Motril: you will be able to find some at Radiovision, Mediterranea garage on the Puntalón roundabout, Café Paris on the ring road up to the hospital and Restaurante El Zarcillo on the Esplanada, for example.

Salobreña: Chiringuito El Bahía, Supersol, Lingwoods, Casa Técnica, tourist office, etc.

Nerja: Dentadanés (Maro) Clínica Sta Cecilia (c/Hurtado, Nerja) and Tienda Danesa (Frigiliana)

Almuñécar and La Herradura: everyone that advertises

Alpujarra: phone area rep on 645 036 158

Lecrín Valley: main branch office of Caja Rural (c/Granada 21)

Velez Benaudalla: Inmo Margarita on the main street, just after the church square.

As for the online, we will start putting it up on the 1st, just as soon as we’ve had a breather from getting the Seaside Gazette ready for the printer.

Something to Bear in Mind
You may well be aware that when you move country within the European Union, you can take certain social security benefits with you. For example, you can receive UK benefits such as contributions-based incapacity benefit/ESA, Bereavement Benefit, the State Pension, as well as others, even if you move to Spain.

However, there are certain benefits that are ‘non-exportable’. You can only receive them if you are resident in the UK. These benefits are known as ‘means-tested benefits’ and include pension credit, income support, housing benefit, council tax benefit and income-related incapacity benefit or ESA. If you are resident in Spain and in receipt of any of these benefits, you should inform the authorities immediately.

For more information on which UK benefits you can and cannot receive as a resident in Spain, see our website

Healthcare in Spain
Many people who live in the UK do not think twice about going to the doctor and accessing state-run healthcare. This is because the UK’s health system is residency-based. What some people do not realise when moving to Spain, however, is that the health system here is different, it is contributions-based.

In other words, to have entitlement to use public doctors and hospitals, a person must either be working and making national insurance contributions into the Spanish system, be in receipt of certain Spanish or UK benefits or in receipt of a state pension. Unfortunately this does mean that some British residents in Spain do not have immediate access to public healthcare and more information on the options available to you if you are in this position can be found on our website.

But what if, like many other British residents in Spain, you are in receipt of a UK State Pension?

Pensioners:
Well, if you are not in receipt of a pension from any other country, you can apply to the International Pension Centre (IPC) for form S1 (previously known as an E121). Once you receive this form, and have your residency and padrón certificate, you must take all copies of the S1 form, along with some form of official ID, to the INSS (social security) office.

They should take the forms and issue you with an accreditation document, either there and then or through the post. Once you have this document, take it to your local health centre to register with a doctor. They will then apply for a Spanish health card on your behalf. (NOTE – this is a different card from the EHIC which is for use outside Spain)

So if you’re a pensioner but have never applied for an S1/E121 or have the forms but never registered them, make sure you follow the steps above to make sure you have your right to healthcare in Spain recognised.

To request an S1 form, call the IPC on 0044 191 218 7777. In September, look out for accessing healthcare as a ‘dependant’.

UK Child Benefit
If you or a member of your family cares for young children, you may want to find out if you are entitled to some form of benefit.

To receive UK child benefit in Spain, you must either:
* Be employed or self employed in a job in which you have to pay national insurance contributions to the UK, OR
* Be in receipt of a UK contributions-based benefit such as a pension, incapacity benefit, ESA or Bereavement Benefit.

However, if you are resident in Spain and your child was born here or you are paying Spanish insurance contributions, you should make enquiries with the social security office regarding your entitlement to Spanish child benefit. See www.seg-social.es for more information.

For more information on UK Child Benefit, call the Child Benefit Department in the UK on 0044 161 210 3086 or see www.direct.gov.uk.

Keeping Your Cool
It has been a long winter so I«m sure that you are glad that summer is on its way! However, high temperatures and humidity can present a risk to health and so it is important to protect yourself from the heat and recognize the signs of heat related illnesses.

