Olive Press Newspaper - Issue 353

The

OLIVE PRESS

Mijas Costa FREE

Andalucía

Your expat

voice in Spain

Vol. 13 Issue 353 www.theolivepress.es September 30th - October 13th 2020

Meet the stars at San Sebastian

An Olive Press special report: See page 3

Royal sweep

Maddie

Chief suspect ‘confessed’ to kidnap at Granada festival...

Page 5 LITTER QUEEN: Doña Sofia helped in costa clean-up

Our squatter hell

Squatters take over British expat’s property meant for her sick daughter while threatening to kill entire family

Page 9

Castle heaven A tour of Spain’s most iconic castillos...

Page 20

TRADING BEYOND THE HORIZON WITH BINCK

A BRITISH expat has become scared to leave her own house after being terrorised by a family of squatters for the past two years.

Tina Cackett, 64, claims she has been verbally assaulted and received several death threats from the family since they illegally took over the property next to hers, which she also owns, in December 2018.

On one occasion, Tina, a live-in carer, had to barricade herself inside her home while the father of the squatter family repeatedly screamed at her in her driveway that he was going to kill her.

“It was terrifying,” Tina, from Colchester, told the Olive Press. “He looked deranged, like he was on something, and just kept screaming that he was going to kill me and that he had friends who would come and kill me.

“His wife was holding him back and begging him to leave my driveway while I phoned police.”

The trou-

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“When they finally had a lawyer, he managed to find a misprint ble began when Tina bought the in the escritura house, which sits just across a dried which he claimed out riverbed from her own home, suggested the inin Competa, Malaga, at the end of heritors might 2018. not have had the The previous owners, who she was right to sell the very close to, had died, and the in- property, but it heritors of the property decided to was just a typo.” sell it to Tina.

To make mat“I wanted a home for my daughter ters worse, Tina Kristine, she is often ill and needs had to find a new hospital treatment or looking after, solicitor after SCARED: Tina Cackett and daughter Kristine (left) so the setup was ideal,” Tina ex- discovering her plained. previous one was charging her for started throwing rocks at him,” Tina claimed, “even their child was But while waiting for the deeds to be hours not worked. put into her name, which took sev- She now has the documents in or- shouting death threats, it’s just horeral weeks, the squatters moved in der to prove she bought the home rible, and the mother is supposed to and changed the locks. legally and is hoping for a resolution be a care worker! Even my daughter Since then a legal battle has ensued, this year, but everything has been has received threatening WhatsApp which has been delayed and extend- slowed down due to the COVID-19 messages, which we have saved for police. ed on technicalities. pandemic.

“The first couple of times they Meanwhile the squatter family “I’m scared to leave my house to turned up without a lawyer, which continues to threaten Tina and her take my dogs for a walk in case they do something to me. means the case gets adjourned,” loved ones. added Tina. “I’ve been told it’s a tac- Just three weeks ago Tina’s partner “This family has ruined our lives tic they use a lot to buy time. was also threatened by the father, and it’s just not fair, while I paid all mother and son, who their bills they’re living rent free in is only around 12 years my property and driving around in old. a new car.”

“They told him to ‘go Tina has contacted two privateback to England you ly-run squatter removal companies English madman’ and but they said as there is a court case ongoing they cannot take on her case.

It comes as Spain’s right THE SKY wing parties are hoping to AUTHORISED DOCTOR clampdown on squatting, DISTRIBUTOR ALL AREAS COVERED which has soared during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Partido Popular and Vox KEEP SQUATTERS OUT! 4G UNLIMITED want to see stricter meaINTERNET sures, including thousands Special Anti “Okupas” IDEAL FOR of euros in fines and up to alarm offer STREAMING TV three years in prison.

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By Laurence Dollimore

X

Saintly town

All you need to know about San Pedro de Alcantara...

QUEEN Doña Sofia has caused a stir in the Axarquian fishing town of Rincon de la Victoria.

The 81-year-old monarch arrived at the coastal town to participate in International Beach Cleaning Day, an incentive to tidy up the world's beaches after a summer of use.

During her 30-minute visit, Queen Doña Sofia donned gloves, a mask and refuse bags and joined the volunteers in collecting trash from the Virgen del Carmen beach.

In an effort to keep the crowds to a minimum during her visit, media was kept in the dark until the very last minute, however despite this, almost 700 onlookers gathered to show their support.

During her 30 minute stay the support from the audience was overwhelming, with shouts of 'Long live the Queen!', 'Beautiful!' and 'Long live Spain!'.

The love for the former monarch is far removed from the controversy surrounding her husband Juan Carlos I and the investigation into his corruption throughout his reign.

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Opinion Page 6

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CRIME

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NEWS IN BRIEF Modern-day slavery THE Spanish National Police have released a video warning people not to use prostitutes, highlighting that the industry indirectly funds human trafficking in the country.

Farm death A MAN, 30, has been stabbed to death in Mallorca after breaking into a farm to allegedly steal marijuana.

Fired up NEARLY 40 firefighters and a helicopter fought to put out a forest fire in Tarifa forcing the closure of the main N-340 road at times.

Young thug THE alleged leader of a migrant smuggling ring has been arrested in Mallorca. The Algerian suspect is aged just 22.

September 30th - October 13th 2020

Can’t buy taste

A SERIES of photos released by police has revealed the extravagant and over the top interiors of some of southern Spain’s biggest drug lords.

Designer candles, tiger heads and pool slides are just some of the features of the homes situated between the Campo de Gibraltar, Sevilla and Malaga.

According to authorities, the gangs make so much cash that they have to splurge on luxury items to get rid of it, hence ‘designer everything’ is the norm, down to the pillowcases and even stair banisters.

Police have raided dozens of properties since launching the Campo de Gibraltar Special Security Plan just over

Interiors of Campo de Gibraltar drug lords reveal ridiculous spending and questionable style choices

By Laurence Dollimore

two years ago.

The constant raids are giving further insights into how the so-called narcos live including their questionable taste.

“They are still big children who have a lot of money and have to spend it quickly,” a Guardia Civil source told ABC. “They have money to burn and they buy whatever they want without even looking at the price tag.”

The home of El Pincho, a Campo de Gibraltar kingpin

Hash bash

A BRITISH driver has been arrested after attempting to smuggle €300 worth of drugs through Marbella.

The 46-year-old had 31 kilos of hashish stashed inside a box, hidden under a blanket in the trunk of his car.

Once cut and sold, the drugs would have had an estimated street value of €300,000.

The driver was stopped by Policia Nacional on the Ojen Highway.

Officers asked the driver for his documentation but he ignored their order and fled the scene. Police managed to intercept the vehicle and uncovered 31.30 kilos of hashish and €5,910 euros in cash.

CASH TO SPLASH: Only the best will do who is still on the run, re- The San Roque portedly left officers speech- property, in El Albarraless. cin, has three floors and a pool converted into a mini theme park with life-size figures of two sabre toothed tigers, a cobra, flamingos, monkeys and other birds.

INDIAN spice dealers have been found The house itself was filled to be smuggling huge quantities of with Moai Easter Island weapons and marijuana from the Nethstatues and a crocodile staterlands to the Costa Blanca and Costa ue measuring several metres del Sol.An Indian food business hid the which served as a bench. guns and drugs among spices with similar characteristics to the cannabis leaf.

Versace Sources say the Amsterdam-based gang The rooms all had their own made frequent trips to Spain in heavy themes, such as Greece, trucks, with 250kg of marijuana seized Egypt and India, complete in the latest operation. Dutch and Spanwith strobe lights and bedish police made three arrests in Alicante ding by Hermes, Yves Saint and another three in Amsterdam, with Laurent, Gucci and Em13 in various warehouses around the porio Armani and Versace Dutch capital. candles.

Spice ain’t right

Dad rapes daughter A FATHER who repeatedly raped his young daughter until she became pregnant has been sentenced to 12 years in jail.

The unanmed paedophile began raping his daughter when she was 12 and did not stop until October 3 2019, when, at 13, she was rushed to the medical centre with severe abdominal pain.

A paediatrician soon discovered that the girl was 21 weeks pregnant.

The girl reported how her father abused her, but her mother rejected her claims and said she had a ‘wild imagination’, according to the Policia Nacional arrest report.

It led to the mother also being investigated, but that line of inquiry was quickly dropped.

The victim, who’s lower-than-average intelligence ‘made her more vulnerable’, decided to end the pregnancy before a DNA test confirmed her father was the man who had impregnated her.

He admitted to raping his daughter in the living room of the family home, in the Pino Montano neighbourhood of Sevilla, while the mother and his baby boy took naps in another room. He will receive eight years of probation upon release, the loss of parental rights over the girl and his son and a ban on contacting or coming within 1,000 metres of his daughter for 15 years. He must also pay a total of €80,000 in damages to the mother and daughter.

San Sebastian Film Festival SPECIAL

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The Olive Press’s Lydia Spencer-Elliott reports from the silver screen event of the year

W

There was an emotional atmosphere as stars took to the red carpet and audiences sat in screenings for the first time since the pandemic’s economic downturn nearly

And the winner is...

Golden Shell, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Screenplay

‘Dasatskisi / Beginning’ The Silver Shell for Best Actor Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang and Lars Ranthe in ‘Druk / Another Round’ The Special Jury Prize Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan

Olive Press picks Premiering at the Festival’s closing gala ceremony, Forgotten We’ll Be by Oscar-winning director Fernando Trueba is a warm and sweeping drama centered around the family of a Colombian doctor and human rights activist Hector Abad Gomez in 1970s Medellin. Lessons in love and tolerance are at its heart: “It’s a universal story for all languages and all countries,” Trueba told reporters.

Woody Allen’s rising star KEN Appledorn (pictured left) first moved to Spain from Michigan for love. Fifteen years ago, after losing his heart to Jorge Cadaval of the beloved comedy duo Los Morancos, he packed his bags and headed for Triana, Sevilla. And, regardless of the popularity of his spouse, Appledorn’s talent has spoken for itself in the Spanish cinema scene as he featured in Woody Allen’s latest feature Rifkin’s Festival, which kicked off the San Sebastian Film Festival.

“I’m excited to have worked with Woody, he was actually really cool and fun,” Appledorn told the Olive Press.

“On set he told me to come over and my mouth just opened wide. The assistant director had to tell me ‘he’s not going to bite you’.”

squashed the creative industry.

And there was no shortage of Hollywood glamour as some of the Silver Screen’s biggest names gave the event their full support.

Matt Dillon (pictured above), Johnny Depp, Viggo Mortensen and Gina Gershon all jetted to San Sebastian for the 68th year of the festival.

“Each edition of the film festival is unique and unrepeatable,” said host Edurne Ormazabal. “But this year’s has been even more so.

There have been no parties and no crowds, not even whispering anything in the ear of our seat mates.

