ÿþ<! DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="content-type"> <title> Out and about with Talisman, local tittle tattle in English for Eastern Almeria, Spain; mainly Mojacar. </title> </head> <body style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); background-color: rgb(50, 160, 255);" alink="#99eeff" link="#3344ee" vlink="#3344ee"> <center> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 24px;"> <a href="http://www.mojacar.ws/tali/tali_temp.html"> Talismán </a> <br> <! -------------------------- REST OF HEADER FOR GOSSIP PAGE ONE ----------------------------> OUT and ABOUT page ..1 </span> <a href="OutAbout2.html"> ... ... go to next page </a> . . . . <blink> <Font style="Background-color: ffff00;"> <a href="Next_outabout.html"> Sneak Preview of the coming <i> Out and About </i> stuff </a> </font> </blink> <table style="text-align: justify; width: 900px; height: 600px; font-size: 16px;" border="4" cellpadding="12" cellspacing="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); height: 400px; width: 440px; font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 102);"> <! ---------------------------------- START OF GOSSIP FOR PAGE ONE --------------------------> <p> ¶ I see we're at that time of year, yet again, when the local post office extorts vast sums from us in return for us making their jobs easier! By law, the post office has to deliver mail to anyone living within the built up area of any town or village, such as along Mojácar playa. The only conditions are that the mail must be delivered to a secure "buzon" <i> (post box) </i> that is directly accessible from a public roadway. In other words they do not have to deliver mail to a closed urbanisation or up flights of stairs. The buzon itself must clearly show the owner's name and address, including the street name and number of where the buzon is located plus details of the apartment, where necessary. Finally, any new buzon must be notified to the local post office. Any person registered on the town "Padron" is then entitled to demand that they have their mail delivered. <i> It's not a special favour! </i> So what happens in Mojácar? Everyone is misleadingly encouraged to have an apartado in the post office, and now we are each paying the local post office concession 57 euros for a box that means they need fewer delivery staff, fewer scooters and less fuel to do their job. The post office on the playa alone has one thousand boxes, raking in some 57,000 euros per year, obtained mainly from gullible "foreigners". </p> <p> ¶ As an aside, how many letters, including important bills, do you receive per week? Probably fewer than five, yet it's likely you are paying over a euro a day for an apartado. I reckon the average person resident on Mojacar playa pays more to receive mail than to send it! </p> <p> ¶ Have you ever sampled the offerings of <i> + Q' Bocatas </i> next door to Los Arcos? (it means "más que bocatas" or, loosely translated into English "more than just torpedo rolls") It's run by a very pleasant Argentinian couple, Daniel and Lilian. It is a cafe, with good coffee and tea (Lilian loves "proper" tea) and offers snacks and salads. Their <i> piece de resistance </i> is the "XXXL". This comes in three categories, and the 6 euro price includes a beer or soft drink. Ther hamburger version comes in a huge round bun and the filling is 300 grammes of mince, egg, bacon, tomato, lettuce and cheese. The chicken version is an entire "barra" of bread filled with chicken breast, topmato, peppers and serrano ham. The "lomo" version, also in an entire "barra" of bread, contains four generous slices of pork loin, together with two fried eggs, bacon, tomato, lettuce and cheese. if you ask, Daniel will even add some fried onion to it. I can recommend this last choice from more than one personal experience, although I have at last learned to ask for the smaller, 4 euro, half a barra size! Other items of interest include a three course menu comprising salad followed by egg, steak and chips and a pudding for just 8 euros and a light breakfast offer of egg, bacon, tomato and your choice of tea or coffee for a piffling 2.90¬ . </p> <p> ¶ Whilst on the subject of grub, I must mention Badgers. It is now run by Keith and Gill's son Lewis, who is determinedly changing the emphasis away from that of a bar that offers meals and late night karaoke to that of a quality restaurant. For instance, Karaoke is now only available on Saturday nights, so diners no longer have the end of a good meal intruded upon by mediocre singers drowning out their after dinner conversation. To achieve this objective Lewis has hired Julia, an