and still they try

I've just received this:

Greetings in the name of the lord, Am dave amata, 21 years, male, london in united kingdom.I write to seek for a mutual assistance from you.Well to make you less curious ,I saw your contact in an email directory,So i felt like contacting you if you could be a beneficiary to my late father,So that you could help me claim his assets and funds worth 15 millions of pounds in a company in london,United Kingdom. Being a share holder,he had many valuable assets.I would have claimed the properties my self,but due to my age and my condition being a deaf person,the board of directors told me, am too young to claim the properties.Except a family member of mine who is above 25 years could claim the property.Being an illegitimate child,I never knew any member of my family,So it has been hard for me to cope because am an half cast. When the transaction is completed,I will compensate you with 30% of the funds.My brethren,am not compelling you,I want you to assist me voluntarily.The company will provide the paper work including the documents,all i require from you is your 100% trust and honesty.If you are willing to assist,I want to know as soon as possible so that i can direct you to my attorney cos i will be very busy in school for my forth-coming examinations. I also want you to have your mobile phone number sent to me for my attorneys further communication with you. I also want you to have your mobile phone number sent to me for my attorneys further communication with you, which i will also have my pictures sent to you. My alternative email adress is topsmile22@googlemail.com Look forward in hearing from you. Best Regards. God Bless you. dave amata

Obviously Dave Amata is a very generous man offering me £4.5 just to help him out. I expect he'll need my bank details at some stage so that he can transfer the money to me. Shortly after I sent them, money would start disappearing from my account. Instead of being £4.5m in credit I'd be several thousand in debt.

PS I hope the exams he is taking are not in English because he has a bit of a problem there.

Changes in the law for driving licences

New rules mean that people who have had eyesight correction treatment and no longer wear glasses must renew their driving license to reflect their change in status. They also need to take the psychotechnological test again at a cost of 18€. Failure to renew their license will result in a 300€ fine but no loss of points.

In addition the rule which meant that you had to renew and expired licence within four years has been dropped and candidates for the theory test will be allowed six incorrect answers.

I'm not sure whether these rules will apply to British motorists who have swapped their DVLC license for a Spanish one.

Very colourful

You can't go too long without a fiesta of some sort here in Bigastro.

On Tuesday 5th February there will be a parade for the children from the three junior schools, Bigastrin, La Paz and San José de Calasanz. They'll start in Calle Aureliano Diaz at 3:45pm and will pass through Calle Purisima and Calle San Pascual; finally arriving at the Parque Huerto del Cura. It goes without saying that many will be in fancy dress.

There will then be refreshments in the park for the children at the Infant Fair which will last until 7:00pm. There'll be bouncy castles and ball pools etc. - plenty to keep the children busy.

¡Ya está bien!

Monday's Council Meeting was, by all accounts, a lively one. Matters all came to a head when, after two long hours of debate they came to an item about excavating for an electric cable in the industrial estate, Moya called Murcia a liar. Murcia reciprocated by telling him that he was also a liar. So the Mayor ordered Murcia to leave which he refused to do. At that point Moya called for the local police and threatened to call the Guardia Civil. The public present, severely reprimanded the Mayor for his actions. So the Mayor closed the session and left.

Aurelio Murcia said yesterday that he was sorry that the Mayor had shown so little experience after being in office for over twenty years. The Mayor on the other hand said that he was going to demand a more rigorous adherence to the regulations at Council meetings.

The meeting had started amicably with a discussion about local taxes but then with two denunciations in court by the PP against the Mayor I don't suppose it was ever going to continue in like manner. It's probably not a good time to ask the Mayor why Calle Irlanda, where Aurelio Mucia lives, doesn't get swept very often.

Promotion

Whenever we have visitors, we try to share with them some of the many reasons why we chose to live here.

