A great initiative

Spain has suffered more than most European countries in the recession and this region with its reliance upon construction perhaps the most. Now Bigastro town council has introduced an initiative which they hope will help construction workers to get back into work once the recession is over.

Yesterday, the councillor for Promotion, Inmaculada Martínez along with Alonso Cases of the Academy Julián Rojas and Dolores Fernández from Premedi (Prevention of Labour Risks of the Mediterranean) presented a plan to introduce courses aimed at workers obtaining their professional membership cards (TPC).

In the height of the building boom, labourers hardly had time to turn round let alone work towards professional qualifications. Issues like health and safety and labour risks had to sit on the back burner whilst they were busy meeting the demand for more and more houses.

Now that constructors have time on their hands, Bigastro has organised classes this weekend at the Auditorio Francisco Grau for workers who want one of the TPC cards. The cost of the eight hour course will be 72 Euros for those in work and 40 for those out of work (Bigastro Town Council are footing the bill for the difference).

Whatever criticisms you might level at Bigastro town council, you can never accuse them of not caring or trying their best for the people in the town.

Reviving the past in Hurchillo

Just to prove that traditions never die, the Colegio Público in nearby Hurchillo intends to revive the burning of fallas in the town this year.

In 934, 20 fallas were constructed and burnt in Hurchillo including this one on the Puente de Levante. This clever piece of humour shows passengers carrying a bus across the bridge that was obviously not strong enough to drive across.

The date the school has chosen for the fallas is the 17th March to coincide with the fallas in Valencia. For midday they have planned a traditional “mascleta” (a very noisy firework display that concentrates on a rhythm of explosions rather than colour). Then at 4:30pm they will set fire to the fallas and later offer buñuelos (small doughnuts or fritters) to the people who attend.

The revival of the fallas forms part of an overall project which the school calls "Orihuela, cruce de caminos" intended to bring back the traditions of the past. Since this is the centenary of the birth of Miguel Hernandez who coincidentally published his first play in 1934, the school will also pay homage to the poet with their other project "Miguel canta a la paz"

A tribute to Pete and Laura

Twelve months ago, my very good friend and ex-colleague Pete encouraged me to undertake a Project 365. The deal is that you take and then post on the Internet a photograph each day for a year. 

It sounds easy until you get part way through and inspiration for something different to photograph dries up. That is the problem that Pete’s girlfriend Laura faced in her busy working life. So, from time to time, she resorted to a photograph of a mug of tea. To be fair, Laura does have a very interesting collection of mugs well worth sharing with us.

Pete, for his final picture, posted a photograph of a mug of tea in tribute to Laura and I have posted one in tribute to both of them and here it is.

The good news for those of you who have enjoyed the photographs I have posted is that I will be starting my next Project 365 tomorrow. I can’t promise not to post any more photographs of tea mugs this next year!

Just in case you were wondering:- this is a photograph of a firework taken at the fiesta two years ago superimposed on a picture of a mug taken the other day. It took a bit of getting right but hopefully I nailed it in the end.

Let’s clear the air

Last week, in our Spanish class, we had a debate about smoking in public places specifically bars.

As the only smoker in the class, it was left to me to defend my rights. However this was tricky because to be honest, if I had my time again, I would not smoke and I would never argue that it is OK to inflict smoke on those who don’t smoke because clearly it isn’t. If someone asks me not to smoke in their house or their presence then I don’t – full stop.

However, what I did point out in my defence was that the smoke from my pipe only affects those who who are close to me. On the other hand, the smoke from the myriad of wood fires in Bigastro affects us all. That doesn’t excuse smokers but it does highlight the disparity in the law.

Tests in America have shown that wood smoke contains more carcinogens than tobacco smoke and yet there is no move to try and stop people from burning wood on their fires during winter. Why, because cigarette smokers are an easier target.

Governments have tried a variety of tactics to stop people from smoking, principally by raising the tax levied on tobacco but also by banning adverts on TV etc. Then there was a landmark law passed which extended Europe wide on smoking in public places. The politicians who dreamt that one up must have had smug smiles on their faces.

What the ban did do was to move people out of the buildings onto the street just outside. It happened at the school I taught in where we simply stood at the gate on the public footpath much to the dismay of the headteacher. The UK health secretary, Andy Burnham, now favours extending the law to prevent non-smokers having to walk through clouds of smoke directly outside public buildings - a problem which I must point out was created by the law.

