So much we don’t know

Every year we learn something new about our town.

We’d attended concerts in honour of Santa Cecilia for a few years now and thoroughly enjoyed them. We’d also learnt that Santa Cecilia was the patron saint of musicians and thus understood why she was important to the members of the band.

What we didn’t realise was that a special parade takes place before the concert to transfer the effigy of the saint from the Auditorium to the church ready for mass on Sunday.

Once she is safely in the church, the band then tours the streets of the town collecting the young musicians who will be joining them as they go.

Pamela and I didn’t follow the parade all the way around the town but we did catch it on its way from the Auditorium to the church.  You can see my pictures here.

We can expect even bleaker times to come

This is from today’s Telegraph newspaper:

A report by the European Commission predicted that Spain would fall short of meeting its target to reduce its deficit to six per cent of its gross domestic product by the end of year. Instead, it is likely only to reach 6.6 per cent, down from a level of 9.2 per cent in 2010.

“Further corrective action would be required to reach the deficit target this year,” the commission said in a report published yesterday. The forecast came amid fears of contagion from the problems afflicting Italy and Greece. Spain’s borrowing costs had soared on Wednesday but dropped back slightly yesterday with the interest on its 10-year bonds falling from 5.96 per cent to 5.83 per cent.

It means the conservative Popular Party (PP), which polls predict will win a resounding victory at the general election later this month, ousting the seven-year government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, will be under greater pressure to deliver austerity measures.

Mariano Rajoy, who is poised to take over as prime minister, faces having to push through the even more stringent and unpopular reforms that are deemed necessary for Spain to avoid seeking any kind of international rescue.

He will inherit a stagnant economy crippled by the highest unemployment rate in the eurozone — at almost 22 per cent Spain has close to five million jobless. “The new government must act quickly on reforms,” warned Prof Xavier Vives, of IESE Business School in Madrid, yesterday. “But, so far, the PP have not said they have a reforming agenda.”

A hot topic in the town

The opposition spokesman for Bigastro, the socialist Raúl Valerio Medina, has made a press statement about the current management of the School for Adult Education in the town.

According to Medina, the process of choosing teachers for EPA has become “a dedo”. He said that this year, it was done without regard to merit criteria and adds that even the Councillor for Education, Aurelio Murcia, will  be teaching English and Valenciano.

You know that underlies a view that Pamela and I came across several times in our professionals lives which was that “anyone can teach as long as they have some knowledge of the subject”. That is patently not true, good teaching requires so much more than just an understanding of the subject matter.

I came across many good teachers during my 34 years in the classroom along with a few bad ones, they all had adequate subject knowledge. What made the difference was the ability of the good teachers to create an environment in which their pupils both wanted to and were able to learn. That is not a skill that someone off the street can simply acquire by stepping into a classroom.

Our previous teacher, Ana Moya Gomez was good, very good in fact-  she had the skills necessary to create an effective learning environment; our present teacher has yet to prove his worth in that respect. 

The spokesman for the opposition concluded by saying that the mayor, Charo Bañuls, wants "to have an illiterate population that can not answer anything." That is a harsh comment to make which characterises the strong feelings that are being held by the previous teachers who have described the present set up as “pseudo academia”. They say that EPA in Bigastro used to be held in high esteem because of the results that it achieved. Their fear is that standards under the new regime will fall dramatically. Unfortunately, they could well be right. 

Santa Cecilia

In common with many towns in Spain, Bigastro will be paying homage to the patron saint of musicians this weekend.

On Friday at 7:30 pm the statue of Santa Cecilia will be taken from the church to the Auditorium. Then on Saturday, there will be a concert to honour her in the Auditorium Francisco Grau at 8pm. This is a very popular event so it is best to be there early to grab yourself a seat.

On Sunday at midday, solemn mass will be given to honour the saint followed by a floral offering  and a parade around the streets of the town at 1pm to return Santa Cecilia from the Auditorium back to the church.

