ETA

I don't usually comment on "hard" news stories but the bomb blast at Madrid airport seems such a shame. Not just for the, currently reported, two missing, four injuries and material damage but because it has put paid to talks to stop more killing.

The Socialist Government here has been treading the difficult path followed by recent UK Governments with the IRA. Over the last nine months, since ETA announced a truce, there has been a lot of toing and froing about how and whether the Government should open talks with a terrorist group that has not formally renounced either violence or its armed struggle. The conservative opposition are very firm in saying "no", public feeling seems to be a bit anti any talking too but, in my opinion, the Government has been doing the right thing; they've used regional political parties, affiliated to them, to talk to the terrorists to try and establish some ground rules. Political dancing if you will but dancing is better than shooting, bombing and dying.

ETA, or presumably radical elements within it, had pushed the boundaries by stealing guns in France and fomenting some street violence a couple of weeks ago. The politicians footwork had to become even fancier.

But a car bomb at Barajas airport can't be danced around. Today has been a bad day for the good guys.

Going up the Hill

We took a couple of friends to the airport in Alicante this evening. When we left our house in el Culebrón, it was 5ºC. When we got to our pals in Crevillente, which is close to the coast, it was 10ºC and it was 11ºC at the airport in El Altet. By the time we got home it was 0ºC in Culebrón.

Culebron is 600m above sea level (1968ft), Crevillente at 131m (429ft) and El Altet at 30m (98ft). It just shows what a gentle gradient can do!

The snow on our palm tree is from last January. No settled snow yet this year.

Boxing Day

We popped down to Benidorm yesterday. We thought that the people who had come out from the UK for a Christmas break would be well pleased with the sunshine.

Well, at least we didn't lose

It was "el Gordo" today, the National State Christmas lottery. There were 180 series of 85,000 tickets on sale. Each ticket costs 200€ but they are sold in tenths of a ticket at 20€ per pop. The biggest prize is only 3 million euros (so you'd only win a tenth of that if you bought, as is usual, one of the 20 euro vouchers) but there are thousands and thousands of smaller prizes.

Along with the 80% of the Spanish population I bought a lottery ticket nd this year, for the first time the lottery "touched" us and we got our stake money back!

Villancicos

We went to a carol concert, un concierto de villancicos, this evening. Nothing special really; five or six of the local musical groups - a neighbourhood group, the church choir, the local brass band, the traditional dance group, etc. all going through two or three Christmas favourites.

We only recognised a few of the whole repertoire, nobody greeted us like long lost friends and, to be honest, the standard wasn't that great but it was a pretty enjoyable little event nonetheless. The whole thing was cosy; friends greeting friends, people waving from the stage to their pals. Small town life and Christmas spirit at its best.

Brushes with Systems

I sent an email to the customer services department of my bank.

Question: Can you tell me why you've charged me 10.85€ on an account I closed 6 months ago?

Answer: According to 16 article minister rule law ECO/734/2004 of march 11 about departament bank clients (B.O.E. 24/03/2004), we inform you that to attend your consult you need to have electronic signature according to the rules law 59/2003 of december 19, about electronic signature (B.O.E. 20/12/2003).

I think they mean no. The email back to them was quite terse.

Now that I'm in the Social Security system I thought I'd get myself a permanent health card. The man at the health centre was very helpful. He stared at his computer screen. He confirmed that I was "live" on the system and he stuck a little sticker on my temporary card. "Does this mean I'll get my permanent card soon?", I asked. "Probably not", he said, "I've phoned to ask the people who deal with it what to do but they're not answering and I've no idea what this message on the screen means". "What should I do then?" "I don't know, why not come back when it's someone different on the desk who might know?"

I went to the Consumer's Office in the Town Hall to see if they could help me with a bit of advice about my damaged car. The man was very nice. He told me I was stuffed. Best you can do is make a civil claim against the insurance company. He suggested I talk to the JP who works at the Town Hall every morning. Apparently there is a small claims procedure. The Consumer's office man promised to leave a note for the JP. I even saw him start to type it.

The JP starts at 8 in the morning according to the reception desk chap in the Town Hall. Unlike me, however, he didn't turn up today till 9.30. He had no note from the Consumer's Office. "Waste of time talking to me", he said, "You need a solicitor".

Ah ¡Viva España!"

It's a bit cold

It has remained pretty warm here until the last couple of days. We've been getting as low as 7ºC every now and then and the highs have been around the 17ºC mark but yesterday and the day before the night time temperatures fell to 1ºC and it got no better than 9ºC. There was a morning frost on the cars. Days are still generally sunny with bright blue skies though

When I was down on the coast yesterday it was noticeable that the temperature was signiicantly higher, over 20ºC. We tend to lose 4 or 5 degrees as we climb the 600 metres or so between the coastal areas and home.