This move comes as part of a wider attempt by Burnham to set out the case for state intervention to improve public health, insisting it does not amount to a nanny state.

Tomorrow's announcements in the UK will encourage cars and homes to remain smoke-free, however Burnham will stress that the state does not have a right to intervene in a private space, even to protect children. His department plans to "work with the public sector, business and the public to communicate the dangers of smoking in the home and the car".

Burnham will also "carefully consider" the case for forcing all cigarettes to be stripped of their distinctive wrapping and sold instead in plain brown packets, in order to reduce their appeal. There will also be renewed action against black market tobacco, a ban on tobacco vending machines and extra NHS support for those who want to quit.

Whilst I will stress yet again that I am not defending smokers, I cannot help but feel that the UK government may be digging yet another hole for itself in its attempt to control the problem. I would liken this to the problem created when they extended licensing hours and then found they had a massive problem with excessive drinking. Creating a law to solve a problem which then creates an even bigger problem is something that the UK government seem to be good at.

In the end common sense will have to prevail. For example, If the ban her in Spain was extended to all public spaces inside or out then I could simply stand just inside my gate on my own private land land it would make no difference whatsoever. There is only so far that governments can go with these issues.Education rather than legislation is the answer.

Keeping an eye on the weather

	It is looking good for this week. A decent amount of sun, light winds and a minimal chance of rain except on Wednesday when there might just be drop or two.
	The forecast for Orihuela on WeatherBug is very similar. It looks good for the Medieval Fair at the weekend although that possibility of rain on Thursday could cause some problems setting things up.

Warmer but wetter

The average temperature for  last year in Torrevieja was 23.6 degrees Celsius  which represents an increase of 1 degree since records began in 1964. The total rainfall for the year was 472 litres per square metre. The only years on record  since 1960 with higher rainfall were 1989 with 728.7 litres and 1973 with 559 litre.

The rainiest month in Torrevieja is normally October with an average of 41.8 litres. The rainiest month on record though was September 1989 when 309.7 litres of rain fell in just one night. For last year it was December that brought the greatest amount of rain with 102 litres.

The rains in September and December will have reduced the salt harvest in the lagoons. The salt company say that average production of 700,000 tons per year will not be met this last year.

Just a request

Can the person who takes their dog for a walk when they check the post boxes at the bottom of the estate please clean up the mess the dog leaves.  Not only is it unhygienic but it is most unpleasant if you don’t notice it and step into the muck as you check your own post.

Thank you.

Sparrows can be vermin

One of my neighbours has just called round on his way down to the town to buy some wire mesh. When I enquired why he needed wire mesh, he told me it was to make cages to cover his air conditioning units.

It seems that sparrows have taken to nesting on the top of the units which are conveniently placed just below the overhang on his roof. That poses two problems for him.

Firstly, he has a trail of excrement down the units and the wall but worse than that, the birds peck at the foam insulation on the feed pies to use as nesting material. He has already replaced the foam insulation once but within four months, the birds have pecked it away again.

It might be nice to have birds in the garden and they do have their uses controlling the insect population but not when they cause these sort of problems. I remember someone who had terrible issues with house martins. Lovely birds that they were, they insisted on building nests under his eaves which meant he had to climb a ladder to remove them once the chicks had gone. We too had a problem with birds at our previous house when they found their way under the roof tiles and into the roof void. You could hear then scampering about on the bedroom ceiling so they got their marching orders.

I hope the cages work for my neighbour. They won’t be the most elegant solution but then neither is cleaning muck off the walls and replacing foam insulation.

I recall that one of our ex neighbours from years back bought an airgun to get rid of the wood pigeons that were causing problems for him. However, he could only pop the birds off when no one else was around because he knew that some people would object to him killing them – rats and other vermin yes but birds no.

Why do they do it

On Wednesday Steve Jobs launched the iPad amid great hype and claimed the device would plug the gap between laptops and mobiles.

At the launch Mr Jobs said the device would be used for browsing the web, sharing photos, reading eBooks and watching movies. Those who went to see the launch were apparently suitably impressed. The reactions following its release though have been, to say the least, mixed.

