Good Friday in Torrevieja

There are those who will tell you that once you have seen the parades on Good Friday, there is little point in going again. That is not true, each year you see something new that maybe was missed on a previous occasion. The thousands who lined the streets of Torrevieja last night were treated to a wonderful piece of pageantry. 

One thing though that was noticeable this year were the cuts in the number of sweets being handed out which in my opinion is not a bad thing. Handing out sweets may hold the attention of the children watching but it does detract somewhat from the religious message that is supposedly being conveyed.

Having said that, you will find the children handing out sweets and collecting them in my set of photos.

A response from Charles

One of my readers, Charles Smythe responds to my item about the cyber attack.

They say that the Internet is made up of 80% torrents and sex sites; the remaining 20% can be largely queried whereby most of which one reads is just plain nonsense. Your article 'A Possible Explanation' is one such example. It's just not true!
The Internet "War" which has been so prevalent over the past few days on news' sites is purely a distraction from other major stories around the world which have either been under-reported or ignored.
In your report there is scant evidence to suggest that anything actually happened at all. How gullible people really are, dragged into stories which have no basis of truth:
http://gizmodo.com/5992652/that-internet-war-apocalypse-is-a-lie

Thank you Charles for pointing this out.

I am no expert on these matters, I merely reported what I had read for several quality news sources including the Telegraph, the Guardian and the BBC. There is no doubt that the attack took place and was in fact the largest attack of its kind. Several sources agree that this may well be only the first of many attacks on the Internet of this sort to happen in 2013.

However, opinions differ about the problems that these assaults on the Internet cause. Gizmodo seem to think that the issues were insignificant and report data to show how little was affected this time; others tend to disagree. In the end, we are dealing as much with people’s opinions on these matters as we are facts.

Much of what I write on my blog is opinion, based in most cases on truth and that is a fact!

Repairs to La Paz

The infant school La Paz in Bigastro was built 21 years ago and in all that time nobody has noticed that the vents to circulate air under the floor are in fact false. This issue only came to light whilst technicians were investigating problems with the heating. Without these vents, condensation can build up under the floor and weaken it. Luckily, the floor at La Paz is still sound but still needs those ventilation grids to keep it dry.

To add to this, there is also a problem with  the electrical wiring. Teachers say that the electrical panel smokes and sparks come from sockets when you plug anything in to them. The problem is caused by the old wiring which cannot cope with the increasing demand placed on it.

Unfortunately, the 10,000 euros cost of all this work will have to be met by the town council but that does include putting a roof on the pergola to replace the trees that currently provide shade.

A possible explanation

Yesterday, the picture on our Skype call to Molly kept freezing. When we disconnected and started again, the picture would come back but then after a minute or so would freeze again. It was a very frustrating experience!

Today, I have found what might be the reason for our problems in this article from the Guardian. 

Spamhaus, which operates a filtering service used to weed out spam emails, has been under attack since 18 March after adding a Dutch hosting organisation called Cyberbunker to its list of unwelcome internet sites. The service has "made plenty of enemies", said one expert, and the cyber-attack appeared to be retaliation.

A collateral effect of the attack is that internet users accustomed to high-speed connections may have seen those slow down, said James Blessing, a member of the UK Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) council.

"It varies depending on where you are and what site you're trying to get to," he said. "Those who are used to it being really quick will notice." Some people accessing the online streaming site Netflix reported a slowdown.

Spamhaus offers a checking service for companies and organisations, listing internet addresses it thinks generate spam, or which host content linked to spam, such as sites selling pills touted in junk email. Use of the service is optional, but thousands of organisations use it millions of times a day in deciding whether to accept incoming email from the internet.

Cyberbunker offers hosting for any sort of content as long, it says, as it is not child pornography or linked to terrorism. But in mid-March Spamhaus added its internet addresses to its blacklist.

In retaliation, the hosting company and a number of eastern European gangs apparently enlisted hackers who have in turn put together huge "botnets" of computers, and also exploited home and business broadband routers, to try to knock out the Spamhaus system.

"Spamhaus has made plenty of enemies over the years. Spammers aren't always the most lovable of individuals, and Spamhaus has been threatened, sued and [attacked] regularly," noted Matthew Prince of Cloudflare, a hosting company that helped the London business survive the attack by diverting the traffic.

Rather than aiming floods of traffic directly at Spamhaus's servers – a familiar tactic that is easily averted – the hackers exploited the internet's domain name system (DNS) servers, which accept a human-readable address for a website (such as guardian.co.uk) and spit back a machine-readable one (77.91.248.30). The hackers "spoofed" requests for lookups to the DNS servers so they seemed to come from Spamhaus; the servers responded with huge floods of responses, all aimed back at Spamhaus.

Some of those requests will have been coming from UK users without their knowledge, said Blessing. "If somebody has a badly configured broadband modem or router, anybody in the outside world can use it to redirect traffic and attack the target – in this case, Spamhaus."

Many routers in the UK provided by ISPs have settings enabled which let them be controlled remotely for servicing. That, together with so-called "open DNS" systems online which are known to be insecure helped the hackers to create a flood of traffic.

"British modems are certainly being used for this," said Blessing, who said that the London Internet Exchange — which routes traffic in and out of the UK — had been helping to block nuisance traffic aimed at Spamhaus.

The use of the DNS attacks has experts worried. "The No 1 rule of the internet is that it has to work," Dan Kaminsky, a security researcher who pointed out the inherent vulnerabilities of the DNS years ago, told AP.

"You can't stop a DNS flood by shutting down those [DNS] servers because those machines have to be open and public by default. The only way to deal with this problem is to find the people doing it and arrest them."

Is Spain a safe haven for your money?

Events in Cyprus have caused doubts in the minds of those who have substantial deposits in banks elsewhere. For example, if Spain was to request a bailout, would the same conditions be applied meaning that savers would lose money.

Mariano Rajoy, in a joint conference with François Hollande  on Tuesday was at pains to point out that this could not happen in Spain. Both the leaders stated that the 'guarantee of deposits is irrevocable'.

The main difference between Cyprus and other members of the Economic Union is that many of the savers on the island are not from the European Union.

No good news

The Bank of Spain says that the economy will sink deeper into recession this year. The prediction is for the economy to shrink by 1.5% following the contraction last year of 1.4%.

This is a result of dire domestic demand and a weakening external sector. Unemployment is forecast to rise yet again to 27.1%. 

Actually there is some good news for us because Pam is interested in buying herself a car. In the present economic climate, I have no doubt that we will be able to secure a great deal from the garage.

Return of the she- devil

One of the emblematic pieces on display during Holy Week in Orihuela is the Triumph of the Cross, the she-devil carved by Nicholas de Bussy in the late eighteenth century which was presented to the guild of farmers in 1795.

It was looking dull and faded and so has been completely restored by the Valencian Institute for Conservation and Restoration.

The technicians removed layers of paint and varnish, is some parts twelve of them. In doing so they have revealed detail that had been lost for example, drops of blood at the foot of the cross, the glass eyes of the angels and the sundial beneath the skeleton.

First the whole piece was treated to eliminate any woodworm by placing it in a sealed bag and then removing oxygen. In some parts it was necessary to inject resin to consolidate the wood. Then the process of cleaning began. Nails that had been added at the base of the sculpture were removed along with staples that held the shroud to the cross. Cracks were filled and the clouds were restored with a layer of silver. Finally the paintwork was restored in such a way that the original colours have been maintained. 

The piece is now back in Orihuela fully restored.

Top tip

If your car needs an ITV, make your appointment online like I did. Having booked my car, in I joined the cars in line waiting their turn. Within minutes I was called through and had to weave around the parked cars to get to my appointed bay.

