Spanish Ways and Spanish Banks

First  of all Spanish Banks:

Banking is NOT free in Spain. They give you a plastic card 20 Euors please, actually no por favor, because every time the money is TAKEN from the account, much to the discovery of on line banking - what the f***k is that.

Next, they send to their tax authorities your details every two years, 35 euros, no please, no thank you, no noitification.

Next you use a Spanish bank account card in an automatic teller and they charge you for taking some cash, however use an English Bank account card in the same Spanish ATM  and there is no charge. Made sense to you so far................???? ...........  quite !!!

BTW guess who earn the most money in Europe as Merchant Bankers....you got it the Spanish. Paid for going bust, paid for greed, avarice and incompetence, highly paid. Maybe they should be highly strung. As Geoff Boycott told Prime Minister David Cameron on Test Match Special Radio 5 in a blunt Yorkshire accent, "put all the top bankers in jail for 6 months for getting the country in a mess."


So....................if you have any money left in the bank, you can go to the Queen Mississippi, a charming replica paddle steamer in dry dock next to the park at La Mata. Maybe when this restaurant bar opened in 1972  it was beached in a storm I jest as there are 2,000 trees between it and the sea.

However such was the splendour and ambiance as well as the quality of service, and food, that I got the trusted camera out again, even taken a foto of my plate of starters as the presentation was incredible, and  the pliers and fancy honed knife to eat Lobster  in the paella. Great meat once you actually get at it.

Great place then,  take a securicor van with you to pay the bill, la cuenta por favor, delivered by heavy crane.  Wow  lobster for 2 was priced on the menu as lobster for two and on the bill as one each, a double whammy. Only other criticism is the trance music, no not music, that is an insult to musicians, rhythmic noise  created by computer played by computer, should be for computer ears only, heard by a computer.

You will notice the 4 poster bed in the garden, to lounge on and drink!!!  Different.

Susan was back from family visits in England, her first 24 hours back was spent breaking the kettle, toilet seat and TV. So apart from trying to empty suitcases in doorways to cause maximum obstruction to the repairer of kettle, toilet seat and TV, everything was spiffing.

One good buy was the solar powered fountain, water feature. In this sun everything should be solar powered. Although Iberdola the electricity company have extensive solar parks and wind turbine parks in land, there is not enough solar power at the customer end, so Iberdola  are nick named

" I've a lotta Dollars."

Pretty Pictues............................ till next time, though wont be Mississippi bound again maybe next year as decadent as it is, I have run out of Securicor Vans.

Hasta Pronto

Footnote.  Don't buy Tescos  solar lights, half of them don't work 

in a land where it rains 2 weeks out of 52.................................

This one works, half his mates were not so illuminating

.

Why are the Spanish so Noisy ??????

So it's not just me then and my observations. On the one hand you could say sales of hearing aids are unknown on the other hand you could say with their damaged ear drums they need hearing aids and that's why they continue to shout. Not talk, shout. It starts at an early age to try to get listened to over the rest of them.

          "Spanish people are active, they can easily change their minds or future plans, not really constant and therefore a bit unpredictable. We are independent and in some occasions reluctant to collective ideas or propositions. We only agree if we are convinced ourselves. 

 

             In the way we communicate, we are emotional, unpredictable and spontaneous.

Also real typical are our loud monologues. They occur when 2 friends meet each other and one asks the other: ‘Hi, how is everything? How are the kids?’ And the other one responds: ‘…and what have you been up to?’ How are you?’ Your family okay?’ Then probably the other one says: ‘I’m fine, thank you,…’ to continue their ‘dialogue of monologues’. ‘Well, my kid is ill with a swollen throat. You should see the poor girl, she has been in bed for days….’ To what the other one responds ‘Uh, well my kid also got the flu! She missed one week of school!’ The other one: ‘If she stays ill like this I’ll have to take her to see a doctor’ while the second one continues: ‘well, I had to wait for 2 hours before they attended us in the doctors’ surgery!’…. These conversations can go on for a while, with both speaking at the same time. Until one suddenly says: ‘Well I hope everything stays well for you’’, they kiss and go each on their own way. "

Source : Eye on Spain -The Spanish Personality 

"Spanish ‘loudness‘ or ‘rudeness‘ is one of the most frequently remarked upon aspects of the Spanish character by foreigners. At first I thought it was just English people but soon discovered that the impression was fairly widespread amongst visitors to Spain from many other countries."

There was a generation of Spaniard who lived under the Franco Fascist regime for 39 years and have given birth to further generations..

""Francoist Spain, also known as Fascist Spain, refers to the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975 when the authoritarian dictatorship of Francisco Franco, Caudillo por la gracia de Dios, took control of Spain from the government of the constitutionally liberal democratic Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War.

The Spanish Civil War started as a coup by the Spanish military on the peninsula (peninsulares) and the Moroccan rif territory (africanistas) on July 17, 1936.^[1] The coup had the support of most factions sympathetic to the right-wing cause in Spain including the majority of Spain's Catholic clergy, the fascist-inclined Falange, and the Alfonsine and Carlistmonarchists. The coup escalated into a civil war lasting for three years once Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany agreed to support Franco""

""There was a lot of poverty for starters and people were suspicious of everyone. Like with most dictator or religious countries there was mostly economic and social stagnation limiting those who believed in the progress of a nation.

You could get beaten up simply for being hungry or for talking another regional language like catalan or basque. A lot of people suffered under his dictatorship, from Andalusia to Catalonia and from Galicia to Murcia.

Those who honoured el caudillo could be the guy next door, you never knew until Franco's soldiers knocked on your door to question you or worse. Only then you'd know there were spies around in the neighbourhood.

Saying the wrong thing about his policies was often enough to get you arrested and become a political prisoner and we all know what he did with "political prisoners".

