Tag Archive for winter

IVA Cut on Gas

SPN Pedro Sanchez PM speaks on Cadena Ser 400x250

Spanish PM, Pedro Sánchez, has announced that he will bring down IVA on gas from 21% to 5% from October to at least the end of the year.

A Waste of Time

SPN Clocks will change on 27th

Today spring enters our lives with the equinox and with it the day that the clocks change – yet again – for summer time approaches; i.e. the 27th of March.

Sunny Spain?

AND Snow Plough in Action

There are many people abroad that imagine this stereo type of Sunny Spain, Ole Fandango and pass the sangría, failing to realise that Spain can get very cold.

Winter’s Here!

GRA Frozen Penguins

It’s about as ‘wintery’ as it gets on the Costa Tropical, i.e., single-figure temperatures at night, wind & rain. It’s Inland Granada that’s getting a real winter, though.

Vikings to The Rescue

ALM Hotels OnL

(GIL) According to tourism forecasts, this winter on the Costa Tropical is going to be a bumper one, thanks to the growing influx of Nordic visitors.

Flu Times

The winter cold has arrived to our tropical paradise. In this time of the year I sometimes wish I were nearer the North pole, feeling warm and cosy inside and avoiding to step outside unless absolutely necessary. In our old house on top of the hill in Taramay it is nearly as chilly inside as outside, in spite of some energy-devouring electric appliances. All kinds of influenza viruses are hitting the good people of Almuñécar.

Olympic Insider

Unless you watch no TV whatsoever, you can’t miss the coverage of the Winter Olympics taking place in Vancouver as I write this.

Nordic Viewpoint January

It is freezing cold in Helsinki today when I write this (on the day of the deadline, as usual). And, believe it or not, it is snowing, so it looks as if we are going to have a white Christmas, which is something unusual for us here in southern Finland. The temperature is 15 degrees below, and like all the other ‘tourists ‘ coming from the Southern hemisphere, we hurry through the streets with scarves covering our nose and mouth, hunting for Christmas gifts. It’s funny how you lose touch after a longer period in the tropical climate of Almuñécar. Our Swedish friends reported that it has been snowing in Stockholm too. Now we just have to cross our fingers and hope that it will last over the Christmas holidays.
On December 13th we saw the traditional Santa Lucia crowning ceremony in the stately neoclassical cathedral of Helsinki, and the procession starting from the steep and seemingly endless stairs leading down from the cathedral and continuing through the streets of Helsinki. We saw Santa Lucia leading the way dressed in a white gown and with a wreath of candles in her hair, followed by gnomes, star boys and Lucia maids, singing the Santa Lucia song and Christmas carols. Thousands of people had gathered in the Church Square to watch the event.
A lot of foreign languages were spoken and I heard many speaking Spanish, my ears being especially sensitive to this beautiful language. Santa Lucia is celebrated in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Estonia. Even at the time when the Scandinavian countries were catholic, the night of Lucia was celebrated as many other saints’ days, and the tradition continued after the protestant reformation in the 1530’s.
Christmas Eve will be celebrated with family and friends in the Nordic way, with early morning church, rice porridge and a filling Christmas dinner with ham, lute fish and all the trimmings.
As to the New Year’s resolutions, I think that for us senior expats, living in Spain, a good promise would be to start to realise that our so-called ‘golden years’ become even more gilt edged the more we are able to look at the past with forbearance; the stronger we live here and now and the better we are able to look at the future with a serene mind. The question is can we seniors find the right gear, after we have left the busy years behind us?
Many of us become active in all kinds of associations, where most part of the members are so called ‘grey panthers’ and in this activity it is important to show tolerance, empathy and helpfulness. To find the right gear in the administration of an association for foreign expats is not always easy after a long career in administration or business, for example. It is important to ease down on the bureaucracy and try to handle the administration as straightforward as possible, not indulging in fights over petty details, like children fighting over a toy. Let’s also become more tolerant towards the people we meet, be it our Spanish friends, our expat compatriots or immigrants from different cultures than ours.