White elephant seen in Arboleas

AUTUMN is with us and luckily for now the socks remain in the drawer, the dressing gown however left the safety of the hook on the door this week as there’s now a chill in the air first thing in the morning.

This confuses the dogs as they normally see me fully clothed coming downstairs ready to walk them; after catching up on the UK weather on the telly of course.

Shorter days means the sun is lower in the sky on my drive home from work; turning a bend eyes can suddenly be blinded by the bright October sun.

When first in the queue at traffic lights; often it’s the car tooting me from behind that makes me to realise the lights have turned green. If I had a neck like a giraffe or was the incredible bendy man perhaps I would be able to see the crazily positioned lights.

Approaching a roundabout is another enjoyable game as most drivers only use the outside lane without ever indicating when they reach their exit. Waiting to pull out is a lottery as all cars have to be assumed not to be turning off unless they do! This of course leaves the inside lane comfortably empty for those that actually know how to use a roundabout.

The La Cinta spur of the Albox by pass moves along nicely. Arboleas’s answer to the M25 QE2 super bridge is rising from the rambla and soon the local economy will be massively boosted as seconds will be saved when crossing the angry waters of the Rio Almanzora raging far below.

At least someone had a brainwave and moved the barriers from the old bridge and reinstated them on the Pooh Stick Bridge next to the bars in La Cinta. Three quarters of a million Euros for goodness sakes; money better spent on finishing the bypass to help the whole region.

This being Champions League week Kronenbourg lager will have aired their two uber cool telly adverts; One has Motorhead performing a sublime blues version of their head banging classic Ace of Spades and the other has Madness with a superb and chilled rendition of Baggy Trousers.

Two tracks that helped shape my music tastes from 30 years ago now remixed to subtlety wow prime time audiences once more.

I always prefer to spend my hard earned cash where a smile and a thank you are the norm rather than the exception.

Two places that are always friendly and both coincidentally serve excellent inexpensive tapas and decent wine in stylish wine glasses are to be found just inland at La Tasca in Lubrin and El Empalme in Bedar.

Ten days ago after 11 weeks of waiting Movistar admitted via their customer services that they are ‘crap’ and changed my phone and internet connection request to urgent. Not much longer to wait then.

There’s no other way as Movistar have a monopoly on landlines in Spain. In my view the misery their incompetence causes to people is shameful. My poor mother now only gets a call once a week as I have to find a mobile signal and use one of those phone cards rather than casually picking up a phone at home.

stephen@findmeahome.es
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