.  The new teacher came well prepared with suitable material; he had plenty of exercises for us to complete which involved listening carefully to his instructions. Listening skills are possibly the hardest to achieve so this was the kind of excellent practice we needed.

So now we can look forward to lessons again knowing that our Spanish will continue to improve.

A big thank you goes to Aurelio Murcia for finding us such a good teacher and of course to Antonio for volunteering to work with us. 

It doesn’t always pay

Once you have sold a house and moved away, it isn’t always a good idea to go back and see what the new owners have done. In the case of our old house in England we have no choice because we regularly visit our friends who live opposite. In fact, most of what the new owners have done have been improvements we would have made ourselves if we had continued to live there.

Our ex neighbours here in Spain may not feel the same about their old house if they ever return.

The new neighbours are not keen gardeners so most of the plants have gone including those in the front garden and those on the fence between the properties.  The railings at the front have all gone and the wall has been built up to about 3m high. It is the same for the wall the other side which is also 3m high. We are going to have the wire netting removed between the two houses to be replaced with the same fence panelling that we have on three sides. Then there are plans to build a barbecue area in the corner at the front left corner and of course there is some remodelling going on inside the house.

At some time in the future they plan to build a pool but have not yet decided where exactly that will be. I’m not sure what their plans are for the small pool at the front but certainly the waterfall has gone as have the stones that laid out the garden.

As I said, the old neighbours may not like what has been done. It is perhaps best if they don’t see the house now, after all they did spend a lot of money on the work that has now been demolished. 

Where does Britain get them from?

It is almost a tradition that teachers (and ex teachers) do not see eye to eye with Parliamentary Education Secretaries in Britain.

The latest one is Michael Gove who has thrown fuel on the fire by recently suggesting that teachers should work longer hours and should put up with having parents in the classroom observing how well their children are being taught. He says that because teachers enjoy their work so much, they would not mind being at school for longer. Clearly the man is at best misguided and more probably barking mad!

Not wanting to confine his lunacy to thoughts about teaching and education, Mr Gove now says that the British public should donate a new royal yacht to the Queen as a mark of respect during the jubilee year. He reckons that large scale celebrations are just what the country needs during this period of austerity.  However, accepting that finding  public funds might prove difficult, he suggests that private donations should be sought to help foot the bill.

Apart from the cost, which was estimated at 60 million pounds in 1997, does Gove really  believe that the Queen, who is pushing 86, would like a new yacht to play with? If the Queen wants a yacht, then I would suggest one made by the Star company in Birkenhead. 

The previous royal yacht Britannia was decommissioned in December 1997 and is now a visitor attraction in Edinburgh. 

A cold snap hits Spain

For those British politicians who question why ex-pats in Spain still need to be paid the winter fuel allowance, let me point out the following:

Alicante is one of seven provinces on orange alert for heavy snow today. The others are; Jaén, Granada, Almeria, Murcia, Valencia and Castellón.  The  coast of Galicia and Asturias is on yellow alert for coastal phenomena.

In a statement by the Interior Ministry's department they ask citizens to avoid travelling by car in the most affected areas which are expected to be the central and southeast quadrant of the peninsula and on access roads to large cities where there may be delays.

If you must travel by road, then be alert to the possibility of ice, keep an eye on information about the weather situation and road conditions, check your vehicle before starting out, follow the recommendations of Trafico, fill your tank with fuel and carry chains. Civil Protection also advise people to take warm clothing and a mobile phone with spare battery and or car charger.

As reported by the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET); the snow is affecting mostly the centre and the southeast of the peninsula, especially the Valencian Community, Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia, Madrid, the area of ​​the mountains, and Andalusia, where the heaviest snow is expected in Almeria, Jaen and Granada.

I know this sounds like sour grapes but Pamela and I do not receive the winter fuel allowance. However, we still face hefty bills for gas during the winter months like everyone else.

A virgin runway

During the boom years, Spain embarked on many adventurous projects that they believed would enhance the economy. One such project was the  building of new airports to serve the tourist trade. In spite of the fact that there was already an airport at Valencia, another at Barcelona and one at Alicante, they went ahead and built yet another one at Castellón at a cost of 150 million Euros.

Possibly because of political differences between the then Socialist government and the Conservative run region, the airport was not granted a licence. However, gaining a licence was not the only problem for Castellón because the low cost airlines showed no interest in it. As a result the airport, which was inaugurated last March, has never had an aircraft land on its runway, there are weeds growing in the tarmac and the car park stands as empty as the day it was built.

