Holiday time in Spain and tourists are heading for the costas. If you are planning to rent a car make sure that you secure the rental quickly.
Car rental firms are having problems mantaining their fleets due to lack of funds. Yes, the credit crunch is causing problems in the industry.
Banks are refusing to allow loans to rental firms who need the money to buy new stocks. This has forced some car rental firms to buy second hand and offer a much older and less reliable car for your holiday rental car.
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Saturday, 11 July 2009
Pamplona
Man Killed during Pamplona Running of the Bulls Festival.
For the second time in 15 years a man was killed by a confused bull during the running of the bulls at the Pamplona Festival.
The bull, called "Capachino" , had become seperated from the running pack of bulls and found itself encircled by an over-excited crowd of "Bullrunners".
After watching the video of the incident it was clear that this bull was confused and therefore became aggressive. It made constant attempts to find an exit route ( seen by the fact that it would turn and charge forwards,turn again and was constantly seeking a way out of its demise) .
There are organisers during the running, these are officials or umpires who attempt to control the bulls and guide them along towards the final destination of the ring. There didn't seem to be much "bull-knowledge" shown when the incident occurred and the officials failed to look at the big picture and exert some crowd-control too. Such as form an exit for the bull to get away and rejoin the group.
Why didn't they think that so long as the bull is surrounded and has no chance of escape, that it would only be a matter of minutes before the bull makes a full force attempt at showing its own form of crowd-control?
It did this; by singling out one person and throwing him to the ground and then continuing to attack and gore him, the bull was showing his dominance.
We don't see what happened after the man was sadly gored to death. The bull would have felt that he had made his point and had established an area of dominance.
A very special situation with Spanish Bulls. At this point, the bull will feel that he has control and anybody attempting to enter his area of dominance will do so at their own peril.
Most Matadors are very wary of this situation when it occurs in a bullfight. A bull may fell a horse and picador and thus establish a small area of dominance in the ring. The Matador knows that when he enters that area, he is at great risk of being attacked and gored - the bull doesn't care about cape movements or any other techniques of control that a matador uses to deal with the bull. It feels very confident. The Matador must bring the bull out of his "Area of Dominance".
The crowd at Pamplona were over-excited,probably fueled by alcohol and high on adrenalin. What a recipe for disaster - drunks and bulls running down the street!
I hope that this terrible loss of life during a Fiesta will prompt the officials and organisers of the Pamplona Bullrun to have a serious meeting about training their Umpires to deal with special situations that are clearly high danger points during the Bullrun in Pamplona.
For the second time in 15 years a man was killed by a confused bull during the running of the bulls at the Pamplona Festival.
The bull, called "Capachino" , had become seperated from the running pack of bulls and found itself encircled by an over-excited crowd of "Bullrunners".
After watching the video of the incident it was clear that this bull was confused and therefore became aggressive. It made constant attempts to find an exit route ( seen by the fact that it would turn and charge forwards,turn again and was constantly seeking a way out of its demise) .
There are organisers during the running, these are officials or umpires who attempt to control the bulls and guide them along towards the final destination of the ring. There didn't seem to be much "bull-knowledge" shown when the incident occurred and the officials failed to look at the big picture and exert some crowd-control too. Such as form an exit for the bull to get away and rejoin the group.
Why didn't they think that so long as the bull is surrounded and has no chance of escape, that it would only be a matter of minutes before the bull makes a full force attempt at showing its own form of crowd-control?
It did this; by singling out one person and throwing him to the ground and then continuing to attack and gore him, the bull was showing his dominance.
We don't see what happened after the man was sadly gored to death. The bull would have felt that he had made his point and had established an area of dominance.
A very special situation with Spanish Bulls. At this point, the bull will feel that he has control and anybody attempting to enter his area of dominance will do so at their own peril.
