Picnics on the beach

The weather over the past few weeks has been really on and off. I really think we've had our fair share of rain now.

Anyway, we took advantage of a nice sunny day yesterday and trotted off to the beach at Estepona for a picnic with some friends. I know I go on a lot about Estepona but it really is great, particularly if you've got kids. There is a huge kids park there which they've just refurbished (not that there was much wrong with it) and the "paseo maritimo" is done really well.

The whole area was heaving yesterday around lunchtime. There was even some English folk having a swim...brrr...

We all sat and played with the kids for ages on the beach relishing that in the middle of February we can actually do this. Great.

Let's hope we get some more decent weather this week and they're forecasting rain again...sigh.

I'm off tomorrow with a friend to the racing circuit in Guadix. He's just bought himself a Radical so it should be fun. I'll let you know how it went.

Nowhere is safe

As many of you know we moved to a house on the beach recently. We needed more space and really wanted to get away from all the construction around our apartment.

But it seems that nowhere is safe these days. Even on the beach we just can't seem to get away from diggers and cranes. Take a look at the photo below. I took that at lunctime a couple of days ago from our garden...




A digger...on the beach! Please, is there no getting away from them? And the constant sound of the noise is very irritating.

Hopefully they'll all go away soon and leave us in peace, I really don't want to move yet again!

The phone saga continues

Ever since we arrived in Spain over 2 and a half years ago we have been plagued by the eternal problem of phone lines. Why are Telefonica just so crap? Surely phones are a modern day essential that everyone has a right to?

When you're trying to run internet businesses, phone lines become even more important. Yet I just seem to be so unfortunate when it comes to getting a proper Internet connection. We have a wireless phone system for the office which is far from ideal and now, having moved to our new house, I am still battling with Telefonica to get a phone line. Will someone please tell this company that we're in the year 2007 and not 1907.

When we first got here I had to work out of an Internet cafe with fellow surfers blowing smoke in my face all day. Then I managed to get a mobile systems working on the laptop which worked ok but was slow and expensive.

And then when we moved house last month I made the mistake of applying for my new phone line at the Telefonica shop in Sabinillas. The application never actually got processed. So I rang them up instead and applied for it yet again (we're now 2 weeks behind). Then I get a call today that the technician is in the area but he's got the wrong address. Ahhh. I have to phone the head office again and give them the correct address (so close today). I rang the head office....they don't have any knowledge of my application...and I have to apply again!!!!!!!!

I have refrained from swearing in this post but it's not been easy.

The saga continues....