Spanish Unemployment

Spain's unemployment rate has hit 20% for the first time in nearly 13 years, official figures have shown. There were 4,612,700 people unemployed in the country at the end of March, the national statistics agency INE said.
Spain's jobless rate has risen sharply during the economic downturn and is the highest in the eurozone.
Meanwhile, official European Union (EU) figures showed that the eurozone unemployment rate remained unchanged at 10% in March.
The unemployment figures could be higher if it were not for the unemployment laws which give workers a minimum of 25 weeks pay for every year worked up to a maximum of 52 weeks. This may explain why more companies are going into bankruptcy.

Weather in Spain 23rd August – 29th August 2010

Monday: Hot and Sunny with a temp of 33C. Warm overnight with a temp of 27C.
Tuesday: Very hot and sunny with a temp of 39C, this years high. Warm overnight with a temp of 25C.
Wednesday: Very hot. Temp of 35C. Warm overnight with a temp of 27C.
Thursday: Another sunny and hot day. Temp of 34C. Warm overnight with a temp of 25C.
Friday: Very hot with a temp of 42C. Hottest Day this year. Overnight warm with a temp of 28C.
Saturday: Sunny, hot with a strong wind keeping the temp to 34C. Warm overnight with a temp of 26C.
Sunday: Hot and sunny with a light wind all day. Daily temp of 32C. Warm overnight with a temp of 25C.

The Garden

We have a pool in our villa grounds and around it we have some tiles. The rest of the area was just left covered in stones. 18 months ago we had the garden landscaped by a local (Spanish) gardener. We felt hat he would know more about the best plants to use. I put in some automatic irrigation and left it all to the Lady of the Villa having no interest in plants.
The garden is now a credit both to the gardener and her Ladyship. The plants have been well chosen and the Lady has nurtured, feed and loved them.
  The garden is looking better and better, the Bougainville is blooming and considering that they started as twigs 18 months ago its growth is amazing as are the flowers.


Fruit tees are bearing, lemons and oranges, the lime tree is lagging behind, Funny story, when we came back from a trip last year The Lady of the Villa  picked all the lemons came to about 5 kilos, however, they went off within two weeks and we had to buy lemons! Better to leave them on the tree and pick them as needed! The tree is only now recovering its fruit load.





The Olive Tree











The Yucca Trees around the pool. 18 months ago they were 2ft high now they a 6ft and growing.







                                                                                 Were we have Lunch











The Cactus Area




Side of the Villa

Card Trick

We went out recently with some friends to a nice restaurant we go to on a regular basis. This evening some live entertainment was provided. Not a singer, not a group but a magician who went from table to table doing card tricks.
He got to our table and I was ‘selected’. I was asked to select a card show the others (but not the magician) and sign it. I was then asked to put the card in the pack. The magician then placed the cards on my hand. He then took from his pocket a wallet and placed the wallet on top of the cards and then asked me to put my finger on top of the wallet.
He then chatted for a minute and then asked me to remove my finger. He then opened the wallet and there was a zipped compartment that he opened and inside was my card with my signature on it…. amazing. However he then removed the wallet and the pack of cards that should have been there had been replaced by a plastic block!
It was absolutely amazing!

Mine’s a double!

According to the Weather Channel, this is the country's largest hail stone. It's 8 inches in diameter and weights approximately 2 pounds. It fell in Vivian, South Dakota.
According to other reports the finder wanted to make a cocktail with it.
It would have to be a large glass and a lrge amount of alcohol!

Correos – Spanish Postal Service

In previous posts I have explained and complained about the Correos, the Spanish Postal Service.
As we reside in Spain, it only seems right and proper that we have all our mail delivered to our address where we live. The Lady of the Villa thought I was mad, but, I insisted and she insisted that I solve any delivery problems.
We moved all our UK type post, Bank Statements, Accountants mail, Government mail (tax, VAT, Pensions etc.) to the Spanish address. All Spanish mail was changed also (we used a PO Box until we received our address and a regular postal service).
Recently we ordered a part for our Jacuzzi from the USA and our private pensions people moved H.O. to Jersey. I waited and lo and behold the parcel arrived as did the documents from Jersey.
Played for and won!

