The Pre Christmas Edition!!

Dogs, An apology

A couple of blogs ago I was less that complimentary about dogs in general and I feel it only fair to be a little more balanced about dogs in this, the last of my blogs in 2007.

The native Ibicenco dog is more a “hound” than a dog in that unlike other indigenous dogs of say, Cyprus where the “Cyprus poodle” is a small to medium sized dog that was clearly the cross between a terrier and a curly haired dog of some sort, hence the poodle appendage.


The “Ibicenco hound” is by far the most gormless looking of any dog I have ever seen on a car and looks evern more so when seen along with the Spanish symbols that you see on the backs of cars here. For example, the very macho Bull of the south of Spain, the lizard (or is it a geko) of Ibiza or the funny little stick man of Andulacia (or is it Murcia ) and then you see the poor old Ibicenco hound Iooking so odd that when Val spotted one of these stickers on a car she asked “why has that car got a mule sticker on the back”?

Ibicenco Hound - Sorry about the poor quality

However there are some really pretty dogs here and dozens of really cheeky ones that almost make me want to be a dog owner!! What is even more amusing is the absolute perfusion of Yorkshire terriers throughout the Island. They seem to be by far one of the most popular of pooches here whilst Golden Retrievers seem close behind. However there is a significant problem with stray and unwanted dogs being dumped on the local dog rescue society but they do seem to be good at finding them homes.

I still remain a cat man I'm afraid but I would always consider a cheeky terrier at a push!

SATELLITE TV

A major bug bear we have with the TV is the unreliability of the satellite signal at a time when we really want to catch up with a TV programme or watch a particular film. Despite our 42” plasma TV and state of the art cinema surround sound system the loss of signal is usually around mid afternoon and seems only to affect the digital services from the BBC and ITV while dear old Sky seems somehow to be exempt from the loss, I wonder how?
The moment the signal starts to weaken there we sit with the Sky remote selecting the “secret menu” then adjusting the satellite signal “default configuration” on the default transponder..... That means changing it from 11.078 to 12.207 and then we still loose the picture. Then just as we are about to give up the picture clears and and then on it goes again.... signal goes.... Oh I give up! I think what is most frustrating is that the signal is lost only on the programmes we like to relax to and rather than relax Val grinds her teeth when “Corrie” is a haze of static and distorted soundtrack.

HAIRDRESSING

Clearly not a problem for me but I do have to say that Val's barbering skills have improved no end since her first attempt but I do think she is still a little timid as far as getting stuck into my scalp. She has performed two haircuts for me now with the second being a resounding success over the first which resulted in my having a bit of a “Friar Tuck” outcome. Val's initial hairdressing encounter in Ibiza at the hands of a rather young stylist was to say the least a disappointment in that she ended up with orange roots and an inferior cut. So when offered an appointment with an English friend of Alix's she was slightly apprehensive when she set off to have a cut and colour. Being familiar as I am to a prolonged description of the failures of hairdressers after each visit with perhaps one exception, that Val makes (in the UK and the one experience here so far) I took off to the town on my own while Alix and Val set off to Ibiza for the appointment. After a fortifying beer and a long walk I made my home had lunch and waited for the girls to return about 2 hours later. I am pleased to report that both cut and colour did not result in a single complaint and Val is considering a return visit in a few weeks.

On the subject of hairdressers, I have noticed that there are a considerable number of salons in the town and a hairdressing school. I think that there must be at least 50 salons in a town that you could say was only the size of Southsea. If I get really bored I may try and count them as we walk about and then report on the number in a future blog. Strangely there do not seem to be a similar number of gentlemen's establishments here.... work that one out. All in all I have come to the conclusion that Ibiza is populated by a community of hairdressers all competing with each other on a massive scale. There are often two or three salons in a street with some being next door to each other.

QUEUING

When we first arrived here we were not really prepared for the amount of queuing we would have to do for all manner of things. I suppose we have become accustomed to very ordered queues in the UK like the Post Office and some “Fast Track” queues like in some M&S branches where you called to a checkout number. Well, these systems do exist here but are more akin to taking your numbered tag like you do at the deli counter in your supermarket.

The “Correos” (the post office) here has a ticket system here too, but the queuing is such a protracted affair that you can go in, take you ticket and then go for a coffee returning in time to take your place back in the queue again.

The bank is another place where the queues are endless and you need to be prepared for a long wait while simple transactions seem to take an eternity while the cashier and the customer engage in long personal conversations about friends and family. On one visit to pay money into our landlords account I was able to stand and queue (with six others ) while a young woman with a baby was able to fill in her bank form, do a nappy change and then breast feed the baby when it started to howl endlessly for either attention or food.

We bank with DeutcheBank which we have discovered was a smart move,as so far the longest the queue has been only three people and never busy and then because we have become known in the Branch one of the staff asked me if I had a quick transaction and took me out of the queue to deal with it quickly...... What service!

By far the worst queuing experience has and will always be the Police station where we “extranjeros” (foreigners) have to obtain an NIE plus any Spanish people have the unfortunate need to renew or gain a new passport. There are no instructions whatsoever about which line to stand in and no hint at all what the process is for finding out so it is usually by word of mouth or from your “Gestor” that you have to go as early in the morning as you can and get a numbered ticket!! You then return to queue again to see a clerk (who may be a plain clothes police officer) who will then decide if you have enough information. You then go away for three weeks and wait for your application for the NIE number to be approved and then you go back again.

I think I will leave the subject of queues now as I feel I have made the point – see how lucky you are in the UK?

BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS!

We have just been granted our NIE numbers so I can at last buy my car!! So now we have our two valuable bits of paper (the NIE and our certificate of residency) so that we are now officially here and we have even advised the British Consul too.


AND FINALLY...............

CHRISTMAS CARDS

We have just been told by a couple of friends that cards we posted have not arrived when others posted at the same time have arrived. We have also been unable to send some cards as we didn't have a note of a few addresses (we thought we did honest guv!!) so sorry to any of you who have not received a card we will be doing another run in the New Year with most of them (as were many of the last ones) being hand made by me with photographs taken here.

Whilst we have so much time on our hands we do seem to fill it with so much!!


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers.