Tumbit : Jo Green - Having a Baby in Spain

Every ex-pat that has ever lived in Spain for even the shortest period of time has had to adapt in some way to the subtle differences in everyday life. Setting aside the obvious issue of Spanish timekeeping, I have listed just a few of my observations :

• Am I alone in finding it incredible that after numerous years living here in Spain, every brand of cling-film that I buy seems to be non-stick?

• Spain apparently has more high street banks than any other country in the world. This is seemingly neither due to the overall wealth of the nation, or the amount of daily usage that the average saver or borrower generates. It seems to be down to the fact that it can take a team of 4 staff to deal with half a dozen customers in a single morning – probably due to them having to double up a Citizen’s Advise Bureau, Samaritans, Town Hall (unofficial), Town Hall (Sometimes official aswell ), and community centre.

• Spain also reportedly has more Café bars than any other country in the world, with almost 1 bar for every 10 people. And, in the majority of towns, you can still struggle to find a decent slice of cake!

• Despite what the Spanish Government may lead you to believe, a “Non-Smoking” area in a public place seems to be entirely optional.

• Nobody seems to find it ironic that Telefonica have a department called “Customer Service”, and Telefonica themselves don’t seem to worry about being questioned for false advertising.

• Utility bills for Water, Telephone, Electricity, Town Hall taxes etc… always seem to arrive at the same time, often for 6 months at a time, and are rarely correct.

• If you do not live within spitting distance of the Town Square, then you must therefore live “in the Campo” – this is black and white – there is no in between.

• Fiestas and Fairs etc… are rarely publicised before the event, but you can read about them in plenty of local publications after the event to see exactly what you have missed out on.

• It is impossible to buy everything that you need for the week in just one supermarket, often requiring as many as three trips.

• You will never, ever win an argument or debate with a Spaniard, likewise you will rarely change their opinion once their mind is made up.

• Nobody seems to realise that a 65 year old woman on a moped just looks wrong.

• Small dogs are like a plague of vermin around the town centres. Where do they all come from?

• Whenever you see children trying to play in a park, you will always see a swarm of grandma’s chasing after them trying to force feed them tostada’s and yoghurts. Just let them play! – They’ll eat when they’re hungry!

If you have anymore observations, then please add them to the Comments box below…

Perhaps it is the traditionalist in me, or perhaps I am am being too English in my outlook, but I consider it fair play only to pay for goods and services that I have used and no more.

I have lived in my Finca now for 5 years, and in that period of time the yearly SUMA bill has not once been correct – sometimes it includes costs for neighbouring properties ( 3 different Catastro references on the SUMA bill in my name ? ) and sometimes it lists me, entirely incorrectly, as being a Farm – and as such this carries a much higher charge than a building that is not used for commercial purposes – like a House.

Every year I have sent the details back to my Asesor, along with my reasons for not paying, and every year he has contacted the SUMA office on my behalf to sort this mess out.

Every year the response comes back that, yes, they hear my concerns and will change their database accordingly and send me out the correct SUMA bill for payment as soon as …

For the last 3 years this has not been the case – no corrected bill was ever sent out to me, and instead the following May I have received the current year’s bill (still incorrect) along with the bill for last year (completely unchanged), but to add insult to this a penalty fee and interest rates have been added to this.

Each year, at my Asesor’s suggestion, I have simply not paid the bill, as I am waiting for the correct bill to be re-calculated. Am I perhaps being typically English and a little niave in expecting that the interest charges and penalty fees for the last 3 years will be waived?

I hold onto my faith that things will eventually get resolved, but every year when I receive the compiled Bill including all fees and penalties my heart sinks as I know that sooner or later things will come to a head.

That call came in this morning – the Head of Outstanding Debt at the provincial SUMA head office in Alicante called me demanding money before court action would take place ! Of course they denied all knowledge of any querie on my file, and stated that at this stage in the proceedings, because of the term of ‘non-payment ‘and because no official complaint about the details being incorrect were on my file, I would be unlikely to be able to appeal about the full amount being demanded.

Next time you receive a SUMA bill please check that the Catastro reference is for your property, and please check that that your property is correctly classified as soon as you possibly can !