In my opinion, it is probably worth waiting until at least version 2 by which time Apple will iron out the flaws just as they did with the iPod. Apple will also drop the price considerably about six months after launch so early takers will pay a premium to be the first on the block with the new toy.

The main problem that people have focussed on is that the iPad is like a scaled up iPhone or iTouch and like both those devices, it lacks card slots and comes without a USB port – making it extremely difficult to transfer documents and information from an external drive on to the device.

The flash drive makes the device super slim, light and robust (there is no hard drive whirring away inside) but does severely limit its storage capacity. The basic model comes with just 16GB of storage and even the top-of-the-range model only has 64GB.

Instead of a USB port, the iPad has an iPod connector, meaning that users will have to purchase one of the many adapters on sale in order to use a non-Apple product with the iPad.

Despite being marketed as the most innovative product in the world of netbooks, users of the iPad will only be able to download apps from App Store. This means that unlike other laptops and netbooks which allow any type of external software to be downloaded, with an iPad users will only be able to get hold of software after it has been approved by Apple and added to the App store.

As a result of all these shortcomings, the iPad has become the focus of a lot of negative comments both in the press and on the Internet. For whatever reasons, people have invested a lot of time and resources into lambasting the product. The pictures above taken from the net are just some examples.

What drives people to do this? Just what do they gain by yet again knocking Apple for introducing a device that we all know will become commonplace in just a few years time. Just like we all call all vacuum cleaners Hoovers, in years to come we will all be calling touch screen tablets- iPads.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the iPad will spawn a miriad of imitators just as the iMacs, the iPods and the iPhones did. The imitators will all claim that there devices are better but in truth they won’t be because Apple just have a knack of providing the best user experience and that is what gets up all these people’s noses. Never mind what it can’t do, concentrate on what it can do and do so well.

With a new netbook and an iPod touch already, I can’t justify buying an iPad – I just wish I could!

The wind on Tuesday

We survived the strong winds that blew on Tuesday without any damage but by the sounds of it we were lucky.

The gusts that reached 70km per hour in parts of the Costa Blanca caused chaos for many. Debris was sent flying onto roads causing minor traffic accidents and in Cartegena a driver had a lucky escape when a tree fell directly onto his car – the car of course was not so lucky.

Cartegena seems to have been one of the worst hit areas  as gusts up to 90km per hour downed two trees, both over 18 metres high in the Avenida de America. Traffic along the road was closed for most of the day as officials from Parks and Gardens removed the debris.

Later in the day the emergency services managed to secure a eucalyptus tree that was leaning on a classroom at one of the City’s infant schools. It was later cut don before it could cause any serious damage.

A sad story

In January 2009, Orihuela city council estimated that 2% of the palm trees in the city had been affected by the picudo rojo beetle. They currently believe that 9% or two thousand of the 25,000 trees in the city are now affected.

The areas which have suffered most are on the coast and the banks of the river Segura.

The beetle was first found in palms at La Manga del Mar Menor, in Murcia. From there, the plague spread north to the park at PAU 25 and towards Torrevieja where it devastated the new park de Rocío del Mar just 500 metres from the Ferris palm plantation. At the same time, the beetle spread from its breeding ground in Jacarilla along the Segura to the Puertas de Murcia, up to Orihuela and in the opposite direction to Guardamar del Segura. Thirty percent of the palms that the Confederation finished planting along the margins of the river Segura and some of its meanders have been affected. The good news is that the San Antón palm park, one of the most important in Europe has not been affected because the majority of the trees there are date palms. Limited resources mean that Orihuela city council are having to concentrate their efforts on the palms at Santa Lucia and those in the Gabriel Miró public square.

Affected palms in places like PAU 25 and the mouth of the river Nacimiento at Glea de Campoamor (in this picture) have been left for months in spite of the danger that this will allow the insects to spread further. Infected trees really need to be destroyed sooner rather than later but with so many trees affected, this is a mammoth task to undertake.

Gas supplies for more homes

Mario Flores was in Torrevieja yesterday to see the start of a new gas pipeline, one of five that are being laid in the province.

Once the work is completed there will be 160 kilometres of gas pipelines in the Valencian community supplying gas to 390,000 homes at a cost of 29 million Euros.

