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Mickey, 'from 'Up the Angel' - reports
(and this is one of those pages where opinion is expressed...bad boy!)
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| January 2008 - Feliz Año Nuevo you lot… It’s been ages and the boss tells me that the website stats
prove loads of you sad people check out my words of wisdom - suckers! I base this entry on a meaningful conversation with a well-placed Sanmiguelera friend of mine, yes I do move in elevated circles – especially when there’s fireworks and free New Years Eve cava + an illicit snog 2008.She is very concerned. She tells me that Los Inveraderos is a disaster, that the economy has collapsed, that there are a lot of local peluquerías that have had to close because they have no business and that all the other Sanmigueleros are a bunch of blonkers... whoa chica… haven’t I been saying this for a few years.
I love this chica – she is educated and she speaks her mind… I said to her,”...but we have a new Councillor for Promotion”. “And” she
rebutted. I continued hopefullly,”
But we have the Asociación de Empresarios y Comerciantes (A.E.C.O)”, she responded (in Spanish),” Are you ‘avin’ a laugh”.
So where are we? We are in the shit, apparently!
My Spanish friend is alarmed that the market (they only think about the
property market) has collapsed and that Sanmigueleros are drifting back to the poverty they ‘enjoyed’ up to 20 years ago.
So I said to my dear friend, and you are thinking that either I don’t care or that I can’t tell her what I really really think, “Chica, chuck the bones on the ground love, and let me remind you of the reality!” – there’s a bit of voodoo creeping in here with the ‘bones’ bit but lets get a few Españoles spooked – “Haven’t you listened to a word I’ve been saying for 5 years?” I quantified the
situation by telling my friend,” You Spanish have spent too long revelling in the sale of San Miguel de Salinas to the foreigners and you have
forgotten to invest for the hard times that have arrived.”
I handed her a copy of The New Angel Magazine that some (Capt.)
pratt had handed to me in the market today (2 January 2008) and I said," trouble is love, you’ve let the developers promote the pueblo and not the people who care – read this chica!”
The moral of this story is that the chica is worried, the promoters can’t sell their properties but will, nevertheless, keep building them, and that I will still have a café con leche at Marianos on most days around 11am – before his new premises, honestly funded by the 1 euro bebida, opens to much acclaim just off the Square. As for my Amiga – sell it to the people in denial, Chica!
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It's OK...this is San Miguel de Salinas! This familiar
old Nissan PATROL, which
parks in the vicinity of Bar Café Borrascas every day so that its owner can have a game of dominoes with his mates...
yeh and... Well it has no back lights, a smashed in front wing with sharp
protruding metal... and a 2001 expired ITV! I think what hacks me off is that it has been in this condition for all the time that me and my mate Roger (who asked me to mention it!) have lived here - yes 6 years! So forget your ITVs in SMdS and, no doubt, insurance isn't too important either! |
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| It's going to be a pretty busy time - with the run
up to Spain's municipal election on 27th May - and if you have ventured
here from the lead story about the local byelaw that says you can't
stick notices on lamp posts - I have to say I am hoping that we get
something of a bit more substance to debate!
It's a shame The EU Party, that's The United Left or
Esquerra Unida País Valencià, aren't having a musical concert or aren't selling air-conditioning, or aren't offering language lessons on the black, or...
well this type of suddenly illegal postering is endless, because they
would probably have got away with it! But this poster was about announcing
their candidates for the election and they claim that the councillor,
with opposing political views and current power, has evoked the byelaw
in a 'dirty tricks' strategy. Pathetic isn't it?
What are the sayings...'people in glasshouses...' and 'What's good for
the goose...' The only method, as I see it, that our important Councillor for Culture has promoted events is to dispatch trusty servant Madriles on his municipal scooter to plaster every wall within 200 meters of the Town Hall
to tell the Spanish what they are doing that weekend when they know already... Never, dare I
say, has he resorted to sending something to this website so that a
wider audience of uninformed residents, outside the 200 meter perimeter, is aware of future events - however many times this has been
offered. But this is another issue.
I went to the Candidatura of Esquerra Unida País Valencià, San
Miguel's left wing group, predictably attended by the party faithful.
'Recuperamos San Miguel' is the party cry...a good corporate start!