Our SEAT 600 Club Annual Do

Each year the SEAT 600 club of which I'm a member has a Christmas do or Club day.

We start by meeting at a bar. With 100 plus cars parked outside and the occupants of the cars in the bar it gets quite noisy.

After a couple of hours in the bar we drive off. The idea is to parade around the streets making as much noise as possible, usually sweeping through red lights and stop signs courtesy of a police escort. I was quite taken with the horn of the Mercedes which went moooooo!! This year we could go to a mass in honour of our patron saint. I would probably have given that a miss but, as it was, I didn't get the chance because our cars got mixed up with the everyday traffic of Orihuela and I lost the car I'd been following. I don't know Orihuela town at all well so I searched around a bit and then headed off for the restaurant where I knew we were to have lunch. I think a lot of cars got lost.

Lunch was at 3pm, we were in a huge barn of a dining room but the service was good and there was stacks of food. We were treated to music from a Mariachi band. They appeared to be friends of one of the waiters. The table I was at was mainly Britons though three Spaniards had no option but to sit with us though they weren't vey talkative.



Over coffee we were given our Christmas gifts - a barbecue set and a Christmas hamper with three bottles of wine and five boxes of assorted cakes. Considering the meal cost nothing and I only paid 35€ for a years membership I reckon we made out like bandits. I didn't win anything in the raffle the star prize of which was a ham. Spaniards have big hams at Christmas which look like the hind quarters of pigs, which is exactly what they are of course.

More Holidays

Today is another holiday in Spain. I've heard it called both La Purisima and Inmaucalda Concepción both of which have pretty direct translations - The Purest One and Immaculate Conception. I never undestand all the different Spanish Virgins Mary but apparently Inmaculada Concepción is our Patron Saint.

Recently I heard some Britons talking about Red Letter Days. According to them these are the Spanish National Holidays when it is illegal to work. It didn't ring true to me but then I'm no expert on Spanish traditions and laws. Anyway I was certain the pictures would be open so I popped down to the local multiplex which is in Petrer about 25km from home. Nothing to describe there if you've been to any multiplex anywhere in the World - oh, except that the place that sells the overpriced popcorn and two litre buckets of coke doesn't sell coffee. I don't think the Spaniards can bring themelves to drink ready made coffee.

The cinema is part of a shopping centre that includes a Carrefour supermarket and I was surprised when that was open. I went to get some supplies. The place was heaving. I was shocked. People were shoving and pushing to get to the Christmas supplies, huge legs of ham, polvorones, turron and blow up Santas. One of the things I like about Spain is that Christmas doesn't really get under way till December 1st but it is certainly under way now.

Time and Place

Today is a National Holiday in Spain and there's another holiday on Friday. Lots of Spanish workers take the days between as holidays too; it's described as a bridge or puente. Maggie is taking advantage of the puente to pop over to the UK to see her sisters and attend to some family business.

Just after I'd dropped Maggie at the airport my sister phoned me on my mobile. Was I OK to talk, was I at work? I told her I was on my way to the pictures. It never struck me to explain why I wasn't at work. After all in the place where I live everyone knew it was a holiday today.

I suppose in the UK it's just a dreary Wednesday.

Language and entrepeneurs

From before we moved to Spain I've always thought that being able to speak Spanish would be the key to making a successful life here.

I often despair of my language skills but I keep plugging away and I do think that they're getting a bit better. There are good days and bad days, good conversations and bad conversations. Maggie cheered me up a great deal when she pointed out that, nowadays, I can generally say what I want to say even if the language does grate and squeal a bit along the way.

So I was reading the paper and there was an article about podcasts and it mentioned a website called notes in spanish. I haven't actually explored the pages as thoroughly as I should have, mainly I've just downloaded the bunch of mp3 conversations and started to listen to them. This English chap and his Spanish wife came up with the idea of nattering away in everyday Spanish, uploading it to the web and then selling the transcripts and other bits and pieces that cluster around the conversation. In one of the podcasts they were offering the "opportunity" to have a conversation with the Spanish side of the partnership over the phone using Skype which would, of course, make the calls possible from any corner of the globe. I was impressed. A nice, simple idea. Selling something that lots of people want but making the money from the fringe activity. Not being too greedy, exploiting the internet in a nice simple way and the conversations I've listened to so far have been interesting - they sound like a couple of nice people.