Those of you who have visited an ITV centre will know that the longest part of the job is usually waiting your turn. Once you are in the bay, the process takes roughly ten minutes to complete during which time the technician checks the lights, wipers, suspension, brakes, emissions and the condition of the underside of the vehicle. In all it is a thorough list undertaken with speed and efficiency.

By the time I had parked the car and walked to the office, all the paperwork was done and I was handed the test report with the all important windscreen sticker dated 2015. 

Back in court for case number 2

October 28th 2008, the mayor of Bigastro was arrested by the Guardia Civil pending investigation of several cases brought against him. He was imprisoned and subsequently resigned both as mayor and member of the socialist party.

Last September, José Joaquín Moya was sentenced to seven years of ineligibility to hold public office. He, along with the secretary Antonio Saseta, sold off 35,000 sq metres of protected land at La Pedrera in 2005 without the authority of the Consell. Idearco, the company that acquired the land for 2.1 million euros, were intending to build an aparthotel with conference facilities along with a golf course  on the land. 

Yesterday, Moya was back in court for the second trial. This time the prosecution are asking for a 15 month prison sentence along with a further disqualification of 9 years.

The case against Moya relates to the granting of a licence to his cousin’s company (Eurener) to build a solar farm at La Pedrera in 2006. There should have been a report of community interest and a report of environmental impact completed before hand but in fact neither was completed. Bulldozers arrived to clear the ground and 7,000 sq metres of naturalised land  was destroyed before Seprona (the nature conservation service of the Guardia Civil) intervened.

In reply to questioning in court about this issue, Moya replied “I do not know”, “I agree”, “If I signed…”. He claimed be unaware of any law that prevented him from granting a license and if he had known it was wrong, then he would not have signed the agreement.

When questioned by the prosecution, Moya refused to answer but instead left his lawyer to speak for him. The defence seems to rest on the belief that municipalities have the autonomy to make these  sort of decisions. This may be a grey area but then Moya, who had many years in office, would have known that without the permission of Valencia, the work should not have been allowed to commence as it did. 

Is there no end to it?

We are sick of this wind now – enough I say – be gone!

We get a few days of respite and then the wind returns to blow strong again. As you can see from this graph, the gusts yesterday were quite strong, not as bad as we have experienced but still not good.

It did calm down last night as you can see but has picked up again this morning. It is forecast to calm later but then return on the following days peaking next Saturday.

Of course, sods law, the wind is coming from the west which means it is blowing from Orihuela straight at the open back to our garden.

Top marks to Amazon

Having watched many of Jamie Oliver’s 15 minute meals on Viajar, Pam decided that we should try out his method of preparation and cooking. That meant getting a food processor and liquidiser to speed things up. We therefore ordered one from Amazon UK with free super saver delivery and awaited its arrival.

Items ordered at the same time arrived last Thursday and Friday so we were wondering where this item might be.

Amazon use MRW for super saver delivery which is good because their local office is in Almaradi just down the road. They tend to bring parcels out by about 10am which does not disrupt the day and if, for some reason we have to collect the items, it is not far to go.

According to my account, the package had been handed over to the carrier and according to MRW they were waiting for it to arrive – a bit of a mystery. That was solved yesterday when I got an email to say that the processor had been returned to Amazon and that I would be refunded the total price paid. I contacted Amazon via their web site and they  phoned me. It seems the package was damaged in transit and was therefore never going to arrive.

Top marks go to Amazon for not sending out faulty goods and for providing a timely refund. I shall now have to reorder.

Finding money out of thin air

Bigastro owes the company Pavasal 284,000 euros for work done in the town. The debt dates back to 2008 when the socialists were in power. Last year the company won their court case to recover the money along with interest and legal costs which brought the debt to 376,834 euros and now they want to be paid.

The mayor, Charo Bañuls , says she has no idea how they can make such a payment given that the council has little or no money. This item will be discussed at today’s council meeting along with final approval of the plan for Sector D-6 and of course the state of the town’s finances.

Domingo de Ramas

This morning started out dull and cloudy, not the weather that was needed for Palm Sunday. Just as the parade was arriving at the park though, the sun broke through to warm the mass of people gathered there.

As you might expect, children were in their Sunday best clothes and carried palm decorations, some of which had been adorned with flowers and ribbons to match their clothing.

Sr. Aurelio Ferrándiz García, parish priest in Bigastro, blesses the palms in park and then leads the parade to the gates.

Caught snacking

Our neighbour Eladia enjoying an afternoon snack with her friends at Café & Garden, Maraná which you will recall is the new venture that our ex teacher Ana and her sister Marisu have developed at their parent’s house on the road to Hurchillo from Orihuela.

As you can see from my pictures, there is an elegant bar inside where you can enjoy a drink, a dessert or a warming bowl of soup. There is a children’s play area and spacious gardens with tables set out. There are also casetas in the garden with elegant seating for various size groups. Each one is slightly different but they all share the same sound system for background music.

Opening a bar in Spain is a risky business because there is no shortage of them already. You need to create something different and that is what Ana and her sister have done. First off it is exclusive, there are only a few houses nearby so most of the clients drive there. Secondly, it is an elegant place to visit with your friends. The thing that makes it really different though is the spacious garden with its casetas where you can shelter from the weather and of course, the children’s play area – perfect for families.

I was sorry that the weather was overcast, not the best of lighting. Still there will be other days!

Opening hours are: Thursday 3pm until it closes. Friday and Saturday 3pm until midnight and Sundays 3pm until it closes.

 

 

 

Everything is running out in Britain

Britain is used to having shortages of just about everything you can imagine. It only takes an article in one of the scare mongering papers to trigger a run on items such as petrol, milk, sugar etc etc.

The country is used to being short of water. One drier than usual winter and hose pipe bans are put in place with a threat of stand pipes in the street if people don’t cut down. Almost as soon as they issue these bans, it pours with rain and half the country is on flood alert.

The latest scare is that gas will run out. The Daily Mail reports that Britain has only 36 hours of gas in reserve at a time when the country is covered with snow and is facing another cold snap. North sea gas is dwindling and the storage capacity in Britain is said to be woefully inadequate. 

To add to that misery, there is also a possibility that the country will not be able to meet the demand for electricity in future years. Power stations that do not meet strict EU guidelines are being closed and are not being replaced in the near future.

Most Brits recognise that, of all the newspapers, the Daily Mail is the one to relish doom and gloom. They were one of the papers who told us of secret plans to send ships and planes  to rescue British ex-pats in Spain when the economic crisis started to bite.

I don’t understand why anyone would do this

The National Police were called out to the cemetery at nearby Hurchillo when a neighbour discovered that a niche next to the one he was visiting had been desecrated.

Most of the people in Hurchillo have a key to the graveyard including the man who visited. Apparently the lock was intact so there were no signs of a forced entry. It  is assumed that the perpetrator must have climbed over a fence at the back of the cemetery where he would have been out of sight of the road.

The police found that several niches had been vandalised and one of the headstones had been completely destroyed. In one niche the casket had been left hanging – it was too high and too heavy to remove. In the other case though, the casket had rotted away and there were human remains scattered around including the skull and several bones.

Quite what the motive would be for someone to do this beggars belief.  

Time for a reality check

You hardly need to be told that Spaniards are passionate about football and that the country hosts some of the top players in the world. However, football in Spain comes at a huge cost to the country. Clubs in the top two divisions have bank debts of 3.5bn euros. The tax debt to the government by these clubs alone comes to 692m euros.

At a time when major cuts have been made to public services, it is so wrong that football clubs have been allowed to get away with this situation.