They have been invited to utilize this website to tell you who they are
and on what issues they are standing. This offer is open to every
candidate of whatever political colour because I fear that you won't get
enough to decide from the lamp posts. 18 March 2007
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Sunday 18th Feb 2007 protestors on the CV95 |
As Sanmigueleros exercise their democratic right to protest over the
proposed imposition of a six-lane-motorway that touches the very edge of
the pueblo I'm thinking, 'about time too!' It's more than likely that some
government department looked at the map and didn't see any thick lines
going from A to B; nobody from this department has obviously used the
existing road at even the busiest 'white-van' time of day. There is
no traffic.
I'm with my Spanish neighbours on this issue... but more, I think we have reached
a significant moment in the development of the pueblos of the Vega Baja
to recognize that someone ought to be doing a bit of serious planning
rather that the political back-patting over the finalization of a twenty
year old wrangle - the Plan General, a completely futile
developer-fuelled proposal for the future layout of the municipality,
and one that at the moment of agreement is superseded by another tricky
one...environmental impact. |
| I am hoping
these protestors take on a few more campaigns to protect what they have
now before people, with little care for them, take the lot. You want an
example I suppose... Los Invernaderos, the Film Set at the bottom of the
High Street, do we need it? Maybe we do, but developers have skilfully
bulldozed at least two Valencian listed historic municipal chattels (Catálogo de Bienes y Espacios Protegidos de San Miguel) into
the dust, in their usual 'dead-of-night' manner; firstly the protected
tree-lined public water course known as La Rambla de la Escribana,
marked on the earliest maps of the pueblo but now just a memory encased in a
corrugated tunnel underground.
The second, a far more hennas crime, the levelling of La CENIA DEL MANZANO
an ancient building where horses turned a wheel to draw water to
irrigate the Almendros. Is this the way things are going or are my
Spanish neighbours going to wake up and man the barricades!
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I've always been a real fan of marketing
strategies...images that grab the consumer can be extremely
powerful...so how about this one from a certain bank here in Spain, one
which I obviously can't name for legal reasons (when have I ever been
worried about that!). But this is also a bank that I have never ever heard a good
word for - one which may speak my language but one that has the most
appalling record for account management and the fewest working ATMs on
the Costa Blanca. Alarmingly this marketing is not directed at the holiday maker it's
delivered to the mail address of a resident. So it sort of makes
two statements - firstly I am obviously perceived by this bank as a 'cheap café
fried breakfast type' and secondly the bank thinks I will be attracted
by this strategy. Fortunately there isn't a branch of this bank in SMdS
so I haven't got to tell you which one to avoid. Power to the
Consumer! |
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| Today, 15 September, this website published a communiqué
(view)
from the Town Hall under the heading 'Mayor calls for Council to
determine the level of action they should take against the Asociación de Vecinos'
and I am quite frankly flabbergasted. |
WWIII - I popped into The
Town Hall on Tuesday and battled thru the suma queue. Our Mayor was
cornered on the stairs and the target of the most vociferous verbal attack from a
middle aged Spanish Lady....it went on and on and became very heated. Do
you wanna know what it was all about? Answer: She hadn't had a fiesta
programme delivered to her home in the pueblo. Shame! |
| The Town Hall, as I see it,
views The Neighbours Association as a hostile body fuelled by the Partido - Izquierda Unida...therefore a thorn in its side because
it doesn't like opposition. The Association, as far as I am aware, questions decisions, draws attention to planning abuses, advocates green preservation and, mostly, represents community
concerns for the future of the residents' town. Far more importantly it
is a democratically elected body. I suggest that before the Mayor and his
administration flex too many muscles perhaps they should remember that they are too. And who here really has the power...Mickey of course...or should I lump myself
more accurately with the electorate. I thought opposition was a healthy
ingredient for good politics...perhaps not so much in a dictatorship! |
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| Brick Lane E1 - Sunday 10th September and I'm back in the
'dear old smoke'
and heading for Brick Lane's Festival 2006. This is another one of
London's amazing cultural celebrations and a famous event on the
calendar - this is Bangla Town and the Capital of Britons' favourite
food - The Curry. This week's Banglatown Curry Festival
is a far cry from the Sunday bird fair in Sclater Street, just
off Brick Lane (pictured in the 1900s) |
| My walk from Liverpool Street took me down Petticoat Lane, which believe it or not is
absent from street listing in the London A-Z: it’s a famous market that has traded since 1603 and is actually in Middlesex Street…the prudish Victorians changed its name because of the reference to woman's undergarments. It has a similarity to San Miguel’s Wednesday market in that the traders are flogging much the same sort of gear… but it is endlessly long
on one thoroughfare and there are absolutely thousands of people speaking hundreds of different languages…onto Brick Lane and, as the name suggests, it gets its name from the local manufacture of bricks. By the early 18th Century it was a long well-paved street frequented by carts fetching bricks into Whitechapel from brick kilns. The other main industry in the area was beer, which was brewed in the Truman Black Eagle Brewery, founded in 1669. Today Brick Lane is now the centre of London's Bangladeshi community and visitors from far
afield
come to eat in the jumble of Bangladeshi restaurants -and it was humming. I finished the afternoon in Columbia Road, tucked away a stone’s throw from Brick Lane. Columbia Road is a magical world of colourful plants and exotic flowers, with 52 plant stalls and 30 or so garden shops and cafes and thousands of people buying plants and flowers. What a day!
