Olive Press Newspaper – Issue 249 by Olive Press Newspaper Spain

Voted BEST expat paper in Spain TROUBLED: Diaz

Junta boss probed over missing €800 million A LARGE chunk of the billions syphoned off in a bogus training schemes fraud occurred under the leadership of current Junta leader Susana Diaz. The PSOE’s political rivals in Andalucia insist she must take responsibility for around €800 million of grants fraudulently taken during her time in power. While the Junta president denies this, the conclusion of a year-long investigation could put her position in jeopardy.

Jeopardy

The results of the probe into the theft of €3 billion from Junta coffers over a ten-year period already demand former leaders Antonio Grinan faces six years in prison and Manuel Chavez, a 10-year ban from politics. The parliamentary commission examined how money to stimulate employment and train the unemployed was instead funnelled into hundreds of bogus training schemes. Under a disgraceful process, numerous companies were set up to get funds for training that never took place. Both Podemos and the PP have accused Diaz of being ‘politically responsible’ for the scams from 2013 to 2015, when an estimated €803 million disappeared. Diaz claims she is blameless as the training schemes were already set up when she took power.

FREE

Vol. 10 Issue 249 www.theolivepress.es September 28th - October 11th 2016

days since Brexit vote Power couple Look back Matador and singer pair to build new Ronda hotel

We examine the first 100 days since the EU referendum

EXCLUSIVE By Rob Horgan

AN expat who scammed dozens of investors in a bogus truffle scheme has died, leaving a string of investors millions out of pocket. The untimely death of Wendy Smart - aka Wendy Jeffery - has left countless backers in the UK and Spain wondering where their investment has gone. They question where an estimated €4 million of investors money is currently located, amid claims much is offshore in the Seychelles and the Cayman Islands. While they seem satisfied

Read our Gib Rocks special feature on Brian Jones’ ape gig

Check out this edition’s cracking new supplement

See Page 10

Expat fraudster dies leaving dozens of investors millions short in dodgy truffle scheme

Free varifocal lenses wi

glass th

Specialist of Sherry Wine Special Flamenco Friday & Saturday

See our ad inside for details.

from

952 465 588

fuengirola@ibexinsure.com

Rolling Stone San Pedro

she has died, they are now demanding those close to her reveal the whereabouts of their money. The suspect scheme to produce black truffles quite simply never got off the ground, with the science failing to work and the amount Smart actually invested remaining highly suspicious. After failing to plant a single tree in the Ronda area - despite dozens of expats inSCAMMER: Wendy Jeffery vesting in the scheme that was ‘guaranteed’ to make huge returns - she fled to Valencia. Claiming there were better growing conditions there, she took yet more victims in a government manifesto in 2015’. money, until finally exposed Shindler has lived in Italy for 34 years after by the Olive Press in July fighting in the battle of Anzio and Rome’s liber2014. ation, but has mixed feelings about the decision. In a damning investigation, “Planning for the D-Day invasion took less time we revealed how the project than the preparation of this bill,” he said. was a shambles. “We’re telling other people how to become a The land had not been propdemocracy, but we’re not a proper democracy erly acquired, numerous ourselves. trees had died and the staff “This makes us a complete democracy.” and subcontractors had not

For all your insurance needs!

Fuengirola

Awarded by Diageo & The Irish Times Tel: 951 517 015 www.healymacs-estepona.com

See Page 11

stinks!

THOUSANDS of expats will win the right to vote in UK elections after Theresa May vowed to change the law. The Prime Minister pledged to extend voting rights to expats who have lived abroad for more than 15 years after a World War Two veteran lobbied parliament. Harry Shindler, 95, received a letter from May assuring him all Brits living outside the UK will be able to vote in elections by 2020, as ‘set out

estepona@ibexinsure.com

ESTEPONA PORT Irish Bar & Restaurant

See Page 6

See Page 5

Voting victory for expats

Estepona 952 887 125

HEALY MAC S

59€

FACT: Spain causing border queues

SMASH

the spiking

The Olive Press launches a

campaign against drink-spiking , see page 2

olive press

The original and only English-language investigative newspaper in Andalucía

the

FREE

Vol. 8 Issue 192 www.theolive press.es

Let HiFX help you reach your destination. www.hifx.co.uk

SNUFFLED! July 24 - Aug 6 2014

IT’S official. The infamous Gibraltar border queues being deliberately created are by Spain, according to new statistical proof. The recently launched Monitoring Programme Frontier the number of cars thatrecords cross from the Rock to La Linea in one minute. The flow rate should technically remain constant, irrespective of the number of cars waiting to cross. However, data collected on a single day this week shows a HE claimed to have massive drop from 7.8 invented entering Spain per minutecars a ground-breaking truffle inat oculation method 2pm, to 1.5 per minute Expat Roger Wallis, who that would at 6pm. ‘guarantee’ Just one hour later at 3pm, plantation owners nally worked with Smart origithe a good yield of flow rate had slowed the expensive TRUFFLE TROUBLE: decade ago in Ronda, over a down to delicacy. claims Smart at a ‘healthy plantation’ 2.9 cars per minute, which that if he did actually visit, and (right) her Valencia when the queues started is And during a memorable visit scientist would no doubt the farm under the name Europe EXCLUSIVE be build up. By 6pm it was to to the Dragons Den BBC TV ‘horrified’. fles. But nothing came Truf- tors have teamed up with By Tom Powell 1.5 show in 2006, Dr to frui- series cars coinciding with a “The plantation does not Paul Thomas tion. No estate was bought, of leaving work-places to people even snared €100,000 of in- marketing nor Valencia new shareholders in healthy and apparentlylook a single tree planted. return vestment from who also claim that skills, among many home. Yo! Sushi found- other third of the crop is dying,” a their investment is anything So when she suddenly talents. The expat he er Simon Woodroffe. claimed. Ronda for Valencia four left but safe. rived in Spain 15 years had arWhile it was later put ago with The leader of a recently ago, claiming ‘better years Concerned about the state Dramatic he went on to sell his on hold, high hopes of starting a truffle launched action group, exciting plantation to offer growing conditions’, shetruffle her plantation, in Tirig, and of Walinvention via his company to investors. lis invested almost €20,000 behind a trail of concerned left future of its oak trees, they the But by 7pm, the rate increased chorizal Systems across My- After creating a slick website cast ex- doubts that in 230 trees in an effort the and an enticing business pats, not to mention they will ever see a dramatically back to 12.7 world. plan, help Smart, his then friend, to per up-in-arms over allegedworkers return on their money. she enlisted minute. Acting Chief in unpaid And 2013. Minister Enter Wendy Smart, a horse- tic investors dozens of optimisdebts. Here she enlisted worse, despite receiving Dr Joseph Garcia commented: breeding life coach with in the Ronda area Dr He also persuaded friends direct with promises up to €1 million in investment, Thomas and his methods. “The drop in cars crossing of high returns, invest, before discovering to Smart the But now those anxious border from 12.7 cars to inves- holder – the majority sharehis ‘horror’ that she per min- is refusing to pay some ute to 1.5 is undeniable ready received ‘nearly ahad alex-employees. of the way in which delaysproof pounds in investment’, million Dr Thomas, also a substanare being generated. of it sent to an offshore much tial shareholder, admitted com“The flow rate is clearly night that he had been last depany in the Seychelles. liberately reduced by contacted frequently by thorities, waiting times the auworried investors. hours are intolerable inof three Untouchable an inBut the Sheffield-based ternal border of the European tist told the Olive Press: scienUnion. “She owns over 65% a lot of allegations, but “I hear “The brunt of this hardship of the I am alshares in the company ways cautious. is borne by EU nationals, so therefore thou“We are she still is waiting almost sands of whom live in Spain touchable,” he told the unresults before makingfor test but work in Gibraltar. Needless Olive Press. ments, and I have also judgto say, residents of Gibraltar “I have tried to shake visited the plantation.” not yet and tourists are also being shareholders simply up the When pressed on when afThe festival season starts exContinues on Page tect the trees because to proactly this would be, he 16 people Paul Weller (left) wowed on the crest of a wave with The Beach Boys stand to lose a lot of money.” “I haven’t got any plans added: in Marbella (tonight) while the Benicassim crowds to visit and Steel Pulse rocked For one person it is soon, but Wendy has asked the Rock. See page 9. already me to come this year.”

Expat truffle farmer with links to Dragons Den is in hot water over claims of unpaid debts from Ronda to Valencia

Get the party started

See Page 2

Find your dream property today!