The only clubs that are not in danger are apparently, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao. Twenty two of the  other clubs are in insolvency proceedings including some famous names like Deportivo who have a tax debt of 96m euros.

It is not just the central government that is to blame for this mess, regional governments like the one in Valencia have given preferential loans to clubs and then turned a blind eye when the loans have not been repaid. Local savings banks have also given preferential loans to clubs which have not been repaid.

What is the possible outcome of all this?

Now that the issue has been brought before the European Parliament, it is not going away. If action is taken, then it is likely that some of the clubs will have to close and others will be forced to sell off their star players. As a result, the quality of football in Spain will plummet.

Naturally, the government would not want any of this to happen because it would provoke riots in the streets far worse than any demonstrations seen so far. The questions have been raised but so far the answers are not forthcoming.

In my opinion, the issue behind all this are the ridiculous transfer fees and the untenable salaries paid to secure top players. And the problem is not just confined to Spain, PSV Eindhoven along with other clubs in Holland apparently benefit from 10m euros of public money and no doubt clubs in France and Italy also benefit from favourable treatment.

Maybe it is time for football throughout Europe to take a reality check. It may be “the beautiful game” but why should we all be forced to pay such a high subsidy for it? Winning the World Cup was a great achievement but was it worth 692m euros?

A gang of thugs

This group of four were pictured by the Daily Mail at the funeral of Bruce Reynolds, the so called brains behind the £2.6m, Great Train Robbery in 1963.

 

Some of the mourners were known associates of the Kray bothers, others were family of Reynolds and members of the gang that committed the crime.  I suspect that most were involved in crime of some sort and had served time.

Even the notorious Ronnie Biggs was there- at 83 frail, and tied to a wheelchair.

One thing is for sure, you would not want to meet any of these on a dark night!

Such a waste

Most fishermen know that the anchovies which are abundant in the sea around Torrevieja will not reach the legal size until about mid April but that has not stopped some from going out to catch them. Landing  undersized fish damages fish stocks and in any case, the price for these fish is much lower than will be achieved when the fish are of the right size.

The Protection Service of the Civil Guard (Semprona) closed the auction of 700 boxes of anchovies in the Port of Torrrevieja because over ten percent of them were under the minimum size limit. The fish will now go to Caritas.

Discarding fish that have no commercial value is a highly controversial issue. It is estimated that up to 25% of fish caught by trawl nets from Santa Pola are discarded for this reason. Fish stocks throughout the world are fragile and need to be closely monitored otherwise there will come a day when they are not longer there.

Spick and span

Visitors to the centre of Orihuela can’t help but notice all the work that has been going on for days. There have been improvements of all kinds; changing of lights, building ramps for the disabled, removing old fences, cleaning up graffiti, repairing roads and cobbles etc etc. The City Council is making an effort  to prepare for Easter knowing that the city will receive thousands of tourists and visitors.

Some would say that this sort of work should go on all year and not just for Easter but then Semana Santa is such an important event for the city. Possibly the only time when the city attracts so many people. Hopefully, the results of the labours will last long after the last paso has been packed safely away until next year.

Think big

Spain might be undergoing the worst recession imaginable and there may be millions out of work but it hasn’t stopped the government applying to host the 2020 Olympic Games. The President, Mariano Rajoy must feel confident that the country will be out of the mire by then and will be able to afford the huge expense involved.

The International Olympic Commission began its four-day evaluation visit to the Spanish capital on Monday. Early in the morning the commission held a private meeting with the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, at which the conservative People's party leader expressed the government's full support for the bid.

I imagine that things will come to halt today though because not only is it a national fiesta day (el Dia del Padres) but also this morning the new Pope will be inaugurated at the Vatican. 

A new phase

I sense that the Bigastro town band are entering a new phase. When we first heard them play, eight years ago, they were good, very good. Since then though, the band have made a lot of progress. Although I am not a musician and probably not qualified to pass a professional judgement, I feel that they play with more passion these days.

The other notable change is that they are playing more pieces involving soloists. Last night we had three; José Antonio Pérez Lorente, Susi Gálvez Mesples and Pablo Grau Murcia. There were other smaller solo parts played during the performance.

As an encore, Francisco Grau conducted the band whilst they played his latest composition, a pasadoble. And finally, the band paid tribute to Joaquín Perales, their main patron. 

It was a thoroughly enjoyable concert and one that we were glad not to miss.

http://jalbum.net/a/1324542

Six hours in the saddle

Today, the world’s top cyclists will battle it out to win the first of this year’s spring classics, the Milan – San Remo. At 298 kms, the race takes an average of 6 hours to complete. Normally, this is a day for the sprinters. Later on there will be the  Gent-Wevelgem on  Sunday, 24 March, theTour of Flanders on Sunday, 31 March, Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, 7 April, the Amstel Gold on Sunday, 14 April, La Fleche Wallone on Wednesday, 17 April and finally, the oldest and toughest of the classics, Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday 21 April.

Many cyclists use these races as preparation for the three big tours so they are a good barometer to measure their form.

I thought the envelopes were brown

You know, I’m no fan of graffiti and this piece of “art” is on someone’s door.

The owner of the house has already complained to the police about it because he finds it offensive. Personally, I can see the humour in the statement which refers to the scandal about PP members receiving money from a “slush fund”. Nether the less, I can understand the outrage of the local councillor.

The original accusations were made by the newspaper El Pais against the national party including the prime minister. This comment appeared on the door of a local politician in Rojales. The national party have already taken out an injunction against the newspaper.

It’s a social event

Just to remind you that this is the second weekend for the “tapas and cana” route. With 25 bars in the town participating, there should be plenty of choice about where you go to enjoy a small beer and a snack. 

The turn of the Junior Band

Following the concert for “socios” this weekend, the Junior Band of Bigastro will be playing their concert for spring on Sunday March 24th at 6:30 pm, at the Municipal Auditorium.

Any way the wind blows

You can see from this graph just how the wind picked up yesterday from being calm and then dropped again only to return with equal force. It has quietened down again and hopefully will not be as strong today. 

It looks like, once more, we are caught between a cyclone and an anticyclone.

The new Pope

After just five ballots, on the second day, it seems that the conclave of cardinals made their choice for a new pope. The first Jesuit and the first from South America where 42% of the word's Catholics live he will be known as Pope Francis 1.

Hopefully the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio will prove to be a good choice but I can’t help but wonder if he is the right one because, at 76, he is not young, neither is he in good health having only one lung, the other was removed when he was a teenager due to infection.

This weekend

Don’t miss the concert on Sunday at 6:30pm. It is the one on the calendar that honours the members of the Musical Union and promises a number of new works that the band have not performed before.

Give us a break

We got back from our trip to Manchester on Monday night. It was so nice to leave the Arctic conditions and return to warmth. Yesterday, Pam started to wash my clothes and left them out to dry as we headed back to the airport to retrieve her case which had been left behind in Manchester. 

A it started to rain, we hoped that Bigastro would stay dry but that was in vain. At least the rain seemed to be clean and not full of dust as it had been whilst we were away.

This morning it started cloudy but dry. The forecast was for no rain - just strong winds and colder than last week. The wind has picked up and is drying the clothes that were left out all night but then we have just a squally shower! Well at least my clothes should be clean.

Do you photograph your food?

When you go out for a special meal, are you tempted to photograph those plates of food that have been lovingly prepared by an expert chef? If you do, then the memory of that culinary treat will last long after your taste buds have been cleansed.

Unfortunately some restaurants will not allow you to take photos for whatever reason. In fussy establishments, in New York for example, they ban photography at the table.

