Hola
Julie and I have been working hard over the last two months to get in decent shape for our upcoming trip to Vietnam. We’ve both upped our exercise frequency, and we’ve created our own AI agent, Freddie Foodie, to devise a high protein menu plan and the accompanying shopping list each week. As a result, I’ve lost 7 kilos and Julie 5.7, so we’re really pleased, and hence my vanity in putting a photo of ourselves at the top of this newsletter – apologies!
But, once again, I’ve told myself off for taking this island for granted, and I’m determined to stop doing so. As an example, I’ve walked a few kms every single morning for the last two months, leaving the house before dawn, and watching the sun rise, arriving home with the day having fully started. Of course, we’ve had no rain, I haven’t needed to wear more than a t shirt and shorts, and every single sunrise has been spectacular and has started my day off perfectly. How many places are there in the world where you can walk every day for two months without even thinking about an umbrella or a coat? And it isn’t just the walks, it’s being able to sit outside in the fresh air on every coffee break and every evening. As northern Europe begins to think about the winter, very little will change here – the edge will come off the heat, we will have some rain, perhaps in December or January, but I’ll still keep doing my morning walks every day. I’ll let you know the first time I decide to take a coat or a hat.
The kids go back to school here next week after their long summer break. The vibe on the island really changes over the next few weeks as the families disappear and our winter visitors, many of whom are here for long stays, start arriving.
There was a very well written article on the socials this week talking about the Spanish system for queueing….for anything. It made me realise that I’m so used to it, I don’t even think about it any more, but it works beautifully! Basically, wherever you go and where there is a queue – the bank, the post office, the pharmacy etc, you arrive and ask: “¿Quién es el último?” The person who came in before you will raise their hand, and all you have to do is memorise their face, outfit or any other feature, and you can relax in the knowledge that you won’t miss your turn. It means you can sit down, wander over and talk to a friend, nip out for a cigarette, visit the restrooms, or do anything else you want to do, as long as “your person” is still waiting. It’s total genius and it never goes wrong!
The weather has continued to be lovely this week, although we did have a calima arrive unexpectedly yesterday morning. It’s set to clear later today and leave high temperatures behind over the weekend
What we’ve been doing
We had an action packed weekend, which started with a visit to The Fariones Summer Barbecue with friends. It was superb, with all the food from Finca de Uga, which was beautifully prepared and served. It’s quite pricey at 85 € a head, but the food is spectacular and the wine and beer service, which is included, very generous. The setting is just gorgeous, too. I always find I relax the moment I enter those main doors at The Fariones, there’s something very zen about the place.
The weekend was also a real blur of work. We’ve arranged for a group of 20 Club Lanza Info members to go on the Canary Islands MSC cruise in January, and we had to process all their bookings, as well as loads of other “normal” bookings for clients.
We did manage to escape for a few hours to go and see the Lanzacrew Car Show at the Soco shopping centre in Puerto del Carmen. I was very doubtful about how a car show would work in a multi storey car park, but it was brilliant! Most of the island’s best classic and modern cars and motorcycles were there, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We also dived into Tamasha on The Strip for a swift curry before heading home, The superb Mark 4 Golf in the image above was one of many cars that caught my eye, as you’ll see from this week’s Life in Lanzarote video.
We’ve been rendering and painting our outside wall this week. I laugh whenever we do this, because all our neighbours stop for a chat, whether they are walking or driving by, and the whole thing takes much longer than it needs to.
In the news
I was quite pleased to see that the Mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan, is taking legal action against a social media troll, who has made some really nasty comments about his wife and family. It never ceases to amaze me how horrible people can be, when they’re hiding behind a keyboard. But Yonathan is also in trouble with the audit department for spending money on various events without going through the proper procedures, which now means there’s around 2.9 Million euros in unpaid bills. I feel for the businesses that are owed money. We stopped doing business with any government bodies here many years ago – the process to get paid is painful and very slow, and it takes all the joy out of winning a contract. As an example, and I don’t know if this is still the case, but the last contract we had, required me to take a physical invoice for each stage of the work to an office in Arrecife, sign it in front a person, who then countersigned it and gave me a receipt for the invoice, which was eventually paid several weeks later.
We’ve had another round of injuries reported this week requiring the emergency services, with people falling in rocky areas, being knocked over by waves and more. I don’t know the circumstances of any of them, but do take care when you are here, wear suitable clothing, especially shoes, and be mindful that the ocean can serve up a big wave unexpectedly.
We also had two more tragedies – a 70 year old man died at Playa Los Pocillos and a 5 year old suffered a near drowning in a Playa Blanca swimming pool. He was airlifted to Gran Canaria, but is described as critical this morning. Fingers crossed for him.
We took a decision to stop selling Ryanair flights a few years ago, We disliked the way they ruthlessly cancel flights on clients, causing so much disruption to people with accommodation and car hire booked. They’re at it again, and they have just announced that they are axing 2 million winter seats to offset the costs on unhedged fuel. “Winter seats” basically means ski destinations and The Canaries, so these flight cancellations may affect many of you if you have flights booked with them this winter. Other airlines also have unhedged fuel costs, but they aren’t currently cancelling flights, reasoning that they have an obligation to their clients who have booked, even if they’re going to make a loss on some flights. Ryanair’s press release ended with the words: “The company is ‘well placed’ to report another profitable year….”
The so called modernist house, the Casa of Luis Ramirez, in Famara, will finally have it’s facade restored, with the work starting in a couple of weeks and expected to run until November. You might recall from the story I wrote about the house, that it was willed to the church, on the understanding that they would maintain it, something they have conspicuously failed to do. So now, The Canarian government have stepped in and have agreed to pay the 149,000 € cost. Which of course means that taxpayers in the islands are paying for it. I guess the catholic church must be short of money.
If you’ve ever been to the south of Fuertventura, you’ll have seen the chipmunks that live here – they’re so cute, as you can see from the image above! They are actually Barbary squirrels and I hadn’t realised they are an invasive species, and the thousands over there are descended from one pair which escaped from captivity in the 1960’s. This week, one was spotted in Playa Honda and quickly taken off the street, and it appears he hitched a ride in a van coming over on the ferry. If you see one, you’re asked to contact the police.
That’s it for this week. We don’t have much planned for the weekend as we’re on countdown for our trip to Vietnam and we want to keep the calendar clear to prepare ourselves and the house.
Have a great weekend wherever you are!
Un saludo
Miguel
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And here’s a link you can copy and paste: https://lanzainfo.com/vanity-in-lanzarote-links-page/