Antena3 / Telecinco / Cuatro

Away from Spain ?

Do you have a great desire to watch Spanish TV ?

http://www.antena3.com/ and http://www.mitele.es will allow you to catch up with some of your favourite programmes - watch direct.

Enjoy.

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Flowers

On our return to Spain these will be long gone - lack of water ( unless heavy rain decides to visit throughout the winter )

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Jigsaw

A visit to Spain is never complete without a jigsaw to pass away a few days.

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Happy New Year

Happy New Year 2012

Feliz Año Nuevo 2012

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Death in August - Marco Vichi

Holiday time is a good time to catch up with some reading .

Death in August by Marco Vichi was among the books bought from Amazon prior to our trip out to Spain.It is the first Inspector Bordelli book and the setting is around Florence a city we went to recently.

Must admit it was not a book I really liked - rather a slow storyline.

Perhaps I crave for constant action and excitement in the books I enjoy.

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Back home ..

Now back home in England after nearly two months in the Costa Blanca.

The weather was glorious - very warm and sunny for most of the time - in fact warmer then normal for Spain.

Not many new photographs taken - I think I've got to the point where I've photographed most places and there is no reason to keep snapping away at the same scenes.

So for the next few months, although there will be some photographs, I think there is likely to be more narrative and comments.

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Meal of the day ...

Meal of the day or Menú el dia is famous all over Spain - usually for anything between 7 to 12 euros you can get a really good 3 course meal plus bread and wine.

Very very good value ...

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Iberdrola ICP

Are you like me confused by Iberdrola and the mention of ICP switches?

Take a look at an interesting Blog - Sparks in Spain.

http://tonysparksinspain.blogspot.com/

Many questions will be answered ....

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General Election

I understand that a General Election will be held in Spain on the 20th of November.

Current Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero will not be standing for re-election and has been replaced by the Minister of Interior Alfredo Perez Rubaicaba for the PSOE.

Watch out for funs and games ... what will the electorate make of Mariano Rajoy of the opposition PP ?

All good fun.

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BBC iPlayer

The residents of Spain and 10 other European countries will soon be able to access an international version of the BBC iPlayer if they own an Apple iPad and subscribe at a cost of 6.99 euro per month.

This international version will be run by BBC Worldwide and subscribers will be able to view current and classic programmes.

A feature not available in the UK will be the ability to download content and watch offline otherwise the iPlayer will be similar to the UK version but function in a different way.

Enjoy ...

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What to do ...

Since the purchase of our holiday flat book reading has increased and we now have a considerable library.

It's nice to relax over the siesta time with a good book and a glass of wine.

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Spanish gardening ..

When staying in Guardamar I do miss my large UK garden and allotment.

Below is the limit of my gardening in Spain - the geraniums do last quite a long time and are drought resistant for a few months but unfortunately will always need replacing on our return after the long hot summer.

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Tunein Radio Pro

Another useful and excellent App for the iPod Touch, iPad and iPhone is the Tunein Radio Pro.

I'm not the only one who thinks this because it has been awarded 5 stars by fellow App devotees.

At a cost of 69 pence it is certainly great value.

While in the UK not only can I carry on listening to Spanish radio stations but search the world for my favourite music on the 50,000 stations available.

From Australia to Argentina - they are all there ..

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RTVE

For those of you with an iPod Touch or Apple Phone a good little "App" is the RTVE Noticias y Directos.

It's free ..

I can watch La 1 , Teledeporte and Canal 24H while I am in the UK and all for free.

In addition for those with internet access TVE a la Carta will enable you to catch up and watch your favourite TV programmes from Spain.

Go to http://rtve.es/alacarta/index.html

Happy viewing ..

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Spring flowers

I snapped these somewhere on my travels - La Mata I think.

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Jigsaw 2

Here is a completed one - just to show we can do them ..

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Jigsaw ..

There is a time in Spain when the weather turns bad - you are tired of drinking in bars - no garden to cultivate - TV a mystery. So what do you do ?

The answer is a jigsaw - you can spend many an hour getting frustrated looking for that one missing piece.

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Spanish election ..

Yesterday the local and regional elections were held amid rising unemployment and demonstrations about the poor economy.

With 91% of the vote counted the PSOE have had the worst results in three decades and the gap between them and the PP has increased to 10%.

The control of important cities Barcelona and Seville have been lost by the PSOE.

If these results are maintained next year then we may be heading for a PP government.

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Problems

Problems with the BT phone line have prevented me from Blogging this last week - hopefully the communication problem is now resolved.

More photographs from my archive ( mainly of Madrid ) to follow shortly.

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Iberdrola

With the aid of a Spanish-English dictionary, crossed fingers and an old invoice (Factura de Electricid) we have managed to register online with Iberdrola and in future will be able to access our electricity bills via the internet.

We'll now be able to keep an eye on the bills whilst we are in the UK.

In theory Iberdrola read the meter every other month and alternate months they estimate the electricity that has been used. Unfortunately they do not always gain access to the apartment building and for that month charge only for the "standing charges". Charges for electricity used is to be added at a later date. Consequently each new bill tends to be a surprise - high charges - low charges !!

We've no idea where our own meter is - somewhere in the depths of the block's underground garages in a locked room. So unlike in England we can not read the consumption figures and advise the electricity supplier direct .

It's all good fun ....

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