Bumping the car

A couple of weeks ago I had my first prang while driving in the car in Spain, I was driving through Cieza and although the traffic lights were green in my favour a car shot in front of me and I hit it broadside on, no one was hurt luckily. There were no witnesses, they were too busy looking at the crash to see what colour the lights were for me, The policia local were there very shortly after the bump and took control, i did not even speak to the other driver, just gave all the documents, details and a statement to the policia, who then gave me the details of the other driver.

Anyway down to the efficiency of Linea Directa my insurance company the car is now fixed and as good as new, I had phoned Linea Directa as soon as I got home- the car was driveable- they told me to make an appointment for an assessor at a garage, which I did, the car stayed at the garage and the repair was finished 5 days later. In the meantime a courtesy car was provided payed for by the insurance. The insurance company emailed me every two days to let me know the progression of the claim, but unfortunately because I hit the other car and there were no witnesses I was declared at fault so I loose 10 percent off my no claims bonus on the next renewal. Driving here in Spain can be a hazardous business and I have been driving here for the last 6 years without a bump up to now, so I think actually I have been lucky.

Its not who you know its where you live!

Recently we have seen lots of arguments on English language forums re the heating allowance given to British pensions in UK. In case you are unaware once you become a state pensioner, provided you live in UK, you get a winter payment to help with heating. To qualify you MUST be resident in UK when you reach pensionable age. Not quite sure how this rule was reached but that's how it is. As a pensioner myself  I do not qualify under these rules. Well you cannot win them all. I am just pleased to have a pension and to have lived long enough to collect it! Mind you it is a bit nippy at the moment and I am sure the many many forums used by British pensioners living here will have not a few threads running on this issue as heating bills start arriving.  Right now it is a bit nippy but lets face it we know we will get some right hot weather unlike the poor devils in UK. We lived in Scotland for quite a number of years and it was not so unusual to have the heating on at any time of the year. All in all keeping warm in UK is a far more expensive business. So despite the fact we saw market traders in Cieza today lighting fires in makeshift braziers, and a bunch of workman who had stoped for a break and lit a fire on the roadside to keep themselves warm, we will be counting our blessings not our goosebumps.  So chill out
man it will soon be summer.

A Chinese meal

We decided to treat ourselves to a chinese meal last night,our first choice of restaurant, was at Abaran, we got there around 7:00 but the place was closed so carried on to Cieza to find one there, the fist one we went into only did the menu del dia at lunchtime and the menu for 4 (Bec and Joachim were with us) was not impressive at 38 euros, a little further down the road we found another with the Menu for four at just under 30 euros ,excluding drinks--not what we were used too in Guardamar!
The salad was alright, but the rest of the meal was terrible,tasteless and hardly warm, we were the only people in the restaurant and the waiter went and sat at another table to eat his own food half way through our meal.,soooo.... we shant be going there again.
On the way home we noticed the place in Abaran was open they obviously dont open untill around 8 oclock. so will check it out before we go for a meal.

Cieza Market

We decided to go to Cieza and its market today, and it was very good with loads of stalls with a good variety of products, there must have been at least 30 fruit and vegetable stalls with lovely fresh produce, and very very cheap, potatoes were 30 cents a kilo, tomatoes on the vine 70 cents a kilo,large lettuce 3 for a euro, cherries and small plums 1 euro a Kilo, i would say it is as good if not better than Guardamar market.
We had a walk round part of Cieza after we had shopped and it is a lovely town with many of the streets tree lined and shady and quite a few pedestrian only areas.