For some, the Costa Blanca is just about the sun and the beach. It's a place where you holiday and then leave to return to normal life. However, the area has a lot more to offer than that. There is a rich cultural heritage to explore in the towns that make up the Vega Baja. Discovering and participating in what the area has to offer can provide a much more rewarding experience for the visitor than just a few trips to the beach.

For the third year running, the Mancomunidad de Economic Promoción of the Vega Baja has a stand at the FITUR Tourist Fair in Madid.

Taking part are the towns of Algorfa, Benejúzar, Benijófar, Benferri, Bigastro, Jacarilla, Los Montesinos, Redován, San Fulgencio, San Isidro and San Miguel de Salinas. The aim is to present an alternative tourism to that of "the sun and beach."

In Pavilion 7, stand A27, visitors will find a great variety of advertising material explaining the cultural attractions, the gastronomy along with the festivities organised by the towns that make up the Vega Baja area.

FITUR will be held in the IFEMA (Madrid) from the 30th of January to the 3rd of February.

Some more useful stuff

¡ya está bien!, enough is enough!

¡ni hablar!, no way

no hay de qué, you're welcome or don't mention it - an alternative to de nada.

¿qué tenemos de manduca?, what's for grub? Manduca is a tad less formal than comer

and some other phrases you can just throw in to liven up your conversations

¡mira tú quién fue a hablar!, look who's talking!

beber como un cosaco, to drink like a fish

beber de un trago, to down something in one go

with elections coming up it's useful to have a couple of phrases to describe the parties

panda de chorizos ,which you already know is literally a bunch of sausages but really means a bunch of thieves.

of course you could also use ser uña y carne which really means they are as thick as thieves.

this one is my favourite phrase so far

¡Es que me crecen los enanos! which is a shortened form of Me pongo un circo y me crecen los enanos. literally I open a circus and my dwarfs grow, meaning I have such bad luck.

Now does anybody know what bigastrenenses mean when they say, what sounds like, talor or salor. We think it is a slang abbreviation for hasta luego (until later) but we're not sure and our teacher says she's never heard it.

Reliving your youth

When we lived in the UK, Pam and I would go to concerts to see our favourite groups and singers from the past decades perform. We saw Cher, Tina Turner, Bryan Adams, Chris de Burgh, the Eurythmics, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Simple Minds. Rod Stewart, the Rolling Stones and a whole host of others as supporting acts.

We even went to see the Victor Brox Blues Train in a tapas bar in Chester. Victor Brox were the support band at a Who concert my brother and I went to at Sheffield University. Only Pete Townsend turned up - the others were stuck on the M6 and never made it so Victor played a longer set. When I found out that Victor was playing in Chester, we just had to go and see him. He looked a little ravaged by the inevitable drugs and the booze that flowed when he was younger but was still bloody good!

Whilst we were going to all these concerts, our girls accused us of living in the past. Now it's their turn. Last month they went to see Take That (sans Robbie ) and last night they went to see the Spice Girls. What goes around - comes around. Apparently Take That were brilliant; we haven't had the verdict on the Spice Girls yet.

Milky expressions

There seem to be a few Spanish expressions about milk (leche).

apart from estar de mala leche - to be in a foul mood

there is also:-

darse una leche - to come a cropper

¡te voy a dar una leche! - I'll thump you

¡qué leche tienes! - you lucky devil

hace un calor de la leche - it's bloody hot

ser la leche - to be unbelievable

ir a toda leche - to go like the clappers

poner a algn de mala leche - to p*** someone off

tener mala leche - a nasty piece of work

Curioso.

PS I wonder what the Spanish would make of "the milk of human kindness"?

"la leche de la amabilidad humana" is my clumsy translation.

Pricey lemons

Last year, due to two bumper harvests and near perfect growing conditions, there was a glut of lemons on the market. The price fell as supply outstripped demand and as a consequence farmers left citrus fruits of all varieties on the trees to rot. The subsequent neglect, according to Antonio Valero, president of the Valencian community’s farmers and small-holders, has resulted in an unusually small crop of lemons this year.