Turn to page 8 to find out more 694 473 055 spainbuyingguide.com

FLASHBACK: July 2014 UK TV Solutions Installations Troubleshooting

been paid. At the time, an action group was set up to demand answers and attempt to recoup money that the group claimed had been sent offshore. But now that chance has all but gone with the untimely death of Smart, who suffered a stroke and fell into a coma at her farmhouse in the Villamartin area of Cadiz. One British expat, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Olive Press that he has ‘no hope’ of ever seeing a return on his €20,000 investment in 230 trees. “There must be money somewhere and there are certainly assets somewhere, money •

663 303 932 / 675 033 474 info@alpusat.com www.alpusat.com

Fully accreditted BSKYB technician based in Las Alpujarras Find us on facebook.com/alpusat.alpuja

rra

Est 1984

ANTHONYS Antiques, Jewellers & Pawnbrokers A huge variety of over 1 carat diamond jewellery. HIGH STREET PRICES: 7,000€+ OUR PRICE: 1,500 - 2,000€ UNBEATABLE PRICES GUARANTEED WE BUY, WE PAY MORE, WE PAY CASH

National Gastronomic Award

Diamonds@anthonys-diamonds.com

952 588 795 or 609 529 633

C/ Andalucía, 10º San Pedro de Alcántara

Tel: 952 927 188 labodegadelcantinero@gmail.com

Avda. Ramon y Cajal 40, Fuengirola, Malaga 29640 (EASY PARKING)

OLIVE PRESS – 70mm x 40mm FRONT COVER 28 September & 12 October

doesn’t just disappear. “I got on with Wendy as soon as I met her and she offered me commission for introducing people to the company. “Soon enough money started appearing in my bank account, small amounts at first then building up to one payment of €2,000. I suddenly got interested! “This is when I invested €20,000 in the company and then the problems started and the cash flow stopped.” He added: “I just feel sorry for the pensioners who have invested their life savings. Wendy has left a trail of devastation behind her.” He believes around €4 million was invested in total. While she spent money on a slick website and marketing materials, the science from UK expert Dr Paul Thomas came to nothing. The land was eventually taken back by the owners and Smart’s company Parkview was closed and she reopened under Europe Truffles SL, which has now disbanded. Wendy’s husband Martin failed to respond to phone calls or emails as we went to press.

www.theolivepress.es NEWS IN BRIEF

Columbus call

LEFT-WING politicians in Barcelona are calling for its famous Christopher Columbus statue to be replaced with a memorial to ‘American resistance to imperialism’.

Caught, at last SPANISH police have arrested a British man wanted by UK authorities in a 20-year-old child sexual abuse case.

No Pizza THE political situation in Spain has affected the sale of pizzas. Telepizza has blamed the uncertainty for a reduction in sales.

Tourism Pays A RECORD breaking tourist season this year has causedSpain’s GDP to grow despite having a ‘caretaker’ government.

By Rob Horgan

IRISH gangland figure James Quinn has been arrested in connection to the murder of mobster Gary Hutch on the Costa del Sol. It has also been revealed that the 34-year-old Kinahan associate is being investigated for the killing of Gerard ‘Hatchet’ Kavanagh in a broad-daylight shooting in Marbella in 2014. Hutch was gunned down at his swimming pool in Marbella 12 months ago, while Kavanagh died after being shot nine times by masked men at Harmon’s Irish Bar in Elviria. Quinn’s arrest came during dawn raids at six properties along the Costa del Sol including at the MGM Marbella boxing gym where Daniel Kinahan manages a number of fighters. The murder of Gary Hutch 12 months ago sparked a feud between the Kinahan and Hutch gangs, with nine murders taking place in Dublin, including the shooting of David Byrne at a MGM Marbella weigh-in. Irish and Spanish police

CRIME

Closing in Joint Spanish and Irish operation deals blow to Kinahan clan as murder suspect is arrested in Puerto Banus swooped on a number of properties, seizing €23,000 in cash, documents relating to money laundering, false identification and a number of weapons. A yacht in Puerto Banus marina was also seized by police as well as a Bentley and a Mercedes. One eyewitness who saw the raid at the gym told the Olive Press: "I saw around eight armed police officers go in with dogs. "There was a lot of people com-

Meanwhile a Russian yacht owner in the marina added: "The raid took place fairly early, they had a young-looking guy cuffed and were bringing things off the boat and putting it into the police cars." Staff at MGM Marbella refused to comment. Detective Supt Tony Howard of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau said that the investigation was heavily focused on money laundering. "We've seized computers, phones, €23,000 in cash, false identification papers and financial documentation," he said. "I believe we will have arCUFFED: Quinn ing in and out, it was scary to rests in the future." see it happen. The whole road He added that the operation was about evidence gathering was cordoned off." and 'disrupting and dismantling these organised crime groups'. Quinn - who is being held in AlAMY FITZPATRICK’S father has is- haurin prison sued a fresh appeal for information - has around 70 about his daughter’s whereabouts. convictions in He said his life has never been Ireland and is the the same since his daughter dis- nephew of vetappeared in Spain on New Year’s eran Irish criminal Day in 2008, asking people to Martin 'The Viper' come forward. Foley. “People are probably afraid to He is believed to say anything or whatever at the have been working moment, but I’m urging them for the Kinahan just come forward,” he said, “It’s cartel since 2009. just heartbreaking, it really is.”

Friends in high places Father’s plea CONVICTED killer Dave Mahon and his wife Audrey Fitzpatrick solicited the help of crime boss Daniel Kinahan to arrange a fundraiser for their missing daughter Amy Fitzpatrick. A photograph has emerged of the couple with Kinhan enforcer Aaron Bolger at the Auld Dubliner pub in Puerto Banus.

September 28th - October 11th 2016

In the photo Audrey is presenting Bolger with a certificate thanking Kinahan for helping set up a fundraiser. Enforcer Bolger was injured in a shooting at a MGM Marbella boxing weigh in in Dublin in a hit attempt on Daniel Kinahan.

WANTED: Jackson

Please get him over! THE family of missing Lisa Brown is facing an agonising wait to hear whether murder suspect Stephen Jackson will be extradited to Spain for trial. Jackson, 50, who is currently serving a four year prison sentence in the UK for smuggling 17 illegal migrants, will have an extradition hearing on February 2. Spanish police believe he was working closely with Scottish Lisa’s former boyfriend Simon Corner, 33, who is awaiting trial in Algeciras prison. In a new development, it is believed two other suspects - one a woman - are also currently behind bars in Spain over Lisa’s disappearance from her Guadiaro home last November. Lisa’s brother, Craig Douglas, 46, told the Olive Press his family will be in Spain in six weeks time for the anniversary of her disappearance. “If the Spanish provide the British authorities with enough information then Jackson will be extradited,” he said. “These people have taken away our sister and left Marco [Lisa’s eight-year-old son] without a mother.”

NE WS

www.theolivepress.es

Shore leave

DESIRE: Ron’s won again

Happy Hugh HUGH GRANT was all smiles at the premiere of his new film at the San Sebastian Film Festival in northern Spain. The 56-year-old actor, who is a regular visitor to Marbella, attended a photo call for the film Florence Foster Jenkins in which he co-stars with Meryl Streep. Hugh was snapped by the Olive Press this summer eating in the old town of Marbella with a new girlfriend.

CRISTIANO RONALDO is rumoured to be dating former Miss Spain and Sevilla-born model Desire Cordero. Sources say the Real Madrid player has been seeing the 23-year-old for around a month, having hooked up after giving each other likes on social media and swapping private messages. The glamour model has been spotted several times at the gated VIP estate of La Finca in Madrid - where Cristiano lives - and has recently posted photos of herself and her friends from a Real Madrid football match. It’s thought that the Miss Universe runner-up has already relocated to Madrid test.

Hanging up my guitar Expat rocker Rick Parfitt has given up touring after ‘dying’ following a gig ROCKSTAR Rick Parfitt has said he doesn’t want to ‘drop dead in front of fans’ in his first moving interview since he had a heart attack this summer. The Marbella-based rocker insisted doctors had advised him to stop playing live. The Status Quo singer revealed he hasn’t played the guitar for three months since hav-

Pull & Beckham

HUGH BEAUTY: Grant

Has he scored again?

EX-Geordie Shore lass Vicky Pattison has been spotted enjoying the Spanish sun with a handsome bearded companion. The 28-year-old brunette was seen walking hand in hand with the tattooed fellow in Marbella. The reality TV star is no stranger to sunnier climates as her new travel series, The Only Way is Amalfi Shore, based in Italy, has just started airing.

TA-TWO: Happy couple

September 28th - October 11th 2016

BROOKLYN BECKHAM was mobbed by screaming girls as he arrived at the Pull & Bear headquarters in Spain. The son of British football legend David Beckham signed an endorsement deal with the Spanish clothing brand in early September, which is said to be worth hundreds of thousands of euros. He revealed the lucrative deal by releasing a photo of himself in one of the brand’s hoodies on the photo app Instagram. The brand is part of the Inditex fashion company owned by billionaire Spaniard Amancio Ortega, who also owns Zara and Massimo Dutti, and who was most recently crowned as the richest man in the world.

PO Boxes Available

The Sabinillas Bookshop

The Bookshop Sabinillas

Large range of Greeting Cards Daily Newspapers • Magazines • Maps Postal Service • Day Trips • Passports Unusual Gifts • Guides • Books

Tel: 952 891 545 Email: steve@sabinillasbookshop.com

www.sabinillasbookshop.com

ing quadruple heart bypass surgery. The star, who had a heart attack during a live show in Turkey in June, said: "I did actually die. I died for about three-and-a-half minutes apparently and they had to resuscitate me, pump me for half an hour or so.” He added: "I do not want to tax myself in any way. I've been told medically not to. So whether it's a full gig or a cameo I'd still get fairly nervous and I do not want to get out on stage and drop dead in front of the fans. I do not want to do that." The 67-year-old is currently recovering back at his home in Marbella, where he lives with his wife Lyndsay and twins, Tommy and Lily. He also has a second property inland, near Alhaurin el Grande.

Off point

A PHOTO shoot featuring Kendall Jenner has come under fire for being disrespectful to professional ballet dancers. The Vogue Spain set sees the American reality TV star-cum-model pose in ballet-inspired gear complete with leg warmers and ballet shoes. An accompanying video shows the star, who is Kim Kardashian’s halfsister, dancing around a studio in a tutu. Dance Spirit magazine labelled it ‘disrespectful’ to the artists who devote their lives to ‘this demanding craft’.

www.theolivepress.es Festival Title Sponsor

September 28th - October 11th 2016

GIBUNCO GIBRALTAR INTERNATIONAL LITERARY FESTIVAL

Festival Organiser

The Garrison Library (1832 - Frederick Leeds Edridge). Gibraltar Museum

THURSDAY 20 to SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

TICKETS NOW ON SALE from £12

Join us for our Fourth International Literary Festival on The Rock, where world class writers and speakers come together for four days of public events, staged in the famous Regency Garrison Library and other historic buildings within the ancient City of Gibraltar. Located where the continents of Africa and Europe converge, and where the waters of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic meet, Gibraltar is the most famous fortress in history. It is the perfect setting to discuss the evolution of literature, culture and current affairs.

www.gibraltarliteraryfestival.com GIBRALTAR – A GREAT EUROPEAN CITY STATE

#VISITGIBRALTAR

www.theolivepress.es

More pongs ESTEPONA town hall has come under fire for yet another sewage leak. The opposition PSOE party has slammed the mayor after sun-seekers at beach Playa del Cristo were enveloped by human waste, which seeped onto the beach following a pipe burst. The PSOE insists that an apparent fixing of the problem in May was a waste of public money.

New alliance THE PSOE in Mijas has struck a coalition deal with the governing party Ciudadanos, after its relationship with the PP collapsed. Mayor Juan Carlos Maldonado (C’s) stays in power, while he is still one councillor short of ruling with an absolute majority.

Telethon date RADIO station TRE is getting prepared for its annual Telethon for cancer charity Cudeca. The TRE team will take calls and donations for nine hours as they host special guests and live performances on November 25. The proceeds will go to the cancer charity Cudeca, which has been operating on the Costa del Sol since 1992 and cares for more than 1,100 people every year.

NE WS

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Glamour inn FLAMENCO star Estrella Morente is set to open a toro-themed hotel in the Ronda area. The stylish singer is designing the hotel with her handsome matador husband Javier Conde. The Granada star has teamed up with Malagaborn Conde to develop the ‘cortijo-style’ hotel, that will have seven bedrooms, all linked in some way to the bullfighting tradition. The three-star hotel, which will be 800-square metres in size, is to be built in a rural area a few kilometres from the town, near the stunning Tajo del Abanico gorge. The €700,000 project will count on its own minibullfighting ring, as well as a small museum into the

all the legal requirements. The Olive Press can reveal that the pair have been looking to buy a project in the area for a number of years. “They have been looking around the Serrania at hotels and properties for years,” revealed a source. “They love the amazing landscape and believe it will be a success.” Ronda is often dubbed Spain’s spiritual home of bullfighting home to Spain’s oldest ring and having spawned a number of leading bullfighters. Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway spent a lot works boss Francisco Mar- of time in Ronda studyquez confirmed that the ing and writing about the couple had applied to build art, with statues to both in the hotel some time ago town. and that so far it had met Ronda is also to become the home for a key project by famous French designer Philip Starck, who is hopNone of the purchases or spending ing to open an ecowas declared to the tax authorities. logical olive mill just While the racket began at Caja outside the town. Madrid, where Rato was also pres- The Almazara LA Orident, it continued when Bankia ganic project features a main building with was created in 2011. A lot of the spending occurred the face of a bull. while Spain was going through one The project, is curof the largest financial crises in its rently being redehistory. signed, as it was beBankia had to be bailed out in 2012 lieved to have been at a huge expense to the public. too large for the area.

Flamenco-bullfight couple plan bullfight hotel near Ronda

STUNNING: Ronda and (inset) Morente and Conde

bullfighting tradition. It was expected to get the green light from Ronda town hall this week. The town hall’s public

Chip and sin SPAIN’S former finance minister has gone on trial over an alleged credit card scam. Rodrigo Rato, who later headed the International Monetary Fund, used ‘unofficial’ black money bank credit cards to fund his luxury lifestyle. Prosecutors claim a total of 64 bankers spent around €12 million on hotels, designer clothes, entertainment and travel, all of which were unrelated to their duties.

Caught at last SPANISH police have arrested a British man wanted back home over child sex allegations. The man was arrested in Alicante 20 years after the case was reported in 1995.

Cop has to buy her own vest THE Guardia Civil has come under fire for disciplining a female officer for buying her own bullet proof vest. The force has now promised to purchase 2,000 special vests for its female staff after the officer was wrongly disciplined for buying and wearing her own for €500. The policewoman from Salamanca had insisted that the jacket she had been given did not ‘fit female bodies’. She insisted it also made it hard for her to reach her gun and her handcuffs.

Lauda’s sure bet RACING legend Niki Lauda was the star guest at the official opening of San Roque’s new Casino Admiral. Three-times Formula 1 winner Lauda, the only driver to win with Ferrari and McLaren, took to the roulette wheel after answering questions about his sport.

CAPTION:

fe at u re

www.theolivepress.es Voted top expat paper in Spain

OPINION Who will cut out the cancer? WHEN will Spanish politicians clean up their act? This week, we report how Marbella’s former mayor Angeles Munoz is being probed for allegedly altering town planning rules - to benefit her property-developing husband. Meanwhile,incumbent leader Jose Bernal is being investigated for using public services to give his mate a top-notch wedding. Residents should be very disappointed by what is clearly an abuse of authority and a severe case of using public services to grant friendly favours. But it has been a very bad week, in general, for politicians, as it emerged that Junta boss Susana Diaz is back in the limelight for her alleged involvement in an €800 million training funds scandal. It seems elected officials have forgotten who they are hired to serve... us! Not their husbands, cousins or mates! And the corruption isn’t exclusive to local government. Rodrigo Rato, the former finance minister, has gone on trial for splashing millions in black money - undeclared to the taxman on numerous luxury items. He used company credit cards from one of Spain’s main banks, Bankia, while the rest of the country was financially on its knees… and many people still are. Three years ago, our front page carried a photo of Prime Minister Rajoy, asking one simple question: ‘Who will cut out the cancer destroying Spain?’ Well tragically, we are nowhere nearer to the answer. With no clear government in sight and the regions still up to their old tricks, it is clear Spain has a long way to go in making its leaders accountable. Once again: ‘Who is going to cut out this cancer?’

Margallo must stop

WHEN will Spanish AFTER the summer recess, Brexit is very much back with a bang. A king’s speech in New York, a front page of ABC...it’s no surprise that Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo is stoking the flames once more. It’s becoming tiresome. Talk to the average Spaniard and joint-sovereignty over Gibraltar is simply not a concern. Even more so if they have family or friends relying on work in Gibraltar, or Gibraltar clients keeping their businesses afloat. But for some reason, this right-wing relic continues to beat the war drum over Gibraltar. His obsession would be laughable if the matter weren’t so serious. To ignore the democratic will of the people of Gibraltar and their right to be British is an insult. Now he wants to turn Europe’s leaders on to his wretched joint sovereignty scheme. The Spanish people deserve better than this fossilised Foreign Minister.

AWARDS

2015/2016 Best expat paper in Spain and the second best in the world. The Expat Survey Consumer Awards.

2012 - 2016

Named the best English language publication in Andalucia by the Rough Guides group. A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in southern Spain - 200,000 copies distributed monthly (130,000 digitally) with an estimated readership, including the website, of more than 500,000 people a month. Carretera Nacional 340, km 144.5 Calle Espinosa 1 Edificio centro comercial El Duque, planta primera, 29692 San Luis de Sabinilla, Manilva

Publisher/ Editor

Jon Clarke jon@theolivepress.es

Newsdesk newsdesk@theolivepress.es Tel: (+34) 665 798 618

Designer James Partington design@theolivepress.es

Rob Horgan rob@theolivepress.es Joe Duggan joe@theolivepress.es Laurence Dollimore laurence@theolivepress.es Samantha Mordi samantha@theolivepress.es Admin & Accounts (+34) 951 273 575 Maria González admin@theolivepress.es Admin and accounts coordinator Héctor Santaella (+34) 658 750 424 accounts@theolivepress.es Admin and account assistant

Distribution Graham Warters distribution@theolivepress.es SALES TEAM: sales@theolivepress.es

European politics has certainly been interesting since Nigel Farage brazenly labelled June 23 ‘Britain’s Independence Day’. Yet we are no closer to understanding the true meaning of Brexit. Rob Horgan looks back on how the last 100 days have played out.

CTOBER 1 marks 100 days since Britain voted to leave the EU. And with Brexit dominating newspaper column inches and banco banter, three months have slipped by in the blink of an eye. As for its consequences, the UK, Gibraltar, the EU and expats scattered across the continent are still none the wiser. The initial shock and knee-jerk panic expats awoke to on June 24 may have subsided. But the hangover from the referendum lingers on, with no prospect of a cure any time soon. This is how the past 100 days unfolded:

Day 1 (June 24) Expats along the Costa del Sol wake up with sore heads after a night of San Juan celebrations. But their thumping headaches are nothing compared to the sucker punch news that the UK has voted for Brexit. With 51.9% of voters opting to wave goodbye to the EU, Prime Minister David Cameron declares his intention to step down before October, and Nigel Farage chortles that June 23 is ‘Britain’s Independence Day’. Gibraltarians are just as gutted as British expats, with nearly 96% of voters supporting Remain.

September 28th - October 11th 2016

days since Brexit vote real challenge.

means Brexit’.

Day 11 (July 4) Nigel Farage announces his resignation as UKIP leader again, after ‘achieving political ambition’ with Brexit. The MEP insists that this time it’s for good but floats a role negotiating Britain’s exit from the EU, saying he ‘might have something to give’.

