Load Of Bull

Archive for the ‘Places’ Category

A month with Dave Bull

August started with a ride up the coast alongside the Med’ to San Juan for an interview with photographer Richard Poolton and boy was it hot.

6^th august: wow it was still hot! I bought an ice-cold coke but wasn’t sure whether to drink it, or rub it in.

I got home one day later in the week to two very-pleased-to-see-you- dogs…Hmmm, if only dogs could whistle… Read the rest of this entry »

Situated on the outskirts of the main town heading in the direction of Yecla a small community exists solely because, and for, the hot springs that flow from its mountainsides.

It’s difficult to write an article about Fortuna without mentioning the natural hot baths, so I won’t, and indeed why would I as locals and visitors have, for centuries, used and benefited from the mineral springs that remain at an all year round temperature of 36 degrees.

Nestled in the hills to the northeast of Murcia about fifteen minutes from the A7 motorway and near the border of the province, the town became famous for Read the rest of this entry »

They used to be known as ‘Great’ Danes but not in my book, not any longer. How dare they? My home island nation (that’s Britain by the way) has, over the years, and mainly thanks to the Scots come up with some of the most important inventions, ideas and solutions to problems that are around in the world today. If it wasn’t for us (okay the Scottish) we wouldn’t have television, tyres

Read the rest of this entry »

Sine the arrival of the first British settlers here in Spain the majority have made sure that they get the essentials sorted out straight away and very near, if not already there at the top of that list is making sure the wife can watch her Soap operas and Dad can have his football. You must have seen the incredible amount of mesh dishes invading the skyline of Gran Alacant especially. Yes, us Brits like our TV and it is a brave husband that makes a noise whilst Mum is watching her favourite soap opera. At the same time, anyone interrupting Dad while the football is will be greeted by a grunt that is usually delivered in such a way that it could mean ‘yes’, ‘no’ or even ‘yes darling…’

On the sixth of May the impossible happened and the British lost all their favourite TV channels in one might slash of Rupert Murdoch’s continent-spanning sword – meaning some local fitters are immediately without work and making the recent explosion of TV magazines – aimed at the British  – a waste of paper.

Most foreigners here have known for a long time that the TV channels they receive are not perhaps ‘strictly legal,’ that is to say that many of the channels were part of the SKY TV network and normally require a much larger subscription than that being paid recently in Spain. In addition, SKY has no rights to broadcast outside of Spain but until now seems to have ignored the practice. A freshly signed contract giving CANAL+ the broadcasting rights for SKY programmes in Spain seems to have brought an end to cheap TV in Spain for the British community at the moment or a subscription of 65€ to CANAL+ will allow them to obtain most of the channels recently lost.

Although some ‘free to air’ programmes are now being broadcast via the system and Telmicro has announced that it will not be charging customers for the previous month (it can’t really can it?) an ongoing appeal to Brussels, quoting the freedom of broadcasting initiative, leaves the foreigners with a bit of hope for a resumption in the services.

Listen to us British in the Café bars or on the streets and you’ll here passionate and informed discussion between groups of adults, but we’re not discussing the problems in China or how people so incredibly stupid could rise to such a point that they lead a country such as Burma (or the USA now I think of it) or even the ongoing terrorist threat and imminent death of us all from the ‘axis off evil.’ No, we are debating how life can possibly continue and should we form an action group to take up that noble cause and get us back our TV…!