Will the lesson be learnt?

There are some who have a strange fascination for guns and weaponry, my brother was one of them. As a child, he liked nothing better than a toy gun or a knife to play with. For all I know, he probably still does. 

When we lived in Canada, Brian was fascinated by the gun my father was forced to carry as a policeman on the docks in Vancouver. I’m sure, if my father hadn’t locked it away carefully each night, my brother would have sought it out to play with loaded or otherwise.

As for me, I have never been drawn to firearms or indeed other weapons in any way. Sure, as a kid, I played cowboys and Indians but it was not my favourite game. When I asked for a high quality pocket knife one birthday, my wife and children were shocked. I keep that knife safe in a drawer and only use it when I need to – to me it is an essential tool just like a pair of pliers or a screwdriver rather than an object of fascination.

Americans have always had a love of guns. Many own a collection of firearms which they claim are either purely for defence or for hunting. It is almost like, everyone else has them so I must. The man who shot down 20 children and six adults at a school in Newtown had access to no less than three of his mother’s guns including automatic pistols.

If this was the first tragedy involving firearms in America, it might be considered unusual but the fact is there have been several. Access to guns and licences to own them in most states are easy which means that there will always be the potential for further instances of this sort of horror to hit our newspapers.

Yesterday, at a memorial service, President Obama hinted that he will take steps to prevent any further mass shootings which we take to mean that he will revue the laws regarding firearms. The problem is that the National Rifle Association is a powerful lobbying group and they will be vehemently opposed to any change in the law that would prevent Americans from owing guns. However, by upholding citizens rights to freedom of choice in these matters, the gun lobbying groups must accept the stain of blood on their hands from this tragedy and any further ones that are to come.   

The plan

This is the plan for Bigastro during the Festive Season.
Not to be missed: the live Nativity play on the 23rd, the Christmas Concert on the 29th and of course the Three Kings on the 5th January.

Other ways

Apart from putting up with a huge dish on your roof and worrying whether it will still work in six months time, there are other ways to get British TV in Spain.

1. Europa networks offer ADSL packages which include 20 channels of British TV and radio to your computer and/or to a set top box if you wish. I’m investigating this option at the moment to see if it would work for us.

The important things to find out for me are; a) whether Europa complete the transfer from Telefonica (I don’t want to end up paying twice for the same thing), b) how reliable they are in the long term and c) whether I could still use my existing router which cost me a fair bit and gives excellent wifi coverage throughout the house (I don’t want to rely on some cheap give-away router that doesn’t do the job).

2. BBC iPlayer is available on the iPad. Although this is not the same as iPlayer in Britain in that you have to pay for it and it doesn’t have all the programme coverage of the UK version, it works well. Obviously, if you don’t have an iPad this is a no-no!

3. You can use BBC iPlayer and other internet TV services in the UK by subscribing to a Virtual Private Network or a proxy service. These work by directing your internet connection via a server which has a UK internet protocol address. In the case of a proxy it is your browser that is connected to the virtual IP address; a VPN directs all of your traffic through a local server.

Although there are free VPN services, they all seem to push adverts at you and can slow down your connection. A paid for service should be more reliable and will come without adverts. With either though you may find that access to secure websites like your bank account will not work. In those cases, you would have to disconnect from the VPN and use your normal connection. Even your email won’t work through the VPN server if you use an email client rather than web based email services. 

If anyone has experience of Europa networks, good or bad, I would be pleased to hear their comments.

How long will it last?

Although we are more than happy with the Canal+ satellite TV system, Pam and I did consider adding a second dish to our roof for British Freeview television. Reading some of the adverts in local papers, it seemed that we could have a dish and box installed for about 399 euros. For that price it would be worth it for the odd program we’d want to watch.

However, when I investigated further, that was for a 1.4m dish which would not be guaranteed to pick up all of the programs all of the time and an even smaller 1m dishes would only work until the channels were moved to another satellite with a tighter beam. It seems that this area is in a black spot for British TV (just look at this map) and you still need a 1.9m or even a 2.4m dish to get a reliable signal. I’m sorry but there is no way that we are prepared to have one of those monsters on our roof or in the garden. 