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| And I passed a great deal of history on my journey, not simply in the architecture. All the local people I encountered, of whatever 'tongue', seemed to have a pride of 'place' in their East End Suburb! |
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So I am not going to ‘kick off’ on a ‘multicultural’ trip…I thought I’d just express a little disappointment at the lack of history in the pueblo. For instance folks, did you know that archaeological discoveries from the Bronze Age have previously been found in the municipality in the vicinity of Zahurdas? Do you even know where or what Zahurdas is? Do you know where the great houses Casa Lo Meca, Casa Lo Balaguer and El Carmen are? I bet you don’t! It seems, even though I have asked these questions, that history is not cherished in SMdS. I asked my friend Corrina (Joaquín Martínez Albaladejo) where Matamoros was because it was the site of The Convent and Monastery of San Gines
dating from possibly the 9th Century.
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…he said that it had been trashed and subsequently
bulldozed.…a bit disappointing don’t you think, especially as very soon now The Town Hall will be seeking more available funds for cultural and architectural heritage projects. Shame that they prefer concrete! One thing is for certain I shall be telling you where these historical places are, in the near future that is, so that you can discover for yourself how the Spanish in the pueblo celebrate their historical heritage...
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| Cows and Megabus - Part II - August 2006 |
High Bentham - The Yorkshire Dales |
| It would be a travesty to dominate this ‘shortie’ with my
picture of Victoria Station – how the bustling takeaway-carrying
commuter and confused camera-laden international tourist appear to have
given way to the marauding hordes of empty-handed pale-faced Eastern
Europeans regurgitated hourly from coaches from Poland, Estonia and the
like. I opted against the A-board with job vacancies for fear of
paralysing the terminus. (An estimated 600,000 such migrants to UK since
their EU entry in 2004). Instead I will move straight to the main event
– the real England and my internet-booked cheapy on favourite Megabus to
that part of God’s Country they call The Yorkshire Dales.
I'm not a Yorkshireman so it matters little where you arrive...I am in
High Bentham - as opposed to Low Bentham - both on the banks of
The
River Wenning, with its echoes of past flax and silk mills. I am in
sight of the ‘walkers paradise’ of peaks Ingleborough, Whernside and
Pen-y-Ghent in a village that, like many, pre-dates The 1086 Doomsday
Book. It is the epitome of a country community of ancient farms marked
by their enclosures of dry limestone walls, stiles byres and gills
(sound a bit like solicitors) and lush green pastures dotted with sheep and
cattle. |
| It was a very wise decision not to bid for the cute
Dalesbred Shearing
Gimmer at The Bentham & District Farmers Auction Mart Co.Ltd.. Founded
in 1903 by local farmers with names like Turner, Mitchell, Marshall,
Wilcock, Blacow and Morphet, today's old fellas (pictured), with their
flat caps and canes, were simply three generations down the chain having
the same sociable sale day enjoying much the same frenzied bidding for
each others livestock as did their forefathers. I had no idea that a
milk cow would cost upward of £700…and I am extremely disappointed to
miss the 135th Bentham Agricultural Show on 2nd September – my exhibit, the cute lamb, would have been in breach of
entry Rule 5 anyway (not being its owner for 3 months!). Shame, as
everything on display, from the biggest carrot to the tastiest jam,
would have been there to see.
