Mayhem contained

la jaula de tus fotos es para tirar "carretillas":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiumDEfvg1E
antes se hacian en las calles.

Now we know! Many thanks to Germán for providing us with the information. Traditionally the youth of Bigastro celebrated the last night of the fiesta by setting off fireworks in shopping trolleys on the main street of the town.

The next day, Calle Purisima looked like Beirut with scorch marks everywhere. I remember going down there the first year we were here and seeing it. Now the council have wisely put up a caged area to contain the mayhem.

I think we will be giving that a miss.

Keeping you in touch

Susu,the young lady in the striped top at the Coches Locos event tells me her brother in law cannot be at the fiesta this year because he is busy working in Denia. She goes on to say that at least he can keep up with some of the events by viewing the pictures on my blog.

It occurred to me that, like Ramon in Mexico and Susu’s brother in law in Denia, there will be many bigastrense who cannot be here to enjoy the fiesta. I can assure them that the time honoured traditions of the fiesta are being upheld. We wish they could be here to enjoy the festivities with us. In the meantime, I hope my photographs give you some idea of what is going on.

Trumpet and organ in the church

The concert for trumpet and organ last night showed us yet again how talented the musicians in the town are.

There were some very challenging pieces included in the programme and to be fair the trumpeter did hit a few bad notes in the first couple. After that though he performed with aplomb and delighted the audience with his virtuosity.

A cage for the wild children?

Does anyone know what this for? They erected a giant cage like this last year during the Fiesta week and we never found what it was for. It is located on Calle Mayor and blocks off the exit from the town along Calle General Bañuls.

It is high, damned high so we assume it is for some kind of sporting event. We’ve checked the programme for the Fiesta and there is nothing that relates to this area of town and certainly nothing that would require a structure of this sort.

So, for us it remains a mystery.

A cleaner river

The Hydrographical Confederation of the Segura (CHS) are going to pioneer a bioengineering project to try and restore the banks of the river.

In September they will be reintroducing native aquatic plants which will help to oxygenate the water. They will also be controlling the extent of the reed beds and cane plantations by removing the plants at the root. This will allow the rushes and bulrushes to grow and flourish bringing back biodiversity to the river.

The project, which has a budget of 3 million Euros is being financed by the Ministerio de Medio Ambiente Medio Rural y Marino and is being carried out by the University of Alicante and the University of Murcia.

Maybe the time to choose those young ladies for my photograph is drawing near!

Another Catch 22

The palm forests of this area are loosing value day by day. Growing palm trees was a profitable business until the arrival of the picudo rojo beetle. Now the cost of the necessary sanitary certificates which have to be obtained before the trees can be sold, makes growing them unprofitable.

Small growers are most at risk of loosing out. One method of treatment is to cut down affected trees and crush them. This treatment, although effective in eradicating the problem, is not subsidised so the grower looses out. New biological treatments are also prohibitively expensive so the growers have no choice but to leave the palms without certificates which means they cannot be sold.

There are an estimated 200,000 palm trees in the area of which about 100 have been infected by the picudo roja. If it remains unchecked though the numbers will increase and of course municipal as well as commercial trees will be at risk.

ETA struck again in Mallorca

Basque separatist terrorists have again tried to cause panic and hit tourism in Palma de Mallorca on Sunday.

A small bomb exploded in the false ceiling of a ladies' toilet at a beachfront restaurant at 14.20 hrs. This was after an anonymous call claiming to be from ETA to a taxi firm in the Basque Country warned of three bombs in the area.

Police say the artefact was tiny - some people in the restaurant said the sound was like ‘a big banger'. No-one was hurt, damage was limited and the bar was evacuated by its owner.

Guardia Civil and national and local police officers arrived at the scene minutes later and cordoned off about 250 metres of the beachfront including several neighbouring bars and restaurants. About an hour and a half later police evacuated a nearby bar and members of the bomb disposal squad activated a second small device. Again no-one was hurt.

Officers then searched the area further and found a suspicious rucksack in the Hotel Palacio Avenida, which was also evacuated.