In Alicante things are different though. There, the Grupo Gourmet are even running a course to teach people how to get the best shots of their food. The course is aimed at beginners and starts with the advice to make sure your camera lens is clean. The next piece of advice is to use only natural light. Flash at close distance produces some horrible shadows and disturbs other people in the restaurant. If the light isn’t quite right, you are advised to use something like a shiny menu card to direct it or even your iPad to cast even light on the food. Finally avoid using zoom; instead move yourself closer to the food.

Once you have your photos, you can then process them using free software to create different effects. Instagram is a popular way to add old fashioned effects. However, there are other pieces of software like Google’s Snapseed or Big Lens for Android which mimics the out of focus backgrounds that you get with larger format DSLRs. Personally, I’d rather leave my photos as they are and maybe just tweak the colour to get rid of that tungsten orange colour. Brightening up a few highlights and a touch of sharpening and the job is done for me.  

If you have shot each course of the meal, then PicFrame will allow you to put them together into a collage to post online or send to friends.

Good to be back

Whilst we will miss being with our family, we won’t miss the British weather that we left behind. During our eleven days we saw a mixture of sunshine, showers and snow. Temperatures ranged from mild to bitterly cold.

We did have a wonderful time though and loved staying at Laura and Dave’s house where we could wake up each morning to be greeted by Molly with a beaming smile. The only real blot on the landscape was when we waited for Pam’s case on the carousel at Alicante only to be told that it had been left at Manchester. It will be flown out this morning for us to pick up, hopefully in one piece!

So, back to business. I will scour the local press to find out what has been going on here whilst Pam and I were away.

Told off by a 3 year old

The four days of birthday celebrations are over and we are all (including Molly) recovering. The lovely sunny weather that greeted us on arrival has now given way to something more normal for Manchester at this time of year. Still, with a Molly in the house, things are hardly dull.

I made the mistake of playing with one of her toys the other day without permission and was told off. Molly took the star she'd given me back and told me to take "time out". I wonder where she learnt that from!

Out of town

As some will already know, Pam and I are in Manchester for Molly's birthday. Busy times with family business mean that I won't be publishing much before our return early next week. I apologise to regular readers.

The storm has passed

The rain storm yesterday caused chaos in some parts of the province with schools closing and roads blocked. The fishing fleets were mostly tied up for the day and the ferry to Algeria was delayed for six hours. Alicante airport operated as normal with some short delays. 

The most significant feature though was the sight of tornados off the shore at Benidorm. None of them touched land though so no damage was caused. 

Preparing for bad weather

Although I am not a gambling man, I would put good money on the fact that we are going to have persistent rain for most of the day. On high ground, the rain will fall as snow. The wind will start from the northwest and veer to southwest with some strong gusts on the coast.

DEALING WITH SNOW

Those who have to travel to snow affected parts of the province are advised to take it slowly, fit chains to the tyres, to carry a shovel, a flashlight and warm clothes. Make sure you have plenty of fuel for both your car and yourself (nuts and chocolate provide plenty of calories to keep you warm) and if possible delay your journey until midday when early morning ice on the road has had a chance to melt.

Those who live in areas affected by snow are advised to stock up on food to see them through a few days at least. They are also advised to ensure they have torches and fresh batteries to hand. Since many burn wood to heat their houses, they should open the windows when the sun is out to ventilate them and replenish the oxygen. If they venture outside, the best protection is several layers of clothing rather than one thick layer. It is essential to protect the head and hands and to wear waterproof shoes.

You would be right in assuming that Spaniards in this area are not accustomed to this type of bad weather which is why they need advice about how to deal with it.

As I said

	The forecast for Bigastro tomorrow is a bit grim. Rain and wind is a thoroughly unpleasant combination. Our teacher Antonio, aware of the forecast, said yesterday that if conditions were bad on Thursday we would not have a class.
	It is a low pressure system between Alicante and Argelia that is to blame. The warm humid air will be turned to heavy rain by the cold ground temperatures. Rain could be intense on the coast with up to 60l per sq metre dropping in just 12 hours. Similarly, the wind will be stronger on the coast with gusts “muy fuerte”.

Helped by the Italians

Who would have thought that the Italians would have come to our rescue. It seems that the uncertainty caused by the elections in Italy have destabilised the euro again. Any wobble in the value of the euro is good news for expats like Pam and I.

I notice that this morning the exchange rate has moved back to 1.16 euros to the pound – just keep on going PLEASE, 1.25 would be good again!

Not done yet

The mild weather at the moment might lull us into thinking that the worst of winter is over for us now. That is not necessarily true though. There is a strong possibility of rain for Thursday but what that will amount to is anybody’s guess. Rain in this area can be either a deluge that lasts most of the day creating a river of yellow mud down the road or it can be nothing more that a short, sharp shower. To accompany the rain, the wind will pick up again although not to the gale force speeds that we experienced in January.

Our hope is that Easter will be fine. We have visitors from England staying nearby and they would dearly like to watch the processions. To have the full parade on Good Friday called off yet another time would not be good.

Cross that of the list

Pam doesn’t fancy the idea of cruising partly because she has an innate fear of being on or in water above her head. The possibility of being dumped in the sea to drown does not appeal to her one bit. I must admit that, the thought of being consigned to a watery grave does not appeal to me either but it would not put me off a boat trip.

On the other hand, Pam has a hankering to take a trip in a hot air balloon. Although I do not suffer as much as some from vertigo, the thought of looking down from a wicker basket suspended by just hot air makes me feel queasy.

Perhaps Pam will be put off the idea by the latest report of a hot air balloon trip in Egypt that ended in tragedy. The balloon was flying over Luxor close to the Valley of the Kings when it apparently it caught fire and exploded - crashing to the ground, killing all but one of its 20 passengers.

You don’t often hear of accidents with hot air balloons, in fact I can’t recall reading of many. Still, it looks unsafe to me and that is enough to put me off. 

Benidorm

Pam and I have now watched both series 1 and 2 of the BBC comedy series, Benidorm on our version of iPlayer. I understand that the programme is now on series 6 so there is plenty more to come for us.

For those who haven’t seen the programme, it is set in an all inclusive hotel and plots the frantic holidays of several groups including a family where the teenage daughter has a mixed race child, a gay couple, Johnny Vegas with his mother who he describes as his PA and a couple of “swingers” who are constantly looking out for threesomes. Into the mix, there is a Spanish waiter who thinks that all British women go on holiday looking for sex with a local and a rather more reserved couple who look out of place in the setting and yet at the same time seem to enjoy “roughing it”.

You might imagine that the programme paints a picture of the town which the locals may not want to be portrayed but apparently not. Benidorm is grateful to the programme for its contribution to tourism and has now unveiled a commemorative plaque between Morgan’s Tavern and the Sol Pelicannos hotel.

Just goes to show that it takes all sorts to make the world go round!

A rocky road ahead

During his eight year as Pope, Benedict XVI has had to face numerous claims about sexual abuse in the clergy. Now that he has announced his retirement, the Italian press claim that there is a secret dossier about a “gay network” within the church. Of course, the Vatican denies the existence of this and says that the media is trying to influence the decision of the cardinals when the conclave meets to elect a new pope.

That may or may not be true but what will cause problems for the church are the reports by three priests and one former priest claiming inappropriate behaviour by Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the most senior Catholic clergyman in Britain. The statements which detail “concerns” going back over 30 years have been sent to Antonio Mennini, the papal nuncio.

The four say they have acted now because they are troubled by the idea that the conclave will not be “clean” if Cardinal O’Brien takes part. However, according to canon law, no cardinal who is eligible to vote can be prevented from doing so.

