Numbers are down

  The population of Spain decreased last year by 205,788 and now stands at 41,539,400 of which 5,520,133 are foreigners. This is the first time that the population has declined since 1998.

During the boom years, between 2000 and 2008, thousands came from Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia to work in construction. The number of migrants rose from 923,879 to 5,747,734. Now, that construction has come to a halt and over 26% of the workforce are unemployed, they are heading home. The only groups that have actually increased are the Chinese (3,647), Pakistanis (730) and Italians (246).

The Valencian region lost 24,901  and now has a population of 5.1 million. It still has the second highest immigrant population though at 16.8%.

By country, the numbers are: Romanians (868,635, 15.7% of foreigners), Moroccans (787,013, 14.3 percent of foreigners), British (383,093, 6.9% foreigners) and Ecuadorians (262,223, 4.8% foreigners).

Thank you Spurs

We all wanted you to beat Manchester City yesterday and you did in the most convincing manner.

That means that United stay 13 points clear of their cross city rivals with five games left to play. All Manchester United need to do is clinch a win against Aston Villa tonight and they will pick up their 20th League trophy. The game is at home so there will be plenty of support and rejoicing in the streets if they win.

For Spurs, their victory leaves them in fifth place, one point adrift of Chelsea, who currently occupy the final Champions League qualification place, and two points behind third-placed Arsenal. But Spurs have a game in hand on the Gunners, meaning a place in Europe's premier club competition remains in their hands as they enter the final month of the season.

I hope they succeed because, after yesterday’s win over City, they deserve to.

Pirates on the river

A group of environmentalists organised a pirate descent of the River Segura yesterday. Some of them navigated the river using kayaks and surfboards whilst the rest cycled the pathway alongside the river. To make their point, the pirates wore white coats and face masks.

Luckily for them, there was sufficient flow in the river otherwise their journey would have come to a dead halt in the reed beds. They left Almoradí at 9am and arrived at Guradamar in time for lunch.

Their demand is for a cleaner river just as it was back in the 60s when people used to bath in it. 

Is spring over?

We were getting used to the warm sensation of the sun and looking forward to the glorious days of summer but that might have been premature. The last few days have been mild but overcast. The highs of 28 have gone leaving us with temperatures in the low 20s.

As next week passes, the temperatures are set to rise again to the mid 20s but we will still see quite a bit of cloud about with even the chance of a spot of rain. I guess we’ll have to wait until mid May to enjoy settled weather by which I mean blue skies and sunshine every day.

Deadly cooking utensils

The two bombers who caused carnage at the end of the Boston marathon filled the front pages of newspapers throughout the world. They are not the only ones using explosive packed cooking devices.

This report from the Guardian details a similar problem in Spain.

An anarchist group in Spain has been sending bombs to prominent Roman Catholics, hiding the explosives inside packages containing vibrators.

At least two such mini-bombs have been sent by a group that calls itself the Anticlerical Pro Sex Toys Group, according to Spain's state-owned EFE news agency. One device exploded at a postal sorting office, slightly injuring the woman who was handling the package.

"Please accept our apologies," the group said in an email apparently sent to an anarchist website at the beginning of last month. "Next time we won't fail."

The group targeted the Roman Catholic archbishop of Pamplona, Francisco Pérez, and the headteacher of a private school belonging to the ultra-conservative Legionnaires of Christ movement in Madrid.

The archbishop told EFE that he vaguely recalled police taking away a suspicious package containing powder. "We didn't give it much importance, but later it was said to be a bomb," he said.

Police reportedly believe the same group is behind a bomb packed inside a pressure cooker that was left near the public prosecutor's office in Madrid, but failed to explode.

Another rudimentary bomb found in Madrid's Almudena Cathedral, combining shrapnel, explosive powder and a camping gas canister, is also thought to have come from the same source.

The anarchists, who use other names such as the Artisans Club for New Uses for Coffee, claimed to have made a bomb out of an espresso coffee machine packed with gunpowder and shrapnel that was planted at a bank branch.

These devices are engineered to cause maximum harm. The explosives on their own would inflict serous harm.  The inclusion of ball bearings, shrapnel etc takes the damage to another level. There are a lot of sick people out there who have access to these sort of materials.

Confusion cleared up

The concert on Sunday will be the 6th Gala to benefit the charity United Hands. As you can see from the poster, it starts at 6:30pm and the cost of a ticket is 5 euros. You can buy tickets at the church after mass or I imagine at the door on the night.

Parking in Torre.

Parking for free in Torrevieja is a nightmare. With a population of over one hundred thousand which swells during summer and at Easter time,  you can imagine that parking is at a premium. When Pam and I go there we don’t even try to find a place on the street, we head straight for the car park by the fairground and pay.

For disabled drivers, the problem is worse. There are only 125 designated parking spaces for over 600 people with disabled parking permits. To make matters even worse, non-disabled drivers often park in the designated spaces – I have seen them do it both in the town and at Carrefour.

This is a problem that the council now aims to address.

Thought for Friday

Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

So glad to be out of it

Tinkering with education by successive governments is the bane of teacher’s lives. Politician’s seem to believe that, even if the system isn’t broke, they still need to fix it. The ill fated National Curriculum In Britain was a prime example. Introduced at massive cost in terms of money and time, it was soon watered down and is now practically none existent. It did nothing to raise standards of education in fact in many ways it lowered them.

Now, Michael Gove wants to make radical changes to the English system by introducing longer school days and shorter holidays. His inspiration seems to have come from the Far East where he says children benefit from more contact in the classroom. Of course he is ignoring the fact that, in many countries and most independent schools in Britain,  children have even longer school holidays, shorter working days and still manage to be successful. His notion that the school holidays in Britain are geared to an outdated agrarian society where children went potato picking is just plain nonsense.

Current contracts for teachers stipulate 1,265 hours per year for 195 days of which 5 are set aside for training. Most, if not all teachers far exceed those hours already when you take account of marking, preparation, report writing etc. For example, Pamela’s children at Pensby Park might have gone home at 3:30pm but she rarely set foot out of her classroom before 5:30 or even 6pm and still had more to do later in the evening. Go to the school gates an hour or so after the end of the teaching day at most secondary schools and you will see teachers struggling under the weight of a pile of books to their cars. Increase the school day and the piles of books they have to carry  will grow even larger.

If we had our time again, Pam and I would have looked for jobs where we could walk out at the end of the working day with nothing to do until the next one. Jobs where a holiday meant just that – no marking and preparation for the next term – just a lazy time on the beach with the children and weekends were free time.

Totally confused

Whilst Pam and I were at the hairdresser’s yesterday, Juan told us that there would be a choral concert taking place on Sunday for the benefit of the Alzheimer's Association in Bigastro. Since Juan’s wife is a member of the choir we assumed that this was correct. He had no idea what time the concert was going to start – possibly 6:30pm or maybe 7pm.

Our Spanish teacher’s wife is also in the choir so we asked him. Antonio told us that the concert to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association will be taking place in June and not this weekend. Yes, there will be a concert on Sunday but this will be to benefit Manos Unidos and he mentioned Eurovision. Like Juan, Antonio had no idea what time the concert was scheduled for so he asked the concierge at the desk and she had no idea either.

The upshot is that it looks like there will be a concert on Sunday at some unspecified time to benefit one organisation or another.  I should be grateful if someone could shed some light on this!!

A regal occasion

Those of us old enough to remember Winston Churchill's funeral will have likely drawn parallels with the event that took place yesterday. It is unlikely that we will ever see such a funeral for a prime minister again during this century so it was well worth watching.

Thankfully, the threats of a disturbance came to nothing; a handful turned their backs as the coffin passed by and there were some who carried placards. The vast majority though were as respectful as they should be at a funeral. There were cheers and clapping as the gun carriage and then the hearse passed by. If I recall correctly, the crowds at Churchill’s funeral, which were larger in number, stood in silence. Otherwise, the two funerals bore a lot of similarity in that they marked the country’s respect for politicians deemed to have made a significant contribution.

