The Celtic Union

Greetings from Andalucia.

Since last week, 23rd of July 2019, We have had a clown as Prime Minister in the UK. Comparisons have been drawn with another person on the other side of the Atlantic but I'm not going there as we have enough to worry about this side of the Atlantic.

In his first week,  Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (I'd rather be called Boris) has visited Wales where he was pictured with another cock, Scotland where he was filmed with an intelligent person and Northern Ireland where he was filmed with both Nationalists and the somewhat backward DUP. Now the DUP don't really seem to be on the same planet as the rest of us, they want Brexit, they want a deal but don't want the insurance of the Backstop, but then again they believe the Earth is only 6000 years old and dinosaurs roamed the Earth with men so not sure where they really belong.

Now the interesting thing is that Scotland and Northern Ireland both voted strongly to remain in the EU, Scotland was even promised that they would be better off voting remain in their own referendum as they would be part of the EU. Wales did vote to leave by a margin of 3.78% so not exactly overwhelming but hey, that's democracy.

On the 1st August, Brecon and Radnorshire are voting in a by election due to their previous MP being recalled due to Fraud over his expenses, now where have we heard that before, he is still standing however so we will see where that goes. Should he lose (and I don't know the result at time of writing) then the Conservative and Unionist Government will have only got a working majority of one seat which may make a No Deal Brexit problematic, despite having another 2 Billion pounds chucked at it (over and above the 4+ billion pounds already allocated!)

Where am I going with this, you may ask, well, the SNP, run by the very smart Nicola Sturgeon and the Northern Irish people (if they can ever get over their historic squabbles) and possibly now the Welsh folk, could all ask for Independence Referenda of their own and if they have any sense, come together as their own Union, possibly called the Celtic Union and ask to rejoin the EU as a Union, similar to the United Kingdom.

Hard to imagine? Well yes maybe, however the Scots still have oil,

power and Engineering, the Welsh have power, coal wind, water and also steel expertise and farming, the Irish have Engineering, Farming and power so whilst individual independence is possible but difficult, together they would be a formidable powerhouse.

Now, my own preferred outcome would be Revoke article 50 entirely, put this stupid Brexit plan in the bin where it belongs and continue as a United Kingdom , working with the EU to make it better and stronger. I know it has problems, it is a bit unwieldy and cumbersome but it has kept Europe free from conflict all my life and for that alone, I'm grateful. But, if this monstrous joke does play out, Deal or No Deal then let us consider how powerful a Celtic Union would be and leave England to its remaining industries, whatever those might be.

Quick addendum: https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2019-06-04/welsh-government-will-now-campaign-to-remain-in-the-european-union/?fbclid=IwAR0KQRsGZ615ou6EA8iWJKakGPU5VUlf_y20rdxI3FfUg_CVNdyIPNLL5qo

Thoughts from a "Happy" Half Scottie

It's been a while since I last posted and apologies to those who are still waiting for my Windows post, It will come, just not sure when.

I've been busy here in Martos had to change my car as some idiot that borrowed my old Diesel Citroen managed to put petrol into it so now have a Hyundai with air-con, what a relief. Also had to sort out our Residencia, became a pensioner and had to put up with the stupidity of Brexit and all the worries over future Pension Rights, Healthcare and becoming a Non EU Resident (potentially)

But and its a big But, I am confused and amazed at the other immigrants here, There are not many, Officially only 57 in our town, but some still profess to be Brexiters. Oddly enough several are Scots or of Scottish decent and I queried a few as to why.

Apparently even though Scotland as a whole voted overwhelmingly to Remain in the EU, the ones

here voted leave on the basis that if the UK did leave then Scotland would have a strong case for leaving the Union (UK). The idea being that Scotland could then apply to rejoin the EU as an independent country. This is a charming idea and does have some appeal to me, particularly as My father was Glaswegian so I could claim a Scottish passport and remain as an EU citizen. Unfortunately it is also a path fraught with danger and risks, suppose the Scottish Independence referendum did not pass a leave vote, suppose the EU hesitated over Scotland joining and personally who pays my pension and offers my health care paid by NI contributions in England, previously the United Kingdom.

