This is the view from the turning circle at the top of our street, outside the apartment. I was struck with how blue both the sea and the sky where on Sunday when I was walking out to the Jeep.

Summer is here for sure!!!! Sometimes it is easy to forget just how beautiful Almerimar can be - when you get a view that doesn’t involve cranes, greenhouses or roadworks that is!!!

It is true to say that last week was taken up with the excellent Eurocopo Futbol, and as far as I am concerned the next two weeks will be taken up recovering. I never got to really test my fitness or skill as both thighs just about held up and my knee was OK while playing, but at the moment is as big as the footballs we were playing with!!!

Looking ay the Events Calendar the main events are:

• the continuation of the 31st Festival Teatro
• The beach fishing day on Thursday organised by La Bahia
• The Rod Stewart concert on Friday
• The next round of the Puntable Golf competition on Saturday
• The BIG football competition on the Saturday and Sunday
• The Sorteo de Kawasaki on Sunday

Don’t forget that Al-rruz opens again tomorrow after their trip to Seville

Most exciting news for this week for me and the cats is that Sands gets back from the UK tonight! Of course that means a trip to the supermarket, but as I only went twice while she was away (my plan of 4 x cottage pie and then 4 x bean chilli worked a treat!), I can’t complain. Besides I reckon I will just make a big chicken casserole that will do us for a couple of days and some salad. Neither of us are ‘foodies’ at all. We like to eat healthy, good food, but don’t bother spending lots of time over preparing meals or finding new recipes. Keep it simple, keep it quick and get on with the exciting things in life!!!

As promised here is the second of the Views of BOF. If there is something that you would like BOF to comment on, or you take exception to what they say then you can email them or of course leave a comment on the individual posts. I’m told there are 27 bank outlets in EL Ejido and I’ve counted at least five in Almerimar. There are over 250 different banks in Spain dominated by the two giants, Banco Santander and BBVA. Why so many you may ask? That´s simple. We can´t survive without them and they are very profitable. Like many other professions along with solicitors, estate agents and dentists they do not have to buy raw materials, manufacture anything, tie money up in stock or distribute their goods. Without banks you can´t buy or rent a home, use a credit/debit card, hire a car, buy on the internet, book a holiday, pay for an airline ticket and in many cases get a job. Spanish banks are notorious for high charges and often poor service. Apart from making exorbitant charges banks make most of their money from lending. They prefer to lend to the rich at preferential rates and exploit the poor by lending at even higher rates and charging bigger fees, because they say there is more risk. As we have seen recently banks are increasing their lending interest rates despite lower central bank rates. When customers have problems meeting their commitments, often because the bank lent them too much money in the first place, they write pointing out that they have exceeded the terms of their agreement and charge 25€ for sending the letter. One major UK bank recently wrote to all its borrowers with fixed term tracker mortgages telling them that at the end of the period the bank would, as a concession, continue to offer the same terms. They also added that there would be an up-front fee of up to 7,500€ if they took up the offer. Here is just one of the many “scams” used by banks today. A major utility supplier advises the banks that in a few days it will be sending out its monthly bills. They tell the banks precisely how much each customer will have to pay by direct debit. The bank knows that 8 million of their customers will have to cough up within a few days so debit their accounts with the amount due which may be an average of, say, 250€. This money mountain, which technically still belongs to the bank´s customers, is then invested on the “spot market�? or lent to a “safe�? borrower (maybe a government) at 2-3% above LIBOR for a few days. In this example my calculations show that the bank makes over 1.5€m in just 3 days. The profit appears on the right side of the bank´s monthly P&L accounts so the shareholders are happy. The Head “Honcho�? gets his monthly bonus, on top of his 5€m salary and most of the banks customers haven´t realised the money was taken from their account prematurely. Senor Grumpy, however, realises what´s happened and writes to the bank complaining. After a few weeks and more reminders he receives a computer generated letter signed by “The Customer Services Manager�? saying that they have fully investigated this matter and have discovered that through no fault of their own a bug got into the main computer which caused a “glitch�? in the system. This did not compromise any of the built in security systems and as a gesture of good will be crediting the customer´s account with 100€ as compensation for any inconvenience this may have caused. So even Snr. Grumpy is happy. Good business practice, fraud or breach of duty – you decide? Either way it’s called “Capitalism” but not by me! I heard recently about a guy who spent 10 years living on an old boat he built and sailed to Vanuatu in the South Pacific. He had no money whatsoever and survived by fishing, doing odd jobs and bartering.. When he came back to Europe he married a Dutch girl and is now back in the Pacific as happy as a sand boy. So we can survive without banks but not here!

About Almerimar

Almerimar is located in the region of Andalucia, Spain. The nearest airport is 30km away in Almeria. Other airports that are within 3 hours include Malaga, Murcia, Granada, and Alicanti. Other holiday resorts in the region include Mojacar , Aguadulce and Roquetas de Mar Almerimar is a great place to live as an expat amongst the expats, or to work amongst the Spanish. There are all kinds of properties including villas, apartments and town houses for rent or sale. It is a very traditional part of Spain, with traditional Spanish foods so if you plan to travel to Spain either to look for jobs, for your company to trade with companies in Spain, or to learn Spanish and enjoy the Spanish weather then come and take a look. If you are interested in purchasing a property in Almerimar please visit our sponsors Mirror of the Sun or Mediterraspain. If you have purchased a property and need it furnished please check out our Sponsors DBJ who will give you a Exclusive 5% discount with the code AL2008. If you want to learn Spanish, get help with anything to do with the legal issues in Spain, or want WiFi access in the marina please check out our sponsor CentrePoint who will give you a 10% discount off all services with the code AL2008. If you want an amazing activity based day out in the mountains and to learn how to ride a motorcycle off road then check out our sponsor The Long Way Round and get 5% off with the code AL2008. Almerimar is also one of the largest marinas in Spain with over 2,000 births and excellent boatyard facilities.

John & Jacqui went along to the quiz night at Espigon last night with their friends Ray and Mary. The quiz started at 8.30pm prompt but they strolled down earlier to have a bite to eat beforehand.

We recommend you take pens and a sheet of A4 printer paper as these are not supplied. You put your team name on the top of the paper and leave plenty of space for your answers.

Was looking out the window the other day as you do thinking as ever what a great view it was, when my eye was drawn to this oil platform being towed across the horizon. Now if only I had something more powerful than a 135-400mm zoom I would have been able to get a closer picture!

John recently went to the AGM of our urbanisation - not something we ever bother with to be honest!! So it was useful for us to read what he had to say about the meeting, and for any of you thinking of moving to Spain this is what you have to look forward to!

I went along to the AGM of our urbanisation of apartments here in Almerimar earlier this week. I´ve written a short article about our urbanisation and the meeting.

We have posted a lot about golf recently, with the new prices, the course opening and of course the Tarleton Travel Golf Event, so we thought that we would write a ’special’ to pull it all together in one place. In this article you will find a video on the Tarleton Travel Awards Evening, a podcast with interviews with the golfers, links to photographs of the Tarleton Travel event and lots more information on golf here in Almerimar.