What is This?

During our travels around our area in Spain, we have seen this structure being built.
It is in a strange location, not in an urbanisation and not in a commercialisation, it just sits alone on a hill. There is a road near it, not a major road more a ‘rat run’.
For a long period all that stood was a concrete skeleton, however, recently there has been more activity to finish the building.
The lady of the Villa and I just cant make out what it is. To small for a villa, to remote to be a shop.
We await completion!

I Love Gadgets

I have always loved gadgets and will by anything that improves my life style. Here are some of the gadgets I own.

1. EBook - In my case it is a Sony PRS-505. I use it a lot. Most of my Christmas and birthday presents are now book vouchers so I can get the books online (Waterstones or Amazon) and read them via the eBook. For me it saves on storage space and is just as good as a book.
2. Sony Ericsson P900. I have had this phone for about 10 years. Did everything I needed when I was at work. Diary, Contacts, camera, access to the internet, it was more a PDA than a phone.
3. Fuji S600. Digital camera need I say more. Great for taking numerous photos and later picking the best!
4. Portable hard drive. Need this more and more. My current one is 500 gigabytes and I paid about £75. Used to back up as well as store all our files.
5. IPod Nano. I don’t subscribe to Apple I just copy all my CD’s to the IPod. Great when in the gym or a flight.
6. Accu-check nano. Helps me keep my blood sugar in check. This one has up to 90 days of history and can be connected to a pc to produce charts.
7. Wireless Surround Sound. Needed this for the villa. The floors are all tiled so trailing wires would have looked out of place.
8. Tom Tom. Used when travelling around Europe. Still needs a bit of common sense and a swift look at the old maps. Best for navigating around a city.
9. Blood Pressure tester. Helps me keep healthy
10. Heart rate monitor. Used in the gym to get heart rate up to the required level – it don’t take long these days
11. BaByliss hair cutter. Bought to keep my hair at the No2 level.
12. Net book. A ‘cut down’ laptop. Light enough to carry around and access the internet wirelessly.

The Drains

We had invited some people over for dinner last Saturday night and I had decided to cook a series of Curries with all the “trimmings”. No real issue with the food I had started to cook on the Thursday, some on the Friday and finish off on the Saturday.
During the Saturday I decided I needed more chicken so off to the supermarket I went, as I descended the stairs to the road level I caught a whiff of drains but ignored it. On the way back to the villa entrance I again caught a bad smell. Again I ignored it.
As I was busy “cheffing” as The Lady of the Villa calls it she went off on a tour of her garden to se how things were there. She had only been gone ten minutes when she called to me in the kitchen, “We have a problem!”.  My only problem was getting the Korma to the right consistency, so what was wrong?
Just below the steps to the road level a whole “pond” of effluent had appeared (no photographs to save the reader throwing up). Our drains were blocked and it was 5pm on a Saturday afternoon. we had no rods, no way of unblocking and the smell was… well you can imagine and as the washing machine and dishwasher were on the pool was getting bigger. Off went all the machines. Diving for a copy of the “yellow pages” I managed to get a company to come out on “Emergency” (it was a Saturday they explained).
They arrived an hour later and left 30 minutes later 150 euros richer the pool gone and the air smelling sweeter. Our guests never noticed a thing!

Recession - Spain tumbles out of top ten of World economies

The busted construction bubble, the international financial and economic crisis and lower revenues from tourism contribute to Spain falling out of the GDP top ten. The country will fall from an 8th place to 12th the coming years, in the process being passed by India and Brazil. That is the projection made public by the International Monetary Fund.
By 2014 Spain's Gross Domestic Product will decrease 2.1% according to the IMF. The shrinking of the Spanish economy is felt even harder by its´ citizens. On the per capita income ladder Spain occupies a 29th spot, behind amongst others it's EU-neighbours Italy and France.

