Home winter comforts - and water

...British ex-pats need some home comforts and this becomes more apparent during the cold autumn and winter nights. Many can manage to obtain English channels via various companies advertising in the 'Round Town News' or the 'Costa Blanca weekly'. There is also REM FM along with other English speaking radio, however REM FM is my particular favourite.

One company called 'Telemicro' has recently been closed down by the Spanish Guardia Civil. No one is quite sure what the charge is, but it is known that re-broadcasting UK terrestrial and satellite channel is illegal without obtaining a licence. This meant that thousands of ex-pat Brits lost their television signal having paid several hundreds of euros for the service. There is only one left as far as I know and how safe that company is will be determined in time. However, many people are keeping up with the soaps and the series here in real time. For those who don't have real time TV there is a service whereby the main soaps and special programmes are put onto DVDs and sold for 5 euros each and i am not sure how legitimate that is either.

I tend to enjoy radio more than most media. REM FM which broadcasts to all the costas. It has presenters based all the way from Altea to Tenerife, so you get local National and International news and information. They supply their own censorship which is pragmatic but not 'Nanny state' like the BBC. So the odd risque comment will emerge but its far more natural than total censorship.

The station is owned by a chap called Maurice Bowland, he is well known in the entertainment world in Ireland. I listen particularly to a few broadcaster. Hannah Murray does and afternoon slot which is probably REM's version of women's hour. In a morning there is Howard Brearaton, he tends to give a round up of Spanish news. On the hour every hour we get a news bulletin from IRN news Independent Radio News. A Guy called Steve Ritson operates out of Altea and he can be satirical and serious. The nice thing about the station is you can ring them, or send a message by MSN and they do try to respond and converse on air with you. They are supremely supportive of the community. They promote Spain as a country and they support many charities. If you wish to listen this link will take you to their page http://www.rem.fm/ where you can listen live.

On Sundays they have been playing old broadcasts of the 'Navy Lark,' call me boring but I really enjoy them and listen when I can.

Now this bit is sad. We are all excited in the ex-pat world, why? because C&A have open in La Marina centre. I know what you are thinking "You want to get out more" but if you are a large chap like me then regular Spanish sizes are no use to me whatsoever. C&A have sizes that fit. If I buy a top I need XXL shoes size 12, waist 38 but inside leg 34. Spanish sizes assume you have 38 waist and 28 inside leg. And no penalty for getting a larger size, I got 3 tops all costing 9 euros 95 cents each. On the same day I went to Carrefour and bought a Litre bottle of grouse whiskey for eight and a half Euros. So the credit crunch hasn't yet bitten here. Although an average MacDonald's meal deal here costs the same price as my litre bottle of whiskey.

The Finestrat council are building a wall in front of the shops on the Avenida marina baixa, from the Pharmacy down to the Cam bank. This is to divert the rain water which turns into a flood when the rain comes. In principle it seems a good idea, but if you narrow the width of the channel, it tends to get deeper in the middle, and next to the cam bank is an entrance to a car park which has no barrier and is at the point where the river will start to widen so no guessing where that water is going to go. The shop keepers must be thankful though because they have to bail water out of their premises every autumn and winter. The Spanish do seem to struggle with water. We now have new street lighting in the car park in the bay, the Mayor of Finestrat said it was necessary because every time it rained they went out. On the beach there is a notice board welcoming you to La Cala de Finestrat, it has a clock in it that hasn't worked for 3 years since it fused during a downpour, and the electronic lock release usually doesn't work when its raining either. The worst thing to stop working is the automatic door for our car park, because then you have to find the portero and get him to crank it open manually.

Most of our friends who travel too and from Spain rather than staying here all the time are back in the UK. The next time we are likely to see them is around New Year's Eve. Gary and Michael, Gary and Marian, Laurence and Tony, Jeremy and Colin are a few of those coming back.

The days at the Marina Bar now are with the ex-pats who live here all the time more or less. Although as it has cooled off somewhat we haven't been seeing those much. We see Pat and Brenda, Pat is usually a blurred streak as she marches past off up to the shops, she always has a shopping bag and we see Brenda in the distance going to meet Pat at the bus stop. They have taken up dance classes up in benidorm New Town near the Orange hotel. It is Classical and salsa, but it appears there are not enough men to partner, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are one or two would be Fred Astaire's lining up for the invitation. Knowing these two independent ladies I think the Fred Astaire aspirants are misguided. Pete and Dave are still here until the 20 th November and on Tuesday we went up for a meal at Da Vinci an Italian restaurant up the road. The lads both had the Spaghetti marinara and Ange and I had the Penne Ametricana we shared a garlic bread and finished the meal off with a couple of Sambucas. Then it was down to the Marina bar for a nightcap where Jonathan and Rick joined us. The subject was the skit Peter Kay made of X-factor on the previous weekend and how funny it was. We all thought it was brilliant that Simon Cowell was so rattled by it he had to rubbish it. That just goes to prove how good Peter Kay was.

We realised how late it was getting because Pepi and Salvador were stacking the chairs and moving the tables inside as they prepared to close the restaurant. So we ordered our bills and paid and started to leave when Dave said "Did you watch that show where Peter Kay dressed up as a transsexual"..... Where had he been all night...