Spanish Council Business

As part of the duties of being on the committee of the urbanisation we live on, is making sure that the council know about problems in and around the urbanisation.
This mostly covers, lighting, road maintenance, rubbish collection etc. In the recent past all this has taken is a trip down to the Town Hall and a chat in part Spanish, part English with the appropriate department and usually, after two trips, the work is completed.
Now things have changed. As part of the Spanish austerity measures the council staff have had a 5% reduction in salary. Harsh but…. Now the staff are fighting back, instead of talking and getting things done a form has too be completed in Spanish for every work item. Even if the work is to be done on a regular basis.
Ok if you are Spanish but not if you are English, German, French etc. It is costing the urbanisation each time to have the form completed in Spanish. We keep a copy each time as the work at the moment is never ever done!
W have a season ticket for each department at the minute!

McMillan Nurse’s Coffee Morning

The urbanisation is holding a Coffee Morning on the 11^th September 2010 11am – 1pm in the play area by the main pool to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.
This is part of the World's Biggest Coffee Morning being held by Macmillan Cancer Support see www.macmillan.org.uk/Fundraising/WorldsBiggestCoffeeMorning for more details.
We have invited everyone from the urbanisation to attend. I will let you know how it goes.

Weather in Spain 16th August – 22nd August 2010

Monday: Raining first thing but later bright and warm with a temp of 28C. Warm overnight with a temp of 20C.
Tuesday: Very Overcast Day with a temp of 23C. Cool overnight with a temp of 19C.
Wednesday: Very hot. Temp of 35C. Warm overnight with a temp of 27C.
Thursday: Thunderstorms and heavy rain throughout the day. Temp of 28C. Warm overnight with a temp of 25C.
Friday: Hot and Sunny with a temp of 30C. Overnight warm with a temp of 22C.
Saturday: Sunny and hot. Daily temp of 29C. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C.
Sunday: Hot and sunny all day. Daily temp of 30C. Warm overnight with a temp of 23C.

Recommendations

You know what it’s like, you live in the area and visitors ask you to recommend restaurants.
Tapping in to the wisdom of the crowd is a natural human instinct, according to one expert. “We’re hard-wired to get as much information from other people as possible,” says Graham Jones, a psychologist. “We use the views of other people to help validate our choices, and to meet our need for social acceptance.”
Trouble is you can come unstuck. We had a great couple of meals at a local tapas restaurant and recommended it highly to all and sundry. We had not been for a couple of months so we took the Lady of the Villa’s mother and sister to the restaurant recently. It was abysmal. It had turned into a bar with food rather than a restaurant. Still doing tapas but of poor quality and the service was abysmal.
From now on if we recommend anywhere we will have to go on a more regular basis.

Happy retirement- but at what age?

The British Government have announced that they would end the “discrimination” of the Default Retirement Age, which allows companies to force staff out as soon as they turn 65.  
However, is in not true that older workers who do stay in their posts beyond 65 may also find themselves facing claims that they are not up to the job any more. It could lead to more employment tribunal claims from staff who believe they were sacked for being too old.
The Default Retirement Age has been challenged repeatedly in the courts by campaigners who believe it is unfair to experienced workers who may have no problems carrying out their jobs and may want to keep earning.
Government said the move is one of several being taken to help people stay in work as they live longer lives. Separately, the state pension age is due to rise to 66 as soon as 2016.
A default retirement age helps people think and plan about when it is right to retire. In certain jobs, especially physically demanding ones, working beyond 65 is not going to be possible for everyone.
We retired “early”, because we planned it that way and we enjoy our life in retirement. Some people, the minority in my opinion want to carry on regardless of age, thinking that they are immortal and their decision processes are infallible. They are causing the problem and the government are jumping on the bandwagon to help reduce their pension burden.
Can you really see Social workers at 70 helping teenagers? Could the teenagers relate to them? No way.
70 year old police on the beat? You have to take your test again at 70!
Heavy lifting jobs at 70? Laughable to most. Collecting Job seekers allowance at 65? A joke.
Its all about baby boomers, we paid for our mums and dads government pensions, there is no one to pay ours, so lets abandon it. Work until you die then they dont have to pay!