How to avoid heat related illnesses

(1) Keep out of the heat – stay indoors during the hottest parts of the day and if you are outside make sure to stay covered and take water with you.

(2) Avoid strenuous activity – limit chores such as gardening to the mornings or evenings when it is cooler.

(3) When you are indoors stay in the coolest part of your home and draw curtains and blinds closed in rooms that get the sun.

(4) Wear loose fitting, lightweight and light coloured clothing.

(5) Take cool baths and showers.

(6) Drink lots of fluids even when you«re not thirsty and eat cold foods such as salads and fruits that contain a lot of water.

Get Registered!
If you’re resident in Spain you might have heard of the Padrón. The Padrón is simply a list kept by your local town hall which allows them to know how many people are in the locality, so that they can provide sufficient services for the community.

But did you know that registering is a really simple process and that it’s free of charge? All you need is:

* An address where you habitually live.
* A form of official identification.
* Your NIE or residence card.
* Details of your home (deeds/rental contract).
* A recent utility bill in your name.

Go to your local town hall with the above documents and fill in a form. It really is that simple!

Unfortunately, we at Age Concern España see an increasing number of people coming to us for help and our hands are tied because we cannot link them into state provided services. For example, if you are not on the Padrón you may not be able to enter a state residential care home, nor access local services such as home help. You will also not be able to claim income-related Spanish benefits. Access to many of these services depends upon the length of time you have been registered on the Padrón. Therefore, the sooner you register the better!

For further information about registering on the Padrón visit the “Living in Spain” section on the UK in Spain website. www.ukinspain.fco.gov.uk .

Suddenly, you hear a noise behind you. Huh? Not Hubby! No way is he up yet! So you walk the three steps from the kitchen to the front door, to see the back of a broad-shouldered young man with dark curly hair and a deep tan, exiting your premises, and taking off (uphill!) towards the village. You look around, and see your handbag is exactly where you left it last night. Phew, you think. What a relief. Nothing stolen.

Then you walk upstairs (where Hubby is still magnificently oblivious) to see all three of your jewellery boxes are missing. Shock, horror set in immediately. You’ve just been robbed, in broad daylight, and with people in the house only feet from the robber.

You do what you were taught in your home country: you call the police. Now, in Molvízar, the Local Police consists of Paco, who duly informed the complainants, “I don’t do crime; this is for La Guardia. (However, should you park your car in front of a neighbour’s house, I’ll be right down to issue a ticket).

Anyway, one visit later to La Guardia, in Salobreña, you end up with una denuncia against person(s) unknown. Just a description (from the back) of aforesaid swarthy-complexioned youth. These sage gentlemen (no pun intended, but I just couldn’t resist it) are nodding to each other, and saying, “Aaaaah – Los Romanos regresan.” Meaning – Ah, the Romanian Gypsies are back. Their words, not mine, I hasten to add.

There is, to be fair, a long history all along the coast of Andalucía of Eastern Europeans conducting household robberies, mostly in organised gangs. And La Guardia is very aware of this. Come summer, when there is more wealth here to be stolen, the gangs are known to become more and more active and even more sophisticated; to the point of targeting an urbanisación, pumping ‘sleeping gas’ through keyholes or windows of selected villas, then cutting out locks and walking in to take anything of value. Cars, if keys are handy, TV sets, anything they can put their sticky hands on. They’ve even been known to remove iron gates from their hinges, in order to remove vehicles from the premises.

If robbery in broad daylight can happen in Molvízar, it can happen anywhere. So please, be warned. And beware. Many of these robbers don’t care if you’re in the house or not. Which fact carries with it at least the implication that they are prepared to be violent, if confronted.

Oh, and here’s the final insult in this particular case; because the front door was ‘open,’ the insurance company will not pay out one penny. Aren’t they just special?

One Local Policeman serving in the city of Granada managed to shoot himself in the leg, bless him. It happened at 5.45am one morning, just after he and his brothers in arms were called into action when a burglary was reported in Calle Cruz de Quirós.