Down the road was The Bentham Community Centre and for a village with
around three thousand neighbours there was, literally, every possible
activity organised. I was more than impressed by their monthly freebee –
The Bentham News, distributed to every household and packed with
information from many proud local contributors: then there was the tiny
Tourist Information Centre, the classic Post Office, the old inns –
The
Black Bull Hotel, The Coach House Hotel and The Horse and Farrier, St
Margaret's Church on its raised promontory and, most of all, the
villagers themselves who together added much to my enjoyable experience
of High Bentham – thanks. |
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But more than thanks are due, more than perhaps some of the folk of High
Bentham themselves realise. As one who cherishes culture and local
history my deepest thoughts remind me that it is communities like this
that are unwittingly preserving England’s greatest quality – its
heritage. Even though I may have joined another mass exodus of ‘Brits to
Spain’, and one wonders how close to 600,000 that may be, I still hope
and pray that when visitors go High Bentham in another three generations
time it won’t be watered down and changed beyond all recognition like
Victoria Station. |
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Have you met Humberto Ramos?
He is a star but only in the 'farmacía-sense'...I
was in there today picking up a prescription and all of a sudden I was
confronted, not by the usual sullen Chicas, but by Humberto Ramos. And
he turned the whole visit into an enjoyable one. " Sit awhile...enjoy
the Aircon", he said...So he shows off with a bit of English, and does
the humour... but, hey, half the customers are English and everybody had
a smile! Customers were subjected to polite but humorous 'banter' and it
was a delight. Don't get too used to it though folks...Humberto is a
student at University in Valencia and as a good 'San Miguelero' Boy he
is working in Dad's Farmacia over the summer...I am hoping the Chicas
will learn that flogging prescription drugs doesn't have to be a
miserable occupation. Photo tomorrow! |
join the Los Invernaderos debate - Scandalous |
So what are you gonna do when the bulldozers turn up! As far as the
area 'Los Invernaderos', just on the edge of town on the Bigastro Road,
you're gonna watch them build 5 apartment complexes with hundreds of
dense units...you're gonna hope that they actually complete the
community projects - covered swimming pool and sports facilities,
theatre, new school and green recreational areas...there's a debate
going on on the forum...why not have your say!
And when the Bulldozers
turned up to clear the ground at Ciudad de las Comunicaciones enquirers
were told "it's just to clear up the ground and make it more
presentable"...sorry I just don't believe it for a minute! |
Bulldozers tidying up the green area... |
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| I've just emailed a San Miguelero, an educated chap with a long family history in the pueblo...he has a website dedicated, like this one, to information about 'our town'.
I look at his website from time to time to see whether it's been
updated...I have noticed recent changes to the demographic information,
but hey, there was no reference to me and 'my kind' - Los Extranjeros.
My email, no doubt in crap Spanish (but I do try) was as follows:
Saludo, Yo lo encuentro extraño que en su página permitió ‘anuario_economic_san_miguel' usted no hace referencia al crecimiento demográfico verdadero. Mi estadística es exacta y derivada del Padron Oficial. ¿Hay cualquier razón por qué usted omite el hecho que 39% de la población es española y 61% es extranjero?
Espero que mi diagnóstico esté equivocado y que no es el malestar de la negación. Es un problema médico reconocido en San Miguel de Salinas.
¡Yo siempre querría oír de usted!
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pictured are aliens line dancing
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So what do you reckon...do you think I'll get a reply? In my experience - no! They just don't answer, I'll let you know if I'm wrong...and
if you're just browsing and can't be bothered to use the translator my
email questions the lack of reference to the 61% foreign population and
asks whether it is 'the malaise of denial - a common medical condition
amongst the other 39%'.
WRONG - he did reply, within this website's 24 hour standard... He
didn't make too much comment on the malaise but he justified his published stats. What I really wanted was the comment on the malaise...Did anyone go to the Theatro Juvenil on Saturday last...well I know you didn't because I was there. 30 San Migueleros watching their children perform a play. Broadcast by TV San Miguel all over the Pueblo...I can't get the Casa Cultura for a Line Dancing Group of over 100 people that live in San Miguel de Salinas - Do you think it's because we are foreign
- alien line dancers!