Day 13 (July 6) The volatile financial markets hit rock bottom as the pound slumps to a 31-year low of $1.2796, a 15% plunge in 13 days. Investors lose confidence in Britain’s future outside the European Union and pile out of the UK currency.

Day 27 (July 20) The UK Petitions Office confirms to the Olive Press that Brexit has triggered a 300% increase in petition requests. Esteemed journalist Giles Tremlett leads the charge for joint nationality as the OP publishes its first-ever Spanish front page, urging locals to support British expats’ campaigns for dual nationality.

Day 39 (August 1) The Irish immigration office is inundated by a 70% spike in passport applications since Brexit, as panicked Brits try to hang on to their EU status.

Day 67 (August 28)

Day 14 (July 7) Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Margallo, wastes no time in kicking Gibraltar while it’s down, claiming the ‘Spanish flag on the Rock is much closer’ after Brexit. In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon vows to hold a second independence referendum, while Ireland’s Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness calls for unification of the North and the Republic. Meanwhile, things are no better in the Labour camp, as leader Jeremy Corbyn comes under heavy fire from within, with a vote of no confidence scheduled.

Day 2 (June 25) Race-hate crimes rise by 42% since Brexit, with 289 incidents reported on June 25 alone. A Polish community centre is vandalised in London while, in Cambridgeshire, Polish residents receive letterbox leaflets labelling them ‘vermin’ and telling them to ‘go home’.

Day 7 (June 30) Fervent Leave campaigner Boris Johnson pulls out of the race to become Britain’s next Prime Minister, leaving Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom as front runners. Michael Gove and Stephen Crabb throw their names into the ring but never look like mounting a

A fortnight after Brexit, an independent newspaper poll reveals that 1.2 million Brexiteers would change their vote to Remain, given the chance. Over at Bilbao’s BBK festival, Scottish Chvrches singer Lauren Mayberry apologises to the Spanish crowd for the ‘a***holes behind Brexit’.

Day 20 (July 13) Theresa May is declared Prime Minister, with David Cameron stepping aside earlier than announced. May wastes no time forming a cabinet, controversially selecting Boris Johnson for Foreign Secretary despite prior faux pas (calling ‘Bongo, Bongo land and suggesting US President Barack Obama had an ancestral dislike of Britain due to his Kenyan heritage). New ‘Brexit-related’ cabinet positions are created, with Leave campaigner and frequent Gibraltar visitor Liam Fox becoming Secretary of State for International Trade. The Rock’s Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, continues to work around the clock, jetting to London to meet the new PM and parlay the pros and cons of a Gibraltar-Scotland coalition with Nicola Sturgeon.

Day 26 (July 19) Theresa May tells the UK High Court that she will not trigger the infamous article 50 before the end of the year. She firmly reminds judges considering a legal challenge over the referendum that ‘Brexit

Catalan Independence campaigners report a surge in support, with a record 48% of Catalonians wanting independence from Spain since Brexit, according to an El Pais survey.

Day 75 (September 5) MPs clash over a four million-signature petition to scrap the Brexit vote and hold a new referendum. Furious Brexiteers claim the petition is anti-democratic and the government shoots it down, declaring the referendum a ‘oncein-a-generation vote’.

Day 82 (September 12) Ex-PM David Cameron throws in the political towel after 15 years as an MP, stating he does not want to be a distraction to his successor while she negotiates Brexit.

Day 86 (September 16) EU leaders meet without Britain for the first time to discuss how to keep the alliance together and avoid further defections. Germany’s Angela Merkel insists the EU is in a ‘critical situation’.

Chris Birkett - Head of Sales chris@theolivepress.es (+34) 652 512 956

And the next 100 days (prediction)

Kerry Hicks kerry@theolivepress.es 655825683

The coming weeks are likely to see some interesting horse trading as the UK and the EU battle to come out on top. While the Union lays out its farewell plan for Britain, the UK will continue to negotiate trade deals with the likes of Australia and

China while attempting to put pre-Brexit contingency plans in place. In reality, days 200-300 are more likely to see concrete plans set in motion.

WEBSITE

www.theolivepress.es

Fe at u re

Each print issue of the Olive Press can be read in its entirety on www.theolivepress.es September 28th - October 11th 2016 And our site is updated daily with the latest news, making it one of Spain’s most visited news websites.

olive press online October 2015

Spain and Gibraltar’s best English views:xxxxxxxxx daily newsPage website Visitors: xxxxxxxx

Most read this

- ISIS propaganda targets Spanish holiday fortnight on hotspot for the first time (5,165)

with dropping temperatures and

more rain -del 4616Sol views - STORMS BREWING: Costa to remain sunny as most of Spain placed on high alert for storms (4,203)  VIDEO: Floods hit Costa del Sol as heavy rain continues - 4604

- Man arrested over Gary views Hutch murder as police raid MGM Marbella gym linked to Kinahan crime family (3,322)

 Gangsters’ paradise: A look at

the key figures past and present of - Kinahan gangster arrested is named following Costa delthe SolCosta anddel Ireland raids Crime - 3872 views (2,736) Torremolinos to open AndaPage Views:272,827

lucia’s biggest shopping and leisure centre - 3122 views Visitors: 115,479  Gibraltar schoolgirl reaches semi

-final3.30% of Spanish TV talent show Bounce Rate: 3065 views

Statistics for: September 11th - September 26th

SOCIALMEDIA OlivePressNewspaper olivepress

DANGEROUS: But top fighters like Jose Tomas (above) cannot save it

Bullfighting being killed off by lazy matador mafia about all this is that nothing is changing. No one takes the hint. It is clear that the best-known bullfighters are not interested, and prefer to win all their fights easily. The companies that organise bullfights are failing, but take no steps to halt the decline. The fighting bull has disap-

DYING ART: Bullfighting has become boring and staid

peared, but they don’t care. Why? Because bullfighting is run by a mafia, an organised group of all the people involved, from bullfighters, breeders and companies, who act without any scruples and any thought for the audiences. It is a strong, closed mafia that prevents the necessary revolution and the emergence of modern forms of management and new matadors. So closed is the world that becoming an important new bullfighter is more difficult than becoming the next Pope. Bullfighting is monopolised by a small group of matadors and four companies who decide which bulls are chosen to fight and what the audience will see. They abuse their position and offer the public a product for their benefit rather than that of the audience. For these reasons, and because of pressure from animal rights groups and politicians, bullfighting will disappear sooner rather than later. Who would have expected this to happen, not because of the will of the political class, but because of the lack of interest of those who pay for tickets? Soon it will be time for regrets, but few will probably remember the grave damage inflicted by the bullfighting mafia – the rancid, ultra-conservative, selfish group who share the crumbs of a business that they themselves are condemning to death. This article first appeared in El Pais

olivepressnews +TheolivepressEs

BE ‘APPY!

www.diningsecretsofandalucia.com Download our app now and

begin enjoying the best Spanish news on the go.

www.allaboutandalucia.com

The Olive Press TOP for news in Spain!

Useful numbers EMERGENCIES

Ambulance/ Fire brigade/ Police 112 Local police 092 Medical 061 Fire 080 Guardia civil 062

Airport

Malaga - 952 048 844* *For English press 9 Gibraltar00350 22073026

Granada - Jaen 958 245 200 Jerez - 956 150 000 Sevilla 954 449 000

Updated daily The Olive Press online www.theolivepress.es The website is conveniently accessible from your desktop computer to your laptop, tablets and smartphones throughout the day wherever you are. www.theolivepress.es

www.theolivepress.es

P olitics

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Follow the leader PEDRO Sanchez has called a PSOE leadership election on October 23 demanding his party supports him. The Socialist leader has thrown down the gauntlet to his political rivals as Spain faces a third general election in a year. It comes after the PSOE scored its worst ever results in regional elections in the Basque Country and Galicia. Sanchez is facing angry calls from

the PSOE’s 26-strong executive to do more to end the deadlock paralysing Spain’s political system after two inconclusive elections. Sanchez has been unable to reach an agreement with Podemos and Ciudadanos over issues such as a Catalan independence referendum, to which he is opposed. Parliament has until October 31 to form a new government.

Jose Bernal provided two cops and a free parking zone for his pal’s wedding

Mayor probed over pal’s police escort THE mayor of Marbella is being investigated for granting his friend the use of a police escort at his wedding. Jose Bernal gave his friend and fellow PSOE politician Daniel Garcia Andreu a two horse escort at his glitzy wedding in Marbella on June 3.

He was also granted a special zone for the loading and unloading vehicles that were dropping off guests between Calle Huerta Chica and the restaurant La Pesquera. Marbella prosecutor Julio Angel Martinez is investigating whether it is an appropriate use of public funds and whether it could be ruled as a criminal offence. Bernal was first denounced by the rival PP party just days after the wedding. “We warn of the Junta. seriousness of the A citizens’ platform claims the use of public rePGOU town planning document sources for private that went to the town hall for interests,” read a approval in 2009 was vastly difstatement. ferent to the one that was sent “It is unacceptable out for public consultation. for the town hall Indeed a report sent to to escort a wedMarbella public prosecuding party or an tor Julio Martinez Carazo event that was prishowed there were 22 vate.” differences between the The local police two documents. have also begun Munoz said she has an internal inves‘no doubt’ that the tigation into the approval process was matter to detercarried out lawfully. mine the reason.

