All done

Pamela comes back today. I will be picking her up from the airport at approximately 1:25.

I'm pleased to say that I managed to get all the jobs I had planned to do done. The garden walls are all snowy white again, the pool is clean for the Winter, the garden is tidy, the furniture on the roof is all sanded and re-oiled, the washing is done and the house is clean and tidy.

It won't take Pam long though to find something that I haven't done. Last time she was in England I spent two days dusting and polishing everywhere. Within ten minutes of her return she found the one shelf that I had missed! My excuse was I had to leave her something to do.

In any case I was doing all my own jobs and her jobs as well. If I went to England would I come back to find the pool cleaned or the bougainvillea tied back to the fence?

Update: Pam's flight has been delayed and won't arrive at Alicante until 15:20 (approx.)

Ahead of the game

It looks like Bigastro was already anticipating problems with water supplies back in July and posted these notices on their web site. Of course building more and more flats and houses doesn't help!

More teccy suff

Yesterday I got the opportunity to complete the re-installation of Windows on my laptop. My Dell Latitude is five years old and has never been reformatted. So Windows was crawling, startup was so slow you could have made and drunk several cups of coffee before the thing was ready for work. It was time for a complete clean out.

Re-installing Windows itself was a pain. It took me three installs to get it working properly . The video driver seemed to be the main root of the problem. Finally I was able to get a new driver from the Dell site which sorted that out. For the satellite connection to work with sites like Microsoft Update you have to set the MTU value of your network card to 1135 (the default is 1500). Fortunately a program called Dr TCP allowed me to do that.

So yesterday I was ready to update Windows. It took all day to download and install all the 80 plus updates for Windows but I finally got there. My reward is a fully restored laptop which starts up like a tiger.

Bloody hell

I got this email today.

Hi, Daniel

Very seldom people are happy being lonely, so I decided to take my chance and send you a letter. Once I've seen your ad in the internet, but couldn't have the temerity of sending you my note, especially without your interest in me……
But still you were in my mind... And now I am sending my letter to you.
I can say that I am quite happy with my life, but I am missing my one and only special man. Loneliness is what I want to get rid of. If you are looking for a smiling face, sparkling eyes and heart full of love, write me to
http://beonlylove.com/mydearfriend

See you!

Karolina

Well Karolina sorry but
a) my children call me Wilf, friends at my old school called me Willo, my Spanish teacher calls me Quique and my real name is Keith. Nobody has ever called me Daniel.
b) my wife comes home on Tuesday and she is enough for me to cope with!
c) a smiling face etc. sounds nice but what I am really looking for is a quiet life.

So please excuse my temerity; I've put your message on my blog in case someone reads it who is called Daniel and wants to take advantage of your generous offer.

PS Be warned she might just have an infection or two to pass on to you so visit her at your own peril.

Doh

I wondered why I had so many vists from the same person in Spain to my blog until I realised that my blog counter was now counting my own visits. The fact that this person was using the same browser, operating system and screen resolution as me was a strong clue. The fact that he was using the Blogger dashboard as a referring link was an even better clue!

The change of satellite provider has meant we now have a new IP address. The counter was of course blocking the old IP address. I've sorted that now so that my visits are not counted.

Update: Well I thought I'd sorted it but then our IP address changed. It looks like the Wi-Surf router is using a dynamic IP address to connect our network to the Internet. I just can't keep up with this!!

Check out our pictures

There are quite a few new pictures in Our Spanish Album. Click on this link or the one in the sidebar to view the album. Click on the thumbnails in the album to get a larger picture.

The continuing problem

Some consumers are reporting that they are experiencing cuts in their water supply already. However, the main administrative move has been the decision of the water management body, La Mancomunidad de los Canales de Taibilla, to warn town halls that cuts could be necessary and that they should make arrangements soon to be able to introduce them. The Mancomunidad is responsible for supplies for some 2.5 million people in Murcia and Alicante and it has now introduced a drought order in view of the situation in the rivers Segura, Júcar and Tajo.

All the town halls of Murcia region, about half of those in the Alicante area and two in Albacete, have been warned that interruptions in supply may be needed. However, the Spanish cabinet is meeting today to decide whether to approve an emergency transfer of water. Recent rains in Spain, although not in the south east, have led to a small increase in water stocks and the environment minister, Cristina Narbona, says she recognises the seriousness of the situation facing Murcia and Alicante. That is why the emergency move has been proposed.

The government currently sees desalination plants as the solution to the water supply problems of Murcia, Alicante and other coastal areas. A second unit at the desalination plant at San Pedro del Pinatar is being brought on stream this week and will soon be pumping water into the distribution pipes. This unit and the existing unit will each provide 24 hectómetres of pure water each year, which is enough to supply just under half a million people.