The attacks come on the same day the terrorist group - which has killed about 850 people in the past 50 years - admitted responsibility for other attacks in the past two months, including a massive van bomb outside a barracks in Burgos and a car bomb that murdered two Guardia Civil officers in Mallorca.

Tragic

A five-year-old girl was killed on Sunday in Cabo Roig, Orihuela Costa by the propeller of her grandfather's boat.

The girl was swimming in the sea with her mother and brothers while her grandfather and another grandchild were on the boat. However the grandfather had stopped the boat in a forbidden area and decided to move it.

Unbeknown to him, his daughter and her grandchildren were in the sea close to the boat when he turned the engines on. The propeller sucked in the little girl who was closest to the boat. She suffered seriously injuries to her legs and neck.

The sea rescue services and a doctor who was nearby helped the family to rescue the little girl, when they heard the shouts and the cries of the family. The emergency and rescue services fought to revive the child for an hour but were unable to do so.

I really don’t know how the grandfather is ever going to be able to come to terms with what happened.

Cooling down

Nobody ever said it doesn’t rain in August. Just to prove it there is a strong possibility of rain today. Even when the clouds have cleared by the middle of the week, it looks like it will be a little cooler than it has been of late.

More moors, more christians

The very popular Moors and Christians parade in Bigastro took place last night. The CABALLEROS DEL CID of Bigastro, the Bando Moro LOS CONTRABANDISTAS from Denia and the Fila Mora LOS NAZARIES from Denia took part and provided us with a great spectacle.

For more photographs from this parade click here.

No wonder they called him Angel

Do you remember back in April I showed you Ángel, the son of Ana and Ángel Moya Gomez? Well this is how he looks now.

There is no doubt he is going to be just stunning when he grows up. Just imagine how many girls will be chasing him.

It makes it all worthwhile

I just got this message:-

Thanks Keith,

Thank you very much for being my main source of information to be updated about what is happening in my beloved town.

I follow very close all what is happening in Bigastro, I am in contact with family and friends and I like to be informed, but with your pictures and information I know things even before that the people there. I like very much the Fiestas and this is the second consecutive year that I cannot be there. With your blog at least I can see all what is happening. Please continue doing this fantastic job.

Regards from the far and at the same time very close Mexico.

Ramón

It is very rewarding to know that my efforts and appreciated. I am glad you enjoy reading my blog and pleased that you like my photographs. Having lived in Bigastro for nearly five years we can understand why you love the place so much. We are glad we came here and wouldn't want to live anywhere else now.

Please keep reading and enjoy the rest of the photographs that are to come!

Good drivers

Ask most Brits and they will tell you that the Spanish are not the best of drivers on the road. However, these people were driving impeccably down one of the hills of Bigastro . Admittedly they didn’t use any signals but I didn’t see one person on a mobile phone, nobody tried to overtake and no petrol or diesel was consumed so their carbon footprint was zero.

For the rest of my pictures from this mad event click here.

A fabulous night

What a great occasion that was. I think it was the largest audience we have seen for a fiesta coronation.

As you can see Gordon and Ann looked very regal as Third Age King and Queen.

For more photos of all the queens and their maids of honour click on this link.

Please do not try to print from these photos though – they are much reduced in size and quality. I will be giving Gordon and Ann a CD (or two) of all their photos after the Fiesta has finished.

and it isn’t just TV

Valencian tourism authorities want to crack down on unregistered holiday lets of apartments and villas along the whole region's coastline.

At the moment those owners who have ‘legalised' their properties for letting are finding it impossible to attract takers.

Owners of registered premises face a series of expenses and requisites that mean they cannot compete with prices against ‘illegal' properties, despite now offering discounts of up to 35 per cent.

The scale of the hidden letting is huge - in Castellón Province it is estimated that 75% of all overnight stays are in rented properties but only 25% of visitors use properly registered premises.

Experts in the industry are sceptical, saying any new legislation would have as little effect as that now in force unless the regional government is series in enforcing it with heavy fines.

The letting of apartments and villas this year is also being hit by last-minute special prices being offered by many hotels and only the very cheapest lets are showing any signs of movement.