Ex-mayor also probed over corrupt deal THE former mayor of Marbella is being investigated over falsifying documents. EX-PP mayor Angeles Muñoz is being probed over claims she manipulating town planning rules in a shady deal over the town’s border with Benahavis. A new boundary - which would have allowed for more construction, allegedly in-part on land owned by her Swedish developer husband Lars Broberg - was later annulled by the

Spain faces funding freeze BRUSSELS has warned Spain it could be refused financial support if it fails to get its budget deficit under control. EC president Jean Claude Juncker is said to be in favour sanctions on Spain if the government fails to take effective measures to

reduce the deficit in the second half of 2016 and in draft budgets for 2017. The European Commission will make a ruling on the matter after consulting with the European Parliament over the next few weeks.

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

www.theolivepress.es

G reen

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Beheaded

Bison are decapitated to become hunting trophies POLICE have opened an investigation after an attack on a herd of recently reintroduced European bison left two decapitated and several poisoned. Staff called police from the the Valdeserrillas reserve in Valencia after discovering the headless body of a dominant male. “Sauron was a beautiful animal that weighed

nearly 800kg,” said a spokesman for the reserve. “He was sort of the symbol of the reserve.” They believe the herd was poisoned so that their heads could be cut off and sold as trophies. Just one week later, another male from the same reserve was found with his head removed. ““Either it died of a natural death, or it was poisoned before being decapitated by an axe,” a park representative said. The herd of 12 had been brought to Spain from the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK as part of a Europeanwide programme to reintroduce the endangered species. The reserve has said the killings could threaten its future. “It was like a murder, it’s just senseless and it’s really damaged not only our image and Valencia’s, but also Spain’s,” said the spokesman.

STAND OFF: Murcia farmers

Farmers’ fury THOUSANDS of farmers in Murcia stopped traffic in an angry protest over a seasonal drought. The long running feud came to a head as the farmers rallied around the local government headquarters, demanding water for their dehydrated and dying crops. Murcia has seen a three-year period of little or no rainfall, with the recent storms hardly touching the region. The protest began just moments before the president of the regional government Pedro Antonio Sanchez arrived. Tensions have been rising as the farmers are pushing for Spain to legally declare a drought crisis. The move would enable them to use emergency wells and remove the imposed ban on water treatment in the countryside.

Baby boom A BABY orangutan has been born in Fuengirola’s Bioparc. It is the second time the park has had an orangutan birth in 15 years. Close to extinction, the Bornean orangutans are known to devote most of their time to their young. The baby girl was born under the watchful eye of zoo keepers and biologists.

ANDALUCIA RESERVOIR LEVELS This week: 50.74% Same week last year: 61.04% Same week in 2006: 51.83%

Donana emergency SPAIN could be the home of the first national park to be classed as ‘in danger’. Doñana park, between Huelvan and Sevilla, is losing its natural water due to marsh drainage and intensive agriculture. Spain has until December 1 to declare the zone as ‘off limits’. The wetlands are home to around 2,000 different species of animals, including flamingoes and the endangered Iberian lynx. Around 80% of the water has been lost, with

UNESCO urging Spain to disclose it as a national emergency. The land, which stretches 540 square kilometres, usually receives its water from the Guadalquivir and Guadiamar rivers which are now in short supply. Eva Hernandez, a spokeswoman for WWF said: “Doñana’s biodiversity has eroded over the last 40 years and we are reaching a point of no return,” “The pressures on it are becoming unbearable.”

www.theolivepress.es

Under the sea AROUND 3000 tourists have visited Cuevas del Tesoro in Rincon this year. The underground cave museum, based in a system of caves formed in the Jurassic era, is one of only three similar ones in the world to showcase stone, bone and ceramic.

Million euro museum THE Muvel museum of VelezMalaga is set re-open before the end of year following a one million euro upgrade. The museum’s structure has been reinforced and its layout redesigned. The building was founded by the Catholic Monarchs in 1487 as the Hospital of San Marcos. Locals and tourists will be able to view the history of the town through the 1,700 objects on show, including archeological finds, documents, photographs and private collections.

A xa r q u i a

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Tram drama

IRREGULAR: Velez tram

THE mayor of Velez-Malaga has asked a public prosecutor to investigate irregularities in the stopping of the town’s tram systems. Antonio Moreno Ferrer has announced that his PSOE party can show that elements of the ‘paralysation’ of the tram route to Torre Del Mar were illegal. He believes the paralysation

and subsequent damage caused by lack of maintenance, the contract to replace trams with buses and the increase in public spending may all be illegal. Former Mayor Francisco Delgado ended the tram service in 2012, however the service’s reinstatement has become a priority under the current coalition.

Bonus blowup Outrage as police get €45,000 in bonuses in just 2 months

UNDER FIRE: Moreno

THE PSOE in Torrox are demanding to know why some members of the police were paid almost €50,000 in bonuses over just two months. This July and August saw €45,000 be paid in bonuses and overtime, leading socialist city spokesman Francisco Muñoz to accuse Partido Popular mayor, Oscar Medina, of ‘buying the silence of unions with financial rewards at the expense of torroxeños’ pockets’. He said: “This money was used to gratify officials who already receive a good salary for their work.” He added that it could have been better spent on hiring the unemployed within the municipality. Deputy PP mayor and coun-

Specialist Clinic for Dental Implantology and Advanced Oral Rehabilitation C.C Costasol 951 272 267 Estepona

NEWS IN BRIEF

Music Madness THE alternative music DeFest festival will take place again at Rincon de la Victoria on October 1 to end the summer party season.

Beer Brew THE next Oktoberfest in Torrox will also see a promotion of locally brewed beer, the Mayor has announced.

Paris Picks AXARQUIA will promote tourism at an upcoming trade fair in Paris, in a bid to attract more french travellers.

Poison Ivy COPPERS’ COFFERS: Police salary bump cillor for security Paola Moreno said: “The payments increase the guarantees of a response from qualified personnel, which results in a reduction of crime.” She added that Torrox is safer now than it was four years

ago, and blasted the PSOE for criticising the bonuses. “The spending was for overtime performed during the holiday period and the reinforcements that were needed in a historically busy summer.”

LOCAL environmentalists are calling for the removal of invasive plants.

Artist Exhibition SPANISH Artist Elena Laveron, will have 99 artworks on display in Velez-Malaga.

Soheil S. Mark Sam Mark Master degree in Implantology and oral Rehabilitation

www.markdentalclinic.com / www.theimplantclinic.com C.C Cristamar 952 810 408 PUERTO BANUS

Calle Burgos 3 952 917 164 FUENGIROLA

Member of

LE TT E R S

www.theolivepress.es

Disgusted dad I AM a parent at Aloha college and I am absolutely disgusted that Jan Brinkman and his wife still turn up at the school to drop their boy off (On the Brink, issue 248). He tried to con me last year after we had a parents barbecue together. He is very charming and nice at first but I am not surprised that he has conned so many people. What surprises me the most is that if so many people are angry with him why has nobody been up to Aloha college where he drops his kid off everyday? Everyone knows he is there. He is not in hiding, he has not gone underground, he is as visible as ever. He has the check to turn up in his Porsche and to drop his boy off at school without a second thought for those he’s conned. It really does disgust me. Anonymous, Marbella

Brexit means Brexit! ONE cannot accept or not accept, a vote. A vote is a vote, it has an outcome. One can disagree with the outcome of a vote, which is the decision to leave the EU, and I do disagree with that. It really is time to move on and accept the decision that the UK will leave the EU. All we can hope for now is that Theresa May and her new band of ministers negotiate a good deal for everyone.

September 28th - October 11th 2016

All in a name Expat myth

WHAT a thought-provoking piece, I have often wondered the difference between the terms ‘expat’ and ‘immigrant’ (Why expat? Online, blog). I moved to Spain a year ago and from the start I have resolutely refused to describe myself as an ‘expat’. I am an immigrant – dictionary definition – somebody who has moved to another country to seek a better quality of life. The phrase expat allows people to complain about immigrants without getting into a muddle about themselves.

Difference is clear

Jenny Mahimbo, Madrid

wise have the financial means to support themselves e.g. a pension. This is how to differ from immigrants who move without work or financial means. Simple as that, all in one sentence. I have met many expat Africans, Moroccans, Russians, Peruvians, etc. it’s not a “Brit thing” at all.

Here to stay?

IN my mind an expat is someone who intends, eventually, to return to their native land. An immigrant is one who has forsworn their native country and who has no conscious intention to return. I suppose I qualify under expat since I always refer to the Holy City (aka Glasgow) as home. Bill Slaven, Mijas

EXPATRIATES are those who migrate to another country to live and work, and who have employment, or who otherwhen the shelves are stripped bare and we go cap in hand to ship stuff from the other side of the world. The British public are living in a fool’s paradise constructed by the government and the likes of the Daily Mail. Peter Whitaker, Malaga

Barking mad

Dave Russell, Fuengirola

Samuel L fraud! DURING the summer I contacted the Olive Press as I thought I had met Samuel L Jackson while on holiday in Fuengirola (Pulp Fiction? Issue 243). I was so overjoyed on the day but something in the back of my mind was niggling away at me as to whether or not it was the man himself. And so the investigation began and I searched the internet for hours and then finally found the truth. We did not meet Samuel L Jackson but it was Phil Stone who looks a lot like Samuel L Jackson and has often been mistaken for being him throughout his career. In his profile it does say that he owns a home in Riviera del Sol. Murilyn Hutchinson, London

Fred Smith, Ronda I CANNOT believe how angry and upset dog owners get over the issue of dog beaches (Fight on the beaches, issue 248)! They have the whole of Spain for INDEED exports are up in Britain, but dogs to play in! the UK is having a fire sale to make a Stefano Liwinski, quick buck (UK exports up, issue 248). Marbella The party will grind to a halt when all these ‘cheap’ goods need replacing with Has anything peeked your interest in this week’s Olive Press? Have your say on the matter by emailing a knackered pound. letters@theolivepress.es or alternatively message us on Let’s see how popular British goods are Facebook at www.facebook.com/OlivePressNewspaper or Twitter @olivepress

Fools paradise

Number crunching 2

Jihadis have been arrested in Murcia after previously trying to enter Syria.

million passengers are expected to pass through Alicante-Elche airport this year, breaking previous records.