USA Leave Stage left – Civil war enters Stage right

The last United States combat troops have left Iraq yesterday.

The USA has declared the job done. I cant see it somehow. The country in my opinion is rife for Civil War and it wont take long for it too break out.

Spain self-deluding

In a manner disturbingly all too reminiscent of Greece earlier this year, the Spanish authorities appear to have deluded themselves into believing that the Spanish economy is about to rebound and that Spain can muddle through without an IMF-European Union bail-out package.

Denial is also all too much in evidence with respect to the Spanish banks. The Spanish authorities keep up the pretence that their banking system is sound. Sadly, in this endeavour they now seem to be being aided and abetted by the recently released stress tests. By confining itself to singling out five relatively small Spanish saving and loan banks as unsound, that test gives the overall Spanish banking system a virtual clean bill of health. And it does so despite the system’s patent overexposure to the very troubled construction sector.

In stressing these positives, however, the Spanish authorities happily gloss over the fact that Spain experienced a massive housing boom in the past decade, which saw a trebling in Spanish home prices and an increase in the construction sector to 18 per cent of the economy. 

Since September 2008, the bursting of the Spanish housing bubble together with the collapse of housing-related tax revenues has caused Spain’s budget position to swing from a small surplus to an 11½ per cent of GDP deficit by 2009. At the same time unemployment surged from less than 10 per cent prior to the crisis to more than 20 per cent at present.

More disturbing still, the housing market bust has drawn market attention to the fact that the Spanish banks in general, and the cajas in particular, are overly exposed to Spain’s crumbling housing sector. Unsettled by this large exposure, foreign banks have virtually stopped lending to Spanish banks and companies. This has forced the ECB to have to rediscount about €125bn ($162bn, £104bn) in Spanish bank loans to forestall a full-blown Spanish funding crisis.

Spain now finds itself in a similar predicament to that of Greece. It is forced to engage in severe budget-cutting to bring its budget deficit down to a more sustainable level without the benefit of a cheaper currency to boost exports so as to cushion the economic blow of budget retrenchment. Further complicating is the fact that Spain will have to engage in serious budget tightening at a time when unemployment is already at about 20 per cent and when the domestic housing bust still has a long way to go.

Trying to talk up the markets is the right thing for the Spanish authorities to do provided they do not fall into the trap of believing their own rhetoric. It would also help if they took serious measures to recapitalise their savings and loan banks.

A well planned retirement

I just hope that this is so true.
Outside England’s Bristol Zoo there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 buses.  For 25 years, its parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant.  The fees were £1 for cars ($1.40), and £4 for buses (about $7).
Then, one day, after 25 solid years of never missing a day of work, he just didn't show up; so the Zoo Management called the City Council and asked it to send them another parking agent.
The Council did some research and replied that the parking lot was the Zoo's own responsibility.  The Zoo advised the Council that the attendant was a City employee.  The City Council responded that the lot attendant had never been on the City payroll.
Meanwhile, sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain (or some such scenario), is a man who'd apparently had a ticket machine installed completely on his own; and then had simply begun to show up every day, commencing to collect and keep the parking fees, estimated at about $560 per day -- for 25 years.
Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over $7 million dollars!
......
And no one even knows his name.
Brill, if true

Dangerous on the Road

This is a Spanish taxi. The most dangerous thing on the road in  Spain today. They are always white with lots of advertisements on the paintwork.

The cars themselves are usually well maintained and clean with the drivers taking great care of the interior and exterior, with the local councils doing there bit to ensure that they are safe on the road and fully insured.

But beware, the drivers have no need to pass any test other than the normal driving test. Once they get in the taxi they become Alonso, not Xabi Alonso the footballer but Alonso the Formula 1 driver, you know the one that does not look in the mirror and thinks he is the only one on the track.

They only know one speed, how fast can this cab go! Signals – no chance.  

