Saying farewell

Pam and I are blessed with great neighbours here in Spain – both English and Spanish. Now, however, it is time for our English neighbours to say farewell and we are sorry to see them go.

You do read of serious problems that people have with their neighbours in some cases ending up in court. Pam and I have been very lucky in that respect, we have always got on well with our neighbours in each of the houses we have lived in.

The best you can hope for living next door are people who are unobtrusive and yet there for you to call on when you need help. For most of the time you would have hardly known that Ken and Kay were there which is as good as it gets.

Unfortunately though, it was just too hot here in the summers for Kay so they are moving to France where the summers should be milder. I hope they find somewhere nice and enjoy their new home. I also hope that they keep in touch. 

Farewell Ken and Kay, it has been a real pleasure knowing you.

Rolling back the clock

It was ten years ago that Spain introduced the Euro as its currency  and yet there are still 285,000,000 of the old pesetas in circulation according to the Bank of Spain.

Normally, you would not be able to use these notes anymore. However, an initiative called “Return the peseta to Orihuela” means that, up to the December 10th, you will be able to pay in the old currency in designated shops which carry the MoAb badge at the door.

I don’t know what the rate of exchange will be but I am sure that prices will be a little higher than they were ten years ago!

PS I know there are a lot of Spaniards who still have a longing to return to the peseta but the truth was you needed a wallet full of notes just to buy a decent meal. On the positive side, you didn’t need a small fortune in the bank to be a millionaire.

Times are tough

The number of unemployed persons in Alicante province rose to 212,400 in the third quarter of 2011, an increase of 2,800 over the last quarter. The unemployment rate for the province now stands at a staggering 23.8%.

In the Valencia region, there were 26,100 more people unemployed in the third quarter bringing the jobless total to 617,300 representing a rate of 24.73% of the workforce.

For Spain as a whole, 144,700 more were made jobless during the quarter bringing the overall rate for the country to 21.52% and the total to 4,978,300 (403,600 more than last year at this time) - 1,425,200 homes in Spain have no income at all.

Twelve month ago people were saying that things just could not get worse but they have. All hopes are now pinned on the results of the general election bringing some improvement for the country. Let us hope that we are now at the bottom of the trough otherwise Spain could end up like Greece.

Help to the disabled

The Auditorium in Bigastro will host the presentation of Adis solidarity calendar 2012 (Disabled Association of Vega Baja) tonight at 9pm.

The event will  include performances by children and young people who are members of Adis.

The leaders of the association yesterday wanted to give recognition to the councils that work with their projects: Orihuela, Benejúzar, Rojales, Callosa del Segura, Catral, San Fulgencio, Pilar de la Horadada, Benferri, Ganja de Rocamora, Rafal, Bigastro, Los Montesinos and Algorfa, as well as public entities such as the Diputación, Ivadis, Fundar, Universidad de Alicante, Fundación Inocente Inocente and to  companies like Procumasa, edén del Mar, Línea Gráfica, Icaro, Grupo Quara, Artesanía AC and the Colegio de Graduados Sociales.

The calendar, to which many photographers have contributed, sells for the almost symbolic price of five Euros.

Autumn is here

Summer is definitely over now, for one thing the weather has turned cold and damp (we have the central heating on for the first time since last winter) and the program of cultural activities at the auditorium has started.

Kicking the programme off we have a trio of friends playing Latin American music on saxophone, euphonium and piano

Tuesday November 1st at 18:30 pm in the Municipal Auditorium.

PS In case you hadn’t remembered, Tuesday is All Saints Day – a national holiday here in Spain and on Saturday the clocks go back one hour.

Plans for a future

At a meeting held at the headquarters of the constructor’s organisation Procosta, the mayor of Bigastro, Rosario Bañuls and the deputy mayor, Aurelio Murcia explained that, out of the 2,000  residents of the town who of working age - 1% are currently unemployed. Most of these were employed in the service sector or in construction before the economic crisis took hold.