PS I will be  at all three with my camera of course.

Fun for the children in November

Those of you who have visited the main park in Bigastro this week will have seen the fairground being set up.

The fair will be open on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and the eve of public holidays throughout November.

And on Sunday 20th November if you pay for one ride, you will get another one free. 

Spain is noisy and that is official!

According to the World Health Organisation, Spain ranks second behind Japan as the noisiest country in the world – no surprise there then.

Exposure to excessive noise can cause numerous health problems ranging from insomnia, headaches, stress, hypertension, fatigue to an increased cardiovascular risk . The greatest danger though is to our hearing.

Now, a study conducted by Gaes, the firm of experts on issues related to hearing, shows that 45% of the inhabitants of Orihuela have trouble sleeping because of noise. I imagine that Saturday nights are worst for them and anytime during the Moors and Christian fiesta.

We are lucky because it is generally quiet where we live but imagine living in one of those flats in the centre of town especially during fiestas. With a disco playing outside at full volume until the early hours of the morning, it must be impossible to get a good night’s sleep.

The greatest source of noise is the people. Put a few Spaniards together and pretty soon the level of conversation will rise up to levels that can be heard from some distance, as they all talk at the same time. And give them something to celebrate; the fireworks come out followed by the loud disco music. Even in their cars, young Spaniards will turn the stereo up so loud that you can hear it from well outside. 

Hopes are pinned on a change

In just under two weeks, Spaniards will be voting for the government to preside over them for the next term. As ex-pats, we do not have the right to vote so we cannot be blamed for influencing the result.

According to most sources, It is almost a foregone conclusion that Marioano Rajoy’s conservative party will take control.  In 2004, his party were defeated because people believed that the centre-right government of José María Aznar had lied in its response to the Madrid bombings, blaming them on the Basque separatist group Eta and not on al-Qaida. Many are convinced that allowed José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and his socialist party to win the election.

In 2004 times were good, Spain was pouring half of all the concrete used in Europe to satisfy what Spaniards thought was a never ending market for new houses. Any politician was going to look good in those circumstances, it is only when times are tough that they need to show their mettle.

I fear that those who are pinning their hopes on a change of government bringing about a speedy return to good fortunes may well be disappointed. The Americans, who thought that Barack Obama was going to bring a return to good times in the USA, are now siding against him. Things may turn out to be much the same for Marioano Rajoy who has already lost two elections to the Socialists. I hope I am proved wrong, I really do.

Well worth the trip

The fair held at IFA near to Alicante airport in previous years was just a showcase for British companies selling goods to ex-pats. The first year we went it was interesting but then with successive years there was less to see and far fewer people there.

This year they renamed the event the ‘International Lifestyle & Expo Fiesta’ and so we thought we’d go along. There were very few stalls selling British products this time, instead there were stalls selling food and products from Spain and South America. Along with the selling though were displays of costumes for Moors and Christian parades along with associated items like shoes. A large part of the hall was taken up by the Ayuntamiento de Villena.

At the back of the hall was an area set out for performances by various groups along with a timetable of when they would take place. We managed to catch the flamenco dancing display which had a Moors and Christian theme to it.

You can see my photos from the day here.

PS The British stall that seemed to attract most attention was Mister Magic -interesting!

PPS There was a stall advertising fireworks made in Elche including those fabulous  confetti bombs you see at weddings and other celebrations. I’d love to take one of those over for my daughter’s wedding next year but unfortunately it would not be allowed on the plane - even in our hold luggage!

We really don’t like it

Because our house is on a hill and is open at the back, we are susceptible to the wind when it blows from the west.

In the past, we have lost fencing (both real and plastic cane) and had a table flying over the car. We therefore take precautions before winter approaches; sunbeds are folded and stacked, the table that replaced the one which flew is moved to the porch along with the chairs,  loose items are put away and I cover the ventilators in the back door with pieces of foam rubber to stop the wind howling through them.