Mountain Trip

I never really thought of Spain as a mountainous country, I know that it has a border with France and the Pyrenees help define the border.
So it came as a surprise when the Lady of the Villa organised a day trip to our local mountains. We went by Coach, thank God, as the Sat Nav would have got us lost I am sure. The roads were very like those in the Lake District only better maintained and much steeper. We were told that the Tour de France teams train here. I can well believe it.
It was a vey picturesque trip, stopping off and various towns and villages for ‘photo opportunities’ as you can see below.
   
This was an old look out tower built during the Moor’s occupation of Spain.




One view from the top of the tower.




View from the other side of the tower

Weather in Spain 9th August – 15th August 2010

Monday: Overcast start but later bright and warm with a temp of 28C. Warm overnight with a temp of 20C.
Tuesday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 33C. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C.
Wednesday: Very still and hot. Temp of 40C the highest this year. Warm overnight with a temp of 27C.
Thursday: Very Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 38C. Warm overnight with a temp of 25C.
Friday: Overcast and a very cool (a word not used in the last month!)day. Daily temp of 25C. Overnight thunderstorm with a temp of 18C.
Saturday: Sunny and hot. Daily temp of 29C. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C.
Sunday: Hot and sunny all day. Daily temp of 30C. Warm overnight with a temp of 23C.

New Season New Dreams

A New Season starts for Liverpool today with Arsenal the visitors. Can we win the Premiership. Maybe not this year, however, a few interesting points:

• Young Scottish defender Danny Wilson has signed for Liverpool. He is the only Scotsman in the first team squad for 18 years. Liverpool have never won the First Division without a Scotsman in the squad.
• The young players played well in pre season and in the Europa Cup
• The main players, Torres and Gerrard are still with the team.
• New signings, Cole, Wilson, Poulsen and Jovanovic have strengthened the team.

  I am dreaming I know, but…… is this our season?

Solar boat

We have been on a number of day trips recently. One of which took us on a trip on a Solar powered Boat.

The trip on the boat was only an hour and was part of the overall day trip. The boat took us around the great reservoir that services Benidorm and was not exciting but quite and picturesque.

The boat itself held about 60 people and was totally powered by the solar panels you can see on the top picture.

  I tried to get the details of the output of the solar panels in this picture, however, as you can see I failed. According to Mr Fixit, who was with us that day, each panel was pushing out enough electricity to power a good sized kettle and as they were over 50 panels on the boat more than enough power for the boat.

Talking to the boat keeper it did work on non cloudy days, however, on rainy overcast days it struggled a bit. But lucky for him not many rainy days in Spain.

Liverpool new strip

A new season, a new manager, a new sponsor and a new hope.


This is the new Home strip for Liverpool FC for the coming season.
At least it is still red, but the sponsors logo is as big as the Club badge.




This on the right is the new Liverpool away strip for next season.
Pinstriped? Will it catch on?

And just to prove that they do not rip the fans off, here is the third strip. Why?

Ways around recession in Spain

Visitors crossing the border from Spain into Gibraltar could be forced to pay a toll in the latest row over the disputed British territory.

The mayor of La Linea, the Spanish town bordering Gibraltar, is looking into introducing a tax on those crossing in an attempt to cash in on the large number of visitors to the peninsula known as The Rock.  Mayor Alejandra Sanchez of the right-wing Popular Party claims that the socialist government in Madrid has sacrificed the town of La Linea's interests, favouring Gibraltar, to ensure good relations with Britain.
He argues that "millions of visitors cross the town to get into the British colony each year", and that most of Gibraltar's income comes from visitors from Spain. "Meanwhile, we have 10,000 unemployed in La Linea. This truly intolerable situation cannot continue," he said.
He has ordered a study on the legality of charging vehicles and pedestrians using the border crossing a nominal fee to help swell town council finances. Spanish workers employed on the Rock would be exempt from the toll, he assured.
Critics of the mayor's proposal point out that La Linea already benefits hugely from neighbouring Gibraltar. Some 7,000 Spanish workers are registered as officially employed in the tiny territory and countless others provide services or supplies. Many of the 28,000 Gibraltarians own homes over the border in Spain because of a shortage of affordable housing on the Rock itself.
But the town hall of La Linea is said to be close to bankruptcy with recent demonstrations from council workers protesting that they had not been paid their wages. This border crossing charge, for visitors, not the Spanish workers, the Mayor sees as a way of increasing his towns income at the cost of hitting Gibraltar's economy.