Perhaps the Local Policeman had been attempting to impress members of the Policía Nacional, who had also been called to the scene. He had obviously been brandishing, really butch, his standard-issue firearm, and had most likely just blown non-existent smoke from the barrel and shoved it back into its holster when it went off… He was rushed to hospital, amidst rounds of applause from the Policía National, no doubt…

Police Stories II
Meanwhile, a Guardia-Civil policeman just received 6-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of slapping false fines on the ex-girlfriend of his brother, bless him.

The offending man’s wife is not happy, as can be expected: “He has served 20 years in the Corps, risking his life for fellow Spaniards and now they want to lock him up for six years over two driving fines. It’s disgusting!” She also complains that she has to cope by herself, with only a pension of 421 euros and on top of that she suffers from a chronic illness.

Police Stories III
A Venezuelan woman has been arrested by the Guardia Civil for robbing one of their policemen – is nothing sacred! Apparently, the 34-year-old woman used the tried-and-trusted bank-stake-out method; i.e., watching a queue in the bank to see who has withdrawn cash.

When the victim – who was off duty and wearing civvies – emerged from the bank, the woman and two accomplices allegedly followed the policeman to his car. The two women innocently stood in front of the car, stopping him from driving off, whilst the third punctured his back tyre, out of sight. They then stood aside, only to point out that he had a flat as he moved off. Then the two women, honed in the art of pick-pocketing, tried to relieve him of the money as he inspected the tyre.

Unfortunately for the Tricky Trio, he rumbled them and managed to grab one of them. The other two managed to escape.

Police Stories IV
And it’s back to the Local Police in Granada again who were attacked by a dog. The dog owner, who had ordered the dog to attack the policeman, has been given sentence of 16 months imprisonment.

But you would be wrong to believe that this was an incident only between the dog, it’s owner and a Local Policeman, because this scuffle was merely a sideshow within a large street brawl involving 70 people in Albaicín.

It all began on the first Saturday of last month around eight in the evening. Neighbours in Calle Pages had phoned to complain that around 70 people had gathered outside number 14 to hold an improvised street party, with plenty of booze, music and merriment. Two patrol cars were dispatched to check it out.

When the police arrived, they asked the gathering of young people to stop drinking and consuming drugs on a public street. Being members of the Local Police, nobody took the slightest notice.

When the police decided to insist that everybody went home, they were greeted with insults and suggestions concerning physically impossible sexual tasks.

One of the merrymakers, armed with a hungry bulldog, decided to try out something that he had obviously been hankering after for a long time – launch his Canine Kalashnikov against somebody.

Well, within moments, one of the policemen was wearing a bulldog backpack, the dog owner was fighting off an orgasm and the other policemen were reassessing the depth of their friendship towards the victim and whether it was profound enough to risk intervention.

Seconds ticked away and the other policemen came to a decision – a sort of compromise – yes, something needed doing about the victim, who was thrashing about on the floor with the dog on top of him, but that ‘somebody’ should be somebody else, so they called for reinforcements. Four more patrol cars, full with policemen were dispatched – more than an average bulldog can eat in one sitting. However, more policemen attracted more attention and the other 70 people decided to give the dog a hand – a policeman’s hand, naturally.

Finally, the dog got bored and the fight was broken up, resulting in four arrests and the bulldog dragged off to the municipal dog compound. Apparently, the policeman was no longer in its mouth by that time.

Police Stories V
For a whole week, Granada’s Local Police turned a blind eye to driving offences, as a sign of protest for the drop in the wages, brought about by the austerity cuts. Officially, the same as their counterparts in the Guardia Civil and the Policía Nacional, they are forbidden from going on strike, so they simply ‘will fail to see’ finable offences.