We are moved by the exemplary behaviour of the audience.”

Movie goers were jovial, clapping along to introductory music at every

screening.

In a pre-recorded message at the premiere of Nomadland Francis McDormand waxed lyrical about the city: “San Sebastian is fantastic,” she told the audience in her absence. “Eat some good food for me.”

When he took to the stage in the Basque Country, Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen held an optimistic outlook: “COVID-19 has screwed us all and will continue to screw us for some time to come, but it is only another stumbling block in our existence,” he said.

“Uncertainty is the law of life, but don’t let us forget that life is a gift.

We must continue to forge ahead.

Long live the cinema!”

Red Carpet Ravine When people say San Sebastian will blow you away they first mean by the Michelin star pintxos. After that, they’re referring to the gale force winds.

Stars battled biblical rain and 90km gusts on the film festival’s red carpet as Louboutins got soggy and gown hems saturated.

Despite the torrential rain, Gina Gershon wowed in a plunging black gown and black lace stilettos, while Matt Dillon was chic in a navy suit and v-neck jumper.

Katherine Waterston was a picture of deadpan beauty at the premiere of World to Come at the Victoria Eugene Theatre.

But she couldn’t help but flash a quick smirk when the Olive Press asked if she was pleased to have escaped the quarantine craziness of the UK. Tunbridge Wells boy Joe Alwyn took to the carpet in a striking geometric print shirt. The Favourite actor has been romantically linked to pop superstar Taylor Swift since 2017, with friends placing bets on when the pair will announce their engagement.

SMILE: Katherine Waterston was a picture of beauty

3

Depp takes Donostia

Celluloid central

ITH Cannes cancelled and Venice drastically downsized, Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival has led the way for cinema in 2020.

September 30th October 13th 2020

CLAD in a baker boy hat, dark aviators and his famous assortment of rings, Johnny Depp touched down in Donostia to promote his new documentary Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan.

Depp revealed to reporters he met the Pogues singer while on a bender in Dublin: “I remember bits of it,” said Depp. “I remember my breakfast, which was Guiness and Irish coffee, my lunch, which was Guiness and Irish coffee and dinner was just Jamesons or Black Bush.”

The star was in high spirits as he recalled the memory, despite admitting to challenges with alcoholism at a court hearing over his alleged abuse of wife Amber Heard in June.

“I don’t give a f**** about politics,” said Depp when quizzed on the upcoming US election.

“I watch Trump speak and I laugh: It’s great comedy. But I would like to take people out of fear and danger and I don’t believe that he’s the one to do it.”

The star then returned to the Maria Cristina Hotel and emerged in a petrol blue suit ahead of the evening’s premiere.

Staff revealed to the Olive Press that even with A-list festival guests, like Depp and Matt Dillon, they still hadn’t managed to reach capacity following the coronavirus pandemic.

Crock of Gold scooped The Special Jury Prize for director Julien Temple.

BOOTED OUT STAFF were forced to remove French director Eugene Green from his own movie premiere after he refused five times to wear a mask. “He lost his status as a festival guest due to his lack of respect,” said festival officials. An embarrassed audience continued with the screening of Atarrabi & Mikelats after the surly Frenchman had been ejected.

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NEWS

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Paw-sitively surreal AN Iberian lynx has been captured while roaming the streets of Huelva.

Police were called to the wild cat wandering through the Plaza de España in Rociana del Condado.

Members of the Guardia Civil's Nature Protection Service (Seprona), together with experts from the El Acebuche breeding centre hurried to the scene to safely capture the feline.

The lynx was finally caught just over two hours later after becoming trapped in the entrance of a house.

The animal was netted and after an initial check was safely transferred to the Centre for the Recovery of Threatened Species (CREA) in La Calatilla.

SPOKEN

Sky high fireball!

A BRIGHT meteor has been filmed soaring over Andalucia.

The phenomenon, recorded by detectors of the SMART project, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (IAA-CSIC), was spotted from the meteor-observing stations located in Sevilla, La Sagra (Granada), La Hita (Toledo), Sierra Nevada

(Granada) and Calar Alto.

The fireball was generated when a rock from an asteroid hit the atmosphere at around 39,000 km/hr.

It entered at an altitude of about 80 km over Sevilla before advancing in a north-easterly direction, entering Cordoba and extinguishing at an altitude of 26 km.

Hooligans fined DUTCH football fans who humiliated and goaded four Roma women begging for money in Madrid’s iconic Plaza Mayor have been ordered to pay €1,500 in damages each.

The four men had travelled to the city in 2016 to watch PSV Eindhoven take on Atletico de Madrid.

They were caught on video tossing coins to the ground and goading the women into doing push-ups in exchange for cash.

A Madrid court sentenced the men to three months jail, which will be suspended as it is under two years, and ordered them to pay damages.

Neither the victims nor the Dutchmen appeared in court.

The defendants gave evidence via video link and apologised.

Pilfered post

By Eugene Costello

SCORES of expat customers of eBay and Amazon UK living in Spain claim they are having their parcels stolen by a ‘scam outfit’ of a delivery company.

SEUR is accused of lying to customers, failing to deliver parcels, providing a phone number that doesn't work and a non-existent email address.

Companies in the UK company subcontract their deliveries to DPD, who in turn subcontract Spanish deliveries to SEUR. On the company reviews website Trustpilot, SEUR receives 4,423 ratings. Of these, 4,250 – 96% – give the company the worst possible rating of onestar or ‘bad’. Another 2% rate them ‘poor’ or ‘average’, while less than 2% rate them ‘excellent’.

The Olive Press tried to ring the number listed on its website but a recorded message advised that the number does not exist. We then tried to email the company and it came back as ‘undeliverable’, advising that the address does not exist. And when we tried to fill in a form on the site, the ‘submit’ button didn’t work.

An eBay spokesperson told the Olive Press: "eBay does not have a role in deciding the delivery service used on an international order as this is the seller's responsibility. However our eBay Money Back Guarantee ensures that if something goes wrong with the delivery and an item does not arrive, the buyer can be quickly refunded.

“If a buyer would like to opt out of using a certain courier on an order, they should contact the seller and request an alternative prior to purchasing."

Butcher’s tentacles Looking for Flexib HE was the ‘most corrupt man in the history of Syria’ who spent millions of his ill-gotten gains buying up properties and businesses in southern Spain.

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That is what has been concluded by investigators in Madrid, who have levelled a multitude of money laundering accusations against Rifaat Al-Assad, the uncle of current Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad.

According to a pre-trial report seen by the Olive Press, Rifaat treated his home country as a cash cow, smuggling drugs, stealing artefacts and usurping property at will, all with the help of state security forces.

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Sickening

According to military witnesses in Syria, Rifaat, not content with being Chief of the Defense Brigades, created the Shabiha, a paramilitary group which would carry out sickening crimes to help line his pockets.

A former general told investigators: “Rifaat was the superior head of the entire intelligence system...in Syria he was almost God.” A witness told the French: “You have in your hands the most corrupt man in the history of Syria… I have personally seen cannabis fields that were pro-

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September 30th - October 13th 2020

BUTCHER: Al-Assad tected and nurtured by the defense brigades. But I also know about opium that was sold to Saudi Arabia.”

In the 1980s he was exiled by his brother - but not before making a deal to drain the country’s coffers of $300 million, which was disguised as loans and government expenses. Rifaat then set up a highly complex network of 29 shell companies in Gibraltar, and others in the Bahamas, Panama and the US. They would buy up large swathes of property in Spain before being transferred to Spanish companies. The Al-Assad network bought 507 properties

valued at €695 million. These included 80-plus properties in the Gray d’Albion complex in Puerto Banus and dozens in the Benabola - which would have made millions by being rented out since the 1990s.

They have all been seized since a Europe-wide probe into Rifaat was launched in 2017. Some 26 bank accounts were also frozen, containing €672,289.

Prosecutors in Spain are seeking a €1 billion fine against Rifaat, and €700 million for each of his children for alleged years of money laundering. It is not known when a trial will be heard.

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Daniel Mee, 25, and Jayden Dolman, 20, died on July 3 2019, during a holiday in Punta Prima de Orihuela in Alicante.

The friends were taking a selfie along the seafront when they lost their balance and plunged nine metres over a railing onto the rocky beach below.

Mee was killed instantly whilst Dolman was transferred to the Hospital of Torrevieja where he succumbed to his injuries.

In inquest into the death of Mee, held in the pair's hometown of Taunton, Somerset has revealed eye witness reports of the incident from their friend, Lewis Higgins.

"Jayden and Daniel were walking from the villa to the nearest beach." he said.

"They were taking pictures while they were walking.

Daniel embraced Jayden. I saw them both close to the railings. Then they fell."

Toxicology reports taken found that the alcohol level in Mee's blood was 215mg, three times over the drink drive limit.

NEWS

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Maddie suspect confessed to crime links at Granada music festival as he gets sucked into new child sex probe, writes Jon Clarke THE key suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann allegedly confessed to his involvement in the case at a Spanish music festival over a decade ago.

Christian Brueckner admitted his links to the snatch of the three-year-old, while socialising with pals at the Dragon Festival, in Granada, in March 2008.

The German paedophile - who lived close to where Maddie was taken in Portugal in May 2007 - came clean while negotiating a big drug deal at the week-long event, near Orgiva.

According to his pal Helge Busching, 48, he confessed at the hippy bash that he attended on various occasions, the Olive Press can reveal.

Speaking to The Sun in Corsica, he refused to give exact details of the information he gave British police from Operation Grange in 2017.

However, he insisted he was ‘guilty’ and confirmed it was his tip off that led to German police to develop their current case against Brueckner.

The German - who had briefly lived with Brueckner in Greece - is a convicted people smuggler, who is believed to have given his testimony in return for a reduction of a seven-year sentence.

The Olive Press can reveal that it was Busching and another

September 30th - October 13th 2020

5

Explain in Spain

German, Manfred Seyferth, who had cleared out Brueckner’s Praia da Luz home, after he was sent to prison for diesel theft in March 2006.

Making it look like a burglary, the pair had taken all incriminating evidence, including dozens of passports, money and watches.

But, it was during that raid that

DRAGON FESTIVAL: Brueckner admitted his links to missing Maddie at the hippie bash near Orgiva

OLD PALS: (from left) Busching, Brueckner, Tatschl and Seyferth they also took a video camera, on which they found sick recordings of Brueckner undertaking two rapes. One which last year convicted Brueckner of the 2005 rape of Diana Menkes, a 72-year-old American.

A combination of a hair found at the scene, plus the testimony of Busching, led to Brueckner being handed a seven year sentence, which he is serving in Kiel, in Germany.

Seyferth, who also knows Brueckner, said: ‘’I knew he (Busching) had told British police Christian was involved.