I am afraid that whilst the ideals are to be commended, the path is faulty and I remain a staunch European Believer.

More thoughts, Assuming we do leave and Deal or No Deal ensues, The UK Government has not promised to continue uprating our pensions nor have they agreed to continue honouring the SI to guarantee our health cover, all of which was paid for over more than 40 years of National Insurance contributions and agreed before the Referendum, does anyone agree that a possible class action against any Government that takes this away would be possible, particularly as it is a self inflicted contact breaker.

I moved (retired) to Spain on the basis of a European Freedom of Movement contract, the UK has broken that contract, might be refusing to honour its commitment to pay for my health care, which I have paid for. I know I'm only one (my wife is too young to get her pension yet as she is one of the 60s kids who have been cheated out of her pension till she is 67), of an official 300,000 pensioners here and over twice that many are younger working folk but hell, everyone is entitled to get what they have paid for.

There are a lot of younger, ie non pensioner folk here again who moved with their families and now run businesses, teach and generally contribute to the economy of Spain, I am not excluding other European countries like France and Germany who also have many British folk, but even they are feeling excluded, example, if a person has resided out of the UK for 15 years they lose the vote and yet 15 year olds were allowed to vote for the new leader of the Conservative Party and essentially for the Prime Minister, 15 year olds! they can't even vote in an election, some Conservative Party members even got 2 voting forms, of course no one actually voted twice because that would have been illegal.

I have a daughter, married with three children of her own, my wife has a son and also a Grand Daughter, Her son has often declared his desire to move for work in Germany at some stage, this will become more difficult. Who knows, my Grandsons might want to work someplace other than England

A Spanish Example, to move to Spain you have to show you have Health cover and either savings or income so that you are not a burden on the state, if you cannot do that within 3 months (90 days actually) you are supposed to leave, if you don't then you are technically "irregular", not really a problem but don't expect state handouts or any help, The UK could use these same EU recommendations but chose not to. Now as an EU citizen I had to show an income of about 7500.00 euros a year for the two of us. My pension covered this ( at least it did when the £ was reasonably strong, now not so much) and my Health (bought and paid for by NI contributions) was also covered. As a Non EU citizen, the income requirements are 4X this for one person plus 1X this for each extra person so a small family say three people moving to Spain after any Brexit would be required to show an income of over 30,000 Euros. Loads of comments on Facebook that people moved over before the EU and so they can move over after Brexit, of course they can if they have massive income, how many pensioners do you know retiring on over £30,000 a year.

Fortunately Spain currently has a reasonably benign government and has made concessions including a grace period for legal immigrants to change their status, but even there, issues, until you have been registered for 5 years you are considered Temporary and we as yet have not so will have to jump through more hoops to change our status from EU Residents to Non EU residents and then only until the 5 years is up, then we will have to do it again. It is not yet clear if we have to this every 5 years after that, all we can do is hope.

Well that's a rant and a half all inflicted on us by racist idiots, At Christmas for example one English lady here told me she had voted for Brexit as when she went to the UK, the Girl in the Bank was wearing a hijab, when I asked her what the hell that had to do with the EU she said leaving the EU would stop all these people from going to England. OK not all Brexiters are racist but I'm damn sure all racists are brexiters.

I haven't even mentioned Northern Ireland, some government comments on that have been disgraceful, clearly some have very short memories.

Well what can you do, well object, lobby and support Steve (The Stop Brexit Guy) and vote, #peoplesvote whilst you still can and over here enjoy the weather, the wine, the food the beer, the people, the architecture, the culture, the longer life spans and of course we can enjoy all our little woofs.  Yes we still foster and occasionally fail, the little Dachund Cross and the scruffy one are recent failed fosters and now have a permanent furever home.

