Alhaurin TV

October 30th

Although Alhaurín El Grande is only a small pueblo (town) of 20,000 people, it has its own local television station “ATV” (Alhaurín TV), which shows a range programmes including Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) meetings, citizens local grievances, putting local government officers and councillors on the spot on air on what they are going to do about them, local culture and crafts, local cooking programmes by local people etc.. Although very parochial, it is excellent in holding local politicians to account and giving the people a platform to voice their views, besides all the local culture.

ATV came in to its own with the War of Independence bicentennial ceremonies, with 2 crews filing everything very professionally. It has been shown this week in 5 one hour long programmes, glitches and all with very little editing, including interviews with the locals on what they thought of it …muchos buenos (very good), fantastico , a magnifico etc ….why do we find Spanish so difficult when so many words are similar ?

First snows of Winter

Spain has had its first major snows of the winter this week over much of the country, with very heavy falls over 1000 metres. We can only see a bit of snow towards the high Sierras of Granada from Alhaurin. Also there were gale force winds over much of the country yesterday Needless to say, it has been quite chilly here.

Today, Friday, there is an orange alert in Malaga Province with very heavy rain (50mm), and our walk at Benalmadena Pueblo has been cancelled ~ hence catching up with blog.