He told me he had something very important to tell Scotland Yard… and what he had to say about Madeleine and Christian was very important.’’

The Olive Press revealed in June how convicted rapist Brueckner was a frequent visitor to the Alpujarras region of

Granada.

He was certainly visiting the town of Orgiva to visit his best friend, Austrian expat Michael Tatschl around a month after Maddie went missing in 2007.

“It was late May or early June when he turned up with this big American campervan, the Winnebago,” Tatschl told the Olive Press.

“He came looking for me as he knew I had connections to the marijuana world,” added Tatschl, who lived with him in Portugal and spent eight months in prison with him for diesel theft.

“We all wondered where he’d got this big expensive van. We assumed a big drug deal or something like that. Now I suspect it was Maddie.

“He was definitely a pervert and all his friends thought that about him.”

He continued that Brueckner ‘often’ came to Spain ‘dealing drugs’ and had been to Orgiva many times.

Granada police have now confirmed they looked to see if Brueckner could be linked to any sex offences in the area between 2007 and 2020.

In particular the suspected rape of a child at the Dragon Festival in 2007, which Christian may have attended.

According to one user of the popular Facebook site Orgiva Massive, the crime was never solved.

It comes as it emerged he is now facing a new charge of exposing himself to a 10-yearold German girl on an Algarve beach, just ONE MONTH before Maddie went missing.

Joanna Eilts, 23, has now identified Brueckner as the naked man who grabbed her by the

arm and began to masterbate.

Just 10kms from Praia da Luz, he first talked to her in English and then German.

In 2014, Brueckner assaulted a five-year-old girl in a public park in Braunschweig, Germany, before taking graphic photographs of her which he saved on a memory card.

During an investigation, police raided his flat, they found a Casio Exilim digital camera with 391 vile images and 68 videos of abuse. On the same camera, detectives found about five photographs of Brueckner abusing the five-year-old girl in the park.

Portuguese police have also just started reinvestigating his links to a rape of a 20-yearold Irish girl Hazel Bevan near Praia da Luz, as well as his exposure to four children in Portugal in 2017.

Brueckner’s lawyer Friedrich Fulscher insisted that his client was ‘innocent’ of any involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine.

6

NEWS FEATURE

www.theolivepress.es Voted top expat paper in Spain

A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than two million people a month.

OPINION Squat out of hell COVID-19 could be creating a squatters’ paradise as travel restrictions limit the ability of people to visit homes.

The number of properties lying empty in Spain could result in a surge in the number of squatters as thousands of homes lie empty across the country.

To tackle this, more needs to erase the scourge of illegal property ‘ownership’ - because at the moment authorities seem to do diddly-squat.

In 2018, the Spanish government brought in a law that can reduce eviction time to 20 days, but in practice, this rarely happens.

Instead, owners find it near impossible to force out the intruders, with more than 83,000 properties reported to be illegally occupied in the middle of 2019, a year-onyear rise of nearly 6%.

Squatters are covered by certain rights of possession in law when properties are not lived in and owners must complain to police within 48 hours of discovering the okupas.

However, if they leave it until later owners may be forced to start long legal battles to remove them, like Tina Cackett, who told the Olive Press (see front page) her story of the squatters from hell.

Unlike the squatters, owners are left in an uncomfortable position. Either face violence and threats or squander thousands on legal bills to squish the squatters rights.

Mailroom meltdown OUR front page last week told of the horrors of one unlucky expat’s battle for her post at Fuengirola Correos office. Since then, the floodgates have opened to readers’ experiences of letter and package disappearances that are both unfair and unexplained. Now, from our story on SEUR delivery company (see page 4) this week, it is clear that it is not only Correos that is mucking about with mail but courier businesses too. Isn’t it about time that we expats can expect our post to arrive at our door without hiring a legal team, undergoing an investigation or jumping through hoops? A hope and a prayer simply isn’t enough to ensure successful arrival anymore. Yet, posties even delivered letters and parcels during the blitz. So, how on earth have so many deliveries managed to go AWOL in modern day Spain?

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Eye of the hurricane La Linea mayor ‘with the most difficult job in Europe’ speaks exclusively to the Olive Press

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pain and the UK are both guilty of serious class divides. And, as in Britain, splashing the cash in Spain isn’t always synonymous with good taste or manners.

Zara owner and retail giant Amancio Ortega is your prime example. Despite a net worth of 67 Billion USD, he has regularly been spotted driving a demure black Audi while dressed like anyone’s uncle in a blue shirt and sensible shoes.

Meanwhile, on the streets of Puerto Banus, boy racers hurtle round corners in luminous purple Tron Aventadors and bedazzled Lamborghinis.

The appearance is gauche and it certainly isn’t ‘upper class’. The grinding gears and revving engines deafen passers by.

This is the way of the ‘pijo’. For simplification, think of them as types with ‘a fur coat no knickers’ philosophy. It’s all for show and while they may not earn a significant sum, they spend at a sensational rate.

Most days they can be found ordering countless bottles of champagne at a beach club blow out.

They dance with their hands in the air, not out of elation but to avoid water damage to their fake timepiece.

In Britain, wealth manifests itself in a few choice items and behaviours.

These include, but are not limited to:

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Named the best English language publication in Andalucia by the Rough Guides group.

the surge of drug crime has become the greatest scourge of the southern coastline of Spain.

In a hard-hitting interview with one of Andalucia’s most popular alcaldes, he tells the Olive Press that when he became mayor of La Linea in 2015, he knew he was taking on the ‘most difficult job in Europe’.

Born and raised in the town that sprawls along the border of Gibraltar, Franco has

Where high society and high price tags don’t always go hand in hand. Lydia SpencerElliott sorts the pijos from the truly posh

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Best expat paper in Spain and the second best in the world. The Expat Survey Consumer Awards.

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IRING gunshots into the air, police officers swarmed towards a boat full of drug traffickers as they raced towards the beach for a drop off in the dead of night.

It looked like something from the Mexican narco wars. But the scene, from the new documentary on Netflix, is real and happening on an almost daily basis just kilometres from popular tourists hotspots on the Costa del Sol. While the hard-hitting miniseries, La Linea: shadow of Narco, makes for shocking viewing for those watching faraway from the comfort of their sofa, town mayor Jose Juan Franco Rodriguez knows better than anyone how

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Similarly in Spain, there are tell tale signs that sort the pijos from the truly privileged. ●● Paella is strictly a lunchtime dish. The elite don’t roast themselves on the beach in the midday heat— that’s reserved for Brits abroad or office workers with the day off. Instead, they indulge in luxurious long lunches. Think a shaded chiringuito wrapped in a slouchy Ralph Lauren linen shirt. Large meals are exclusively for lunchtimes so don’t order paella at 9pm. ●●A glow from within Despite spending seemingly all their time in the shade, the wealthy are deeply bronzed. They radiate the same golden hue as the Renaissance antiques in their coastal summer homes. This can only be achieved with the privilege that allows for summers that last from May to October. Not the same as the mahogany bronze you get from spending every day of your two week trip basted in Factor 4 tanning oil, sorry. ●● ‘Cortijo’ countryside boltholes The UK and Spain have this one in common. Whether a farm in Cordoba like Victoria Ortiz Martinez-Sagrera or a hillside hideaway in Sarria-Sant Gervasi, Barcelona, everyone needs a mountainside mansion to escape from the bustle of the weekday social scene. Must have horses. ●● Watersports. There’s a breed of lowkey pijo that melds the moneyed with the bohemian. Dubbed the ‘pijhippie’ they can be found in Tarifa in campervans or kitesurfing. Similar energy to ‘gap yah’ students from West London. ●● Bimba y Lola crossbody bags. I can’t explain this one. But they are on tabletops everywhere from Nobu to Restaurante El Paraguas. Costing €100 to €300, they don’t break the bank in the same way Dolce does. Yet, they have infiltrated the wardrobes of millenials and old-money mujeres alike. ●● Winters in Baquiera Beret. The Courchevel of Spain, nestled in the Pyrenees at Lleida, with winding slopes and a Sisley spa. Hotel Val de Neu is the go-to accommodation for the cognoscenti. Bogner ski jackets are a must. ●● Forget fast fashion. We’re talking ‘investment pieces’ people. Timeless silk and linen for summer, classic cashmere and denim for winter. Queen Letizia and Helena Revoredo rewear their outfits: sustainability is chic, honestly.

www.theolivepress.es

September 30th - October 13th 2020

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FRONT LINE: La Linea with the bright lights of Gibraltar and (inset) police raids which are common place in the fight against criminal gangs

Olive Press online ‘Spain’s best English news website’

Worth paying for

W

E at the Olive Press are always keen to talk to our readers to get constructive comments and feedback.

After all, without readers – whether for our traditional newspapers or our website and online platforms – there is really very little point to our job.

So we take note of what people are saying to us, as our announcement of a 50% discount on our paywall for pensioners and students proved.

But one question we get is 'what do I get for my money – what am I paying for?'

Well, what you get is journalism, you are paying for people who excel at storytelling to do the work they love and the job they were trained to do.

dedicated his career to improving the place he says remains ‘in the eye of the hurricane’.

It used to be that just the presence of the police on the shores of La Linea de la Concepción was enough to deter the criminals - Franco once said he believed the earlier generations ‘had certain ethics’ when it came to the drugs trade.

But in recent years they have grown bolder and more sophisticated in their ruthless dealings and it is estimated that more than 30 drug gangs employ circa 3,000 people, with the documentary sharing shocking footage of drug boats loaded full of packages as they speed past police boats and empty beaches, a law unto themselves.

It’s these extreme circumstances that persuaded Franco to open the doors of the Town Hall to Netflix television crews for many months last year, in the hope that the documentary would expose the dangers faced by the city and put pressure on central government to cough up extra funds and resources.

Whether they will, remains to be seen and Franco reveals that he is still in two minds about the documentary.

“I would prefer to talk about the strength of our city but the reality of narcos traffic is always there,” he told the Olive Press from his La Linea office.

“I understand it is the show they want to make. We are not Columbia, but it's clear they wanted to show that we were going that way because that is entertaining.”

He adds: “We have a very uncomfortable reality in La Linea. Thousands of people try to earn their money honestly but the drug dealers are here and so is the tobacco smuggling industry.

“When we talk with the people who live here, they want everyone to know the truth of the city - but it has two branches.

“On the one hand we are a normal city, what we have built here is impressive but on the other, there is a dark social reality in our town.

“The root of the problem is a very complicated social issue. Our city is just 50km from Morocco, the biggest producer of cannabis in the world, and we have 12km of beach that is very hard to monitor. We have become the gateway for drugs getting into Europe.”