What was impressive for me were three things; the ability of the British to carry off such an event with great dignity and without a hitch, the stirring music that accompanied the procession and the music which was chosen for the ceremony itself. Although there were some European pieces in there, the majority of the music was English including the arrangement of Elgar's stirring Nimrod.

We don’t have access to BBC TV so I cannot comment on the presentation. For us it was the Euronews coverage that came from the BBC feed. I imagine that it was impeccable.

Thought for the day

Women claim that men only have two emotions; horny and hungry. So, if you don’t have an erection then you obviously need a sandwich.

PS My apologies to those readers who might be offended - the truth can sometimes be ugly.

Inauguration suspended

The Association for Relatives of Alzheimer Patients were meant to be inaugurating the new Family Respite Unit and had called in the Regional Minister for Social Welfare, Asunción Sánchez to be there. That was until they remembered that the resource was funded by  money from Plan E provided by the socialist government of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

More vandalism

Look in the direction of the Seminary at Orihuela and you will see that someone has painted the republican flag along with a star on the wall at the front. This act of vandalism is meant to celebrate the anniversary of the proclamation of the Second Republic in Spain.

The city council will now have to pay to have this removed.  

Update

I’m told that the duck pond at La Pedrera has been restored to its former glory, the water is clean, the surrounds have been repaired and there is a new lock on the gate. All is well for “los patos”.

The importance of art in Holland

When Pamela and I spent a long weekend in Amsterdam, one of the most memorable places we visited was the Rijksmuseum where we stood in awe at the impressive collection of Dutch masterpieces. We were fortunate because a few years later the museum was closed for a renovation. That process has taken 375 million euros and 10 years to complete.

Before the re-opening, Holland’s most famous painting, Rembrandt’s Night Watch, was processed through the streets of Amsterdam in a vast, reinforced steel box: a sealed carnival float for a carnival occasion. Thousands came out to watch, there were even naked cyclists braving the cold. The same workers who had removed the picture ten years before were rehired for the occasion.

It is hard to imagine the re-opening of a gallery in Britain capturing so much attention even though the country has an equally if not more impressive history of art

So what has changed?

Previously the rooms at the Rijksmuseum were organised in terms of the materials used; glass, paintings etc. That is how it was when Pamela and I visited. Now you walk through periods of art. The exception is for the works of Rembrant which still hold pride of place in the museum. Apart from the Night Watch, there is the 17th century Jewish Bride to marvel at.

A great week ahead

It can’t have escaped anyone’s attention that the weather here in Bigastro has improved greatly in the last week.

Easter was cold and mostly grey but that has all suddenly changed just as it did last year. The forecast for the coming week looks to be excellent; plenty of sunshine, very little cloud, no rain and only light winds.

Do you think it would be premature to say that spring is here at last?

Does this spell the end of the duck pond?

A municipally owned pond at La Pedrera is being used as a makeshift landfill site by Bigastro Council. The facility, which connects to the reservoir Los Patos (the ducks), was built by the former mayor José Joaquín Moya using European funds.  The matter has been reported to the local police by the PSOE spokesman, Raúl Valerio Medina.

The deputy mayor, Aurelio Murcia, says that authorisation was granted to change the use of this area for the future. He says that this is not a protected area even though it is adjacent to La Pedrera and assures us that the work is being carried out quietly, without offence and without disturbing the pine forest.

The duck pond at La Pedrera used to be a popular place for people to visit. Several varieties of ducks and other waders lived and bred in the pond and surrounding area. Recent visits confirm that the water level had been allowed to drop considerably and consequently has turned green. The pond surrounds are also in a poor state or repair.

Where did the money go to?

Bigastro Town Council have launched an investigation to try and establish how 1.2 million euros, paid by the owners of houses in Sector D6, were actually spent. The money was paid in to the consistorio but was not then used to pay the companies who were carrying out works.

Charo Bañuls (PP) says that the previous socialist council did not keep clear accounts of how much each owner paid and how much went to the Consistory in concept for urbanisation.

The Mayor and Councillor for Town Planning, Aurelio Murcia, have requested information from those that have houses or land in the area so that they can reconcile the accounts. The suspicion is that 1.2 million euros were siphoned off by the socialists to pay for other things.

100 years young

It is not unusual to find people of a great age in this part of Spain. A healthy diet, good weather and a more gentle lifestyle certainly contribute to longevity.

Yesterday, a lady in Los Montesinos celebrated her 100th birthday in the village where she was born. Along with her friends and neighbours, many of her 14 children, 37 grandchildren and 51 great grandchildren came to visit her and offer congratulations. Even the town band turned up outside to play for her.

Blessed with good health, the lady has only made a couple of visits to an hospital and has very rarely relied on drugs from the chemist to cure ills. Instead, she has used plants from the field to concoct home made remedies.

The lady was married on August 17th 1933 and soon after her husband was sent to war. She says that the day he returned unharmed was one of the best days of her life. I imagine that yesterday came pretty close. 

M & S in Spain

When we first moved here, we bought clothes on our trips back to England. Then Marks & Spencer offered delivery to Spain from their British website. Now the company has a Spanish website where the descriptions are in both Spanish and English and the prices are in euros. If you order more than 30 euros worth of goods (not hard to do) then delivery is free.

They used to send goods by Airsure which took a week or so to arrive. The latest parcel though came by DHL in much shorter time.

I reckon when Spaniards have sampled the quality of Marks & Spencer merchandise and the prices charged, they will take to the website in droves especially for essentials like underwear.

A change of name

When Mrs Jackson took over as headteacher at the then Priory Community Comprehensive School in Liverpool where I taught, she promptly changed the name to Anfield. What she wanted to do was clear away the problems of the past and at the same time capitalise on a name that she felt was associated with a successful school.

We all know El Altet airport as Ailcante even though that is not its official name. El Altet is just a hamlet that most will never heard of.

Now, the mayor of Elche wants to make a change and add in Elche to the name making it Alicante-Elche Airport. He says that El Altet is within the municipality of Elche and so the name should reflect that.

No doubt there will be some expensive new signage if the change is approved. It will make no difference though because the acronym used by air traffic controllers will still be ALC and that will be the name on your luggage labels. Alicante is and will be the name that most passengers use as they check in for flights in the same way that liverpudlians still call their airport Speke and not Liverpool, John Lennon.

Bigastro councillors under investigation

Minutes of the council meeting where approval was sought for changes to the plan for Sector D6 are being examined by the public prosecutor. The issue under investigation is the interest that  the mayor Charo Bañuls (PP), the first deputy mayor, Aurelio Murcia (UPLC), and Fernando Moya (UPLC) had in what happens to that area of land. Their proposal was to relocate VPO housing in an area of land they owned. The prosecutor therefore wants to know about the assets that each councillor and their families hold in Bigastro. The socialist leader, Raúl Valerio Medina says that, under the circumstances, the three of them should have abstained from voting during the meeting.

I feel ashamed

Can I say first of all that I was no great fan of Margaret Thatcher. Although her policies never caused me harm, I felt sorry for those who were badly affected by them. I accept that the cure for Britain’s woes was shockingly  painful for many.

It is understandable that those who were most affected by Margaret Thatcher’s policies whilst in power should feel little sympathy for her death. The shake up of nationalised industries in Britain left large numbers out of work and many in Northern Ireland will have anything but fond memories of her.

However, the so called celebrations that have taken place on the streets of Britain where fires have been lit, shop windows broken and police in riot gear called out to quell mobs are a disgrace. From the pictures I have seen, most would not have even been born when Thatcher was in power. I am told that it is the National Union of Students who are stirring things up but I cannot confirm that.