UK Banks profit is a good thing

The profits that the UK banks made and announced this week should be good news for the UK.
Lloyds share price rose 2 pence, to 74 pence, putting the government about £3.17 billion in the black on its 41% holding in the bank. Its bail out cost £17.4 billion an investment that is in profit as long as the share price stays above 63.2 pence.
The government's larger, £45.2 billion bail out investment in RBS is up by about £1.9 billion, based on the bank's 52-pence (4/8/2010)share price. Any move above 49.9 pence is favourable for the government.
The banks profits payable in dividends go to the government as do the taxes on all dividends.
The government's other major holding, fully-nationalized mortgage lender Northern Rock, also made a small profit across its two separate businesses. The bank was split into a "good bank" and "bad bank" in January, though it was the bad bank that made the return.
After fierce public anger over the bank bailouts, the government will be keen to demonstrate that they turned out to be a good investment.
In one of the most-optimistic predictions to date, consultancy Centre for Economics and Business Research said taxpayers could make £19 billion profit from the Lloyds and RBS holdings, with the assumption that the share prices will rise along with gross domestic product.
Not bad.

Paradise by Katie Price aged ?

Katie Price aka Jordon has a book out called Paradise No1 in the Sunday Times fiction list. I thought it was an autobiography until I noticed it was in the fiction area. Still could be I suppose. However, I began to wonder if she wrote it. She is always in the news and is a PR dream at times, but a book?
I hope I am not being classist, anti-feminist or any other ist apart from one ist (I am being anti Katie Priceist, I admit), but, she does not seem to be a novelist, ok a good editor helps, but this is fiction, you need to be a good story teller not a self projectionist! Or is that an oxymoron?
Did someone ghost it?
Joke: Cabriolet are called Jordon’s over here. Its because the tops come off so easy.

Weather in Spain 2nd August – 8th August 2010

Monday: Hottest day this year with a temp of 38C. Very hot overnight with a temp of 26C.
Tuesday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 35C. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C.
Wednesday: Very still and hot. Temp of 36C. Warm overnight with a temp of 27C.
Thursday: Very Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 38C. New high Warm overnight with a temp of 25C.
Friday: Hot and sunny day. Daily temp of 30C. Warm overnight with a temp of 23C.
Saturday: Sunny and hot. Daily temp of 28C as a wind kept the temperature down. Warm overnight with a temp of 24C.
Sunday: Hot and sunny all day. Daily temp of 32C. Warm overnight with a temp of 23C.

Off with their heads! Or into the Stocks

England's failed footballers should count themselves lucky that their ignominious World Cup exit was met with little more than a public mauling by the media.

Their counterparts from North Korea, who lost all three of their group games, have been subjected to a six-hour excoriation for "betraying" the communist nation's ideological struggle, according to reports.

Last month the players were summoned to an auditorium at the working people's culture palace in Pyongyang, forced onstage and subjected to a six-hour barrage of criticism for their poor performances in South Africa.

I know I said the World Cup comments were over, but, this was too good to miss.

War or Combat Operations or Spin?

US President Barack Obama has confirmed the end of all combat operations in Iraq by 31 August.
So its not been a war or an occupation its been a combat operation or a series of them.However, 50,000 troops will stay in the country in order to train Iraqi security forces, conduct counterterrorism operations and provide civilians with ongoing security (or combat operations?). Is this Spin?
Meanwhile, according to the US military, 222 people died in attacks last month. Baghdad says 535 lost their lives - which would make July the deadliest month in the country for more than two years.
The US released its own figure after Baghdad's estimate prompted concern that insurgents were exploiting a post-election power vacuum - and would wreak more havoc as the US withdrew more troops.
"The claim that July 2010 was the deadliest month in Iraq since May 2008 is incorrect," a US military statement said. The US offered no full explanation as to why its figures differed so markedly from those issued by the Iraqi authorities. Now that is Spin!