The main change we have made this year has been to replace the green netting with sheets of powder coated, perforated steel set on sturdy posts. We might have wanted something a little less transparent but knowing how strong the wind can be, it would have been foolish. The design we chose allows the wind to pass through. Anything that offered more resistance could well have pulled the wall down.

Yesterday was very windy, getting worse as the day went on - we can expect another day of strong winds today and then it should calm down as we move into next week. 

Where is it?

One readers says, “I didn't even know that there was a pool in Bigastro. Where is it, exactly?”

It is in the Sports Centre which is alongside the road from Bigastro to Molins. Take the Vereda de Molins  which is the road by the florists shop on the bypass (CV-95). Just before you come to the bridge over the canal you will find the Sports Centre on the left. 

You can’t please all of the people, all of the time

In relation to the comments about the privatisation of the indoor swimming pool in Bigastro, the spokesperson for the socialists, Raúl Valerio Medina, reminds us that his party drafted a specification for this very idea back in 2008. At that time, the PP, who were in opposition, rejected the proposal.

In Medina’s view, the socialists faced problems, complaints and met with the people to work out solutions to problems whereas the present government team simply make decisions, leave the people uninformed and postpone meetings with them.

The way I see it, the socialists got the town into a financial mess which the new council are trying to sort out. However, every decision that the new council takes to cut expenditure is being challenged, not by the opposition but by petitions made by the people. This is a new tactic that we haven’t really seen before in the town.

We can liken Bigastro to Greece where the people clearly do not relish the measures that have to be taken to secure the next tranche of bailout money. The alternatives to firm fiscal control in both Greece and Bgastro are much the same.  At some point the people of the town will have to accept that is the reality of the situation.

We have to ask ourselves which is worse, having the swimming baths closed during the winter or the local infant school without a proper electricity supply for months on end?

The picture I was after

This picture, published in the newspaper Informacion, is exactly what I wanted for my Project 365 today. It shows low lying clouds shrouding the bottom of the mountains behind Orihuela.

Unfortunately, it was raining quite heavily at the time and I was not overly keen to test out the waterproofing on my DSLR camera.

When Pam and I returned from our weekly shopping, the rain had cleared but then so had the low lying cloud.

PS If I mention the phrase, “hay niebla”, one of my readers will understand why I was keen to take this picture. 

Is a heated pool an essential or a luxury?

When times are hard, the first cuts you make have to be in what are regarded as  non essential services. However, as I have said before, nobody wants to suffer cuts in any area that effects them.

A petition with 1,703 signatures has been passed to the council in Bigastro. The issue of concern now is the proposed privatisation of the heated swimming pool at the sports centre. On average, only 105 people pay to use the pool each month: If that number increased to between 200 and 250, then the pool would pay for itself but that is unlikely. Aurelio Murcia claims that the petition they have received  is politically motivated, driven by the PSOE in an attempt to discredit the new council.

The facts speak for themselves, keeping the pool open is costing the council 2,500 Euros per month added to which there is still a debt of 700,000 Euros to be paid for its construction along with the cost of three years supply of water.  It is also a fact that the previous socialist council closed the pool during the winter months and nobody complained.

The main cost of keeping the pool open in winter is for diesel used to heat the water which last year cost 9,000 Euros. However, some of that diesel was used to generate electricity following the supply cut by Iberdrola. Now that the electricity supply has been restored and the solar panels on the roof have been repaired, the cost may be a lot lower.

Interestingly, 80% of the users of the sports centre are from outside the town taking advantage of the subsidised cost of running the facility.

Horses for courses

One of my readers, Bill says of Ryanair, “None of this makes any difference to me - I haven't flown Ryanair for some years and won't ever again unless there is no viable alternative. Being a Scot I like to "save a bawbee or two" as much as anyone, but life is far too short to subject myself to that company's charms ever again.”

I have to confess that we have never flown Ryanair so it would be unfair of me to comment. I do know many who have and seem be have been satisfied with the level of service they recieved.  I have flown with EasyJet who operate the same sort of bun fight for seats and I didn’t much care for that.

