Our new interviews

Have you checked out the new audio interview feature on Eye on Spain? Accompanied by my poor interview skills, I'm going to be interviewing the top "insiders" in the Spanish property market and asking them the questions that hopefully we all want answers to.

I kicked it off today with an interview with Chris McCarthy, the Managing Director of Viva Estates, the largest real estate company on the Costa del Sol. Chris was actually really good to interview, he was open to any questions and he answered them all well and truthfully. Chris must have upset a few agents recently when his company announced that they were slashing resale commissions to just 2%. It was certainly a bold move but in my opinion badly needed. So I have a lot of respect for Chris in taking such a decision, I'm sure there were many discussions about it internally before they decided to go ahead with it.

We've already got some people lined up for us to interview but if you want to suggest someone either leave a comment here or send and email to info@eyeonspain.com.

Where has the week gone?

I never for one moment ever envisaged that being the president of the community was going to take up so much of my time! And I'm not joking. At least half of my day is dealing with community issues..and the frustrating thing is that results are very slow to materialise.

The particular community where I live has been blessed with every conceivable problem. I think there's enough material to publish a book with (any publishers reading this??). We've got problems with the developer, the town hall, the contracted staff, all the services (elec, water, phones), community fees, and the list goes on. Everything is a problem.

Where the town hall is involved...nothing gets done. Lots of meetings, lots of getting sent from one department to the other and back again, lots of shrugging of shoulders and the really annoying comments of "we don't have money for that". What a load of crap. The town hall made a huge mistake handing out the licence for our development and it just can't handle the mistakes, it doesn't know how to deal with them, although probably can't as there is actually no possible resolution to some of the problems.

So, with chasing my tail all week I actually seem to achieve very little. My to-do lists grow longer every day and it gets harder and harder to sort all the problems out.

The thing is that I'm determined to get this place sorted, it's our home at the end of the day.

So if you're contemplating raising your hand to become president then maybe just don't raise that hand too high.

Great time of year

This is my favourite time of year here in Spain. The weather is just perfect now. It's not too hot and it's not cold...it's just right.

Gone are those painful summer days where you can't sleep because you can't stop sweating. Gone are those days where you can't leave the house at the risk of being knocked unconcious by the excruciating heat. Of course...it'll all be back next year! But this time of year is just great.

You can go for walks no problem. You can still go to the beach and it's much more confortable when you're there. You can do all those things that you can't do when the sun is trying to burn every exposed bit of skin on your body.

We had lunch at a great little Chiringuito on the beach yesterday and it was just so ideal. The kids played on the beach in the comfortable heat.

It all seems to good to be true at the moment. Just got to make the most of it really!

A weekend in Granada

We went to Granada for the weekend last week. We've been meaning to go for ages as it's just over a couple of hours away. Susanna booked us into a nice 5 star hotel which was good value at 144 Euros for the night (with an excellent "posh" breakfast).

We drove up on Saturday morning and spent the afternoon looking around the centre and doing our usual obligatory tour on the sightseeing bus. It's a great way to see the whole city and get a feel for where everything is....and the kids love it too which is always a bonus!

We even managed to all go out on Saturday evening for a nice meal in a restaurant called "Bar Manolo" which is near the cathedral. There was a fantastic atmosphere at night with people of all ages just strolling around and filling up all the main restaurants in the main square.

On the Sunday we set out in the morning to check out the "Parque de las Ciencias" (science museum). What a brilliant place. For all 4 of us it was only 20 Euros which is an absolute bargain. We just didn't realise there was so much to see and do there. There are all sorts of activities for kids to do, including a planetarium, and with some really interesting sections dedicated to the history of granada. It really is worth a visit (with or without kids) but you really need to go for the day as there's so much to do. We didn't realise there was so much and we had to rush it a little as we wanted to see the Alhambra palace before heading home.

So, in the afternoon we headed of the the Alhambra only to find that we couldn't get tickets to get into the palaces! All the tickets were sold out! They told us that you either have to queue up early in the morning (about 8) or buy the tickets online. We were a bit gutted to say the least. However all was not lost. You can buy a ticket to walk around the grounds for 5 Euros per adult and it's worth doing this along...although ideally you really want to get in and see it all.

Anyway, it's definitely worth paying a visit to Granada. There's a lot to see and do so you need to go for at least a weekend...just make sure you buy all your tickets beforehand!

Welcome back BBC

After just over 2 years we couldn't take it any more. We'd suffered enough, missed out on so much and decided things had to change. Yes that's right, I'm talking about Spanish TV! We've had no option but to install satellite TV in our apartment...Spanish TV was killing us.

Don't get me wrong, we are by no means big TV watchers, in fact we rarely put it on. But on the odd occasion that we do it is nice to watch something decent. Not being rude but Spanish TV takes A LOT of getting used to and we ran out of patience. We tried for 2 years to live with it but we're weak and we caved in to those satellite dishes starting at us everywhere we went telling us to go for it.

We've spent the whole past weekend just watching whatever on British TV and it was great! We loved it. For those of you in Britain, please don't complain about the quality of TV there until you've sampled Spanish TV. You may just realise that it really isn't all that bad...in fact it's actually quite excellent!

Not been too well

I've not been too well the past few days. It must be all this community stress I'm under :(

I think there's actually been some bug going round and I still don't feel right so I'm struggling to get much work done at the moment.

Mind you, a lot of my time is being taken up by the community problems that desperately need sorting. Last week the cleaner here gave me a couple of days notice that she was leaving (thanks). Still haven't got a replacement...can't imagine the state of the toilets by the pool as they haven't been cleaned since last Thursday. But, I am on top of it so that should be sorted this week. We've also got leaking pipes, garage door problems, blah blah blah...too many to mention here. The developer's head of maintenance is the most un-dynamic person I've ever met so getting him to do anything is proving quite a challenge.

Have you considered being president of you community? Don't do it!!

Vendimia in Manilva - What a racket!

This weekend saw the "Vendimia" grape harvest festival in the village. It's basically an opporunity for everyone to drink themselves silly for a whole weekend. Being only a few seconds away from the main street we've heard all the partying day and night this weekend.

It's a great "party" really with free wine and grapes and the odd hat here and there. There were bands playing all the time whilst everyone enjoyed the free wine and grapes.

But, my heart must go out to all those that actually live on the main street! These parties have literally gone on for 48 hours non stop. Many of the people that live by the main street are elderly and although they've probably lived there all their lives there must come a point in a weekend such as this where they just want them all to go home and let them get some sleep!

I suppose it's only really that "bad" once a year, although saying that there's always some party of some sort going on nearly every weekend! It's all good fun really!