Pinoseros on the dole

Not my usual sort of post but the local on line newspaper - El Eco de Pinoso - reported that there are 860 people out of work in Pinoso at the moment.

How many people live in Pinoso is a moot point but the official statistical office says it's 7909. So 10.87% of the total population is out of work.

Take away the number of people below 16 (1397) and the number above 65 (1325) and the working age population  is 5187. That would bring the jobless percentage up to 16.58%

By way of explanation

I feel a bit of a fraud.

After Life in Culebrón was mentioned on the UCL Helpdesk blog I feel that I should try to add some new and vibrant entries. My problem is that I work. Working makes it more difficult to find the time to write. An even bigger problem though is that I work in Cartagena. So most of the things that happen to me and around me take place there on the simple principle of just two rest days to every five working days.

Of course what I write about Cartagena is equally witty, amusing, erudite and incisive - or so my mum says - but I would fall well below even my own lax standards to suggest that you clicked on the Life in Cartagena link.

Far too blatant a bit of self promotion even for me.

Poppies in Pinoso

I've mentioned being in the 6th Elland (St Pauls) cubs before. I didn't last long, Sergeant Bilko was on telly at the same time as the weekly meeting and Phil Silvers won out over Bagheera and Akela. Nonetheless, I was involved in a couple of events with the cubs and I well remember the Remembrance Day parade to the Cenotaph in Hullen Edge Park where my family were sure to point out the name of John Haig, my great uncle killed in the First World War.

Remembrance day was a big event in the 60s. As I got older it seemed to lose importance but now, looking in from the outside in as it were, there seems to have been a genuine resurgence of interest and support.

As we were driving back to Culebrón on Friday evening there was a report on the public radio about the poppy and the acts of remembrance in the UK. They said that the day was to commemorate the fallen of the Great War, the First World War.

In Pinoso this morning the local branch of the Royal British Legion had organised a parade and church service with a fund raising meal still to come. It was quite an impressive sight. Dark clothing, lots of medals, regimental berets and nearly everyone, Spanish onlookers and the town band included, sporting poppies.

I was chatting with Clive outside the church when Evaristo, El Abuelo, came over to say hello. He too thought that the event was to commemorate the end of the First World War but Clive put him right in a very gentle and informative way telling him about the act itself and the work of the Legion. I suspect it was not the first time that Clive had had a similar conversation.

In Flanders' Field the poppies blow

between the crosses, row on row

In Flanders' Field - John McCrae, 1915

Going to Eduardo's

There's not a lot in Culebrón apart from houses. We have a post box, a winery and Eduardo's. Eduardo's is the local restaurant.

Eduardo's restaurant is quite a strange place. Big. A huge barn of a building. There are seldom many diners. Often, as we pass by there's just Eduardo's van outside. No sign of customers.

I like Eduardo's. We can walk there. I can drink wine without fear of killing people on the way home. The food is traditional, not very special and cheap. Maggie doesn't like Eduardo's at all, she thinks the food is poor and she doesn't think it's cheap. It was she who suggested we went there today. Surprisingly there were nine other diners.

Getting food at Eduardo's is not straightforward. There is no advertised set meal and there's no written menu to choose from. We have to ask. Eduardo mumbles. Nowadays we have some idea of the range on offer but always, if there are other customers, Maggie looks across and asks why it is that we weren't offered whatever it is that they are eating.

We chose a bottle of red wine and a big bottle of water to drink. For food we started with toast, toasted over the open fire, served with white dripping and pink dripping. A cholesterol bomb. Sometimes there is ali oli for the toast but not today. Next a plate of crisps and almonds. Then a very basic salad of lettuce tomato and olives though we were offered a bit of tinned mackerel to go on top which we declined. We asked for fried cheese, and got it though the usual tomato jam accompaniment  had been substituted by bitter orange marmalade. Main course was the traditional, to these parts, rice, rabbit and snail paella. I'd fancied a rabbit stew but Maggie looked askance at the proffered choices of lamb or chicken and so I joined her in the paella. Nowhere will cook a paella for fewer than two people. We both had pudding and I had a coffee though Maggie didn't. We both had a shot of something to finish. I thought it was the local mistela though Maggie said it was something horrid that tasted only of sugar. Total price 24€ or 12€ each.

Footpaths

Though it's not something we're likely to make a habit we went for a walk in the country today.

Near Villena there are some old kilns that were used to turn gypsum into the raw material for plaster - the Hornos de Yeso - and they are near where the Villena Treasure was found.

It wasn't the most scenic spot in Alicante. There was a tip close by and lots of people seemed to have lost heart within sight of their goal and just dumped stuff by the side of the track. Nonetheless, the spot did have a certain charm and lots of lizards.

We followed a public footpath. There's a very simple system in Spain for marking paths. Red and white bands are used for long distance paths, yellow and white for shorter paths and green and white for the local stuff. The bands are usually painted on rocks, fenceposts, walls etc and they are normally well maintained. If the bands are crossed it means not to go there and a hinged symbol marks a turn.

The markings for the path we followed today were haphazard to say the best. Illusionist markers - now you see them, now you don't.

Well now - there's a thing

The Chair of The European Committe on Constitutional Affairs, Carlo Casini, sent a letter to Erminia Massoni the Chair of the EU Committee on Petitions about the two petitions sent by Estelle Gouerou (French Citizen) and Christopher Thompson (that's me) (British Citizen) on the right of EU Citizens to vote in another Member State.