As much as there are many things that I love and Miss about the UK, whenever I return for a break to see my family and friends and do a bit of shopping, it doesn't take me long to start missing a few things about being back “Home” in Spain :

The Children - Difficult to explain – especially of you are not a parent! - I was back in the UK in August and every night all of the Toddlers (and under 5's) were sent to bed at 7pm sharp, regardless of whether Dad had got back from work and given them a kiss goodnight, regardless of whether they were tired or not. It was simply the done thing!- Whilst it may be good to keep the child in a routine it seemed a shame to send them out of the way before they could chill out with the rest of the family – be taken out to Parks and Bars or Restaurants or whatever.

It was also noticeable how few of the older children were playing in gardens and the streets (regardless of time and day) - where are they all? - At home watching TV or Playing Computer games?

Eating Out - Whenever we have visitors over from the UK we hear stories of how eating out in the UK “is so cheap now compared to Spain”. And when I was last in the UK I had to agree that it was. However, on reflection I would much rather have a 3 Course Home-Cooked Menu del Dia (Including Wine, Bread, Alioli and Coffee) for 8 Euros than I would have to suffer the indignity of a “2 Meals for a Fiver” In Wetherspoons, where I would be surprised if any component of the meal did not see a microwave oven.

Coffee - It seems to be the exception rather than the rule to find a half decent coffee house – and even then it is quite expensive. I called into a Patisserie with a friend for a Coffee and a Cake and could hear the Kettle boiling and the jar of Instant Coffee being rattled behind the kitchen divide. Needless to say the very sound almost set my teeth on edge – it is easy to get used to drinking a good standard of coffee and taking it for granted that it will be available in even the grottiest of Bars over here.

It's even acceptable to go out for a night on the town in Spain and drink nothing but Coffee and be served a good Cupful without receiving a disbelieving smirk from the Bar Staff.

Of course there's loads of stuff that I love about being in the UK and It's easy to complain about things – I just wondered if anyone else missed things about Spain when they were in the UK ?

On the whole we are very fortunate to have such a healthy baby. In her two and a half years, aside from the usual scheduled visits to the medical centre for her vaccines, we have only had a small bout of chicken pox to contend with.

Even though we all have private health insurance we have been fortunate enough to never need to make a claim against anything, and whilst this is a good thing, it also means that we are completely clueless if and when we do have an emergency or anything like that to deal with – and that we will just need to play things by ear as and when it should occur.

Last week our daughter started with a bad cough and a sore throat, which we initially put down to her teething, and then a few more of her friends at nursery started to have the same problem. On Thursday of last week her temperature rose a bit and the cough seemed to travel down to her chest.

Fortunately our nursery is quite forthcoming with giving out good advice (after all, they have experinece in looking after hundreds of babies over the years – we have just 2 years experience of looking after 1 Baby) and advised us to take her straight to the Medical Centre. This was mainly a precautionary measure because the following day was a Fiesta, then came the weekend, and then came yet another fiesta ! Naturally we didn't want to have an unwell Baby for following 4 days and be unable to treat her with anything so we hurried straight up to the medical centre in the next town.

Unfortunately most smaller Towns & Villages only offer health centre facilities at certain hours – and even then the process of getting an appointment is “Typically Spanish” (Which you can read about in my 1st Blog)

However, the medical centre in the next, larger Town not only has a dedicated Paediatric Nurse, but also has a 24 Hour Emergency service – so we were confident that we would be able to get her the required treatment without any problems.

We caused a minor upset when the Nurse asked us if we had been giving her any medicines because she did not understand the brand “Calpol“ and it's medicinal properties, but other than that we were able to get the required prescription.

Almost every village has it's own Farmacia, and many of Villages have an arrangement so that between them they can offer cover on Evenings, Weekends and Fiestas – and the rota is displayed in the window (and usually also listed in the local newspapers) so you always know where there will be a Farmacia open. Her prescription was for 3 different types of medicine and in total it came to just 3-60 Euros - I'm pretty out of touch with what prescription costs in the UK are, but I didn't think that was too bad.