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The Da Vinci Code
of Builders Merchant Tabisam
Now I have always been a fan of Tabisam. The
Yard Foreman out on the Bigastro Road is always extremely helpful. But
have you heard about the secret code as used by the Spanish -
Contado 4444 -
This Secret Code reduces the cost of say a tonne of sand from
€50 for us Extranjeros to a mere €25 for a
Spaniard. This information is from a friendly Panamanian! |
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The Three Phase
Rip-Off
They do have electricity in Spain…it’s just a different sort than we’re used to. This mate of mine called Sparky tells me that electricity is actually the same sort as we had in the UK but it’s what they do with it and how they get it to us that’s different. In the early and heady days of the European Community a group of his mates sat down in a downtown Brussels bar and decided to have a common language. The British Standard was second to none, particularly in peripherals, the Germans wanted to use the red wire for earth, and the rest had coffee. Consumer units, trip fuses, differentials and RCDs are all thingys to do with electricity, I know that…but my Spanish builder installed a three phase supply in my house, because I am foreign and I have a pool and aircon:
pumping 420 volts into my house would of course be illegal in the UK and
tying all the earth wires into a knot would be too but, hey, this is
Spain. It was always tripping out until Sparky explained that the
differential was too sensitive, a general problem and one adopted in
Spain purely because those that install power to homes are mostly
cowboys.
Fact: The average
installation on my urbanization, the ones Sparky has checked, has
between 15 & 21 earth faults. |
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| So we’ll sort that out says Sparky! Off we go to Torrevieja and the Electrical Wholesaler…we are after a 3 phase C40 mains switch to replace the differential. Cool as a cucumber, after talking to his mate, El Sparko says 85 euros please. After Sparky had regained consciousness we headed back to the Pueblo where we popped into see Enrique at San Miguel Fereteria, with whom we had previously ordered a 3 phase C40 some weeks ago. Miraculously we found it and were not that surprised to learn that it cost 35.15 Euros. It took about 10 minutes to replace the item and now my power doesn’t trip out. I won’t bother you with the conclusions…
tomorrow, I am writing it now, a hard English lesson for Spanish businesses in SMdS.
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Now as you know I love to bring you bizarre
stories...perhaps thought provoking ones...perhaps innovative ideas from
our own historical culture that might improve our lives here in the
pueblo! So visualize my delight (and my ensuing riotous imagination) at
meeting David Mitchell, the city of Chester's official Town Crier.
Chester is the only destination in Britain to boast regular midday
proclamations in the summer months, a tradition believed to date from
the 15th century when King Henry IV wrote to the Mayor,
Sheriffs and Aldermen of the City of Chester specifying that new laws
should be observed to ensure that the people are informed.... They have
never been repealed!
At the same High Cross from which King Charles I was
proclaimed a traitor in 1646 and where our picture was taken on
9 May 2006, this daily proclamation is now made for
the benefit of tourists.
Now it occurs to me that the appointment of a Town Crier
would be worthy of merit here in the pueblo to ensure that the
population is informed. I actually said to David that SMdS website had a
sort of 'Town Crier' role and his retort was "Do you have an official
uniform?"
I think he asked because his Lady Wife Julie, believed to be the
World's only Lady Beadle - an historical role with duties that included
not only responsibility for the workhouse and for apprentices, but also
for protecting the Mayor during his public appearances - and she has made costumes for at least 12 British Town Criers.
I think a proportion of the firework fund could well be re-allocated
towards a finely tailored Town Criers outfit!
The three Oyezs, by the way, which preface every proclamation date from the time
of Britain's Norman Conquerors. "Oyez!" is the medieval French equivalent of
our "Hearken!"
A delightful man to meet...for more about David & Julie Mitchell....click
here |
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'Plan General de Ordenación Urbana'
- Press Reports prompt an update 18 May 2006: Mickey says," One truly
wonders how the PGOU submitted by The Ayuntamiento, which resulted in
the subsequent Valencia Government judgement, can be so ‘far off the mark’ and
it clearly takes so little account of the environmental impact. We argue
that it is indication of an irresponsible attitude, pure greed and a
plundering of the natural resources of the municipality. We continually
say to The Ayuntamiento that if they stopped ALL further development, in
twenty years time SMdS would be a very special place on The Costa Blanca
and would create the wealth, as opposed to riches, that they aspire to have… beyond their wildest
dreams! |
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Always well overdue...do you folks realise quite how much time it
takes to keep the pages on this website updated, reporting fairly....I
don't know how the boss does it! Anyway I've dragged myself into action
from my Spanish stupor to reinforce my rights of freedom of speech and opinion. This democratic freedom is also available to
my Spanish friends here in the pueblo but, as yet, they neither realise they have it nor have they quite discovered how to use
it!.