They went on to say that, when the good times return and construction resumes, Bigastro has two partially completed developments in sectors D-4 and D-5 and another which is urbanised but not yet legal in D-6 along with two which are in the process of being urbanised – D-7 and D-12. In total there is land in the town to build one thousand new homes.

The lady mayor continued by saying that the priority for the town is to legalise sector D-6 so that the houses there can have electricity and water. Then the town wants to move on to facilitate the building of more homes for the people of Bigastro to which Murcia added that there are a thousand foreigners living in the town of which 300 are Europeans who chose to buy homes in Bigastro. The town therefore understands the appeal that it has to those investors as well.

As I have explained several times on this blog, Bigastro may not be the prettiest of Spanish towns that you could find but it does have many other overriding virtues which make it a good place to live. 

Bigastro is a proud town, the people are amongst the friendliest that you will find anywhere and it has a strong sense of culture and tradition. It is an easy place to gain acceptance and  feel that you belong. It is also convenient being far enough inland to be quiet in summer and yet close enough to the coast to make day trips easy. It is also well situated for access to motorways, airports and shopping. Added to which, five minutes away we have the cultural capital of the area, Orihuela with its famous Medieval Market, its Moors and Christian tradition and of course nationally recognised Semana Santa parades.  

Looking up to the heavens

The Department of Education together with the Parent’s Associations at CP San José de Calasanz and IES Miguel Hernandez along with the Science Teachers Association of Hypatia of Alexandria, who have made a study of the climatic conditions of the municipality, are pleased to invite you to OBSERVACIÓN ASTRONÓMICA on Thursday November 3rd at 9:30pm in the courtyard of the old San José de Calasanz building (current facilities of the local police).

The Hypatia of Alexandria Association will explain all the stars and planets that you will see though the telescopes that they will bring. As many will testify, I have long been an admirer of heavenly bodies but not necessarily those that are in the skies above!

I just hope that it is a clear night for them.

More than we hoped for

We were fully expecting Aurelio Murcia, the Councillor for Education, to tell us that there would be no Spanish class for us this year. Our numbers are low and it isn’t as if our understanding of Spanish is going to help the town progress.

But no – at last night’s meeting Aurelio told us that they had found two volunteers, retired people, who were prepared to teach us Spanish on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for one hour at a time. Classes start next Wednesday at 6pm in the Auditorium and will continue at the same time on the three days each week.

That is much more than we had hoped for and we are very grateful to Aurelio for all the work he must have done to put this together. I am sure the two volunteers will find us amiable and will get as much pleasure out of teaching us as we will out of learning from them.

The  town hall have also found volunteers to teach the Spanish ladies from the other classes and so they will enjoy three hours of lessons each week like us. 

As I have said, we are very grateful that a solution has been found that will enable our class to continue. We will, of course find ways to express our gratitude to the two volunteers. 

English in 209 hours

SERVEF is organising a course in English for 15 people. Although those wishing to take part need to sign up at the office of the Mancomunidad here in Bigastro, there are no details on the poster of where the course will be held.

Four hours of language tuition will be hard going for the participants but all kudos to those who take part. A command of English can open doors for employment in a wide range of countries as well as in Spain. 

Important meeting

Tonight, at 8:30pm, there will be a meeting at the Auditorium Francisco Grau with Aurelio Murcia, Councillor for Education regarding the Spanish for Foreigners class. I would urge all of you who are interested in learning Spanish to attend.

Difficult times for politicians

As Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy dither, the chances of the Eurozone taking the world back into economic crisis increase. In the meantime, David Cameron, fearful of a rebellion by his backbenchers, tried to use a three line whip to force a vote against Britain pulling out of Europe.  As he said, “when your neighbour’s house is on fire, you do all you can to help put it out and at the same time protect your own property”.

As it happened, the vote went against a referendum in 2013 but 79 of the government’s back benchers chose to ignore the whip. That is perhaps bad news for the Prime Minister who may be seen by some as having lost control of his party. It may spell further problems for him in the future.

I have no doubt that, if Britain held a referendum, it could well lead to the withdrawal of Britain from Europe because the eurosceptics would campaign vigorously to that end. David Cameron was right to stand against that possibility because he knows that Britain needs a voice in Europe if it is to avoid the economic catastrophe that is looming on the horizon. 