The fear now is that the funeral, to be held next Wednesday, will be targeted by several groups of dissidents hell bent on besmirching the memory of Mrs Thatcher. Terrorist members of the Irish republican along with far left groups pose the greatest threat but there are also fears that Muslimist groups may also target the funeral as well.

Yet again, I feel ashamed to be British. How on earth can I explain this sort of behaviour to my Spanish friends who cannot understand the sort of mentality that drives people to these sort of acts at the time of someone’s death. I only hope that the “mob” save their celebrations until after the funeral is over so that the occasion can take place in a dignified and respectful manner. 

Two sides to the coin

Margaret Thatcher died yesterday. On the one hand there are those that will pay tribute to her and on the other, those who will rejoice. There have already been street parties to celebrate her death and it said that champagne had been kept specially for the occasion.  

The truth is that Britain was on its knees when Mrs Thatcher became the first female prime minister. Ted Heath left a legacy of inflation which peaked at 27%, Labour took over and worsened the situation by buying off the unions and again printing money that the country did not have. Things got so bad - in 1976 Britain had to be bailed out by the IMF. The nationalised industries were overmanned and inefficient. The unions held Britain in a stranglehold. One of the worst examples was British Leyland who produced appalling cars and still the workers demanded more.  The company went bust in 1975 only to be bailed out by the government.

Then we had the winter of 1978-9 when the public sector unions made huge demands for pay increases –e.g  lorry drivers demanded 40% and went on strike when told they could only have 5%.  They stopped the supply of oil and so we faced long queues at petrol stations. In the end they got a 20% increase and returned to work. Strikes followed strikes, even the gravediggers in Liverpool joined in. Following the closure of 20 pits putting 20,000 out of work, the miners went on strike; we had a three day working week, power cuts and untold misery to face.

Following a vote of no confidence for the Labour government, a general election was called and Margaret Thatcher swept into power. She stayed in power for 10 years during which time she faced the unions down, denationalised utilities and won the Falklands war.

Thatcher is accused of breaking up communities, putting people out of work and generally showing hatred for the working classes. It is true that many were out of work as a result of de-nationalisation but then they would have been very much out out of work if the country had continued along the path of destruction that Labour was bent on.  Where things went sadly wrong though was when she introduced Poll Tax which Liverpool City Council refused to collect. She may have rescued Britain out of despair but the country paid and still pays a high price for her policies.

Not a wind up.

A couple who live in an apartment at Gran Alacant wrote in to the Coast Rider to enquire what they could do about an apparition they have seen in their flat. This is the reply:

It sounds like you have an attachment to the building in which you live, and in particular it seems to like your property. This attachment could be either a person or an animal - either way an entity which has decided that it is not ready yet to pass over. Often this happens when a life is taken away at short notice, without warning, where the spirit (we are all spirit living on this earth incidentally) has not come to terms with their sudden demise. It is similar to us on this earthly plane. If something comes from out of the blue to shock us then it takes us a day or so to come to terms with exactly what has happened.

For some people, a nasty, expected shock may take years to overcome, even a lifetime. I am wondering if a construction worker had a nasty accident during the building works. If you feel like removing this entity, there are a few things you can do. You can ask a medium to attend the property to cleanse it or if you feel like taking matters into your own hands, you can do the following. Get a sage smudging stick (available in holistic shops, psychic fairs, or purchased on line), hold it over a saucer and light it. Blow the flames out when the fire has 'taken', and blow again on it several times so that it is smouldering.

You need the saucer as whilst it is burning as bits will drop off which will be extremely hot. Now go around the apartment waving this in the air, start at the front door, pay special attention to doorways, window areas, corners, under tables etc - entities like 'hiding' in cluttered corners. Then get some sea salt - that is the easy part being near Alicante and the salt lakes! Also get some fresh garlic. Put a small amount of salt in corners of the rooms as well as in the nooks and crannies. Then pop some of the garlic cloves in the corners, on top of door frames, window frames, on top of the wardrobe, in cupboards etc. Say the Lord's Prayer, which I am sure you know and then go around the property either clapping or ringing a bell loudly. This disturbs the spirit and encourages it to move on. The salt, garlic and sage are all for protection. Now to protect yourself! Get some more of the sea salt, this time a large handful or two. Fill a bath with water and get in it. Salt again is cleansing and removes energies from around your body.

Now, this is the important part. You must submerge your head under the water, so hold your nose and lean back and dunk your entire head! This is particularly important and must be done as if you don't dunk your head, you are breaking the protection link. For any females out there planning on doing this exercise, do not wear a shower cap - you must get your head including your hair soaked with the salty water. Some of you by now may be thinking well what about going for a swim in the sea, surely that will do the trick! But no, you must have the bath in the property where the psychic activity is present. The last thing to do to complete the cleansing is to ask the spirit to leave your property, to go into the light. Then say, I seal this house with love and light. Maybe say another prayer if you wish. To keep the momentum going, playing loud rousing music will lift the energies and lighten the overall mood.

I realise that this couple are 'content' with their energies but I am certain that there are other CoastRider readers who are not quite as comfortable in their homes as they might be, without being able to 'put a finger on it'. The above exercise is a wonderful way to harmonise a property be their entities in it or not!

If this had been posted at the start of the month, I’d say it was an April Fool’s joke but it wasn’t; this is supposedly for real!

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go for my salt water bath and just for precaution I am taking a bunch of garlic in one hand and a bible in the other.

That will come as a blow

During the boom years, there were a lot of buildings erected on the coast that didn’t have proper planning permission. Because they were not regularised, the appropriate taxes were not paid on them. Orihuela council estimates there are between eight and twelve thousand homes that fall into this category.

It seems unfair that owners of houses that were built legally should have paid the taxes and those that were not have been able to avoid them. The tax amounts to about 4% of the value of the property and would bring an extra 2.5 million euros to the city if every one paid.

The council are now working with SUMA to notify owners where they stand and their obligation to make the payments.

Of course the letters will come as a blow to many households who maybe thought they had got away with not paying the tax or were unaware that any such tax existed. They will benefit though because, once legalised, at least they can sell their properties.

As I thought

I’ve seen the photographs of the walkers who took part in the event for Manos Unidos yesterday. They have been posted on the church’s Facebook page.

As I thought, most were much younger than us and were kitted out in designer tracksuits and expensive trainers. They looked well prepared and ready to complete the 7kms in the shortest possible time making it more of a competition than a gentle stroll.

Our neighbour, Aurelio took part. I’m not sure whether he was able to keep up with the best of the walkers but all kudos to him for offering his support to a good cause.

They’ve come a long way

The last time that the Rolling Stones played Hyde Park was on July 6th 1969, two days after the death of the guitarist Brian Jones. Mick Taylor was introduced as the replacement for Jones. That free concert was apparently attended by over 500,000 fans.

This year, the Stones will play again at the same venue as part of the British Summer Time concerts. The difference is that fans have had to pay to see the Stones this time round. Tier one tickets cost £299 and supposedly will give access to an area close to the stage. Tier 2 tickets cost £199 and general admission tickets, £95.

In spite of the prices, the 65,000 tickets sold out within five minutes of being released. The only way to get one now is to go to an unofficial website and pay up to £12,000.

The Stones are also named as headline act at Glastonbury on June 29th but don’t expect to get a ticket for that because they too are sold out. 

The first time I saw the Stones was in a theatre at Bradford in 1964. From the balcony seats we could see the band but did not hear any of the music which was drowned out by the screaming girls at the front. As we came out of the theatre, the Stones walked right past us – sadly we did not have the presence of mind to ask for autographs.

Pamela and I have seen the band three times since then, first at Don Valley, Sheffield and then again at Wembley Stadium and finally at Twickenham Rugby Ground. The acoustics at Don Valley and Wembley were much better than those at Twickenham.

A gentle stroll!

If you are looking for a bit of exercise tomorrow morning and at the same time benefit a great cause then go down to the Plaza de la Constitución for 9:30am.