Two things....firstly The IV Feria Multiculural at I.E.S - Los Alcores -
the Institute in SMdS on 12 April, hang on that's my Birthday! Well
don't get too excited about Multiculturalism, my boss has sent 6 emails
to the school and not one has been answered: he is, of course, an
advocate of integration...a concept a little difficult for I.E.S
me thinks!
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| Anyway I finally discovered
that the IES Los Alcores had a Website and I joined the Forum...well I mean let's join
the team...let's unite in Multicultural harmony...what planet are you
lot from? I posted two messages, and you can check them out
HERE, and
the only reply was Quote...'I don't believe in integration'... from 'cocktail_1ºbat'....so,
at least two steps down from the boss's romantic notion of integration can
someone tell me why were are all going to pour into the school for
Multicultural Day and pat
backs and tell them that they are doing a 'bloody good job!' They
aren't! I will be going...I'll be asking them why they haven't answered
those emails. SMdS observes 'I dream of integration, I have to look forward to
multicultural understanding, and currently I will enjoy what actually
prevails -simply a certain level of peaceful coexistence.
The other big story is the publication, on this website this week, of The
'Plan General de Ordenación Urbana'...and
that's another thing you mustn't get too excited about, I mean it's just a
general intention by just a very few who assume that a continued and an
excessive level of growth can be sustained. My boss was mildly surprised
by the lack of concern at its publication by the six different
Councillors of SMdS that he canvassed. I've told him I don't think they
take this website seriously enough!
Anyway, at the same moment the plans are
submitted to The Valencia Government for approval, their ministers are
telling Towns on the Vega Baja that there will be insufficient resources
to provide the necessary infrastructure to meet their plans.
One other little thing I would like to bring to the attention of those 'few' is
that you won't get away with your antics for long. It may be the case
that 39% of the population of SMdS will remain in awe of 'the
administration': be absolutely assured that the other 61% will bring a
whole new concept to the answerability of those in power locally.
Foreigners, yes you guessed...the 61%, love to abuse the word
'corruption' when talking about the capers of Town Halls and their
nepotistic practices. The fact is that it is a criticism of normality in
a different culture...but with the freebee papers and an army of new
residents prying on the unacceptable activities of local
politicians I suppose they had better consider changing their ways!
Coming soon....providing proportionate resources to residents of the municipality! |
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I felt utterly cheated at the thought that I might not
have to renew my residencia...after rumours about its abolition. I
remembered how traumatic the original procedure had been and I was sort
of looking forward to my five years worth of new skills in dealing with
archaic bureaucracy to acquire what couldn't be denied me! Anyway, I
hear from my mate Russell...oh sorry that's Russell Thomson the British
Consul based in Alicante that I WILL have to do it all again including
my fingerprints, which are unique to me amongst 6 billion people and
have never been known to change!
Can anybody explain to me why a Big National Savings Bank from another Autonomous Region of Spain would want to open a Branch in San Miguel? Of course I know the answer, they did their homework and they recognised that SMdS was entering a rapid growth period. It’s not geared up to acquiring Spanish customers…they probably wouldn’t go near it anyway. So it must be because I am here…someone at last has recognised my elite status!
And can someone tell me why I have never heard a good report about Bankinter...I've got mates who always complain about them...well can I remind you that we are the consumer and we have complete freedom to change banks at anytime!
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Meet Mickey, from up 'The Angel' fancies himself as a bit of a journo and reckons he can turn a few stones and find out what's really happening, underground, in the pueblo remember you heard it from him first! And remember this is only one view!
email
your hot gossip and I'll check it out! |
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Did you hear about this bloke called Stuart Chamberlain
of the Oxford Sure Start Centre, a nursery that I am delighted to say my
'nieta' won't be attending. He is basically taking political correctness (PC)
beyond reason and has ordered staff to call black sheep - rainbow sheep for fear of offence. Blonka! Even The
Equal Opportunities & The Commission for Racial Equality refuses to get involved.
