It’s a pretty tough time here

It’s a pretty tough time here in Costa del Sol Spain

I LIVE on the Costa del Sol and, all in all, we are having a pretty tough time here at the moment what with there not being any holidaymakers, curfews and not being able to have freedom of movement from one municipality to another, which, in principle, I guess seemed like a good idea, but in practice is ridiculous.

In some places here technically you can’t cross the road because one side of the street is in one town and the other side is somewhere else.

All shopkeepers are really struggling to exist right now and a few cafes and restaurants, that I’ve been going to for years, say they are getting zero help from their local councils and some are considering closing down for good.

So I was pretty amazed to see that Fuengirola had decided to spend millions of euros on ripping up the square in Los Boliches and rebuild it. This was a perfectly good square. It had seating, a children’s playground, fountains and, at Christmas, always had a beautiful tree.

Where are their brains? How can you justify spending this amount of money on a project like this? It’s like a complete kick in the nuts to all the locals who are being refused any help. Postpone it because it’s totally unnecessary. If you have some spare money, fix the potholes everywhere that kill your tyres and wheels.

Whilst I’m ranting at the local councils, what’s this new idea of allowing restaurants to stick astro turf and tubs of flowers in the few parking spaces that are available outside their premises?

It’s absolutely pointless because you are actually eating out in the road. There aren’t enough parking spaces around anyway. I was sitting at one place the other day and watched a driver reversing into the space next to the ‘new extension’ and actually hit the tub of flowers and knocked it into the table nearest to it.

It looks exactly what it is – tables in the road.  Maybe it’s just another money raising idea. All I know is that it looks stupid and could be pretty dangerous considering how folks drive out here.

Finally I’ve had a very sad reality check the last few weeks. Some of my heroes Sean Connery, Ray Clemence, Bobby Ball and Des O’Conner have passed. I guess what that tell me is how important it is to enjoy people whilst they are here.

Email: mikesenker@gmail.com

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Mike Senker

Grumpy Old Man Mike Senker provokes laughter and some groans with his spot on observations of life in the modern age.

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