Life in Culebrón

José Pozo Madrid, a poet from the town of Tomelloso in Castilla la Mancha, won this year's  "Maxi Banegas" poetry competition organised by Pinoso Town Hall. We were at the local theatre last night to see him get his prize. The format of the evening was a recital of some arias from various operas and zarzuelas (a sort of Spanish light opera) performed by a tenor and soprano with piano accompaniment. The programme was six or seven songs, the prizegiving and then a few more songs. I'm pretty sure that at least one, if not both, of the performers were the same people we saw at an event called Lírica  a couple of years ago. It was an enjoyable evening. I wondered who Maxi Banegas was. I know that the local library is named in his or her honour (Maxi isn't a name I know so it doesn't necessarily suggest either male or female to me) but I had this vague notion that she was a teacher at the local school who gained some local fame as a poet. So I went in search ...

During the week our mate Geoff sent me a message asking if I knew why our grey plastic compost bin was melted and smouldering. He was in Culebrón and we were in Cartagena. I didn't. All I could presume was that the rotting vegetable matter had heated up inside the composter and produced some flamable gas. Hey bingo!, spontaneous combustion. There wasn't much left to look at when we got back. It must have produced a good deal of heat though as there is damage to the nearby fig, apple and plum trees.

Not the usual sort of entry. All over Spain the PSOE, the Labour Party equivalent, has been badly mauled. The political map of Spain has turned blue, the colour of the conservative PP. But not in Pinoso, well not at the most local level anyway. The PSOE seems to have gone from 2 to 5 seats and the local UCL seems to have had a bad day. I say seems to because the national news media that I've checked for the results has some mistakes that I'm aware of and so I've had to do a bit of interpretation. There were 5,299 potential voters in Pinoso of which 212 were not Spanish (a lot of those being Brits.) Turnout was just over 80% with 4.4% spoiled papers and 1.4% said that they were unhappy to vote for any of the candidates offered by handing in a blank vote. Party Councillors 2011 Votes 2011 Councillors 2007 Votes 2007 PSOE 5 1291 2 779 PP 3 1030 5 1355 PSD 2 691 1 507 UCL 2 689 4 1045 BLOC 1 477 1 354

I'm not sure and I can't find the details on the Internet but I'm more or less certain that every polling station notice I've ever seen in the UK has had the same print style - a heavy sans serif font. When we went to vote in Pinoso this morning I don't think there was any sort of notice ouside the polling station. We were only allowed to vote in the local, town hall, elections. We EU residents are disenfranchised at provincial level. Voting day is Sunday, not Thursday as in the UK. Ahh, yes, that's why we voted today! Spanish polling stations open from 9am to 8pm. In the UK I think normal hours are 7am to 10pm. In Spanish elections it is necessary to produce photographic proof of identity. In our case that meant our passport. In Spain the candidates stroll back and forth between the various polling stations saying hello to people. At the table where your eligibility to vote is checked and where you deposit your ballot there are three polling station s...

I mentioned that one of the local political parties "employs" a chap to help the Brit community. Today he sent around information about legislation that says we need to fit a limiting device to the electric supply. Apparently this limiting device was supposed to be installed by January 2010 with the power companies having an obligation to send a letter informing us of that responsibility. Obviously we haven't received the letter but I suppose it will be on its way soon. I was vaguely aware of the legislation from some mumblings on the letters pages of the newspapers and from a conversation in a Spanish class but until the information today I hadn't checked the detail. Lots of Spanish houses have really miserable power supplies by UK standards. Our house, for instance has a contracted supply of about 2.2kw which means that the circuit breakers should pop when we plug in the 3kw electric kettle. They don't because when we moved into the place we had it rewired and...

No political meetings this afternoon. Instead we went treasure hunting. If you've never done a car treasure hunt the idea is pretty simple. You are given some sort of route to follow - sometimes the route is explained in words, sometimes it's a map and sometimes it's written in crossword puzzle cryptic style. Along the route the "competitors" have to collect specific pieces of information and sometimes physical items - beermats used to be a favourite in bygone, pre drink drive legislation, days in the UK. Obviously running into a boozer and swiping a beermat was unthinkable but if you bought a glass of something the mat came as a free gift. The local branch of the Royal British Legion, working with one of the local Brit run bars, El Cortijo, organised the treasure hunt around the Pinoso area. Splendid idea I thought, something a bit different to do on a Sunday afternoon, a fund raiser for the Legion and a meal afterwards back at el Cortijo. When we'd fin...