But it’s not only the Local Police there, but also the whole of Andalucía, supposedly, although each town or city was free to decide to join the ‘rebellion’ or not. Of course, even those that join the protest will still act in the case of the most serious offences, or one that are brought to their attention by members of the public.

With the salary cuts, a Local Policeman in Granada loses 183 euros a month, but even so, they won’t find much sympathy oozing from the ranks of the Guardia Civil, because a Local Police rookie earns more than a corporal in the Guardia Civil.

Fine-Free Tourists
The City Hall of Granada has decided to ditch any fines that are in the system involving tourists – not out of any business sense, but because it’s just not practical; i.e., they can’t reasonably expect to receive the money.

To date, many tourists that have visited the city have left with two things, photos of monuments and in many cases, driving fines for parking in areas that are reserved for residents. Hoteliers have long demanded that more care should be taken with the city’s visitor as tourism is one of the main sources of income for Granada. With that in mind, they have repeatedly pointed out that tourists are finding it ever-more difficult to find access to the hotels that are in the city centre, thanks to the complicated system whereby certain streets are restricted to residents only.

“The worst of it is that some of them who arrive by car receive a nice ‘visiting card’ in the form of a driving fine,” said a spokesman for the sector.

The Councillor for Mobility says that this is not the case because any tourist that requests to have the fine removed will obtain it, because in a broad sense, anybody staying in a hotel is technically, a resident. However, not many tourists on a tight sight-seeing agenda bother to go round to the police station to request an annulment, even if they were aware of such a possibility open to them. They normally find out that they have been fined shortly after returning home, and then complain to the hotel, who in turn complain to the City Hall.

Finally, the said councillor claims that these hotels have a direct link to a computer terminal within City Hall where they can register the number plates of their guests so that they do not get fined. However, according to the councillor, on many occasions, the hotels forget to do this.

Father or Son?
A woman, whose husband is in prison for having shot her mother, is pleading for his release because she claims that their young son was the one that pulled the trigger and that the father confessed to protect him.

“My son found the gun and went to show it to his grandmother,” claimed the wife, Isabella. The 13-year-old boy had already managed to load the magazine and the gun went off accidentally whilst it was pointing towards the woman, she claims.

The judge is not convinced, mind, because of an obvious question: why confess to a crime to protect the son out of parental love and then decide to turn round and blame him, six months later?

Again, the mother claims that at the time they didn’t realise that nothing would have happened to the boy, who, by the way, has a 33% mental incapacity. Furthermore, the forensic police found no trace of having fired the gun on the father’s hands or clothes.

Not Naughty Notary
A Public Notary has been acquitted of having raped a prostitute… That reminds me of an old joke: a prostitute is before a police sergeant at the police station and he is asking her, “If you were raped last week, why did you wait until now to report the crime,” to which she responded, “Because I didn’t know that it was rape until the cheque bounced.” Anyway, back to the article.

The notary had taken the women to a luxury hotel room in the centre of Sevilla, where the woman claims that she was forcibly raped and as a consequence of this, demanded 31,184 euros in compensation; the injuries received resulted in her not being able to work. Whilst the judge recognised that the notary did indeed take the prostitute to the said hotel room on the 18th of October 2008, the sexual injuries could not be determined: i.e., who had caused them or when they had been caused.

Unpleasant Neighbour
It’s not fun to suffer from schizophrenia; not for the person concerned, nor for the people who surround them, and in the case of a quiet ubanización in Huétor Vega, it is not only not fun, but terrifying.

“At first I felt sorry for her,” said María Pilar, but after the woman dragged her 14-year-old daughter around by her hair for wearing a miniskirt, that sentiment changed. It didn’t help the fact that the woman had also dug up Marias’ deceased husband to insult him in person, nor the incident when the violent neighbour advanced upon her with a cutter, promising that she was going to kill her.

But it is not only María Pilar who feels threatened because even social workers need a police escort when they visit her. Even the post woman was held against her will inside the house before she managed to escape.

