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Monday, 27 February 2012
Valencia Las Fallas
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Parking fine..or not!
On sitting in my car yesterday, the owner of the nearby garage came to explain to me about my parking fine... which, we noticed, was no longer under my windscreenwiper!
My car is parked legally, I explained, "yes" he replied, "and so were the other 3 who also received fines, but the first one that was parked in front of you wasn´t. So the guardia came along with a pick up truck, took the illegally parked one away and decided to fine the rest of you who are parked in the street!" (all local business owners who park here always, including myself)
But now my ticket has disappeared, so if the men in the garage hadn´t seen everything and told me, I wouldn´t have a clue until the fine for non payment arrives. And this is another problem.. my car is still registered to my old house, so this won´t arrive!
What to do!? I discussed this issue with a couple of middle aged Spanish residents, they both said ignore it, forget about it, it will get overlooked and forgotten about.
so what happened to my ticket?
did the police officer have a feeling of guilt and come back and remove my ticket? are some local kids having a laugh at my expense? or did another police officer see the ticket and feel it was unjust and took it away?
What do I do?
play ignorant,? after all I haven´t seen a ticket! or phone somewhere and see if a fine has been recorded and then try to prove my innocence?
more of the delights of living in Spain, it can work for you or against you, on this ocasion I have to wait and see.
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Carnival in Spain
Carnival in Spain
The parades of floats, costumes and elections of the carnival Queens , are some of the most common events in the Carnivals of Spain. There are cities and towns that have very old and special events , and have led many of them to be considered National Tourist Interest.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Video of Chimpanzees at Valencia Bioparc
Watch this playful chimp with his brother. The Valencia Bioparc is a great day out in Valencia, I can totally recommend it for all the family. view the website www.bioparcvalencia.es
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Valencia Marathon
Just a quick "rant"... Sunday gone was the annual Valencia Marathon, the whole city was closed off basically and I had to get from one side to the other for a birthday lunch.
No buses reached where I lived or where I needed to go. So it was an adventure in the car! Now the only website (so it appears) that has the full route map on was the Marathon´s own official page, which on Sunday wasn´t working! typical.
The bus website mentioned practically every street in Valencia listing the affected areas, and I found a map for the 10km which was running alongside, but that map showed streets that weren´t mentioned on the Bus page.
It took me 20 minutes to get out of my barrio, along with everyone else trying to get out, then finally by going right around the outskirts and winding my way through areas I didn´t even know existed (thankfully I had a Valencian with me) I managed to get to my destination. 1 hour for a normally 15 minute drive.
Anyway.. I believe the Valencia Marathon was very succesful and the website is now up and running..
http://www.maratondivinapastoravalencia.com and if you visit the site, I can recommend watching the video, quite clever!
If you are visiting Valencia or any part of Spain, you can book you accommodation online with instant confirmation from here - www.holidayaccommodationinspain.com
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Spanish Banks
>
> It all started with my branch being closed down, which was very handily on > my doorstep. It was a very well used office and we now have to all join > the already long queues that the office at the other end of the street > had. Pain!
>
Then I got charged commission for receiving 2 payments that the sender had already paid commission on (finally finding out it is because the money came from outside the monetory union, but it took them a while to find out why and explain to me the reason!) Then another time, they rejected my Social Security payment through lack of funds, and never told me, BUT they can send me a text message saying "your next bill we will be paying out of your account will be for 46.54€ to orange" "we will be receiving a payment into your account that has a 5€ commission charge" oh yes, thats great! but something important like a my SS payment they couldn´t say "your next bill we will be paying out of your account is xx and you don´t have sufficient funds at this time.." or "we were unable to pay the bill..." anything, some kind of notice, why can they do it for some and not for others.
>
And now to top it off they have sent me a letter saying they are changing the name of my account, and will be charging me for use of it if i dont have over 2000euros in it! Now this is an account that was set up to run alongside my loan, so it is soley used for the repayments, therefore never has much in it, a little over the monthly payments.
> And all this from the bank whose motto is "we dont charge commissions to > any one for any thing ever!"
>
> So seriously thinking about changing banks...although with the loan this > is probably going to be hard or expensive.
Then today I had to make a payment into the bank account of a client. After realising I was unable to use the cashpoint as I dont have my own account at this particular bank, I joined the queue to the cashier. After a 5 minute wait and seeing her turn 2 other people away, I asked if I could pay the money in..."that service can only be made between 8.30 and 11 am" came the reply!! AND I think she might even have said Tuesdays and Thursdays, I was too in shock and not listening by that time! Is this not a bank, is that not what you are here for??? oh and the time was 11.15!
> Obviously it is not her fault, and even if I did want to make any > comments, she had already answered the telephone and not even > acknowledging I was still in front of her, so I left with a couple of > disgruntled remarks to other customers on the way out.
>
So...the question now is...if i go through the hassle of changing banks am I going to just be changing the problems?
> I remember one day I went into a different branch again, asking for some > change...they didnt have any!
>
They all have to make their money somehow I guess so the charges are going to be there somewhere just displayed in a different way. I just want my branch office back, where I knew the manager and cashier, they were part of my neighbourhood, they new my account, my phone number and name!. Anyone else got any Spanish Bank problems, stories, gripes? would love to hear about them, or maybe you´ve got the perfect bank account, if so definately want to know about it!
