Holy Cross

 

	This coming weekend, the Barrio de la Cruz will be celebrating its annual festival.
	Things start on Saturday 5th May at 10pm with an open air dance featuring Mano Sanchez. On Sunday at11am there will be a parade around the streets. Then at 12am they will celebrate solemn mass in the park. At 2pm they will be serving the grand paella. Finally between 5 and 8pm there will be games for the children.

Something for everyone

In the early seventies my in-laws and my parents used to travel to Benidorm out of season to enjoy a relaxed holiday. If they were still alive, I doubt they would feel so welcome in the town now.

With the changing face of tourism in the town, it is the weekend all inclusive packages that draw stag and hen parties there. Lots of sun, lots of beer and lots of girls or boys and a price of less than a hundred Euros draws the parties in. Benidorm ranks as the number ten choice for these type of parties amongst the Brits.

It isn’t just British stag parties though that head to Benidorm, the Spanish also flock there to celebrate the last nights of freedom. Whilst the Brits prefer the Rincon de Loix , the Spaniards like the old town and the clubs of Levante beach.

Of course, there is still a large trade to be had with adults seeking something a little more cultural but again, it is adults only.

Benidorm is trying to find ways to accommodate all; families, young people who want to be away from children. stag and hen parties and gays looking for somewhere that is gay friendly.  It isn’t easy to cover all these diverse interests but then Benidorm is perhaps big enough to cope without them all spilling into each other. It kind of works in Blackpool so maybe it will work in Benidorm.

A fascinating record

My interest in photography lead me inextricably to an article in the newspaper Información about the Darblade family.

In 1867, the Darblade family left the town of Agen in south west France bound for Murcia. The eldest child fell ill with typhoid and they were advised to stop in Torrevieja whilst he recovered. Having set up camp in the town, they opened a photographic studio, possibly the only one in the Alicante and Murcia provinces.

They started taking pictures using a 18 x 24 plate camera, recording the fishing port and the people of Torrevieja. As their fame spread, so people came to have their pictures taken by the French photographer.

Albert, who had recovered from his illness, followed his father into the business and when Jean died during the Spanish Civil War, he took over. In all three generations of the family worked as photographers in Torrevieja chronicling the life and development of the town. The name still lives on with the firm Darblade-Conesa.  

It would be nice to think that my photographs of events in Bigastro might eventually serve a similar purpose. Who knows, in 100 years or maybe less, people will look back to the record I have made of the town with the same fascination that we have for the Darblade pictures.

Interesting

On Wednesday, Pam and I went down to the branch of our bank where the main account is held. Whilst we were there, we passed the offices of Euro Anglo Sur, the company we bought our house through. We did wonder whether they would still be operating now that the sale of new houses is virtually at a standstill and were pleased to see they are still open for business but are now called Euro Prestige. If you search their site, you will find they are involved in a number of developments throughout the area. 

In the windows of their head office, were a selection of houses for sale including new builds. Of special interest to us were the houses almost identical to ours and others on our estate which are being built at Las Kalendas, Fortuna. There is a website for the community there which shows photos of the area. However, there are also photos of the area which show desolate streets, shoddy construction and empty houses. It seems that part of the development is complete and has a thriving community but other parts are just vacant plots. Quite who the builders are is not clear, it certainly isn’t StarSol who no longer exist.

The politics of the town

The former mayor, Raúl Valerio Medina, the treasurer,  Mari Carmen Alonso  and the secretary Antonio Sáseta are accused of crimes such as embezzlement of public funds, subsidy fraud, fraud and extortion and falsification of documents. The judge in Orihuela has now decided that the claims made against them are admissible. 

This case relates to work on Avenida Apatel which was funded by government money under Plan E. The company, Pastor Median completed the work but were only paid 70% of the money owed to them. It seems that the rest of the grant was diverted to pay for other things. In these circumstances, the government would require the full amount of the grant to be repaid to them.

The court has also set June 13th as the date for the trial of José Joaquín Moya in relation to the case of ‘La Pedrera’. Also implicated in this one are Mari Carmen Grau,  María Jesús Torres, and the municipal secretary, Antonio Sáseta.

This case relates to the sale of land to the company Idearco who paid the council 2m Euros to build a hotel, apartments, a spa, golf course, exhibition halls, a restaurant etc at the top of our road. The plan was not approved by the regional government and so had to be scrapped.  Even if the plan had been passed, the complex would not have been completed because Idearco ran out of money several years later. 

If found guilty of the charges against him, the former mayor faces a ban from public office of up to 9 years and the others 8 years. In a sense, this is all academic because Moya resigned as mayor and from his party anyway. You do see him around the town from time to time but these days most people seem to distance themselves from him.

In my opinion, it would have been better if the socialists had lost the 2007 election. However, that was never going to happen because over the many years of his tenure as mayor, Moya had built up enough votes to see him and his party elected time after time. People in the town either worked for the council or members of their families did. It is also claimed that 180 houses in the town did not pay council tax in return for their votes. My understanding is that the socialists had a stranglehold on the town’s voting population.

