Back to school

When Pam and I taught in the UK, the last thing we wanted to see were signs which said “Back to School” appear in the shops just as we had broken up for the summer holiday.

As students though, we view this from a different perspective. Going back to our Spanish class will be like meeting old friends again – a joyful reunion.

Of course there is always room for more in our class and we would love to have new students join us. The atmosphere is very informal and we do spend a lot more time speaking and listening than we do on writing and learning grammar.

Our teacher encourage us to use the correct form of verbs and the appropriate prepositions but in a way that hardly makes you think that you are learning. In a short while, your find vocabulary expands and you can make yourself understood in conversations.

Life in Spain is so much richer when you can converse with more than just your English speaking friends.

To enrol, just pop down to the Ayuntamiento before September and we wil see you in class in October.

A day for young musical talent

In total there will be 10 junior bands from the region who will be playing at the Auditorium in Bigastro this Sunday 3rd July.

At 10am

- BANDA JOVEN DE LA S.U.M. DE ALMORADÍ
- BANDA JOVEN DE LA S.U.M. SAN MIGUEL ARCANGEL DE DAYA NUEVA
- BANDA JOVEN DE LA U.M. SAN FULGENCIO
- BANDA JOVEN DE LA UNION LIRICA ORCELITANA
- BANDA JOVEN DE LA S.U.M. LA CONSTANCIA DE CATRAL
- BANDA JOVEN DE LA U.M. DE BIGASTRO

And at 6pm

- BANDA INFANTIL MONTESINOS
- BANDA JOVEN DE LA S.U.M. DE CREVILLENT
- BANDA JUVENIL DE LA ESC. DE MUSICA NUEVA U.M. DE GRANJA DE ROCAMORA
- BANDA JOVEN DE LA SOCIEDAD U.M. SAN ISIDRO

We’re all going to the zoo

 

For those used to sophisticated, hi-tech zoos like Chester and Whipsnade, the zoo at Elche might seem a little primitive. It is delightful though to be able to get up close to animals and even feed them rather than have to view from a distance. If you are going, take a bunch of carrots for the giraffe because he seems to like them. 

A work of art

This must have taken a great deal of patience not to mention care to produce. The picture is made up of different coloured flower petals and leaves. At the top it says Corpus and at the bottom Bigastro 2011.

All that work and within a few hours it would be all cleared away.

Corpus

Sunday evening we had the parade for Corpus Christi.

Following mass at 8pm, the children came out of the church and lined up around a pattern of flower petals and leaves that someone had carefully prepared in the town square.

Then the parade set off with the junior band taking the lead followed by the various church groups, the children in the communion clothes, town councillors and the main band.

Bringing up the rear were many of the townsfolk carrying lighted candles.

Every year this parade takes place and every year, it is well attended. You see, traditional values and culture form the cornerstones of society in Bigastro.

A little preoccupied

You will have to excuse me if posts are a bit erratic for the next couple of weeks. We have our youngest daughter and her fiancé  over and with them of course, our granddaughter Molly.

It is very hard to draw yourself away from Molly and her antics.

I don’t recall our own children being this amusing – they probably were but we just did not notice it. Everyone told us having grandchildren will change your lives and they were right.

Anyway, it looks like they are going to have good weather for their stay. Plenty of sunshine and no chance of rain.

A very bleak picture for Bigastro

It seems that the black hole in Bigastro’s finances is much worse than the new lady mayor Charo Bañuls had anticipated before coming into office.

In a press conference with Aurelio Murcia, she explained that one of the main issues the new council faces is a debt of almost one million Euros to Social Services. Added to which are other debts amounting to 735,000 Euros including non-payment of VAT going back to 2004.

The most serious debts though, are the salaries of the 100 council employees which date back four months. You do wonder how they have survived without payment for so long – it must have been a nightmare for them each month facing bills that they could not pay.

Even the company that offers catering services to the pre-school Bigastrin are owed 114,000 Euros in spite of the fact that parents pay 70 Euros a month for this service.

And the fear is that there may be more to come because in the two weeks since coming to power, the new administration have not had a chance to examine all the accounts in depth.

Well worth the wait

It might not have started until just after 11pm but boy what a performance the town band gave us last night at the concert for Corpus Christi.

There were some very tricky solo pieces which were played with such ease and musicality, it was a joy to listen to them.

Every time we hear the band, we think they have reached new heights of achievement– is it any wonder that they keep picking up prizes in competitions.

Muchisimo gracias a todo musicos.

Clearing up rubbish is someone else's job

Spaniards have many excellent qualities to commend them; they are warm and friendly, compassionate and caring and definitely fun loving. One thing they are not though is litter conscious as those councils that are facing the task of clearing up after the night of San Juan can probably testify to.

Actually, a walk down the street after any fiesta will show you that Spaniards regard the road as their waste bin, a place that someone else will clear up after they have gone. It is the same with the people who drive up to Villas Andrea and sit chatting by the park. When they leave, the road and the park are strewn with empty bottles, cigarette packets, pizza boxes, paper etc. That is in spite of the fact that the rubbish bins are just a few strides away round the corner.