More new words for my vocabulary

This notice on the Bigastro web site instructs us to restrict burning waste materials from the fields between sun up and 12am. It applies to areas within 500 metres of forested areas and areas of cultivation.

I’d already come across the word amanecer which is Spanish for  dawn but not orto which means sun up.  Colindantes is another new word for me as well – it means adjoining or adjacent to and is therefore different to “a lado de” which means to the side of. 

These could be lifesavers

I read this morning that the Mancomunidad of Economic Promotion of the Vega Baja has five hundred tracker devices stored at their headquarters in Bigastro. They were bought through the Advanced Program launched by the Ministry of Industry at a cost of over 200,000 Euros and were meant to be used by the elderly  because the GPS system incorporated in them allows the wearer to be tracked in real time.

They are the sort of thing that would have been extremely useful when Pamela’s father started wandering as his dementia set in. With a tracker fitted we could have located him day and night which would have relieved a lot of stress at that time. 

You can imagine that with so many municipalities involved, deciding how many go to each and who should be the recipients was a task and a half which is why they are still in store.

However, such valuable equipment needs to be used not stored.  Thankfully, the new president of the association, Charo Bañuls says that the logistics of setting up the program to allow these trackers to be allocated will now be addressed.

Weather watch

Since we have been back home, the weather has become unsettled; only to be expected after all it is autumn.

We could see a drop of rain today but then things should clear up for a couple of days. The bad news is that the rain could well return with a vengeance on Thursday and continue over next weekend.

So, if you have plans for trips out best make them this week otherwise you could be rained off.

British couple died when the market was flooded

Kenneth Hall, 72, and his wife, Mary, 70, from Bootle, Merseyside, were at the market in Finestrat, near Benidorm, when torrential rain caused a river to burst its banks at about midday on Friday.

The Halls are understood to have been dragged away in the current as water flowed through the marketplace, overwhelming cars and stalls. According to local reports, the couple's bodies were found trapped under a trailer. Two other people were taken to hospital, while a 90-year-old was missing but was later found unharmed in a nearby street, according to Spanish media.

The couple had three sons, Kenneth, Keith and Chris, and a daughter, Carol, who had recently given birth. The Halls had also recently become great-grandparents.

Friends described the retired holidaymakers as "the most devoted couple you would ever want to meet". The couple, who were on holiday in the area, were shopping at the market when a wave up to a metre high surged through a ravine and hit traders and customers.

Questions are now being asked about whether the incident could have been avoided after it emerged that the local council had been fined for building the marketplace on a ravine bed without obtaining the necessary permission.

The ravine bed was covered with an asphalt base that can prevent water from draining away during thunderstorms. The Spanish environment ministry had told the council not to hold public events there until further work had been carried out, according to local reports.

Black Sunday

There is no denying that football is a fickle game, one week you are on top of the world because you have won – the next you are terminally depressed because things did not go your team’s way. Manchester United started the season with some unbelievable score lines but sadly that period came to an end in an abrupt fashion with a 6-1 trouncing at home by, of all teams, Manchester City.

There was no denying the club’s enviable record of 38 home games without defeat. However, you knew that would come to an end sometime but you’d never have expected it to happen in such a spectacular way and to their Manchester rivals. The only way it could have been worse would have been if they had suffered a similar loss to their bitter rivals - Liverpool.

This result must have really hurt their manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. The last time Manchester United were humbled so comprehensively by Manchester City was a a 5-1 defeat at Maine Road in September 1989. A 6-1 defeat will certainly have hurt him even more. "I can't believe it," he said. "It's our worst-ever day."

United have not lost this heavily at home to City since 1926. One more goal for Roberto Mancini's team would have equalled United's worst home defeat, inflicted by Newcastle United the following year. As for Ferguson, his record books have been scarred forever. "It's the worst result in my history, ever," he said. "Even as a player I don't think I ever lost 6-1. It's an incredible disappointment."