The Mayor says that there is nothing that he can do because it is not in his hands, but in that of the health authorities. So far nothing has been done, though, despite police reports that have been sent to them.

Working for Nothing
You know when things are getting desperate when workers offer to work free of charge in order to save their jobs, which is the case of the 37 employees of Tenerías Alfa in Granada, who have offered to work every Saturday this year without pay.

The reason that their jobs are in peril is because the company wants to shut down their factory in Granada and move production to Valencia. The company did offer to find jobs for 15 of them in Valencia and the workers, who are all middle aged, accepted as long as the company paid their rental accommodation.

From the company’s point of view the transfer is necessary to save the mother plant in Valencia because the bottom has dropped out of the cured-leather business, with sales 30% down. The unions disagree, claiming that the company is healthy and that it was only 200,000 euros down in 2009, which is very little measured against the company’s total earnings.

According to the locals, you will find a pothole or crack every couple of kilometres wherever you drive in the area. That is if you can find the road, in the cases where it has slipped down the valley.

There are three main access roads to the Alpujarra Granadina and all three of them have problems.

The first one joins the capital of the comarca (county) to the Contraviesa, running through places like Haza de Lino and Murtas, for example.

The second major road joins Órgiva to Ugíjar (the second largest town in the area), passing through Torviscón and Cádiar, amongst others.

The third one is the highest one, joining Órgiva to the Alpujarra Almeriense via Trevélez – probably the best-known road for tourists. Between them they comprise about 300 kilometres of road, sprinkled with around 150 ‘problem areas.’

It’s hardly surprising of course, when the average rainfall for the area is anything up to 600 litres per sq/m, whereas last winter it was well over the 2,000 litres mark – some even claim nearly 3,000 litres.

Whereas the problem most certainly ‘fell out of the sky,’ there are many that believe that the Junta de Andalucía hasn’t been exactly ‘on the ball.’ How else can you explain that right in the middle of summer the debris of an angry winter has not been swept away and damage made good? After all, six months ago the Ideal newspaper published an article that listed 71 landslips just between Torviscón and Cádiar, five of which were the result of gales the previous year!

In their defence, six months ago the Junta announced that it was going to build seven diques de contencíon (dry weirs designed to stop flash floods eroding the dry riverbeds) in the Barranco de Poquiera within the municipalities of Pampaneira, Bubión and Capileira. This work, with a budget of 600,000 euros is being carried out at the moment. The Junta is also carrying out emergency repair work between Torviscón and Cádiar on the A-348, this time with an estimated budget of 1,200,000 euros.

“The years go by and the promised hospital, that is to be built in Órgiva, has still not materialised,” he said.
He also complained that a similar promise was made concerning a law-court building, which remains equally non-existent.

To be fair, Sr- Pérez must have missed the fact that we are up to our unmentionables in an economic crisis at the moment, which bear some relevance.

Interestingly, the hotel will have a solar-panel installation on the roof, providing 25kw, coupled with a projected biomass boiler, making the hotel self-sufficient in energy needs.
There’s even a plan to convert the old Lanjarón bottling plant into 50 tourist flats.

And it won’t cost you an arm and a leg, because bearing the present miserable economic climate, the entrance fee is only 20 euros per adult and a reduced price for kids.

The event is being held at the Plaza de Toros, starting at 22.15h and counts on such competitors as Edgar Torronteras, who holds Nº1 slot in the Spanish Championships in the Free-Style field. Another big name on the national circuit is José Miralles, who is a sub-champion in the world arena

Oil by Sollmann of church in Albacín

The photos belong to the descendents of Paul Sollmann (1886-1950) from Germany who took many photos in that year of Granada city and province, as well as other cities in Spain. This photographer and impressionist painter live in Granada until the 1920’s when he returned to his homeland. Whilst living in Granada, he married Granadina Angelina Macho Millet Martos.

The photos will be on display until September, so there is plenty of time, but don’t forget, of course.