excellent chef and one of the area's finest pastry cooks, to be in cahrge of the Badger's kitchen. Old timers will remember her from many fine restaurants over the years and the prices are reasonable. If you don't know what a good cook she is and want to test out her food without committing yourself too heavily then try her three course daily menu, freshly prepared each day and served at lunch or dinner time for only 11 euros a head. There's also a Friday fish and chips night. </p> <p> ¶ By the way, Badger's also has a quiz night on Mondays, with an optional Thai or Indian curry available. </p> <p> ¶ Just when we thought we were going to get away with a really mild winter this year there has been a sudden cold snap with night temperatures dropping to 6 degrees and set to go even lower. Usually, the period covering the last third of January and the first third of February is the time of greatest <i> consistent </i> cold. Up to the end of January daytime temperatures were rising to as much as 19 degrees and, until the 29th, most nights stayed in double figures, although one night I did record 7.4 degrees. </p> <! - - - - - - - - - - - END OF FIRST COLUMN - - - - - - - - - - - > <td style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); height: 400px; width: 440px; font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 102);"> <img align="right" SRC="tali-images/Hair_Scene_Sign.jpg" style="width: 440px; height: 375px;" alt="Hair Scene"> <br> <img align="right" SRC="tali-images/Hair_Scene_Wash.jpg" style="width: 220px; height: 209px;" alt="Hair_Wash"> <hr> <center> <b> Alan Tandy is retiring at last! </b> </center> So after twenty five years under the same ownership, and twenty five years in the same premises down the arcade beside Badgers, the Hair Scene will be closing its doors on the last day of February, 2012. <br> . <hr> <p> ¶Los Amigos is open again after their Christmas holiday - and this year only about a dozen people were convinced that they had "done a runner". </p> <p> ¶ The Cave bar Sunday night quiz is becoming quite an "event". From around 8.30pm Sarah reads out thirty questions to a raucus crowd, or at least it was on the last Sunday in January. </p> <p> ¶ The first country and western night in the Regency Snooker Club's Shooters Bar is a honky tonk night featuring, live and exclusive, <b> "Red Strokes". </b> Entrance, including all the Chillie and Rice you can eat, is 10.00 euros a head. Michael tells me that Stetsons and Spurs are optional! </p> <p> ¶ The night after I wrote about temperatures dropping, we gave someone a lift from the playa to Cabrera. As we approached our destination, the car instrument panel started to flash a warning about a risk of ice on the road and the car thermometer readout showed it was only 2 degrees outside. By midnight we were back outside our house on Mojácar playa and the temperature readout was 8 degrees. It just goes to show what a moderating influence the sea has on temperature. </p> <hr> <img align="right" SRC="tali-images/Exposición_Camp.jpg" style="width: 220px: height: 488px;" alt="expo"> <center> <b> <i> There is a photographic exhibition, on the Levant area of Almeria province, at Mojácar fuente from Feb. 1st to 14th. Hours are Monday to Friday, 9.00 to 13.30 and 16.00 to 20.00 </i> </b> </center> <hr> <p> ¶ I've just had an e-mail from Jessica Simpson, the Mojácar councillor for the <i> Mojácar se Mueve </i> party, to tell me that Mojácar town council has agreed to create the first municipal lawn bowling green in the whole of Almería province, at an overall cost of around 125,000 euros including basic facilities like toilets, storage and a bar. It is to be built on a piece of municipal land near all the hotels in the Matina de la Torre area, so as well as people coming out on golfing holidays Mojácar should be able to pull more tourism from keen bowlers, anxious to escape the northern winter. This idea was first mooted to the town hall some 20 years ago - it's good to see that at last there are councillors with some <i> "nous". </i> </p> <! ---------------------------------- END GOSSIP / START FOOTER FOR PAGE ONE --------------------------> <div align="right"> <a href="OutAbout2.html"><em> ... go to next page </em> </a> </div> <hr> <b> <center> Planning a barbecue, car journey or picnic? </center> Click the underlined text to see <a href="../../weather_local.html"> Local Weather Forecasts </a> </b> <div align="right"> <i> Petter </i> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <center> <b> <hr> YOU CAN CONTACT US BY E-MAIL AT: <big> <big> letters@finne.co.uk </big> </big> </b> </center> </center> </body> </html>