ON DUTY: Police patrol the streets

Trailblazing

EERIE: Calm before the storm

Being behind a paywall frees us from the tyranny of 'clickbait journalism'. With the knowledge that money is coming in, we do not have to chain our reporters to their desks to chase ever more page views.

Thanks to those people who have signed up for €5.99 a month – or €59 a year – we can afford to free our journalists to do what they do best – get out and about, meet people and report back to you, our readers.

It is how we have managed to send one of our writers to the San Sebastian Film Festival this week to bring you daily reports on the latest news from what in these coronavirus-stricken times, is probably the most important fim event in Europe.

This is the sort of event we can cover with an extra income stream – and we are pleased to announce out paywall website has got off to a flying start. Within just a month more than 3,000 people have registered with us, and hundreds have paid to get unlimited access to our site.

This is way beyond our initial expectations – so thank you to everyone who has recognised that quality journalism is worth paying for!

Winning thanks

It’s the proximity to both Gibraltar and “We need a plan to improve the infraMorocco has made the city a key base structure here from the central governfor criminal gangs and drug kingpins, ment. We need Madrid’s attention to help with narcos travelling in by high-powered us ensure that young people can go into speedboats every night from north Africa good jobs, not just turn to criminal organisations for money.” to drop off several tonnes of Unemployment rates in hashish and tobacco.

2020 hover around the Franco says his main chalMadrid’s 33% mark – a fact that has lenge is getting through to pushed many of its people the youngster who, in some attention is into assisting the Rock’s areas of the city, worship narcos like pop stars. needed to stop smugglers by warehousing contraband tobacco from “The majority of people in young people Gibraltar and drugs from La Linea are against the drug trade,” insists Franco, turning to crime Morocco before it is distributed throughout mainland a lawyer by trade, who has Spain. children. “But there is a miBut Franco is hopeful that nority of people who idolise change is coming. As the final Brexit deadthe drug clans.

“Even if we are talking just 1% of the pop- line looms, with the transition period due ulation, that is a big problem because to end on December 31, Franco predicts then that’sº about 700 people. In certain businesses will be looking to move their areas of the city, the operations from Gibraltar to La Linea, ponarcos are god. But tentially creating thousands of new jobs in the majority of peo- the area. ple hate the circum- “This is my focus for the next three stances we are in.” months. There are people, particularly in Change, Franco the financial sector, that need a passport says, will only come to work in Europe and I hope that La Linea from educating can become the platform for these activithese youngsters ties and connect people to the EU.” and ensuring they Franco - who has a strong mandate having enter better forms won a large majority in the elections - is of employment in- determined but admits that challenges stead of turning to his city faces are overwhelming. criminal gangs as a “The problem is that we cannot reject or way to make money. minimise the drugs arriving from Africa.

“If we solve the We cannot change the fact that it is so problem of unem- close. ployment and low “But we are taking steps to change our reeducation that will ality here,” he concludes with a smile. “I help,” he believes. am committed to that.”

A

S part of our thanks we can announce the winners of our paywall’s introductory competition.

Ann Coxshall was first out of the hat and will enjoy a luxury stay at la Perla Villa in La Cala de Mijas, with a slap up meal prepared specially by top chef Joffrey Charles.

Alison Wright has taken second prize of a one year free subscription to the Olive Press website, and Paula de Batzelier gets a six month subscription.

The top five most read stories on www.theolivepress.es in the past two weeks are: eyesore set to be knocked down 1-Benidorm on Spain’s Costa Blanca (31,583) Lloyds becomes latest bank to strip Eu2but-ropean expats of British current accounts, Spanish customers remain in the dark (21,344)

on Spain’s Costa blanca use 3- Gang smishing scam to con bank customers (18,277) COVID-19 measures coming to 4- Sticter Spain’s Andalucia on Tuesday (12,423) defied dreadful August for stru5- Denia ggling hotels on Spain’s Costa Blanca (11,922)

Get in touch today at sales@theolivepress.es or call us at 00 34 951273575 for a special quote

LA CULTURA

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what’s on

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STUDIES carried out on prehistoric cave paintings nestled deep in the Andalucian hills have shed light on human life 7,000 years ago.

Scholars from the University of Granada, Durham University and the Autonomous University of Barcelona carried out in depth analysis of neolithic paintings discovered in a cave in Los Machos, Granada.

During their findings, re-

ummy yoga

Join Yoga Shala in Benahavis on October 10 for a relaxing morning of meditation, yoga with brunch cooked by a professional chef: Call 664 11 30 06 to secure your slot.

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unday session

Head to Wakana lake on October 11 for their first in a series of ‘PicNYL’ Sunday parties with music from 6pm, a great selection of vinyl, gastronomy services and entry at just €10.

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ilver screen

Film buffs watch out for the Marbella Film Festival, which kicks off from October 7 until October 11 and for the first time will be entirely online: Head to marbellafilmfestival.com to get involved.

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ubbles business

PENELOPE Cruz has joined up with fellow Spanish superstar Antonio Banderas to resume shooting of one of the year’s biggest Spanish productions.

The cameras have started rolling again on the set of Official Competition, after

SUPERSTAR: Banderas

cently published in the Journal of Antiquity, they discovered that painting on the walls of dwellings was not a pastime reserved for the males of the community but was very much a social activity.

This discovery was made possible thanks to the abil-

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ity to establish the ages and sexes of the individuals responsible for each illustration through fingerprints left at the scene.

The expert analysis on 32 paintings revealed that fingerprints were left by both men and women and from a wide variety of ages.

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ANCIENT: Los Machos

Spanish superstars restart shooting Spain’s biggest film of the year filming was stopped in March after just eight days due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The high-profile movie, produced by Mediapro Studio, features a heavyweight cast.

As well as two of Spain’s biggest stars, Argentinian Oscar Martinez, a former San Sebastian, Venice and Argentine Academy best actor award-winner also features.

The film focuses on Banderas and Martinez who play famous actors whose egos lead to an on set clash, with Cruz playing the film’s director.

OP QUICK Crossword 1

Casa Amor

Digging into the past

Cruzing in

and

Fancy shopping local products while sipping on prosecco? Rose and Thistle, Puerto Duquesa, will showcase local businesses with their Women in Business event on October 10 from 2-5pm.

September 30th - October 13th 2020

Across 6 Dark shade (4,4) 7 And the rest (2,2) 8 Ologies, perhaps (12) 10 Sinatra called him “Mr. Mumbles” (6) 13 “--- and Louise” (Geena Davis/Susan Sarandon film) (6) 14 Groundbreaking (3) 15 Cloak (6) 16 Light science (6) 18 Fuse blower (5-7) 22 Cattle poker (4) 23 Young tree (8) Down 1 Group of tents (4) 2 Harmonize (4) 3 Without others (3,5) 4 Pickle purveyor (4) 5 Emollient (8) 7 Renowned (7) 9 Period of history (3) 11 Hearten (8) 12 Problematic (3,4) 13 What every story has, proverbially (3,5) 17 Critical ward (1-1,1) 19 Piece of work (4) 20 Black Beauty, when young (4) 21 Charged particles (4)

All solutions are on page 22

Gaston Duprat, who is directing the film alongside Mariano Cohn, said: “Within all the negatives of interrupting a shoot, there was something positive: We had an unusually large amount of time to study the already-shot material, and to put under a microscope the screenplay for what is left to film.

Tension

“The material we already have is wonderful: Penelope, Antonio and Oscar are extraordinary. The scenes have what we wanted, an uncomfortable mix of tension and sarcasm in an aesthetic framework of great conceptual strength.

We restarted filming with the certainty that we have something really powerful on our hands.”

Cohn added: “In this film are the experiences and knowledge gained after so many

BEAUTY: Penelope Cruz years of shooting. The film has our DNA as directors, but also that of Penelope, Antonio and Oscar, as they generously contributed their own experiences. In this film, you will see an intense distillation of the universe that we know best: that of directors and actors trying to do one of the most unnatural and complex things, for me, in the world shooting a film.”

LOVE Island, the seismically popular dating reality TV show, has been filmed for the last six seasons in Mallorca.

But only now have ITV execs announced Spain’s own version of Love Island, commissioned by Atresmedia and produced by Boomerang.

Contestants on the 2019 series horrified Spaniards and Brits alike when they revealed they thought that Barcelona was in Rome.

Despite geographical blunders, many international versions of the British programme have been released in previous years.

Love Island Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, US, Poland, Romania, New Zealand, Sweden, Hungary, Finland, France and Australia have all taken a swing at the format, with varying degrees of success. But this is the first time a Spanish language series of the show has been commissioned.

Love Island representatives have not revealed when the show will air as the coronavirus pandemic has made filming schedules uncertain.

LOVE SHACK: Mallorca

The Kingdom

By Jo Nesbo

N

esbo’s latest novel sees a departure from the Harry Hole series. This new standalone story from the master of crime noir is set in a rural village deep in the mountains. Roy and Carl are brothers.

Roy, the elder by a year, always saw himself as his brother’s protector. For fifteen years he has lived alone in his ‘wilderness kingdom’ working as a mechanic while Carl went to America to study business.

Ambition

Now Carl is back with his wife Shannon in tow and ambitions of building a hotel and selling the family property. Carl’s return dredges up old secrets and reignites an investigation into their parents’ tragic death. An engrossing, tense and atmospheric page turner. €24.90 The Bookshop San Pedro, www.thebookshop.es

A Vol. 13 Issue 353

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www.theolivepress.com

September 30th - October 13th 2020

Spanish charmer San Pedro now firmly holds its own against the glitz and glamour of Marbella and the heavily-invested port of Estepona

Especialidades Carnes de Caza y Pescado

PICTURESQUE: San Pedro then and now

Open 364 days/ year San Pedro's most famous restaurant

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DIVERSE food scene, glorious beaches and an old town oozing traditional Spanish charm.

It’s the holy trinity that any visitor or prospective expat hopes to find on the Costa del Sol, and San Pedro has all three in droves.

This former fishing village is no longer in the shadow of its sibling Marbella and has become a reference point for some of the best food on the coast as businesses and Brits continue to flock here.

Just last week the plans for a new huge secondary school were revealed, a milestone which cements the growing importance of the former humble pueblo.

Founded in 1860 by army general Don Marquez Manuel Gutierrez de la Concha, residents of the surrounding towns and villages first flocked here for agricultural work.

The Civil War slowed production but soon work began again and Continues on Page 2

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From front page

San Pedro started to take shape as a bustling municipality, with the 40s and 50s seeing steady growth.

Everyday is another heyday for San Pedro as businesses continue to open and renovations get approved.

Casco Antiguo, San Pedro’s centre, yields the plethora of cafes and bars you’d typically find in the Old Towns of the Costa we’ve all come to know and love.

There are independent shops aplenty selling high quality fashions and shoes, while abuelas - at least in the days before the pandemic - gossip on shade-covered benches.

