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.

It's an ill wind

Listening to the radio news as I shaved this morning.

High winds in San Sebastian were responsible for the death of a man yesterday when a tree fell on his car.

Electricity production from wind generators in Mallorca reached a new peak yesterday when high winds meant that wind power accounted for 18% of the island's needs

Enterprising women

I usually order my books from a shop run by a couple of sisters, our cats are looked after by Cristina the vet, Conchi, the woman who runs the costume jewellery shop near the place where I work, usually says hello in the morning and it was Elsa, the optician, who was fighting my lenses the other day.

It had never really crossed my mind that the common factor between these busineses is that they are owned and operated by women until I went to have a look at the 7th Pinoso Entrepreneur and Entrepreneurship Fair today - I must have missed the first six. All the businesses mentioned above were there along with many more. It was a lot more engaging than I'd anticipated. There were some really interesting businesses from flavoured booze through specialist breads, handbag designers, adventure holidays and bike repairers.

I see

I wear contact lenses, I have for 30 years ("He's been singing for 40 years" - "He must be tired!") I've been having a bit of bother with them recently so when I saw an advert for the throw away lenses that suggested they may be suitable for my dreadful prescription I thought I'd ask about them. That was sometime around Christmas.

The test set of the throwaways turned up a couple of weeks ago. I asked the optician why they had taken so long, she asked me why I hadn't called back for them, I reminded her that she had said she would ring me. The conversation was just a tad sparky. They weren't any use anyway; uncomfortable and I couldn't se through them.

So I asked for a new set of the old fashioned but much more serviceable gas permeable lenses, or as they call them here, rigid lenses. She said she'd get a test set and phone me when they came in, which she did.

I went to try them yesterday. I couldn't see a thing through them. The optician was surprised; like me she'd expected a fully functioning set which, provided they had worked, I would then buy. In fact the manafacturers had sent a set with my measurements but with a "default" prescription. Actually they didn't fit either so we then spent the next 100 minutes trying different sized lenses (she had a sort of sample kit) and adding and subtracting lenses. We were both exasperated by the end. She said she'd never taken so long and I was fed up of badly fitting lumps of plastic irritating my eyes. Finally though we got there and they are promised for next week.

Whenever I'm feeling down...

At the beginning of the film Love Actually Hugh Grant does a voice over that goes something like "Whenever I'm feeling down or depressed I just think about the arrival's gate at Heathrow Airport" it goes on about people greeting each other and it shows lots of heart warming scenes as friends and families greet and hug each other.

I went to pick up my mum from Alicante Airport yesterday evening and as I waited I watched the mixed bag of humanity waiting to meet and greet and I thought just how true it was.

Midnight: the campaign begins

On March 9th there is a General Election in Spain, the tenth election since the return of democracy at the end of the 1970s with the 1978 election.

Currently the Socialists (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, Socialist Spanish Workers Party), led by a chap called José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero - he's the one who looks like Mr Bean - and the Conservatives (Partido Popular, Popular Party) led by Mariano Rajoy - the beard - are the only parties in with a chance of outright victory though the Izquierda Unida (the United Left) headed up by Gaspar Llamazares have a good number of parliamentary seats at the moment and I think a recent poll had them picking up a couple of extra ones this time, though it could have been the other way around!

The PSOE is curently in power having pulled off a surprise victory four years ago in the wake of the Madrid train bombings. One of the Socialist election pledges had been to pull Spanish troops out of Irak and Al Qaeeda inspired bombings which killed 191 people in the heart of Madrid may have influenced the vote a little. At the moment the polls still have them out in front but only just and with a substantially decreased majority.

Anyway, it's just two weeks to go to polling day. There have been plenty of political rallies since the beginning of the new year but at midnight on Thursday/Friday the official campaign began. Up till then the parties hadn't been able to ask for votes, from midnight they could. A fine line but a line nonetheless, and one enshrined in the constitution. Two weeks of campaigning and then time to reflect before the vote with electioneering halted a couple of days before the ballot.

I was expecting to awake to see the streets today plastered with posters as that's exactly what happened in last May's local elections. But nothing. At least nothing in Pinoso. Maybe there's more out there in the real world.

We foreigners aren't allowed to vote and I'm not exactly sure how the system works but basically I think that each province returns a number of "MPs" to Parliament and each party presents a list of candidates with the same number of candidates. So if, for instance, there were four seats for Alicante province and the PP were to win 100% of the votes they would take all four seats. As it is a tad unlikely that anyone would win 100% of the vote the maths gets pretty complicated but basically it's proportional representation against a list. So the big parties put their big names at the top of the lists which means no upsets along George Brown, Michael Portillo lines in Spanish politics!

The PP has ben supported by the Catholic Church and it's campaign for family values (The Socialists legalised "gay marriage" during their term) and they're also banging on about immigrants having to learn Spanish and adopt Spanish "values" - a bit reminiscent of Norman Tebbit demanding that Pakistanis living in the UK should support the English Cricket Team. Quite a lot to the Right. The PSOE talks more of increasing minimum wages, social care, equality and of rights - generally Centre Left stuff.

I asked a couple of Brits what they thought about it all but they didn't know there was an election due.

The last on driving licences for the moment

If you look back through "Fit to drive", "Not tonight Josephine" and "Fit as a fiddle" you can follow the whole saga of me trying to stay legal as I drive around Spain.

Having being told I needed a medical exam by the equivalent of the DVLA I then asked them what I should do with my certificate once I had it. The answer I got back was that there was no need to do the medical after all. I quoted my original reply and quoted the bits of legislation. The chap I was dealing with came back with this reply:

"Well yes, technically you need to do the medical but, as there is no way for us to link the medical to your driver licensing record, because that's kept by the authorities of the country that issued your driving licence. It's all a bit tricky. To avoid any possible problems it may be best if you exchanged your licence though you don't need to of course"

Well that's clear then isn't it.

Population figures

Cabeco, the local magazine published by Pinoso Town Hall gave an update on the population figures as at 25 January 2008. The figures are likely to be inaccurate in that people don't always register as they should etc. but they do, nonetheless, give a good idea of the town's make-up. They have changed considerably since the last time I saw the same information from the same source.

There are 7,730 people living in Pinoso
There are 1,124 foreigners and 6,606 Spaniards so nearly 15% are foreigners
The biggest single group of foreigners are Britons at 452 (including Maggie and me)
The second largest group of foreigners are Ecuadorians (162) followed by Ucranians (99), Moroccans (65) and then Bulgarians (44).
There are 43 nationalities represented.

Salfumant

I was given this stuff to clean the rust off some old decorations. As you can see it comes in a fairy liquid type bottle. I was told it was "strong stuff" and I did try to read the print on the bottle but a mixture of blurred print and poor eyesight meant that I couldn't. I do know there were none of those European "danger symbols" except for the cross that means irritant. There was no mention of it being corrosive. It was bought across the counter at the local ironmongers and it has a picture of a lavatory on the side to suggest that it can be used as a toilet cleaner.

In fact it is Hydrochloric Acid.

Just a couple of snaps

This is what they do to the Plaza Mayor in Ciudad Rodrigo for Carnaval. This shot is just before the first bull on Monday morning.

And this is a few minutes later.