The small crop is not just limited to the Valencian region with Murcia growers also suffering a much smaller crop this year. Similarly Europe’s other big lemon producer, Turkey, has also been hit by high temperatures during last year’s growing season and is estimating a vastly reduced crop and less lemons to export.

The implications are a year of expensive lemons. Prices are estimated to be reaching 60-70 centimos a kilo for the growers and a retail price, once picked, transported and sold of 90 centimos to a euro per kilo.

The next large crop to reach Europe is the Argentine harvest in May and this is not expected to affect prices as demand outstrips supply. 

Valero has described the lemon trees as “exhausted” after two super-harvests. The demand in the market remains very strong. It is estimated that this season’s harvest will be 70% less than the last two and subsequently prices will rise everywhere.

St Anton

San Anton was born in Egypt in 251 AD.

His parents died when he was 18 or 20 leaving him with 300 acres of fertile land and a young sister to care for.

He sold all his possessions and gave the proceeds to the poor and lived the life of a hermit.
He died at the age of 105 in 356 AD and apart from being the patron saint of domestic animals, he is also the patron saint of basket makers, brush makers, butchers, grave diggers and those who suffer from skin diseases.

Thursday, 17 January, was San Anton's day when, on church steps all over Spain, priests blessed pets and livestock either on his day or the following Sunday.

San Anton is the patron saint of Hondon de los Frailes, a little rural village nestling in the Baix Vinalopo mountains above Albatera and Crevillente in the Costa Blanca area. The little Ermita (chapel) on the outskirts of the village is dedicated to San Anton and on Sunday afternoon a special Mass was said for the village’s animals. Father Joseph blessed horses, dogs, cats and even a canary with holy water and then, true to tradition, San Anton was serenaded, as he has been for the last 40 years.

There was also a ceremony at the Imaculada church in Torrevieja where dogs, birds, terrapins and even teddy bears were blessed by the priest, Manuel Martínez Rocamora.

¡Hazte Cibervoluntario!

The Council of Promotion of the City council of Bigastro wants to further the use of the new technologies in the locality by various courses of action.

Within the framework of the Plan Avanza, the council is promoting a project in collaboration with the Cibervolunteers Foundation which is a non-profit making organization, co-financed by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce.

This campaign of awareness is directed towards people who have limited opportunities for access or who are in danger of digital exclusion. This includes those who are excluded from the Information Society for all sorts of reasons; age, professional and social surroundings, material or economic reasons, lack of time, knowledge, ability, motivation and or resources.

The objective is to create a network of volunteers who are able to contribute to the promotion of the Society of New Technologies in a useful, simple and effective day to day way through courses, conversations, conferences, factories, events and seminaries. "We know that you can contribute by passing on your know how to people who need it and thus fill this digital breach in our society. "

It's easy to get involved. All you need to do is contact the Area of Local Development of the City council of Bigastro through adl@bigastro.es or by telephone on 96 535 00 Ext. 132.

Hmm nice!

L'Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM) in Valencia is showing 66 photographs and 27 fetish magazine covers made between 50s and 80s by the American photographer Elmer Batters.

Elmer Batters had his debut as a photographer at the end of the Forties in adult magazines. Many of his photographs are of women's legs clad in stockings. His photographs were censored at the time and therefore only available to private collectors. In these more liberated times his work is hailed as having artistic as well as voyeuristic merit.

The exhibition runs until the 2nd of March in "la sala La Muralla at the Institute.

Museum of Modern Art

The new Museum of  Contemporary Art of the Region of Murcia (Mucam) project was presented yesterday in Cartagena. According to the Murcian president,  Ramon Luis Valcárcel, " this is the star cultural project of this legislature ".

The Mucam will be on the site of  the old bullring, behind the hospital of Marín, and will house the restored Roman amphitheatre of Cartagena. 