I assume that Cardinal O’Brien took part in the conclave that elected the Cardinal Ratzinger so, I wonder,  why  were these concerns not raised then? The four say that they do not expect the church to take steps to prevent O’Brien from assuming his rights, so what are they going to gain from making these disclosures now?

Lean times

Those expats who live in Spain well remember the dark days when the exchange rate dropped to 1 euro to the pound. For years the rate had been stable at about 1.5 euros to the pound. Then, within just a few months, we lost one third of our income. People asked if we were affected. Of course were were!

Since then the rate has improved and steadily climbed back to 1.25 euros to the pound. That was not as good as before but at least we were starting to feel better with more money in our pockets. The economic crisis in Europe had forced the value of the euro down for a while. However, that has now changed; the euro has strengthened in the market as the eurozone has stabilised and the pound has weakened.

In the last six weeks or so, the rate has slipped back down. I have a widget that sits permanently on my desktop computer reminding me of the current exchange rate. This morning it says 1.147 which means we will have 10% fewer euros to spend each month. If you want to know how that feels, just try living on 90% of your income, better than 66% but still not good.

That weakening of the pound will not be helped by Moody’s down rating of the UK from AAA to AA1. It may be good for Britain’s exports to have a weak pound but it will increase energy and food bills and could increase inflation which will harm growth in the UK. Like Mariano Rajoy has had to do in Spain, the British  government will have to ramp up its austerity packages and reduce public spending to stop the spiralling debt of the country. I hope they do it sooner rather than later and that the pound quickly regains its strength against the euro. 

That’s a bit harsh

Here is the warning notice from the State Weather Agency which explains why we have this cold front moving in. “Muy fria” means very cold.

As you can read, the areas most affected are to the north and in the centre of Spain where temperatures could be as low as –10 C on high ground. To add to the misery for those in the Ebro Valley and the Balearic Islands, winds with gusts up to 80 km per hour will make the air feel even colder.

By Wednesday though, normality will return as the winds drop and warmer weather moves back in.

Women have their say

The Department of Women and the Progressive Women's Association in Bigastro, invite you to the 9th Gala commemorating the international day of women. “There is something I want to say”.  From my experience, there is a lot that Spanish women want to say!

Make the best of it

It should be nice and warm today in the sun with a high of 21. But that will not last because there is a cold front moving in making the weekend cold again. By Sunday, we could be down to night time temperatures of 2 degrees or less. To make matters worse, the wind will pick up as well adding a chill factor to the low temperatures.

Into next week, the wind will continue to drive temperatures down so there will be no respite for us. At least we should see plenty of sunshine so not all bad.

Red Rum steaks – yes please!

The horsemeat scandal carries on in Britain with more raids on meat producers. It has even spread to Spain where two companies in Alicante have been found to include horsemeat in their burgers. Here though, it is regarded as a problem of labelling rather than an issue with the quality of meat.

There is nothing wrong with horsemeat. The French have eaten the stuff since the 1700s. It is a lot cheaper than beef and contain less fat and less cholesterol. Of course, consumption of horsemeat doesn’t stop in France, the Italians consume twice as much as the French and there are more restaurants selling horsemeat in Belgium than in Paris.

Horse butchers were on the decline in France until the scandal over ready made foods it the press. Now the French are visiting the horse butcher again because at least they know what they are getting from him and they are not paying beef prices for it. The range of products includes steaks, dried sausages, horse pâté and fresh mince which is eaten raw.

It really is down to the sensibilities of the people as to what they will eat. My wife is not fussy about eating rabbit which she considers to be a pet and yet rabbit paella is very popular in this area. I doubt that she would eat horsemeat if she knew what it was and she is not fussed about eating venison which she calls Bambi. My eldest daughter, on the other hand, has sampled ostrich and kangaroo which she said was delicious and I tried venison liver which was far superior to many other forms of animal liver.

Once you have got your head around the fact that the animals you eat have been reared for the table rather than as pets or items in a zoo, then your choice widens. Let’s face it, if people kept cows as pets, we’d be baulking about eating beef.

Only if you speak Spanish

If you own a Kindle Fire and you live in Spain then it will connect to Amazon’s Spanish web site for your purchases. It is the same if you have an Apple iPod, iPad or iPhone; your Apple account on iTunes will be in Spanish. The issue arises because you need to register a credit or debit card to make purchases and because your cards are tied to your address in Spain, the site you are taken to is in Spanish.

With the iTunes store, you can search for titles that you are familiar with but all the recommendations made on the site will be for Spanish ones. I imagine the same applies to the Kindle store. With hundreds of thousands of expat Brits living in Spain, you would think that Apple and Amazon would work out some way that you could have an account in Spain that was in your native language and offered you titles in that language.  

A long battle ahead

The prime minister, Mariano Rajoy is intent on using his first “state of the nation” speech to spell out, amongst other things, a series of legal reforms to tackle corruption in politics. In English we would say that is like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Apart from the issue of payments made to his own party as outlined by the Barcenas papers, he also has the embarrassment of the case against the Duke of Palma to consider.

Inaki Urdangarin is to make a second appearance in court to answer further questions regarding the millions of euros of public funds that he is suspected of embezzling. The Duke claims that his partner, Diego Torres is the guilty one and that both himself and the Infanta Cristina are innocent parties. However, a series of emails have come to light that show not only was Urdangarin involved in the decision making of the Noos Institute but that his wife and even the King himself had knowledge of what was going on.

The tapas and cana route

Many towns in the area organise a tapas and cana (snack and small beer) route. The deal is that the local bars offer you a snack and a small beer for just 2 euros.

Bigastro has organised its own version of this popular event to take place on Saturday 9th, Sunday 10th, Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th March.

You can see from the poster that 25 bars in the town will be taking part including Darren and Hazel’s bar – La Terrazza.

A warning

By law, all gas installations have to be inspected every five years. Unfortunately, there are people out there who take advantage of the fact and claim to be inspectors when in fact they are not.

The last time our installation was inspected, we all received notice in writing from the gas supplier and the cost of the work came on our next bill. The bogus workmen will just appear at your gate and demand payment for the work they are about to do.

Several people on our estate already report that this has happened to them this week. They first of all received a phone call followed by a visit from the bogus workmen. One of my neighbours tells me that eight of the rogue operators turned up outside his house in a white van and claimed to be from Saunier Duval who of course are not responsible for this work. He politely turned them away!

The Town Hall advises us to contact either the Guardia Civil in Jacarilla on 965 350 414 or the Local Police in Bigastro on 607 154 447 if we suspect that conmen are trying to pull this scam or indeed any other scam.

Welcome rain

If you live around these parts and you have any washing to be done, do it today because it will almost certainly rain tomorrow.

In Britain, another period of rain would be most unwelcome because the country has already suffered from many deluges over the winter. Here though, the winter has been very dry. We had a few weeks of strong winds recently but no rain to speak of for what seems like months now.

The farmers need rain for the crops and we need rain to see us through the long hot summer to come. So, although this may sound strange to those who are reading this blog in Blighty, we look forward to the day or so of rain that is to come as long as it isn’t that mucky stuff that arrives from North Africa!

Make sure your visitors are covered

Friends of ours are having difficulty in finding health insurance for their trips to Spain at a reasonable price. The lady in question has had breast cancer and underwent an operation recently to remove the tumour; she is now on Tamoxifen.The husband has raised blood pressure and takes tablets each day to control it along with tablets to reduce his cholesterol. In this way, they have similar issues to Pam and I and I imagine many others of our age.