Ohio Record Roller Coaster

Thanks to AP for his email and these pictures of the Ohio Roller Coaster. It is 420 Ft High, 120 MPH Down... and it looks vertical.

The Top Thrill Dragster delivers on its promise of thrilling riders this summer at Cedar Point, Ohio. Last picture says it all...

I cant see myself going to Ohio soon. How about you?

Correos

The Correos to anybody in the UK is the Royal Mail. The people who move the letters and parcels around Spain and if you are lucky deliver them to your Urbanisation.
There is no door delivery in Spain. Each urbanisation or apartment has its own set of mail boxes and the mail is delivered into them, in our case by men (or woman) on yellow scooters.
It has taken a lot of time and effort on the urbanisation committee and our Spanish Administrators to get  the post through. Due to some internal “cock-up” the local town hall and the builders provided the 75% of the residents with the wrong address, a road name was incorrect. Why this stopped the other 25% from getting through was a mystery.
Having got this correct we had to wait 6 months for a “blue sign” with numbers on to be erected by the council. Then the Correos lost the master key to the mail boxes (we have one at each end of the (Urbanisation). Once we got a locksmith to change the locks and provide the local Correos office with the key, they then found the original key and started to use that. Obviously it did not work and we spent some time getting the keys sorted out.
Eventually, we had agreement that all was well, however, test postings from the UK, Spain and the USA and our Spanish Administrators all failed. On making, through our Spanish administrators, an official complaint the post came through.
Asking about back post we were told that it all had been destroyed! Evidently a common occurrence in Spain. Saves having a backlog I suppose. We were told officially that all post was destroyed that could not be delivered as this saved the customer money as they would have to charge for storage!
Now that we have been down this long and winding road of attrition we have regular post. We do check deliveries on a monthly basis by having or Administrators send us post. That way we now its getting through.
You could not make this story up!

Recession – Unsold Homes

There are 95,000 unsold homes in the Valencian Community in which we live  and half of them are in the hands of the banks, primarily Bancaja and CAM, according to President of the Valencian Federation of Construction Entrepreneurs (Fevec), Juan Eloy Dura.
He went on to say that approximately 70 percent of properties held by savings banks and credit unions come from debt compensation agreements with developers or from individuals who couldn’t repay their mortgages.
Fortunately for the banks, there has been a slight increase in property prices over the past month. Dura says that homes are now at a “more or less fair price”. However, there are far fewer proposed building projects than previous years.

The Spanish NHS

I have only used the Spanish NHS once. Stupidly I managed to jam my finger between a wall and a large and very heavy planter last summer when I was installing an automatic watering system.
I did have my E111 card with me and was swept off to the local hospital with a large bandage wrapped around my finger. Once at the hospital, it was much the same as in the UK. My poor Spanish and the administrations people’s English together with a look at the bleeding finger soon got me registered, provided with a number on a card.
As I waited around for treatment, I was amazed to find posters in English asking (the English) not to get upset if the doctors and nurses did not speak English and asking them to bring a translator if they felt that they could not be understood or understand Spanish. What do we English want?
Other posters, in Spanish and English explained the Triage system. Basically the most serious cases handled first, minor once later, with the proviso that while you were waiting another patient may arrive with a more serious condition.
I was waiting for 30 minutes before my number came up and I entered through a secure door(!) the casualty department, meet by a nurse and shown to a room. In no time at all a doctor appeared and using a computer in the room accessed my details that I had given to the administrator on arrival.
At this point they undid my bandage and examined the wound (between cleaning off the blood spurts). By my poor Spanish, their English and good guessing I was told I was to be stitched after a local anesthetic was applied. Off they went stitching away. After which I was given an anti tetanus jab and a proper bandaging job. All this was entered in the computer. Just before leaving I was told to report to a local clinic once a week to have my bandage changed.
When I appeared at the local clinic they found my details using my name and date of birth so it was all linked up, just like the UK have been trying to do for years! Every time I went back to the clinic the details were updated by the nurses and when it was discovered that I had a slight infection in the wound a doctor was summoned immediately and I was given a prescription for antibiotics (which as in the UK you paid for). Eventually all was well and all that is left is a scar on my finger.
It was all very smooth and professional and as good as you would get in most UK hospitals and better than most.