The Council of Culture will summon  international aid to  designate the director of the Mucam and define the  project. 

The cost of construction will be approximately 22 million euros.  In addition to  exhibition halls, the Mucam will have an audio-visual conference  hall, a bookstore, a shop, a library, a cafeteria, a restaurant, and a facility for 1,200 people. 

Enhorabuena

Francisco Grau was the first Colonel of Music and is now, following the publication of the Boletín Oficial del Ministerio de Defensa, the first General of Music in the Spanish army.

Francisco Grau Vegara (born in Bigastro, Alicante in 1947). He is the author of more than 700 works and since the 12th October 1997 has been the official author of the Spanish National Anthem (previously Marcha Granadera).

He is also a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, the Real Academia de la Virgen de la Arrixaca in Murcia and the Academia de San Carlos in Valencia.

Since 1988, he has been the director of music for the Spanish Royal Guard.

The City Council of Bigastro, on behalf of the the whole town offer their hearty congratulations to Francisco Grau Vegara on achieving this well deserved honour

(Jose Joaquin Moya - Mayor of Bigastro)

Come on you reds!!

Instead of watching your old team on the box; see a live game on your doorstep!!

Support your local team on Sunday 27 of January at 4:30pm, in the municipal field "El Molino".

The match is between Bigastro CF and Aspe UD (currently second in the league).

YOUR SUPPORT COULD HELP BIGASTRO C.F. GAIN THEIR SIXTH CONSECUTIVE VICTORY.

ANIMO CHICOS!!!

Donate blood

On Friday, 8th of February from 17:00 to 20:30 hours in the Centro de Salud (C / Tomás Villanueva).

When you donate Blood, you donate Life.

Comparing costs

I've mentioned before the high cost of broadband access here in Spain. Just to illustrate the comparison though.

For the Duo package from Telefonica we pay 40€ per month. That includes local and national calls ( not calls to mobiles) and a 3Mb Internet connection. On top of that we have line rental, phone rental and ADSL maintenance costs which bump it up to over 74€ per month.

Both my daughters in England live close to their local telephone exchanges and so are able to get high speed access. Jemma, who lives in Wolverhampton could get a theoretical maximum speed of 5.5Mbs whilst Laura who lives in Sale could get a maximum of 6.5Mbs.

So first of all they benefit from twice the available speed for their connections. More important though the cost per month is a great deal less. For example, signing up for Virgin's Unlimited Broadband and Talk package (bundle 1) costs £19.99 per month. For that they'd have unlimited local and national calls and up to 8Mb broadband with no limits on downloads. At the present exchange rate that works out at 26.79€ per month. Even when the rate was 1.5€ to the pound it would only cost 29.99€ per month. On top of that they'd have to pay line rental e.g. to BT at £11 per month.

So for a total of £30.99 (41.53€) my daughter's could enjoy the same service, with a higher speed connection. That is a whopping 32.50€ less per month.

Of course there are other packages available in Spain e.g. Orange are offering a package which includes telephone, broadband Internet and TV from 43.95€ per month. Once the twelve month Telefonica contract expires I'll be looking to change to a more economical package.

PS Without the broadband connection we couldn't make VoIPtalk calls to the UK. Using VoIPtalk saves us a lot e.g. an 11 minute call to our friends in Gloucester at the weekend only cost us 2.2 pence UK.

I'm getting 3402Kbps downstream and 268kbps upstream at the moment which is the limit that Telefonica say my line can support.

Good advice

The Council of Medio Ambiente at the Ayuntamiento offer the following very useful advice to reduce energy costs.

The aim is to conserve energy and help in the fight against the global warming, at the same time reducing the exorbitant cost of electricity and natural gas to yourself.

Start to save energy right now!

Refrigerators and freezers:
* Set the temperature of your refrigerator between 3ºC and 7 °C, and your freezer between -18°C and -15°C. Each extra degree of cooling uses 5% more of energy.

