I have been ordered by the court - prior to any formal ruling - to eviscerate part of this site of content which I hope some readers will be familiar with. This gagging order is the first of its kind, as far as I know, in Spain. A pisser.
Comments, support, questions and advice to me (or even a beer would be nice - see 'Donate' button) at lenoxnapier (at) gmail (dot) com

While I am a 'take-it-or-leave-it' sort as regards bullfights, I am a supporter of the splendid Club Taurino de Mojácar, our local British aficionado club. The first time I went to a 'bullfight' (unfortunate translation of 'corrida de toros') was in Gerona in 1963. My dad and I sat through the whole thing (and I came home with a large straw bull-head to decorate my bedroom), while his friends, a family from Yorkshire, left noisily after about three minutes of viewing in horror the 'action'. It takes all sorts (there: a lesson for the Cataloonies from Rambeau).

Well done those pesky cataloonies: the plan is to convert the four provinces of Cata.. sorry, the nation of Catalunya, to seven 'vegerías', to whit: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, Central, Terres de l'Ebre, Camp de Tarragona and Alt Pirineu i Aran. There is some tiresome historical precent for this (here). Yawn. Maybe everyone should drive around in carts and use leeches...
Tomorrow, the busy Catalonian government will vote on whether to ban bullfights in their territory.
Wednesday: Bullfighting to be banned in Cataluña from January 1st 2012.

The traffic police, the Sheriff of Nottingham’s merrie men, are apparently now being evaluated on their productivity. All to do with promotions and silver badges for the glass cabinet in the sitting room. So, from this month, the agentes are awarded one point for each time they help a motorist in distress and two points each time they attend an accident-scene. They also get two points for catching anyone speeding, not wearing a seat-belt or a fluorescent pyjama top at night, four points for lorries, buses and taxis breaking the law, and up to nine points for catching someone ‘over the limit’.
An indignant spokesperson for the corps says ‘Esto solo demuestra que la multa por la multa sirve para recaudar dinero pero no para bajar los accidentes – this shows that fines for fines sake are only useful to collect money but not to help lower the number of accidents’. No doubt most road-users would agree with him.

A fellow has been arrested in Huercal Overa for breaking into a hotel-bar and stealing some money and product from the cigarette machine. It seems that this is the third time that he has commited this particular crime, and always in the same joint. He was photographed by a security camera with easily identifiable clothes and, to hide his face, a pair of men's underpants cunningly pulled over his head. Apparently our mate Juan Pedro was selling packs of fags to his friends when he was 'taken' by the authorities.

Ah, the War on Drugs. Good times. America used to export its absurd mania about cannabis across the world with a ferocity and lack of logic which kept many of us young'uns convinced that 'if this law is so obviously stupid, then what about...'. Post-Franco Spain meanwhile, together with Holland, was the great defender of personal freedom and 'live and let live'. Then there were the jolly trips to Morocco to smoke kif and hide some 'chocolate' in your suitcase.
But times change.
I was reading today in El Mundo that the town council of Oakland in California has voted 5-2 in favour ('favor') of growing a massive crop of cannabis for 'medical sales', with the two councillors against the motion concerned that the quality of the weed might be adversely affected. Then in the same newspaper, in Jaén, some chap has been caught with one plant on his terrace and he gets a year in clink for his troubles.
For your safety and protection, of course.
Meanwhile, the web-zine Qorreo thinks that Spain should legalise all drugs, because illegalising them hasn't made any difference - except to the mafias (and no one is more against legalisation than the mafias)...
Qorreo says: ...And so the government toes the line by peddling the myth that Spain has a problem with drugs, when, if one chooses to look at it another way, it actually has a problem caused by the prohibition of drugs.
See Penn and Teller's documentary. Bullshit: The War on Drugs.
Then of course, there's our boys at DrugFreeWorld.org...

A press release from AUAN:
'In an informal 30 minute meeting with a delegation from AUAN, the Minister for Planning and Housing of the Junta de Andalucia, Rosa Aguilar, announced the creation in September of a working party to find and agree solutions to problems arising from the illegality of homes in the Almanzora Valley.
The working party will include representatives of the regional government, the mayors of the valley and representatives of the affected families, specifically AUAN.
AUAN is satisfied with this new development which represents one of our key demands. We look forward to actively seeking solutions to the serious problems faced by our members in an open and transparent manner.
We encourage all those affected by this issue to register to vote to help maintain pressure on the working party to deliver results.
The meeting took place on Tuesday 20th July in Albox when the Minister attended the ceremony to mark the opening of the towns’ new bridge'.

In times of crisis, you should always blame your neighbours. Taking this to a logical conclusion, the bankrupt (and thoroughly unpleasant) town of La Linea 'de la Infección', the frontier town with Gibraltar, with an unemployment of 10,000 and practically only source of income jobs placed in its wealthy neighbour's market, has taken to stoning cars as they pass through to Gibraltar. Long queues, 'fines' and hassle.
Now the mayor wants to charge a 'toll' for all visitors to El Peñon, less those Spanish employees from La Linea who are working there.
'The Gibraltar Government said last week: "The mayor of La Linea must find means of conducting domestic politics with his central government that does not involve instructing his police to harass Gibraltarians."'(Panorama)

Mojácar has just received a special dispensation from the Junta de Andalucía's 'Consejería de Turismo, Comercio y Deporte' to allow businesses to stay open later (for the next four years).
The town hall is pleased as "sin duda repercute de forma muy beneficiosa en la dinamización de los comercios del municipio, y por consiguiente, en la satisfacción de los visitantes" - which means, once again, 'the tourists and the shop-keepers are more important than the residents'.
Hours are therefore extended from 1st July - 15th September, together with Easter Week, through 2013.
Yay!

The ABC, one of Spain's leading daily papers, and the one that's been going the longest, has an amusing section in its archives where you can find the front-page on, for example, the day you were born. The ABC would go for a full-page picture with a short text in the 'old days'. Mine is a photograph of a London scene, taken at midday, during a particularly bad day of London fog. You can just about see a Nº 77 (Raynes Park) double-decker bus and a well-lit travel agency while a few warmly wrapped pedestrians pass by on the pavement...
Go to Archivo and then fill in your dates on the 'hemeroteca' (on the right). It will show the whole issue for that day, so click on the page you want to 'bring it up'.