Biorhythms

A Biorhythm is a hypothetical cycle in physiological, emotional, or intellectual well-being or prowess. "Bio-" pertains to life and “rhythm” pertains to the flow with regular movement. The theory has no more predictive power than chance, and has been labeled a pseudoscience by skeptics.
Having said all that I have been using biorhythm charts ever since I discovered them in the 1970’s and found them most useful.
The theory of biorhythms claims that one's life is affected by rhythmic biological cycles, and seeks to make predictions regarding these cycles and the personal ease of carrying out tasks related to the cycles. These inherent rhythms are said to be composed of three cyclic rhythms: the physical, (23 day), emotional (28 day) and the intellectual (33 day) cycles.
The three classical cycles of biorhythms are often represented graphically in a sinusoidal waveform. Each cycle oscillates between a positive phase [0%..100%] and a negative phase [-100%..0%], during which biorhythmic activity strengthens and weakens. The waveforms start at the neutral baseline (0%) at the time of birth of each individual. Each day that the waveform again crosses this baseline is dubbed a critical day, which means that tasks in the domain of the cycle are far more erratic than on other non-critical days. The purpose of mapping the biorhythmic cycles is to enable the calculation of critical days for performing or avoiding various activities.
Years ago I used to have a whole year printed out but now thanks to the internet I can see my biorhythms on a daily basis. Here is the site I use http://www.bio-chart.com/.

Little Britain

The area that we live in I call little Britain. And that is not just the Urbanisation we live on. We have 83 properties on the urbanisation with all but 10 owned by brits.
The surrounding area is mostly of the same percentage of ownership.
All the bars and restaurants for a five mile radius are mostly owned by brits. All the supermarkets (ALDI, Eroski, Carrafour, SupuValu) are local owned, however, all the staff speak English and are proud to show off their linguistic talents.
So much so that trying to use what Spanish we have proves more difficult than you think. It is possible not to speak Spanish at all! If you do need to go to hospital, the Town Hall, The Police Station or the doctors there are more than enough translators to go with you. At a cost, usually 15 – 25 euros an hour.
At weekends we can go to any number of bars and restaurants all owned by brits. In fact the local plaza has twenty bars or restaurants brat owned, 3 Indian, 2 German, and 2 Spanish restaurants.
The Shoe, hardware, paper, confectionary and clothes shops are all owned and operated by Brits.
We did not move here because it was ‘Little Britain’ it just suited us, near the sea, in the sun, the type of villa we wanted and could afford. having said that we could have got more for our money now than we did 5 years ago but we did not have 20/20 hindsight. LOL.  

Granada Trip – Day 3

After another sound sleep and another excellent breakfast we headed off to the Cathedral. Once we had paid our entrance fee and entered we were astounded by the size not just the height but the ground space. You could easily get a football field in the inside.

This is 6 stories up!

 This picture shortens the depth, its longer in real life.

 The Church organ!

The number of entrance doors and the size of them was another astounding feature.






We had enough time to do another bus tour as the tickets we purchased lasted 48 hours. After lunch we headed back to the hotel were our bus was waiting and soon we were off back home.

All in all we enjoyed the trip and will no doubt do another. Granada, apart from the Alhambra Palaces and the Cathedral was, for me, a bit of a disappointment, but the Lady of the Villa enjoyed every minute.

Granada Trip – Day 2

Having had a good nights sleep, an excellent breakfast at the hotel we headed off on a mini bus to the Alhambra Palace, the reason we were making the trip.

 Arriving at 11:15 and joining the queue for entrance tickets we found after a twenty minute queue that we could not enter until 14:00 and that our entry into the main palace was 18:00!