  That's just a few of the lives we have changed forever for the better.

Good Night all, Sleep Well.

View from a Jeweller

I entered the Jewellery Trade in 1972 & worked for an amazing professional for almost 15 years before starting to specialise in Valuation & insurance work, finally retiring in 2015.

In all that time I never felt ashamed of my trade, through Gold booms & crashes, silver booms & crashes & The Blood Diamond debacle.

That is until 2016. On my web page & Business Facebook page I never indulged in Political posts or Religious posts as my clients political, Religious & yes, even sexual orientation was their business & nothing to do with me or our love of beautiful things.

During my long career as a Valuer, both Corporate & Independent I used many sources for my information, even the overly complicated Rapaport list, I even listened to Martin Rapaport at a conference a few years ago & was impressed with his enthusiasm & energy.

Today however I am disgusted by the reports coming out that a Victory for a Racist, Sexist, Homophobic, overgrown child in the US elections is "good" for the jewellery trade. These reports are coming from none other than Martin Rapaprt himself, and I quote, "The diamond and jewellery trade will benefit as the new policies create a more prosperous middle class and greater numbers of wealthy consumers. Global uncertainty will also increase demand for investment diamonds as a store of wealth"

How any anyone can crow that this victory is anything but a nightmare for the world but is great for the diamond trade is disgraceful & disingenuous.

Rant Over.

Hello & Soon Please Goodbye 2016

I have to start this blog on a positive note, I have had a great year personally, just over 12 months ago my wife & I moved, lock stock & dogs to Spain, to a fantastic little town in the middle of Andalucia in Jaen district & it has been a life changing occurrence.
The weather has been amazing, the people have been welcoming & we are slowly but surely learning Spanish (or as we call it Spanglish)
Why did we move? Well Mrs D has had Breast Cancer, a very aggressive form but caught early & thank goodness, operated on very quickly thanks to the wonderful people at Derby Royal Infirmary, However the operations, Radio Therapy & Chemo Therapy left her very weak & unable to work so I started my own business from home so I could be on hand for her all the time. That's good right, well it was until the New Rules decided that as I worked more than 24 hours a week, she was not entitled to any benefits.
Now my Step brother had died in the previous year of a really horrible & nasty illness & far too young & I inherited his pension, cashed out one of my frozen pensions so as we had very little money, we had paid the rent, Council tax & Bedroom tax for the whole year, when the benefits stopped we suddenly were only in advance by about a month so by Christmas we would have been on the streets.
I cashed out another frozen pension & bought the house we now live in here in Spain, for the magnificent total of 24,000 Euros.at the time, just over £17,000.
It was the best move we have ever made, my wife has lost over 30 kilos on the better diet, we can now afford fresh food & of course the walking as it so seldom rains or is too cold & miserable. We help a local Dog Rescue centre by offering Foster care, including puppies, we had over 14 a couple of weeks ago but are now down to a more reasonable 8 (only 5 are actually ours)
So as you can see, the world is rosy, everything is fantastic.
Except no, 2016 has been a bloody awful year elsewhere & I'll start with the obvious.
Lemmy Kilmister,  Natalie Cole, David Bowie, David Margulies, Alan Rickman, Dan Haggerty, Frank Finlay, Sir Terry Wogan, Maurice White, George Kennedy, Tony Warren, George Martin, Keith Emerson, Sylvia Anderson,  Paul Daniels, Garry Shandling, Earl Hamner Jr., Ronnie Corbett, Victoria Wood, Prince, Burt Kwouk, Muhammad Ali, Kenny Baker, Gene Wilder, Arnold Palmer, Pete Burns, Bobby Vee, Janet Reno, Leonard Cohen, ok Lemmie & Natalie died in late Dec 2015 but you get the picture.
This list is by no means exhaustive but you can see even from this truncated list what a crap year it has been, all of these greats & many others as well, lost for ever, stars of stage, screen, music, poetry, sport, comedy & politics all gone.
To complete the year, two other major factors have conspired to make this the year that we will not wish to remember.

