Spanish holidays are now great value.

Just a quick plug!


Forget holidays at home and cut-price breaks to Turkey, if you're looking for value for money the Spanish Costas are the most affordable destination in Europe.

British holidaymakers will get more for their cash on the Iberian Peninsula than any other hotspot, with prices in Spain dipping to a four-year low, according to a new survey.

Recession-hit Spain has slashed prices after the number of Britons visiting the country dropped by 15 to 20 per cent, due to the double whammy of financial woes at home and the buoyant euro.

Daily Mail

The weather is beautiful now and it's still really cheap to have a night out.

Health and Safety in Spain

Taken just down the road from us. Mr MV said nobody would believe him unless he took a photo.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

How Strange!

I just nipped down to my local Brit newsagent to see if I had any post. I use Offex which is like a courier service. We've tried Spanish post and some of our mail has taken 6 months or more, so now I have a PO Box Number at the newsagents.

The sender addresses the post to the Offex PO Box at Gatwick Airport where its put on a domestic flight to Malaga and is then sorted and distributed.

The gentleman at the newsagents said their post is absolutely normal. Incoming and Outgoing. Now, if they can do that with mail, can't they put a few passengers on there too?

Cancelled Flights

Just in case you were looking forward to a break on the Costa Del Sol and have been grounded...

The weather here has been crap. It's been like monsoon season for the last few days and last night's thunderstorm kept me awake all night.

It knocked out the electricity and was a real pain.

You are not missing anything. The UK has better weather.

Come to Spain for a Holiday!

Many people in the UK are suffering from depression and stress. Holiday bookings are down 30% in Spain which will mean there are some bargains to be had!

Just think, 2 weeks of hot sun, friendly people, cheap food and drink to relieve the stresses and strains of Nazi UK, No surveillance cameras here, no dustbin police, no council spies abusing terrorism laws!

You can even sit in your favourite English Pub and have a cigarette without feeling like a leper! 

Then on your way home, buy your duty free to save even more money! Come to Spain and experience freedom for a while!

Unemployment here in Spain is Climbing

A Fistful of Euros says unemployment is climbing fast here in Spain. I'm pretty insulated up here, it's like being in your own ecosphere when you're trapped in a small town in the mountains. We could be self sufficient, there are enough small holding farmers around that sell their fruit and vegetables cheaply. Spring onions as big as tennis balls (I'm not kidding).

They have a unique system here. There are lots of "fincas" (usually tiny, pokey country houses) and each one is a mini orchard or farm. Each farmer grows whatever he wants to grow whether it's fruit or vegetables. There is a central depot where they can take their crop and get paid the going price. From the central depot, the produce is bought to supply the rest of the country (I think).. 

The one thing that never ceases to amaze me is the waste.  Many of the fincas are empty and the orchards are just left to grow year after year. They can't sell them unless they find out who owns them and if an elderly person has died and the family have moved (like so many younger people do) and they can't be traced, the property remains empty.

There are orchards and orchards of oranges, lemons and tangerines and many of them are just allowed to rot,  they even grow in the street and you can just pick them and no one cares, as they are so plentiful! 

We also have figs, custard apples, avocados and a strange fruit that looks like a tomato but is filled with sweet jammy stuff... I am not a horticultural, greenfingered person :), sorry, so I don't know what they're called!

The other shops (like clothes) are pretty shit unless you are an old lady in mourning or you want to wear what everyone else in the town is wearing! 

Real clothes have to be ordered over the net from the UK. I might try to import some stuff one day and see how it goes down with the younger ones but I think they get their parents to drive them into Malaga once in a while!

The tradesmen here are pretty much the practical kind (carpenters, electricians, mechanics, plumbers etc.) and they always seem to be in demand! 

The rents don't seem to have gone down any but the Spanish would always rather see their flats empty for months on end than lower the price!

A few speciality shops have closed down like the Disney Shop and the REAL junk jewellery shop but supermarkets, restaurants, cafes and pubs are still buzzing. A couple of Brit pubs have shut, but they made the mistake of just serving Brits and if all the Brits go home, they have no other customers!

Six Pubs a Day Closing in the UK

Jeez and all the pubs hereabouts are packed most nights, I wonder why????

MY LOCAL

FUCK UP STASI POLITICS!

Workers revolt in Southern Spain

Expats Going Home

Many of my friends have already gone back to the UK. The last of my friends goes back next week. There are very few British families here now, most have gone home. The older generation are either trying to weather the crisis or they have no choice but to stay because they can't sell their properties. 

It's getting quite dire here jobwise. It's impossible to get employment with a Spanish Company as they tend to ignore foreign applicants. They are patriotic and will only employ Spanish workers. I can't say I blame them but I do tend to think that the British Government's attitude towards fairness to foreign workers is beginning to be a unique one in Europe!

Food Police

The blogosphere is masticating over the latest completely insane plan for employment creation!

The Food Police also known as "Food Champions" is the brainwave of that idiot organisation WRAP who have already wasted £4million of taxpayers money on their "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign. The innovative scheme begins tomorrow. As I understand it, after one days training "The Champions" will knock on 24,500 doors in an effort to show us how to save money on food.

"Tim Burns, from Waste Watch - the contractor carrying out the scheme for WRAP - said: "Food waste has such a high impact on climate change and it is something we can all do something about."

Tim, FUCK OFF...that's what alot of people will be saying to these idiots knocking on the doors in the area. I can't help feeling uncomfortable about the fact that if they find obese children in the home, will the parents be reported for child abuse?

I just wonder what happens to the out of date food that the supermarkets have to get rid of... here in Spain, one of our local cut price supermarkets leaves it nicely packed and intact in recycling bins for the poor to help themselves! What a great idea, isn't it, but then the Spanish Govt are quite good at ignoring the EU, perhaps the UK should learn to do the same!

Deletion

I've decided to delete a couple of the politically based blogs. I am busy with work and will be adding a work related one soon... :) so if you are into computer gaming... watch this space!