* Leave cooked foods to cool off before putting them in refrigerator.
* Avoid opening the door of the refrigerator continuously, the loss of cold air makes the compressor work more intensely thus increasing the electrical consumption.
* Position fridges and freezers away from heat sources. Remember that the freezer does not have to be as close to hand as the refrigerator. Locate the freezer in a cool room to increase its efficiency.
Washing machines:
* Wash in cold or low temperatures.
* Wash only full loads.
* Make sure the filter on the washing machine is clean.
Dish washers:
* Use only when full.
* Rinse the plates with cold water before putting them in the machine.
* Consult the recommendations of the manufacture with respect to the temperature of the water.
Cooking utensils:
* Use pans that spread the heat well, for example stainless steel ones with special coatings and heavy bottom to avoid deformation.
* Cook larger amounts and freeze the surplus for use later.
* Use saucepans and frying pans that have a diameter larger than the hotplate (a small pan, leaving 2 or 3 cm of hotplate exposed will waste almost half of the energy).
Irons:
* Iron all of your clothes in one session. Heating an iron up to press just a few items wastes a lot of energy.
* Iron heavy clothes first (or those that need higher temperatures). Finish off by ironing the ones that require less heat.
* Disconnect the iron shortly before finishing to take advantage of the accumulated heat.
* Make sure the plate of the iron is always smooth and clean to ensure that the heat is transmitted in a uniform way.
IT equipment:
* Turn off your computer if it is not going to be used within the next hour.
* Set the monitor to go to a black screen when it is left for more than a few minutes. Just moving the mouse or touching the keyboard will bring the screen back on.
* When you buy a computer or screen make sure it is energy saving.
Air conditioning:
* Keep doors and windows closed when the air conditioning is on. Open them only to refresh the air in the house when it is cool outside. A door or window open for 10 - 15 minutes will freshen up a room sufficiently.
* Tape or seal any gaps in doors and windows etc.
Recommendations for the efficient use of a air conditioning system (air conditioning units use a lot of energy):
* Keep doors and windows closed while it is working.
* When you leave the room switch the air conditioning off.
* Regulate the temperature. Don't try to lower it excessively - it is better to try and achieve a balance between temperature and humidity.
* Clean the air filters regularly to avoid or to reduce dust, insect or pollen contamination. By keeping the filters clean you can save between a 3% and a 10% energy (dirty filters overload the motor and reduce its efficiency).
* Have the equipment maintained annually by a qualified technician.
* Consider installing a ventilator or a dehumidifier instead of a air conditioning. For example, in bedrooms air conditioning can cause sore throats, respiratory problems or headaches. In these situations, the use of a bioclimatizador is sufficient to maintain suitable comfort. They are easy to use and to install, and come at a reasonable price.

I would add to this list the recommendation that you don't leave televisions, videos, DVD players etc on standby when you are not going to be using them for awhile e.g. overnight.

There are other energy saving moves you can make e.g. replacing light bulbs with energy saving ones and buying only A rated (or better) appliances. In particular DC inverter type air conditioning units consume a lot less energy than standard ones.

Double trouble

Yesterday the Popular Party of Bigastro announced that the socialist mayor Jose Joaquin Moya is currently being imputed with two denunciations in the courts of Orihuela.

Court Number 1 of Orihuela is investigating the presumed irregularities in the administrative transaction of the Special Plan for The Pedrera. This is for a project including an aparthotel and golf practice courses on 80,000 m2 of rustic ground. The company concerned paid the Municipality 3.5million euros for the land and licences. This project been suspended by the Generalitat in Valencia because the reclassification of the land had not been approved by the autonomic administration.

In Court Number 4 of Orihuela they are investigating presumed crimes of embezzlement. The claim is that municipal resources are being used to construct a rural hotel in the neighbouring town of Jacarilla. In the same denunciation, presented in 2007 by the PP and Los Verdes in the Anti-corruption Office of the public prosecutor, it appears the concession to operate a solar farm was given to a " relative " of the Mayor. The same "relative" was given authorization to build a plant to assemble solar panels on land which was deemed non-industrial.

