Pitta Bread

Homemade Pitta Bread Recipe. Makes 8 pitta breads  

Ingredients.

300ml/10fl.oz. Warm Water
1 teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
350g/12oz Plain Flour
2 teaspoons Salt
2 teaspoons Olive Oil, plus a little extra
 

Instructions.
1. Place the warm water in a small bowl and sprinkle over the yeast and stir to dissolve.
2. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl then add the yeast mixture and olive oil and mix to a dough.
3. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface; knead for 5-8 minutes until smooth and elastic, then form into a ball and place in an oiled mixing bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour to rise until double the size.
4. Preheat oven to 220C, 425F, gas Mark 7. Turn the risen dough onto a work surface, divide into 8 pieces and form each piece into a ball. Cover them loosely with a piece of plastic wrap to keep the dough from drying out then roll each ball into tear shapes about 6mm/ ¼ -inch thick
5. Place onto ungreased baking sheets and bake for approximately 8 minutes until puffed and light brown. Cooking two at a time will prevent the rolled out pitas from drying out whilst you roll out two more.

Roda Golf

This I think is my favorite course in the area. Nice fairways, water, palm trees. Roda Golf is a gorgeous course. This excellent 18-hole, par 72 golf course was exclusively designed by Dave Thomas, one of the most prestigious European golf course designers.

It combines different environments and it adapted the Mediterranean landscape and vegetation rather than a altered it.

The signature hole is the seventh hole, a short par three with an intimidating island green.

Cost in 2010 between 45 and 50 Euros per person. Buggies are extra (which I think are a must especially in summer).

Facilities: Buggies, Trolleys, Driving range, Putting green, Restaurant, Bar.

 Golf Course Statistics

Length (yards) from yellow tees: 6177   Handicap:Men 28 Ladies 36

 Directions

Take the AP-7 motorway and exit at 786, following the golf course signs from there on.

Petrol filler Cap

When driving a borrowed or rented car, you may not always be aware of which side the petrol filler cap is on. This means either a quick stop before you pull up in front of the relevant pump, a cross-your-fingers and hope you choose the right pump option or that the pump's pipe is long enough to reach, or a quick crane out of the window to see whereabouts the cap is.

But, apparently, the information is right in front of your nose - staring at you from the dashboard! Looking at the petrol gauge, you will see a small icon of a petrol pump. The handle of the petrol pump will be either on the left or right side - and this depicts on which side of the vehicle the filler cap is! Simple!

Password

During a recent password audit at the Bank of Ireland it was found that one person was using the following password: 

MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofyDublin 

When was asked why he had such a long password: he replied ''Bejazus! are yez feckin' stupid? Shore Oi was told me password had to be at least 8 characters long and include one capital.

Books read in February 2010

See John Run - Kevin Joslin. A Naughty but hilarious parody of children’s stories as read on Terry Wogan’s breakfast show. In the style of children's stories of yesteryear, John gets up to all sorts. Then he tells Janet all about his day, by which time every perfectly innocent big end, back passage and stiff one acquires a whole new meaning. Loved it 5 Stars.

Caligula – Douglas Jackson. Douglas Jackson is a new writer that caused a sensation when he secured a six-figure deal with his publisher; a deal that includes his debut Caligula and a sequel titled Claudius. The story of Caligula is set in Ancient Rome and unfortunately I cannot find any positive qualities in this novel. Caligula is a very bad piece of writing, so bad that I am puzzled as to why has been deemed worthy of publication. It is one of the worst books that I have recently read which is impressive considering my reading habits. 0 Stars.

The Advocate –Bill Mesce. In spite of its title and the Advocate cannot be termed a whodunit, it is a whydidhedoit. The killer is known from the opening scene, but the motives behind the shooting are revealed over the course of the story. For some confusing reason there is a superfluous narrator. Supposedly the story is told in the first person, however the majority of the story is written in the third person. This inconsistent use of point of view is to me confusing. This narrative problem prevents the book from receiving more stars, but it is an acceptable World War II-era suspense novel. 2 Stars.

Dynasty – Paul Tomkins. A book for the fans, but not of the American soap but of Liverpool FC. It compares the merits of the 8 managers Liverpool have had since 1959. Starting with Bill Shankly and going up to the first years of Rafa Benitez. The comparison is novel and well thought out with lots of detail on the club, the managers, the players, the victories and the losses. As I say a fans book. By the way the winner is…. No read the book or email me! 4 Stars.

The Colored Cadet at West Point.  Henry O. Flipper. Written in 1878 by the first black cadet to graduate from West Point. I can’t remember why I picked up this book, however, I enjoyed it, even though it is written 130 years ago and in the writing style of that age. It relates, mostly, in his own words what Flipper did, how he was treated and what it was like to be a black man at West Point. Parts of the book are wholesale excerpts from newspapers, speeches and letters he received; that to my mind spoilt it as good read. Not for everybody but 3 stars from me.