The first section of thirteen kilometres of the pipeline between Guardamar del Segura and Pilar de le Horadada is expected to be completed by 2011 and will supply 160,000 homes with natural gas. The cost of the is project of 6.2million Euros is being shared by the Conselleria and Gas Natural.

It is hoped that the supply of gas will promote both the use of environmentally friendly energy for heating homes and at the same time encourage further development of Orihuela, Torrevieja and Guardamar del Segura.

In my opinion, anything that reduces the pall of wood smoke that hangs over the Vega Baja for the whole of winter is a good thing. Living here during the cold months of the year is like being back in England before the laws about smokeless fuel were introduced.

Ambitious plans

A second mega golf complex has been given the green light on virgin coastline between Mazarrón and Águilas.

Murcia regional government approved the plan to build 6,000 homes, two golf courses and four hotels at El Ramonete near Puntas de Calnegre in the municipality of Lorca. Two of the hotels are due to be built on land close to the beach and another two inland.

The six-million-square-metre area is close to the Cartagena-Vera toll motorway which was opened in 2007.

The development, which is being promoted by Alicante builder Hansa Urbana, includes the protected Lomo de Bas natural area. It will be constructed on the same strip of virgin coastline as the controversial Marina de Cope resort which is set to be built near Águilas on 21 million square metres of land.

Electricity giant Iberdrola is investing 200 million Euros in this tourist and residential complex which includes five golf courses, 11,000 homes, 22,000 hotel rooms and a vast marina.

So much for protecting the coastline! I imagine the environmentalists will have a lot to say about this. As for Iberdrola, I’d rather they invested some of their money into preventing the electricity cutting out every time the weather gets bad!

A tale of two roads

Do you remember all the controversy that surrounded the plans to build two new routes; the CV-95 from Orihuela to Torrevieja and the coast and the CV-91 from Oriheula to Guardamar del Segura?

In the case of the CV-95 the issue was that it was going to split the town of San Miguel del Salinas in half. The CV-91, on the other hand was going to cut swathes through the horticultural land of the huerta and run through the small towns en route. Opposition groups were set up, protests were held and alternative routes were suggested for both roads.

Then the financial crisis hit and the companies that were to be awarded the projects no longer showed interest. In the case of the CV-95 the constructor was to receive a so called "peaje en sombra" ( a toll in the shade) which I think means they would be paid according to the number of vehicles that used the road over a period of years following its construction. Latest figures show that there are 4% fewer vehicles using the present CV-95 than before.

The time slot for these projects it be completed is fast running out. If they are not at least started soon, then they will have to go back to the drawing board and new environmental impact studies will have to be undertaken.So there is a last push to see if any progress can be made.

In the case of the CV-95 the suggestion now is that it joins up with the A-7 motorway which should make it more profitable for the constructors because they believe that more vehicles will want to use that route. In the case of the CV-91, they are considering returning to the more acceptable route that was proposed back in 2002 which followed the river.

The mayoress of Orihuela, Monica Lorente and the councillor for infrastructure, Mario Flores both agree that the new roads will improve connections between the city and the coast and say that the demand is there for these roads to be built.

However, this is akin to the so called demand for more houses and the demand for bigger and better commercial centres in the area, the longer you go on, the more these needs seem to diminish especially now that we are in a period of economic austerity. These people should visit England and see some of the overcrowded roads there, that would put the viability of their proposals into proper perspective.

I suspect the perceived need is not for the new roads to accommodate more traffic but rather faster traffic and that is a very different issue.

Just up the coast past Benidorm

The rivers in this area have been short of water for years. However, the heavy rains this winter have changed all that. We needed water desperately but too much can sometimes be as bad as too little.

Following a day and a half of non-stop rain this is how the River Algar looked yesterday in Altea.

As you can see it is ready to burst it banks.

One of my jobs for today is to drain the excess water from my pool to prevent it from overflowing. This will be the third time I've drained water out this winter. I only recall having done this once before since we have lived here.

A world first

Microsoft has announced its intentions to build the first centre for sanitary research in the Valencian community. Yesterday, the president of the Generalitat, Francisco Camps signed an agreement in New York with the company to make this happen.

What hasn’t been announced is the location of the new centre for research and development. Microsoft favours Alicante because of its good air links, the existing sanitary companies there and the large number of retired residents. The Consell on the other hand has shown a preference for either Valencia or Castellón.