The mayor of Bigastro, Jose Joaquin Moya, said yesterday that he did not know the judicial imputations. Moya added that, in the case of the judicial investigation of the special plan for the Pedrera, the court had asked for information from the City council which has been provided.

Between smiles, the Mayor asked what "autoridad moral tienen esa panda de chorizos para pedir que se me apliquen los estatutos del PSOE" (lit. what moral authority has that bunch of sausages to request that the statutes of the PSOE are applied to me). Perhaps, Moya added, the spokesman of the PP Aurelio Murcia " knows them well because up to three months before the elections he wanted to head the list of the PSOE ".

The local secretary of the PSPV-PSOE, Marylene Albentosa, said yesterday that the Socialists have been " honest ". She said the PP should consider the judicial situation of many of the other mayors in the region and the province.

For example, the ex- mayor of Catral, Jose Manuel Loyal Rodriguez, who had been involved in the illegal house scandal in Catral, resigned from the PSOE months before the municipal elections to stand as an independent.

So the war of words continues. The looser's in all this may well be the Town and its citizens.

NB a bunch of sausages is a Spainish metaphor for a pack of thieves.

Is there any good news?

These are some of the stories I found today in British papers:-

1. Married couples are being brutally punished by Labour's tax and benefit system, according to research to be published tomorrow.

Experts say that couples where one partner works and the other stays at home are the worst affected, paying a far higher proportion of their incomes to the taxman than in almost any other civilised country.

2. Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith suffered a barrage of criticism yesterday after admitting she would not feel safe walking the streets after dark.

Aides of Miss Smith compounded her gaffe with a desperate attempt to undo the damage by claiming she had recently popped out in the evening to "buy a kebab in Peckham".

In fact, she has round-the-clock police protection . On her trip for a kebab she was accompanied by a bodyguard.

3.The number of crimes being solved by police has fallen or ground to a halt in nearly two thirds of forces in England and Wales. The detection rate has fallen by 1.5 percentage points since 1997 to 30.3 per cent of all crimes reported to the police in 2006/7, not including the British Transport Police.

Police spending in Britain is estimated to have risen from £8 billion in 1998 to £10.1 billion by 2004/5. Over the same period, crimes recorded by police rose from five million to 5.5 million a year.

Last year, every warranted officer detected about 10 crimes per year, the same level as in 2001. For each detection the police spent £10,000 - 10 per cent more in real terms than in 2001.

4. The asking price of a typical home has plunged more than £11,000 since October, research reveals today.

Prices are dropping around £120 a day with experts warning that the year ahead looks bleak.

5. Homeowners hit by last week's floods have been warned they could face further misery with more torrential rains on the way - but spring is in the air in the South as the record for the warmest January night was broken in several places

Heavy rainstorms and persistent drizzle over the weekend have swollen rivers and streams to bursting point.

But forecasters say the danger is not over for those people living close to rivers with more heavy rainfall predicted for Monday evening.

6. Family doctors are being put on high alert for cases of a flesh-eating strain of MRSA that thrives in nurseries, classrooms and gyms.

GPs will for the first time be given detailed guidelines on how to diagnose and treat the highly infectious bug, thought to be even deadlier than the version sweeping through hospitals.

The risk is so serious that the Health Protection Agency and the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy have come together to draw up the advice, designed to stop the bug running riot across the UK as it has in the U.S.

and worst of all - 7. The price of a pub pint of beer could soon hit £4 in some parts, drinkers were warned yesterday.

More expensive barley, malt, glass, aluminium and energy could see a £1 rise to cover production and distribution.

A British Beer and Pub Association spokesman said: “The average price is around £2.70. In London a £3.20 pint is not unknown. There are areas where we won’t be surprised to see £4.”