Bah Bah Black sheep was first printed as a nursery rhyme in
1744 but thought to originate in the 13th Century...one for the Master
(the Landowner), one for the Dame (The Church) and one for the little
boy that lived down the lane...he was the farmer and they were the
shares of wool each got. This rainbow sheep was snapped in SMdS... |
SMdS - IKEA 56kms/55 minutes |
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Here's a WAKE UP CALL San Miguel de Salinas - The observant Director of Thader in Murcia,
Ricardo Fernandez, recognises the benefits that will come with
the Swedish ‘superstore’ IKEA. It is as much a major attraction
as it is a commercial outlet. |
Ricardo Fernandez recognises the knock on effect the store will have
on other businesses as, he says, "IKEA has a greater influence in its
market than any other establishment. There are people of Murcia who go
to buy at The IKEA Store in Madrid, and so will people of Alicante and
Albacete (and San Miguel de Salinas) come to buy in Murcia's new IKEA".
Consumers with high spending power will travel whatever distance to get
to an IKEA Store.It is said that every home in the UK has something in
it from IKEA…and their realistic prices will teach the independent
family businesses a hard lesson in competition. I know, having been to
the IKEAs at both Barcelona, Madrid and now Murcia, that the younger Spanish are as
bigger fans as we are, but don't expect the Spanish businesses to
adapt...they are not very clever when it comes to recognising serious
competition: the price is the price and it is over-priced. The foreign
influenced economic revolution is at the gates. |
| Whilst this item is nothing to do with San Miguel de Salinas I
thought I would tell you about a mate of mine, Alex Tew, if only to give
you an example of how rich us 'internet' people really are. This 21 year
old student decided to raise a bit of cash to pay for Uni and came up
with the idea of 'the Million Dollar Homepage'. Just one page divided
into 10,000 boxes each 100 pixels in size = 1 Million pixels and then
sell each pixel for $1. It took him 5 months to sell all the pixels and
he cleared up $1 Million = £566,000.
There is a common misconception in
San Miguel de Salinas, particularly within the Spanish mindset, that
this website, is a serious money-maker. As we now have 452
searchable pages...hmm let me try and work out our potential! Seeing as
some Spanish businesses are still whinging about
paying the €45 for their Angel Ad
- I'd have to tell you you're completely deluded.
www.milliondollarhomepage.com |
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As the last of the Cornish Tin
Mines close forever a perfect example of diversification and that
Great British enterprise as the pasty shop opens for the Gold Miners of San Miguel de Salinas.
I know I have said it before but a Spaniard with a bulldozer can
seriously damage your health...fortunately nobody was hurt when they
were digging another million pound hole and the house next door fell
into it! ¡Eso es la vida!
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You've had cows...now I bring you
bottles, these magnificent 8 foot high marketing models from Jerez de la Frontera in Andalucia, as I return
culturally refreshed from a 5 day
Coachtrips S.L. foray to Sevilla.
Actually there's more than an injection of culture, history and
interest...here's two examples of successful Anglo-Spanish relations. Firstly the
partnership of Manuel Gonzalez and Robert Byass an English Wine
Merchant, whom in 1835 launched one of Spain's greatest global brand
names Tio Pepe or 'Uncle Jose'
- hence the bottles. The word sherry, by the way, is a
derivation from the non-alcohol Arabs' name for Jerez - Sherish.
No trip to Sevilla could fail
to refer to those cunning old Carthusian Monks founded by St Bruno, who
always had a keen eye for innovation and at the monastery of Santa Maria
de las Cuevas on the banks of the broad Rio Guadalquivir, nestled amongst the more
modern buildings of the Expo 1992 site, are the strange bottle ovens...hey
I've seen these before in Stoke on Trent! Sure enough back in 1839 these
monks invited Staffordshire potters to Sevilla and Charles Pickman and a
group of skilled tradesmen, including no doubt a couple of 'sagger
makers bottom knockers' shared their expertise with the Spanish, and
founded the company Pickman SA 'La Cartuja de Sevilla'
Anyway my saturation of cultural information, and thank you for that
June, will now have to be put on the back-burner. I will console myself
with SMdS's two statues and general indifference to anything that
doesn't involve a crane or a bulldozer...sorry for that 'mas un tanque'. |
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I’ve just been back to the UK. A mate of mine invited me to spend a week in Stoke-on-Trent
(pictured Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent.) Hang on…this place is north of Potters Bar, I mean it’s like San Migeleros going to Galicia or even France. Fantastic time though…green things everywhere…big beautiful trees and cows. And whilst sitting on the Megabus with my £1
| ticket back to the smoke (check out the yellow bus driver on
http://www.megabus.com) and a new pair of
very superior £5 Dunlop slippers from Hanley Market tucked in my case,
and the recent memories of visiting Gladstone Pottery, eating Oat Cakes
and people calling me ‘Duck’…I realised I was in the middle of the
booster injection to reinforce the fact that I am the product of
Consumer Heaven…The UK.
