The cucumber saga

The cucumber saga rolls on. I personally, have never had a problem with Spanish fruit and vegetables, the local farmed produce is usually a lot fresher and tastier than the supermarket stuff, and quite often much cheaper. The scare has now had an impact on the supermarkets, all now have signs up proclaiming the safety of the produce. Lidl has a large one up saying (guessing a little due to lack of Spanish) that they are proud to have Spanish produce on the shelves of their 10,000+ european stores, and will continue to support the Spanish farmers, a good vote of confidence from a German store. Now I see an article in the local papers concerning UHT milk, apparently, it is now of 'poor' quality. It's not unhealthy, as in dangerous, just lacking in vitamins etc. Most people out here seem to buy it because of the long shelf life, although I personally prefer fresh milk, each to their own. It seems that not a week goes by without one food type or another being put through the rumour mill, who do you believe? Maybe I should do as my parents, and theirs did, a little of what you fancy does you good. One of my uncles used to tell me that living a 'healthy' life does not mean you actually live longer, it just seems like it! And if you tried to eat one of our Linda's salads (she will kill me when she reads this), you'd have to agree with him, nothing worse than a badly presented, boring salad, it grows on your plate faster than you can eat it. Next week they'll be picking on something else, and the stress of worrying about what you can actually eat will more likely kill you than the food itself!

Moving on.

Our rental contract expires at the end of July and we had been struggling to find somewhere to move to with a reasonable price tag. It just proves that the rental market here, in particular long term, has had problems with bad tenants. The apartment we were supposed to be moving to was no longer available, the present tenant was having problems getting a mortgage for their new place. It's lucky Linda can talk for England while travelling on a plane. She got chatting to a couple who lived in Almoradi, who happened to have an apartment in Algorfa empty, but only used it for family and friends. They offered to show us round Almoradi, we accepted. The meeting point was the town square in Algorfa, since we knew where that was. They showed us round their place and passed on a few nuggets of wisdom. When it came time to go back to Algorfa so we pick up our car, they said we might as well look at their place there, since I had parked outside it. After a bit more chatting, including the people in the neighbouring apartments, a bit of a wander round, we were pronounced 'good people' and offered the place at a very reasonable rent. Deal done. It's a little smaller than we wanted, but not small enough to be 'seagull' proof. It's a the end of the village, so not overlooked and not too noisy, but still within five minutes walk of the square. Its also directly across the street to where we were supposed to be going. It won't take much to personalise it, and it certainly won't need the amount of cleaning this place took when we moved in. Life is certainly looking up. We picked the keys up today. It just goes to show everything will be OK in the end, and it certainly is good to talk, just like the TV advert used to say.

Thanks for the comments about the last blog. I now know how to say in Spanish that I do not need a carrier bag, I will balance my shopping on my head! I do not seem to have been understood, perhaps I should have been a little clearer. We do take our own bags to the supermarket. I was just pointing out that this 'new and green' stance by the supermarkets is not what it seems to be, and things here never change that quick. Like most things in life, money seems to be the motivation, it's not all as green as it's made out to be.

I was just finishing a glass of wine when writing this, Linda had gone to bed and was reading a book. There was an urgent shout for help from upstairs. After ten minutes chasing 'Colin' round the bedroom, those things can take a battering, it's worse when the little blighters run across the ceiling, I am now back outside finishing my glass of wine. Linda has decided to get up and have another glass, she can't face going back up on her own just yet. I did win in the end, and it's the first one we've had in, and I bet she does not leave all the windows open tomorrow night!

Plastic and paper

Before the environmentalists amongst you start screaming for blood, I do recycle whenever I can, and it's easier to do out here. The following are just observations from everyday life in the sun.

Plastic. Namely carrier bags. There has been a sudden rush to be 'green' out here by the supermarkets, supposedly. Or maybe its something to do with some rumoured tax changes. They have all started a re-use campaign, and charging for carrier bags, apart from Lidl and the like who have always charged. You now have to pay three cents for a bag, but to compensate you for this the bags are bigger. We were used to paying for bags back home and they were more expensive. But a carrier bag isn't just a bag here is it? After it has been emptied of shopping, most people give it a new life, as a bin liner! I have been coming to Spain for about thirty years and I don't remember it ever being any different. What I can't understand is why they think this will make people use less bags, who is going to 5+ cents for a bin liner, when the humble carrier bag does the job well enough at half the price. So, until someone produces an economical, and preferably biodegradable alternative, people will still use bags. Or maybe it's just a money grab?

Paper. And lots of it. I am now about to take a leap of faith, and really join the Spanish system. Forms and more forms. One of the English forms I am filling out now is for HMRC, I wonder if they realise how hilarious some of the questions are? Are you leaving for health reasons?? Of course I am! The weather is rubbish and decent food is expensive! So I am now learning to queue for a piece of paper, to get another piece of paper, which entitles me to queue for the piece of paper I actually need. Timber!!! There goes another chunk of rainforest.