September is the election day for the Basque Country.

100%

is Spain’s current debt-to-GDP ratio, the worst for 100 years.

180

km/hr is the speed reached by Ferrari Land’s new rollercoaster in Catalonia.

3000 jobs will be axed from Banco Popular.

€36m was the amou-

nt Chinese company JSTI bought the Spanish engineering firm Eptisa for.

€1.3 billion is the

amount Zara profited from an increase of sales this year.

Bankruptcy Stock – Leather and Material Sofas arriving in 2 weeks – Up to 70% off RRP + New Shabby Chic Collection

 Gibraltar schoolgirl reaches semi

-final of Spanish TV talent show 3065 views

SOCIALMEDIA

www.theolivepress.es

la cultura

OlivePressNewspaper olivepress olivepressnews +TheolivepressEs Film Fever BE ‘APPY!

September 28th - October 11th 2016

what’s on

the horse factor

A GIBRALTARIAN film-maker has shown two of her videos at London’s Tate Modern. Nina Danino is taking part in an event to mark the 50th GALLOPING: Into action anniversary of the London Film-makers’ DownloadCo-op, our app LFMC, now and a London-based film-making begin enjoying the best Spanish organisation. Her films and newsFirst on theMemory go. Now I Am Yours were shown as part of the programme.

A quiet village in became the go-to hotspot for happy hippies

Picture Perfect The Olive Press

A SECRET festival occurred in A GROUP of ambitious art- the tiny, tiny village of Hurdes. ists have come together to The small town, which only inhabits 45 people housed an anforexhibitions. news in Spain! presentTOP regular Artists' Network Alpujarra, nual hippie festival earlier this has 17 international mem- month, where revellers let their bers all based in the Orgiva hair down against the backdrop of peace, love and the Spanish region. To kick it all off with a bang, mountains. artists and their muses, will Around 6000 people attended be explaining their artwork, the festival, unbeknown to the ranging from sculpture to close knit community, which photography as you wash saw five days of drinking, medidown wine and nibble on tation, nudity and yoga. An estimated 56 people of diftapas. The event is at Las Torcas, ferent nationalities escaped to Talbones, from 8pm on Sep- the rustic idyll - an event meticulously organised by The tember 24. If you want to find out more Lost Theory founders, who site go to http://artistsnetwork- Croatia and Northern Spain as the ‘perfect location’ for the alpujarra.com.

GAME OF THRONES producers are looking for 70 horses to film scenes in Extremadura. The hit fantasy show will shoot in the city of Caceres, the village of Malpartida and at the Trujillo castle.

Some horses have already been provided by top international horse trainers Victoria & Richard due to their experience in jumping over hurdles and making them dance. The show will return to screens in 2017.

The secret festival

music all hours of the day’. Those in the ‘know’ secretly booked tickets throughout the year, before hitchhiking and walking and mountain climb-

ing to the site. In total, there were hree overdoses, one alcoholic coma, no fights, and sixteen scorpion stings.

ijas, until September 30

Artists Gunnvor Sorhus has an exhibition of his work at the Hotel Carmen, Boulevard de la Cal.

stepona, 30 September

Brothers in the band will be performing the very best of Dire Straits. Tickets available from www.malagaentradas. com

alaga, 8 October

American rapper Ghostface Killah, presents Wu Goo. Tickets available from w w w. e n t r a d a s a t u a l cance.com.

C shrouded festival. The mountainous region transformed into an impromptu campsite where the locals have said the ground ‘thumped with

oin, 15

October

Al Ramblers hiking group have organised a sponsored walk to raise funds for the SOS animal charity. For more information go to alan@alsrambles. org

investment power to the people Now, anyone can invest in real estate thanks to our crowdfunding platform.

Signing up: quick, simple and free at

h O usErs.COM 911 9 3 0 7 3 0 More than 24,000 people already trust us

OLIVE PRESS – 170 mm x 256mm – Colour

28 September

September 28th - October 11th 2016

DoUBle

INCOME m o n t h lY r e n ta l & Final sale

invest F r o m o n lY

50E

la cultura

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Monkey Day nal l io ecia Nat sp

Read all about how Rolling Stone guitarist Brian Jones played to the Rock’s macaques, taken from our new magazine Gib Rocks. By Joe Duggan

Rolling Stone plays to the monkeys FREE

Mum-on-the-Rock’s Pokemon perils Autumn 2016

Issue 1

Gerald - last of the boatmakers

In conjuction with

GUITAR GOD: Jones’ ape appearance

arch, 1967. And the most unique gig in Gibraltar’s history is about to get underway. Brian Jones, his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg and British singer Marianne Faithfull have stopped off at the Rock en route to Tangier to escape rain-lashed London. The Rolling Stones guitarist, mentally and physically debilitated from his reckless in-

gestion of LCD, has been busted out of his nursing home by the pair of rock and roll goddesses. In the middle of a nervous breakdown, ravaged with pneumonia and clasping his asthma inhaler, Jones was in no fit state to board a plane. Faithfull and Pallenberg, meanwhile, had spent the night merrily dropping acid. The in-flight menu onboard the private jet

BEAUTY: Faithfull’s LSD binge

Tel: +34.951972460 / +34 638 741 376

wasn’t for the fainthearted. “We all got on the plane, at which point we shared our acid,” recalls Faithfull. “Real smart. There was a stopover in Gibraltar. Brian was very excited about this.” Powers Jones’ poor health found little sympathy with Faithfull and Pallenberg, who thought his incessant wheezing was a ploy to attract sympathy rather than a clear sign of ill health. In the pocket o f Jones’s smart black and grey suit was a tape of the soundtrack he had composed for Pallenberg’s new film, A Degree Of Murder. Short of an audience in Gibraltar, he turned to the Rock’s oldest colony of inhabitants to gauge their reaction. “He got it into his head that he wanted to play it to the Barbary Apes,” recalls Faithfull. “So at Gibraltar we all got in a cab and off we went to play his music to the monkeys.” At the time, The Rolling Stones were at the peak of their creative powers. In their early days, the band had relied on cover versions of R’n’B classics for their output. From 1962 to 1964 it was The Beatles who reigned supreme. John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s songwriting partnership yielded such abundant rewards that they could even donate a single, I Wanna Be Your Man, to Mick Jagger

www.jugarnia.com

and the boys. It was a gesture that Keith Richards and Jagger credit with kickstarting the Stones’ own surge. From 1964 onwards, the quality of the Stones’ originally written material was astonishing. As Tears Go By, The Last Time, Time Is On My Side, Satisfaction, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Get Off My Cloud, Let’s Spend the Night Together, Paint It Black, Mother’s Little Helper, She’s A Rainbow the body of singles the band released is unsurpassed in the history of rock and roll music. T h e Stones were cresting a wave of global success. The previous summer, a sell-out coast-to-coast tour of the USA included gigs at LA’s Hollywood Bowl and New York’s Forest Hill Stadium. Later that year, they played London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall. But now in Gibraltar, Jones was preparing to introduce a new audience to his more avant-garde repertoire. It was the first time he had played the record outside of London’s IBC Studios. “We approached the troop of monkeys very ceremoniously,” Faithfull recalls . “Bowed to them and told them we were going to play them some wonderful sounds.” The Barbary Macaques were about to hear a super-group creamed from

www.theolivepress.es

man

September 28th - October 11th 2016

GIBRALTAR has hosted some worldfamous artists over the years. From guitar virtuosos, to rootsy folk and from reggae legends to kicking electronic beats, a broad range of artists have rocked up to the Rock. Suzanne Vega’s 2003 St. Michael’s Cave gig was a standout performance, with Gibraltar’s own Surianne opening the intimate set. Santana’s 1992 Victoria Stadium show was a grander affair. Organisers shipped in a 90,000 watt lighting system that was so powerful they had to warn the RAF. Elton John played his first Gibraltar gig during 2004’s Tercentenary celebrations, and flamenco legend Paco de Lucia played for a Miss Gibraltar crowd. Bob Marley’s The Wailers and 60s folkster Donovan have also wowed local crowds with live shows.