So, late as this update is, I now stand
before you as a true master of consumption…well not me personally
because I am always ‘borasic’…but as a Brit I represent one of Europe’s
top 13.22705% consumers, and if you want the supporting workings-out check out the CIA – World Fact book http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
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| Welcome to Lakeside…B&Q Warehouse, IKEA, M&S…well I won’t bore you but over ‘300
stores all under one roof , 13000 free parking spaces, and a nearby retail park’
(see heaven on -
http://www.lakeside.uk.com): I need to practise my purchasing power because I am ‘doing a bathroom’. Fully tiled walls and floor, new white suite and all the plumbing gear for under 500 quid...and the bits I didn’t use went back later in the week in the true spirit of competitive customer care. Am I painting the picture?
So can someone tell me why my elite status ain’t worth a light back in the pueblo…first day back my 10 year old kettle blew the power and the total of available replacements in every shop in SMdS was eleven…and none were what I wanted…no I’ll answer the question myself. This is Spain and it’s not the UK: my elite consumer status is misinterpreted, I am no longer subjected to competitive market forces…instead, whilst I’ll get a smile, I have to contend with greed coupled with indifference. But, hey it’s Wednesday – Market Day – and I can pop down to our quaint little market and get some Spanish-style retail therapy. Are you mad…have I left my proverbial brains at the airport, as every other ‘elite consumer’ seems to do! Why am I going to pay 12 euros for a pair of crappy slippers, why am I going to pay double the price for Spanish grown vegetables than I do at every UK Supermarket? Ah yes but cigarettes are £1.25 not £4.75 a packet so everything must be cheap…don’t you believe it! |
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Adopting holes…did I tell
you about my ‘adopt a hole’ project? I know I mentioned the gold mines but I
thought it would be an interesting idea that I could update for you…how wrong
could I be…they just don’t stay holes for long enough to get attached to! And of
course you never actually get to own the hole and visitation rights are too
short lived: and you need serious money, who’s got a million euros to throw into
one: yes I said a million! I therefore don’t recommend adopting
holes.
Right: I just liked this one - colourful isn't it! If anyone can find
a use for the blue plastic covers let me know! They are meant for potable
water but they are currently unused! |
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The two pictures below were taken on 30 January…twenty yards apart. This is my
first opportunity to show you what a Spaniard can do with a Bulldozer, and of
course it is in San Miguel de Salinas: it's ADU-18!. And with roundabouts
the size of Hyde Park Corner and roads you can easily do a U-turn in a
juggernaut we are not talking about a few houses. There are various
reports about plans for up to 80,000 houses in the ‘borough’ and if they are
only half true, and Spanish developers are true to form, where’s the water,
where’s the infrastructure…like medical facilities, schools and police. |
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But here are two funny but true things: every Spanish businessman you talk to in the Pueblo wants a town
the size of Orihuela ‘cos he’s gonna get even richer (he’ll have to provide
parking mind!) Secondly I asked my delightful Spanish-Spanish teacher what
the population of the Pueblo actually was? Her immediate and unequivocal
reply was 2700…when in fact it is actually 6707: but of course she is
Spanish, they only
count the Spanish living in the Spanish bastion – the Pueblo. Silly me -
there’s obviously a bit of a mental block on the 5000! Trouble is too many of
the 5000 are keepin’ their heads down!
...still thinking about ‘COSMOPOLITANIA’ and possibly ‘ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS’ |
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Talking of cowboys , this site is about fair trade and justified complaints about workmanship or service will result in the removal of the offending trader. The boss won't let anyone place a banner ad on this page as I might upset them. But hey, there are plenty of other pages where you can to enhance your business! |
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