S&N's World

OK for the 000’s of readers of this blog who have noticed that I’m not maintaining it; here is the deal.  As mentioned previously one of this blog’s stated aims/goals was walks and life in the Sierra de Guadarrama.  This is no longer the case as that element has been taken over by www.visitsierramadrid.com , Please keep an eye on this site if you have any interest in this area of the world.  The site is nowhere near finished (in fact it never will be) but I think it is now starting to grow to the size where I hope it is genuinely useful, and we are starting to get frequent updates and additions. 

The other stated aim of this blog was food & entertaining.  Well hopefully next year we will  start getting a dedicated site up and running to do with home entertaining,  so watch this space (I still might stick up the odd bit here).

So what does that leave us with…………………”any other old thing”   I was a little nervous about just going for it…. and posting up my miserable old fart ideas and gripes.  After all I’m hardly trying to hide my identity and am still interested in picking up some work www.osmundaconsulting.com.  Then I thought to myself, oh bollocks! why not just vent my negative thoughts via this blog and damn the consequences.  So this blog is now officially just the pontifications of an old git.

For all you hundreds of loyal readers here is a sneak preview of a new web site that is going fully live soon www.visitsierramadrid.com .  The web site is designed as a guide to the town and villages in the Sierra de Guadarrama the mountain range north of Madrid.  The site will include details of things to do (mostly outdoor activities like walking and mountain biking) and reviews of bars, restaurants and hotels.

Before publishing the full site I’m looking to do a bit of market testing and get some feedback on the site “ease of use” , “usefulness of content” etc.  Therefore I have just publish some of the general information pages and the section (under places) on Miraflores de la Sierra.  Please have a look and either through this blog or using the “Contact Us”  form on the web site let me know what you think.  All feedback is useful.

This is an out and out complaint about appalling service and pig ignorant call centre monkeys who can’t deviate from a script and don’t listen.  It is a whinge about a company that calls itself the “World’s largest Web Host” and yet there is no way to register a domain name for a different country and who’s web forms for ordering can’t cope with foreign addresses.

This blog is hosted “for the moment” by 1and1, as I live in Spain it is registered with their Spanish office.  I now have a new project where I need .com .es and .co.uk domains.  The Spanish office can’t do .co.uk domains I don’t know why after all they are the “WORLD’S biggest”  (note the emphasis on WORLD), they have a UK office, it is not Fucking rocket science.

Never mind you say, register it with the UK office of 1and1.   But what a surprise the “WORLD’S” largest web host system can’t cope with addresses in other countries.  Perhaps it is me, perhaps this is Fucking rocket science, although I’m sure I’ve seen other companies web sites being able to cope.  Maybe it is because they are the “WORLD’S” largest web host they can’t deal internationally.

Still at least they have a telephone number on their web sites, OK it is a premium rate number and it is going to cost you more to call them than to register a domain.  I could live with that, but unfortunately that  is where the statement “pig ignorant call centre monkeys who can’t deviate from a script and don’t listen” comes in.

So to sum up, I’ve just registered a load of domain names with another company, who because they are NOT the “WORLD’S” largest hosting company can do business internationally and as soon as this domain is up for renewal I will be moving it along with the hosting etc.

DON’T do business with people who own bars and restaurants, especially if they are in Spain.

Just to let you know that the barter economy is well and thriving in Spain, especially if you don’t mind being paid in wine hic %$&E!”&

This is a fairly easy route of about 13k with not much in the way of ascent it should take about 3 hours.  The path is easy and clear, actually it is what they call here a “Vía Pecuaria” or “Drovers trail”, it is also a good cycling track.   Whilst not too demanding it does provide some good views of the surrounding mountains and there is always a good chance of seeing some of the eagles that nest nearby.  I especially like this route in the Spring when the whole area is awash with wild flowers.  It is also a great way of burning off the excesses of the night before without giving yourself a heart attack.

Start at the old Station in Miraflores de la Sierra (at the bottom of town),  from the station turn left along the tracks for about a couple of hundred metres and take the path that goes up the right hand side of the tunnel.  At the top of the tunnel go through the wire “gate” and turn left and after a few hundred metres you arrive at what can loosely called a cross roads.  The main path is clear and straight ahead.

After just over 3k (about 50 minutes) you cross a small bridge over the railway and the path swings around to the left.  Carry on for another 15 minutes  (4.5k) and you reach a turning to the right which heads down to a small town called Navalfuente (about 30-40 minutes if you want to head there),  Don’t take this carry straight on the main track.

A little further on about another 15 minutes (5k) there is a smaller path off to the left crossing back over the railway line on a small bridge.  Here you have a choice:

Cross the bridge and you follow a small path cutting across the corner of the mountain (note this is a small path not a track).  The path is fairly clear and easy to follow but does involve a little bit of climbing.  The path cuts the corner of the mountain and then drops you back down the other side through a wood where it rejoins the main track (see below).  From my point of view I prefer this option as it adds some variety (and better views).