60s musical royalty. Jones had assembled some of the era’s most talented musicians to play a menagerie of instruments including jew’s harp, banjo and horns. Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones was recruited. The Yardbirds’ Jimmy Page stroked his guitar with a violin bow. “Brian had this guitar that had a volume pedal, he could get gunshots with it,” recalls Page. ”There was a Mellotron there. He was moving forward with ideas.” With the 60s counterculture and flower power in full bloom, such aural innovations were de rigueur. Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club kaleidoscope of sounds was just three months away from exploding into the world’s consciousness. But to Jones’s dismay, the music he had prepared for his lover’s new film was seemingly not appreciated by the Rock’s ape population. “They listened to all this

CHIC: Anita and Marianne

September 28th - October 11th 2016

1515

The Olive Press Insider’s Guide

www.allaboutandalucia.com

There is a whole new way to discover Andalucia @allaboutandalucia @aboutandalucia @allaboutandalucia All about Andalucia SATANIC MAJESTES: Jones and Jagger (top)

very attentively, but when Brian turned on the tape recorder, they didn’t seem to care for it,” recalls Faithfull. “They seemed alarmed by it and scampered away shrieking. “Brian got very upset. He took it personally. He became hysterical and began sobbing. Anita and I had been on this trip for many, many hours and we were in another place altogether.” With Jagger and Richards providing the vast bulk of the Stones musical output, Jones’ original material was marginalised in the band. In his current fragile state, the Barbary’s rejection was a shattering blow. “He screamed at the monkeys, trying to get them to come back, and then when they wouldn’t, he began to revile them in terrible language,” said Faithfull. “It was awful. And then he began to weep. A kind of madness, shouting, “The monkeys don’t like my music!” Two hours later, the trio departed the Rock with their nerves frayed. To calm them all down, Faithfull read out Oscar Wilde’s Salome during the flight from Gibraltar to Tangier. The fading Jones was on an irrevocable downward spiral, culminating in his death at the age of 27 in July, 1969. The guitarist was found drowned in his mansion’s swimming pool. The soundtrack to A Degree Of Murder became Germany’s entry at the Cannes Film Festival. The album was never officially released, denying the world the opportunity to hear Jones’ only solo album. But scamper up the Rock today and you’ll meet the descendants of a few of the album’s only audience. This article first appeared in Gib Rocks, a new quarterly magazine published in conjunction with the Olive Press - Winter issue due out in November

17 YEARS

OF PORTRAYING MARBELLA’S BEST

® essential marbella magazine W W W. E S S E N T I A L M A G A Z I N E . C O M

16 16

la cultura

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Guillem Balague The Sunborn Oct 21, 4pm A well-known football commentator on Spanish and English TV, Guillem Balague is making a return to the literary festival after a stellar performance at last year’s event. A correspondent for Madrid-based paper AS, Barcelona-born Balague also writes a regular column for The Times. A must for footie fans, the Spanish soccer pundit will no doubt spill a few beans about what goes on off the pitch, too, as he discusses his best-selling books and biographies on Ronaldo, Messi, Barcelona and Pep Guardiola.

READ-Y: Garrison Library to host literary stars

Booked out

UDDING authors and avid readers have bookmarked October 20, launch date for this year’s fourth annual Gibunco Gibraltar International Literary Festival. With a glittering constellation of media celebrities, TV personalities, academics and celebrity chefs taking Garrison part, the festival has written itself Library a permanent place on the Rock’s fast-growing cultural calendar. Oct 23, 2pm The fourth edition of the three-day event will welcome Captain Corelli’s The bestsellMandolin author, Louis de Berniing British author of Captain eres, distinguished poetess Pam Corelli’s Mandolin, made Ayres and political blast from the into a movie starring Nicopast, Paddy Ashdown, Liberal Demlas Cage, Penelope Cruz and ocrats leader from 1988 to 1999, Christian Bale, premieres his now enjoying novel success as a latest work in Gibraltar. He writer. will read from his latest colWhile there are newcomers aplenty, lection of poetry, Of Love and other personalities are making a Desire, and pass on some of welcome return, including actress his literary secrets. The winand comedienne Maureen Lipman, ner of 1995’s Commonwealth radio presenter Nicholas Parsons Writers’ Prize has penned othand Sky Sports football commentaer page-turners which can be tor Guillem Balague. bought or ordered at the fesSetting tums rumbling, former tival, including Birds without Ready, Steady, Cook TV chef Antony Wings and most recently, The Worrall Thompson will be making Dust that Falls from Dreams. the trip down from his home in MiOlive Press Advert – Gaston:Layout 1 08/07/2016 Pageshare 1 jas to talk13:27 food and his recipe

Louis de Bernieres

The fourth edition of Gibraltar’s literary festival next month is another bestseller. Rob Horgan has chapter and verse on the highlights.

for success, while local scribe Justin Bautista will be discussing his new-found fame with Mama Lotties Cookbook, based on his grandmother’s kitchen secrets. After months of preparation, Gibraltar Tourist Board CEO Nicky Guerrero ‘cannot wait’ for the festival to get underway. “We are thrilled that the event has now become firmly established as

one of the main highlights of Gibraltar’s cultural calendar,” he told the Olive Press. “Now into our fourth edition, the festival will not disappoint, with a diverse range of renowned authors and speakers.” He added: “As in other editions, we have worked hard to compile a programme that can be appealing to a cross-section of residents and visitors to the event. “We cater for all tastes, from literature to football, and from gastronomy and art to politics and history.” For more information or to purchase advanced tickets visit www. gibraltarliteraryfestival.com The box office at the Garrison Library will also be selling tickets nearer to the festival date.

Paddy Ashdown, The Convent Oct 23, 3pm Lib Dems leader for over a decade, Paddy Ashdown returns to the hot seat to discuss his latest book, Game of Spies: The Secret Agent, the Traitor and the Nazi, Bordeaux 19421944. A riveting three-way spy story set in occupied France, the plot focuses on an unlikely male trio - one British, one French, one German - and the duel they fought out in an atmosphere of collaboration, betrayal and assassination. A former Royal Marine himself, Ashdown has written eight books in a literary career that is proving as stellar as his political one.

FaNtastiC! DEals For

Christmas & NEw YEar Fabulous food and entertainment including a 5* Christmas or New Years Eve Gala Dinner with fine wine

Pam Ayres The Sunborn

FOR GOLFERS

Oct 21, 5.30pm

includes 3 rounds of golf

Antony Worrall Thompson Puerto Marina **** Benalmadena, Spain

Iberostar **** Nova Sancti Petri, Spain

Isla Canela Golf **** Ayamonte, Spain

Christmas 275€ New Year 310€

Christmas 260€ New Year 305€

Christmas 325€ New Year 425€

5 nights 23/12/16~28/12/16 for Christmas 5 nights 28/12/16~02/01/17 for New Year Prices are per person for 5 nights half board, twin room

Night Stay prices upon request

GastoN GolF tours Tel: 952 936 803

Email: info@gastongolf.com www.gastongolf.com

The Garrison Library Oct 21, 10am Former Ready, Steady, Cook chef Antony Worrall Thompson will be stepping out of the kitchen to deliver a cookbook masterclass for the second year in a row. The author of an incredible 32 books, including Antony Makes it Easy, Barbecues & Grilling and Real Family Food, Thompson is a local himself, having spent many years at his Costa del Sol home. Thompson will focus on the use of everyday ingredients.

From her rhyming homage to The Wonderbra to the droll way she delivers her down-to-earth poems, hilarity is guaranteed when veteran British writer, broadcaster and entertainer Pam Ayres takes to the stage. A regular in the Sunday Times bestseller charts since the 1970s, Ayres will present her new collection of poems, You Made Me Late Again! and share tidbits from her 2011 autobiography, The Necessary Aptitude. A favourite within the royal household, Ayres has performed for the Queen on several occasions and was awarded an MBE in 2004.

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

OUR HOME INSURANCE HAS EVERYTHING. IT EVEN COVERS “WHO’S BEEN A NAUGHTY BOY THEN”.

FROM JUST

€

DOES YOURS DO THE SAME?

F I N D

O U T

O N

902 123 282 SMALL PRICE . BIG ON

SERVICE.

* O ff e r v a l i d f o r n e w c u s t o m e r s o n l y . E n d s 3 1 / 1 2 / 1 6 . N o t v a l i d f o r r e n e w a l s . S u b j e c t t o c o m p a n y u n d e r w r i t i n g r e g u l a t i o n s .

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

www.theolivepress.es FIND YOUR DREAM PROPERTY IN SPAIN www.winkworth.es Centro Comercial Guadalmina (close to Sabadell Bank). Urb Guadalmina Alta, C.C. Guadalmina 4, Local 12, San Pedro de Alcantara, 29678 Málaga

ll about

Telephone: 952 880 941 Email: info@winkworth.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

an Pedro de Alcantara

San Pedro, actually ... Vol. 10 Issue 249 www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Pantone 118c

Amazing cocktails, attentive service and great atmosphere OPEN 34 YEARS! Calle Andalucía, 8, 29670 San Pedro Alcántara

tel: 952 78 81 78

Marbella’s kid sister is sporting a sassy new identity as distinct from her glitzy sibling as Hove is from Brighton, writes Laurence Dollimore

HERE snarled lines of traffic once backed up along the coast road, a striking urban boulevard sprouting trendy pavement cafes has reclaimed the once maligned San Pedro de Alcantara. With a new skating rink, a skate park and a hat trick of new children’s parks, the seaside town is unrecognisable from a few years back. Out are the traffic fumes and tawdryness. In is a sense of space and style. Nowhere is this more apparent than the town’s head-turning new footbridge with its serpentine coils. It is doing for San Pedro what the Golden Gate did for San Francisco, or the Guggenheim did for Bilbao. But although very much part of the municipality of Marbella, let there be no confusion: The people who live here are from ‘San Pedro actually’, a town that has forged its own shiny new identity that’s quite separate from Marbs, yet complementary to its jet-setting sibling. It’s not unlike the evolution of Hove, in England – a borough in East Sussex that lived under the shadow of its better-known neighbour, Brighton. ‘Hove actually’, residents would retort with indignation when asked whether they lived in Brighton. And so it is with San Pedro, a town 10km west from Marbella which has been reborn over the last decade as a modernised microcosm of Spain. But some things have never changed in the 15 yearsIhavebeenvisitingthetownnamedafter16th

century Franciscan friar, St Peter of Alcantara. The evenings still see veteran San Pedranos gather on shady benches around St Peter’s statue, outside the parish church; the traditional Saturday market remains a weekly highlight; and you can bet your bottom centimo the pavement cafes and ice cream parlours are heaving on Sunday nights in summer, when Spanish families enjoy their ritual paseo along the prom. What has kept San Pedro special has been its ability to hang on to its Spanish persona in the face of massive investment from Marbella Town Hall - nearly €100 million.