Medieval Market

Here are some pictures I took of the Medieval festival at the local town. The one on the left is of one of the performers who roamed the town 'playing to the crowd'. The one above is of the hawking display this was done over the heads of the crowd. As you can see in the third photo below. The bird is just on the right edge of the picture. 

The whole town had taken part in the event and all the stall holders had dressed up for the part. You could purchase some Medieval fancy dress yourself if you wanted as you can see from the next picture.

Lots of lovely stalls and lots of bars all well used!And when you have had a few beers you always want a bite to eat. So here is a BBQ Spanish style!

More smoke than was necessary but the ribs went well with the San Miguel! While taking this picture the travelling entertainers arrived. A great day out. It was the second year it had happened and the number of people was twice that of the previous year. Time to expand the area!

Here is a couple of photos of the medieval village, note the helium balloons!

MAJORITY OF BRITISH EXPATS IN SPAIN HAVE CONSIDERED RETURNING HOME

In a recent survey, carried out by a financial services company, it was surprising to find that 74 per cent of those living in Spain have considered moving back to the UK. The reasons is the economic crisis which has meant falling property prices, a weak pound, and fears over job security which has made those living in Spain rethink the move.

Britons living in Spain have suffered the most financially, especially those relying on a pension from the UK, with four in five complaining that the drop in the value of the pound against the euro has left them a lot worse off. Brits living in Spain are particularly affected by the struggling property market as many own more than one place and have in the past been able to rent it out without too much difficulty.

Now with many more properties available, the incomes have dropped and there are less people around looking to rent. People who own property abroad have seen the problem compounded by a dramatic fall in the real estate market, particularly in Spain, where prices on the Costas have dropped as much as 65 per cent in some place but seem to have bottomed out and are slowly creeping up.

Hillsbourogh Panel meets for first time in Liverpool

A group set up to study secret documents relating to the Hillsborough tragedy is meeting for the first time.

The Hillsborough Independent Panel is being headed by the Bishop of Liverpool the Right Rev James Jones.

It will oversee public disclosure of the documents after first letting the victims' families know their content.

Ninety-six fans were crushed to death at the Sheffield stadium on 15 April 1989 during Liverpool's FA Cup semi-final tie with Nottingham Forest.

The seven other panel members include Paul Leighton, former deputy chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and broadcaster Peter Sissons.

The panel will spend two years reading thousands of documents detailing the events which led to the disaster. They have been held by South Yorkshire Police for the past 20 years. They contain evidence from the ambulance service, the police, the fire service, coroner and Sheffield City Council. The documents in their entirety have not been read by anyone outside the police force before. The government promised in July last year to release documents relating to the events of the day.

The Hillsborough families have been consulted throughout the process of establishing the panel, which is meeting in Liverpool.

Hillsborough Family Support Group chair Margaret Aspinall said: "We welcome the panel, which has the confidence of all interested parties and is felt capable of executing this very important task."

I was there the day of the disaster. Never have I seen such incompetence by the police. I was lucky, I avoided their advice, nearly got arrested for doing so, but survived. 

EEC Countries

Austria 1 January 1995

Belgium 25 March 1957
Bulgaria 1 January 2007
Cyprus 1 May 2004
Czech 1 May 2004
Denmark 1 January 1973
Estonia 1 May 2004
Finland 1 January 1995
France 25 March 1957
Germany 25 March 1957
Greece 1 January 1981
Hungary 1 May 2004
Ireland 1 January 1973
Italy 25 March 1957
Latvia 1 May 2004
Lithuania 1 May 2004
Luxembourg 25 March 1957
Malta 1 May 2004
Netherlands 25 March 1957
Poland 1 May 2004
Portugal 1 January 1986
Romania 1 January 2007
Slovakia 1 May 2004
Slovenia 1 May 2004
Spain 1 January 1986
Sweden 1 January 1995
UK 1 January 1973
This is a complete list of countries in the EEC. I found it while looking for something else. What I had not realized is how much it, the EEC had grown over the years. These countries are known as the eurozone (as most of them use the euro).

Community Charge

I am on the local community committee, as secretary and general distributer of information to our 83 members. Each community (urbanisation) has to have by law an organisation committee and again by law some Spanish administrators to help you in meeting the local law requirements.

The Urbanisation has a common swimming pool, recreational area, private road and internal lighting. All need maintenance and payment for water and electricity. So we have a budget each year set at an AGM. All 83 properties have to pay 1/83^rd of this budget, however at least 25% are behind, some individuals have never paid over the 4 years and owe over 1,000 Euros.