His indifference toward people was one of his cruelties. The many prisoners who died of hunger is a proof of that.

Franco was at most a mediocre leader who could care less about his people.

It's thanks to Franco why there's a lot of nationalism in present day Spain.""

Today the ruling Popular Party (accused currently of corruption) is also right wing.

I know my Solicitor Isabel and her sister Rosa, DO NOT SHOUT. I know their politics are more social less austere. They are young intelligent women with families, both their husbands are qualified and unemployed.

But there is a cultural divide between us the sun invaders and them the race born and raised here. They love noise, in bars, in restaurants, in the street, in the home, in the car. All Spanish males whistle, like it was a god given right, not just tunes but for attention, instead of ringing a bell or knocking on the door. 

My observations in 3 months, now confirmed by internet research.

I often shout out at the shouters "silencio"  especially at Midnight and 1am.

There it's official

Spaniards  in general are noisy and rude, inconsiderate.

 

Taking the Piss in the Piscina

Have I  ever liked teenage youths?  Answer in general NO, not even when I was a teenager, apart from the opposite sex, and only then if they had long blond hair, a shapely figure , did not smoke, and sounded alright when they opened their north and south.

So why should I like them here ???  Answer I don't.

Here they roam the streets after siesta from 6pm to 1am. They are adolescent hombres and hombres being the apt translation in the derogatory sense. They are noisy. They have places they could go to basketball , football pitches, instead they roam the streets. They don't mug people, they don't cause damage. They litter, they congregate, they piss me off, they get out of my way as I walk straight through them with 3 dogs.  Like Moses and the parting of the waves.

However I have observed that about 10 - 12 of them get into our swimming pool every afternoon, because one boy has an electronic fob and lets them in, the attendant does nothing.  Now I paid 330 euros for maintenance per annum, including the upkeep of the swimming pool (piscina) and the grounds, plus the privado (privacy) of the complex. But they jump out of 2 cars, wait for someone to open the gate, jump in and leave the gate open for more hombre invaders. Of course there is the security aspect of all this too, and  potential theft.

We have a Presidente of this complex, who shrugs his shoulders, that these hombres get in free ( gratis) while the residents PAY a lot of money.  In the end Martin and I and a few of his Spanish neighbours formed a possee and told this Presidente ("I am only voluntary")  and this Pool Attendant that this is unaccepatble. Caused so much stink the hombres vammoosed while we argued in the Pool area.

But a battle won is not the end of the war, so with Google Translate I am writing a translated letter to the town hall. See peace and relaxation did not last long. I have to say Martin, a teacher from London living now with a Geordie in Geordie land ( why ???) (he stays here every other month ), his command of Spanish  was impressive in the negotiations as the Spanish try to find every reason NOT to do anything. Like having spring loaded gates (they lock but sometimes left open !! grrrr)

I have said before  the Spanish have no desire whatsoever to be quiet at any hour of the day or night, when they are here in their droves as they are now that school is out, they are unbearable as a race. Horns beep, women and kids shout, engines run, women talk at speed of a Kalashnikov machine gun, radios blare. Weekends they are even worse, and the Kalashnikov would be very handy......................where's a Terminator when you want one !!!!

So, infiltration and befriending the Spanish is a big NO No  not only for me but for all the Saxon and Viking Invaders.  Bobby and his wife and 2 very small children had a drink in the garden last night with me. Bobby asked me for help and information a few weeks ago. I thought he was Spanish and I told him about the piss takes in the piscina. Turns out he and his wife are Persian !!!!!! Living in Sweden after the Islamic revolution in 1978 when his family were executed !!!!  His story of survival is incredible  and chilling. They are nice., the little girl also knows the invisible ball thrown into the empty paper bag trick now.............spread the gags worldwide !!!!. They don't like the Spanish either. So our survey said..................... err err, no one was found that liked the Spanish except the Spanish when they are not arguing with each other !!!!!!!!!. Carramba.

In fact one just walked by and I have sussed that they only time they don't talk is when they have a fag in their mouth, else it would drop to the floor according to Isaac Newton. So, one good reason why they should keep smoking:   silence,  the other good reason being Cancer of course and certain premature lingering death.

And so to take my mind off the indigenous population of this land I took some pretty fotos in the garden, in the sun, under the blue sky and the palm tree. Yes that is why you are here Allan.

Adios amigo, Hasta Pronto, unless you are Spanish of course (must be a nice one out there somewhere, I know, but have not found one yet, true, well keep looking, I will, don't need eyes though just ears !!!!) ( Maybe ear muffs  the sort  you take out of the fridge hahahhahahahaha  Oh Lay !!!

OH btw Fernando was ok in the Bhia Blanca, but then he wants your money so he has to  be nice.

Oh btw 2 : Spanish plants are beating the imported in a van English plants. Of course the gardening jury is still out till wait to next  year. But I have to sadly say a few, not many, a few English bulb plants have wiltered in this heat and decided to give the rest of the summer a miss RIP.. Otherwise everything in the garden is coming up Rosy, even the Roses, 1000 miles south .

Don't you just love the gags, its sun stroke of course, and they're coming to take him away he he ha ha to the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time and they're coming to take him away he he ha ha........................... brush up on the basket weaving Sunday afternoons...Adios!!

After the Smoke some pretty pictures of the better face of Spain

There are pretty things to see in Spain, wear blinkers to stop seeing the smokers, who have not killed themselves yet (shame)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUq5UXx1m_g  Pretty Flamingo
Flamingos in the salt lakes 

Exotic  Plants  

IF ONLY CERTAIN PEOPLE GOT OUT OF THE WAY AND WALKED INTO THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA  ONE WAY !!!!!!!!!!

Maybe I will tell them the John the Baptist story and convince them that they can walk on water.