Some expats, desperate for British TV, have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep in touch with their favourite programs by moving from re-transmitted analogue microwave to digital microwave and various other permutations in-between. Most seem to have given up with the illegal rebroadcasts now and have plumped for a satellite dish to either pick up free-to-air or are using a Sky card registered to a UK address to get a Sky satellite package.

The bottom line is that, although it is not illegal to receive British TV here in Spain, the broadcasters don’t really want you to pick it up. The footprints for the satellites that broadcast free-to-air and Sky are meant to cover just the UK and the Channel Islands. Those who live close enough to Britain can obviously still pick up a good signal and because of the patterns of the broadcasts, some that live far away can get a decent signal -it all depends on the particular satellite used to broadcast the signal.

The TV satellites are all 36000 km above the equator in a geo-synchronous orbit (the stay above the same spot on Earth). You obviously cannot pick up satellites that are below the horizon. The satellites in your field of view will generally be about plus or minus 60 degrees of longitude from where you are. However, even if the satellite is in view, the tighter its beam, the less likely you are to pick up a strong enough signal without resorting to larger and larger dishes ( you can go up to 3m and beyond). The main satellite for UK TV is Astra 2D which as a very tight footprint, other programs are broadcast on south and north beams which cover a wider area. From what I understand, most systems installed in this area use both north and south beams to get coverage.  

The current situation is that, as from this week, those who live in the area from the north of Almeria down to southern Spain and Portugal can no longer pick up free-to-air channels. No doubt there are techno wizards working out a solution to get the signal back but it will inevitably involve extra cost for all those desperate for their weekly dose of Coronation Street.

Guilty of dual standards

Statistics from last year’s census show that people from mixed race backgrounds were among the fastest growing groups in Britain. It is an issue that many assume will undermine the whole nature of Britain. Talk is that, in time, Britain will no longer be a Christian country as the Muslim population takes over. 

This has led to the notion among some of the so called natives that all immigrants to Britain should abandon their cultural heritage altogether and adopt a ‘British’ culture. The opposite view is that people from different races should be allowed to live their separate lives and get on with things in their own way. Neither viewpoint is reality and neither will produce a properly integrated community in which people can coexist in peace and harmony.

The crux of the problem, as identified by the Labour party is language.  Immigrants with little or no command of English are clearly disadvantaged in every way. They stand little chance of becoming fully integrated into their new country. Ed Milliband, the Labour leader, says that he would seek to address this issue if his party were returned to government. 

Imagine if the same principles were to be applied here in Spain. How many British people on the Costa Blanca are there without even a basic understanding of Spanish? How many of our countrymen and women are there that live in glorious isolation from anything Spanish?

We talk of the issues of integration in Britain and complain about those Johnny foreigners who do not fall into line with our views and yet we fail to see that we are equally guilty of creating the same problems living here in Spain. We create our own ‘Bradfords’ i.e. communities and even towns where only foreigners live and we cannot see any wrong in doing so. We live our lives oblivious of the language and culture of Spain and expect to be tolerated. I can’t help but feel that some of us are guilty of dual standards.

Christmas Market in Bigastro

Bigastro City Council have organized a Christmas market on Calle Purisima for the 14th, 15th and 16th December.

21st century Pope

Can I say first of all that I don’t have a Twitter account. It takes me all my time to keep up with this blog let alone send messages to anyone who cares to read them via tweets.

The Pope, on the other hand does have a Twitter account - @pontifex for those of you who may be interested. In fact he has eight accounts in a variety of languages but the message is the same on all of them.

His first tweet was sent out on the 12th December at about 10:30am. His second tweet came half an hour later. In future though, his tweets will apparently be written by others.

"Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart."

Sorry Pope but I won’t be tweeting back nor will I be following your future messages. I am sure they will be appreciated by most who read them though. Just ignore the loonies who send abuse.

The race is on

There will be a 10km race for those who are fit enough on Sunday 16th December starting and finishing at the Auditorium Francisco Grau. You are advised not to park your car on the streets where the race is taking place and that moving your car to and from those streets will not be permitted.

Helping others

The Department of Social Welfare in Bigastro along with the Association La Pedrera  are operating a Food & Toys collection for this Christmas.

Dress your house up for Christmas and win a prize

Decorate the outside of your house or balcony with lights, reindeer, Santa on a sleigh or whatever you can find and you could be in to win a prize.