Pam and I fly Jet2.com by preference. We prefer the hours of their flights to and from Manchester and we appreciate the 22kg luggage allowance. When we can’t find a Jet2.com flight, we usually plump for Monarch whose luggage allowance is a little less at 20kgs.

In the end it is “horses for courses”. As Bill says, if you want the cheapest possible flight then Ryanair are probably the ones to go with. 

First impressions

Last night we attended the first Spanish lesson with our new teacher, Antonio. It turns out that he is a retired teacher and so has years of experience in handling classes. Last night though he was very much at a disadvantage because he had no idea at what level we had already studied the language and of course, most of us have known each other for some time. 

Sensibly,  Antonio started by getting us to write our names on a piece of paper in front of us; that way, he could get to know us. Of course there are some names that do not lend themselves easily to Spanish translation for example the “ei” in my name comes out as a short “e” rather than the longer “ee” sound which is correct.  So I am to be known as Keth - no pasa nada – over the last seven years I have got used to that.

Antonio then moved on to find out what we knew of the basics and just how good was our pronunciation of certain letters, in particular he seems keen that we should stress the “s” at the end of words like “dos” and the “r” at the start of words like “reloj”. It is hard for us to roll the letter r - particularly at the start of words – somehow our tongues get in knots when we try it. We should persevere though because then we will start to sound more Spanish.

Originally, we were going to have three one hour sessions per week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. That has now changed to two, two hour sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting at 6pm. Antonio did say that we may want to change the starting time to 5:30pm – we shall see.

A great deal of credit must go to Antonio for volunteering. Taking over a mostly established class to teach them your language is no mean task. It will require patience on both Antonio’s part and on ours to find the right level and the most appropriate approach to enable us to progress. I am sure we will get there and in no time we will all become great friends embarking on the journey of learning together.

A credible job

I notice that there are now pictures on the Bigastro web site of the gala held for ADIS in the Auditorium on Friday, 28th October.

Sensibly, the photographer has not used flash which would have disturbed the performance and at the same time lost the atmosphere of the occasion. It is also good to see that the pictures have been properly colour corrected for the tungsten light.

Judging by the results, the photographer has found that, in the low light of the Auditorium, their camera has set the fastest ISO speed available which has led to a a degree of digital noise. At the same time, their camera has had to set a slow shutter speed which has produced motion blur. Although image stabilisation will reduce the effects of camera shake, it cannot compensate for subject movement.

As cameras improve, so their ability to take usable pictures in low light improves but there is still a long way to go. King of the hill at present is the Nikon D3s which apparently can produce usable images at ISO 12,800 thanks in part to its full frame sensor with just 12 megapixels but that costs £3,350 for the body alone.  Mind you that is cheap compared with the suggested price of Canon’s announced rival, the IDx, which is rumoured to start at over £5,000.

I have managed to get some decent shots in the dim light with my Canon 5D MkII (also rated well for low light capability) but then I also have quite a lot of failures as well. Shooting in low light is always a compromise; you really need a very fast lens (one with a wide aperture i.e. a low f number) and a camera that will work well in low light ( less megapixels and a larger sensor helps here). Then, you can set a shutter speed that will stop motion. Of course, using your lens at its widest aperture reduces depth of field and does not get the best from the optics so there is a temptation to stop down which is what I normally do. As you can imagine, that makes the problem worse (stopping a lens down means you need to use a slower shutter speed or a higher ISO value)

Whoever took the photos the photos of the gala may  be a little disappointed with the results but I reckon they have done a decent job and captured the sprit of the occasion well.

Cat wars

I read this morning about the war that is going on between cat owners and other residents at Complejo Terrace, Los Balcones. The owners are concerned that there have been several attacks on cats. In some cases the animals have been beaten close to death and in others they have been poisoned.

The problem seems to mainly centre around a feral cat which has taken to living in the area and has already had several litters of kittens. The issue is about the amount of cat faeces that have been found in public spaces especially the area surrounding the pool.