The walk will be on the flat over 7kms and take about 2 hours to complete.

Participants are asked to donate 3 euros – the first 150 will get a T-shirt and the rest a badge from Manos Unidos.

Now for the route: from the Plaza de la Constitución the route will take the walkers to the Auditorium and across the bridge to “Los Heurtos de Ocio”. From there they will walk to the houses "Los Estacas". They will then follow the “Reguerón"and travel past the sports centre in the direction of Jacarilla. At the first bridge, the route will detour to "El Copo" and from there return towards Bigastro along to the road to "la Pasarela" and finally la Plaza de la Constitución.

There is more than a strong possibility of rain today but tomorrow promises to be bright and sunny with a strong breeze to keep the walkers cool.

Pam and I walked last year in support of the Alzheimer's association in Bigastro and yes the route was flat. However, most of the walkers were young and fit and so we soon got left behind. Pamela’s knees started to trouble her and so we took a short cut at the Sports Centre back into Bigastro. Even still, we were knackered by the time we reached the park. We are more than willing to donate 6 euros to Manos Unidos but will pass on walking this time!!

Bending the rules

What do you do if the local police slap a parking ticket on your car and you happen to be the councillor responsible for Police in your town?

If you are Eduardo Gil Rebollo, councillor in Torrevieja, you change the sign to one that allows parking for up to three hours before 6pm effectively letting yourself off the fine and allowing you to park there again.

Sr Rebollo was one of the councillors who was caught using his council mobile phone to download from porn channels. He has also failed to make agreements with the local police. In all, the opposition parties claim he is a liability to the party he represents and exemplifies all that is wrong in local politics.

The weather

The State Agency website is offline at the moment so no weather for today! I can tell you though that we can expect light rain for much of the day on Friday and that the wind will return on Saturday and again on Monday. Those of you who have put the winter clothes away should remember that it is only April.

No menu del dia

Most people who enjoy good food will have heard of Ferran Adria who ran the kitchen at elBulli restaurant for 27 years. The restaurant held 3 Michelin star status for over 10 of them.

elBulli was only open for a limited period each year and accommodated 8,000 diners who were prepared to eat there for 350 Euros. Even still, the restaurant lost money and so was closed in 2011. The chefs now run the Tickets tapas bar in Barcelona where they still practice “molecular gastronomy”.

Adria is not going away though and so Sotheby’s in Hong Kong have just auctioned an opportunity to dine with him and his brother at a restaurant in Barcelona. The winner bid 220,500 Hong Kong dollars for the opportunity. Those who missed out with their bids will have another chance when a second meal is auctioned in New York.

Here you can see a typical elBulli meal – a succession of mouthfuls of food that you use a spoon, forceps or your fingers to eat.

A fall in unemployment

March saw the first drop in unemployment during this month since 2009. There is still a long way to go; in the region there are still 59,125 registered as being out of work. Most of the jobs came in the services sector with only a handful in construction. Still it is a glimmer of hope.

Mystery solved

Actually two mysteries in one; first, why the street lights on Calle Le Vegan have been out for a week or two and secondly what are the bags of gravel doing by the lampposts.

The reason is because somebody had the bright idea to steal the electricity cable that connects the lights. All they had to do was lift the box by the light at one end of the road and cut the wire there and then lift the box at the other end and pull the cable through. Sadly, they didn’t electrocute themselves in the process. Instead, they got away with a decent length of copper cable that would have been subsequently sold for scrap.

I understand that the cable has now been replaced and this is where the gravel comes in. Once the cable was in place, the boxes were filled with gravel. That means that, if anybody tries to pull the same trick in future, they will have to go to each box and dig out the gravel before they can drag the cable through.

Hopefully now, the lights on that stretch of road will be lit again making it a whole lot safer for people using it.

Don’t tell her I said so

Today is Pam’s birthday and she is now 66 years young. You can send her a message at pamwilliamson@telefonica.net and make her day!!!

A wind up

The clever ones amongst you will have realised that my story about the proposed wind farms in our area was in fact a “wind” up. Yesterday was April Fools day, when newspapers published stories with a ring of truth but which were completely false. It has been a few years since I posted the last April Fool’s story so I thought it was time for another.

Here are some of the other false stories that have appeared yesterday:

Google debuted its latest feature, Treasure Maps, a pirate-style design complete with 2D hand-drawn landmarks and hidden treasure chests.

The map uses a spyglass to zoom in for Street View, with a rounded telescopic frame and old-school filter.

To access, visit Google Maps and click on the 'Treasure' picture icon in the right-hand corner. Instructions for the 'beta technology' warn: "Your system may not be able to display at higher resolutions than paper print."

The Telegraph reports that the government has created a taskforce armed with binoculars, and headed up by a dedicated ‘Lights Tsar’, charged with switching off the country’s lights in a bid to cut Britain’s energy usage ahead of a looming power crunch.

Thousands of employees will be tasked with going door-to-door to businesses and homes to manually switch off unnecessary lights. Staff at the agency will be able to issue penalty notices to repeat offenders and will be kitted out with binoculars and other equipment to allow them to ascertain whether rooms are empty or in use.

The policy was described by energy expert Olaf Priol as a “win-win-win” for the Coalition. A DECC source said: “We are committed to making these lights go out.”

The Guardian has launched ‘augmented reality’ glasses designed to offer wearers immersive liberal insights and filter out bigoted views.

The groundbreaking Guardian Goggles will beam its journalism directly into the wearer's visual field, enabling users to see the world through the Guardian's eyes at all times.

The motion-sensitive spectacles overlay the wearer's view of their surroundings with a real-time stream of specially-curated opinions from the paper's reporters, critics and commentators, letting users call up features such as a ‘Mini-Monbiot’ app.

The spectacles also feature optional built-in anti-bigotry technology, which prevents exposure to non-Guardian opinions by blacking out columns by Melanie Phillips or Richard Littlejohn, among other writers, as soon as the user attempts to look at them.

The Sun says that the Rolling Stones spent the chilly Easter weekend camping out in preparation for their stint at Glastonbury this year.

Sir Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood braved biting winds to slum it in a £70 Blacks tent.

Mick immediately tweeted: “Can’t wait to play Glastonbury. I have my wellies and my yurt.”

BBC Radio 4’s Today programme reported that from April 1, Northern Rail is replacing train numbers with barcodes that trainspotters can photograph and then upload to the web via their smartphones.

The barcodes are specially elongated so that trainspotters can snap them as the train speeds past, and also means they can help inform commuters about whether the trains are running on time.

However, pop impresario and keen trainspotter Pete Waterman is leading the charge against the barcodes, saying: “It’s not the same thing. It’s like email – you can’t beat meeting people.”

The Daily Mail carries the news that experts at an animal sanctuary have trained their owls to deliver the internal mail – just like the birds do at the fictional Hogwarts School in Harry Potter.

Kirkleatham Owl Centre in North Yorkshire introduced the feathered posties after budget cuts forced it to reduce staff numbers, leaving a backlog of mail.

Eight of the centre’s 45 owls have been specially trained since the ‘Roy-owl Mail’ project began last week.

The Mirror has announced it has become the first website to trial Instagram-style filters, letting readers view MirrorOnline’s homepage written backwards or as they would see it if they were drunk.

One of the filters lets you see the Mirror’s content by pretending your modern computer is a cumbersome 1980s processor.

The drunk filter recreates those magic moments on a night out when you've caught the last train home but are struggling to focus on the newspaper you found left on the seat next to you.

YouTube has announced it will be shutting down after eight years and will no longer accept videos, and will be selecting the best video ever uploaded onto the site.

Tom Liston, communications director at YouTube, says in a video: "We are so close to the end. Tonight at midnight, YouTube.com will no longer be accepting entries. After eight amazing years, it's finally time to review everything that has been uploaded to our site and begin the process of selecting a winner."

