The Rain in Spain.....not in the Plain

The Initial Downpour

One of the peculiarities of the Spanish road system is their lack of top-water drains.

Where in the UK rainwater runs down the edges of the road into drains, in Spain it simply continues to run downhill to the lowest point. This can result in rivers of water streaming down roads and often deep puddles forming where the water has nowhere left to run to.

In our area, the roads down to the sea are relatively steep so water from heavy rain rushes down towards the beaches and can cause much damage along the way or on the beach itself.

Along the front of our Apartment Complex, the road slopes into its midpoint from two directions and a large pool can form which is about 18” deep at its mid-point. The pictures below shows the effect of this, completely flooding a tennis court, the communal area, and the pool.

Our flooded access road and communal areas

(click for full size views)

Our beautiful blue-flag beach can be seen stripped of its sand down to bedrock.

Above you can see how the river of water has washed

the sand into the sea and discoloured the sea-water

Our once-beautiful beach

On La Zenia beach a new river course was driven across.

Bins washed down to the beach by the force of the water

All of the above will be repaired in quick-time but.........As soon as the rain returns to the plain the better!

August 2009 - Paris.

We have enjoyed many visits to Paris since we first “overnighted” there in 1980.

This trip was planned as possibly our last trip to the French capital as we hope to be exploring the cities of Spain from now on.

This Blog is more of a photographic taster of the best parts of our trip plus an adverse comment on the prices we found.

We enjoyed the visit immensely and, so as not to spoil the Blog, I will get the moan out of the way first. We have always advised our friends that Paris need not be expensive if you know where to shop, eat, drink, etc. If you wish to enjoy a drink somewhere posh, well then you will find it expensive but the choice is yours. The same applied this time but the difference is that the expensive areas seem to have spread everywhere, even to places where you would not have previously expected it. Be warned!

Now the good bits.

Park Citroen. This is the site of the old Citroen factory beside the Seine. It has been landscaped and specialist greenhouses and planted areas have been installed. Our reason to visit was for the Balloon Ascent.

This is a tethered lighter-than-air balloon which rises 150 metres above the park for spectacular views over the city. Suspended from the balloon is a round cage and one can freely walk around inside to get some great photographs.

The Big Wheel. This is in The Tuileries (the gardens of The Louvre) right beside the Rue de Rivoli. On here one gets a good long ride and again some great views over Paris.

The Orangerie. A small gallery recently renovated. Its main attraction is that it houses many of Monet’s later Water Lilly paintings. We had read of these but were amazed at the very size of them. Beautiful place to visit on a hot day as it is quiet and perfectly air conditioned.

Montparnasse Tower. To complete our visits to the “High Spots” in Paris we took the express elevator to the top of the highest building in the city, The Montparnasse Tower. The top floor is a visitor attraction 196 metres above the ground and one can walk to the roof which is over 200 metres above ground level. A good time to visit is in the evening just as it is going dark. One can view all the major attractions of Paris as they become illuminated.

Finally a selection of photographs from other places we visited such as The Seine, The Eiffel Tower, The Luxembourg Gardens, and the Palace of Versailles.

All in all a wonderful weekend. We may return to Paris in the future but we will probably pick April or December next time to avoid the crowds and the heat.........

July 2009 - Lancashire Wild Flower Initiative.

Earlier this year we began to notice that many of the grass verges and roundabouts in our area were remaining un-trimmed and that the grass was getting quite long.

Before long we were treated to a wonderful show of flowers all planted in a scheme known as “Pride in Rossendale”.

This initiative has resulted in grass verges and worn out rose beds being converted to small flower meadows. These have remained uncut throughout the summer and have produced some wonderful and colourful displays around the area.

There are over 20 different flower species in the meadows with Shirley Poppy, Californian Poppy, Cornflower, Fairy Toadflax, Red Flax, Bishop's Flower, Corn Marigold and Larkspur making up most of the mix.

Well done Rossendale Council!!

May 2009 - New gadgets for my iPod.

I bought the latest iPod Shuffle.

I already have the two previous models of Shuffle and have always been mightily pleased with their performance, sound quality, battery life, and robustness. (Pictures here (c) Apple Inc)

Their main drawback has always been that without any display screen one could never easily choose items to listen to. The 3G version of the Shuffle has now changed all that by incorporating voice feedback so that one can find out the name and details of the track currently playing, and one can also flip between albums. Add to that the 4Gb capacity and it becomes a very nice piece of equipment.

The tiny device, about the size of the little finger, can hold days of sound files. Ordinary MP3s or the highly compressed files from Audible can be loaded to provide a huge amount of entertainment. I generally listen to Audio Books or Plays which I have downloaded or recorded from the radio. By grouping their files into playlists within iTunes, then loading them onto the 3G Shuffle, one may flip between albums, books, and plays. It must be wonderful for visually challenged people who now can have a device which allows them to choose more easily what they listen to.

Now when I bought the device I was aware that all the controls for it are incorporated into the Shuffle’s special earphones. Not a problem if you only use it on the move but such a great piece of kit should be available to use with your own earphones, connect in your car, to external speakers, or to your home hi-fi system. I searched the Web for a solution and although various manufacturers were promising adaptors etc. none had actually begun to manufacture anything.