The main track continues on curving around the mountain.  Eventually crossing back across the railway and heading directly towards Bustarviejo (the option above rejoins the main path about half a kilometer after it crosses the railway).

After about 3 hours you reach Bustarviejo,  the village centre is off to the right where there is a regular bus service ( number 725) back to Miraflores.

Another alternative is when you reach Bustarviejo instead of turning right into the village you go left and skirt around the back of some industrial units where the track continues around the other side of the mountain back to Miraflores about another 2 hours.  But more of this another day.

This post is a whinge.  I was listening to Radio 4 the other day (via Internet radio) and apparently prisoners in the UK don’t have the right to vote.   There was a report or something from the European Union saying it was a breach of their human rights.  Now I don’t want to comment on the rights or wrongs of prisoners being able to vote.  What has pissed me of for many years is that I don’t have the right to vote and neither do millions of people like me.
I live and work in Spain, I pay my taxes here, I have bought a home here, my wife works and pays her taxes here, and 99% of everything I own is here.  In other words Spain is home but I cannot vote and it is not just me but every expat living in another country (that includes the Spaniards living in the UK).
We can vote in European elections and we can vote in local elections but not national ones, not the ones that determine how our taxes are spent.  Well that is not strictly true I can vote in national elections back in the UK, where I don’t live, don’t have a house, and don’t pay taxes.  But I don’t vote in the UK because as far as I’m concerned I don’t have the right to vote there.

Why; in the European Union with all its brave words about mobility etc. can’t I vote where I live and pay taxes?  Should we take up the banner once by earlier British imigrants “NO TAX WITHOUT REPRESENTATION”?
If anyone is aware of a lobby group or a member of parliament (national or European) who is taking this up please can they let me know.

Let me tell you a story (now who said that).

A little while back my wife and I were in the village having a glass or two of wine and we bumped into a couple of acquaintances.  Nothing special about this (see previous article), anyway we all had a few more glasses of wine and then my wife and I left (we had to prepare for a dinner party later that night), and our two friends went off for some more drinks and that is when it happened.

This is the story of what happened to one of our drinking buddies after we left (don’t worry I’ll keep it short).  They decided to hit the town and went on a little pub crawl, I guess this would have been around 4pm.  After stopping at one or two bars they ended up at a reasonably posh bar at the end of town.  Now even though this is one of the larger establishments, it is fair to say that the toilets, whilst clean are rather small (see sketch).

As I’m sure you know after a number of drinks Nature decides that you have to make room for some more.  After hanging on as long as he could one of our friends had to go running off to the loo pretty quickly.  Having left it too long he was already preparing himself mentally and physically; taking himself in hand (so to speak).  Rushing through the door only to find the urinal occupied “never mind he thinks, I’ll use the toilet cubicle”  He barges through the door (the lock does not work very well) and immediately starts without looking.  Only to discover sat on the toilet with his trousers round his ankles contemplating life…..  One of the local GUARDIA CIVIL” and him peeing all over his head….

We will be visiting our friend in the local prison shortly.

Here is a quiz for you, look at the picture and near the bottom of the gate you can see a plastic bottle filled with water tied to the gatepost. You come across this all over Spain (although it seems to me to be dying out a bit).  The question is why……

Apparently it is to stop dogs peeing (marking their territory) on the gatepost.  I have no idea if this works, if anyone has an idea on the theory please let me know.

Just a very quick post here to present the solution to a perennial problem that has beset mankind through the centuries (well at least since the washing machine was invented).  I can proudly say that I have no odd socks in my drawer.  The secret; leave the odd sock hanging on the clothes line if you can’t find its pair.  The assumption being that eventually the missing sock, which slipped to the bottom of the laundry basket, will find its way into the wash and out onto the washing line.  I can proudly say that it works “NO ODD SOCKS IN MY DRAWERS”.  I of course ran out of space on my clothes line for washing but it’s easy to install another.

This might seem a strange plea but “Please let me get ill FIRST”.  Having just got over swine flu see previous article I realised something; I normally catch anything going around after my wife.  So what I hear you say, well ….. When a loved one gets ill (1^st person) quite naturally the healthy one (2^nd person) looks after the 1^st person.  Of course the inevitable happens and the 2^nd person catches the bug.  Now it always seems to me that the 2^nd person in a household to get ill catches it worse than the first but more importantly the 1^st person is still too ill to look after the 2^nd person.  Therefore the 1^st person, at least for a couple of days gets looked after and fussed over whilst the 2^nd person has to struggled on without any of the benefits of being ill.  Then by the time the 1^st person has recovered sufficiently to be able to start caring for the 2^nd person, the 1^st person whether from being stir crazy from being confined to the house or genuine pressure to return to work abandons the 2^nd person.  So all I beg is that if I’m going to catch it, can I for the 1^st time be the 1^st person, please.