The video features cameos from YouTube celebrities such as Antoine Dodson, David After Dentist and Charlie and his brother (from the video "Charlie Bit My Finger" video), all talking about their efforts to be named best clip on the website.

Twitter has announced that starting today, it is shifting to a two-tiered system: a basic free service, Twttr, which uses only consonants, and a premium service which also includes vowels for five dollars a month.

The social networking site said on its blog that they’re doing this because by eliminating vowels, it is encouraging a more efficient and “dense” form of communication.

However, users will be able to use the letter ‘y’ for free, with early adopters like comedian Joan Rivers quickly adapting to the vowel-less way of typing.

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson has posted on his blog that his airline will be launching the world’s first glass-bottomed plane.

This technological innovation coincides with the start of Virgin Atlantic Airways’ first ever domestic service to Scotland, enabling Little Red passengers see birds-eye views of the country.

The Times reports the discovery of the writings of Captain Jasper Speedicut, a Victorian officer stationed in India and the near East, which has been hailed by historians yesterday as the greatest such find in 50 years.

Elspeth Morrison, Professor Emeritus of Sexual Relations in British Regimental History (1821-75) at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, said: “They provided an extraordinary insight into the life of a real soldier who somehow, against all plausibility, fought in all the major expeditions of the period.”

Speedicut found himself at the centre of 19th century Britain’s military adventures — not least in his work countering Russian espionage in Central Asia, a campaign referred to as the Great Game. However, historians believed that Speedicut — who was at Rugby School with Flashman — had left no written record of his activities.

Metro has turned the April Fool’s spoofs on its head by doing its own round-up of the best jokes and hoaxes – which is a spoof in itself.

None of the pranks in its round-up actually appeared on the websites it mentions, such as a BBC story about Nasa’s Curiosity rover quitting Twitter after abuse from trolls or Tesco creating a Tesco Value 3D Food Printer.

Metro said: “Too lazy and unimaginative to make up their own April Fools’ jokes, this year Metro simply decided to fake ten entirely fictional pranks other people didn’t do instead."

It continued: “Meanwhile on Twitter, others vented their frustration: ‘I really thought this was the year they’d pretend they were going to start charging for the paper. Trick missed,’ said @KingBants77.”

Agency National News is reporting that legendary RAF pilot Biggles really did exist, according to new research.

On the 95th anniversary of the creation of the Royal Air Force, the RAF Museum has found evidence that the famous literary hero was indeed a real pilot and not a fictional character created by W. E. Johns.

A combat report by Major James Bigglesworth was recently discovered in a collection of W E Johns' manuscripts and typescripts that had been in the Museum's possession since the early 1980s but are only just being catalogued.

Hotels.com has announced that from April 1, its customers will be able to book the Belgian Suite in Buckingham Palace.

Costing upwards of £10,000, the suite has previously welcomed guest including former President Ronald Regan and most recently, President Obama.

Butler service is available on request at an additional cost, while dogs - especially Corgis - are welcome.

My favourite though has to be this story from the Guardian. That and the idea that Twitter could run a two tier system were just priceless.

Lady luck was on our side

Apparently we were lucky with the weather yesterday in Bigastro because the rain stayed off until the end of the resurrection ceremony.

The 27 villages that make up this part of the province all held their own ceremonies some of which had to be moved indoors.

In Torrevieja, where the procession started at 8am, the rain just held off long enough for the ceremony to take place.

The were not quite as lucky in Rafal. The unique procession there started out fine but had to be moved inside for the conclusion.

In Almoradí, the rain stopped play altogether and the whole event had to take place in the church.

That’s a blow

As I have reported, there is a court case underway against the ex-mayor of Bigastro for allowing Eurener to start building a solar farm on protected land at La Pedrera. Now it seems that Iberdrola are looking at the same area and others beyond to develop wind farms.

As those who live here are aware, we have been exposed to an increased amount of wind this winter - apparently today we could face strong gusts again as the area is on yellow alert. This phenomena has not escaped the attention of the electricity companies who are keen to take advantage of the potential to generate electricity. Judging by the strength of the wind this year, we could be talking megawatts of power!

The attempt by Sr Moya and his relation’s company was bodged because they failed to complete the necessary reports and did not wait for permission from Valencia, Iberdrola will not make the same mistake. In fact there are already meetings scheduled to be held in the Auditorium (dates and times to be announced) to outline the plans and to gather public opinion. These will be mostly in Spanish although Iberdrola have promised at least one meeting to be in English because of the number of British residents in the area. An environmental impact study has already been undertaken which showed minimum disturbance will be made by the installations.

Wind farms are not the most attractive feature in the landscape though and their presence may well devalue our houses even further. On the plus side, Iberdrola have promised to subsidise the bills of those living in the area by up to 15% but only for clients on the “Verde” (green electricity) tariff.

Made it!

Having missed the Encuentro last year, I was determined to make it this morning. Of course, the odds were against me because the clocks went forward last night. To add to that, we watched a film until midnight. That meant I effectively got to bed at 1am to be awakened at 6am – five hours sleep!!

It was worth it though to see this very moving ceremony.

You all know the story; Jesus has risen from the dead but his mother Mary is unaware of that fact until she encounters him. Dressed in a black robe for mourning, Mary sets off from the church followed by Jesus who takes a different route. When they meet, Mary’s robe is removed and she is crowned, a confetti bomb goes off, doves are released and in the background there is a mascleta of fireworks. The two then parade back together to the church and are showered with petals on the way.

You can see my pictures from this morning here.

I hope they are wrong

One of the weather sites I visits forecasts a strong possibility of rain tomorrow. I hope that they are wrong and that at least it stays dry for the morning. You see, at 7am, Bigastro will be celebrating the encounter between Mary and Jesus. I missed it last year so this time I will be there. Three people from the town have already reminded me and asked that I should be there to take photos. So, even though the clocks go back tonight, I will be up at 6am ready to take my camera down to the town square.

Those who won’t be up at that ungodly hour will still know when the event has taken place because the sound of the fireworks will rouse even the best of sleepers. When you hear them, think of me down in the town snapping away!

Good Friday in Torrevieja

There are those who will tell you that once you have seen the parades on Good Friday, there is little point in going again. That is not true, each year you see something new that maybe was missed on a previous occasion. The thousands who lined the streets of Torrevieja last night were treated to a wonderful piece of pageantry. 

One thing though that was noticeable this year were the cuts in the number of sweets being handed out which in my opinion is not a bad thing. Handing out sweets may hold the attention of the children watching but it does detract somewhat from the religious message that is supposedly being conveyed.

Having said that, you will find the children handing out sweets and collecting them in my set of photos.

A response from Charles

One of my readers, Charles Smythe responds to my item about the cyber attack.

They say that the Internet is made up of 80% torrents and sex sites; the remaining 20% can be largely queried whereby most of which one reads is just plain nonsense. Your article 'A Possible Explanation' is one such example. It's just not true!
The Internet "War" which has been so prevalent over the past few days on news' sites is purely a distraction from other major stories around the world which have either been under-reported or ignored.
In your report there is scant evidence to suggest that anything actually happened at all. How gullible people really are, dragged into stories which have no basis of truth:
http://gizmodo.com/5992652/that-internet-war-apocalypse-is-a-lie

Thank you Charles for pointing this out.

I am no expert on these matters, I merely reported what I had read for several quality news sources including the Telegraph, the Guardian and the BBC. There is no doubt that the attack took place and was in fact the largest attack of its kind. Several sources agree that this may well be only the first of many attacks on the Internet of this sort to happen in 2013.

However, opinions differ about the problems that these assaults on the Internet cause. Gizmodo seem to think that the issues were insignificant and report data to show how little was affected this time; others tend to disagree. In the end, we are dealing as much with people’s opinions on these matters as we are facts.