And when it comes to food, this once tiny village will leave you spoilt for choice.

For traditional - and fair priced - tapas, hit La Bodega on Calle Lagasca, which has been serving everything from boquerones

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an Pedro de Alcantara

Super San Pedro to fresh prawns, jamon, meatballs and more for the past 25 years.

Nearby El Siete, too, is a fantas-

tic family run Spanish restaurant which offers one of the best prawn pil-pils on the coast.

Meanwhile, Savor, on Calle Andalucia, is one of the latest restaurants to arrive on the San Pedro scene and it is a masterclass in fine and modern dining - the perfect spot to treat yourself or a loved one.

Finally, don’t miss one of the town’s best kept secrets at La Cocina de La Abuela on Plaza Vistalegre, a traditional Cordoban hotspot with melt-in-your mouth pig cheeks in thyme sauce and one of the best black puddings going.

But the number one spot - consistently voted as such on Trip Advisor - is La Bodega del Cantinero.

Host and owner Alberto is a sherry and wine expert and has one of the largest and most impressive 100% Certified Green Energy collections in the province.

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which gets set on fire before your very eyes.

The competitive gastronomy scene has been one of the driving forces behind government investment here.

It comes after some €100 million was invested by Marbella town hall on the now iconic snaking pedestrian walkway which winds over the main road.

The ‘ice rink’ and skate park are also welcome additions to what eration tends to head to the other has become a modern town with a places. traditional feel.

“It is almost always calm here…

Another €85 million was also put but at night it can be party, party, towards forming a tunnel - which party too.” directs traffic underground - and Despite San Pedro’s somewhat trana car park to cope with the peak quilo reputation, it still has its quirks: summer months.

I learn former Spanish prime minHowever there’s no ister Jose Maria Aznar better time to visit is often seen in jogger San Peds than during shorts panting around Independent its feria in October, Baja, acshops aplenty Guadalmina the last to happen companied by a team in Andalucia for the sell high quality of bodyguards. year (but I guess you There is also the unfashions and will have to wait until official town mascot, 2021 now, for obvious a mammoth-size pig shoes reasons). which can be seen evAnd Hungarian expat ery Sunday, roaming Zoltan Kiss should through the streets, know. He’s lived here for 14 years snorting along to the claps and and manages Bar Ramirez, right shouts of the locals. next to the town hall.

History can be found here, too.

“You have places like Estepona The Roman baths, watchtower and and Marbella, but there is a per- the intriguing Paleo-Christian burifect happy medium here,” he said. al site, Vega de Mar, are a must for “I think you find the younger gen- history buffs. The beach prome-

Oldest swinger in town

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AVING opened its doors in 1959, the Real Club de Guadalmina has long been a trailblazer for golf on the Costa del Sol. It has hosted major golf tournaments including the Spanish Championship and PGA Professionals and is renowned not just for the quality of its fairways, some of which offer an authentic beachside links experience, but also the fine dining in its impressive clubhouse.

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September 30th - October 13th 2020

Quick fix

Up and away GIGANTIC: Spectacular plan for the main boulevard

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OLD TOWN: The centre is still as charming as ever, and the perfect place to relax for a while

nade features a great selection of chiringuitos, with the likes of Nuevo Reino a stand out.

There are also market stalls set up every weekend, with a selection of fashions and jewellery available.

In many respects, San Pedro really is the perfect destination, a

modern town which has firmly held onto its Spanish identity while not becoming too overdeveloped.

If anyone has any doubts that this town can rival its closer and glitzier neighbours, tell them it’s too late, it has already out-charmed the lot of them.

LANS have been laid for a €1.5 million 50-metre-high Ferris wheel on the Boulevard of San Pedro next summer.

The 50-metre-high attraction will have 30 eight-person cabins.

Each cabin will be air-conditioned and will be accessible for people with disabilities.

It will offer unparalleled views across San Pedro and Marbella’s La Concha mountain.

Mayor of Marbella Angeles Muñoz described the Ferris wheel as ‘a symbolic attraction and a tourist icon that will be an economic shock for the entire area’.

She added: “It is a unique element found in large cities around the world and will add a tourist attraction to the area.

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Hidden treasure

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IDDEN away in full sight is one of the lesser known gems of San Pedro - the Visigothic church known as La Basilica de Vega del Mar. The remains of one of the oldest churches in Andalucia are within a stone’s throw of the sandy beach that bor-

Remains of one of Spain’s oldest churches tucked away on San Pedro’s beach

ders the Linda Vista a urbanisation.

At first sight this pleasant housing estate doesn’t offer much to lovers of ancient history, but for those willing

DISCOVERED: Visigothic ruins

U

NPRECEDENTED safety measures at Laude international college in San Pedro de Alcantara seem to be paying off.

Nearly a month since the Autumn term began and the pupils are all back and learning again.

The leading private school - that counts on nearly 1000 pupils from over 20 nationalities - has taken on dozens of special measures to ensure that the risk of spreading Covid-19 is down to a minimum.

By dividing the students into ‘villages’ and ‘bubbles’ and creating four entrances and exits, the social interaction is kept down to a minimum.

“It means we are able to continue to guide our students towards a range of top universities, including those from the UK’s Russell Group, such as Manchester and University College, as well as leading universities around Europe and the US,” explains principal Amanda Hughes.

The school offers either the English National Curriculum,

By Laurence Crumbie

to take a closer look, the evidence of pre-Islamic Spain is there to see.

These remains can be found on Calle los Eucalyptus, and together with the nearby Roman baths, the site be located on the Roman settlement of Cilniana, though the exact location of this town has been lost in the mists of time.

The basilica was discovered in 1915-16, but extensive excavations only began in 1929-30, led by archaeologist Jose Perez de Barradas.

He and his team mapped out the structure of the basilica and unearthed 148 tombs, though later excavations have found a total of over

FASCINATING: The grounds of the Basilica

200. The most significant of these is the ‘Constantine Crimson’, named after the Holy Roman Emperor Constantine, which may be the oldest Christian tombstone found in Spain.

The origins of the basilica are disputed. While the adjacent necropolis dates back to Roman rule in the early fourth century, archae-

Villages and bubbles

ologists disagree over the construction of the basilica.

Perez de Barradas placed its foundation in the last third of the fourth century, but the prevailing consensus today is that it was built in the sixth century by the Visigoths.

The basilica exhibits several significant architectural features. Evident from the remains are its rectangular plan and the presence of three naves, though perhaps the most interesting feature of the building is its apses.

Unlike most churches from this epoch, the Basilica de

from three years up, or to study within the Spanish ESO system from 12 years old.

The second option is getting increasingly popular and has the benefit of costing less, plus many classes are taught in English.

Laude is the only private school on the coast that offers a full ESO programme, meaning pupils have a big range of subjects from philosophy to economics and history to French. And they also get to learn public speaking in English as an extra subject.

Founded in 2004, Laude is part of the International Schools Partnership (ISP) that has 46 schools around the world.

It was also recently ranked among Spain’s best 30 international schools by El Mundo newspaper.

Around 30% of the pupils are Spanish, 25% are British, 20% are Scandinavian, while Russians make up 15% and Germans 5%.

TOMBS: Excavation discoveries

Vega del Mar has two apses, which are the semicircular terminations or recesses of an ecclesiastical building.

Unusually, the western apse is its principle one.

The basilica is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11.15 am to 2pm and is free to visit. However, these times may vary due to COVID-19.

For more information and to arrange tours, call the Delegacion Municipal de Cultura of Marbella council on 952 825 035.

5

September 30th - October 13th 2020

My top tips for 2021

Only the best

Winkworth boss Chris Vent on his hot spots for next year, writes Kirsty McKenzie

S

AN Pedro is one of various ‘top tips’ that will be a hive for foreign buyers in 2021.

That is the view of director of Winkworth Spain, Chris Vent, who has seen a boom in popularity in the nearby towns of Estepona and Casares Costa.

Indeed the Costa del Sol has a number of ‘pockets’ that are great value for buyers.

While Puerto Banus is still well sought after for expats, Chris believes potential buyers should also check out other gems often missed out.

“Marbella and Banus have international appeal because they are secure and the lifestyle is perfect.

It is always going to be popular out here.

“But there are plenty of other pockets on the Costa de Sol where people can find incredible properties at a great price that ticks all the boxes.’

He suggests the nearby area of Casares Costa for its great beaches and countryside, plus its excellent location near Estepona and Sotogrande.

He also believes Estepona, just 20

minutes west of Marbella, offers great value and is an ‘authentic’ slice of Spain at a reasonable price.

He recently sold a property in the Valle Romano area for just €98,000 and thanks to recent investment in the area’s infrastructure, including sports facilities, a new hospital and walking and cycle tracks along the seafront, he predicts the area is set to boom.

Other good investments can be found in Guadalmina Alta, close to San Pedro, where stunning properties can sell for in excess of €2million.

“Guadalmina Alta is also popular, we sold 15 properties there last year. It has a brand appeal and when people sell, we typically find that they are just downsizing, but staying in the area.

“That is telling you something about how highly they regard the area.”

While only 24, Chris has six years of experience under his belt and is passionate about finding his clients a dream home that matches their lifestyle, needs and price range.

“The appeal of living here is be-

CONFIDENT: Chris Vent

ing able to ski two-and-a-half hours away, and get to Ronda, Sevilla and Jerez in under two hours. You’re spoilt with options, which is why people love to live here,” he explains.

And while Brexit is still to be sorted and COVID-19 still a concern, Chris believes now is the time to buy as more and more people look to Spain as the ultimate sanctuary.

“The coastal area is doing very well at the moment as a lot of people are being told to ‘WFH’, working remotely in Spain is far more appealing.

“There are loads of affordable properties here in the sun and by the sea so it's the perfect place to live and work. We’re seeing a big trend of people moving out now.”

For more information contact Winkworth at info@winkworth.es or call 952880941

W

HEN it comes to the highest quality carpentry and furniture services the go-to name is Conely.

You don’t have to take our word for it – just ask their customers. These include some of the most famous names in Marbella and the Costa del Sol. After all, if world-famous luxury hotels of the stature of the Marbella Club and Puente Romano choose a company when it needs bespoke carpentry and furnishings, you can be assured the goods provided will be of the very highest quality.

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Conely also specialises in antique and vintage doors, windows and furniture, many pieces dating back hundreds of years, for those wanting a showpiece item that is that little bit extra special.

And if you need something ready to go, Conely are stockists and suppliers of top furniture from some of the best suppliers in Europe.

Check out their website www.conely.es where there is a huge selection of furniture, rugs, lighting, decor and much more – often at bargain prices. At the moment discounts of up to 70% are available from their on-line store, and there are regular promotions throughout the year.