So in 2009 our first action was to get rid of the administrators and appoint new ones with a specific mandate of getting the money from these people. The old administrators had no decent records so the committee have spent a lot of time getting 83 addresses, not only our address in Spain but addresses in England, Scotland, Eire and N. Ireland and one in Denmark.

Without these addresses the Administrators could not send out demands. The whole process is slow in Spain and the procedure has to be followed exactly. So far we have recovered 2,000 + Euros but are now taking those who live in Spain full time to court. Everybody signed up to pay these legal fees but now some don’t want to. They never thought it would go to court but it’s going unless they pay up.

You Could not make it Up (5) Pair refuse River Tees rescue

Two people cut off by the tide at the mouth of the River Tees refused to be rescued, unless the lifeboat also took their collection of driftwood.

After being alerted to the stranded pair, a RNLI crew found that a woman was suffering from mild hypothermia. The pair refused to be taken ashore without the shopping trolley of wood.

As the woman needed medical attention, the crew had to concede, despite the transportation difficulty. The man and woman refused medical assistance, and left the scene in their own vehicle. Police later disposed of the wood in the river.

Weather in Spain Week Feb 15th – 21st 2010

Monday: Rain during the day. Temp 9C. Overnight rain. Temp 7C. 
Tuesday: Overcast morning with rain later in the day. Temp 11C. Overnight again overcast with bouts of heavy rain and a temp of 9C.

Wednesday: Overcast start but brightened up in the afternoon. Temp of 13C. Overnight temp of 7C

Thursday: Sunny start that soon gave way to overcast and cloudy weather. Temp 13C. Overnight rain showers. Temp 10C

Friday: Rain all day. Temp 13C. Overnight rain Temp 9C

Saturday: Bright and sunny day with a cold wind . Temp 10C. Overnight temp 7C.

Sunday: Overcast day with he sun trying to break through. Temp 13C. Overnight mild with a temp of 10C.

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.

We will not be in our local area for the next 3 weeks so there will be no local weather reports. This blog ‘portion’ will return in full during week 11 of 2010.

ITV in Spain

I had to take the BMW for its Spanish MOT, called an ITV, this week. It was a bit of an experience.

You drive down a production line stopping at various stations while they check, lights, emissions from the exhaust, brakes and steering and then finally over an inspection pit where they check the chassis. The Beemer failed.

Not on anything they had checked on the production line but on the last bit of the inspection. The engineer looked inside and noticed that my airbag light was on. It was due to a voltage fault not the bags being inactive, but I had failed. Now I had 7 days to have the fault corrected.

Got the electrical engineer out to fix the voltage fault and took it back to the ITV station two days later. It was heaving, with about 30 cars waiting to go down the production line. Luckily the Lady of the Villa asked an engineer, who spoke some english, what we should do and he pointed us to another bay where our fault was examined.

The engineer got in switched off everything and put the ignition on to see all the warning lights “light up” then switched the engine on to see them all go out. This way you cannot just take the bulb out! We had passed. A ten minute wait, again in a queue while all the documentation was produced on a computer and we were off with our valid ITV certificate and a sticker on the screen to prove it. Total cost for the ITV was 35 Euros plus 30 Euros for the voltage correction.

Congratulations to Amy Williams

Amy Williams, a 27-year-old from Cambridge, won an Olympic Gold medal today. I tried to stay up and watch it but it was 3am time in Spain so I missed out. Pity.

Amy, according to the London Times dominated the event from the start. In her four runs on the Whistler ice track, she managed to break the course record and then break it again. By her fourth run, the gold was hers to lose.

Amy’s gold gives Britain’s its ninth gold medal-winner in Winter Olympics history. The last were the women’s curling team in Salt Lake City and before that came Torvill and Dean. Williams is the first individual gold medal-winner since Robin Cousins in Lake Placid in 1980.

Visitor Figures

Most businesspeople are glad to say ‘goodbye’ to the year of ‘crisis’ that was 2009! Not least the hospitality industry in the Costa Blanca which has announced that visitor figures for dipped to just 74.5 per cent occupancy; the worst that it has experienced in the last twenty years.

According to La Asociación Empresarial Hostelera de la Costa Blanca (HOSBEC), it offers almost 70,000 nights of occupancy, which accounts for around 60 percent of the tourist activity of the Valencian Community. In a year when finances were possibly the most important thing on most holidaymakers’ minds, it may come as no surprise to note that 2 star establishments received a healthy 86.3 percent, whereas those of 4 and 3 stars only reached 50.9 and 57.9, respectively.

Visitor numbers consisted of 48.2 percent of Spaniards and 51.8 of foreigners. The British again make up the most important foreign market with 43 percent of the total of tourists lodged, followed by Dutch 4 per cent and Belgians with 3.2.

