Over for another year

After spending months looking forward to Christmas, it is all over in the blink of an eye and all that is left are remnants of the turkey and the odd mince pie. Time to think about New Year and the need to return to a sensible diet.

A nation of shoppers

It amazes me to find how many people are in the shops seeking out bargains. I understand there were folks queuing outside Next at dawn on Boxing Day. Good luck to them, wild horses would not have dragged me out of bed let alone the house at that time of day.

Following a blustery and late arrival in Manchester, the weather has been reasonable. It might be cold but at least it is mostly dry and the company is as warm as ever.

Off again

It hardly seems like a few days since we were last in England and here we are going again. Since we passed on being there for Christmas, we decided to go for New Year.

When we phoned last night, little Molly wanted to know why we couldn’t be there then. She dearly wanted us to arrive last night. I expect that means she will be pleased to see us this afternoon, eager to know what we might have in our cases for her. We have a few things but nothing to compare with what Santa delivered.

Looking at the weather report, we could be in for a bumpy landing. The wind, that has troubled Britain over the last month, has returned but this time hopefully with less force. For the rest of our stay, it looks like typical Manchester weather, a few bright periods punctuated by rain and heavy skies. It will also be cold but then we do have warm clothes in our cases to comfort us.

Hasta luego amigos.

Talking of royalty

This year, for the first time in many years, Pam and I watched the Queen’s speech - not at the time of its original broadcast but a later re-run on Sky News. When we lived in England, we rarely had chance to listen to the speeches because they coincided with lunch. Her messages carry a lot of meaning and demonstrate why Her Majesty is still held in great esteem by the majority of the British public.

In Spain, the King delivered his speech on Christmas Eve which is the traditional day for families in Spain.

Last year, at the depth of the crisis for the monarchy here, Juan Carlos’ speech reached the lowest audience in fifteen years. At that time he said that nobody is above the law in reference to the corruption charges against his son-in-law and the investigation into his daughter’s accounts.

This year he may be forgiven, however Catalonians will have missed the speech because it was not transmitted there.

Catalonia, led by Artur Mas, is pushing for a referendum on whether it should become a separate state in the same way that voters in Scotland will be choosing whether to break free from Great Britain. The difference is that the Spanish Prime Minister has said that the Catalan plebiscite would be unconstitutional whereas in Britain, the government has said that it will recognise the outcome of the Scottish vote. 

If the Catalans were allowed to vote, then it is thought that 50% would choose to separate from Spain. However, since the PM has said that he will block the referendum in parliament and in court if necessary, the whole business could come to nothing. Artur Mas’ party will lose support and an early election will be called for which he will likely lose to the ERC party. 

Returning to the speech we listened to, Queen Elizabeth referred throughout to reflection. For her, with sixty years at the helm of Britain, it is time to pause and consider how things have changed but at the same time to reflect upon those aspects of life that have remained constant. For Her Majesty, it is family values and the devotion to service which she has shown over the entire 60 years that are most important.

It is interesting that both monarchies have faced problems and scandal over the years. Of the two though, I would say the British monarchy has weathered the storm best. Quite what will happen though when Charles accedes to the throne is hard to say. 

Christmas Day

First off the weather

Most Christmas Days that we have spent here have been sunny and mild but not this year. It rained for much of the day and was cold. As my neighbour said, “it is more like England”. Not quite because parts of the south of England spent Christmas day mopping up flood water and fifty thousand were left without electricity. Many could still be cut off by the end of the week.

Today we expect it to be dry and sunny. It is however a little blustery out there so perhaps not sunbathing weather. 

Morning phone calls

We called our family who were gathered in Sale and first spoke to our 3 and 3/4 year old granddaughter, Molly. Her first words were, “I can’t believe it, Santa has brought all the presents that I asked for!”. Looking at the photos that were pasted on Facebook later, Santa brought a whole lot more besides -she is one lucky and well loved little girl.

Our presents

This year, Pam and I decided to surprise each other with some small presents which I am pleased to say went down very well. It goes to show that you don’t need to spend a fortune to spread a lot of happiness. 

Christmas dinner

Having spent a leisurely morning, Pam and I went to La Herradura for Christmas Lunch. This is the third time that we have been there on Christmas Day so we are getting to know some of the regular clients.

Interestingly, one lady told Pamela that she was disappointed with her meal because it was the same as last year. Well yes it was but you already knew that from the menu shown at the time of booking and actually, if you went out for Christmas lunch in England, you’d get the same meal each year. The difference being that in England you’d have a plateful of turkey with trimmings followed by Christmas pudding. 

In fact, if you look at that menu from La Herradura, you will see that it represented great value for money. You certainly would not get anything like it for a price of less than £30 in Britain. Oh and yes, they missed out the “sopa de pollo con fideos” from the menu.  That came between the bread and the prawns. Each plateful might have been small but by the end, you knew you’d eaten sufficient.

Face time

In the evening we went on Face time to see the chaos that our family in Sale faced. Hopefully, they will have moved some of the presents away to leave some clear space in the lounge ready for our visit there tomorrow! 