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A pot roast coming to the boil, San Pedro de Alcantara has some good foodie gems, writes Jon Clarke

S

AN Pedro is starting to develop something of a foodie scene.

It’s taken a while, which is no surprise with its neighbour being Marbella.

However, let’s not forget that its famous Albert and Simon restaurant was one of the first in Andalucia to get a Michelin star back in the 1980s.

While its famous chef sadly died a couple of years ago, it is still around and as elegant as ever.

But there are also some great new places that are rapidly de-

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manding its crown.

Take Pablo Castillo’s Savor restaurant, now in its third year, which just keeps getting better and better.

Tipped for its first Repsol Sol this year (Spain’s equivalent of the Michelin guide), it has a swagger worthy of a big city and Pablo’s creative cuisine is as complex as it is tasty.

It’s no wonder Pablo, 43, has won the Best Tapa award in Marbella a number of times for dishes, including the excellent Niguiri croquettes, which come with melt in the mouth tuna, guacamole, with a wasabi and kimchi sauce. Yup plenty going on.

Other chestnuts include a wonderful langoustine in an orange juice, basil and yuzu sauce, as well as one of the most delicious slices of presa iberica imaginable.

“It’s been an exciting couple of years,” explains Pablo, who has worked around the world for the Melia group, with five years in Cuba, as well as under the talented chef Ramon Freixa.

“And San Pedro is developing quite a competitive scene for dining.”

This is certainly the case with the real epicentre being along Pablo’s street and what the Olive Press had dubbed ‘Restaurant Row’.

It was here, in Calle Andalucia, after all, that Alfredo opened his famous same-name restaurant nearly four decades ago and his neighbour Pub Charles has been around for 38 years too.

One new spot Hustle N Flow is on the corner of Calle Andalucia and has a superb shady garden to dine.

It has a good mix of healthy dishes, plenty of vegan and vegetarian ones and the staff are super friendly.

Meanwhile nearby La Bodega del Cantinero is well over a decade providing excellent tucker with the best sherries in the world.

Here you put yourself in the hands of superhost Alberto, who has been working in the restaurant trade for decades between them.

This is THE spot for sherry lovers and they have hundreds of them and many going into the hundreds of euros, including a 1946 Pedro Ximenez and a 40-year-old Amontillado from Azuleta.

It also has an excellent wine list and the food is also excellent and varied and there are always plenty of specials, including one of the best ajo blancos I have tried on the coast.

TOP TREAT: dine in traditional style at Alfredo’s Best of all though - in fact maybe the winning dish in San Pedro was the amazing tartaki of bluefin tuna, with a wakame salad, egg roe ‘tobiko’ and mayonnaise wasabi. In a word; perfect.

It also has a stunning tuna steak with fresh tomatoes, cooked by Alberto’s mum on the day I was visiting. Soul food at the very best.

It is no surprise the restaurant wins awards each year, including the national ‘gold award’ from Radio Turismo.

Next door, you must pay a visit to Restaurante Alfredo, which is the most remarkable of the places to eat here.

And not just for its excellent food, which is traditional Andalucian, with some amazing tapas, such as mushrooms when in season, but for the fact it stays open for a near-record 364 days a year, only shutting on New Year’s Day. It is also a great place to find a

www.chilloutcafe.es tel: 951 27 55 93

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buzz on an ordinary weekday and a more Spanish joint you cannot find, with its stuffed bull heads (and plenty more) hanging from the walls.

A true family affair, only its chef Ivan is an outsider and he’s been knocking around for over 20 years. Father Alfredo and his sons and daughter offer a great mix of meat and fish and plenty of seasonal fare to boot.

Oh, and there is a great shady terrace outside ideal for business lunches, while inside for winter is rarely anything but packed.

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For morning coffee or a full breakfast (served all day) or for an invigorating mid-day appetizer, light lunch or evening meal with amazing cocktails.

La Colonia, Av. Virgen del Rocío, S/N, 66 C. C, 29670 San Pedro Alcántara (Where the old Passion Cafe used to be)

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The Olive Press all editions FP (342mmx256mm) September 30

GUADALMINA

€485,000

REF: WW1467

BENAHAVIS

from €249,000

REF: WW1450

Beautifully presented by the current owner, this special home blends contemporary style with traditional features perfectly! A delightful courtyard patio is through the entrance gate.

The ground floor includes a beautiful L shaped living/dining room. This double aspect room has a wall of French doors leading to a decked terrace and is flooded with natural light. There is an open fireplace and highly polished terracotta floors throughout. The fully fitted kitchen has white units and wooden work surfaces. It also has access to the courtyard.

Offered at an EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE PRICE, early viewing is highly recommended. Altos de la Quinta is located in the municipality of Benahavis. It is situated midway between Benahavis and Marbella in an elevated position above the famous Golf Valley and offers STUNNING VIEWS to the Mediterranean Sea, mountains and beyond. This well presented two bedroom apartment benefits from a lovely large terrace with access from the sitting room and master bedroom, where you can enjoy the excellent views.

GUADALMINA

GUADALMINA

€2,290,000

REF: WW1465

€845,000

REF: WW1460

The full refurbishment of this 4 bedroom family villa in Guadalmina has just been completed, resulting in an elegant, contemporary and stylish home. Located in a front line golf position in Guadalmina Alta, this property is ideally situated for local schools, golf, proximity to the beach and all amenities. Exceptional attention to detail can be seen throughout, the present owner has used a neutral palette, the result is a very bright and stylish home. Sitting beautifully within its 957m2 plot, the accommodation is divided over three floors.

We are delighted to bring you this luxury, semi detached family villa located in a front line golf position within a quiet area of Guadalmina Alta. This semi detached family villa is deceptively large having a built area of over 450 m2. Accommodation briefly comprises of: A wide and welcoming entrance hall leads directly to the large open plan, L-shaped living/dining area. With four large windows, this room is extremely light and bright. Cleverly designed, the L-shape provides defined sitting and dining areas and there is a lovely feature fireplace.

Estepona (Atalaya Golf)

RONDA

€349,000

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This very special luxury two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with expansive roof terrace/ solarium housing a studio apartment is located within the beautiful urbanization La Cartuja del Golf, Estepona. It is situated alongside the old and new Atalaya Golf Courses and is only 1.5 km along the Benahavis road making it ideal for golfers, holiday makers and full time residents The apartment, which was originally the show flat, faces south/south west and is situated in the best location of the urbanisation.

tel: +34 952 880 941 info@winkworth.es www.winkworth.es

€1,090,000

REF: WW1420R

PRICE REDUCED from €1,200,000.

Beautifully refurbished by the current owners, this exquisite, contemporary style country house is set within the Ronda countryside. Built in 1998 and recently fully reformed, this stunning property has a total of 5 double bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Set within a plot of 84,000 m2 offering great seclusion and privacy whilst being only a 10 minute drive from Ronda.

BUSINESS Steaming in September 30th October 13th 2020

17

PROPERTY OF THE WEEK

Leading train operator RENFE faces stiff new competition as French rival enters Spain SPAIN’S number one train operator Renfe is to face fresh competition as a French company has announced its intentions to enter the market in 2021.

French railway operator SNCF, under the brand name Ouigo, announced its plans to begin journeys on Spain’s high speed lines on March 15, 2021.

Ouigo will make its first out-

ing on the Madrid to Barcelona line, with stops in Zaragoza and Tarragona, using the double decker Alstom Euroduplex high speed train.

The service will offer 509 seats with waiting staff and a bar service.

By 2022, the plan will be to expand to Andalucian cities such as Malaga, Sevilla, Alicante, Cordoba and Valencia.

Electric decision

PROTEST: Workers at the doomed plant

MAIS OUI: French rival to Renfe General Director of the company, Helene Valenzuela announced the plans during a

WORKERS at the doomed Nissan factory in Barcelona are waiting to see if their jobs have been saved by LG. The Korean giant is considering a proposal to convert the car assembly plant – slated for closure in December 2021 – into a battery factory.

The Spanish government has offered direct aid of €600 million towards the €1.6 billion cost of the proposed takeover, with LG due to make a decision by the end of this month.

Spain is the second largest electric vehicle manufacturing country in Europe after Germany. If given the go ahead, the plant would be LG’s second battery facility in Europe. Its first is in Poland.

It would supply batteries to Seat, which has the largest car factory in Spain in Martorell.

The converted factory would employ between 1,500 and 2,000 people. The facility presently has a 2,500 strong workforce.

History, adventure and romance.

That’s just the setting.

press conference.

“We plan to run five outbound and five inbound journeys per day before expanding the network to a total of 30 services per day and a total of 30,000 seats.” said Valenzuela.

Known for their budget price tags, Ouigo will enter the parket with a greatly reduced ticket price compared to their Spanish rivals.

To celebrate their arrival into Spain, Ouigo will also offer €1 tickets on their website for the first 10,000 customers to purchase a fare.

Valenzuela hopes that their arrival into Spain will give the eco friendly rail network a welcome boost and hopefully increase the number of train passengers twofold by 2030.

CJ625

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This rural countryside home situated in Los Rosales comes with a generous plot size of 496m2. The Cortijo has electricity and town water connections and is priced to sell, needing updating throughout. The 3 bedroom property boasts spectacular countryside views.

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FOOD,DRINK & TRAVEL

September 30th - October 13th 2020

19

Test and pick

No need to whine as grape pickers undergo strict testing to ensure safety while working at vineyards in Alava SPAIN'S most famous wine-growing region will test all workers for COVID-19 before the 2020 harvest.

Grape pickers in Alava will need the all clear before they are allowed to start work at vineyards in one of the country's highest producing Rioja regions.

The health department will carry out the PCR tests and those who are able to work will be giv-

en individual baskets and scissors to avoid contamination.

Seasonal pickers living in temporary accommodation were hit hard by the virus over the summer months which led to local lockdowns in fruit-growing areas across the nation.

Authorities in the Basque Country, looking to avoid another lockdown, have made it compulsory for

SAFETY FIRST: Workers will be checked

wine estates to provide a list of workers.

About 6,000 seasonal

Top bevvy

THE best beers in the world are Spanish.

This is the conclusion of the British-run World Beer Challenge where the best beers are ranked according to type.

Of the 355 brews assessed, just 20 were awarded a gold medal, with Spain dominating the list by scooping 13 of the coveted awards.

And of the seven beers to get the top score of 100 points, six were Spanish, with only one German brew breaking the Spanish monopoly.

Spain’s top-scoring beers – all with 100 points – were: 1906 Reserva Especial, by Hijos de Rivera better known as La Estrella de Galicia - whose 1906 Red Vintage and 1906 Black

Coupage also got top marks. The date refers to the year the brewery was set up.

The other three 100-point scoring brews were from Mahou San Miguel - Manila de San Miguel, San Miguel Radler and Selecta de San Miguel.

workers are employed in the Rioja harvesting campaign in the Basque Country’s Alava and the neighbouring region of La Rioja.