Actually there were rubbish bins on posts by the benches on the way down to the town which the council used to empty regularly, that is until the vandals snapped them off and threw them over the fence onto the land beyond. Now the rubbish just gets thrown on the pavement to mix in with the dog dirt.

I was always taught to either put rubbish in a bin or, if there wasn’t a bin nearby, in my pocket until I got home - I still do that without even thinking about it. Dropping any sort of rubbish on the ground is therefore alien to me. I remember sitting in a bar in Bigastro with a friend who was smoking a cigar. He asked the owner for an ashtray and she told him to use the floor. He could not bring himself to do that and had to literally insist on having an ashtray which she reluctantly brought him.

A conflict of interests

The towns in this area are justly proud of their beaches which easily surpass the “blue flag” standard for cleanliness and safety. At his time of the year and throughput the summer people flock to them to relax in the sun and have a swim and parents take their children knowing that they should be safe to play on the sand.

One of the things which is therefore not permitted on beaches is the lighting of fires and yet on the night of San Juan thousands flock to them to do precisely that.

The General Directorate of Coasts, aware that this is a custom that is growing in popularity, tried to ban the lighting of fires last night by sending a letter to all of the coastal municipalities saying, "we will not allow the lighting of fires or the holding of mass rallies in the seashore and request their cooperation in the night of San Juan is held without detrimental effect on the coast and their users. "

Some municipalities ignored this directive claiming that it was physically impossible to stop the thousands of people from going to the beach, so the local police turned a blind eye to what was going on.

This morning, those town councils, are paying the price because their beaches are littered with waste food, empty bottles, burning embers from the fires, nails from the wood and even human excrement. This all has to be thoroughly cleaned up before the bathers arrive.

Inevitably accidents occur in the days after San Juan where people cut their feet on broken glass or the nails from the wood. That is why the requests to light fires are always turned down. Mass parties, particularly where they light fires are not compatible with the normal use of beaches.

As the revellers from last night sleep off the excesses of their night of “fun”, the rest of us have to hope that our beaches will be made safe once again today.

I'm no killjoy, if people want to celebrate San Juan by lighting fires, let them do so on private land where it will not inconvenience others.

Will it be hot or wet?

You hear all sorts of conflicting reports about what sort of summer we will have this year. Yesterday I was told it was going to be wetter than usual and today I read that it will be hotter than normal – maybe it will be both!

The state weather agency AEMET says that we can expect the first heat wave to arrive in the west and the south of Spain by either Sunday or early next week. They reckon that temperatures could reach 40 degrees centigrade in some parts of the country. Following that, they say that July and August will see above average temperatures.

And now for our immediate concern; the clouds that rolled in yesterday afternoon could well persist for today and tomorrow with perhaps a chance of a shower or two and then the sun will return on Saturday bringing temperatures back into the mid 30s with just a light breeze from the west to cool things off and no chance of rain whatsoever.

Meantime in Britain, an anticyclone centred over Scotland is keeping the country covered in cloud. Our youngest daughter, her fiancé and our beautiful granddaughter along with our frineds Glenys and Peter are due to arrive on Saturday, by all accounts they will be leaving a rainy Britain to find glorious sunshine here in Bigastro.

And for those living elsewhere, the good news is that most of continental Europe should have a hot summer this year.

Setting the record straight

On Wednesday in my post  We are proud to call Bigastro “our town” I said that “one of our neighbours formed a golf society”. I have since been reminded that in fact there was more than one person involved in setting up the golf society.

I apologise for this piece of misinformation and for any ill feeling that might have caused.

Wayne Rooney’s hair

Premature baldness is perhaps more of a worry for footballers, pop stars and Donald Trump than it is for the rest of us.

Remember when Elton John had a hair transplant and we all waited to see how it would turn out? Judging by his appearance at the Royal Wedding – not good.

The latest so called “star” to undergo treatment is England and Manchester United footballer, Wayne Rooney. The Guardian newspaper asked its readers to send in pictures of what he might look like once his new hair transplant has taken root.

This is the winner. Coleen might not like the 60s style too much but at least it would give him a cushion when he heads the ball into the goal net.

Oooh, arrgh, no, no, no……

I don’t know where or when it started from but I certainly don’t remember tennis players of old making as much noise as today’s younger players. It seems that a loud grunt has to accompany every serve and every shot they make during a rally. It is almost like listening to a seedy porn film.

As the Wimbledon Championships celebrates its 125th anniversary this year Mr Ritchie, the chief executive of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club (AELTC), said that not only officials but also fans are becoming frustrated with loud players who they believe are spoiling the game. He blamed younger players, whom he said suffered from an “education problem” about the issue.

On the first day of the championships, Victoria Azarenka, of Belarus, a player often criticised for her wails, edged towards record noise levels as she made her debut on Court No 2. Noise machines recorded her reach a level of 95 decibels as she shrieked her way through the first round match against Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova.It was not not only at the volume but also the length of her roars, which exceeded 1.5 seconds almost every time she hit the ball before play was suspended due to rain.