Much of what I write on my blog is opinion, based in most cases on truth and that is a fact!

Repairs to La Paz

The infant school La Paz in Bigastro was built 21 years ago and in all that time nobody has noticed that the vents to circulate air under the floor are in fact false. This issue only came to light whilst technicians were investigating problems with the heating. Without these vents, condensation can build up under the floor and weaken it. Luckily, the floor at La Paz is still sound but still needs those ventilation grids to keep it dry.

To add to this, there is also a problem with  the electrical wiring. Teachers say that the electrical panel smokes and sparks come from sockets when you plug anything in to them. The problem is caused by the old wiring which cannot cope with the increasing demand placed on it.

Unfortunately, the 10,000 euros cost of all this work will have to be met by the town council but that does include putting a roof on the pergola to replace the trees that currently provide shade.

A possible explanation

Yesterday, the picture on our Skype call to Molly kept freezing. When we disconnected and started again, the picture would come back but then after a minute or so would freeze again. It was a very frustrating experience!

Today, I have found what might be the reason for our problems in this article from the Guardian. 

Spamhaus, which operates a filtering service used to weed out spam emails, has been under attack since 18 March after adding a Dutch hosting organisation called Cyberbunker to its list of unwelcome internet sites. The service has "made plenty of enemies", said one expert, and the cyber-attack appeared to be retaliation.

A collateral effect of the attack is that internet users accustomed to high-speed connections may have seen those slow down, said James Blessing, a member of the UK Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) council.

"It varies depending on where you are and what site you're trying to get to," he said. "Those who are used to it being really quick will notice." Some people accessing the online streaming site Netflix reported a slowdown.

Spamhaus offers a checking service for companies and organisations, listing internet addresses it thinks generate spam, or which host content linked to spam, such as sites selling pills touted in junk email. Use of the service is optional, but thousands of organisations use it millions of times a day in deciding whether to accept incoming email from the internet.

Cyberbunker offers hosting for any sort of content as long, it says, as it is not child pornography or linked to terrorism. But in mid-March Spamhaus added its internet addresses to its blacklist.

In retaliation, the hosting company and a number of eastern European gangs apparently enlisted hackers who have in turn put together huge "botnets" of computers, and also exploited home and business broadband routers, to try to knock out the Spamhaus system.

"Spamhaus has made plenty of enemies over the years. Spammers aren't always the most lovable of individuals, and Spamhaus has been threatened, sued and [attacked] regularly," noted Matthew Prince of Cloudflare, a hosting company that helped the London business survive the attack by diverting the traffic.

Rather than aiming floods of traffic directly at Spamhaus's servers – a familiar tactic that is easily averted – the hackers exploited the internet's domain name system (DNS) servers, which accept a human-readable address for a website (such as guardian.co.uk) and spit back a machine-readable one (77.91.248.30). The hackers "spoofed" requests for lookups to the DNS servers so they seemed to come from Spamhaus; the servers responded with huge floods of responses, all aimed back at Spamhaus.

Some of those requests will have been coming from UK users without their knowledge, said Blessing. "If somebody has a badly configured broadband modem or router, anybody in the outside world can use it to redirect traffic and attack the target – in this case, Spamhaus."

Many routers in the UK provided by ISPs have settings enabled which let them be controlled remotely for servicing. That, together with so-called "open DNS" systems online which are known to be insecure helped the hackers to create a flood of traffic.

"British modems are certainly being used for this," said Blessing, who said that the London Internet Exchange — which routes traffic in and out of the UK — had been helping to block nuisance traffic aimed at Spamhaus.

The use of the DNS attacks has experts worried. "The No 1 rule of the internet is that it has to work," Dan Kaminsky, a security researcher who pointed out the inherent vulnerabilities of the DNS years ago, told AP.

"You can't stop a DNS flood by shutting down those [DNS] servers because those machines have to be open and public by default. The only way to deal with this problem is to find the people doing it and arrest them."

Is Spain a safe haven for your money?

Events in Cyprus have caused doubts in the minds of those who have substantial deposits in banks elsewhere. For example, if Spain was to request a bailout, would the same conditions be applied meaning that savers would lose money.

Mariano Rajoy, in a joint conference with François Hollande  on Tuesday was at pains to point out that this could not happen in Spain. Both the leaders stated that the 'guarantee of deposits is irrevocable'.

The main difference between Cyprus and other members of the Economic Union is that many of the savers on the island are not from the European Union.

No good news

The Bank of Spain says that the economy will sink deeper into recession this year. The prediction is for the economy to shrink by 1.5% following the contraction last year of 1.4%.

This is a result of dire domestic demand and a weakening external sector. Unemployment is forecast to rise yet again to 27.1%. 

Actually there is some good news for us because Pam is interested in buying herself a car. In the present economic climate, I have no doubt that we will be able to secure a great deal from the garage.

Return of the she- devil

One of the emblematic pieces on display during Holy Week in Orihuela is the Triumph of the Cross, the she-devil carved by Nicholas de Bussy in the late eighteenth century which was presented to the guild of farmers in 1795.

It was looking dull and faded and so has been completely restored by the Valencian Institute for Conservation and Restoration.

The technicians removed layers of paint and varnish, is some parts twelve of them. In doing so they have revealed detail that had been lost for example, drops of blood at the foot of the cross, the glass eyes of the angels and the sundial beneath the skeleton.

First the whole piece was treated to eliminate any woodworm by placing it in a sealed bag and then removing oxygen. In some parts it was necessary to inject resin to consolidate the wood. Then the process of cleaning began. Nails that had been added at the base of the sculpture were removed along with staples that held the shroud to the cross. Cracks were filled and the clouds were restored with a layer of silver. Finally the paintwork was restored in such a way that the original colours have been maintained. 

The piece is now back in Orihuela fully restored.

Top tip

If your car needs an ITV, make your appointment online like I did. Having booked my car, in I joined the cars in line waiting their turn. Within minutes I was called through and had to weave around the parked cars to get to my appointed bay.

Those of you who have visited an ITV centre will know that the longest part of the job is usually waiting your turn. Once you are in the bay, the process takes roughly ten minutes to complete during which time the technician checks the lights, wipers, suspension, brakes, emissions and the condition of the underside of the vehicle. In all it is a thorough list undertaken with speed and efficiency.

By the time I had parked the car and walked to the office, all the paperwork was done and I was handed the test report with the all important windscreen sticker dated 2015. 

Back in court for case number 2

October 28th 2008, the mayor of Bigastro was arrested by the Guardia Civil pending investigation of several cases brought against him. He was imprisoned and subsequently resigned both as mayor and member of the socialist party.

Last September, José Joaquín Moya was sentenced to seven years of ineligibility to hold public office. He, along with the secretary Antonio Saseta, sold off 35,000 sq metres of protected land at La Pedrera in 2005 without the authority of the Consell. Idearco, the company that acquired the land for 2.1 million euros, were intending to build an aparthotel with conference facilities along with a golf course  on the land. 

Yesterday, Moya was back in court for the second trial. This time the prosecution are asking for a 15 month prison sentence along with a further disqualification of 9 years.

The case against Moya relates to the granting of a licence to his cousin’s company (Eurener) to build a solar farm at La Pedrera in 2006. There should have been a report of community interest and a report of environmental impact completed before hand but in fact neither was completed. Bulldozers arrived to clear the ground and 7,000 sq metres of naturalised land  was destroyed before Seprona (the nature conservation service of the Guardia Civil) intervened.

In reply to questioning in court about this issue, Moya replied “I do not know”, “I agree”, “If I signed…”. He claimed be unaware of any law that prevented him from granting a license and if he had known it was wrong, then he would not have signed the agreement.

When questioned by the prosecution, Moya refused to answer but instead left his lawyer to speak for him. The defence seems to rest on the belief that municipalities have the autonomy to make these  sort of decisions. This may be a grey area but then Moya, who had many years in office, would have known that without the permission of Valencia, the work should not have been allowed to commence as it did. 