However La Rioja has not yet imposed mandatory testing as a condition of work.

Farmers report that the harvest will start within days and they expect a good yield of high quality grapes following perfect weather for the correct ripening of fruit.

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FOOD,DRINK & TRAVEL

September 30th - October 13th 2020

King of the Castles Cristina Hodgson visits some of the crowning glories that give Spain the highest castillo count of any country in Europe

F

ROM austere hilltop fortresses to splendid royal palaces and stunning Moorish alcazars, Spain out-castles all of Europe with over 2,500 to explore.

Andalucia, fought over by Moors and Christians for seven centuries, is better-endowed than most regions with medieval fortified hilltop citadels. In Cadiz, where they marked the boundary between the two warring kingdoms, many

of the towns that grew up around them still carry the suffix ‘de la frontera’.

There’s romance in walking their wind-battered battlements and sharing the same sweeping views from their crenelated towers as the great kings, queens and warriors of old. So step away from the beach and ignite your imagination with some culture and the Olive Press guide to five must-do fortresses in Spain.

Castillo de Coca

Alcazar de Segovia

Staying in the region of Segovia, the 15th century Castillo de Coca is another fabulous fortification for your digital photo album.

Built in 1493 on the site of ancient Cauca, birthplace of the Roman emperor Theodosius whose death marked the beginning of the Middle Ages, it is protected by double-thickness walls of 2.5 metres in width and a 560-metre moat to further discourage invaders. A mix of Gothic and Moorish styles, it is considered Spain’s finest example of Mudejar brickwork.

For nearly a century until it was declared a Spanish National Monument in 1926 it was known as the House of Alba, home to the Spanish aristocratic family of the same name who must have found its maze of corridors and chambers easy to get lost in.

This sleeping beauty rises out of the rocky slopes on a hill dominating the entire city of Segovia in Castile y Leon. Its fairytale turrets famously inspired the design of Walt Disney’s iconic Cinderella’s Castle. It was also the favourite residence of the monarchs of Castile before being demoted to a state prison for more than two centuries. A place of royal ceremonial importance in Early Modern times, Isabella of Castile, the monarch whose reign alongside hubby Ferdinand of Aragon marked Spain’s Golden Age, was crowned Queen here in 1474. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, this amazing alcazar has to be on your hit list as one of the most Instagrammable castles in Spain.

La Alhambra

Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos Another of Ferdinand and Isabella’s preferred boltholes, the sober exterior of the Castle of the Christian Monarchs belies the splendour of the stunning gardens within.

Surrounded by thick defensive walls, this 13th century palace fortress was famously where Ferdinand and Isabella first met with Christopher Columbus to discuss the explorer’s first trip to the New World, an event celebrated in

Spain on National Day every October 12.

Revamped many times, the sumptuous palace is still used for royal occasions, such as the wedding reception of the Infanta Elena, and it also appeared in Game of Thrones. The royal baths and the hall of Roman mosaics are fascinating and the monumental grandeur of the patios and terraced gardens will take your breath away.

With its irresistible air of magic, Spain’s top tourist attraction is a must-see on any European itinerary, castle enthusiast or not.

Considered one of the finest achievements in Moorish art and architecture on the planet, this stunning ‘Red Fort’ is perched in a dreamy hilltop setting surrounded by the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and was the ‘last outpost’ of the Moors before the fortress fell to the Spanish in 1492.

An oasis of musical fountains and lush land-

scaped gardens watered by the Rio Genil, it’s easy to see why the Moors, arriving from the arid deserts of North Africa, believed they had found ‘heaven on earth’, and why Granada’s last ruler wept at leaving it.

Shady colonnades, fountains with running water and reflecting pools were used to cool and add light and beauty to the 13th century palace fortress described by one Moorish poet as ‘a pearl set in emeralds’. It has been treasured as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1984.

Historians reckon some 10,000 castles have existed in Spain over the centuries. Sadly, most were successively abandoned while others were deliberately demolished by Spanish kings to prevent Moorish invaders from moving in and taking over.

A good number of the 2,500 left standing can still be found in exceptionally good condition thanks to the dry climate and the relative rarity of wars on Spanish soil after the Reconquista.

DID YOU KNOW?

PROPERTY

September 30th October 13th 2020

Not a snip

SUPERB: Davinia’s (inset) Marbella home

21

FORMER Hollyoaks actress Davinia Taylor has put her Marbella home on the market for €17 million.

Taylor - who played Jude Cunningham on the Channel 4 soap - is said to be moving back to Lancashire after years of living in the Spanish sun.

Listed on LuxuryEstate.com, the villa boasts a stunning frontline beach location in the exclusive Los Monteros urbanisation, not far from a spacious property owned by Antonio Banderas.

It has seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms, a Balinese gazebo, tropical gardens, huge pool and extensive indoor and outdoor dining and living areas.

The villa also incorporates an ancient stone tower featuring a luxurious suite.

Escape to the lake For a million euros, you can buy this sprawling property in Barranco Blanco - a place known for its fairytale forest, private saltwater lake and sinister past.

A CHARMING villa with luscious green gardens and glittering springs that taper down to a freshwater lake, this place looks like a fairytale perfect home.

Nestled in Barranco Blanco, meaning White Ravine in Spanish, the 1980s pad is surrounded by picturesque forests and a sense of peace and calm that belies its proximity to the hustle and bustle of Malaga.

The surrounding forest area boasts crystalline pools and wildlife such as boars and mountain goats, who drink from the clear streams of running water that trickle all year round.

Hidden between Coin and Alhaurin el Grande, the ultra private villa is now on sale for offers over €1,380,000

By Kirsty McKenzie

- proving that millionaires do not need to flee as far as the Caribbean to buy an elite hideaway.

For your money, you’ll get four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a pool and private lake sprawling over six-and -a-half luxury acres, as well as a separate one-bed apartment, six car garage and three stables.

The luxury villa is on sale supposedly after the death of the elderly owner who long enjoyed the mystery and seclusion offered by the secret estate that’s shrouded by greenery in the shade of the Mijas mountains.

But as with all good fairytales, the dreamlike location

LUXURY: The home is beautifully furnished

SECLUDED: A hidden jewel in a secret valley is not without a dark past the Barranco Blanco area is forever blighted by its notorious associations.

Rumour has it that during the Second World War it was deemed a strategic outpost by the German army, due to Hilter’s strong ties with Franco.

The latter is said to have chosen the area of natural beauty as a retreat for his close friends before he offered the well-fortified base to the Nazis.

While Barranco Blanco has remnants of the towers that were once guarded by Franco’s civil guards, and homes said to be part of a former Nazi military complex, most locals refuse to talk about the area’s chequered history.

It is unlikely but possible that the home here, hidden away at the foot of the stunning natural valley, was ever used as a top secret Nazi hideaway - but could the new buyer be key to unlocking this area’s secret past?

Bright future DESPITE the property market having declined during the COVID-19 crisis, demand from foreign investors has simply been put on hold while waiting for a swift return.

This is the conclusion of Miguel Arimont, founder and CEO of LEM Loan e-Market.

His business specialises in buying and selling real estate debt in Spain and Portugal, and he thinks that foreign investors will return to the Spanish market in a big way by the end of the year.

But this depends on the health crisis being managed effectively in order for the economy to pick up, he warned.

Arimont said that Spain is normally a ‘very safe and attractive’ market for buyers and investors, a situation he says is recognised

POSITIVE: Miguel Arimont by those looking to make investments.

He said: “With interest rates at historic lows, the returns from this sector will continue to attract international buyers, mainly large funds and estates.”

He added that expats also continue to see Spain as an attractive location for holiday homes and to retire to.

COLUMNISTS Diary of a councillor

22

Interesting times for Mijas’s first foreign elected representative them. This was done with a series of surgeries around the municipality. They were busy, but COVID-19 put paid to that.

So, by March 2020, I was under house arrest like everyone else. I started doing videos to explain the conditions set by the Official Bulletins, and BANG! Some of the videos are reaching over 40,000 people.

So much for 18 hours a week.

Then, I find out that I am answering queries from residents in Almeria, Costa Tropical, Costa del Sol, and all the way to Cadiz’s Costa de la Luz, and also many inland municipalities. Even some from Catalunya.

What do I deduce from this? That although councils have a designated councillor for foreigners, they are clearly not making themselves known or being accessible to residents, nor are they providing them with what they need. I think there are les-

MIJAS MATTERS

By Bill Anderson

sons to be learned here for Foreign Residents’ Councillors regardless of what party they represent. I know that foreigners’ departments do a great job helping with administrative matters, but here I am referring to the elected members and their direct accountability to the people.

Please don’t think that I am holding myself up as a shining example of how to work with foreign residents. This all happened by accident, and I was making it up as I went along, but the driver has very much been the people and their needs.

I want to add just an epilogue to this. I work for the people, but I am still a private individual, and I was disappointed to see how easily people got offended by my last article, which was merely thought provoking.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, states that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.” Please bear that in mind in future before you start calling me irresponsible, and a disgrace as a public figure!!

Living la Vida Luddite Making good use of the things that we find

I

F the last couple months of what we can euphemistically refer to as ‘this, that and the other’ have taught me one thing, it is that I am definitely living in the past. I don’t mean in a ‘standing on one leg in tights playing a flute,

Jethro Tull’ sort of way – although when I interviewed Tull frontman Ian Anderson, he dismissed my question if he was often recognised in public by the fact that he wasn’t often standing on one leg in tights and playing a flute in the vege-

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LOW TECH: Stuck in the past

LETTERS

Signed, sealed, undelivered Dear Olive Press,

of the ‘Pilfering Post Being another victim tuppence worth. Acmy add Office’ I want to worth in the form of tually, it’s about €600 with pearls and sapgs a pair of gold earrin anything about them. phires. No one knew of the shoulders and All I got was the shrug a ‘buzz off ’! office and I must say I use the Elviria post e there is very suspect. vic ser ry that the delive ndle of about a dozen One day I found a bu ber band, thrown on rub a letters held with gate of our urbanisathe ground inside the offload your deliveries tion. That’s one way to I guess! ly got my delivery afUPS is just as bad, I onounce them. And then den to d ene ter I threat company in Malaga. there was the Interfloraoff with a delivery of me They tried to fob s late. After an argudead flowers four dayry guy he grabbed the ment with the delive ran off. Two minutes offending flowers and ing he couldn’t deliver later, a text arrived sayone home. I could still because there was no e standing outside my see him on his phon books about our exgate! We could all write periences in Spain... pplied Name and address su

Barrels of fun

table section at Waitrose.