We headed back to town and decided to take the tourist bus around the city to see the rest of the sites.
I was stunned at the traffic in the city it was dog eat dog or mans inhumanity to man. No quarter was given any gap was big enough and the car horns were in use good style!

The motor scooters were the worst elbowing their way to the front and roaring off like demons to try and beat the next set of lights!
After the your we ended up at 14:15 in the Alhambra Palace gardens. The actual area contains many palaces, some in ruins some being restored and one the Kings Place the jewel in the Crown. The whole place was surrounded by thick walls and keeps. It really gave an idea of how big the Palaces (or mini town) was in the 9th Centaury.

The Lady of the Villa was well enamoured with the Wisteria that abounded around the Palaces.

We actually exhausted all the Palaces and grounds by 16:30 but we still had a 1:30 hour wait to gain entry to the Kings Palace so we waited outside and chatted to the other visitors. Eventually we got in at our elected time (you could not get in before as each ticket was electronically timed).




Here are some of the pictures I took. A really fabulous place now never mind in the 9th Centaury!

This last photo is a view over the city of Granada from the highest Keep in the Palace. The city has grown a bit since the 9th Centaury. 







We returned to our hotel, showered and changed and went off to the Moorish part of the town. We had found three restaurants that had been recommended in the tour books, but it was soon whittled down to one, the others did not serve alcohol! It was called the Kasbah and the food was excellent as was the service.
Back to the hotel were we swapped tourist stories with our fellow tourist in the hotel bar.

Granada Trip – Day 1

“I want to see the Alhambra Palace’s” said the Lady of the Villa. Brilliant I thought a Curry Trip around all The Alhambra Palace’s in the UK. Reaching over for “Curry Houses in the UK I felt a slap around my head.
“Not those  Alhambra Palaces, but the ones in Granada, in Spain” OK I thought I reached over for the PC to get the Tom Tom up to date and get maps from www.multimap.com. SLAP!
“Don’t bother with those, I have organised the whole thing. We are going by coach!” Is she mad I thought, I haven’t been on a coach trip since I was at Secondary School and I did not think I was that old I needed a driver.
Anyway that is why I am standing at 7;30 am (yes am!) waiting at a pickup point for the coach. Nice coach, nice reclining seats, air conditioning, and only a third full and complete with driver and tour guide. And off we go stopping twice for “driver breaks” to arrive in Granada at 13:15. Once there the coach took us on a bus tour of the city centre to give us a flavour of Granada. Once at the hotel and unpacked we were off to the town to have a look around for the afternoon.

We walked around the outside of the Cathedral and walked around the Christian area and identified places that we could eat at in the evening. Then it was off to the Moorish part of the town about 5 minutes away. This was very interesting with very narrow streets and it had a bazaar and very Arabic atmosphere.
Arrived back at the hotel at 16:00 and had one of the great Spanish traditions, a siesta. Later we then went out for an evening meal. We had decided on Spanish meal that night with a Moorish meal the next night. So we ended up, after a few aperitifs, in the main square at installed ourselves in the Centro restaurant.
A really nice Spanish meal with a lovely red wine unfortunately accompanied by very poor service. We had finished our mains and were asked straight away if we wanted a sweet. We asked for a 5 minute break. Twenty minutes later we managed to find a waiter and asked for the bill (la quinta) having gone passed waiting for a sweet. Another 10 minutes went by before we stood over a waiter and insisted we paid the bill. I was all in favour of leaving no tip but was over ruled by the Lady of the Villa.
Off we went to the hotel bar only to find even worse service and it was only 23:30. After a drink we left for bed.

