Spain wins the Euro 2008 title

After 44 years Spain have claimed a major football title, beating Germany in the euro2008 Final,with the score 0:1, it was an exciting match dominated by Spain, and when the winning goal was scored celebrations could be heard throughout the area. After the final whistle the skyline was a vista of celebratory fireworks and rockets exploding, then what seemed like most of Spain paraded through the streets for several hours, in their cars and trucks waving the Spanish flag and sounding horns, klaxons, cheering and banging drums, the atmosphere was amazing.

Where have all the Visitors gone!!

Our third summer around the pool and my are the holidaymakers thin on the ground. With the pool now open from 10 in the morning until 8 in the evening 6 days a week its is bound to feel less crowded, however that’s obviously not the whole story. Local businesses are all reporting a drastic drop in trade. It’s not just that the numbers of people coming over has fallen, many expats here rely on UK pensions the value of which has been eroded with the fall in the pound. Inflation has hit here to with the price of food and utilities rising. Some local Farmers have reported theft of food crops as those at the bottom of the wages scale find it increasing hard to feed there families. So if hard times mean one or two less meals out and bottles of wine for some Brits, maybe they should still count themselves as lucky to be here.

From the sublime to the ridiculous

Formentera Ayuntamiento does a good job on using their budget to make the town look good. Both town pools are kept in excellent condition now. One area that really benefits from the efforts of the council is the walk along side of the river. Wonderful flowers beds full of roses and herbs sit around mature palms and Banana trees. We always enjoy a walk along to the far end of the town in the cooler air of a summer evening. It’s nice then to have a quite drink in the church square, much frequented by local residents. Last night when we did this we took our usual route back along the main road; we were amused and amazed too see a new street name as we came up to the industrial park. What appears to little more than a grassy track has been given the illustrious name of Calle Leonardo de Vinci. Is the artist turning in his grave I wonder?

Guardamar bonfires 2008

Some Guardamar bonfire events

Friday 20th June 20:30 Parades through the town, the "party zone" is opened and the Bonfire Beauty of 2008 is presented to the public, Open air dancing
Saturday 21st June, 20:30 Parade through the town, by the El Milotxes Group accompanied by the Cascabot traditional musicians.
Sunday 22ndJune, 17:00-19:00 Childrens activities and games in the party zone, 23:00 Entertainment by band Filiu
Monday 23rd June, 11:00 kite making workshop,18:00 Kite competition at Playa centro. 23:00 fire jumping, singing and dancing. 24:00 Fireworks display. followed by disco and dancing on the beach.
Tuesday 24th June, 20:00 Mass in honour of St John in the towns parish church, 21:00 Parades through the town. 01:00(Weds)The bonfire is lit.

Guardamar San Juan Bonfires

This San Juan bonfires celebrate the start of the summer, from the 14th June to 24th of June there is a programme of fire jumping, dancing, singing, parades and fireworks with events building up throughout the week, with the finale of the lighting of the giant bonfire. Some events are held on the beach where there is also a midnight swim. A detailed programme is available from the tourist information centre.

The Vaughan Town Experience

Barco de Alvila town square
Great to back, more especially now the pool is ready, I have just spent a fantastic 6 days in a 4 star hotel near the town of Barco de Alvila in the province of Avila very near the border of Salamanca and Extremadura.
Having travel up to Madrid from Alicante by train, and what an excellent service that is; I stayed at a little hostel over night in the city. On Sunday morning it was time to be taken care of by the Vaughan Town organisation.
Set up by American Richard Vaughan the purpose of Vaughan Town is to help Spanish business people and professionals improve their English.

For the whole 6 days no Spanish is spoken, The Anglo speaking volunteers, work one to one and in groups talking, talking, and talking. For someone like me not a problem. Volunteers get to stay in a 4 star hotel, with swimming pool and gym, in one of the most picturesque parts of Spain. You have a private room with spa bath and of course great views. The best part for me however was the opportunity to talk in depth with Spanish people to hear about there jobs and there families and their thoughts on life in general.
The Anglo speakers came from all corners of the globe, where multitalented, everything from singer song writers to fire eaters, ensuring that with their many nationalities that the Spanish got to hear lots of accents. Entertainment in the evenings was of the home grown variety provided by Spanish and Anglo alike. Many times we laughed till we cried, good honest fun, if only international relations were always this easy.
All of the Anglos gave there time for free, everyone worked very hard, the last night party was well deserved. I recommend the experience to everyone; I will be doing it again.----- Mary

Pool opening

Latest on the La Zenia municipal pool, finally this year the pool is being opened to cater for our needs, It is opening next Tuesday and the hours will be from 10:00 through the day to 20:00hrs, not closing for the afternoon as in previous years. It has been cleaned and refilled with water and from what we can see is ready to go. The bar in the square is now open in the evenings.

Oil on the Costa Blanca

COULD THIS BE THE VIEW OF THE NEAR FUTURE
With property development rapidly coming to a standstill, an exploration company, has applied to the Government for permission to search for oil and gas in an area of some 100,000 hectares between Vinalopó, Albacete and Murcia, in the municipalities of Villena, Sax, Elda and Monóvar.
It’s the second large application following a request to search in the Valencia Bay by MedOil on which an answer is expected soon.
There is now a two month period during which other companies can also make their presentations and those who oppose the exploration can also present their cases.
The Invecta company is unknown, and is probably being used as front to represent one of the larger petrol companies.
So instead of a landscape of construction cranes, it could be drilling rigs.

Cockroaches in Benijofar

There has been a plague of cockroaches in the Calle Vicente Blasco Ibanez area of Benijofar, the reason is that when the road was resurfaced 18 months ago ,the manholes were covered, normally the pest control people put stuff down the manholes to control the infestations but have been unable to do so, and with the wet and warm weather the cockroaches have spread into properties in the area. Once they get into this environment they are very difficult to exterminate. The manholes are now opened and poison put down.

Torrevieja hospital the best

In a latest report Torrevieja hospital has been ranked the best of all the health departments in the Valencian community, with a 98% index score in service, information, accessibility and comfort to patients, this score is taken solely from the opinions of people who use the service.
Torrevieja hospital was also awarded a 100% score with respect to the balance of satisfaction.
With my experience of visiting the hospital these scores do not surprise me!

Sky television

It looks like the future of Sky television for a lot of people on the Costa Blanca is uncertain, as more and more of the companies retransmitting Sky are being stopped under the legislation that is being enforced, It looks like the only way soon will be to get an active viewing card from the UK and a large satellite dish to get the sky channels.