Parking Ticket

How on earth we can ever expect a smooth withdrawal from the EU?  I have no idea.

We only have to look at the complications found at local council level to see that the task is quite impossible.

Where we live, we have to pay our local council for a permit to park on the road outside our house. This ‘tax’ was introduced a couple of years ago. During that time, we have not moved house and have not changed our car (readers may need to remember these two facts).

Our own street allows non-permit holders to park for up to 1 hour

If we had done either, the parking permit we had paid for would become invalid. So far so good?

About be same time that the council implemented the new parking charge we bought the house (under dwelling) beneath us.

So, to clarify: we live at #XX and the flat/apartment below us is #XXa.  Still with me?

Whenever you own a property, you have to pay council tax – that’s not a problem, that’s a fact of life.  So, until the home below us was occupied by tenants, Sharon registered herself for council tax there and, being thoughtful for the prospective tenants, she applied for a non-specific resident visitor-parking pass.  Unlike our own, these are free as the pass is for visitors to the house and not for any specific car.

Before being issued with any car-specific pass, the applicant is cross-referenced to council tax records and has to provide proof of car registration/insurance/mot etc. at the required address. We obviously did this for our #XX application but had no need to do so for the #XXa application as (at that time), no car was involved at that address.

Still with me?

Once the new tenants moved in, bought and registered their own car, our own interest in #XXa ceased. The tenants have changed the car since their first permit and have therefore paid the £15 charge twice.

Last week, we came home to find a parking ticket on our own car’s windscreen!

Bearing in mind the fact that we haven’t changed any of our details we (obviously?) appealed against this fine, online.

The appeal was turned down – so you can imagine the ensuing phone call to the council!!

It turns out that when Sharon applied for the initial visitor pass for #XXa, some numpty at the council changed OUR #XX car permit registration to #XXa. This is something that should not have happened as they had not been provided with (because they didn’t ask for) proof of car registration/insurance/mot at the new address. Had they asked then, we would not have had the problem now.

So, for two years our pass has been (in their eyes) invalid and so we have been parked illegally. Outside our own house.

Needless to say, this has now been sorted out after some discussion and a new permit is being prepared.

But Brexit?  Really? FFS!!!

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Free food

Sadly, I forgot to take photographs of all the ‘free’ food we were presented with in Spain this year.  Furthermore, I only remembered to photograph some of the food we ‘paid’ for.

However, all of the food was delicious.

Sharon’s tuna steak

Whilst holidaying on the Costa Tropical, in the Granada region of Andalucía, we encountered much in the way of free food; we’d buy a drink … and we’d get a free tapa! This doesn’t happen everywhere in Spain, but where it does happen, you feel welcomed and that your custom is valued.

We’ve had such tapas before further inland, and there the price of drinks compares well (often cheaper) with those prices charged on the big ‘no-tapas’ Costas.  In Salobreña and thereabouts, the prices for beer and wine were ever so slightly dearer (perhaps €1.70 – €2.00 each as opposed to €1.40 – €1.70), but every drink came with food.

Your first drink would come along and be accompanied by a particular tapa, e.g. Spanish cheese and olives. Then the subsequent order(s) would each be accompanied by different tapa, e.g. Croquetta with salad leaves or a small plate of jamón.  Even when we went somewhere for a meal, some small thing would be presented to us with our first drink.

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There are a couple of places too in Los Boliches (near Fuengirola), where such treats can be had – the difference here being that the drink doesn’t always come with a tapa. But, there are deals to be had.  A caña (small beer 15cl, 20cl, 25cl) can be had without food, but you can also order a tapa (of your own choice, not just presented to you) to accompany the drink for a combined price of (e.g.) €1.40 or €1.60. 

Often, this will be for the smaller beer, but not always.

Caña (or wine) + tapa €1.40

Caña (or wine) + tapa €1.60

Other cafes locally (Los Boliches) sell tapa separately for anything from €2.00 (these are usually slightly larger portions and – for me – often big enough to be called lunch) and in the main they are home-cooked and delicious. So far, our favourite is Bar Pepe in the Plaza Carmen.

We’re learning to avoid the places where cheap frozen ‘stuff’ is served.

I guess that all of this illustrates some of the differences between the Spanish and UK drinking cultures. In Spain, food and drink are inextricably bound together, whereas we see them as two different entities. In Spain, a workman will finish his day (or begin his midday break) with a beer and a tapa, whereas here in the UK I see all the local bars full of workmen finishing their day by quaffing pints and eating nothing more than a packet of crisps.

A simple ‘starter’ of tomato, oil and garlic.

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