Your decorations should be up from the 14th December until the 7th January.

PRIZES: 150 euros, 100 euros and 755 euros redeemable against purchases in local shops up to the 31st January.

The crunch may be coming

Fourteen thousand health cards belonging to EU and non-resident foreigners have been withdrawn in Torrevieja. These are for people who neither contribute to the Social Security system in Spain nor have proof that their status in the country has been regularised. In order to get their SIP cards back, these people will have to prove that they have residency status in Spain and that they are not entitled to health care in another EU country.

The measure is designed to prevent what is described as health care tourism whereby people play the system by deciding which country they wish to be treated in. Basically, when you leave one country  and register for healthcare in Spain, you should give up your rights to treatment in the country you left. You can’t expect to be able to access full treatment in both countries.

If this has happened in Torrevieja, then it is bound to happen in Orihuela Costa and possibly in Bigastro. Apparently , what you need is a) proof that you have residency here in Spain and b) proof that you have given up your rights to health care in the country you left.

Que frio

Yesterday was a cold start to the day as I stood outside the Premier Inn in Altrincham for my first pipe of the day. It did warm up a little as the sun broke through but not by much. Looks like it is set to get even colder in Manchester today with a top temperature of 0 and a low of –3 but then get a little warmer as the week rolls on.

As for us, we arrived back at El Altet about 20 minutes behind schedule and then waited a further 20 minutes for our cases to arrive. So, already later than expected, we set off back to Bigastro and home. We normally go to to the airport on the motorway and come back on the coast road. Last night, for the first time ever, I missed the turning to Santa Pola and carried on the N-332 towards Alicante - so we had a bit of a detour.

Finally, we arrived home to find that the central heating boiler was running. That has only happened once before on our return from trips to the UK and is a sign that the freeze protection on the thermostat had kicked in to prevent the system and the pipework in the house from freezing up. In fact I’d noticed that the freeze warning on my car was showing a temperature of 4 degrees (I didn’t even know I had a freeze warning on my car) so it was cold last night.

This morning, the freeze protection on the central heating had kicked in again and the radiators in the house were warm when I got up. It will probably take most of today to warm the house with hopefully some sunshine through the windows.

An update

Those of you who didn't know, will have probably guessed by now that we are on vacation. This time we are in Sale near Manchester visiting our daughter, her husband and our granddaughter.

We left a blustery Alicante airport where locals were dressed for the cold to arrive in Manchester where some expected it to be mild. It wasn't, in fact it was bitter. The following day it rained (well we were near to Manchester) but since then we have seen quite a lot of sunshine.

What throws us though is how it starts to get dark at 3:30 and by 4pm it is nighttime. A couple of days we thought it was 6pm only to find it was only 4pm.

When we arrived at Manchester, we expected to have to phone Dave and ask him to pick us up. He and Molly had been tracking our flight and so he was there ready for us at arrivals with Molly. That was a wonderful surprise.

So what have we been up to? Well quite a lot of shopping both for ourselves and for others. We've also posted all our Christmas cards for the UK and sent parcels to those on our list. Oh yes, and we went to see Santa in his grotto.

Although we prefer the warmth of Spain, it has to be said that there is more of a Christmas spirit about here in Manchester and the chilly weather seems to suit the idea of Santa, reindeer and the North Pole where they live.

As for what is being going on in Bigastro, I have no idea. With so much to do during our visit, I've had little time to keep up with news at home. I will have to catch up on our return.

Media frenzy

The announcement of a new royal baby has set the papers alight with stories including those that normally prefer to keep matters concerning royalty low key.

Ardent fans of the royals are delighted by the news and will mop up the titbits of gossip thrown at them. Others will be less interested and will moan at the constant stream of information about a child they care little about.

Speculation about a possible pregnancy started when the Duchess of Cambridge changed her hairstyle. Many were quick to point out that women often do this sort of thing when they are anticipating a life changing event and the Duke added fuel to this speculation when he gladly accepted the gift of a baby grow on one of their recent walkabouts.

Now the story is out and we all know that a royal baby is due sometime in September.