The City manager tried to play down the achievement when he was asked whether defeating United so comprehensively represented one of the more satisfying results of his career. "No," he replied, "I'm satisfied because we beat United away and I don't think there are a lot of teams that could win here. But in the end there are only three points – we don't take six points."

Mancini went on to say,  "This is important for our confidence but we should appreciate the mentality United have. United are too strong for this to affect them. They know, like me, there are only three points and this is only one game." United, he said, are "still one yard above us. We can change this only after we win the title. After that, maybe it will be different but, for now, United are still better than us." With 5 points clear of United and a goal difference margin of 12, that was very magnanimous.

However, as my son in law always remarks, “winning the league is a marathon not a sprint”. One lost game does not spell the end of United’s campaign for this year but it will jolt their confidence and worse still,  fans of opposing teams will remind them of this result for a long time to come.

I don’t think I need say any more on this subject. Dave, I am gutted for you.

The dilemma for the post war generation

An article in today’s Telegraph says that those of us who are in our sixties should feel privileged. As the writer says, we enjoyed free love, free school meals, free university education and are now reaping the benefits of well defined pension plans.

However, as the article points out, the greatest benefit for us has been the growth in house prices over the last forty years. We might have struggled for the first years with our mortgage payments but as our earnings grew the ratio of payment to income diminished. When Pam and I retired, the amount we paid for our mortgage each month was less than 4% of our income.

The article goes on to say that, with the wealth that we post war “baby boomers” have accumulated, there are tough decisions to be made. Should we use that money to help out our children who face a far more precarious financial future than us or should we be mindful that we may need that money to finance our own old age. We have to face the reality that our physical and mental health may well decline to the point where we need residential care which will not be provided for us by the state; nor will it be provided for by our children – why should it be? The days when you looked after your parents in your home are long gone.

I remember when my parents sold the shop that they ran in Cawthorne, South Yorkshire, my father wanted to divide the money between my brother and I there and then. My mother, being more prudent, argued that they might need that money themselves. She knew that, once it was given away, they would be left high and dry without any savings to fall back on; their sole resources would be their pensions. My mother was right, having brought up her children and supported them into adulthood, it was up to us to create our own financial resources. Although it is natural to take care of your children and help them as much as you can, you must remember to also take care of your own needs as well. 

One thing is certain in all this, it takes a lot longer to earn and save money than it does to spend it!

Another chance to benefit

Another chance to help the Association for Families of Alzheimer suffers. This popular flea market also offers you  an opportunity to pick up a bargain.

The end of Eta

Half a century of bloodshed in the Basque country came to a historic close when the separatist group Eta finally renounced the use of arms and sought talks with the Spanish and French governments.

Three leaders in masks announced that the group was calling a final halt to the use of bombs and bullets in a video circulated to news media both in SPain and other countries.

"Eta has decided the definitive cessation of its armed activity," they said. Eta was following a peace script put together with the help of mediators led by the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, after a year in which it had observed a unilateral ceasefire.

Annan's group made its petition late on Monday, urging Eta to make "a public declaration of the definitive cessation of all armed action". Leaders of the separatist left publicly backed the call the next day.

That is of course good news. The cause lost impetus as more and more leaders of the group were arrested and Basque people no longer saw the bloodshed as a legitimate means to an end. Still in its time, Eta was responsible for over 800 deaths and many more wounded.

Nanny state

Britain really is becoming a nanny state where people are not given the responsibility for their own actions. I already knew that you can’t buy paracetemol in packs of more than 16 just in case you rather stupidly fail to read the directions and overdose. Nothing to stop you going back for another pack though!

It seems the same applies to other medicines as well.

Pamela wanted some Imodium and so she called in at a chemist’s whilst we were in Sale. The lady behind the counter was reluctant to let her have more than one pack though and even suggested that Pam should go to see the doctor if she had a persistent problem. It was only when Pam told the lady we lived in Spain and that she was stocking up that the assistant was convinced. 

So, it is OK to drink yourself into oblivion on a Saturday night in Blackpool and have to be taken to A&E (emergency department in hospital)  to have your stomach pumped out but not to buy too many pain killers.