Most Matadors are very wary of this situation when it occurs in a bullfight. A bull may fell a horse and picador and thus establish a small area of dominance in the ring. The Matador knows that when he enters that area, he is at great risk of being attacked and gored - the bull doesn't care about cape movements or any other techniques of control that a matador uses to deal with the bull. It feels very confident. The Matador must bring the bull out of his "Area of Dominance".
The crowd at Pamplona were over-excited,probably fueled by alcohol and high on adrenalin. What a recipe for disaster - drunks and bulls running down the street!
I hope that this terrible loss of life during a Fiesta will prompt the officials and organisers of the Pamplona Bullrun to have a serious meeting about training their Umpires to deal with special situations that are clearly high danger points during the Bullrun in Pamplona.
Sunday, 4 January 2009
winter in Sevilla
Winter in Spain is varied according to your location. You can experience a cold, harsh winter similar to Northern Europe in some parts of Spain or you could be like me and live in a location where the winter is generally mild and pleasant.
As I write this, I am sitting on my balcony and drinking a glass of rioja. I'm only wearing a pullover over my shirt for warmth and I still wear my summer trousers. It's actually a very pleasant December Sunday afternoon.
The sun is shining and I can feel the warmth on my face. The sky is blue and,yes, there is a small dark cloud on the horizon - but who cares. It might rain but it won't be dramatic and it won't really last long. It's winter.
Here in Seville you we don't have a really heavy unpleasant winter. No ice,snow or sleet even. The last time it snowed was in the 1930s. Then it only snowed for half an hour and turned to slush within hours.
A couple of weeks ago it was pretty chilly, but locals assured me that it wasn't normal.
Well, January is on it's way and it's anybodies guess what the weather will be like. Will it be cool days and sunny or will it be rainy,chilly and sunny during the day?
In any case, it beats British weather.
Saturday, 11 October 2008
Goldfish attacks Man
A man in Seville, Spain recently admitted himself to hospital after claiming to have been attacked by his pet Goldfish, “ Deep Cruz Campo “ as he is affectionately known ( pictured left).
He said that Deep Cruz Campo has been in the family for six months and that he is normally a placid but happy fellow who swims around the bowl, providing hours of entertainment for Manuel, his owner. Manuel was quoted as saying that his fish had recently become upset at the introduction of a pet cat into the family.
“ This caused the fish to become agitated and he started to act in a strange, even aggressive way when I fed him”, said Manuel, “ I found feeding him becoming more and more of a task and so I kept asking my wife to do it for me – she wasn’t aware that the Goldfish was becoming aggressive.”
The owner returned home from work one Friday afternoon and discovered the cat perched on top of the sideboard next to the fishbowl. The cat had its paw half way into the water and Cruz Campo was swimming towards the paw – “it appeared like a head on attack to me” Said Manuel, who works at an animal laboratory in an undisclosed location.
“ The cat was just sitting there waggling its paw in the water” he said, “ I love animals so I thought if the cat gets injured, the wife will kill me!”
Just at the moment the goldfish neared the cat, Manuel managed to snatch the cat away from the bowl. “ That was a lucky moment, I thought.” Said Manuel.
As Manuel was throwing the cat across the room to safety, Manuel flung his arm back towards the goldfish bowl. This must have attracted the attention of Cruz Campo, who then automatically changed direction in the water , being attracted by the splashing sound that some Goldfish experts say is similar to the sound of bread-crumbs hitting the water’s surface.
Manuel’s hand touched the water for a mere two seconds, enough for Cruz Campo to surface and dig its razor sharp teeth into Manuel’s forearm.
With pain searing through his arm and blood dripping onto the carpet, Manuel managed to get to his car and drive the 5 kilometers to the emergency services in Seville’s town center.
Nurses listened to his story but felt that the lacerations to his arm appeared to have been made by broken glass rather than teeth. Doctors said that Manuel had to be calmed down when he arrived at the hospital. When asked why, one doctor said,” Well, it appeared that he had been drinking and was upset that nobody believed his story.” “We nearly gave him a sedative but were advised not to because there was so much alcohol in his blood stream, nearly three times the normal amount.” There were signs of other substances present in his blood stream, but the doctor refused to comment until the police had finished there reports.