The argument that desalination will be the solution hasn't impressed local consumers and politicians at all. Desalination requires large amounts of energy for the plants to work and currently that means energy from oil. There is talk of renewable resources, such as wind power and solar energy, contributing but for the foreseeable future the main fuel is going to be oil-fired electricity. As the price of oil goes up so will the price of desalinated water, critics say. It has even been claimed that the cost of the energy to replace current supplies from transfers with desalinated water would equal the entire existing energy bill of the region of Murcia each year. Environmentalists don't like desalination either, saying that the brine discharged into the sea after treatment harms marine life.

Taken from an article in the Round Town News

El buho, el sol y la luna

Following the story about the mouse looking at the moon, our teacher brought us a script for a children's play about an owl, the sun and the moon. For some reason there is a cricket playing a violin, a wolf howling, a courting couple and a poet writing poems in the play as well.

The moon hatches a plan to take over the job of the sun in the daytime as well as at night. The owl doesn't think it is a good idea but the moon confronts the sun with the plan and the sun agrees. This is OK for the courting couple, the poet and the nocturnal animals but the children are cold and the plants are not growing. In protest the cricket decides not to play his violin. Even the courting couple decide that enough is enough. So it is down to the owl to convince the moon that the plan is not working. By this time though the sun is fast asleep and needs a bit of a shake to get him going. It does all work out in the end though and the sun returns to light the sky in the daytime.

The moral of the story is "cada cual debe estar orgulloso de ser como es y no ansiar lo de los demas". Everyone should be proud of what they are and not long to be someone else.

Fascinating stuff! I just wonder how long it will be before we can progress to adult stories though.

Casa Eloína

Rachel and David are setting off back for England today so last night we went out for a typical Spanish tapas meal in Bigastro.

Casa Eloína is not the easiest of places to eat tapas at because there is no menu and no display of tapas on the bar itself. You just have to ask for what you'd like and hope that they can make it. In fact because we have been in there a few times the girl seems to know what we want anyway.

So plenty of food washed down with a bottle of the house red followed by coffees cost us 28€ for the three of us. Not bad for an evening out!

Sometimes the bull wins

For those of you who thought that the bull always comes off worse just check this video.

Bully bull

PS No animals were hurt during the making of this video

Auditorio Municipal

Our new theatre/concert hall is now open for business and will be inaugurated this Friday.

It is named after Francisco Grau Vegara who has been the Director of the Banda de Musica de la Guardia Real since 1998.

Francisco Grau was born in Bigastro and started playing music at the age of 7 in the local band. He has written over 700 pieces of music including the National Hymm of Spain and is the holder of many military and civil honours. The building is a fine tribute to this famous Bigastrense.

Francisco Grau Vegara

Early tests

The good news is that the internet connection is stable so far. The bad news is that the speed of the connection is a lot less than that which we had before. I've tested it using the same sites that I used with the previous connection and tried it several times at different times of the day. On the basis of that, the telephone certainly would not work.

SPEED TEST

Ah well we will have to wait and see. For the same monthly fee I could potentially have a 4Mb connection using ADSL. Sorry Mr Wi-Surf but we originally signed up for 2Mbs not something approaching 512Kbs.

Of course there is still the issue of distance from the exchange as illustrated in this graph. There is not much point switching to ADSL using the phone line if we are too far from the exchange.

Feria de Otono Sunday 22nd October

Last year’s Autumn Fair was very good. This year it was even better with more stalls, more entertainment and more people. Apart from the fair itself, a lot of the shops were open – on a Sunday!

The Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) had set up a stage at the entrance to Calle Purisma especially for the fair where they put on street entertainment including this flamenco dancing class. The entrance archway to the fair was built on Friday and will be knocked down on Monday. As you can see there was a wide variety of goods on sale including food stuff, clothing, cooking pots and jewellery. The herbs in the bags are cures for every conceivable ailment.

Both nights the Ayuntamiento put on concerts in the new theatre including a special tribute to Mozart by a Valencian orchestra.

All the entertainment was of course free.

Hispanamerican day (14th October)

The local free paper told us that the 12^th October was the day that Torrevieja celebrated links with Spanish speaking American countries. This year the event was to take place at the Eras de Sal and would include dancing and singing along with food drink and crafts from South American countries. So we went down to Torrevieja only to find that it was in fact the 14^th when the event would take place.

So we went back to the Eras de Sal on Saturday. There were a few stalls selling crafts, food and drink but not many. The setup inside though was something else. The event was being televised for broadcast in the Hispanamerican countries so the back wall, as you can see, showed the profusion of sponsors. There was also some very serious sound and lighting equipment.

We stayed until about 7:30pm when the place was becoming crowded. Spaniards, fresh from their siesta were arriving in their hordes all dressed up in their best clothes ready for a night of partying. The acts taking part came from the full range of Spanish speaking countries including Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Columbia and Peru. The dancing in particular was quite spectacular and well worth seeing. One slightly confusing item on the programme was Joe Black’s Brass Band from England. Maybe they meet to rehearse at a Mexican restaurant!