Unlike dogs, which can be easily kept on your property, cats are not easily put off by fences and gates and will roam wherever they please. They will also use whatever area they choose as their toilet - especially feral cats that have not been trained from birth to use a cat litter tray. Pam and I have plenty of evidence of this in our garden and especially on our roof terrace from the feral cat that our neighbours looked after.

Owners of cats must accept that, the rest of us do not appreciate the smell and the mess that their pets create – it is foul to say the least. Not only that but it is unhygienic. The fact that there is a huge market for cat deterrents shows the extent of the issue and the bad feeling that non owners have towards these animals and the mess they create.

Pam and I would never stoop so low as to hurt  a cat or any other animal come to that. Whilst we are sorry that our neighbours have now left, we are pleased that we will no longer be plagued by the mess that their feral cat left in our garden. Neither will we be sorry to see and end to  the dead rabbits and birds that she brought to us.

Whilst I fully understand the distress that cat owners feel in Complejo Terrace, I can also appreciate the strong feelings of the people who want rid of the problems they cause.

Impasse with Ryanair

Ryanair’s Chief Executive Michael O’Leary followed up on the threats he made earlier in the year and reduced the number of flights that his airline schedules from El Altet airport at Alicante. He said last week that a total of 31 routes were to be cancelled and nine of the eleven aircraft that the company based at Alicante would be withdrawn.

The decision was implemented at the end of last week. The cancellations follow a long and protracted dispute with AENA, the management company of El Altet, over the use of air bridges to load and unload passengers. AENA wanted to enforce their use at extra cost and Ryanair wanted to continue using their existing methods which are to have the passengers walk across the tarmac. The decision by AENA was tested in the courts and they eventually agreed to carry out tests to check whether it was possible and safe to use the existing Ryanair method. The results of the tests showed that it would be possible from a few of the aircraft positions but not during the peak season in the summer because of safety considerations. The decision was again upheld by the courts when challenged once more and Ryanair said they would have no option but to reduce the number of flights they operated from EL Altet.

AENA now say that there are six selected positions at the new terminal which can be used for loading and unloading passengers by foot during the low season of November to April provided they are free at the time of an aircraft landing. They also reiterated that the real reduction in Ryanair traffic through the airport is 30 per cent compared to last year and the airline’s normal reduction of flights in the winter season.

And that should have been an end to it but following their meeting with the Minister for infrastructure and the associations of hoteliers, AENA started to backtrack on their previous decision and came out with what was called a compromise by offering Ryanair the option of embarking and disembarking passengers on foot for half of their flights starting on Wednesday 2^nd November and running until May next year when it would be reviewed. Ryanair were quick to respond with spokesman Daniel de Carvalho saying, “Ryanair will not backtrack on their flight cuts in Alicante unless all Ryanair flights are authorized to use the loading and unloading procedures on foot, as it has done every day in most other Spanish airports and more than 160 European airports, where Ryanair operates.” He went on to point out a fairly obvious flaw with AENA’s latest position by questioning how all of a sudden it can be safe to offer 50 percent of their flights this facility when before it was not.

Molly does Halloween

	This is our granddaughter Molly in her outfit for Halloween. I don’t think she went out “trick or treating” but she did get to go to a Halloween disco followed by a party at the nursery she attends. I may be a little biased here but I think she looks really cute in that costume.

All saints day

We are not talking about the singing group comprised of Melanie Blatt, Shaznay Lewis, and sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton. No, this is a religious festival - a day when, traditionally, Spaniards will visit the cemetery to remember departed relatives and friends.

The two days are distinctly different.

All Saints' Day is in honour of all the saints, known and unknown. It commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven.

The next day, All Souls' Day, specifically commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been purified and reached heaven.

It is well worth visiting the cemetery tomorrow just to see the beautiful flowers that people have taken to adorn the niches and the small chapels where families are buried.