The Socialist meeting today was held in the little park alongside the social centre in the Santa Catalina district of the town. The event started with elevenses followed by speeches from three of the candidates including their man for mayor who rejoices in the name of Lázaro. They were unlucky. The splendid weather of yesterday had gone and the day was grey, miserable and cold. The audience was relatively small, bigger than the UCL yesterday evening but much smaller than the PP on Friday. The crowd was an enthusiastic bunch though - much more spontaneous applause than at either of the other two meetings. The message was quite different too and I heard some things that rang true to me but of which I had been unaware. The difference being, I suppose, that the Socialists have been in opposition for the last four years and are able to aportion blame for what they consider to be the errors of the last administration. Their proposals, like the proposals of the other two, sounded reasonable...

Tonight on my personal election trail it was the UCL - Unión Centro Liberal - a party local to Pinoso with no national affiliation. This group have been courting the British vote for the last few years by offering an English Language Helpdesk They must have been very disappointed with the turnout. Perhaps everyone was at home to see if Lucía Peréz would win Eurovision for Spain, but the local cultural centre conference room looked distinctly underpopulated. I don't think there were any Britons there apart from the chap who runs the helpdesk and the British candidate in their lists. Then again I know very few people so I could well be wrong. I thought the political message was clear though and there was almost no sniping at the opposition which I rather approve of. On top of that they gave me free gifts - a notebook and a pen - not up to the standard of the gifts of four years ago but more useful than the plastic flags from last night. I've already seen an English translati...

The PSD website said that they would be in the social centre in Santa Catalina all day. I wanted a copy of their electoral programme so we popped along, after lunch, to pick one up. There were a lot of people with the remains of lunch on the tables underneath the trees. As we wandered around the hall looking for a leaflet the man on the bar called over to ask if we wanted a beer. No leaflets though. Free food, free beer. Nothing political. Campaigning, Spanish style.

I've always enjoyed election time - getting out to hear the candidates, even the ones I wouldn't expect to vote for. I still remember being poked in the chest by Maggie Thatcher and fearing for my life as Willie Whitelaw's bodyguards reached inside their jackets perhaps thinking my long camera lens was something more sinister. Yesterday evening  I went to hear what the local PP, the Conservative Party equivalent, had to say for themselves. Fortunately I was neither poked nor menaced. The routine was pretty straightforward. Several of the prospective councillors stood up and explained what the PP intended to do in each of their areas be that education, health or employment. There was also a representative of the provincial PP to show central support for the candidates and to emphasise the broader reach of the PP campaign. One of the candidates is an English woman. She's a long way down the list and, to be honest, has no chance of being elected but she has a symboli...

The tissues were not needed for an annoying sniffle. They were not needed to dab away a breakaway tear at an emotional moment. They were needed to block up our ears; torn in half and twisted into a cone they produced makeshift, but perfectly serviceable, ear plugs. The clue was that the majority of people cradling an arquebus were also sporting ear defenders. The One True Cross was doing a tour of the town of Abanilla supported by the Captains, Pages, Queens, the Faithful and the Holy Brotherhood of the Vera Cruz. The Town Band, the Santa Cruz, were out too and when that Cross appeared at the church door the arquebuses made an awful din and covered us in smoke and soot. "It's a salute to the Cross," said a man, "no bullets in them today." We caught up with the shooters a little further down the route, salvo after salvo, then one of the girls in the funny frocks bowed to the armed guard escorting the Cross and they let go a volley as well. Distinctly odd but ...

It's election time in Spain. On 22 May we have the local and regional elections. The campaign period proper started as Thursday became Friday this week. At a national level the current government is in the hands of the Socialists but their popularity is at rock bottom because of the present economic situation and the scandalously high unemployment figures. The local councils are enormously important in Spain. In Pinoso there are 13 councillors elected through a proportional representation system. You vote not for a candidate but for a party. The party puts forward a list of candidates with the names at the top of the list being the first elected and so on. At a national level this means there are never surprise defeats for the big names. There is never the need for by elections either as if anyone drops away during their period of office there are always "spare" candidates waiting in the wings. There are lots of quite small but influential political parties at a natio...

My Spanish students have a lot of trouble with the English words jam and ham. Which is the one that comes from pigs and which is the fruit preserve? Just in case you're not sure ham is the pig product. Britons and Spaniards also have a different idea of a ham. Mention ham and Spanish people immediately think of a cured ham, similar to Parma ham, for which the catch all term is jamon serrano or mountain ham. Back in Huntingdonshire my mum would be thinking of boiled ham. Oddly the stuff we Britons are used to is called York Ham - Jamon York - in Spain. When some English pals asked me yesterday how the jamon serrano ham was produced I realised I didn't know. Now I do. To paraphrase Mrs. Beaton first slaughter your pig and cut off its back legs. Next clean them up and then store the hams in big piles covered with salt for a couple of weeks. The salt both serves to preserve the meat and to draw off water. Next the salt is washed off and the hams are hung for about six months....