SOS-SL

Received this about the proposed fan buy out at Liverpool FC:
ShareLiverpoolFC and Spirit Of Shankly, the Liverpool Supporters Union, are pleased to announce that we have reached a formal agreement that allows us to push forward as one unified force for supporter ownership of our club. We have already been working closely together for some time but recognise the need for a unified organisation to successfully pursue this goal.

Recent discussions have led to an agreement about how we can work together for the benefit of all supporters. This will see ShareLiverpoolFC re-branded as Spirit Of Shankly – ShareLiverpoolFC (SOS-SL), bringing together the combined resources of both organisations to work on the issue of supporter ownership. By working as one we will be much more effective in achieving that goal.

Using the strengths and attributes of both Spirit Of Shankly and ShareLiverpoolFC, along with the supporters who back them, we will:

• Continue to develop the model of supporter ownership
• Work to secure the funds necessary to acquire supporter ownership of the club, through direct share purchases and the Spirit Of Shankly Credit Union
• Oversee the launch of the share issue to raise these funds
• Promote the issue of supporter ownership through high quality, consistent communications
• Represent 50,000 (and rising) Liverpool fans on this issue, providing a unified voice that cannot be disregarded

SOS-SL will retain ShareLiverpoolFC’s constitutional status as an investment vehicle through which shares can be purchased to take a stake in LFC and will, like the soon to be launched Credit Union, have its own Management Committee. This will comprise members from the current Board of ShareLiverpoolFC and representatives from Spirit Of Shankly. In order to bring greater unity to the supporter ownership campaign SOS-SL will be represented, alongside the Credit Union, on the Spirit Of Shankly Management Committee, enabling us to build one unified campaign.

Working together is clearly the best result for all of us. By combining forces on this issue we are creating a massive organisation of LFC supporters in pursuit of a shared aim. Every single one of us, speaking with one voice, letting everyone know that this is our Club, not only emotionally but financially too. We have to build on the momentum we have now, grow and become stronger, to become truly representative of the entire fan base.

Then as one, working together, speaking together, let's become proper custodians. Let's take back our football club.

Schumacher

Michael Schumacher was handed a 10-place grid penalty on Sunday at the Hungarian Grand Prix after almost pushing Rubens Barrichello into the pit wall. In my opinion he was lucky not to be on a murder charge.
I never did like him, there was always something of the night about him. Not just ruthless but uncaring, single minded winning at any and I mean any cost. Second to him was nowhere.
He crashed into competitors deliberately to win races and championships. Cared nothing about team spirit and although adored by Ferrari and retired joined Mercedes for the money as there is no glory and there will never be, for him.
He nearly killed another driver for one championship point. A point that did not help him or his team up any “ladder”. He was in a poorer car everyone knew that, nobody would blame him if he got passed. But no he had to show his ‘night side”.
This year I have seen another “night side” driver, Vettel. He is in the same mould as Schumacher. Watch him, he is going to kill someone. He crashed into his team mate Webber and took his equipment. Nearly pushed Alonso into the wall at the start of the German Grand Prix. It’s one step beyond ruthless.

Who owns the Football Club?

When I was a lad, admittedly years ago, my club was Liverpool. I thought it as my club. I did not pay any bills or buy players but it was my club although owned with the other 45,000 people who turned up each week.

Much later I learnt of shareholders (at one point I tried to buy one at just under £6,000) and Chairmen and Directors. Now there are such people as Club Owners, Abramavitch, Glaziers and of course our Hicks and Gillette.

However, apart from Chelsea, the real owners are the Banks. Not so long ago I quoted the RBS chairman as saying Liverpool borrowed too much. LOL. I thought they lent too much, but they have made a few million in fees.

Now because of this borrowing the Football club that I support is up for sale. To the highest bidder? Maybe not. To the best qualified? Don’t make me laugh. To the most caring? Never!

So what will happen. In my opinion. Nothing. Why?