At the 2007 election, Aurelio Murcia became spokesperson of the opposition party and the socialists faced a serious challenge to their position. It was he, José Antonio Ricart before him and the PP party brought cases against the socialist mayor and members of his party. In council meeting after council meeting, Murcia challenged Moya and then Medina who followed him. It was only then that the level of corruption became clear to people and they felt confident to vote for the opposition.

At the next election, the PP party dropped Aurelio Murcia because they felt he had too many enemies in the town. They thought they would stand a better chance of gaining power if they had someone more acceptable as their leader and chose Charo Bañuls. Murcia went on to form his own Liberal Central party and gained two seats on the council. In a coalition with the PP, that was enough to unseat the socialists.

Calling all bookworms

The summer months are on their way, time to relax in the sun with a long drink in one hand and a good book in the other. The question is what to read?

You may well have exhausted your supply of books over the cold winter months and are looking for something new to get into. You could order a supply of novels from Amazon or go down to Carrefour and browse the selection of tomes in English they have on sale but I have a better and much cheaper solution for you.

Why not wander up to the La Pedrera Library this Sunday between 3 and 4:30pm and select something from the hundreds of titles they have in store. With such a wide selection available, there is bound to be something to suit your tastes. And, whilst you are there, why not drop off some of those novels that have been taking up space on your shelves, the ones you have read many times. I am sure there is bound to be someone else who will be only too pleased to get their nose into your cast offs. 

PS A Kindle will cost you from £89 upwards (that is without a case) and at least a couple of quid per book to download. Just think how much money you could save and the useful exercise you will get by walking up to La Pedrera! ¡Animate!

Not good for Barca

Things have not been good for Barcelona Football Club this last week. First they lost to Real Madrid which effectively means they will not win the league this year, then they lost out to Chelsea in the Champions’ League and now their coach says he will be leaving at the end of this season.

In his statement to the press, he said that four years as coach was enough. The drive that he had has gone and he needs a rest. Quite what that says about a manager like Alex Ferguson who took over at Manchester United in 1986 and has led the team to countless victories since I don’t know. Still, the decision has been taken and Barcelona will enter a new phase with a new coach.

Just for you

I know that a lot of local people enjoy the photos that I take of events in the town. It may be that some of them would like a copy of a photo or two to save to their computer and even print out. Well soon you will be able to because I am in the process of uploading the photos I took of the catwalk parade and the gala for Manos Unidos into the the public folder of my Microsoft SkyDrive and here is the link.

Of course, if there are photos that you would prefer me not to share in this way, I will remove them. Please let me know by sending me an email with the numbers of the photos you want removing.

PS You will notice that when they turned on the spotlight directed down the catwalk, it acted like bleach on the faces removing all the colour and any shadows – just awful.

Todos con Manu

Children from the infant school La Paz, have linked up with a young boy, Manu and his family to help them. It seems that Manu, who lives in nearby Jacarilla, is not very well and needs an organ transplant. So the children are doing what they can to support him and his family.

As one of the series of activities that the children will be involved with, they have created and exhibition of: collages, paintings, prints ... etc. The theme is  lines, colours and shapes inspired by artists like Kandinsky, Sonia Delaunay, Paul Klee ...

The exhibition will run from the 24th to the 26th April in the multipurpose room of the Municipal Auditorium Francisco Grau. 

Can I just sign up for the tasting?

Those of you not into craftwork might be more interested in this course where you can learn how to make delicious desserts.

As a bonus, you get to taste the results at the end of each class.

A stitch in time….

For those with nimble fingers and a desire to learn. Teresa Garcia Belmonte is running a workshop on ganchillo, bollilos, ponto de cruz, molde and costura which I know you understand means crochet, lace work, cross point, knitting and sewing.

The times are Mondays and Wednesdays at 5pm – not sure when they start though.

My mother did teach me how to knit when I was young but I found that too boring. However she also taught me how to sew using a machine.

In my late twenties -early thirties I made a number of garments: clothes for the children and costumes for their performances on the stage,  dresses for my wife and various items for myself including a very useful pair of waterproof over trousers for cycling which even had a Pertex lining to wick sweat away.

You know there’s more to me than just a shutter clicking finger!

I wonder

It was good that Aquagest finally resolved the leaks in the pipe work under the road by the pumping station. What was not good was that to effect the repair they had to dig up the road in three places.

They filled the holes in with gravel which is a darn sight better than just using soil but they have still sunk leaving suspension crashing dips in the road. Further down towards the town, the constructors of the new house dug a trench across the road to bring services to the building. There they did fill it with soil which we know will wash away the next time we have any rain.

It isn’t just residents of Villas Andrea that use the road, visitors to La Predrera use it as well including the coach loads of children who come to the area for their rural studies. Whilst you can detour around the dips with a car, it might not be so easy to avoid them with a coach. Added to which, the refuse collection lorries must suffer each night as they come to empty the bins.