The clampdown continues

A number of Britons were amongst 60 people arrested across Spain as part of a National Police crackdown on the redistribution of pirated television transmissions.

Hotel directors and community presidents have been allegedly involved in a fraud estimated to run into millions of euros.

Financial administrators and commercial operators have also been detained while two illegal cable television businesses which supplied pirated pay-TV signals for a monthly fee have been closed.

One in Sevilla had a client base of almost 1,300 while another in Tenerife serviced around 3,000 homes. Other similar businesses were identified along the Costas, while urbanisations and hotels which distributed signals illegally to residents and clients have also been targeted.

For the first time in Spain, the administrators of an Internet site have been arrested on charges of illegally rebroadcasting pay-TV channels on a website.

The programmes, mainly football matches, were taken from Spanish and Arab satellite broadcasters.

Of particular interest to investigators were the companies advertising to the British population in Spain and offering pay-TV channels from the UK. National Police say that thousands of fraudulent contracts have been issued by such companies to their customers and millions of euros have been taken in fees.

Hundreds of satellite television decoders and smart cards were seized during the operation, along with the equipment necessary to redistribute the illegal signals. The operation involved the National Police bases in 17 areas of Spain from Madrid to the Canary Islands and from Barcelona down to the Costa del Sol.

La fuente

Last night the mayor, Raúl Valerio Medina Lorente and the parish priest cut the tape to inaugurate the new fountain in the town square. The fountain was built using money provided by the government for improvements in towns throughout Spain and is one of several projects being undertaken in Bigastro. Those of you who remember the old fountain will agree that this is a great improvement.

As you can see in the last two photographs, chief scout John and Gordon, the Third Age King for 2009 managed to catch the mayor to ask him about the wall underneath the flats. It has already been painted white which does improve the look of the square tremendously. However, it won’t be staying like that because Raúl told our intrepid pair that the plan is to build a bar on the right and offices for Eurener on the left of the entrance to the block of flats.

With the VaiVen on one side and another bar on the other, the square is destined to become the centre of the cafe society in Bigastro.

Facebooked

I have to confess that I do have a Facebook account and so does Pamela. In our defence, we only signed up because our daughters and their friends have accounts. Facebook allows us to keep up with their lives and see the photographs they post.

You do have to put up with a lot of “girlie” type chat on Facebook; “how u hun?” and “wot u doin 2nite”. There is also an element of rudeness between people and a fair smattering of cryptic messaging e.g. “I’m feeling sad today….” with no explanation of why.

Perhaps what we need is a social network site for the older surfer – I’d call it Facewrinkle. There we could discuss important stuff like, which angina tablets work best, how long does it take to get over a hip replacement, what is the matter with Britain today etc.

We would have to write in proper English otherwise our accounts would be closed and we wouldn’t bother with all those silly quizzes and games that litter Facebook. A little discreet photo retouching would be allowed but lying about your age would be taboo.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I can see it working.

No tweets yesterday

Several web sites were attacked yesterday including Twitter, Facebook and Google.

What the attackers did was to flood the servers of the affected sites causing what is termed a denial of service. They do this by setting up what is called a botnet which may comprise hundreds of thousands of computers all trying to access the targeted site at the same time. Anyone then trying to access the site legitimately is denied access as the servers crash.

I doubt if anyone is going to loose sleep about not being able to tweet on Twitter or gossip on Facebook. The loss of Google services though could be a tad more serious especially since Blogger is hosted by Google!

Normally cybercriminals attack sites of companies and then try to blackmail them. It is hard to fathom what the hackers could gain from attacking Facebook and Twitter.

Of course if you live in China these sites are permanently blocked anyway so people there will be blissfully unaware of what was going on.

Weather for the weekend

Those of you who have suffered whilst the temperatures have been in the mid to high thirties will be relieved to see that for the start of the Fiesta it will be a little cooler with some cloud about. There is also the possibility of a spot or two of rain.

This is probably not good news for the families of Gordon and Ann and Mel and Lilian who are out here for the Fiesta and are hoping to get a bit of colour to take back to England.

The UV index is high at 9 so you still need cream and will still get a tan even though if it is cloudy.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday night.