A good night's kip

I don’t understand it. When Pamela is here I sleep well most nights. I maybe get up once to have a drink or go to the toilet but that is it. When she is not here I can wake up two, three or more times. Sometimes I can get back to sleep almost straight away but other times I lie awake for what seems like ages. In the morning the bed is an absolute mess. Even the mattress has moved over to my side and I feel like a wreck until mid morning.

I’ve tried going to bed a bit later, I’ve tried having an extra brandy but neither has any effect. Maybe it’s because I am missing Pamela and worrying about how she is but she would never believe that!

They're back

When we came over in November ’04 to complete on our house we stayed in a hotel in Guadamar and met Rachel and David. Just by coincidence they were completing on their house at Villas Andrea as well. So with such a good point of contact we made friends.

Rachel and David are not residents but do come out for several weeks at a time. Normally Rachel will email me to let me know that they are coming but with the Internet down that hasn’t been possible. Anyway we met up with them at the market and they came round to sample my paella the following Saturday. We had a great time catching up on news and events.

We ate outside in the warmth and chatted until it went dark. I knew then that we should either come inside or I should spray myself with repellent. Although Pamela had brought out the citronella candles to keep the mossies away, I still have a dozen bites on my arms and ankles which prove they don’t work. The mossies, like Rachel and David, haven’t been about for awhile but they are obviously back now. I was bitten the week before so I should have known better but there you go.

PS none of the others were bitten. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me feel!

Super bugs

We get a lot of weird insects in the garden. Some of these pests eat the leaves on the palm trees and the hibiscus and are therefore most unwelcome. Others seem to be less harmful.

This little fellow was new to me though. I was painting the top of the wall and noticed him sitting on the new paint. He was struggling to move which wasn’t surprising given that the paint had hardly dried. Does anybody know what he is?

The benefits of living in the town

Of course we love our location on the hill up to the Pedrera. It gives us good views; the plot is big enough for a pool and a garden and it very quiet up here.

A lot of Spanish people though seem to prefer living in apartments and houses in the towns. You can see why when you go down in the evenings to Bigastro. During the daytime Bigastro is very quiet except Mondays and market days. From 2 o clock until 5 during siesta it is deserted but then each night at about 7 it becomes a thriving community of folk. The children play out in the park, the teenagers meet each other in the streets, the parents go out for walks and the grandparents sit outside their houses watching the world go by. The shops are open and the bars are busy. By nine o clock Bigastro becomes quiet again as the people return to their apartments and houses to eat.

The Spanish, like the French and the Italians, love to paseo. Our Spanish teacher can’t understand why we Brits up the hill don’t. She can’t understand why we disappear into our houses during the evenings. Of course our eating habits are different. Spaniards tend to have their main meal at lunchtime whilst we have ours at night. So when they are out socialising we are tucking into our main meal for the day. Mainly though we are not used to going for walks at night. For most of the year in England it is too damn cold to go out in a T-shirt and shorts. I mean who wants to go out for a walk in the cold and the rain?

Maybe in time we will adapt and the park at the bottom of our estate will become a meeting place where we will sit and chat. Somehow I doubt it.

Rolling your “r”s can be difficult in tight pants

In our Spanish class we read passages from a book intended for young children. The first story was about a mouse looking out of his bedroom window at the moon and the stars. The second was about King Midas and the “midas touch”. It was embarrassing that I couldn’t even pronounce some of the words let alone understand what they meant.

We then went on to extend the story about the mouse and say what he did next. Pamela had the advantage there because of her primary teaching background. She explained (in very good Spanish) that the mouse thought there was a man in the moon (el hombre de la luna). She told us that the mouse thought the man was eating the moon because it was made of cheese (la luna está hacer de queso) which made the moon smaller (mas pequeña).Very impressive stuff I can tell you. My best effort was that the mouse closed the curtains and went to sleep.

Anyone who has tried Michel Thomas’ CDs to learn Spanish would be led to believe that you only need to understand about 600 words to read most newspapers. I can assure you Mr Thomas, you’d need a more extensive vocabulary to read that children’s book.

New license

Well I am nearly there with my Spanish driving license. I had a letter from Traffico telling me to go to Alicante to trade in my English license for a Spanish one. What I actually got though, after a three hour wait, was a temporary license. Apparently my plastic card license will come in the post within two months. In the meantime I can use the temporary one in Spain as long as I carry valid ID with me. So nearly there but not quite.

Just as well that Pam didn’t get her letter because she could not have used a temporary license in the UK when she visits there next week. Her letter will hopefully come whilst she is in the UK. We can then go back to Alicante for another three hour wait!

Still we had a good day out, did a bit of shopping in El Corte Ingles and had a nice lunch in Alicante at a “buffet libre”.