Insurance companies offering travel policies are not in the business to make payouts so have clauses that will get them out of handing over cash wherever possible. If you want cover for every contingency and you have a pre existing condition then the premiums are going to be sky high and that is just what this couple have discovered. In fact some companies have refused to cover them.

The temptation to travel without insurance, especially if you are over 55, should be avoided. The Foreign Office warn Brits that one in ten visitors to Spain do not have cover and risk bills that could add up to thousands of pounds.

At the very least, visitors to Spain should have a European Health Insurance Card, known as an EHIC. These are free to obtain and give you access to the Spanish state health service at either no cost or low cost. However, the card does not cover everything so it is important to still have insurance.

Our situation is the reverse. Pam and I travel to the UK frequently and so we need insurance and EHIC cards as well. It took some research on our part to find a British company that would insure us for our trips. The company we use is Globelink who offer both one trip and multi trip policies. The cost of their policies is very reasonable until you reach 66 when it starts to rise considerably – still it is worth paying for the peace of mind.

Cone heads

Capuchones, caperuchos, capuruchos and capirotes – all names for the cone shaped headgear that Nazarenes wear during the Easter parades. Ideally, this headgear should be light, cool and comfortable.

In Orihuela, there is an 86 year old man who works all year to make these things using plastic, mesh tape with an anti sweat band. The result is a cap that weighs just 70 grams and comes in eleven different sizes to fit anything from a young child to an adult. The cost is a very reasonable 20 euros so no wonder he is is kept busy.

Information for expat tax residents in Spain

Are you resident in Spain? Do you own any assets outside Spain worth over €50,000? If so you will need to declare them in 2013 under a new reporting requirement. Failure to do so would have very costly consequences.

The most important measure for most expatriates is the new obligation for Spanish taxpayers to report assets located outside Spain. More details were included in the Royal Decree on 15th November 2012.

This is a new, additional requirement for Spanish taxpayers. You remain obliged, as always, to also fully declare your annual worldwide income for income tax purposes, and your taxable worldwide assets for wealth tax purposes.

Reporting procedure

From now on, anyone who is tax resident in Spain must declare all the assets they own outside Spain.

You need to make the declaration on a new official form.

Reporting must be done by the end of the first trimester each year, although the deadline has been extended for reporting assets held as at 31st December 2012, so that your first deadline is 30th April 2013. For future years, the deadline will be 31st March for the previous 31st December.

Assets to be declared

If you own any of the following assets outside Spain, valued at €50,000 or more, you need to declare them.

• Accounts held with financial institutions
• All types of immovable property (real estate) and rights over such property
• Shares and securities
• Life insurance policies
• Temporary or lifetime income generated from the lending of money, rights or other assets (including immovables) to foreign entities.

You need to declare these assets if you are the owner, the beneficiary, or an authorised signatory. This includes assets held by a trust or fiduciary.

If the value of your total assets in each class is less than €50,000, you are not obliged to report.

Once you have reported the assets the first time, you do not need to report them again each year if the value of all your reportable assets increased by less than €20,000. Where their value has risen by €20,000 or more, you will need to report them again by the next annual deadline.

Information to be reported

The value to be reported for accounts with financial institutions, shares, securities, life insurance policies and other assets is that at 31st December.

In the case of accounts with financial institutions, you also need to report the average balance over the last three months of the year. This category includes all types of bank accounts and deposits, including credit accounts, in all currencies, regardless of whether you have the right to withdraw the funds or not.

For immovable property, the value is the cost of acquisition. You also need to provide information on the type of property, its location, and date of acquisition.

Consequences of not reporting

If you fail to report any assets as required by the new law, the costs will be very high once discovered.

The undeclared income arising from the asset will be deemed to arise in the last tax year which is not statute barred – four years in most cases. This effectively abolishes the statute of limitations.

You would have to pay all of the following:

• Income tax at the income tax scale rates where the top rate is over 50% (even if the income would normally be taxed under the savings income regime).
• Late payment interest for the last four years.
• Penalties, which can be as high as 150% of the total tax due on the asset.
• A fine of €5,000 per each piece of unreported data, with a minimum of €10,000.

If the tax defrauded exceeds €120,000, it would be considered a criminal offence.

When you submit your declaration form by 30th April, you need to be sure you have filled it in correctly and included all the overseas assets that you should have, with the right values. Any mistakes or omissions, even accidental, could prove very costly.

For peace of mind, you need to speak to Spanish tax experts.

If like Pam and I, you pay your taxes in the UK (as ex teachers we have no option on this), then my understanding is that you are not affected.

They keep on coming

Just goes to show there are some people out there a) with very good Photoshop skills, b) a naughty sense of humour and c) way too much time on their hands.

For the benefit of my Spanish readers, the pictures refer to the ongoing scandal about supermarkets like Tesco selling so called beef products that actually contain high proportions of horse meat.

The more that the Food Standards Agency delve into the matter, the more cases they are finding of foodstuffs that contain meat from sources not described on the label. However, we are only talking about 29 items out of 2,501 tested that contained traces of horse meat and no cats or dogs so far.

Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Iceland, M&S and Asda are apparently in the clear so if you are keen to avoid eating horses that fell at Breeches Brook in the Grand National, these are the shops to visit.

Only a matter of time

Jokes about horse meat in burgers were bound to come. Apologies to my Spanish readers who will probably not make any sense out of these.

1. I went to a Tesco café yesterday and ordered a burger. They asked me if I wanted anything on it, and I said: ‘Yes — a fiver each way.’
2. Does anyone have a tooth pick? I had a Tesco burger last night and there’s still a bit between my teeth.
3. My daughter has always wanted a pony, so I’m buying her a Tesco Quarter Pounder for her birthday.
4. I’ve got some Tesco burgers in the fridge. But . . . THEY’RE OFFFFFFFFF!
5. My doctor told me to watch what I eat, so I went out and bought tickets for the Grand National.
6. If you think horse meat’s bad, wait until you try Tesco’s veggie burgers. They’re made of genuine uniQuorn.
7. Scientist: ‘Sir, we’ve discovered horse meat in your burgers.’ Tesco boss: ‘Why the long face?’
8. I won’t eat Tesco burgers. They may be low in fat, but they have a very high Shergar content.
9. Tesco are giving treble points on your Clubcard for all burgers and petrol, starting today. The deal’s called Only Fuel and Horses.
10. What do you call a burnt Tesco burger? Black Beauty.
11. A motorist gets pulled over by a police officer, who asks him to blow into a breathalyser. The machine beeps. ‘I’m sorry Sir,’ says the officer. ‘You’re over the limit. Can you tell me what you have had tonight?’‘Nothing Officer,’ replies the man. ‘Just a burger from Tesco.’ ‘That explains it,’ says the policeman. ‘I knew I could smell Red Rum.’
12. They’ve found horse meat in Tesco burgers? It’s an unbridled disaster.
13. A Tesco burger walks into a bar. ‘A pint please. ‘I can’t hear you,’ says the barman. ‘Sorry’ replies the burger. ‘I’m a little bit horse.’
14. I selected some burgers on the Tesco website. And then clicked ‘Add to cart.’
15. Those Tesco horse burgers were nice, but I prefer My Lidl Pony.
16. A woman has been taken to hospital after eating Tesco burgers. Her condition is said to be stable.
17. I used to work on the Tesco meat counter, but it was like flogging a dead horse.
18. Last night I ate a Tesco burger, an Iceland burger and an Aldi burger to find out which had the best taste. Tesco won by a short head.
19. I think someone may be sending me death threats. I woke up this morning with a Tesco burger in my bed.
20. Have you heard? Now traces of zebra have been found in Tesco barcodes.
21. I bought an ‘award-winning’ Tesco burger. I didn’t realise they meant it had won the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
22. I used to work for Tesco, but I was fired. I got an email about a delivery of horse meat and I marked it as spam.
23. Horse meat in Tesco burgers? What are the odds on that?
24. I tried to take some burgers back to Tesco but they said they wouldn’t accept them. Looks like I’m saddled with them.
25. Husband: ‘I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.’ Wife: ‘Why don’t you go to Tesco?’
26. Personally, I think people who don’t like eating horse meat are being a bit blinkered.
27. Despite the recent news, Tesco says that their beef burger sales remain stable.
28. Are you in favour of horse meat in your burgers? Yay or Neigh?
29. I won’t be switching to Tesco Finest burgers. They’re so expensive that buying enough for a big family dinner won’t leave you much change from a pony.
30. I was going to give up fast food for January, but I fell at the final hurdle and had a Tesco burger.
31. Just been to Tesco and bought a bottle of Bacardi, a bottle of Lamb’s and some burgers. So that’s white rum, navy rum and Red Rum.
32. Unused HMV vouchers are now being accepted at Tesco. Just tell them HMV means ‘Horse Meat Voucher’.
33. Despite the recent scandal, Tesco insist they use only meat of the highest quality. A spokesman said: ‘Our meat has to clear several hurdles before it goes on sale.’
34. What’s in this burger? It just jumped over my chips.
35. I don’t know why there’s a fuss all of a sudden. There’s been horse meat in Tesco burgers for donkey’s years.
36. I like my burgers with a side saddle and neighonnaise.
37. I hope Tesco were selling those burgers at hoof price.
38. So there’s horse meat in Tesco’s burgers. Don’t worry, it’s not the mane ingredient.
39. Forget the Everyday Value burgers — I only eat those mini-burgers you have as snacks. You know, the horse d’oeuvres.
40. I bought some Tesco burgers — I wanted to get venison ones, but they were dead dear.
41. I ordered a Tesco burger the other day — but asked them to hold the dressage.

