Spanish authorities have ordered the demolition of dozens of homes in a Tenerife fishing village in an escalation of the drive to clear the country’s shores of illegal properties.

Residents of Cho Vito were evicted last week and their homes bulldozed after a judge overturned an appeal to save the cluster of 31 dwellings

Seems like this has reopened the fears of many living along the Spanish Coasts as it appears to reveal a determination by the government to implement its controversial coastal law, with as many as 500,000 properties at risk.

Would be somewhat remiss I feel not to send out our best wishes to Seve as he starts his battle against the brain tumour that he has just being diagnosed with.

Naturally we are not alone as the whole of Spain seem to be uniting behind the flamboyant, excellent but somewhat controversial figure:

We mentioned before that we had been asked to provide a picture and a article for a feature on Almerimar that the Messenger In Spain were producing, well it is now published.

To be honest I had forgotten all about in with the ‘excitement’ of being sick and nursing little Lucy, so it was slightly amusing when our neighbour came across me sat on the floor in the corridor syringing milk into little Lucy and thrust the article under my nose and asked me to sign in as a joke!!!

The European Commission is taking the Spanish government to the European Court of Justice over the law, which was introduced in the 1990s and allowed developers to plunder rural land belonging to homeowners if they could persuade authorities that it was suitable for urban developments.

Thousands of British property-owners have had their Spanish homes demolished or devalued by exploitation of the law by developers, who are also able to charge landowners for the services they need to complete building work, such as roadworks, drainage and electricity.

We have written about bullfighting before, and have come to the conclusion that isn’t something that we would want to support or indeed go to. I was however intrigued to read about the 66 year old UK Matador who has just made a return to the ring:

The Salford grandfather of four performed his comeback fight on the eve of his 66th birthday to stunned aficionados gathered at a bullring in Villanueva de la Concepcion, a pueblo perched on the Andalusian hillside above Malaga.

Spain is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years. Climate experts warn that the country is suffering badly from the impact of climate change and that the Sahara is slowly creeping north - into the Spanish mainland.

A dry fountain: Spanis
Yet in Spain itself there is little consensus about what is to be done. Indeed, such is the disagreement that journalists and politicians alike are calling it “water wars”.

Prices in Spain rose at their fastest annual rate for 15 years in July, driven by rising food and fuel costs.
The annual inflation rate climbed to 5.3% in July, up from 5% in June.

Transport costs were 10.6% higher than a year earlier, the National Institute of Statistics said, with food prices up 7% compared with July 2007.

Spanish inflation is above the eurozone average of 4.1%, but recent falls in the price of crude oil could bring the rate down.

Yesterday, the National Federation of Fishermen, representing mostly small boat owners, announced it was returning to work because it could not maintain the strike. The bigger fishing boat owners, however, are to continue their near 2-week-old stoppage.

Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro are the cities shortlisted by the International Olympic Committee to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

Bidding will continue until an IOC secret ballot on 2 October 2009.

There is nothing like trying to explain something to someone to get you researching facts! Again, the discussion last night was around Spain, and at times it felt like I was on Mastermind - specialist subject, Spain. I would not have done very well!

It is embarrassing really how little I know about the country that I now call home, so when I got back from watching Man Utd beat Arsenal (yeah!!!!) I hit the old Internet to develop my knowledge further.

Just sat here watching TV and surfing the internet when it came up that the Open de Andalucia starts later this week. Didn’t know anything about it, but a few clicks around Google and hey presto ….. gotta love technology!

The MAPFRE Open de Andalucia by Valle Romano will take place at the Aloha Golf Club, Andalucia, Spain, from March 27-30, the same venue where England’s Lee Westwood claimed the inaugural title 12 months ago.

I am happy living here in Almerimar ‘most of the time’, but there ARE definitely things I miss and even now after being based here for close to 5 years I am not sure if I could yet say this is where I will always be. I know Chris has no regrets about leaving England and would never want to live full-time back there, but he has wanted to live abroad for as long as he can remember, whilst it was never my dream.

There has been a lot in the UK press over the past couple of days about the racism Lewis Hamilton endured in Barcelona this weekend, but I felt that the following written on the blog: Notes from Spain, summed it up nicely.

“The fact that Lewis Hamilton endured the usual bout of racist remarks (puto negro etc) as he tested this weekend at Barcelona’s Montmelo circuit is bad enough, but the fact that in this day and age there are people who thought it acceptable to black-up boot-polish style and acutally appear in public in the stands (wearing T-shirts saying “Hamilton’s Familyâ€?) is quite astounding. It puts Spain about 20 years behind the UK in terms of what might be considered acceptable social human behavior.

Following on from my article yesterday, which talked about where you might still be able to pick up a bargain on the costas, here is a recent news article which underlines AGAIN how difficult the property market is everywhere at the moment.

“According to figures released today by the Spanish Estate Agents’ Commission, around 40,000 Spanish estate agencies - nearly half the total - were forced to close last year, coinciding with a 40% decline in property sales. As a result, it is estimated that around 100,000 estate agents lost their jobs during 2007.

For me the reported turmoil in the Spanish property market is just an interesting news story, as I have no immediate plans to buy more property here and am happy with the home I have. But to the many back in the UK it must be a major factor in putting them off making that move to Spain, or even investing in a much wanted holiday property here. Noone wants to lose money, and recent news from around the world has highlighted that investing in property is definitely not without risk.

It seems as if the credit crunch in the UK is definitely beginning to bite. I was reading a new property article this morning about the market in the UK, and included was some news on property sales in Spain. This came via one of the big UK house builders who have a mainland Spanish part to their business, and who have reported a big downturn in sales over here between 2006 and 2007.

Was watching the Football and couldn’t be bothered the TV off so Songs of Praise came on. Not something I normally listen to but it was funny as it started off with a bit about the 3 Kings parade in Madrid. Was nothing like my video or our procession here in Almerimar.

I know that right now I like living in Spain and more specifically Almerimar, but it is always good to have lots of others in agreement:

Apparently a recent survey by the 24-hour currency exchange firm UKForex has found that: “Nearly eight out of 10 expats are happier living abroad than they were living in the UK” AND more specifically, “those choosing Spain as their new home are the happiest of all, with more than 90 per cent saying they are happy with their lives there.”

Ok so I have been saying that for me Xmas in Spain seems pretty laid back compared to what I was used to in the UK, but it appears as if even here it can all get a little bit much, particularly for the women who have all those meals to prepare!

Check out the article below:

Some Spaniards can’t take Christmas either!

This was New Years Eve in the square at lunchtime. Very little was open but we bumped into some friends at La Plaza which was nice and buzzy, AND our intended coffee and tostada turned into beer, tinto and tapas! It also set the scene for the evening as we all agreed that Loch Ness was where we were going to end up to see in the New Year! This is definitely one of the things I like about being here … on most days you will come across someone you know, and particularly at this time of year, as with most of the Spanish bars shut, there are only so many places where people can be!