I understand that it makes sense to let the gravel settle before laying a layer of tarmac but even still, I reckon the company responsible for the work should return now to top up the gravel and ensure that the road is at least level.

When they do eventually decide to lay some tarmac, I hope that they fill in the dips in the road that lay just round the corner which were also caused by the problems at the water pumping station. That bumpy bit of road has been like that for a few years now.

The end of free prescriptions

The cost cutting on health has already started. For the first time, those of us with red prescriptions will have to contribute to the cost of our drugs.

People who earn over 100,000 Euros per year will have to pay 60% of the cost of their prescriptions, those who earn between 18,000 and 100,000 Euros will pay 50% and those earning less than 18,000 Euros will pay 40%.

As for pensioners, I have read two versions of this. In the one, we will be asked to pay 10% of the cost of our prescriptions unless of course we have a pension in excess of 100,000 Euros (I wish) in which case we’d pay 60%. In the other version, the new 'copago' system means that pensioners earning €22,000 or less per year will have to pay up to a maximum of eight Euros extra per month for medicines while those earning more than €22,000 will have to pay an extra €18. I’ve read the second version several times so that is presumably the one which is most accurate.

However, whichever version is correct, it seems that we will no longer get free prescriptions. I guess that means that some will decide to no longer take the pills they are prescribed.

Percuseve

The theatre group Percuseve will be performing their latest production, "Ritmos sobre lienzo" at the Teatro Circo on Saturday, 28th April at 6pm.

Since their performances are for the most part visual, it won’t matter that your Spanish is not up to it.  

Now there is a novel idea

Here in Spain, the lure of jobs in the city has taken young ladies from their rural towns to move to places like Madrid to find work. It seems that his has caused a problem though because with a shortage of ladies, the small towns’ populations are on the decline.

In 1995, a group called Acocamu set up to promote repopulation of rural towns. They organised parties for single men and women by bussing the ladies in from nearby cities especially for the events.

Apparently the scheme has enjoyed a lot of success and in some cases the meetings have led to marriage. 

I don’t think Bigastro needs to take such measures, from what I have seen there are plenty of eligible young ladies in the town. For whatever reason, my camera seems to be drawn to them on occasions like fiestas!

Will it last?

The weather over the last few days has suddenly changed to summer. Apart from a spell of strong winds yesterday and cloud for an hour or so in Sunday, it has been glorious.

Could it be that the cold winter we experienced this year is over? I can tell you we are glad to see the back of that wind which rattled the fly screen on the kitchen door. Would I be tempting fate if I got my shorts out, I wonder?

Eladia Grau

There are a few words in Spanish that we enjoy for the way they sound: one example is equipaje (pronounced ekipaki) which is luggage and another is maquillaje (pronounced makiyaki) which is makeup.

Our neighbour Eladia has a shop in the town where she specialises in make up, nails etc. With her artistic eye and modern outlook, Eladia gets a lot of work for special occasions e.g. weddings. However, it probably isn’t to often that she gets called upon to do something exotic where she can give free rein to her creativity. Saturday was an exception and so, in collaboration with Hairmania, Eladia showed us some of her stunning creations.

 

All change

Those of you who have looked at my album from the Gala last night may be wondering just what was going on with the dancers at the end.

I will try and explain

The dancers started in two lines facing each other. Then they joined their partners and formed a circle. Not content with dancing in a circle, they then performed some convoluting moves to change partners moving to the left or right.

They repeated this manoeuvre several times with perfect timing and fluidity. Nobody lost a partner nor gained two and nobody tripped up as they weaved in and out. It was fascinating to watch.

I reckon you’d have to see it in slow motion to understand the complexity of the task they performed. Marks out of 10 were 10 from all judges.

By God, it was good

Just to prove that it isn’t just in music that the people of Bigastro are talented, last night they put on a show in aid of the charity Manos Unidos. For the 5 Euro entry fee we got a superb night of entertainment. Dancing, singing, music – short of comedy – this show had the lot.

Actually, there was a comic moment when the town’s priest won a prize in the raffle consisting of jewellery and other items suited to a lady.

You can see my pictures from the event here.  

The children stole the show

A very busy weekend – I sold my old lens on Ebay and so had to deal with that and then we had the catwalk show Saturday night. Friends came round for lunch on Sunday and finally, we took them down to see the Gala in aid of Manos Unidos (more from that later).

For the moment, let’s deal with the catwalk show on Saturday. The weather was just perfect, the stage was set and on came the little children dressed up in the finest of clothes. Then we had the older children and finally the adults.

There was something to please everyone, clothes, hairstyles, makeup, flowers and dancing by students from the Estafania Selfa School. It was a truly stunning display which must have taken the organisers a lot of time to prepare but it was all worth it. The models, the children and the clothes looked stunning. 

Inevitable I took lots of photos which then involved me in hours of work processing them. You can see them by clicking on the album in the sidebar or clicking on this link.