Pam and I hope that you all enjoyed your Christmas Day as much as we did and that you are not suffering from too much of a hangover this morning.

Smiles all round

	The face says it all. This is the director of the band, Don Thomás Rodríguez Gómez, at Sunday’s concert for Christmas.

Santa will be there

Young Socialists in Bigastro have collected 400 toys for the 'This Christmas, no child  in Bigastro without toys' campaign organised through the charity, Caritas. The toys  will go to needy local families who are experiencing financial difficulties .

Every year – something different

The Christmas concert last night followed the tradition set to be different. In the first part, the twist came with what is described as the Sinfonia de los Juegetes  by Haydn. In the second part, the choir came on stage to be later joined by local councillors to sing traditional Christmas songs.

Mr and Miss  Bigastro band performed a dance	Members of the band played toy instruments
Members of the council joined the choir	Our friend Chris played his first solo on flute

See you there

I’m reliably informed that the Christmas concert tonight in Bigastro will be something special - well worth missing the tele for! It all starts at 7pm and there could be a fight for the best seats.

Fingers crossed for a win

Today is the one that many Spaniards look forward to because the Christmas lottery draw is taking place at the Teatro Real in Madrid this morning. It is said that 75.3% of Spaniards take part, each spending an average of 65 euros on tickets. Even that sum is down though because in 2008 the average spend was 133 euros.

What makes this lottery special is of course the prize pot which amounts to 2,240 million euros and the number of prizes which is 24 million. Even still, the chances of winning a big prize are slim – 1 in 100,000 and there is only a 9% chance of even getting your money back.

There are two large drums, one contains the 100,000 numbered balls and the other, the 1,807 different types of prizes. The balls are made of boxwood, each precisely 3gms in weight and 18.8mm in diameter with numbers laser engraved upon them.  First the ball for the number is drawn and then the prize. Children from San Ildefonso boarding school in Madrid will sing out the numbers. It is all grand theatre as people watch and wait for the big prizes to be drawn.

The state is of course the big winner and this year even more so because in addition to the normal cut, every win over 2,500 euros will be subject to 20% tax. So, a win of 400,000 euros in 2012 will only realise 320,000 euros this year. Still, there are many who would settle for a fraction of that amount.

Am I in with a chance to win? No is the answer because I have not bought a ticket for this year.

We did buy National Lottery tickets each week in Britain at £1 a piece and hardly won a thing and we bought tickets for El Gordo on two occasions from our Spanish teacher. She was selling them on behalf of an association which charged 3 euros over the 20 euro face value of a decimo (one tenth of a full ticket). The first time I got 20 euros back and so lost 3 euros to the cause. The second time I got nothing. To be honest, I have enough vices to keep me happy without adding gambling to the pot.

Another recommendation

When we had our central heating system installed by the builder, the cost was sky high. Still, we got a working system that has given us very few problems in the nine years we have lived here.

A couple of gripes though, 1. the only control that we had was a wall mounted thermostat which acted like a simple switch to turn the system on or off and 2. we would have liked towel heating radiators in the bathrooms.

Now we have managed to resolve both of those issues.

1. Instead of the thermostat in the lounge area, we have a programmer which allows us to set times when the heating comes on either on a daily or a weekly basis. It also allows us to set a temperature at which the boiler will come on regardless and a frost protection setting for those times when we are away. There is also the facility to program the heating to stay off whilst we are away and come back on again ready for our return. Short of putting the kettle on for an early morning cup of tea, this device does everything we require of it. The controller was installed by the technician from CAMINSTAT who I have mentioned before. Since we have a service plan with him, there was no charge for labour.

2. We had originally thought that heated towel rails would be out of the question because the pipes to our Spanish radiators fit top and bottom. Apparently this is not a problem, you just need to re-route the top pipe to the bottom of the new radiator and that is what the plumber did. The extended pipe is mostly hidden by the new radiator and so it all looks neat and tidy. The plumber who did the job was recommended by our neighbour Pepe and turned out to be based in Bigastro. Fontaneria Aqua Azul is in the Pligono Apatel on Calle Medio Ambiente 6. For two plumbers working for almost two hours each we paid 60 euros plus IVA. Having experienced the charges that plumbers make in Britain, I think that is more than reasonable. And yes, they cleaned up afterwards and left us with the old radiators (many plumbers in Britain would want to take those away to use on another job).

A subject of deep controversy

Abortion is understandably a controversial subject in a catholic country like Spain. When changes to the  law allowing abortions up to the 14th week of pregnancy were introduced by the former socialist government in 2010, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in protest. However, since then, the number of abortions in Spain have not risen significantly showing that the changes did not spell a free for all.

The current conservative government pledged to change the law as part of its electoral programme and on Friday the cabinet approved the changes. Abortion will only be permitted in cases of rape, where there is serious foetal deformity or if the pregnancy presents physical or mental danger to the mother. Clearly, the PP have been under pressure from the Catholic Church to make these changes. The church still harbours idealistic notions about issues such as abortion and contraception which many feel are out of touch with the modern world. 