Erminia kindly copied the letter to me.

Carlo told Erminia that the AFCO Coordinators had agreed, at their meeting on 10 October, that no EU treaty gives the right to citizens to vote in other member states. He did point out that Ms Gurmai has suggested, as paragraph 10 of her draft opinion to the PETI Committee on the  EU Citizenship Report 2010, that countries, like Spain and Germany, where Regional Assemblies are vested with legislative powers, could be invited by the EU Parliament to grant voting rights to EU Citizens in regional elections. Carlo also mentioned that a member of his committee, Mr Duff, has asked that the European Commission ensure that all Member States take action on the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees the right to vote.

It looks as though it will all be thoroughly aired at the Conference on Inclusive Democracy to be hosted by AFCO and LIBE on the 9 and 10 November at the European Parliament when EU Citizens' voting rights will be on the agenda even though the primary purpose of the conference is to disseminate the outcome of the research done by the European Union Democracy Observatory based, as I'm sure you're aware, at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute

So that's nice and clear then.

Beetles

Why so many? Why are there so many lying on their backs waving their legs in the air? We have tens, maybe hundreds, of biggish beetles circling the house and, ocassionally, popping in to say hello.

No need to worry

Driving licences are a regular bar conversation topic amongst expats in Spain.

One line runs something like "We're European citizens, we have a European driving licence, we're entitled to drive." At the other end of the spectrum there's the "We're resident here so we have to change our licences for Spanish ones." Actually it's somewhere in between. Once you're resident there's a time limit on using the UK licence unless you register it with the Spanish authorities. It's easier and a bit cheaper to simply exchange. No need for another test or anything and for the first licence at least you don't have to do the medical.

At the beginning of July I took my licence to the local driving school, filled in a bundle of forms and handed over 75€ so that the chap from the driving school would do all the legwork for me. I could have popped down to Alicante, stood in a couple of long queues and done it myself but I chose the lazier, and much more expensive, option.

I forgot all about it for a while. The chap had said he'd phone when I needed to hand over my UK licence. Nowadays I understand that nothing much official happens very quickly, especially over the summer, and I trusted the bloke to do his job. But eventually I remembered and my British sensibility kicked in. I went to ask. 

"Should be soon," he said, "I've been getting the June ones back recently." 

"My problem," I said, "is calling into your office as you're not open on Saturdays." 

"No problem, I can always open up for you on a Saturday if I need to."

No need to worry then.

A taste of Blighty

We're having a very British weekend in Culebrón. We've just had lunch at a new bar restaurante run by Britons on the outskirts of Pinoso. It's now called Rafael's and it's using the building that once traded as RústicOriginal. I used to work for Rustic three or four years ago. It was strange to be back in the building that was so familiar and yet so different.

The place looked good, the staff were very welcoming, the Spanish translation of the, all British, menu read pretty well and the food was tasty, well presented and reasonably priced. All in all it was a very acceptable if not outstanding meal.

In the UK, when I lived there, I used to often eat in those chain pubs. I'd read the menu and think that the "freshly caught North Sea cod covered with organic wheat batter and accompanied by rough cut, blanched and deep fried potatoes," sounded good. I was surprised when I got fish and chips. In Spain menus tend to be straight forward, at least in the inexpensive places. The listing is basic: pork chops, chicken breast, hake etc. and things don't generally get more complicated than descriptions like steak with pepper sauce.

Back at Rafael's I noticed that the young man who served us was keen to correct our sloppy descriptions of the food. I don't remember exactly but I do know that when we got to the puddings he stressed things like stem ginger and black cherries when confirming our order.

I was transported back to the Boathouse in Peterborough.

The Village Fete

Culebrón, the name of our village, probably derives from the word culebra meaning snake. Add the -on ending to a word in Spanish and it often gives the idea of big or oversized. Big snake then. Maybe the village achieved fame because of a big snake? Culebrón is also the Spanish word for a soap opera presumably because the story goes on and on. When we tell Spaniards, who don't know the village, that we we live in Culebrón they usually think we've mispronounced the word but, when we persist, they laugh. What a strange thing to call a village they say.

There is another village just up the road called Paredón. Like Culebrón it's part of the municipality of Pinoso. Paredón means the place where people are executed by firing squad. Spaniards from outside the area think it's an even stranger name for a village than Culebrón.

My mum lives in St Ives in Cambridgeshire. She posted this photo on Facebook of their August Bank Holiday fete at the vicarage.

Pinoso has an active branch of the Royal British Legion, the poppy charity. Today, in Paredón, in the grounds of a British run business there, the Legion held a Gala Day. I bought a coconut cake and home made chutney. Paredón  may be a long way from St Ives, the weather and scenery may be different but there is no doubt about the lineage of the two events.

Heart and soul

Spain has a proud record on organ donations. Although donations fell a little in 2010 (1502 donors and 3,770 transplants) from the all time record of 1605 donors in 2009 Spain still tops the Worldwide list of donors and donations. Based on the donations per million inhabitants it's Spain, then Croatia, Portugal, The United States, France, Austria and Italy. Their main methodology here seems to be to talk to families after someone has died rather than to rely on donor registers.

Nonetheless, there is a donor register and I signed up for it on the Internet last week. That's why I'm telling you this as my donor card arrived today. The card has no legal validity, it just indicates to my family that if there is any part of my poor and degraded body that may be useful to someone else I'd like them to have it. Just one thing: please get someone to check that I'm dead first!

So now you know