Taxi Permit chaos causes frustration

We do go out at least once a week and always within walking distance. Any other journey to a further venue means a dedicated driver. We cannot understand (until now) why taxis are so difficult to find. This from the local paper:
“Taxi drivers in the Orihuela municipality have called for direct action by officials at the Town Hall to ensure that their licenses are renewed quickly. Dozens of affected drivers have been left unable to work for months and in one case two years, due to red tape and bureaucracy caused by inefficiencies in the Town Hall’s administration department.
This renewed permit is not issued to drivers who have taken, for instance, a long break from taxi driving or who have perhaps been ill and must prove their driving skills are still of the required standard. This permit is required simply because they have just changed their vehicle! And more often than not for a newer and better technically equipped and more environmentally friendly model than the previous one.”

Smoking Ban in Spain: Will It Ever Happen?

The proposed smoking ban in Spain has been put back until 2011, raising some doubts over whether it will ever happen at all.
With most countries in Western Europe having brought in smoking ban several years ago, Spain stalled and put in place some half-baked legislation in the hope that that would see off any laws being imposed from on high by the European Union.
Since late 2005, small bars and cafes in Spain have been in the curious position of being allowed to choose whether to permit smoking not. Unsurprisingly (as most bar staff and their patrons smoke), they chose to allow it. Larger establishments were, in theory, asked to fit an expensive ventilated partition. Most ignored it, including Madrid airport.
Realising that the current system was doing nothing to decrease the amount of smoking in public places in Spain, the government threatened to completely ban lighting up in bars and cafes in 2010. But the law has been creeping further and further back - first until the summer and now until 2011.

What a tattoo!

A while ago I blogged about  the right to be naked in any public place in Spain is a part of the human rights of every person in Spain. This includes: publicly owned beaches, rivers, forests, lakes, even streets and town squares
Well as you can see from the picture above (taken in Barcelona) some people take it literaly. And Yes he is naked!

Weather in Spain Week 26th April – 2nd May 2010

Monday: Misty start that the sun burnt off giving a really hot and sunny day. Temp of 27C - the hottest so far. Overnight temp of 15C.
Tuesday:Sunny and bright day. Temp of 26C. Overnight clear and bright with a temp of 16C.
Wednesday: Very warm and hot day. Temp of 27C. Overnight clear with a temp of 16C
Thursday: Another hot and sunny day with a temp of 27.5 C a new high. Again overnight it was clear and bright with a temp of 15C
Friday: Bright and Sunny staret that became overcast later in the day. Temp of 23C. Overnight cool and clear with a temp of 15C
Saturday: Sunny and warm day with a temp of 22C. Overnight temp of 17C
Sunday: Warm and sunny day. Temp of 23.5C. Overnight clear with a temp of 16C

We wont be around to record the next few weeks of weather. This blog element will continue later this month.

For an advanced forecast in the area I live in see http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/europe_forecast_7days.asp?locationID=3222 which is Mercia Airport, our nearest point on this site.

Off to the Game

I am about to go off and see Liverpool play Chelsea in a local bar. I was hoping to see it at Anfield, however, the youngest daughter has turned up and The Lady of Villa  gave me one of her looks. The one that said “Don’t Go” so I didn’t.

Instead I am off to a bar, with both of them, a bar owned and mostly populated with MANCS. (They will be playing later).
I want Liverpool to win because

1. I always do
2. To lose at home is not the Liverpool way (even if it means UTD win the Premier) and we should not “lie down”
3. The best team over 38 games should win

Come On You Red Men!

Do you Know who it is yet?

As Rolf Harris used to say ‘Do you know who it is yet?’ Who you are going to vote for that is?
In my opinion there is not a great deal to choose from, what we had before or two unknowns, who will probably give just the same old guff. ‘It wasn’t me it was the last lot made me do it!’ Whatever IT is.
Well there is not much time to go to make a decision. Lets hope it’s not a hung parliament, because not matter what deals are struck to keep one of them in power, it will all fall down in a year or two and we will go through the whole thing again.
Sometimes I wonder if the month before a General Election is worse than the whole life of a parliament. All those ‘promises’ said so unctuously, ‘all that we can get you out of this mess messages’, smiles galore until election night and then the losers party have their ‘Night of the long knives’ and the blood letting begins.