I eventually came upon a company called Scosche, located in California, who had designed a cable which would sit between the Shuffle (by plugging in to the earphone socket) and whatever other device you choose. It may be viewed here on their website.

Just an aside here about ear/headphones. I have always loved great sounding hi-fi and have spent money on my home system to achieve this. With the advent of the Walkman then later the MP3 player, listeners who wanted a great sound from their portable equipment generally had to buy third-party earphones as the sound quality from the supplied ‘phones has been less than good quality. Tinny is generally the word that springs to mind. It is a different story with the Apple iPod as their earphones have always been of an acceptable quality for the purpose for which they were designed. There is a lot of guff talked in the forums about “the low quality of Apple earphones” by folk who do no more than sit on the bus, roller-skate, jog, or exercise in the gym, with them stuck in their ears. The Apple earphones are good quality and are supplied along with the iPod at a price people wish to pay. If Apple were to supply ‘phones of high quality then instead of 60 quid for the latest Shuffle, or 150 quid for a Classic, they would have to ask for an extra cost of anything between £20 and £150 and I bet 99% of people who buy iPods are perfectly happy with the ‘phones supplied. I say this as I do not wish to be mistaken for an “earphone snob”. I do own very high quality earphones, bought so that I can shut out the noise on Airplanes whilst listening to music or watching a film on the iPod. My reason for finding an adaptor to go with the 3G Shuffle was mainly to be able to use it with all items in my hi-fi set up.

(Steps down from the soap box).

I emailed Scosche in the USA and asked if they would supply me with the cable when it came available and they put me on to their UK arm (Scoschedirect) which up to that point had not appeared in my Web searches.

Eventually after some production delays the “tapLINE” cable was delivered and I also purchased another device called the “tapSTICK”. This is a very clever protective case which fits over the Shuffle and has all the necessary controls on the outside of the case. It also has another earphone socket built in so that the device may be plugged in to external equipment.

The pictures above are (c) Scosche Industries

Both items work perfectly and I would recommend them.

October 2008 - Eating Well on the Costa Blanca

There are so many restaurants along our coast that we are never short of places to eat well.

Many of them offer bargains, especially at lunch time, and one can have a 3 course meal from as little as 3.95 Euros. Stunning value as this offers 4 or 5 choices for each course and includes a glass of wine or a beer.

Our branch of the Banco Halifax is in a shopping centre near Playa Flemenca and within this small centre alone there are at least six restaurants.

One day after a visit to El Banco we popped in to a restaurant named “The Sunrise Cafe” for a coffee and late breakfast. We were so immensely impressed with the quality and standard of presentation that we decided to pay a return visit for an evening meal later in the week.

All the staff speak English and and at least one other language and are gathered from all over Europe. The Sunrise is in the La Mosca centre, sits above the N332, overlooking the Mediterranean, with great views all the way to La Manga. Great value for a Menu-Del-Dia, a long, refreshing cocktail or a beer and great for sundowners and delicious evening meals. The food is prepared freshly for each meal and the choice is tremendous. There is a good wine list and the House Wine is of quite a high quality.

Delicious lamb served on the bone

The pictures here show Leg of Lamb on the bone, and their speciality pudding (for two I hasten to add) all served to perfection in the balmy evening air.

Pudding for Two

We will need to be careful or we will end up like Michelin Men!!

June 2008 - Growing Old Disgracefully

In 2007 I felt the need to own a sports car.

Between us we have had open-top cars since 1987 with 3 Ford Escort XR3is, a Renault 19, and 2 Renault Meganes, but apart from a short time when I borrowed an MX5 from our son Michael, we had never owned a sports car.

It was all decided one weekend and within a few days we swapped our Renault Clio for a ten year old Mazda MX5.

We did many miles in this old car including the 700 mile round trip to Cornwall mentioned in my previous post.

In my opinion the MX5 is the best of the affordable sports cars. It may not be the fastest off the mark or on top speed but it cannot be beaten for price and fun to drive. The only problem is that a ten year old car brings problems that any old car can have. Bits wear out and rust is a concern on our roads which are always salted in winter.

The engine is good for about 200,000 miles though and if you can keep the body going the car will remain mechanically sound for quite a long time.

Come 2008 and we decided that we should change the car for a newer model and cut out the added costs of keeping the older car in a road-worthy state.

A friend at work had recently changed her MX5 and had bought her latest one from an importer who brings in cars from Japan. I visited his warehouse and he showed me a beautiful car which was ready for sale.

Needless to say we bought it and to date still own it. (No, it’s not a personalised plate but we don’t want any cloning do we?) It will be coming to Spain with us.

This model features all the things that the true sports car lovers detest such as air-conditioning, electric windows, ABS, a hood which folds down in one easy motion, six-speed box etc. Me not being such a stick-in-the-mud, I love all the features and hope to keep the car for a long time.

I have been accused of exhibiting the stereo-typical mid-life crisis but heh, if it’s this much fun, what the hell ??!!