,,,San Juan has been and gone. What a great night though! Everyone I can think of was there, at least 40 people in our group. There they are on the left the mottley crew.
I have to say a great big thank you to everyone who brought food and drink, and especially Lee and Ben from the Bodega Bar in Finestrat, what generous guys!
Everyone I spoke to had the best time ever despite the rather short-sighted stance of Finestrat Council, who seem not to recognise the importance to the local economy of this event. No matter, the people there made the evening a great success and lets make next year even better.
...Lots have been happening. But unfortunately it's been a bad year for my wife and I, I lost my Dad in January and Angela lost her Mum only a couple of weeks ago, our son Ian two grandparents. But life goes on and back here in La Cala that's what its been doing.
...I had a spot of trouble with the Policia Locale the other day, or El Plod as I affectionately call them. I was on my way to Benidorm in the car. I tend to drive along the bay and up the back road past the incomplete hotel to get on to the N332 road. As I turned the corner by the side of the hotel, the car in front was doing 5 miles an hour, and I was a bit late, so I accelerated and overtook him, but as I did so El Plod in a landrover was on the oncoming side, witnessed my move and drove as to block my side of the road so I had to stop. In all such circumstances every Brit is likely to react the same way and say to the Policeman "hablas inglese" to which I got the response "No inglese Espanol solo". He wasn't going to make it easy clearly. He made me open the hatchback, then asked for my documents. In Spain you have to carry your driving licence, Insurance documents and a recept proving payment of the policy, your passport, a SUMA receipt (local Tax). And you must be in possession of two triangles, two safety vests, a full set of bulbs for the lights and if you wear specs a spare pair. An additional offence too is driving with incorrect footweat aka sandals. I was very worried because I could be facing a 60 to 100 euro fine I think he sensed my anguish. The Policeman was stern and studied my passport in fine detail. He told me in Spanish it is an offence to drive fast in a built up area. I said "lo ciento" meaning 'I am sorry' and he then said "OK drive slowly" and let me go. Phew....very lucky!
...The Marina Bar continues to be the base for meeting most of my friends. Sundays often end up as a major social meeting where we tend to fill the bar up much to the delight of Pepi and Antonio the owners. At this time of year there is a market all the way around the bay. The stall holders sell bric-a-brac, they do henna tattoos, braid hair, sell jewelry and cheap watches etc. On the first day it should have started a crowd of potential stall holders met on the beach front. There was a council official there, but the tone seemed to get a little heated and the meeting dispelled. The market didn't set up that night or for several nights after that. I asked Antonio what the problem might be. "I doan know, eeet seeems to bee to do wid de contact and licences...eeet may start next week or August....I doan know..." The next time I went to the bar Antonio was putting the extra tables and chairs out, they are allowed to put 8 tables on the pavement because the close the road from 6pm. "Bobbie..." he exclaimed, "De market ees sytarting tonigh" and sure enough the council officials came and installed the barriers to stop cars using the road, and the stall holders started to construct their stalls. I like this time, it injects a strong holiday atmosphere, and people seem to come from nowhere and the bars become busy once again.
Unfortunately the music has been stopped by the Police. The rumour is that another bar owner had his music stopped due to there being no licence, so he placed a denuncia (denouncement) with the Police who had to do the same to all the other bars. This meant Andrea had to stop singing at La Cala Cala and Cheryl at the Marina bar. Andrea however managed to get another gig at a bar just over the border in La Cala de Villajoyose, only a couple of hundred yards away, and they were allowed to play music. So on a Friday and Saturday Andrea takes some trade from the Marina and La Cala Cala. But not all the Villajoyosa residents are happy with the situation and I heard that on saturday night someone threw a bucket of water over andrea as she sang from one of the aprtments above....as you can imagine she was not very happy.
...Anyway the summer sees a lot of the long-term Brits migrate back to blighty, because many find it too hot here in July and August. Jeremy and Colin, Trevor and Andrew, Gary and Mike, and sundry others have departed, it was a bigger job for Laurence and Tony, they had to reposition their yacht for the summer, they sailed it back to Denia. Then they had to pack up their home before setting off to the south of England. But here there are still a hand full of us die hards who will keep the local watering hole afloat. We have new members to our group such as Michelle (Shell) and Jonathon, who no doubt you will get to know as time goes on.
Hopefully nothing tragic will drive my wife and I back to the UK unexpectedly, and I can begin to blog in earnest once more.
Watch this space......I have new subjects on whom to blog.................
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