Europe ruling on the straightness of bananas. This Referendum was explicitly stated to be advisory when put before Parliament, except in a pamphlet & the New Prime Minister decided to totally ignore this & stated Brexit means Brexit, the most asinine statement since... well probably ever.
Fortunately a High Court case decided otherwise & that she did not have the authority to Fire the pistol, I mean initiate Article 50 on her own, only Parliament could do so, & then in an even bigger show of arrogance, appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, if she looses there she could always appeal to the European Court of Justice,   oh wait!
There were so many lies told by the Brexit side that the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) is considering a case against them under rules which proscribe the interference with political will, we shall see how that plays out. I'm thinking the £350m a week should go to the NHS, The fact that the

EU is considering Turkey could join the EU & "Flood the UK with Turkish workers", this despite the fact that of 30 points the EU demands for considering joining, only one has been met.
Then a couple of days ago, More lies, racism, untruths & downright illegality reigned in the USA, a 4 times bankrupt was elected President. One who refuses to pay people who work for him, farms out much of his capital expenditure to China, who has never held a political post in his life, is sponsored by the KKK & White Supremacist Groups, who refuses to show his tax Accounts & who wanted to ban a whole religious group from the country & an idiot who claims that Climate Change is a scam, started by the Chinese & finally one openly helped by another country, hacking emails (by the way, soliciting aid from another country in US elections is illegal)
Oddly enough, his opponent got more votes but due to the odd way the US voting system works, he was still elected, or at least until the electoral college has its say, but I'm not holding my breath.
So 2016, whilst I personally think it's been a good year for me, really we will be glad to see the back of you.

It's Been a Good Year

Ok, it's a bit more than a year, but only just, about 13 & a bit months to be exactish but we can still say it's been a good year.

15 Months ago we were going to lose our home in the UK as apparently working more than 24 hours a week (me that is) meant my wife, recovering from a double mastectomy was not eligible for benefits anymore. Fortunately I had used a chunk of pension money to pay our council tax & bedroom tax & rent to the end of the year but as were getting reduced figures on benefit that would have run out before Christmas so we would have been on the streets.

The lucky break was having enough pension left to pay for this house in Spain outright & enough left over to move ourselves & the dogs here as well.
Another cashed out pension, my last until I'm 65, was enough for us to live on for the next couple of years.

We have now lived through a Winter & Summer here, there really isn't a spring or autumn (fall to my American friends)
We now have registered at the local town hall & navigated the extremely funny way Spain has of buying a car so we are mobile.

We are organising Health Care (private) & have cried at the stupidity seen back in the UK on the 23rd June, the daft comments of some people have left us speechless.
We watch with despair the Election proceedings in the USA & so far are not regretting moving to a country that has not really had an effective government for the last year & yet somehow still seems to function, weirdly at times bit still functions.

Anyway, my blogs have got to be upbeat, hey. I live in a country where it's mid October & today is the first day since April, I have put jeans on instead of shorts because the daytime temperature has dropped to 17 degrees celsius (62.6F for those not used to metric yet)

I thought today's chat would be about roundabouts, these are maybe something my friends across the pond haven't encountered much but they allow 3, 4 & even more roads to intersect often without the assistance of traffic lights. Don't take any notice of the way the cars are going, that's what happens when you drive on the left, not too many countries do that (Spain isn't one of them)

In the UK, the first roundabout was built in 1909 which is quite remarkable as the car industry itself was not many years old at that
time, it was built at Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire & is quite beautiful, however here in Martos & quite possibly other places as well roundabouts, small & large are taken to a whole new level.

As I said in my last post, Martos is built in the centre of the Olive area of Andalucia & the roundabouts in many cases reflect this.

In the middle of one of the streets towards town is an Olive Press. At the other end of this road are some Olive Pickers in Steel basket work which is quite stunning but as yet, I have not been able to photograph it as I can only see it from the bus.