Hicks and Gillette want to make money on the deal. They have to. Its an ego thing. Just look at what has gone on across in America to clubs they have an interest in. Will Ken, the Chinese get it? Not at the moment. His deadline of the 16th August is a gun to heads which nobody likes and most important he wants to clear the debt only, leaving the Americans nothing. No way will they go for that. The ‘other’ so called bidders are unknown and if they exist at all, chancers, looking for a commission if they can conclude a deal.

So what then?

I see an impasse until the 31st August when the bidders will disappear and we the fans can get on with supporting “our” team. Later in the football year RBS will take over the Club as Hicks and Gillette cannot repay or roll over the debt and the current bidding process will begin again, but with no input from the Americans.

The Americans are hoping for a lucky break, or a relaxing of the lending process or something. They will take it to the wire. Why not, they have nothing to lose.

Its just another business deal, some come good some don't. They don’t care about the fans who really “own” the club. Football is an industry now, just like automobiles or aircraft. Unfortunately I can only see more of this l coming to more clubs in the future.

Copa Ingles

This is a Copa Ingles or translated the English Cup. It is, in my opinion, and without doubt the best Ice cream dessert sold in Spain.
It is Chocolate mint ice cream, with chocolate Ice cream. The chocolate ice cream is only surpassed by the chocolate mint ice cream which has real dark chocolate chips imbedded in it.
This version is only sold in a restaurant in Cabo Roig harbour called La Bahia. If you are in the vicinity do not hesitate, do not pass Go, go straight there and it only costs 6 euros.
Heaven in a bowl!

La Finca Golf

Course description
This is really nice course, wide fairways with challenging holes. Buggies need on this one. It has fantastic views and the course design makes the most of the unprecedented surroundings.
It offers a large variety of greens ranging in size from very large to very small. It has several lakes with running water and reed beds along the course add difficulty to the round. On a sunny day it provides a fantastic golfing experience on a windy day watch out!
Facilities

Buggies, Trolleys, Club hire, Golf lessons, Putting green, Chipping Area.
Golf Course Statistics
Length (yards) from yellow tees: 6032 Handicap: 36
Directions
Follow the road Algorfa-Los Montesinos. The course is located at km 3.

Weather in Spain 26th July – 1st August 2010

Monday: Hot with a temp of 32C. Very hot overnight with a temp of 22C.
Tuesday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 35C. Hottest Day so far. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C.
Wednesday: Very still and hot. Temp of 36C. New high but feels hotter as there is no wind. Warm overnight with a temp of 27C.
Thursday: Very Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 38C. New hioh Warm overnight with a temp of 25C.
Friday: Cloudy start giving way to a hot and sunny day. Daily temp of 30C. Warm overnight with a temp of 23C.
Saturday: Very sunny and very hot. Daily temp of 31C. Warm overnight with a temp of 24C.
Sunday: Hot and sunny all day. Daily temp of 32C. Warm overnight with a temp of 23C.

Books read in July 2010

61 Hours. Lee Child.  The 13th book in the series. Another favourite author and character with another fantastic story I could not put down. This one is different as it is the first part of a two(?) part story. Usually the story is complete in one book. This one is a combination of, amongst others, drugs, a prison, a town in South Dakota, a bus crash, a protected witness, a Mexican based drug lord and freezing whether. Compelling reading. 4.5 Stars
The Black Book. Ian Rankin. Next in the Inspector Rebus series. This one is about  two black book written in code by one of Rebus’s sergeants and another by “Big Ger” a master villain. One helps solve a 5 year murder mystery, the other puts “Big Ger” away. Not the best of the series as it all seems a bit contrived, but, its very readable. 3 stars.
Bourne Legacy. Robert Ludlum. Next in the Bourne series. Ludlum, a favourite author, again writes a compelling and interesting story. Multiple twists and turns in the plot and characters; some hard to believe, but, it is fiction after all!. Lots of pages for your money and lots of entertainment. 4 stars.
Mortal Causes. Ian Rankin. Another in the Rebus series which I am enjoying. This is about terrorists, Scottish terrorists with links to the Protestant terrorists in Northern Ireland. He also brings in Big Ger via a prison break and the Special Branch. These added to the Ger-B, the worst housing estate in Edinburgh sets the scene for a really thrilling book. 4.5 Stars