Books Read in April 2010

 At my Mothers Knee. Paul O'Grady. This is the story of Paul O'Grady, presenter TV Actor and the alter ego of the infamous Lily Savage. It tells his story from birth to him turning 18. Here he tells the story of his life, growing up in Birkenhead. He tells brilliantly all the tales of his family and the sorts of tricks that he got up to when he was pre teen, as well as the tricks he got up to when he discovered girls and boys! His experiences of school and work made me laugh out loud, and his experience with the church and Catholicism is also so philosophical and funny at the same time. It is obvious that all the female characters of his life, his mum and her sisters,the lady next door have influenced his character of Lily Savage. The stories you hear him tell are no doubt true but I am sure exaggerated for effect (as most peoples funny stories are). However they are beautifully told in the book with no malice just fun. I cant wait for the next instalment. 5 Stars.


Carra. Jamie Carragher is one of the most popular footballers in Liverpool`s history. He is worshiped by the LFC fans, and the envy of rival back fours. His popularity was proven when he was recently voted the most popular player in the entire Liverpool squad.
Carra. Jamie Carragher. The story tells how Carra came to Liverpool even though he had been brought up as a 'Blue nose' (evertonian) from an Everton family and with Everton friends. The book packed with great anecdotes and stories, and he doesn't pull any punches with his opinions and has a large helpings of scouse humour, I really enjoyed it. This book is the real McCoy straight from the horses mouth. Raw, funny and down-to-earth, this book takes you behind the scenes of all of Liverpool and some of England's triumphs and disasters in the company of a player who never fails to be intelligent, controversial or just downright hilarious.4 Stars.

X Marks the Box. Daniel Blythe. This was a free e-book from Waterstones and I started to read it thinking that i would not last till the last page. I was wrong. Daniel Blythe negotiates the political maze from the voters point of view. Covers issues like Why should we vote? What do politicians do and why does it make a difference? Identifies and defines Diehards, a Bloody-Noser and a Tactical voter amongst others. What can your MP do for you? And just why do they avoid answering direct questions? Along the way, he examines the most fun general elections and the under-rated politicians; the scandals and the bizarre MP polls, the biggest political victories, the U-turns and betrayals; the issues on the street, the part played by newspaper and what manifestos really mean; how to make your vote count, how to protest, and why you should care about by-elections.Whether you are disenchanted or a ballot-box regular, an activist or a floating voter, this is a book amused, informed and entertained. 4 Stars.

Tooth and Nail. Ian Rankin, Another Inspector Rebus novel, this time based in London. Rebus helping 'The Met' track a serial killer. Good story, well written, kept me guessing who the killer was, but spoit by the 'and with a leap the killere was exposed' ending. Never saw the killer as the one unmasked at anytime. None of the clues pointed to anyone, so it seems one character was selected so thye book could end. Really fanciful car chase at the end. 3 Stars.

Drop Zone. Micheal Salazar. This has got to be the worst book I have read in a long time. Not just for the storyline but for the characterisation, the writing, the dialogue, the whole concept. It is not often, in fact I cant remember when I did it last, that I do not finish a book but I could not finish this one! Give this a big miss. -5 Stars. 

50 People who Buggered Up Britain. Quentin Letts. I liked the title so I read it, to be honest it should be titled 50 People who Let Britain Down. Not a lot, if any, of the 50 people buggered Britain (Jimmy Saville, Alex Furguson, Tony Greig, Jeffrey Archer) some buggered up more than others (Ed Balls, James Callahan, Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher) and no doubt you could add more to the list (Mark Thatcher, Prince Charles etc.) but the author has to stop his list somewhere and save another 50 for a second book! Anyway an interesting read and as each chapter was a view of one person no hardship on the brain. 2 Stars.