The laws of succession have been changed which means that, whatever sex the baby is, it will be third in line to the throne behind Charles and William. But what if the Duchess is expecting twins? In that case, the first of the twins to be born would take precedence. But then what if the birth is by caesarean section? In that case, it is up to the obstetrician to decide which baby is delivered first. But will he want to take that responsibility? That begs the question of who would take responsibility for making the choice. Would it be William, who’s expected,  like most modern fathers, to be present at the birth? Or, would the royal family revert to the odd practices where a government minister had to be present at the accouchement to act as an observer and ensure everything was above board?

I think we can anticipate a lot more on this story and many more in the coming months with a string of experts putting forward their views on every aspect of the royal pregnancy. By the time the due date comes, even the most ardent fan of the royals will be tired of all this. That is, until the first photos of the child hit the press, then we can expect a cacophony of cooing and awing to take over because I can guarantee, that this baby (or babies) will be the most beautiful ever born, not just to the family but to the whole nation.

Let’s just hope (unlike in the case of Harry to Charles), it bears a passing resemblance to William!

Mercado de Abastos

We were talking in class yesterday about how people like to live in the centre of a town so that they have easy access to a variety of shops. They want to be able to buy all they need within walking distance of their house.

I suggested that the market on Thursday in Bigastro is popular for this reason. Within the length of Calle Purisima, you can buy all the fruit and vegetables you require, pick up a pair of shoes, stock up on cleaning materials for our house, collect a ready roast chicken for dinner and a whole lot more.

At that point, our teacher Antonio asked if we had visited the indoor market at Callosa de Segura.  Pamela and I visited Callosa once with our Spanish class a few years ago but we didn’t take the opportunity on that trip to visit the market. Our impressions of the town from that brief visit were favourable and we have said that we should return. In comparison with Bigastro, Callosa is more attractive.

Antonio went on to tell us that the Mercado de Abastos in Callosa has no equal in this area. He said that the produce on sale is of the best quality, very fresh and well priced. He was particularly impressed by the range of fish, seafoods, meat and vegetables on offer and advised us to go there.

Unlike the weekly street market in Bigastro, the newly renovated Mercado de Abastos is a permanent market, open each day including the 6th December when most shops will be closed. 

Getting all fired up

No, this is not another rant about wood smoke! I’ve said my piece on that matter already this morning in the next item down.

One of the issues that people back in Britain are getting fired up about is the avoidance of tax by large corporations. The main targets seem to be Starbucks, Google and Amazon who are said to have robbed Britain of £32billion worth of tax according to the Daily Mail. I’ve no doubt they have done something similar in Spain and indeed in every country where they operate.

It seems though that football clubs in Britain also got in on the act. The article in the Mail goes on to say that English Premier league clubs had only paid £2.4m in tax on £150m in profits. The five top clubs that were cited include Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Fulham who between them, made £70m in profits but paid no tax at all and their excuse was that they made losses in previous years.

The government says that, although these tax dodges are legal, they could be considered immoral. In my opinion, the fault lies not with the companies but with the loopholes in the system that allow them to happen. I’m sure we’d all pay 2% in tax if we could find a way of doing it.

It’s that time of year again

Remember when you were young and every house had coal fires? On a cold winter’s morning you could smell the smoke from those fires as you left the house and you could see the evidence of all that pollution on the blackened stonework of buildings.

In the days of the industrial revolution, there were parts of Britain where the smoke was so thick from factory chimneys that people didn’t see the sun for weeks and of course their health was badly affected.

Those were the bad old days!

Here, in Bigastro there is no coal but there is a lot of wood and so that is what folks burn on their fires. Wood is cheap and plentiful and so it is a logical choice to use it to warm your house but it isn’t necessarily a good one.

Some facts to consider

Although wood smoke conjures up fond memories of sitting by a cosy fire, it is important to know that the components of wood smoke and cigarette smoke are quite similar, and that many components of both are carcinogenic. Wood smoke contains fine particulate matter, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, sulphur dioxide and various irritant gases such as nitrogen oxides that can scar the lungs. Wood smoke also contains chemicals known or suspected to be carcinogens, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and dioxin.

