Soon to be open?

Notice the cat waiting patiently by the steps in the middle of the picture
The swimming pool has as yet has had no attention, apart from the astroturf being installed, hopefully in the next week they will drain it off and clean out the debris then fill it up with fresh water, last year after they had filled it the ayuntamiento workers had to drain it off again as they found pipe leaks.
One or two people are still saying that the pool was described by the builder as a community pool and they are not paying any community fees untill they get a key, If it was a community pool(and its not) i´m sure they would not want to pay their share of the care and maintenance for it. New municipal pool direction signs are now in place at theend of Avenida Los Palacios and at the Square, No sign yet of the Bar in the la Zenia Square, Its Formentera fiesta in honour of Purisima Concepcion,this weekend so after this is finished the bar will probably open.

Update 3-New centro commercial near Rojales

All thats left of the BP garage on the new centro commercial site (photo taken 28/05/08)

The BP garage has now been demolished and all the water and drainage pipes have been laid, Building will be starting shortly.

2008 Rojales Bicycle day

AT THE START OF THE RIDE

Although rain threatened the event, it cleared by the start, although it was cloudy it was just just the right temperature for the day of the bicycle, several hundred people participated from young children to pensioners on all types of bikes. The tour went through the streets of Rojales down to the river, nearly to Guardamar, and back again to Rojales, finishing with refreshments and a draw for various prizes,

The Girls are back in town

Lock up your sons, "the girls are back in town" - pre Saturday night revelling at the clubs, who said they would soon close down on Disco alley, heres four local expat Brits who just dont want it to happen.

Proteccion Civil Volunteers?

The Rojales town hall are looking for volunteers for the proteccion civil in Rojales, The proteccion civil provide support at events in the area, crowd control, markets, in emergencies and other duties. If you are interested in being of service to the community, call in to the municipal centre of Cuidad Quesada
UPDATE 24TH JUNE ***ALL POSITIONS FILLED AT PRESENT***

37 million pound tax rebate!

Thousands of British who have sold Spanish property between 2004 and 2006 could get a share of a 37 million pound tax rebate from the Spanish government.
Those who qualify could get 11,000 pounds each, including interest, as a result of the Spanish government claiming too much capital gains tax.
Britons with homes in Spain who sold their properties between March 2004 and December 2006 paid a non-residents’ tax rate of 35% on any capital gains, compared with 15% paid by Spanish nationals. This is against European rules about discrimination.

Wealth tax abolished

The Spanish wealth tax has been abolished from 1-1-2008, Spanish Wealth Tax is payable by both residents and non-residents that own property in Spain, although the rules are different. Residents pay wealth tax on their worldwide assets but have tax-free allowances, whereas non-residents are only pay tax on net assets within Spain but miss out on the allowances. for both cases, the tax is calculated each year on assets held at 31st December.

The Royal Thai Gardens

The Royal Thai Gardens is open and in full swing, formerly the Casa Caretta bar restaurant featured in a previous posting. it has been thoroughy modernised and refurbished with a new large outside patio area. It has an extensive authentic Thai menu with starters and main dishes up to €11.95 and several special courses which are slightly more expensive. There is a bar open from 13:00hrs till late and the restaurant is open lunchtime and evenings. A completely different ambiance to its predecessor.

Weather diary

I have started a new blog "A Brit in Spain weather diary" at http://a-brit-in-spainsweatherdiary.blogspot.com/ or from The Links on this website, i have always found it usefull to be able to look back on what the weather was like for one reason or another and think it may be useful to others. quite often i hear people say things like "its colder than last year" or we dont normally get this much rain in May - well we will be able to refer to the diary in future.

Bicycle day in Rojales

Next Sunday 25th May it is the day of the bicycle in Rojales - meet at the community area on the opposite side of the river to the Bridge bar, register free from 09:00, for a 10:00 start,refreshments provided, freebys and prizes, also the same day The Super Valu supermarket at Cuidad Quesada are having a party at 2:00 with free paella for all.

Re-Whats happening to the pool (5/3/08)

As you probably realise we are back home again, just recovered from Jetlag. 5th March i posted that that work was in place to the swimming pool area, it is completed and we now have Astro turf at the side of the pool, this will be good as the ordinary grass, was always flooding with the over active watering system or worn away to soil, i wonder how it is cleaned, do they vacuum it or does the debris sink through it. Hopefully the pool will be open again in 3 or 4 weeks for the summer.

What, no Sky

It appears that Sky sports and other Sky channels are going to disappear from TV screens in Spain very shortly, this is because Canal Digital have taken legal action against the rebroadcasting of Sky and a legislation is being enforced, as the rebroadcasting is considered an act of piracy and theft unless the company has permission to rebroadcast. The crackdown is going to affect all providers of the retransmission of Sky. Also Sky will cancel any viewing card that they find is being used outside the UK or Ireland.

The time has flown

Well here we are with a few days left in Australia, we have had a great time, visited four states and seen a lot of towns, country and wildlife, the weather the last few weeks has been similar to British summer, so when we get back to Spain we will have the hot weather again.
Not had a lot of time to update A Brit In Spain, but have no doubt there will be plenty of local news to comment on and photos as soon as we get back.