Is there no end to it?

We are sick of this wind now – enough I say – be gone!

We get a few days of respite and then the wind returns to blow strong again. As you can see from this graph, the gusts yesterday were quite strong, not as bad as we have experienced but still not good.

It did calm down last night as you can see but has picked up again this morning. It is forecast to calm later but then return on the following days peaking next Saturday.

Of course, sods law, the wind is coming from the west which means it is blowing from Orihuela straight at the open back to our garden.

Top marks to Amazon

Having watched many of Jamie Oliver’s 15 minute meals on Viajar, Pam decided that we should try out his method of preparation and cooking. That meant getting a food processor and liquidiser to speed things up. We therefore ordered one from Amazon UK with free super saver delivery and awaited its arrival.

Items ordered at the same time arrived last Thursday and Friday so we were wondering where this item might be.

Amazon use MRW for super saver delivery which is good because their local office is in Almaradi just down the road. They tend to bring parcels out by about 10am which does not disrupt the day and if, for some reason we have to collect the items, it is not far to go.

According to my account, the package had been handed over to the carrier and according to MRW they were waiting for it to arrive – a bit of a mystery. That was solved yesterday when I got an email to say that the processor had been returned to Amazon and that I would be refunded the total price paid. I contacted Amazon via their web site and they  phoned me. It seems the package was damaged in transit and was therefore never going to arrive.

Top marks go to Amazon for not sending out faulty goods and for providing a timely refund. I shall now have to reorder.

Finding money out of thin air

Bigastro owes the company Pavasal 284,000 euros for work done in the town. The debt dates back to 2008 when the socialists were in power. Last year the company won their court case to recover the money along with interest and legal costs which brought the debt to 376,834 euros and now they want to be paid.

The mayor, Charo Bañuls , says she has no idea how they can make such a payment given that the council has little or no money. This item will be discussed at today’s council meeting along with final approval of the plan for Sector D-6 and of course the state of the town’s finances.

Domingo de Ramas

This morning started out dull and cloudy, not the weather that was needed for Palm Sunday. Just as the parade was arriving at the park though, the sun broke through to warm the mass of people gathered there.

As you might expect, children were in their Sunday best clothes and carried palm decorations, some of which had been adorned with flowers and ribbons to match their clothing.

Sr. Aurelio Ferrándiz García, parish priest in Bigastro, blesses the palms in park and then leads the parade to the gates.

Caught snacking

Our neighbour Eladia enjoying an afternoon snack with her friends at Café & Garden, Maraná which you will recall is the new venture that our ex teacher Ana and her sister Marisu have developed at their parent’s house on the road to Hurchillo from Orihuela.

As you can see from my pictures, there is an elegant bar inside where you can enjoy a drink, a dessert or a warming bowl of soup. There is a children’s play area and spacious gardens with tables set out. There are also casetas in the garden with elegant seating for various size groups. Each one is slightly different but they all share the same sound system for background music.

Opening a bar in Spain is a risky business because there is no shortage of them already. You need to create something different and that is what Ana and her sister have done. First off it is exclusive, there are only a few houses nearby so most of the clients drive there. Secondly, it is an elegant place to visit with your friends. The thing that makes it really different though is the spacious garden with its casetas where you can shelter from the weather and of course, the children’s play area – perfect for families.

I was sorry that the weather was overcast, not the best of lighting. Still there will be other days!

Opening hours are: Thursday 3pm until it closes. Friday and Saturday 3pm until midnight and Sundays 3pm until it closes.

 

 

 

Everything is running out in Britain

Britain is used to having shortages of just about everything you can imagine. It only takes an article in one of the scare mongering papers to trigger a run on items such as petrol, milk, sugar etc etc.

The country is used to being short of water. One drier than usual winter and hose pipe bans are put in place with a threat of stand pipes in the street if people don’t cut down. Almost as soon as they issue these bans, it pours with rain and half the country is on flood alert.

The latest scare is that gas will run out. The Daily Mail reports that Britain has only 36 hours of gas in reserve at a time when the country is covered with snow and is facing another cold snap. North sea gas is dwindling and the storage capacity in Britain is said to be woefully inadequate. 

To add to that misery, there is also a possibility that the country will not be able to meet the demand for electricity in future years. Power stations that do not meet strict EU guidelines are being closed and are not being replaced in the near future.

Most Brits recognise that, of all the newspapers, the Daily Mail is the one to relish doom and gloom. They were one of the papers who told us of secret plans to send ships and planes  to rescue British ex-pats in Spain when the economic crisis started to bite.

I don’t understand why anyone would do this

The National Police were called out to the cemetery at nearby Hurchillo when a neighbour discovered that a niche next to the one he was visiting had been desecrated.

Most of the people in Hurchillo have a key to the graveyard including the man who visited. Apparently the lock was intact so there were no signs of a forced entry. It  is assumed that the perpetrator must have climbed over a fence at the back of the cemetery where he would have been out of sight of the road.

The police found that several niches had been vandalised and one of the headstones had been completely destroyed. In one niche the casket had been left hanging – it was too high and too heavy to remove. In the other case though, the casket had rotted away and there were human remains scattered around including the skull and several bones.

Quite what the motive would be for someone to do this beggars belief.  

Time for a reality check

You hardly need to be told that Spaniards are passionate about football and that the country hosts some of the top players in the world. However, football in Spain comes at a huge cost to the country. Clubs in the top two divisions have bank debts of 3.5bn euros. The tax debt to the government by these clubs alone comes to 692m euros.

At a time when major cuts have been made to public services, it is so wrong that football clubs have been allowed to get away with this situation.

The only clubs that are not in danger are apparently, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao. Twenty two of the  other clubs are in insolvency proceedings including some famous names like Deportivo who have a tax debt of 96m euros.

It is not just the central government that is to blame for this mess, regional governments like the one in Valencia have given preferential loans to clubs and then turned a blind eye when the loans have not been repaid. Local savings banks have also given preferential loans to clubs which have not been repaid.

What is the possible outcome of all this?

Now that the issue has been brought before the European Parliament, it is not going away. If action is taken, then it is likely that some of the clubs will have to close and others will be forced to sell off their star players. As a result, the quality of football in Spain will plummet.

Naturally, the government would not want any of this to happen because it would provoke riots in the streets far worse than any demonstrations seen so far. The questions have been raised but so far the answers are not forthcoming.

In my opinion, the issue behind all this are the ridiculous transfer fees and the untenable salaries paid to secure top players. And the problem is not just confined to Spain, PSV Eindhoven along with other clubs in Holland apparently benefit from 10m euros of public money and no doubt clubs in France and Italy also benefit from favourable treatment.

Maybe it is time for football throughout Europe to take a reality check. It may be “the beautiful game” but why should we all be forced to pay such a high subsidy for it? Winning the World Cup was a great achievement but was it worth 692m euros?

A gang of thugs

This group of four were pictured by the Daily Mail at the funeral of Bruce Reynolds, the so called brains behind the £2.6m, Great Train Robbery in 1963.

 

Some of the mourners were known associates of the Kray bothers, others were family of Reynolds and members of the gang that committed the crime.  I suspect that most were involved in crime of some sort and had served time.

Even the notorious Ronnie Biggs was there- at 83 frail, and tied to a wheelchair.

One thing is for sure, you would not want to meet any of these on a dark night!

Such a waste

Most fishermen know that the anchovies which are abundant in the sea around Torrevieja will not reach the legal size until about mid April but that has not stopped some from going out to catch them. Landing  undersized fish damages fish stocks and in any case, the price for these fish is much lower than will be achieved when the fish are of the right size.

The Protection Service of the Civil Guard (Semprona) closed the auction of 700 boxes of anchovies in the Port of Torrrevieja because over ten percent of them were under the minimum size limit. The fish will now go to Caritas.