Most of the large town and cities in the province have made their bids including Elche, Torrevieja and Benidorm. However, Alicante has already offered Microsoft space in the technology park area of the city. Camps says that an announcement will be made in the next couple of weeks.

Francisco Camps is in New York selling the Valencian community to the industrialists there. He describes the community as “the front door to the south of Europe”. He says that events like the Volvo Ocean Race and the F1 circuit demonstrate how the area can attract investment. At the same time he has emphasised the impact the the new high speed rail link with Madrid will make. Camps adds that “we are good manufacturers, agriculturists, retailers and, mainly, excellent hosts”.  I think we would all agree with that. Let us hope his mission is successful.

Did I say it was going to rain?

The forecasters said it would rain and by God they were right.

It had rained overnight on Sunday into yesterday morning but then stayed dry for much of the day.

When the rain came yesterday evening, it bucketed it down and has continued for most of the night.

Looking at my pool, I can see the rain has added two to three centimetres of water to the level and the pool box has about 2cms of water sitting in the bottom. The sealing job I did has obviously helped a lot there because last time it rained like this there was probably 5 to 6cms of water in the bottom.

Mind you it hasn’t stopped raining yet so there is a chance to find more water in the box by the time it stops. Tomorrow promises to be dry so that will give me a chance to try out the submersible pump I bought to clear the water out.

Our crumb of comfort is, that if we were living inland on high ground, we could now be looking out at about 10cms or more of snow and just look at the forecast for the rest of the week.

Not a route for me

Can I say at the outset, that I am not one for driving along back roads and country lanes. I prefer a road with some width and a decent surface of tarmac to some narrow track out in the country. I know there are some who like to explore little known routes just to see where they might lead. You can count me out of that group. In my cycling days I would regularly take to the minor roads of the Wirral on my bike but rarely  would I venture along them in my car.

I feel my position is vindicated when I read in the newspaper Información that, taking the back road between Guardamar del Segura and Torrevieja, is like driving in the Dakar Rally. Apart from the fact that there is no white line on the road and there are no traffic signals, the newspaper has  counted 750 holes and cracks in its 5km length. To drive along it you need to be skilled at avoiding potholes although in the case of some, they are impossible to miss.

You might say, why bother using the road at all. It is in fact a popular road especially for those who want to go to the market on Wednesday at La Mata or the very popular Sunday market at Campico de Guardamar. It is also a very popular route for cyclists who want to avoid the dangers of the N-332 and of course the farmers have to use it to get to their land.

Información says, the only good thing about the road is that it has very few accidents because it is impossible to drive fast along it. I am in no hurry to test that theory out.

Join my group

Those of you who have visited my Flickr album will have seen some of the photos I have taken here in Spain.

I thought it would be nice to share my pictures and those take by other ex-pats so I have formed a group where they can post their photographs of “Vida en España soleada”.

To join the group and post pictures you need to have an account with Flickr . A FREE  account will allow you to post 100Mb per month and display your last 200 pictures.

Once you have set up your account and uploaded your pictures, you can join my group and post them there.

PS If nobody takes up this offer, then it will just be me and my photos which would be sad to say the least!

Facing the wind

You may have gathered that I have a thing about the wind and wondered why it is such an obsession for me.

I’ve never liked strong wind. However, in previous houses, it hasn’t really been an issue but it is here.

As you can see from this photograph, taken from our rooftop solarium, we have an open aspect to the west. That is because we are more or less at the top of a hill. The aspect gives us good views over to the mountains behind Orihuela and the mountain at the foot of Callosa but it does leave us open to the wind especially when it blows from that direction.

Those houses that you can see in the centre are much more sheltered especially those two in the foreground. They can put netting up on their fences and it will stay there. On our back fence, the netting just gets pulled down every time we have strong to gale force winds. We are on the third type of fencing and none of them have survived.

The other problem we had was with the kitchen door which faces that way as well and has vents top and bottom. When the wind came from the west it used to howl through the vents making the kitchen cold. I’ve covered the vents with foam rubber which has both quietened it down a lot and stopped the cold draught coming through.

I know it is a small price to pay for the views that we have but it is a price we could well do without.