The effects

• Wood smoke interferes with normal lung development in infants and children. It also increases children’s risk of lower respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia.
• Wood smoke exposure can depress the immune system and damage the layer of cells in the lungs that protect and cleanse the airways.
• According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), toxic air pollutants are components of wood smoke. Wood smoke can cause coughs, headaches, eye, and throat irritation in otherwise healthy people.
• For vulnerable populations, such as people with asthma, chronic respiratory disease and those with cardiovascular disease, wood smoke is particularly harmful— even short exposures can prove dangerous.
• The particles of wood smoke are extremely small and therefore are not filtered out by the nose or the upper respiratory system. Instead, these small particles end up deep in the lungs where they remain for months, causing structural damage and chemical changes. Wood smoke’s carcinogenic chemicals adhere to these tiny particles, which enter deep into the lungs.
• Recent studies show that fine particles that go deep into the lungs increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. EPA warns that for people with heart disease, short- term exposures have been linked to heart attacks and arrhythmias. If you have heart disease, these tiny particles may cause you to experience chest pain, palpitations, shortness of breath, and fatigue.

Exposure Issues

• The particulate matter in wood smoke is so small that windows and doors cannot keep it out—even the newer energy-efficient weather-tight homes cannot keep out wood smoke.
• The EPA estimates that a single fireplace operating for an hour and burning 10 pounds of wood will generate 4,300 times more PAHs than 30 cigarettes. PAHs are carcinogenic.

Of course, if it is the only means to heat your house then there is no choice. However, before you strike the match to light that cosy fire ask yourself, “do I really want to scar children’s lungs, do I really want to damage healthy people and put those who have already have respiratory or heart problems at risk?”

Response from one of my followers

Yes I agree with your comments / the last few years have seen the increase in Guardamar of wood burning during the winter months. A short walk around at night can leave those with a weak chest coughing and wheezing.
We now avoid visiting Spain in the depths of winter partly for this reason.

Looks like the ex mayor of Torrevieja could be going down

The High Court of Justice of the Community has condemned the former mayor of Torrevieja and the PP regional deputy, Pedro Angel Hernandez Mateo, to three years in prison and seven years of ineligibility to serve in office for his part in the awarding of municipal garbage collection services in 2004 to Necso (Acciona). The resolution also condemns him to pay a fine of 10,500 euros and indemnify the City with another 12,000. The PP in Torrevieja say that the former mayor will appeal the sentence

It seems that Sr Mateo ignored advice from his own people and went with that of three legal advisers, one of which had connections with the company that won the contract. He then railroaded the decision through the council at a meeting of the Tenders Committee by adding two councillors who he knew would vote favourably. And, for the first time in his 15 years as mayor, he spoke up at the meeting to avoid having to use his casting vote.

I seem to remember that there was previous controversy surrounding the former mayor when he made a fortune out of land that he bought at rural prices and then sold a few years later once it had been approved for urban development.

Is it any wonder that people question whether there are any honest politicians in this country!

PS For the benefit of my Spanish readers, “going down” is an English expression which means sent to prison (as in going down to the cells which were traditionally situated beneath the courts). It also has other connotations which we won’t go into here!

Other English expressions that refer to the same thing include; “spending time at Her Majesty’s pleasure”, “banged up” and “doing porridge” although “banged up” can also mean a lady is pregnant.

Before we accuse Spaniards of having odd expressions, we should first of all consider our own language. 

Oh dear

The Councillor for Sports in Bigastro, Antonio Joaquín Sáez, has been accused of being lazy and inept by the Socialist spokesman, Raúl Valerio Medina.

The council passed an ordinance at the meeting on Wednesday requiring people to pay to use the sports facilities in the town. Valerio says that the document submitted had been “cut and pasted” from a document used in Orihuela and as such only applied to larger towns than Bigastro. He went on to say that the document referred to organisations that do not exist.

Looks like Sr  Sáez may have to go back to the drawing board on this one.

On thin ice

La Zenia Boulevard is gearing itself up for the festive season with an ice rink of 300 square metres. There is also a huge icicle curtain in the Plaza Major and two giant 14 metre trees to help get you into the Christmas spirit.

To tempt you to part with more of your cash, a number of new shops will be opening soon: a pet store, DEKAN, a new young fashion store, ED HARDY, SALVADOR ARTESANOS and PWETER for shoes, a children’s shoe shop, SAXO KIDS, for leather goods and accessories, PRIMICHI and to add to the eating places, SUN RICES.