Gone fishing

I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I went out and bought a fishing rod from one of the Chinese shops. The purchase came about because someone overheard a conversation I was having in a bar one evening. The bar owners husband likes to fishing on his day off, and he said that if I had 'the gear' I could join him. His suggestion was the local Chinese shop, so off I went, and spent my €14, and became the proud owner of an eighteen inch long plastic box. I didn't want to spend a fortune, and this 'kit' seemed to have everything I needed, apart from bait. At this point I must explain that I am not a fisherman, I have only ever caught one fish before, over thirty years ago! I was still at school, and went with a friend to the river Roding, which is about six inches deep. No sooner had I set up and cast out, and opened a can of coke, I got a bite! Chaos broke out, neither of us had caught a fish before, and hadn't expected to either. The fight to bring it in was hard, the fish wasn't giving in, but perseverance paid off, I reeled it in to the bank. What a whopper, it had to be the largest three inch stickleback I had ever seen! What next? We both ended up in the river trying to get it off the hook, so you know where I'm coming from. I digress. So, on a bright Saturday morning I parked up outside the bar, armed with my plastic box, a bottle of water and a 'sarnie', and a tin of sweetcorn. Why sweetcorn I don't know, I wasn't even sure where we were going, and I have yet to see it growing in a river or on the beach??? My friend came out still munching his breakfast, and said we would take his car, gesturing towards the mercedes he was slumming it in, and told me to put my 'gear' in the boot. He nearly wet himself. He was expecting a little more than a plastic box and a Consum carrier bag (I need to mention the supermarkets here have just started charging for bags, I will now have to buy bin liners!). We went to river in the middle of nowhere, and proceeded to unload his 'kit'. Folding armchairs, umbrellas, TWO fishing rods, and a coolbox you need an HGV licence to drive! We caught nothing, despite my guide for the day realising that the reason we weren't catching anything was due to a lack of beer, which was rectified by opening the bar in his coolbox. I enjoyed the morning out and decided I would go again. I have been a few times on my own and caught nothing, not knowing why, until today. Due to some observations, and a few comments in between fits of laughter by someone not much older than one of my grandchildren, I have seen the light! Apparently my rod is only half the size it needs to be (sure I've heard that somewhere before???), and you don't cast from a beach with a float on your line. You just use a large weight with a trailing line with your bait on, umpteen thousand locals can't be wrong, and by eight o'clock you can't get a spot on the beach! Did I mention I had wound the line the wrong way round on the reel as well? Come on, you can't look this good and have brains as well, can you? So I will be going back again, armed with the knowledge this time, and hopefully bringing something home for the table, a Lenguardo would be nice, anyone listening upstairs?

Second hand cars

Due to our car hire coming agreement finishing at the end of July, we will need to buy our own car. This is not an experience I'm looking forward to. Second hand car salesmen rank alongside estate agents and insurance salesmen in my view of things, not the most popular of people, but we will have to deal with them. The only difference I can see out here is they are dressed in shorts and shades, but I'm sure behind the shades, they are of the same ilk. Cars tend to be more expensive over here, not the big fleet car market like in the UK and they tend to last longer. They don't seem to rust, they don't have to use salt down south, lack of snow, it's rare. They do however, suffer from faded and blistered paintwork due to the sun, and dents. Lots of dents! They are like a badge of honour here, the more the better. Apparently, we don't actually have to resident to buy a car, just have proof of a fiscal address here, like a house rental agreement or similar, they just need somewhere to send the road tax bill to. You also need your passport and an NIE number, as with everything here. You have to be careful buying privately, if the person you buy from has not paid his road tax for a few years, when you buy it, the bill passes to you! How nice, so it pays to check. At home they would just tow your car away and crush it for not paying, not here. Other different ways here include the insurance, it's not the driver here, but the car that's insured, so anyone over twenty five can drive it, very handy when family come out, no need to keep changing the policy and paying 'administration' charges. It also includes breakdown cover, towing is illegal here, and medical cover for everyone in the car. So although it looks a little more expensive compared to the UK, you get a lot more for your money. There is also a spanish branch of Direct Line, so you can get help in english if needed, worth considering. We were considering one of those van type things that everyone out here seems to have, no bigger than a car, but loads of room in the back for suitcases when the family visit, boring, but practical. The trouble with them is the ITV system, the equivalent to the MOT back in blighty. New cars here, do not need testing until four years old and then every two years until ten years, then every year after that. The problem is that these vans with windows, although having car seating in for five people, are classed as a commercial vehicle. That means a test every year by the looks of it, and every six months at ten years old. Sod that for a game of soldiers! So, still wanting to be practical, a Yaris Verso, or something similar looks the way to go, as these are still classed as cars, and will serve our needs. It looks like we have sold our car back in the UK, so Linda will sort this out when she goes back next week, then we will have to look at this more seriously. A new car would be nice, but a bit more than we are prepared to pay at the moment, and we don't do a lot of milage, only the airport run, time will tell. I might need to stock up on paracetamol for this one, bound to get a stress headache, it will be the first time I've needed any out here.