HBG

Nine days into this new and exciting year, I perused the local papers today when my wife brought in a stack of them. She was trying to appease me after spending too much money in Iceland and the sales at some furniture shops. We now have an ugly Buddha sitting on a shelf, and my favourite lamp has been replaced by one that is even more ugly.

Reading the local news on the Costa Blanca did nothing to raise my spirits, I’m aware that good news doesn’t sell, but today’s offerings were ridiculously depressing.

The majority of us live on the Costa Blanca, I enjoy living here, but I’m going to stop reading the news. I’m going to bury my head in the sand until the stabbings, muggings, burglaries, demolitions stop, and the Guardia Civil stop telling us to f**k off back home.

You can google it if you like, but it will depress you.

agoreira

You could move back to UK, and apart from the demolitions and the Guardia, there are plenty of places where you could find all that and feel at home! Besides, I didn't think that happened in Spain, they all tell us how safe they feel, kids out playing till all hours.

pete_l

Wise move. There are hardly ever stories in the papers or on TV that provide information you need to know. Most of the time it's just doom, gloom and despondency. I realise there are people who get off on hearing how badly other people are doing as it makes them feel better, luckily I'm not one of them
I stopped reading the papers some years ago and don't have any regrets. No, I couldn't name a single person who's been on a reality show (or even what they are called) but that's not necessarily a bad thing either. Given how circulations are falling, there seem to be a lot of us who have no time for newspapers - welcome to the fold.
Oh yes, why not just toss that Buddha in the rubbish?

Dick Dasterdly

Just heard the UK TV news and despite all the doom and gloom and weather problems they found time to show the weather problems in Spain with main routes closed with snow and a river running through some street or other.
Nice for us all to be able to share our misery,...a problem shared is a problem halved,...or so they say anyway.......

HBG

My post does appear a bit negative, so I’m going to clarify it. Apart from the demolitions, I’m only talking about two adjoining streets here, and I live on one of them.

I’ve just looked for the Buddha to toss it in the rubbish, but it’s gone, she’s replaced it with a wedding photograph, I must admit I was tempted . . .

The good news is that the sun is shining brightly and I’ve resisted any temptation to look at any news anywhere. For all I know we could be bombing Iran, Brown could have stepped down, and Mercadona has run out of chickens (they had yesterday).

GrapeEater

Well it's the same the world over - there's probably more problems in the UK (and the rest of Europe)... we are in a depressing era right now. I think we are all moaning more right now. Your wise to ignore as much as possible, or at least get a perspective. Surround your self with positive happy vibes and people.

I always though the 'freebie papers' and CB papers are very negative - would quite easily put people off - but just switch it around - if you were emigrating to the UK right now and read the local papers - it would be equally depressing. Remember why you left in the first place ??

I felt this decades ago about the news / media and have rarely bought a UK paper in 20 years... . I do feel we have to read some news of the local CB stuff to know what goes on that affects the lifestyle / property though.

Have a G&T, stick two fingers up and smile you have 300+ days of sunshine and count your blessings (as my Grandma used to say)!

Fredbargate

But the good news is they have plenty of ice cubes

agoreira

If you saw the same one as me you would also have seen the weather in Germany, France, China etc, floods in wherever it was in the Caribbean, terrible weather all over the world. Why not tell us about those? Reading the Spanish press, they are telling everyone about weather in UK just the same, even about Premiership games cancelled, El mal tiempo paraliza la Premier League. Not sure what point you are trying to make, it's as if you seem to think Spain is singled out for special treatment. Looking at the Spanish press today I can read all about the Eurostar train stuck in the tunnel, horse racing, rugby affected in England, even Mrs Robinson in Ireland, I can assure you Spain is far more interested in what goes on in UK than vice versa. Even with the likes of bloody Susan Boyle, Beckham etc.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/inter...lpepiint_9/Tes

Nige

Have you thought that the appearance of Buddha was perhaps a hint ?

HBG

I’ve thought about that, and the red top I got for Christmas along with green socks and an electric razor that doesn’t work. Now that I’ve stopped reading the news, my thoughts are turning inwards.

She was on about funeral insurance the other day and this morning she was trying to get me to buy a Picasso (the car) on ebay. That was green too. I can write freely at the moment because she’s out sunbathing, honestly, it’s warmer out than in, and we’ve got the heaters on.

Come to think of it, she called me Bob the other day, the name of her first, dead husband.

I’m going to have another go at cracking her Facebook password, there might be more surprises in store for me.

bil

I stopped reading newspapers years ago, and I have made a studious effort to stop watching the news on TV too.

I long ago realised that it is almost as tho there is a conspiracy to keep the public afraid. 'Worry about this' they tell us, and then after a while it's 'No, on second thoughts worry about that instead' and then it's something else.

Inbetween that there is what Frankie Boyle referred to as 'Look at the shiny shiny' aka as distractions to keep you from thinking what is really going on... and so it goes.

The elections are on hand whereby we will be asked to vote for whichever lying, dishonest bunch of political scum we want to lord it over us. In other words whether the government will screw us wearing a red condom, a blue one or a yellow.

Screw it. I no longer want to know. I hate them all with a passion. My fantasy is to one day turn on the telly, and see a pic of the US pres and the PM of the UK standing together and not have the slightest idea who the **** they are.

HBG

I was going to say that there is one news item that I need to know about fairly constantly, the currency tables, but is that really true? Why not delete that from my favourites and every time I go to the cashpoint it will be a gamble whether anything comes out or not.

I was also happy to realise that I haven’t got a clue who the president of Europe is.

agoreira

I know that the speaker of the House of Commons is called John Bercow, and nothing else, but now thanks to today's Spanish press I know that his wife was a drunken tart that didn't care who she ended up in bed with!
http://www.abc.es/20100110/internaci...-20100110.html