A reader of this blog sent me this:
The Spanish government yesterday curbed "millionaire salaries" enjoyed by its air traffic controllers, calling their high rates of pay and benefits "incomprehensible privileges." Public Works Minister Jose Blanco said salaries for the 2,300 air traffic controllers, who are employed by state-run airport management firm AENA, would be cut to the average level in the European Union. "It is not acceptable that a public firm pay millionaire salaries to its employees while the government demands austerity to the rest of Spaniards," Mr. Blanco said after the measure was approved by Cabinet. According to ministry figures, 135 controllers earned more than €600,000 ($878,500 US) per year while 713 earned between €360,000 and €540,000 ($527,000 and $790,000). Agence France-Presse

You Could not Make it up! (4)

Floor collapses at Weight Watchers meeting

A floor collapsed beneath a group of about 20 members of Weight Watchers as they gathered to compare how many pounds they had shed over Christmas. Members of the weight-loss club were lining up to compare readings on the scales when they heard a bang as the floor came away from the walls of their meeting room in Växjö in southern Sweden.They abandoned the room as the floor started to give way in other areas. No one was injured in the incident, the cause of which is being investigated. The scales were not damaged and the weigh-in continued in a nearby corridor.

Daily Diary

People, mostly friends and relations always ask me what I do now that I am retired. The usual response is "anything I want any time I like". Sounds a bit flippant I know but in all honesty it is true.
The Lady of the Villa, who by the way is younger than me, retired only a year ago and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, only to enticed out of retirement by three ex-colleagues to help run a new venture. She only agreed if she could run her end from Spain and it did not take 5 full days. Watch this space!
So getting back to me, what do I do? Well I could cheat and make it up but I thought to be fair I would do an accurate daily diary. So here goes.

00:00 - 09:30 Asleep. Although I do wake up two or three times a week at 4 or 5 o'clock and get up and potter around, then go back to bed.
09:30 - 11:00 Ablutions, breakfast, reading the newspapers (Times and BBC News on the Internet). Chatting to the Lady of the Villa about today and what is planned.
11:00 - 13:00 Off to do the morning tasks, could be shopping, seeing the Bank, looking for home appliances (currently Plasma/LCD TV, room heater).
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch. Usually soup and/or sandwich in winter. Summer is salads and sandwiches. It can go on for a couple of hours if friends are visiting and we are in the garden
14:00 - 16:00 Usually I cook the next day lunch if its soup and do all the prep work for the evening meal. I also update the blog, surf the internet and read.
16:00 - 18:00 This is the gym time. An hour in the gym, travelling and shower and any bits of shopping to be done.
18:00 - 20:00 Cooking the evening meal, eating it, tidying up and any other things around the home
20:00 - 23:00 Reading, watching DVD's, TV or any other entertainment
23:00 - 00:00 Bed

This is only an example, at a weekend the gym is closed at 16:00 on Saturday so we go early and it is closed on Sunday so we have a lie in and spend the day reading The Sunday Times. We go to Tai Chi (twice a week) and Yoga (once). We go out at least one night a week, usually at the weekend and of course watch Liverpool if they are live on the TV.
Golf days take up an afternoon of morning. And the Lady of the Villa likes to go on walks around the coast and insists that I go with her for company and additional exercise.

Naked in Spain

While looking through some of the ex-pat sites for Spain I came across this - All the public beaches in Spain are free to use, and by law clothing is optional. (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!)
Most nudists/naturists will be found at one end of the public beaches, or to avoid distressing delicate non-nudists will choose one of the many secluded coves for sun-bathing. So, do not be surprised if you see full nudity on any beach, as the braver nudists will not hesitate to sunbathe where-ever they wish.
There are many beaches which have become accepted as "nudist", and it is normal for naturists to use these beaches rather than upsetting the prudish textiles.
If someone complains to the police about your nudity, you will be safe from prosecution unless you are committing an indecent act, the police themselves are liable to civil action should they stop a person nude sun.
I checked this and it’s true.

Sources:           www.thecostablancaguide.com

                        www.resortsinspain.com

Dick Francis - RIP

Dick Francis, who died aged 89 on Sunday 14thFebruary 2010 was one of my favorite writers. He wrote good ‘pulp’, ’page-turners’ most based on National Hunt Racing or ‘over the jumps’. In total he wrote 40 best-selling novels selling in excess of 60 million books worldwide. His first thriller, Dead Cert, I must of read 4 or 5 times.
His most recent works, including Dead Heat and Silks, were co-authored by his son Felix but you could not tell! His last novel again co-written with Felix Francis is due to be published in the autumn. I’ll buy it.