I have photographed this one (on the left) as it is a steam engine, presumably originally used to industrialise the pressing or something similar.

Water is a common theme on the roundabouts, in a country that doesn't really have a lot of rain & some of these are quite fantastic.

The photo on the left is at the top of the road leading down to the bus station & the one on the right is at the bottom of that same road.

One of my favourite roundabouts is at the end of our road & has the Tabac & a great bar, El Casino on

it, Unfortunately it also has one of the few places in Martos where you have to pay for parking, Officially it is Fuenta Nueva but we always call it Cherry Square as when we came out here to buy the house we bought a huge bag of cherries (for about a Euro) & ate them in the shade, a fantastic & lasting memory.

Of course not all the Roundabouts are completely explicable, at the entrance to Martos by the Industrial Estate entrance is a quite unusual roundabout with a Fiat 600, painted totally bronze & I mean totally in the centre, it always makes me
smile on our trips back from Alcala or Ventas or the Sunday market.

Being a Catholic country, clearly religion plays a big part in many locals' lives & this is sometimes reflected in the roundabout decoration, I have shown one here that is typical.

Whilst I love the town of Martos which we have made our home, we do get out & about locally & have noticed that other towns also set great store & obvious pride in their roundabouts.

For example in Alcala la Real near the Aldi store is a really fun
roundabout with colourfully painted trees, at the other end of the town as you enter it near the Hospital is one with trees that have colourful boxes set into the branches.

In Luque, a pretty little town about half an hour
away set in the hills is one of the tiniest roundabouts that can still be called such without naming it a mini roundabout, it is just large enough to hold the lamp standard surrounded by a stone plinth but still qualifies.

To finish I am showing what doesn't really qualify as a roundabout but nevertheless, I love. Heading from our house up the the pink Church is a tiny narrow lane, at the top it sort of dead ends unless you have a death wish & is mostly steps but technically there are 3 roads meeting, if you squint a bit & in the centre is this.

Until the next time enjoy & raise a glass to people who enjoy beauty.

And Now It's Home

And Now It's Home, Yes, Martos is now our home & will be forever, we even have prepaid funeral plans here so no more England, not that we could afford it there anyway.

Martos is a great town, perched on the edge of a giant lump of rock, & clinging to the sides of it, & which is called La Pena, Google translates this as The Pain or The Sorrow or possible The Pity, if you have tried to climb it you would know why!

Martos is basically an agricultural town, massively dependent on Olives, in fact it is said that the best olives & therefore the best olive oil in the world hails from here but it is so much more, One of the large industrial areas at the bottom of the town in anchored by Valeo one of the world largest manufacturers of lighting for cars and of course we have Mercadona, Carrefour & a large Dia & Dia Express as well as loads of
Chinese bazaars.

Most of the bars offer free tapas, I'm sorry for the coastal people who have to pay for tapas, it's mostly free here, in fact, haven't found one that charges yet. A whole street Pierre Cibie (Known locally as the street of Trees) is pretty much just bars & restaurants & flipping amazing choices, La Tiza being the best there (IMHO) The street
is totally closed during one week in August for a celebration of San Bartolome & fills with street markets & fairground rides in the street & also in the park adjoining. Charlottes is also good & a 5 min walk from our little piece of heaven.

Our little piece of heaven, they say you cant buy happiness, well we did, Casa Happiness has a sign over the door saying Felicidad so there. It is in the old part of town which is great if you want to go down into the town proper but a killer in summer walking back, fortunately a bus ride is less than one Euro anywhere in town to anywhere else and  a taxi (Candy Taxi highly recommended) is 5 Euros.

The earliest records of Martos seem to be around 250AD when it was called Tucci, but was obviously

Tucci

established much earlier & after which we have named one of our locally rescued dogs and there are many Roman blocks some around & in the Library & loads built into the base of the town hall.