According to El Pais, 30 million Euros was spent on advertising the new airport at tourist fairs and more recently a 25 metre high sculpture costing 300,000 Euros has been erected in front of the terminal building. They even spent 2.35 million Euros sponsoring Villareal CF to wear the airports logo on their shirts for three seasons.

Out of the 48 airports that serve Spain, only 11 are profitable and yet still they build more. For example, the new airport at Covera is due to open this year. This is meant to replace the existing airport at San Javier which will remain open solely for military purposes. In the meantime, a lot of money has been spent at San Javier covering the car park and upgrading the terminal building. And of course, you do wonder what they will make of the not so old terminal at Alicante

The latest scam hits the coast

The problem with computers is that we mostly all have one but don’t know sufficient about them to avoid the pitfalls they bring to us. I regularly get emails from well meaning neighbours warning me of a virus that apparently neither Microsoft nor Norton know how to cure. In every case so far, the virus has turned out to be a hoax. I also receive emails telling me that my online banking with a bank I have never used will shut down if I don’t reactivate it and of course I get emails from Nigerian gentlemen who want to give me a fortune for helping them release a trust fund for them.

The latest wheeze is to access people’s Hotmail accounts and send out emails from them to the whole address book. Ha, ha that is a fun thing to do isn’t it? 

The latest scam to hit Orihuela Costa takes things even further. Apparently you get a phone call from a number with a UK prefix, the caller speaks in English and tells you that your computer is sending a huge number of emails that are collapsing the system. The kind person offers to solve the problem for you by taking remote control of your computer and then guides you through the process of giving them that access.

What the caller actually  does is install malware which both infects your system and at the same time gives them access to all the personal details including bank numbers via a keylog tracker or by looking at your cookies.To add insult to injury, they charge you 350 Euros for doing this!

There are legitimate times when you would want to give someone remote access to your computer for example if you had a software fault and called the manufacturer's helpline. As soon as the fault was rectified you would close the access down (it is closed by default of course). Like with opening .exe files from people we don’t know, we now understand that we should never allow remote access to our computers for people just over the phone.

A shaky place to live

One of the things that I neglected to tell Pam before we moved here was that this is a region of regular seismic activity. In the last year alone there were 12 shocks in this area that could be felt at some place or other.
The one at 6:07 yesterday morning was a mere 1.7 quake with an epicentre out to sea. It would have been likely felt by those living in Torrevieja, Orihuela Costa and Pilar de la Horadada.

A glimmer of light

The new delegate of the Consell in Alicante province, Juan de Dios Navarro, yesterday gave a major boost to help Bigastro’s out of its unsustainable financial situation.

Madrid will now pay the money it withheld to Bigastro which will enable to town to make it short term payments.

In addition, Sr Navarro will help Bigastro finally legalise Sector D-6 bringing great relief to the people living there. 

Moving house

Not Pam and I, we have no intention of moving house for the foreseeable future. We are talking here about Laura and Dave who would now like more living space.

Whilst buying your first house might seem difficult, moving up the ladder is a whole different game. Apart from finding the house you want, there is the added problem of selling your existing home. I can't imagine that will be difficult but with the present state of the market it is hard to say.

Once you have bought your first house, you do have a clearer idea of what you want for a second property and thus become perhaps a little more picky. Laura and Dave know exactly what their needs are and thus what features to look for in their second home.

Location is top of the list for Laura and Dave. They need an easy commute to work, be within reach of facilities like doctors, shops etc and of course the network of friends they have built up. Although that narrows the search somewhat, it does mean that they should be happy with their new location.

Then of course there is the question of size. Ideally they would like two separate reception rooms, definitely they want three bedrooms and a garden for Molly to play in. From there, the permutations are endless and the have an open mind about some of the options available.

Laura and Dave have viewed a fair number of properties and found one early on which ticked all the boxes. Unfortunately, that is now under offer and so they need to look elsewhere. That is where it has become tricky because they inevitably compare what they see now to the one they liked in the first place.

Like with all house purchases, there will be probably be compromises to be made. Just where those will be is up to Laura and Dave. Pam and I can only offer our advice, in the end the decision is there's to make.  

Bless the animals

Sunday the 15th January marks the Fiesta of San Anton, the day when you can take your animals to the Plaza de la Constitucion at 1pm to be blessed.

Although, as you might expect, there will be lots of dogs and cats, there could also be some unusual pet animals as well.

There will also an opportunity to win yourself a pig in a raffle. Before you get carried away with the idea of a pig as a pet, let me remind you that these things grow to a fair old size and produce a lot of waste!