Discarding fish that have no commercial value is a highly controversial issue. It is estimated that up to 25% of fish caught by trawl nets from Santa Pola are discarded for this reason. Fish stocks throughout the world are fragile and need to be closely monitored otherwise there will come a day when they are not longer there.

Spick and span

Visitors to the centre of Orihuela can’t help but notice all the work that has been going on for days. There have been improvements of all kinds; changing of lights, building ramps for the disabled, removing old fences, cleaning up graffiti, repairing roads and cobbles etc etc. The City Council is making an effort  to prepare for Easter knowing that the city will receive thousands of tourists and visitors.

Some would say that this sort of work should go on all year and not just for Easter but then Semana Santa is such an important event for the city. Possibly the only time when the city attracts so many people. Hopefully, the results of the labours will last long after the last paso has been packed safely away until next year.

Think big

Spain might be undergoing the worst recession imaginable and there may be millions out of work but it hasn’t stopped the government applying to host the 2020 Olympic Games. The President, Mariano Rajoy must feel confident that the country will be out of the mire by then and will be able to afford the huge expense involved.

The International Olympic Commission began its four-day evaluation visit to the Spanish capital on Monday. Early in the morning the commission held a private meeting with the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, at which the conservative People's party leader expressed the government's full support for the bid.

I imagine that things will come to halt today though because not only is it a national fiesta day (el Dia del Padres) but also this morning the new Pope will be inaugurated at the Vatican. 

A new phase

I sense that the Bigastro town band are entering a new phase. When we first heard them play, eight years ago, they were good, very good. Since then though, the band have made a lot of progress. Although I am not a musician and probably not qualified to pass a professional judgement, I feel that they play with more passion these days.

The other notable change is that they are playing more pieces involving soloists. Last night we had three; José Antonio Pérez Lorente, Susi Gálvez Mesples and Pablo Grau Murcia. There were other smaller solo parts played during the performance.

As an encore, Francisco Grau conducted the band whilst they played his latest composition, a pasadoble. And finally, the band paid tribute to Joaquín Perales, their main patron. 

It was a thoroughly enjoyable concert and one that we were glad not to miss.

http://jalbum.net/a/1324542

Six hours in the saddle

Today, the world’s top cyclists will battle it out to win the first of this year’s spring classics, the Milan – San Remo. At 298 kms, the race takes an average of 6 hours to complete. Normally, this is a day for the sprinters. Later on there will be the  Gent-Wevelgem on  Sunday, 24 March, theTour of Flanders on Sunday, 31 March, Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, 7 April, the Amstel Gold on Sunday, 14 April, La Fleche Wallone on Wednesday, 17 April and finally, the oldest and toughest of the classics, Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday 21 April.

Many cyclists use these races as preparation for the three big tours so they are a good barometer to measure their form.

I thought the envelopes were brown

You know, I’m no fan of graffiti and this piece of “art” is on someone’s door.

The owner of the house has already complained to the police about it because he finds it offensive. Personally, I can see the humour in the statement which refers to the scandal about PP members receiving money from a “slush fund”. Nether the less, I can understand the outrage of the local councillor.

The original accusations were made by the newspaper El Pais against the national party including the prime minister. This comment appeared on the door of a local politician in Rojales. The national party have already taken out an injunction against the newspaper.

It’s a social event

Just to remind you that this is the second weekend for the “tapas and cana” route. With 25 bars in the town participating, there should be plenty of choice about where you go to enjoy a small beer and a snack. 

The turn of the Junior Band

Following the concert for “socios” this weekend, the Junior Band of Bigastro will be playing their concert for spring on Sunday March 24th at 6:30 pm, at the Municipal Auditorium.

Any way the wind blows

You can see from this graph just how the wind picked up yesterday from being calm and then dropped again only to return with equal force. It has quietened down again and hopefully will not be as strong today. 

It looks like, once more, we are caught between a cyclone and an anticyclone.

The new Pope

After just five ballots, on the second day, it seems that the conclave of cardinals made their choice for a new pope. The first Jesuit and the first from South America where 42% of the word's Catholics live he will be known as Pope Francis 1.

Hopefully the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio will prove to be a good choice but I can’t help but wonder if he is the right one because, at 76, he is not young, neither is he in good health having only one lung, the other was removed when he was a teenager due to infection.

This weekend

Don’t miss the concert on Sunday at 6:30pm. It is the one on the calendar that honours the members of the Musical Union and promises a number of new works that the band have not performed before.

Give us a break

We got back from our trip to Manchester on Monday night. It was so nice to leave the Arctic conditions and return to warmth. Yesterday, Pam started to wash my clothes and left them out to dry as we headed back to the airport to retrieve her case which had been left behind in Manchester. 

A it started to rain, we hoped that Bigastro would stay dry but that was in vain. At least the rain seemed to be clean and not full of dust as it had been whilst we were away.

This morning it started cloudy but dry. The forecast was for no rain - just strong winds and colder than last week. The wind has picked up and is drying the clothes that were left out all night but then we have just a squally shower! Well at least my clothes should be clean.

Do you photograph your food?

When you go out for a special meal, are you tempted to photograph those plates of food that have been lovingly prepared by an expert chef? If you do, then the memory of that culinary treat will last long after your taste buds have been cleansed.

Unfortunately some restaurants will not allow you to take photos for whatever reason. In fussy establishments, in New York for example, they ban photography at the table.

In Alicante things are different though. There, the Grupo Gourmet are even running a course to teach people how to get the best shots of their food. The course is aimed at beginners and starts with the advice to make sure your camera lens is clean. The next piece of advice is to use only natural light. Flash at close distance produces some horrible shadows and disturbs other people in the restaurant. If the light isn’t quite right, you are advised to use something like a shiny menu card to direct it or even your iPad to cast even light on the food. Finally avoid using zoom; instead move yourself closer to the food.

Once you have your photos, you can then process them using free software to create different effects. Instagram is a popular way to add old fashioned effects. However, there are other pieces of software like Google’s Snapseed or Big Lens for Android which mimics the out of focus backgrounds that you get with larger format DSLRs. Personally, I’d rather leave my photos as they are and maybe just tweak the colour to get rid of that tungsten orange colour. Brightening up a few highlights and a touch of sharpening and the job is done for me.  

If you have shot each course of the meal, then PicFrame will allow you to put them together into a collage to post online or send to friends.

Good to be back

Whilst we will miss being with our family, we won’t miss the British weather that we left behind. During our eleven days we saw a mixture of sunshine, showers and snow. Temperatures ranged from mild to bitterly cold.

We did have a wonderful time though and loved staying at Laura and Dave’s house where we could wake up each morning to be greeted by Molly with a beaming smile. The only real blot on the landscape was when we waited for Pam’s case on the carousel at Alicante only to be told that it had been left at Manchester. It will be flown out this morning for us to pick up, hopefully in one piece!

So, back to business. I will scour the local press to find out what has been going on here whilst Pam and I were away.

Told off by a 3 year old

The four days of birthday celebrations are over and we are all (including Molly) recovering. The lovely sunny weather that greeted us on arrival has now given way to something more normal for Manchester at this time of year. Still, with a Molly in the house, things are hardly dull.

I made the mistake of playing with one of her toys the other day without permission and was told off. Molly took the star she'd given me back and told me to take "time out". I wonder where she learnt that from!

Out of town

As some will already know, Pam and I are in Manchester for Molly's birthday. Busy times with family business mean that I won't be publishing much before our return early next week. I apologise to regular readers.

The storm has passed

The rain storm yesterday caused chaos in some parts of the province with schools closing and roads blocked. The fishing fleets were mostly tied up for the day and the ferry to Algeria was delayed for six hours. Alicante airport operated as normal with some short delays. 

The most significant feature though was the sight of tornados off the shore at Benidorm. None of them touched land though so no damage was caused.