While almost everyone I know binge watched entire seasons of TV series and had back to back online movie marathons during lockdown, that option was not available to me. In case you are not aware, I live off grid in a beautiful cottage on the banks of a reservoir in the hills above Marbella.

Water is provided by a huge deposit tank and electricity by a generator. Much to the horror of city types that (briefly) visit, this lack of power at the flick of a switch and my frugal freelance wages means that I fire up the ‘genny’ only once or twice a day.

Analogue

This means no fridge, no Wifi and no telephone. As the cottage dates back to the 19th century it has three feet thick walls to keep out the heat of summer and the cold of winter, but it also makes taking a call on the mobile something of a challenge, especially if it’s blowing a gale in December.

The lack of Wifi also helps me cement my ‘analogue in a digital world credentials’. With no Internet, I rely on DVDs for movie nights, and I recently underlined my ‘low tech Womble tendencies’, (‘making good use of the things that we find’ if you forgot the words to the 70s children’s TV classic) with two recent acquisitions.

The first was picking up a VHS player during a house move, as well as a huge number of 80s classic series and films on tape. I popped a cassette into the player on a test run and it immediately chewed it up and spat it out, instantly transport-

I read your article about the Casknolia, Artisan Coopers with interest and it was a really great read. I live in Scotland about 25 kilometres from the Speyside cooperage, which in fact has a museum on the art of barrel making with wood from all over the world. It’s well worth a visit for anyone on holiday in the Banffshire region.

Kenny Dickson, Scotland

ing me back to the technical tribulations of my teenage years in the 80s.

The second was an ‘old skool’ Hifi system, compete with tape deck and CD player. What I didn’t know when I collected it was that the CD was a multi-player system that held a staggering 200 discs. If you assume that each album has around 12 songs that gives me 2,000 tracks at a time.

With a huge grin on my face, I once again fired up the genny, hit ‘shuffle’ and let the random tunes from my early 90s version of an iPod wash over me.

With my low tech home entertainment system, I am indeed able to party like it’s 1999.

Now, does anyone have a fax machine or telex going spare?

TV trauma

Sticky fingers

In the UK, Spaniards can receive any Spanish television channel they wish.

But the BBC don’t like us Brits receiving their programmes without paying the licence fee and have cut the signals despite the catch phrase ‘television with out frontiers’.

I know Sky want to sell all their channels to us Brits abroad but, frankly, they’re all rubbish.

For years there have been thieves in the Laguna Village car park. Why are there still no cameras?

I parked there on September 19 when it was very busy and went for a walk. I came back, the lock had been broken, and our €600 paddle board was gone. This problem is common knowledge...

Why is nobody doing anything about it?

Michael Gare via email

Crea O’Neill, Marbella

Long haul wait I just read your article about a couple stranded in the Caribbean and I can relate! In March my flight to Miami was cancelled. In spite of six months of numerous phone calls and emails sent to Turkush Airlines, I have never received a refund from them. Never. I feel they stole my €1,800 and that no consequences will follow.

Dilyana Panteleeva, Malaga

OP Puzzle solutions Quick Crossword Across: 6 Navy blue, 7 Et al, 8 Specialities, 10 Brando, 13 Thelma, 14 New, 15 Mantle, 16 Optics, 18 Short-circuit, 22 Prod, 23 Seedling.

Down: 1 Camp, 2 Sync, 3 All alone, 4 Deli, 5 Balsamic, 7 Eminent, 9 Era, 11 Reassure, 12 Not good, 13 Two sides, 17 I-C U, 19 Task, 20 Colt, 21 Ions.

SUDOKU

O

N July 5, 2019, I became the first foreigner to hold the post of Town Councillor in Mijas. I wasn’t sure what to expect as an opposition councillor, as I had no experience in government.

I have a contract (of sorts) but it didn’t come with a job description, other than I have to work 18 hours a week. Done!

So what do I do? Basically, whatever I want to. But, I’ll come back to that.

I decided to write a memoir to record the work I was doing; the title of the said Opus Magnus being the title of this column. It is less a record of what I do, than it is a reflection on what life in the back end of local politics is.

Seeing as my third novel has been on hold since I entered the political arena, perhaps this will get published first. Or maybe not, in order to protect the guilty.

I don’t see myself as employed by the council so much as the residents whose taxes essentially pay for my salary. What I set out to do was to be accessible to Mijas residents, and to see what I could do for them or how I could reasonably advise

September 30th October 13th 2020

HEALTH

September 30th - October 13th 2020

School’s out Thousands of classes across Spain in quarantine

IT has only been a few weeks, but already pupils from 2,852 classrooms across Spain have had to go into quarantine.

The numbers of affected classes since the start of the new school year varies hugely between regions.

But even in the worst affected areas, education authorities say the number of classes being forced to shut down in favour of remote learning is at a ‘manageable’ level.

Most schools are still open

Lisa Burgess

23

Sleepy head

The trials of not being able to drop off

A TESTS: Pupils are regularly checked for symptoms and operating ‘relatively normally’ as far as can be expected during the coronavirus pandemic.

Good mews SPANISH researchers have found that cats may be able to develop antibodies that neutralise COVID-19.

Scientists studied two cats - one of which was known to have suffered from COVID-19 along with his human family - while the other showed no symptoms.

They found that both had developed antibodies to the virus, with their immune systems putting up a robust response.

The first cat - Negrito - was put down for a problem unrelated to coronavirus, but an autopsy showed he had been infected by the disease without any obvious symptoms.

Further tests on the cats showed they had low viral loads and were able to fight the virus by developing antibodies.

Researchers say this has given them a new insight into coronavirus, which may be useful in battling COVID-19 in the human population.

The figures were revealed by the Ministry of Education, which had collated them from the 17 regional authorities.

The figures do not show the number of pupils affected by quarantine, and it is difficult to assess a precise figure.

According to El Pais, Madrid is by far the region with the most classes quarantined (832).

Next is Catalunya (602) then the Basque Country (268), Castilla-La Mancha (180), Andalucia (168), Aragon (148), Navarre (142), Castilla y Leon (141), Valencia (130), Extremadura (73), the Balearic Islands (49, La Rioja (33) and Galicia (27). Murcia did not give a figure for classes quarantine, but said 187 pupils and 43 teachers had gone into self isolation.

MERICAN author Poppy Brite wrote, ‘the night is the hardest time to be alive and 4 am knows all my secrets’.

Ain’t that the truth. It is the witching hour, nobody is awake, you can’t switch on the television or call a friend and you lie in bed wondering where on earth you put your birth certificate.

I have always been a good sleeper until an array of cancer meds crash-landed into my bathroom cabinet. Healthline. com says research shows poor sleep has immediate negative effects on your hormones, exercise performance, brain function and can cause weight gain and increase disease risk in adults and children.

Top tips from the Cancer Society for a good night’s sleep are as follows:

1. Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day including weekends. Weekends are made for the lie on.

2. Don’t take naps after 3 pm or nap longer than 20 minutes. Try telling that to sleep-deprived parents.

3. Stay away from caffeine and alcohol late in the day. I am lucky I don’t

drink coffee.

4. Get regular exercise but not within 2-3 hours of bedtime. Sex is exercise.

5. Don’t eat a heavy meal late in the day.

This is Spain.

6.

Your bedroom needs to be dark, quiet and around 20 degrees. Tell that to my broken air-conditioner.

7. Don’t lie in bed awake if you can’t fall asleep after 20 minutes. Do something calming like listening to soft music.

It’s 4 am I am wide awake, I am not feeling calm.

Personally, when I can’t sleep, my best remedy is reading. In the dark of night, I find myself Googling amusing quotes. Here is one that fits the bill from saucy American actress Phyllis Diller who said: “Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight!”

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OLIVE PRESS CAT-astrophe!

True Hero The

Andalucía

Reuse Reduce Recycle We use recycled paper

Unhappy family

FINAL WORDS

BARCELONA’S Sagrada Familia cathedral has become the latest victim of coronavirus as its 2026 final completion date has been put back after tourist numbers plunged.

Well spoken SPANISH politician Carlos Galiana has been criticised after he made a televised address to support Valencia’s bid to become the European Capital of Innovation 2020 with him being dubbed with a flawless English accent.

Finally justice STATELESS Palestinian woman Heba Nabil Iskandarani, 26, has been granted Spanish citizenship under a 2015 law as a descendant of Sephardic jews expelled from Spain in the 15th century.

Your expat

FREE

voice in Spain

Vol. 13 Issue 353 www.theolivepress.es September 30th - October 13th 2020

AN animal charity is re-housing 96 cats found in a single flat after their owner was evicted.

They were crammed into an apartment in Gandia, Valencia.

According to animal shelter SPAMA Safor, the cats had not seen natural daylight, nor received veterinary care since the day they were were born.

But the animals seemed to have been well fed and the flat had been adapted to house them - even though in rather cramped conditions

Triathlete captured the hearts of fans after selfless gesture A SPANISH triathlete has been hailed a true sporting hero after he stepped aside to let his British rival go first past the post.

The events at the 2020 Triatlon de Santander

saw Madrid born athlete Diego Mentrida sacrifice his podium position to James Teagle, who had taken a wrong turn in the final stages.

Teagle, who had held third place for a number of laps, en-

Killer ban YACHTS were banned along a 100 kilometre stretch of Spain’s northern coast after a series of attacks by Orcas.

Also known as Killer Whales, the animals have approached very close to several vessels – including a Spanish Navy vessel – over

SINGLE IMPLANT

the past few weeks, damaging several.

Spain’s Ministry of Transport issued a week-long ban on boats under 15 metres long between the capes of the Prioriño Grande and la Punta de Estaca de Bares. They were allowed to leave port but had to head straight out to open sea without lingering near the Galician coast.

Turtley amazing!

SPORTING: Mentrida and Teagle tered the final corner when he mistakenly attempted to head straight, hitting the barriers and losing his position to the closely following Mentrida.

Aware of the Brit’s mistake, Mentrida backed off and slowed, allowing Teagle to overtake and reclaim his hard-earned podium slot.

The crowd erupted as the pair shook hands and embraced as they crossed the finish line.

“He must not have seen the

IMPLANT BRIDGE

detour to the finish line, or they did not signal it well. I don’t know, the fact is that he deserved it,” said Mentrida.

“I deliberately slowed to allow him past, and I would do it again, every time.”

Organisers of the event acknowledged Mentrida’s actions and awarded the 21-year-old the same prize money (€300) as Teagle in recognition for his selfless gesture.

A TOTAL of 37 sea turtle eggs hatched on the beach of Cabopino in Marbella.

The original nesting took place on busy Los Boliches beach in Fuengirola.

As the nest was located very close to the shore, the eggs were transferred to a quieter beach in Marbella.

So far 37 loggerhead turtles have hatched.

These are the first hatchlings of this species in Malaga or the Costa del Sol.

IMPLANT DENTURE