crispy

RIGHT Everything I said yesterday about having a great time in the garden planting my bedding plants, I take it all back ....I am covered in mozzie bites I have them everywhere I have 4 great big mammoth ones on both sides of my chin, 2 on my cheek and the biggest monster on my right arm not to mention the ones in the un-mentionable places. That's it gardening is now without a doubt a blue job Having sad all that, what a lovely smashing day it is here in Chiclana, been to a great place for lunch and then headed for the beach for after lunch coffee and brandy what a life have heard it may be raining again by Wednesday

Pam Sarky

[Hey Crispy, I only have 2 mozzie bites on my neck and feel like the elephant man!! God knows what you must feel like lol. But like you said its worth it

Big_john

Hi Crispygirl,

Sorry about the mozzie bites, get some soap out and rub on them to stop the itching.

We have just been out to lunch also, luckily for me I didn't do the normal detour for the after lunch Pacharan, as on the way back was stopped by the Guardia Civil and asked have you been drinking, so I answered yes and luck must have been on my side today as he was holding the dreaded breathalyser but as I had answered honestly I think, he did not breathalyse me

Just asked to see my licence, so out comes my British licence and he let us go ...... now was that because I had an English licence and he did not wan't any problems or was I just lucky

In Galicia & Asturias it states in the daily spanish papers that they are stepping up these alcoholomenia stops to try to discourage yougsters from drink and driving, which is a good thing for all of us really

crispy

You was lucky, I think it was because you were honest with him I think that goes a long way. In the 4 years we have been here the presence of the GC has become much more visible, when we first came to this area you never see police but this last 18 months they are every where and there has been a massive crack down on drink driving. I never drink and drive, I am one of these peeps that even one drink would affect me, OH does have either a beer or a wine and depending on if it was one glass or two then he may have a brandy.

Hope you enjoyed your lunch as much as I did, we tried somewhere new today, a buffet place, eat as much as you want for 8.50 (euros) it was splendid will go again with out a doubt, had to get there before it opened its door because by 2pm it was packed with peeps Q-ing outside.

crispy

I have been told by OH that as he has mended the washing machine, washed the cats tray, given the lawn a good feed and got the washing off the line I can water the pots.... Mozzies......

So I am going to have to changes into long trousers, long sleeve top and put elastics bands around the cuffs and stick a paper bag on my head with the eyes cut out, oh before I do that I'll have a good spray with the repellent something I did not do yesterday. Just found a new bite behind my eye and it is driving me Crazy:curse:

Big_john

Good value for money there, I hear it said that the Costas are expensive but personally I think that like everywhere else if you look you will find good value for money.

A Menu del dia either here in Galicia or anywhere else in Spain seems to be about the same price and up here it will vary from 7 € to 9 € and the last time I was n the Costa it seemed to me to be about the same

Perhaps we should start a thread on where to eat cheaply and get good food with what type of restaurant, name & address i.e. fish, meat, or vegetarian

crispy

For this area it is very good value for money, you can of course eat in the ventas which give you the best value but the restrestaurantse can be pricey compared to other parts of Spain,. We had a meal out a few weeks a go in the centre where all the hotels are based, we had staters, a fish main meal that we shared, deserts, bottle of wine, coffees and brandy this was for the two of us the price for this was 98 euros. We have been using this place for 4 years and the prices have gone up and up, this time last year we went there and had a simular meal for 75 euros and I have to add we were both hungry when we got home. The thing is we are on a fixed budget and we are finding that we are not able to eat out as much as we used to, also as this is a holiday centre we have noticed that the price of things do go up a little in the holiday season. When we were in Portugal a few weeks back we had the same starter, main etc and it cost us 24 euros and we were stuffed.......How can this be?

lynnxa

even Mercadona puts up it's prices in the holiday season here!

Big_john

Hi,

Same here in Galicia we have lived here for 4 years now and when we first came here we noticed how much cheaper it was than San Pedro on the Costa was.
But now we have noticed it is also gradually creeping up, for instance we had a mixed fish platter for two at lunchtime which had 1 large piece of Bacalao,1 piece of Merluza, 1 piece of Rape, 1 piece of John Dory 33€ now last year that same dish was 20€, now I understand that the cost of living has to go up but that is one pretty hefty jump in that period, and that is only one example

Wine prices seem to be stable 1 Bottle of Marques de Caceres 12 €
Albariño about 14 €

crispy

We noticed at Christmas in some of the supermarkets butter went up by one euro and then came down again in the New Year. In Mercadona the fish and shell fish always goes up in the holiday season, still cheaper than UK but I do get a bit :curse: because we live here all the year and I don't see why I should have to pay more because the holiday maker is here. It is not right that peeps who come on holiday should be ripped off just because they just happen to be on holiday. Where I live it has been for many years (friend from Cadiz remembers 60years ago her parents had a massive holiday house that they only used for two weeks a year) a holiday resort for wealthy Spaniards and many of the houses are owned by wealthy business peeps who come to the coast from the city's for the summer to get away from the heat. So I thin it is something that has gone on for a life time, the trades people who live here all year round have to make as much money from the wealthy that come in the summer so they have money for the winter. It is something that all coastal resort have to do but sometimes it is just plan greed when a large national wide supermarket does it.

Mitzyboy

I wonder if it goes up if you are Spanish?
If you go to a small local fish shop and become a regular all year will you be treated differently?

crispy

Some places here have a massive mark up on their wine, as well as charging OTT for food. In Portugal we paid 1 euro 20 cents for our bottle of house red and it was pretty decent as well. Albarino in the supermarket here is 6 euros not sure what they charge in the restaurant. At the beginning of the year we had lunch near the beach and we ordered rice with prawns, on the menu it said 20 euros then in bracket (2 persons) so we thought Ok we'll have that. It was not a massive meal but enough for two peeps for lunch, when the bill came it was 20 euros each person mimimum 2 persons!!

20 Euros each for a plate of rice and prawns, I could have feed the 5,000 and still had left overs for breakfast for that sort of money! Talk about see you coming and take the p**s.

crispy

That's so very true, in some of the places we go to we are treated the same as the locals but when the regular peeps are not there and some one new is serving we very often get charged more and the things is you know they are doing it and it really pees me off.

Big_john

During the winter we try various restaurants, but during the summer we only go to our local tapas bar/restaurant at the end of our village and are treated as the family and when it is too busy Papa alway's say's to us come on we go to my house to eat and off we go ........bet then again we alway's have the family round to our house when they are knackered from the grockles from Madrid which incidentally they dislike with a passion :curse: ....as they say that all Madrileños are Mal Educados ( rude & badly educated )

MnM

BRAVO!!!

You did it! Just as I knew you would! And yes, here comes the sun and out goes the washing, hopefully to dry

As for me....well.....I'm homeward bound in one week