Nice but ....

The woman who sold me my new Mini looked like she should still be at school to me. So I wasn't that surprised when she looked nonplussed at my reply to her question about the colour I wanted for the car. "Coopers have to be red with a white roof." "You know, Monte Carlo Rally, 1964?". Blanker than something blank.

Anyway yesterday after overcoming a series of hurdles I finally took delivery. It seems like a nice competent motor car after our first 100kms together but it hasn't got the soul of the MG. Then again, back in 1964 I suppose those three red and white Minis, destined to become legend - 33 EJB driven by Paddy Hopkirk, Rauno Aaltonen's LBL 6D and Timo Makinen's AJB 44B - were just everyday cars too.

The photo shows the MG, the Mini, Maggie, Harold and Eduardo in Culebrón. And number 37 is the Hopkirk/Liddon car.

Welcome to the UK

I wasn't made to feel very welcome as I waited in the queue the UK Border at Stansted - a tad reminiscent of Willie Whitelaw's thin blue line in Moss Side or the Empire's thin red line. But generally I had a perfectly good time. It was great to see e to crossfamily and old pals. Not that keen on the weather though.

Bright carvers

If anyone had ever told me that I would be impressed with religious carvings I would have snorted in derision.

But today as I was hanging around I thought I may as well pop in to see the free exhibition of carvings by the 18th Century Murcian sculptor Francisco Salzillo.

The snorting has to stop. They were dead good. I particularly liked the bloated, saggy breasted devils trammelled beneath the feet of a Seraphim but even the really standard looking stuff was pretty damned good. It must be tricky getting bits of mahogany to look like folds of cloth!

I might go out and get a lump of wood and some Neutrogena and have a go.

¡Hosannah!

Palm Sunday is a big do in Spain, the start of Holy Week and the chance for the family to get out and be seen around town. Because I'd gone to see the SEAT 850 I was in Orihuela so I watched the procession there. Lots of dignitaries at the front, everybody waving palm fronds or carrying small shaped bits of palm leaf. It was a splendid sunny day. Nice event. Children seemed to be at the centre of it. Everywhere, proud parents, wearing their finery, snapped pictures of their children holding bits of twig.

SEAT 850

I sent an email to Jesús Ros del Moral, asking him if he knew of the whereabouts of any old, small, cheap, Spanish cars. Jesús is the secretary of the Orihuela Seat 600 club so he seemed like a good bloke to ask. He rang around and was told there was a nice one that was nearly perfect. The owner wanted 2000€ which sounded like an affordable amount to me.

The car in question was a SEAT 850, a range of models built in Spain, under licence from Fiat between 1964 and 1974. The 850 was built alongside the SEAT 600 (see post in September 2006) and came to outsell the smaller car as Spaniards grew richer. Mind you it never captured people's hearts the way the little 600 did and nowadays it has nowhere near the same "iconic" status. Nonetheless when I told a Spanish pal I was going to look at one; she was made a sort of girlie giggling sound, "First car my dad ever had", she said.

I'd done a bit of research on the model and my only real criteria was that it should be one of the ones with front disc brakes. Sweet and cuddly as drum brakes are I'm not a big fan of the way they don't always make the car they are fitted to stop. The rest, four doors, longer or shorter body were all as one to me. All I knew about the car before I saw it was that it was red.

As soon as we walked into the lock-up I knew the car was no good. I could spot the filler in the body and the mismatched panels from 10 metres away. Closer up the tatty interior, the rot in the sills and wings and the water leak did nothing to change my first impression. Even the fact that it had discs wasn't enough. I was a bit worried that Jesús would be slighted if I just turned it down out of hand but thankfully he thought the car was rubbish too.

Millstone grit

I was born in Huddersfield and, for the years the Jesuits would have liked to have me, I lived in a place called Elland. This West Yorkshire mill town was surrounded by "edges", cliff like formations produced where the hard sandstone weathers differently to the soft shales beneath.

This one is in Murcia though, close to Mahoya.

Global trends

In Orihuela today, Palm Sunday, there were lots of people in town strolling about, chatting, having a bite to eat, listening to the brass band. There were fewer people at Burger King

For the record

With something like 92% of the vote counted it's clear that the PSOE, Socialists have won the Spanish General Election.

The Socialists have won more seats than last time but the Conservative PP has also gained a couple of seats over the number they won in 2004. The minority parties have had a bad night but because the Socialists didn't manage the 176 seats needed for outright majority, the small "nationalist" parties may still be able to get some of their own way.

Turnout was very similar to 2004 at just over 75%

Polling Day

35 million Spaniards get the opportunity to vote today in a General Election. I drove past a two Polling Stations looking for a photo so I could put something on the Blog but apart from a couple of policeman standing outside there wasn't much to make a photo. So text it is.

The end of an era

I've been trying to sort out my transport as the MG nears the end of it's life without my undertaking a major refit. I have vacillated between doing the MG up, buying a different classic, getting a modern car etc. Hours of considering the options. Finally a relatively logical thought process won out over a sentimental wish to hang on to my MG.

I've been looking at new cars. A brand new Mini Cooper diesel now looks to be the winner. Some of you will know where the money came from. I'm also hoping to buy something very cheap, very old and very Spanish so that I can get out at the weekends with the rest of the chaps from the Car Club.

I put a For Sale note on the MG and also offered it for free to a good home on the MGB Bulletin Board. I had someone from the UK very interested and, because his son lives in Alicante, he was going to come and have a look. But two hours ago a Spanish man saw it parked, phoned me up and we have shaken hands on the sale for as soon as I have a new car. I felt a bit bad about the UK man but I had warned him it was for sale.

Maybe there is something in the wind because I also got an email from a chap in the Car Club to say he knew someone with a SEAT 850 for sale. I've said I would like to see it.

Because sticks were unavailable

Maggie and I have noticed that when Spaniards stray far from tarmac or pavement they seem to need long sticks to help them walk. A bit of a stroll along a woodland path requires an extensive and expensive array of technical walking equipment

I presume this is why so many Spaniards need to double park their cars, park on zebra crossings and across the angles of a junctions. They park as close as they can to their destination because they have forgotten their walking equipment! It's just too risky to go walking everywhere, willy nilly, without the appropriate gear. This close parking minimises the dangers inherent in unsafe walking techniques.

I was reminded of this today. The car park stretches down past the IKEA sign but the red VW Lupo has moved a shopping trolley so he can join the cars parked on the dirt at the left of the picture. Hooray! He'll have less distance to walk to the shopping centre just behind me in the photo.