There is a ruined castle which is somewhat odd (for a history buff anyway) as the locals seem to have built their houses on & around it. I know that many ruins in Europe were scavenged for the stones but the Martenos have taken it to a whole new level. The castle seems to have been established as part of the walled city around the mid 13th Century & enlarged & changed many times over the next couple of centuries, Several towers still remain but as I say, they seem to have been incorporated directly into local houses.

 

The first picture shows the best tower It has a rubble tube from a window where restoration is taking place, the next photo shows the remains of someones bathroom, there used to be a shower head, now removed, built into the castle wall, The third & fourth photos show houses still built on & against the wall & another tower, I guess the original inhabitants of the town did not want to use space on which they could grow another few olive trees!

There is more to this town than I could fit into this one blog, I've already hinted at the doors in a previous one, still got to do windows, the wrought iron work, the windows, the tiny cobbled streets one of which fooled one of our Rescue Dog vans! & the roundabouts but these are all for another day.

Hasta Luego

First Month

One Month today & living in Spain has just got better & better.

We now have made this lovely little house our own with the pictures that make it ours up & the dogs that make it home even more ours.

We have been exploring the area & the shops & have found out just how friendly the Spanish can be, especially if you try to speak Spanish, still a bit Spanglish at the moment, but getting better & more about this later.

We can now watch English TV on the internet & some Spanish channels show American TV shows as well, but they have very interesting ideas about advert breaks. American shows have very clear breaks in them where the broadcasters can insert adverts, Spanish TV ignores these completely & inserts adverts almost like an afterthought, sometimes in the middle of a sentance & once in the middle of a word, very odd.

One channel in particular at least shows a card when it has an advert break, telling you how long the break is going to be, 4 mins, 6mins, 7 mins and at least once, 12 mins ! so you can go for a comfort break or make tea or even an evening meal during the break, very useful.

The good news on this subject is that Mrs D's favourite premium channel, Netflix is going to be available in Spain from the 20th of October so she will be able to overdose on the next screening of Orange is the New Black when it comes on again, Oh Goody.

Whilst I was in England I was a very active member of Castle Donington Library which is a

remarkable place with amazing dedicated staff, all of whom are being very badly treated by the Council (North West Leicestershire if you are interested) and being made redundant, probably early next year & replaced by volunteers, who will have to be trained  presumably by the staff being kicked out, shame on you NWLDC.

Here I decided to visit the library here in town, to see what was what & what an amazing reception. A lovely lady called Carmen greeted us & immediately apologised for her poor English, come on, we live in deep Andalucia, I don't expect anyone to speak English, hers was a darn sight better than my Spanish. On production of our passports, she authorised library cards & mentioned that there were Spanish conversational groups meeting at the library all the time & would we be interested in joining one?

We of course said yes & I attended the first one Wednesday lunchtime. A small group as no other English turned up, so was just the four of us, 2 Students, a young council volunteer & me. We spent an hour talking about ourselves & why they wanted to improve (yes improve) their English & why we had decided on Spain. On my side I just kept pointing out the window at the beautiful blue sky as a darn good reason. Did I mention that all this was free? One other thing, can you imagine in a Deep Andalucian town, that the library looks like this?

Mrs D couldn't make this meeting as a friend who is also moving here had her dogs arriving at the appointed time & as these are 3 massive St Bernards & are temporarily staying with us until her house completes (which it has done today) Someone had to stay & look after these, her toy poodle (Holly who used to be ours) and our own five & stop any issues.

Already I think I know more people here than I ever met in 10 years in Castle Donington, everyone

says Buena or Hola as you pass them in the street and everyone seems to like our woofs. Now it's been 4 weeks we have stopped thinking the holiday is nearly over & realisation is setting in that we have to put up with the blue sky, the sunshine the friendly people, the cheap drinks & food for the rest of our lives, how are we ever going to cope? Oh well, It's a dirty job but someone has to do it.