42. Tesco would’ve got away with it if it wasn’t for the DN Neigh test.

I apologise to my son-in-law

Why, because he is a staunch Manchester United fan and will therefore not like what the Spanish press have been saying about the Champions League match tonight. They say that this will be the night for Ronaldo whom they expect to inflict pain on United in the form of goals. They say that Ferguson  may have made a mistake playing his best team against Everton to gain more of a lead over their rivals City. The aim for Jose Mourinho this year is to win this trophy and he will do his best to make sure that happens.

Time of course will tell.

The real issue

The scandal about products ranging from beef burgers to lasagne containing horse meat is gathering momentum in Britain. It seems that the meat in many so called “value” foods comes from either Irish horses or from spent nags butchered in Romania and can account of up to 100% of the content.

A lot of the blame is being placed on French companies that supplied meat to Comigel. Of course, Findus and others who used Comigel’s meat did not realise that they were being sold horse meat – right!

If they hadn’t bothered to test for horse meat in these cheap meals then the great British public would not be any the wiser. They must have been consuming horse meat for years without knowing and probably thought it was quite tasty. Pumped up with flavouring and other texture modifiers, it fooled everyone into thinking this was the real deal.

The real issue, in my opinion, is the deceit. If a product is labelled “beef”, then you expect it to be beef and not horse. If the meat mostly comes from horses then it should be labelled as such but if that was the case would anybody buy it?

“What’s for tea mum?” “Horse burgers and chips.” I don’t think so!

Supermarkets in Britain are now clearing the shelves of anything that might remotely contain horse meat but what will be left? Only the more expensive products that everyone thought were not worth the extra money. It will only be a matter of time before people want the value meals back with maybe the proviso that they are labelled “beef flavour” or just simply “meat”. In small, black on a dark background, print, that nobody can read it will say, “contains horse meat”.

Front page news

As you might imagine, the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI is front page news in all the Spanish papers.

At the time he was appointed, I thought Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was too old ( he was the oldest to be elected in over 300 years). Now at 85, the Pope says that he has neither the strength of mind nor body to continue. He will retire to a cloistered monastery and the process of electing a successor will begin. However, in effect that means that there will then be two popes with possibly different views on matters of the church.

Whoever succeeds him will have to continue facing the demons of clerical sex abuse and inadequate money laundering controls that have blighted Benedict’s 8 year papal reign.

Stuck in the middle

The reason for the wind today is that we are stuck between a cyclone and an anticyclone. The bad news is that the wind will still be with us tomorrow and last into Wednesday. After that it will die down completely giving us nice calm weather for the weekend along with temperatures more like those we are accustomed to.

Are you safer on a plane?

Pam and I are not keen to try cruising holidays but of course we are frequent flyers going back and forth to the UK to visit friends and relatives. So are we safer in the air than we would be on a ship?

One of the first things they do on any flight is to give you the safety instructions about what to do in the event of an accident. It is noticeable that most of the information is about what would happen if you came down over water. That would be useful if you were on a transatlantic flight to say New York but on a flight from Alicante to Manchester, apart form a brief excursion over the Mediterranean as you leave the airport, the only stretch of water that you cross is the English Channel.

They don’t tell you what would happen if you came down over land. I think we all know why! 

They’re meant to save lives

Five crew members have died on a cruise ship operated by the British holiday firm Thomson after a lifeboat fell from the vessel during an emergency drill at La Palma in the Canary islands, according to Spanish officials.

According to the trade union for seafarers, more people are dying during the drills than are being saved by lifeboats. The problems include the heights involved, corroded equipment, unclear instructions and poor crew training.

What this tells me is, if we ever decided to go on one of these cruises, the chances of us surviving an incident where the lifeboats had to be deployed would be low. This incident occurred whilst the ship was berthed in calm seas; imagine what it would be like if the sea was rough, the ship was going down and all the passengers were trying to board the lifeboats at the same time. The mixture of chaos, panic, badly trained crew and corroded equipment would be lethal.

According to the seafarers union, deaths at sea are all too common; it's an inherently dangerous life, even in the 21st century. For British seafarers who tend to be working at the higher end of the industry, the workplace death and injury rate is over 50 times what it is on average for all land-based workers. Safety on cruise ships tends to be better than in some sectors, but is still patchy.

Pam and I had no plans to go on a cruise, this story just goes to reinforce that decision. The thought of ending our lives in a watery grave holds no appeal.

Not at rock bottom yet

When you read encouraging news about a slight increase in property sales on the Costa Blanca, it makes you wonder what effect that might have on the value of your home. For those who are keen to sell up and return to England this is particularly important information.

Sad to say that the prospect is still gloomy, prices are still falling and have a long way still to go. The fall so far averages out at 27% from the peak of which 10% was lost last year. Informed sources say that prices will drop a further 20% before there will be real signs of recovery.

The “bad bank” set up to mop up toxic debt has tens of thousands of houses on its books from those banks that required a bailout. It is predicted that Sareb, as the bad bank is called, will eventually hold 65bn euros of property to sell over a ten year period.

The banks in Spain are still owed 270bn euros of which a third is considered to be toxic debt. It is therefore going to be sometime before Spain needs to build any more new houses.

If prices had fallen by similar amounts in Britain then there would be no problem for those looking to return but that is not the case. Only in Northern Ireland and some parts of Britain have prices dropped by percentages anywhere near equal to those in Spain. For those wanting to move back to London, the situation is hopeless because, in the capital, prices never dropped at all and in some boroughs they have actually risen. 

Make the best of it

The wind has very kindly dropped for the weekend but just looking at this graph tells you that it is due to return on Monday and blow even harder than before.

