The New Spaniards is interesting, can't remember the author.

John Hooper.

Shadow of the Wind needs perseverance but is worth it in the end.

Brenan is superb "South from Granada" and "Face of Spain" are two of my favourite books.

Dave

The easiest way to look at these is to imagine someone is at your front door and they simply say "Give me your personal details, account and bank numbers and all your passwords." Anyway why should I care - I have just won a lottery - don't remember entering it, but I am assured all I have ...

I have/am using both methods. I went to formal classes - and it is essential IMHO that when you do so that you live with a local family. I found it useful. (I am assuming it is an "immersion" course). I also "exchange" classes of an hour at a time with a local Spanish friend anxi...

In my part of the Costa Tropical two or three talentless East European groups of wandering minstrels seem to survive by busking. Anyone with talent should do OK. My own experience is that if you are out busking on a regular basis then eventually and often fairly soon - people will offer you proper p...

If the UK Government introduced a law to tackle empty housing then the biggest loser would be themselves.

There are thousands of empty MOD houses.

Almuñécar Report

Lovely and sunny in the day time, cold in the evenings. Sweater at least, possibly jacket and sweater. And I use:

http://www.inm.es/web/infmet/predi/locali/ANG.html

which is the Spanish Meteorological service.

HTH

Dave

Hi Beachcomber and thanks for that. A susbstantial sum is being retained - but since the house is quite expensive the requested deposit is also quite a sum. I know your long seated objection to lawyers and I am with you in that. However the suggestion that the account is in your own name and cannot ...

A friend who is purchasing a house locally here in Almuñécar has a problem with final certification. She does want the particular house but is hesitant in handing over the deposit when the Certificate of Occupancy is not forthcoming. (Bureaucratic delays she is told) She has suggested to the estate ...

"Sex slaves sold at Gatwick" this is the reason why we must have tight border controls! I doubt whether strict border controls would have helped in this particular case since the girls (and presumably immigration) thought they were coming here on holiday. I am also surprised to find that ...

And here in Almuñécar raining too. But the streets need a good wash after a rubbish collectors´strike.

So long as there is plenty in the mountains where the reservoirs are.

I suspect the extra deaths were something to do with the wet roads. .... and why on earth do they insist on putting pelican/zebra crossing directly after a roundabout in Spain (well the Costa Luz region anyway). You go to accelerate after a roundabout so you don't get hit on the roundabout and then ...

Is there a way of giving some idea of what lt/m sounds like in inches?

I would like to know how much rain they are having. It looks particularly bad around the Costa Brava area (who shut off beach showers this summer for lack of water!)

Dave

from now on estate agents will have to provide (free) an exhaustive technical document/file with all details of the property to be rented or purchased, including, size, quality of building materials, price and way of payment and any debts or duties on the property. ...with fines between 200 and 400...

The socialist government in the UK Errr....which governemt would that be then? Whatever anyone thinks of Tony Bliar (not a typo) "socialist" would be one of the last words I would have thought could be used to describe him. In many ways (as the Liberal Democrats are constantly pointing ou...

Talking to someone who lives up in the mountains behind Almuñécar last night and the weather up there had been a lot worse than on the coast.......loads of rain all day. If it is raining up in the mountains that is all to the good given the huge water shortage. I suspect it will need a lot more to g...

Assuming it was the same storm going West to East...........the storm passed through Almuñécar around 3.00 pm. Heavy thunder and rain for about ten minutes.......................

Enough to make the weeds grow I´d say.

Could do with some more....................

Dave

Raining in Almuñécar today - but no storm so far. But if it is stormy in the mountains where the reservoirs are that is good.

Dave

Going back twelve years or so, I remember the old N340 in both directions from Malaga Airport. Towards Gibraltar and around Marbella etc. it was the lack of slip roads (I reckon) that caused as many accidents as anything else. The UK driver, little experience of driving on the right, driving straigh...

Of course the notarios should not see any cash change hands. But at the same time notarios must be aware of what is going on in the spare room often provided for the purpose anyway. And of course the Ayuntamiento has no idea that houses sell for more than they are declared for despite the profilerat...

Back to the original question. It is my understanding that the bank is interested in large cash deposits if they do not know their origin. Since everyone else is in on the "part payment in cash" scam (and I understand the system is similar in France) surely the bank knows where it came fr...