Rant of the Day v2.

[llondel]

We went through a challenge of picking up second hand stuff, with a target that no item should cost more than $100. All very comfy stuff, the cats have shredded parts of some of it and the dogs have helped occasionally (puppy teeth marks are visible in places) but that just means the challenge continues if they do too much damage. Four couches, a thing like half a couch, a recliner chair, couple of rocking chairs and another armchair. Now all dog-fur coloured except one couch, on which we keep cardboard boxes so the dogs don't get on it, removing the boxes for visitors.

[G-CPTN]

Last Thursday I was in a social environment with a person who admitted that they had a cold.

Today I have acquired all the symptoms . . .

[OFSO]

Oooh, those 'social environments'. Get you every time !

[ian16th]

Oooh, those 'social environments'. Get you every time !

Could have been worse, like a 'socialist environment!'

That would probably be fatal.

[OFSO]

Chug chug chug brm brm - the post lady chugging her way on her scooty up to my door. Oh-oh. A registered letter. Registered letters ALWAYS mean trouble in Spain. Although she knows me, she asks who I am, I have to show my (expired fifteen years ago) ID card, and whips out her electric pad for me to sign. Sh*t and Damnation ! A letter from ENDESA, the electricity company who a few years ago charged me €3800 for one month instead of €160 and wouldn't admit they made a mistake until I sicced my lawyer onto them. Took eight months ! So what the bloody hell now ?

Opened letter, "we have tried to get in touch with you to install your new digital meter....." No they haven't ! No phone call, SMS, WhatsApp or even a card in the letter box......"but this letter is notice that failing to install your new meter as the law 1110/2007 24th August provides we will disconnect your house within two months from the date of this letter....."

OK so two months to go. And I must admit I am the only house owner on the block still with a mechanical three-phase meter. So about time. But lies lies and more lies.

My wife's (German) doctor lives two streets above. He didn't refuse a new meter, exactly, but told the guys if they could get in his front yard, change the meter, and get out without his two ferocious huskies ripping them to shreds, they were welcome to try. So he's still on the old one, I think. Come to think of it, maybe they did change his meter to a digital one, as I saw an ambulance coming down the mountain from his road a few months ago.

Bloody Spain. When I moved here in 1993 it was complete anarchy in the sense that if you didn't bother anyone they left you alone. You could drive pissed out of your mind, no traffic checks, and unless you hit somebody nobody cared. Of course if you did, the Guardia Civil would shoot you. Dead, if it were a child. No handrails down in the Empuriabrava marina: if you fell in, that was your trouble. Climb our or drown, the choice was yours. I got bit by a Dutch dog. My fault for getting my leg near its nederlandisches teeth. Now, they are onto you for every small little thing. Did a driving licence control Friday, caught 380 people. Unbelievable. These were people happily driving along, doing nobody any harm, keeping the car between the white lines. And all for one little bit of paper...... still haven't been able to get rid of the lovely East European girls lining the main roads, though. No papers so can't deport them. The Spanish clergy have given up their war against the good-time girls and gone back to rogering little boys, Capuchin monastery closed down in Barcelona last week for kiddy-fiddling.

[Pontius Navigator]

OFSO , sounds like they have realised there is serious money to be made enforcing a law no one has enforced before; easy money too.

On your white lines; in Lanzarote there is a view point. When you first come across it it is to your left with a solid white line between you. No one around, sneak across, but if your car is facing the wrong way

[OFSO]

Yes, laws get enforced in Spain all right - if you are a foreigner. I was told by the town hall that I couldn't build on the lower half of my land or declare this as building land. The local estate agents think this is highly amusing.

[Pontius Navigator]

We were lucky once. The agent gave us specific instructions to reach the apartment;

Leave motor way at NN, short link road to village, turn left, V junction, take right exit. Worked perfectly if slightly strange. Following day, less bored and counter sunk realised it was right turn. 200m, 180 on the roundabout and then take the V exit.

[OFSO]

Further to my post #1207. Just taken a walk around my manor. Two v large houses below on the mountainside are under construction and would appear to occupy 80-85% of their plots. My house occupies just over 50% of my plot but I was refused to build on my lower half plot as "already over the limit". But then I am a foreigner.

[Smeagol]

Have seen some very suspect planning decisions in the UK, seemingly based on 'who you know' .
A local example.
In our rather run down local seaside resort there is a surfeit of 'B&B type hotels' and boarding houses. Insufficient market to be viable so many are unused and run down. Numerous planning applications for change of use to flats refused on the grounds that they are in a 'secondary tourist area' so vital to the holiday industry. A similar hotel owned by the mother-in law of a local councillor is marketed for sale for about a year with no-takers (surprise, surprise!) but is then allowed to be demolished and the space used as a car park. And this property was within yards of the beach and sea front.
No influence there then!

[G-CPTN]

A similar hotel owned by the mother-in law of a local councillor is marketed for sale for about a year with no-takers (surprise, surprise!) but is then allowed to be demolished and the space used as a car park. And this property was within yards of the beach and sea front.

Where is the benefit in that?

[llondel]

Further to my post #1207. Just taken a walk around my manor. Two v large houses below on the mountainside are under construction and would appear to occupy 80-85% of their plots. My house occupies just over 50% of my plot but I was refused to build on my lower half plot as "already over the limit". But then I am a foreigner.

I assume it wouldn't work there, but in the UK you could appeal and quote the other two as precedent for what you're asking for and probably win.

[Ex-Ascot]

We are more than the wrong nationality here, we are the wrong colour. Been to court three times now over a piddling half acre. Given up now everyone says we can have it but can't make it official so we have just fenced it in. Still nothing about being beaten up by a NR on the 22nd December.

One interesting thing is that I owe my racist ex-lawyer a considerable amount but he has not tried to chase it up. What we need is a good white lawyer here but can't find one locally. There are a few in Gabs.

[Smeagol]

A similar hotel owned by the mother-in law of a local councillor is marketed for sale for about a year with no-takers (surprise, surprise!) but is then allowed to be demolished and the space used as a car park. And this property was within yards of the beach and sea front.

Where is the benefit in that?

I did not say that there was an obvious direct benefit merely that it appeared to be treated differently from similar cases.

But some thoughts on potential benefits:
The hotel was possibly running at a loss and was unsaleable as an hotel
To cease trading still incurs significant costs (and hence losses)
Demolishing the building releases the ground footprint for other uses, initially car parking but possible future development.

[OFSO]

Man decides to have indoor paint freshioned up. Decides to have minimum work done. Wife talks to painter. Job expands to whole house. Why ? "I told you xxx yyy zzz needed doing as well." That's when the fight started...

[Pontius Navigator]

OFSO, ah, that wonderful phrase "while you're here . . . "

[ricardian]

OFSO, ah, that wonderful phrase "while you're here . . . "

Lots of stories about IT support and while you're here

[OFSO]

House in total array as walls and ceiling being painted. Huge paintings have to come down from walls, first time in 23 years. Take three persons to lift. Furniture moved to where ? Can't put on terrace although sunny as 80mph gale blowing as usual.

[4mastacker]

The EU is seeking the perfect world. Their plan is to install speed limiters to all new vehicles from 2022 onwards.

"The EU says the plan could help avoid 140,000 serious injuries by 2038 and aims ultimately to cut road deaths to zero by 2050."

What feckin planet do these bureaucrats live on? They've obviously never seen driving standards in France and Italy.*

...and of course, our over-zealous bureaucrats will adopt the gold-plated version of the plan.



* choose any other country of your choice.

[Pontius Navigator]

Yeah, UK limited to 70, French to 81, Jerry to warp 6