Deep Cruz Campo has been removed from the family home and is now working as 'Aqua-Decor' with several other goldfish in a local discotheque known as " Elefunk".
Spanish Economy
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero met on Friday to discuss the financial crisis in Europe.
Spanish Prime minister Zapatero encouraged the idea of a European solution to the banking and credit crisis rather than a single body implementing a plan.
Spain has been least hit by the crisis because of its previous lending policies over the years. Spanish banks not being so tempted to dive into the high risk credit lending arena which created an environment of gambling with customers on all levels and risking bank money to high risk borrowers , left Spain a little more confident than its other European partner countries.
Prime Minister Zapatero announced that the Spanish economy should continue to strengthen slightly over the next twelve months. With the highest rate of unemployment(10.7%) in Europe at the moment and inflation at around 5%, this could be nothing more than positive thinking.
The fact that he has announced the creation of a 30 billion euro fund to assist banks to buy assets and ensure secure banking is a sign that Spain is worried about the effects of the world-wide crisis.
The measure to protect personal finances in European bank accounts from 20,000 euros to 100,000 E was taken in Luxembourg earlier in the week.
Spain has been based on a housing market economy which has been suffering since the boom ended more than two years ago. At the moment, analysts say that the fall in prices has reached a point where it won't fall anymore. People will not want to sell their property for a pittance and although it is becoming a buyers market, there are many property owners in Spain who do not rely on the property for dwelling but rather long term profit. These people would be best advised to hold on to their property and wait till the market returns to normal. Taking what they can in short term rentals rather than property speculation.
Spanish Prime minister Zapatero encouraged the idea of a European solution to the banking and credit crisis rather than a single body implementing a plan.
Spain has been least hit by the crisis because of its previous lending policies over the years. Spanish banks not being so tempted to dive into the high risk credit lending arena which created an environment of gambling with customers on all levels and risking bank money to high risk borrowers , left Spain a little more confident than its other European partner countries.
Prime Minister Zapatero announced that the Spanish economy should continue to strengthen slightly over the next twelve months. With the highest rate of unemployment(10.7%) in Europe at the moment and inflation at around 5%, this could be nothing more than positive thinking.
The fact that he has announced the creation of a 30 billion euro fund to assist banks to buy assets and ensure secure banking is a sign that Spain is worried about the effects of the world-wide crisis.
The measure to protect personal finances in European bank accounts from 20,000 euros to 100,000 E was taken in Luxembourg earlier in the week.
Spain has been based on a housing market economy which has been suffering since the boom ended more than two years ago. At the moment, analysts say that the fall in prices has reached a point where it won't fall anymore. People will not want to sell their property for a pittance and although it is becoming a buyers market, there are many property owners in Spain who do not rely on the property for dwelling but rather long term profit. These people would be best advised to hold on to their property and wait till the market returns to normal. Taking what they can in short term rentals rather than property speculation.
Dogs eat Owner
Baza, Granada,Last Sunday Police found the remains of a man who had apparently been eaten by his dogs. Neighbours had not heard or seen the 71 year old man for several weeks and so after calling the police, officers went to the house to check on him.
The man lived with his dogs in Baza in one of the local cave houses.
The man's remains have been mostly eaten by the dogs which makes it difficult for forensics to establish whether the man was killed by the animals or whether he died of natural causes and was then eaten by his dogs.
The dogs have been compounded and are awaiting a decision about their future.
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
joaquin sorolla y bastida
Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida. A Spanish artist who was more interested in painting people than the usual religious concepts.
To look at his work is refreshing and inspiring. There is always a positive point of view in his work depicting scenes such as fishermen drawing in their catch, local fiestas where the people are celebrating as a community and boys playing on the beach in Valencia close to where he lived.
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