Women’s rights groups claim that this move takes Spain back 30 years and say that it will encourage “abortion tourism”. For them, the only positive aspect of the changes to the law is that it will not criminalize women who have abortions as was the case with the 1985 legislation.

Fingers crossed

Like most small consumers, we are on the tariff of last resort or TUR. There are two roughly equal parts, the cost of energy and the tolls that the government set.

The price paid for energy is set by auctions such as the one held yesterday when the price jumped up 25.6% meaning that our bills would rise by 11.5% in January. Thankfully, the Ministry of Industry and Energy have intervened and the hope is that the rise won’t happen. In fact the Minister, Jose Manuel Soria has said it will not happen and the Prime Minister says that he will try and correct the possibility of a rise.

For many in Spain, any rise in energy costs would be a disaster let alone one of 11%. Let us hope that this can be resolved for all our sakes.

Seasons greetings

The Town Hall in Bigastro has published its programme for the Christmas season online at http://www.bigastro.es/documentos/noticias/nav_2013.pdf

Make a special note of the Christmas Fair this weekend on Calle Purisima and the concert for Christmas on Sunday at 7pm.

On my behalf and I am sure the rest of our British community here, I would like to thank the Ayuntamiento for all they have done for us this year. It has been a difficult year for Bigastro but in spite of all the problems, the people of the town have shown that they can battle through together.

The message from the mayor in the programme, is both heartfelt and much appreciated. We share the hope with her that 2014 will be a better year for the town and for its people.

A good return

The International Association to Save Tyre took out a bank loan and bought the 1914 painting by Picasso entitled, L'Homme au Gibus (Man with Opera Hat). They then organised a raffle for the art work with 50,000 tickets at 100 euros each.

On Wednesday the draw took place and an American, Jeffrey Gonano held the winning ticket. He said that he was looking for something to put on the wall. Well now that he has a $1m Picasso, I hope he has good security in his house and adequate insurance! Oh and please do make sure that the hook in the wall is secure before hanging the picture.

Five million euros return on a one million dollar investment was a very good return for the charity.

Yet again

Last time we were in Britain, it was lashed by gale force winds and heavy rain – that was just weeks ago. Today, I read that winds of up to 90 miles per hour and heavy rain are again causing havoc for the country. I expect most people living there will be mighty glad when this winter is over.

All above board

The former mayor of Bigastro, Raúl Valerio Medina, gave his testimony yesterday in court regarding allegations that illegal bonuses of up to 37,000 euros had been paid to various residents in the town. The beneficiaries included his own father and friends.

In his defence, Medina said that the exemption from paying council tax and motor vehicle tax for these individuals were covered by ordinances that had been passed at council meetings at which the current mayor, Charo Bañuls was present. He added that the council had failed to send that documentation to the court which would prove his innocence.

Medina went on to claim that his father paid 2,099.07 euros in tax and benefitted from a bonus of 200 euros which he says is quite different to the sum of 1,750 euro bonus that the PP say he was given.

Of course we have to remember that, at the time that these ordinances were passed, the socialists were in power with a majority of seats and therefore were able to pass whatever they wished. I very much doubt that the PP  voted in favour of giving bonuses to residents in this way. The strength of the case now rests on whether the decisions of the council at that time were legal or not.

As I have said before, I believe that the problem for Spain during those boom years was that there was insufficient control over local and even regional government affairs. They were able to get away with passing laws and regulations that should never have been allowed. Corruption at that time was virtually endemic, allowing politicians and their friends to “feather their own nests” at will. Now, ever so slowly, “the chickens are coming home to roost” and those that were in power are being called to account for their actions. 

Ironically, the socialists in Bigastro still have control with one more seat than the party in government and so it is technically possible to out vote them. However, I doubt that they would even attempt to pass anything which whiffed of nepotism.  

A worldwide problem

We would all like to be able to put our trust in politicians but experience warns us that might be a dangerous thing to do.

Our Spanish teacher asked us whether the same issues with banks and politics exist in Great Britain as they do in Spain and sadly our answer was yes.  

The difference is that the political system in Britain is perhaps a little more transparent and open to scrutiny. For example, local politicians in Britain would have a harder time getting away with some of the scams that their counterparts in Spain pull off.

Bankers in Britain are just as bad if not worse than those in Spain. Even when they fail their customers badly with paltry interest rates and miss sold protection policies, British bankers still find a way to pay themselves obscene bonuses. 

The three Kings

Their Majesties, The Magi from the east, will visit Bigastro on January 5th at 6pm.

In hot water again

The socialist leader and ex-mayor of Bigastro, Raúl Valerio Medina along with the Secretary and Treasurer are back in court. This time, to answer to charges that they deliberately informed SUMA not to claim property and vehicle tax from certain individuals without justifiable legal reasons. it is claimed that the ex-mayor’s father and friends were among the beneficiaries. The alleged fraud amounted to 37,00.86 euros.

Look out for these

	These are some of the traditional biscuits from this area that are only available at Christmas. If you can’t wait for the Christmas market, these are for sale now at Mi Rincon Exquisito on the corner of Calle Purisima.