What I would dearly like to know is, “why are we getting this pattern of strong wind followed by calm and then strong wind again?” and of course”when will it end?”

Not just San Fulgencio

Along with San Fulgencio, a number of other cash strapped municipalities are looking at building works that have been completed without their knowledge. In many cases they will be regularised and the owners will have an increased IBI bill.

On the coast for example, Orihuela council are finding lots of planning violations at the homes of ex-pats in the form of extensions, terraces covered in etc etc. Although much of this work can be regularised, in 14 cases so far, the owners have been ordered to bulldoze the illegal work. They have a choice to do it themselves or the council will do it for them and charge.

The council have also found one villa at La Murada that cannot be regularised and therefore will need to be demolished entirely.  

Back to square one

After all the debate and procrastination regarding Sector D6 in Bigastro, it seems that the PP and UPLC have now accepted the allegations made by the PSOE against them.

The government team have accepted that the original plan, set out by the socialists in 2005, is in fact the quickest way to achieve a definitive solution to the problems. That means that the 13,000 square metres for VPO houses ( subsidised housing) will be located in D6 and not D8 as the current government team had proposed. Also the gas tanks that were deemed illegal by Charo Bañuls (PP) will now remain.

The original value for the sector was set at 4.6 million, that was increased to 5.7 million and then because of delays to 5.9 million. The overruns have now been cancelled along with the contract to Iberdrola bringing the appraised value back down to 4.6 million.

Of course, much of the development has been completed and so Raúl Valerio Medina asks about the 1.3 million gap and how it will be paid to the owners. I think we all know the answer to that one!

Oh dear

San Fulgencio is catching up with the work that has been going on in the municipality and has discovered 1,419 modifications to properties that it wasn’t aware of and 590 pools that have not been declared. For a town of 19.7 square kilometres and a population of 12,357 that is rather a lot. We also have to remember that 77.6% of the population are foreigners.

The real issue is that the town has lost out on income through the property tax (IBI) to the tune of countless thousands of euros over the years. The mayor now says that they will have to revise the valuations house by house to determine the correct valuation. This will be done using aerial photos which can be used to compare the property registered with the property as it now stands. Since they won’t necessarily be able to date when the alterations were made, I imagine that the extra tax will not be applied retrospectively. 

No doubt there will be a number of cases where the administration is to blame for not keeping up with the paperwork but there could be others where people have shown flagrant disregard for planning rules – possibly out of ignorance of them. There are a lot of companies that advertise in the British newspapers who will offer to do work and tell you that it will be completely legal when in fact that is not the case. I suppose it is possible that some of the alterations cannot be legalised and therefore will have to be removed.

I do apologise

Those of you who read this blog from England will be getting fed up of reading about the wind that we are suffering here on the Costa Blanca.

In the eight years that we have lived here, this has been the worst winter for wind so far. There might have been times when the wind was stronger but not so consistently day after day over a prolonged period.

Just when you think that we might be done with the wind. it picks up again and blows even stronger than before as you can see from this graph of the wind force and the gusts recorded overnight.

Forecasts show that the wind will continue today and then will start to calm but not for long because Monday and Tuesday of next week are forecast for even stronger gales.

Although everything seems OK at the moment, structures that are designed to stand the wind will do so for so long but with the constant battering they start to weaken and give way. 

A different case of corruption

Memory cards for cameras etc are generally very reliable. They will stand a lot of abuse and still perform perfectly so we tend to take them for granted.

However, even though they have no moving parts like the hard drives in a computer, they can still become corrupted as this one has. It is a lesson that needs to be remembered. I have no idea how the card became corrupted; although both the camera and my computer will recognise its presence, neither will read, write nor format the card. It is now in the bin!

DON’T TAKE CHANCES

A friend of mine showed me his compact camera and asked where he could buy a spare memory card because the one in the camera was full. The card in the camera had hundreds of photos dating back to when he first bought it. He hadn’t backed up any of the pictures to a computer so everything relied on the card remaining intact.

Another friend had been on a trip around the world and had taken several cards with him to record his journey. He’d left one of the cards on a plane and unfortunately had not had the chance to back the files up.

Different stories with the same possible result i.e. memorable pictures being lost without much chance of recovery.

Professional photographers do not take such chances. They use small capacity cards and do not fill them. At the earliest opportunity they back them up onto a computer and then an external drive keeping each type of media separate so if one is lost then they have the security of two further copies. 

The stain of corruption

When you thought that things could not get worse for Spain, they did with the publication of the secret accounting system of the ex PP treasurer, Luis Bárcenas. The notebooks show regular payments to members of the party including Mariano Rajoy whose share of the “pot” is said to be 25,000 euros per year. The money largely came as donations from companies hoping to win government contracts.

At the weekend Rajoy was at pains to protest his innocence even though he acknowledged that elements of the accounts were true.

The anti-corruption prosecutor is now investigating the case by comparing the last 13 year’s of public accounts with the secret accounts to determine if tax frauds were committed and whether the limits for political donations were breached.

Whilst we would like to trust Sr Rajoy, In a country where so much political scandal has been unearthed, (there are currently over 300 corruption investigations under way) it is hard to believe anything that politicians tell you.

Can we believe anything is true in sport?

We’ve had the scandal about doping in cycling. In a feeble attempt to defend his position, Lance Armstrong claimed that taking performance enhancing drugs was so widespread, you either had to join in or not bother to take part. Yeah, right Lance – innocent victim!

None of us are so naive enough to believe that doping was and is confined to just cycling. Any sport where performance enhancement techniques will reap benefits was going to be fair game to those who wanted to cheat.  Like with any criminal activity, keeping ahead of the authorities and not being found out is the name of the game for these so called “sports” people.

Football is probably one of those sports where the participants would not benefit from drugs to the same degree as they do in cycling. The problem in football is somewhat different.

Europol are currently investigating 380 football games which they claim were fixed. They have discovered an Asian syndicate responsible for coordinating around 425 match officials, club officials, players and criminals to rig games, a procedure that would have brought them 8m euros in profit from bets.

Knowing this, can you ever watch a match again where your team, who won so well the week before, suddenly lose to less worthy opponents and not suspect foul play? When the incentive to lose is stronger than the will to win, it seems anything can happen in the “beautiful game”.

View from the Shard

The Guardian newspaper has produced a 360 degree view from the latest tall building to be opened in London.

Use your mouse to move around, click on the blue dots for the names of landmarks and the orange ones for stories. At the top right you can even change the scene from day to dusk.

Strong winds effected the market

I did wonder what effect the strong wind yesterday might have had on the Medieval Market. Although the streets are narrow and have tall buildings to shelter them, they would have acted like funnels to the wind when it was in the wrong direction.

Apparently, some of the stalls were damaged and many of the the owners had to remove the awnings that would have been torn apart if left. The emergency field hospital had to be moved and street lights, antennas and even a lamp post had to be removed for safety. I imagine that a lot of those banners that stretched across the streets could have been damaged by the wind.

Today has started a lot calmer, although the area is still on yellow alert for the morning. Let us hope so because Sunday is usually the busiest day for the market.  

It’s wild again!

After a balmy week when some took to the beach as temperatures soared to the mid twenties, the bad weather has returned to blight the weekend.

Those who visited the Medieval Market in Orihuela yesterday, basked in lovely sunshine and enjoyed the multitude of entertainment on show. Today’s visitors though will not be so lucky. The wind picked up overnight and it is gusting hard out there. In the narrow streets, the wind may not be a problem but the rain that has started to lash down will be if it continues.

For those who are intent on going to the market today, here is a foretaste of what you might see.