This is not the first time that the fourth seed Azarenka, 21, has been forced to defend her noisy play - spectators began to mimic the din she made two years ago.

“People can do whatever they want but I hope they can respect all the players who grunt, which are about 70 per cent of the whole tour,” she said.

“I have been doing it since I was 10 years old. I wasn’t really strong and that was what helped me to accelerate more, to put more power to the ball.

“I cannot change it, that’s what helps me to play. I have to keep going with the thing that helps me play.”

The loudest known grunter on court was Maria Sharapova, who sent the sound monitor into new realms with a recording of 105 decibels in 2009.

If this racket (pun intended) continues, we may have to watch the games with the sound turned off!

A great result

Our band won 2nd prize on Saturday at the entrance parade of bands celebrating the Bonfires of San Juan in Alicante.

Members of the Musical Union of Bigastro participated in this important event accompanying the Commission "Fogueres Carolinas" and got 2nd prize out of the 91 participating bands. The scoring criteria for the jury were: the staging, the way they paraded and the sound of the band.

We, along with the City of Bigastro and the Department of Culture, offer our warmest congratulations to all of the band members who took part.

Go girl go!

As we have discovered, a handful of votes in the local elections one way or another can make a difference as to who gets to rule at the town hall. A mistake made in the count at one of the voting tables is therefore taken very seriously. In Torrevieja, the United Left have contested the count at one of the voting tables which has led to a delay in the inauguration of the mayor.

They face the same same problem in Mojacar where the election was a closely fought contest which the Partido Popular party (PP) won by a single seat majority. However that may be all changed because Jessica Simpson, an English councillor who won a seat with her Mojacar Positiva Se Mueve party, said that errors were made on one of the voting tables.

Ms Simpson said: "There were seven voting tables and on one of the tables the PP were counted as having 121 votes and two void votes, which would have given them a total six seats of a possible 13.

"The count was signed off but ten minutes later they did a recount and suddenly it changed to 122 votes and one void, which then gave them seven seats and an overall majority”.

A separate investigation, again ordered by Ms Simpson, is simultaneously underway into allegations that the PP paid the Roma community for their postal vote, although this claim, she says, will be harder to substantiate.The average postal vote take up across Spain was between two and three per cent, yet it came in at 18 per cent in Mojacar.

The piece of evidence that Ms Simpson has to support her claim is the handwriting on the postal vote envelopes which she says is all the same adding that it's not unheard of for people to receive €150-200 for their postal vote.

Already the expat's arrival on the local political scene is making waves in what is a small town of 10,000 people, made up of 70 per cent foreigners. Ms Simpson relocated to Mojacar from Nottinghamshire with her parents in 1987, when the local mayor set about stimulating the local economy by selling off empty houses to foreigners at discounted prices. The result was that 45% of the population are now English and only 30% Spanish.

PS I'd like to bet that the make up of the council does not reflect the demographics of the population!

Mosquito season

With the rise in temperatures, we can expect the return of mosquitoes, those annoying little insects that bite and can leave you itchy for days.

In Orihuela and around the salt lakes in Torrevieja they spray insecticide at approximately two weekly intervals between the months of May and September in an attempt to control them. The idea is to try and kill the insects before they hatch from their eggs but it doesn’t always work; people still get bitten and if the conditions are right, the insects can go on a breeding frenzy and cause a lot of suffering.

So far this year, there has been no evidence of mosquitoes although there are people who have suffered bites. There has been a plague of small white flies though that no one seems to be able to explain.

Another date for the diary

Friday, June 24 at 11pm ( I need to check that because the programme says 9pm)
Corpus Concert
Under the direction of D. Tomás Rodríguez, the Unión Musical de Bigastro will celebrate Corpus Christi.

More of the same

	A hot start to the week but then getting a little cooler towards the weekend.
	Friday could be the only day when we see any significant amount of cloud about. No chance of any rain though.

It isn’t just towns in the area that owe money

According to the Spanish daily El Pais, the Valencia Region has debts of about €1.3 billion relating just to unpaid healthcare bills from the last two fiscal years, 2009 and 2010. It is further alleged that the region will have another “black hole” in its funding of €1.3 billion for the current year.

Last March, small healthcare suppliers, who had not been paid by the Valencia regional government for some time, where so desperate to highlight their plight that they formed a group to represent their cause, and try to recoup some of their outstanding invoices from Valencia.

The worrying fact is that, last year the debt of the Valencia Region stood at some €17.6 billion, which equates to around 17% of the region’s Gross Domestic Product. Simply to meet interest payments on this debt requires €680 million per quarter, or €2.7 billion per year.

The crisis that has beset certain European countries comes when they are unable to finance the repayment of loans on the debts they built up through years of mismanagement and overspending. The same principal applies to a regional government as we have in Valencia, which, according to El Pais, is the most indebted region in the whole of Spain.

As with the small healthcare providers who have not been paid their bills e.g. local chemist’s shops not being given their prescription payments. Eventually the region’s financial crisis will hit individuals and businesses alike. At that point the s*** will hit the fan!