Pantone 118c

It must have felt like winning the lottery jackpot but San Pedro has apparently spent the money wisely. The new central boulevard, crowned by its snaking pedestrian bridge, has turned the town from an also-ran suburb into a spanking new social hub where whole families come to skate on the all-weather artificial ice rink and enjoy the regular food truck festivals. A victory for urban planning, office workers make a beeline for its congenial cocktail bars on Friday nights. The bridge may be more Gehry’s Guggenheim Pantone 118c than typical Andalus but it has forged strong new connections with visitors who used to think Marbs ended at Puerto Banus. The €6 million boulevard it meanders over boasts a new amphitheatre and children’s play areas and is now the official site of the town’s four-day feria, the last of the year in Andalucia, timed to celebrate St Peter’s feast day on October 18. Other welcome upgrades include the €85 million tunnel diverting dangerous high-speed traffic below the town centre, and a much-needed underground car park. “San Pedro really does have it all,” says Sean Woolley, 47, CEO of Cloud Nine Properties, who has run his company from town for 15 years. “The new boulevard and urban park have become a magnet for new restaurants and bars and it has created a place that now offers someContinues on Page 21

thing for everyone.” “There is this charm and tradition of a typical Spanish town fused with trendy and cosmopolitan additions, from organic cafes to lively wine bars. When you couple this with its sandy beaches and fabulous promenade, San Pedro is pretty much perfect.” Beneath the glitzy exterior, sanpedreños are as friendly and unassuming as they were in their 19th century farming days. And if anything is a reminder of those rustic origins, come a magnet for new restaurants and bars and it has created a place that now offers something for Continues on next Page

20 20

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

NEW RELEASES 2016/2017

· Arboleda Villas, Atalaya LAUNCHED

Aria Apartments, Mijas Costa

· Treana Ultra-Luxury, Benahavís

A collection of exciting new property developments brought to the Costa del

New Releases Info:

Sol by Real Capital Solutions Spain. More beautiful apartments, penthouses and

www.RCSspain.com/2016

villas coming soon.

Tel: +34 951 239 866 commercial partner

RCS New Releases SP Sep.indd 1

09/09/2016 12:04:14

A S an Pedro de Alcantara Friendly and welcoming www.theolivepress.es ll about

September 28th - October 11th 2016

21 21

September 28th - October 11th 2016

From Page 19

everyone.” “There is this charm and tradition of a typical Spanish town fused with trendy and cosmopolitan additions, from organic cafes to lively wine bars. When you couple this with its sandy beaches and fabulous promenade, San Pedro is pretty much perfect.” Beneath the glitzy exterior, sanpedreños are as friendly and unassuming as they were in their 19th century farming days. And if anything is a reminder of those rustic originsit’s San Pedro’s resident pig! On any given Sunday this sociable creature and town mascot can be seen strolling around its new neighbourhood, uttering contented grunts of approval. Army General Marquez Manuel Gutierrez de la Concha founded the farming colony in the 1860s when he acquired nearly 5,000 acres of agricultural land spanning Marbella, Benahavis and Estepona. But with malaria scything through the local populace and poor irrigation, the Marques introduced a series of innovaSWEET: (Above) sugar mill and (right) beach promenade tive reforms, including an agricultural like Nueva Alcantara paddle and tennis club, which “I adore it here, you feel like you are in the real Spain,” raves 39-year-old Guaschool for lo- hosts regular international tournaments. cal farm work- The beachfront also reveals clues to the presence dalmina newcomer Debbie Lush. “You ers, river bridg- of less-recent visitors – a 3rd century Roman baths are so close to Marbella and Estepona es, dams and and a 16th century watchtower looking out over the but without the madness and busistate-of-the- panorama of sun worshippers and jet skiers. A new ness of Puerto Banus, it’s perfect.” road network has also made San Pedro more acces- Like most locals, these days, she’s art machinery. Workers soon sible to visitors and local chefs have cooked up an proud to tell anyone who asks that, no, she’s not Marbelli - she’s ‘Sanpeflocked from exciting dining scene in response. CHEERS: Writer Valencia, Murcia, Grana- Just behind the boulevard, Alfredo’s traditional dreño, actually’. Laurence with pals da and Almeria, and San Spanish fare is always in big demand while next door Pedro grew into a size- La Bodega del Cantinero offers an exciting foodie fusion featuring foie gras with apple and honey, tuna able municipality. tataki with wasabi mayonnaise and A statue of Gutierrez now stands shelves of vintage sherries. next to the old town, keeping paterFurther additions like L’impronta, nalistic vigil over his creation. There is this La Buena Vida and Restaurant Although development slowed dur1870, where you can enjoy spider ing the early 20th century when charm and crab gazpacho in a scenic garden Spain was ravaged by civil war, the setting, have made San Pedro a key tradition of a town bounced back during the late dining reference. 1940s and 50s, with street lighting typical Spanish And there’s more. San Pedro has and a main road. But San Pedro its own leafy satellite suburb in the has never seen the rampant overtown shape of Guadalmina (Baja and development of other costa resorts. Alta), just west of the town centre. Central to its evolution has been This exclusive neighbourhood – a its bustling beach promenade that links seamlessly to Banus and Marbella, putting the kind of western golden mile - boasts multi-million euro mansions galore. Guadalmina Baja is home to town on the map for cyclists, joggers and walkers. Its beaches fly the prestigious blue flag, the world- ex-Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who wide standard of excellence, while fantastic chirin- is often seen jogging along the tree-lined avenues, guitos like Macaao and Guayaba are hotspots for flanked by four burly bodyguards. Guadalmina Alta, on the opposite side of the A7, the cool and hip. The once-barren wasteland between the boule- has an 18-hole course and the coast’s only cable vard and the ocean now sports shops, restaurants, ski lake which thrill-seekers can circuit on water skis residential communities and world class amenities or a wakeboard.

CAPTION:

Walkie porkie

A LARGE boar-like pig heads San Pedro’s list of famous residents and is rapidly becoming the town’s mascot. Mythical creature or not, locals report regularly spotting the porker roaming the streets. Rumour has it the animal has lived in the town since he was a piglet, and often enjoys a stroll around the old quarter at the weekends. Friendly to all-comers, the sociable cerdo is especially fond of greeting the dogs that share his ‘patch’ and reportedly has a special affinity for his canine friends. Try not to squeal if you cross his path- He’s a VIP pig and deserves your respect.

www.theolivepress.es

ll about

If you’re hunting for a home on the Costa, gorgeous Guadalmina ticks all the boxes, writes Laurence Dollimore

S an Pedro

HE leafy enclave of Guadalmina on the westerly fringes of San Pedro has become as sought-after an address as Marbella’s own ‘Golden Mile’. I was lucky enough to spend the summers of my youth here, when Guadalmina Alta became my home away from home. Some 15 years later and this village-sized resort still has an enviable location and a neigh-

de Alcantara

and a cable ski lake offering adrenalin-charged thrills for the watersports set. The local dining scene is also a lot tastier than 10 dents years ago, with a is growing score of restaurants longer, with an ex-Spanish offering a feast of Prime Minister now in resimulti-ethnic fare, dence and royalty too. The from a new vegan Princess of Monaco is rucafe and Japanese moured to live close by. wok restaurant to the It’s no surprise that local and unrivalled La Rosa international home buyers are Argentinian steak also gravitating to this peacehouse and the longful green San Pedro suburb established for its bucolic charm, Tricky Ricky’s, with bright resort city still doing a lights and everything roaring trade else you need on the in traditional doorstep. English breakfasts. Looking for the perOver the road from fect agent to help in the restaurant strip, your search? Well WinkGuadalmina Baja is worth’s set up here two home to palayears ago. tial villas that wouldn’t look out of place in Find them at www. Beverly Hills winkworth.es or and the list of RESIDENT: Aznar call 952 880 941. celebrity resi-

Perfect Party

dly n e i r f ing t o a c k E S e c /I Ice Rink olf Crazy G ner i D n a c i Amer

The ideal spot for your kids birthday party…

t’s one of the toughest decisions a modern parent has to face: Where do they go for the perfect kids’ birthday party? What with peer pressure and finding a venue that will please both the children and their parents, do such places exist? Well, at the Marbella end of the San Pedro Boulevard you’ll find Happy Days, an original concept thought up by owners Pascal and Sean. Being family men they were fed up of constantly looking for places to take their kids where everybody could have a great time. This is where the idea of combining an American street food-style diner, an all-weather ice rink and a mini-golf course came from.

ot for! p s w eal ne arties The idBirthday p your

The Boulevard San Pedro San Pedro de Alcantara. (Marbella end) Málaga info@happydayscostadelsol.com

+34 693 745 454

happydayscostadelsol.com flyer_A5_2 lenguages.indd 1

Sept 28th - Oct 11th 2016

eaceful ueblo

bourly feel. It’s just five minutes from Puerto Banus, ten minutes from Marbella and an easy seafront stroll from San Pedro and there are all kinds of reasons to make that journey - not least an 18hole golf course

TEED UP: Guadlamina golf course

September 28th - October 11th 2016

18/04/2016 18:44:11

FUN: Treasure chest and bouncy castle

RETRO: San Pedro burger bar

Everything in one place! The nine-hole pirate castle is a hit. The Bouncy Castle keeps the smaller and bigger kids entertained for hours. There’s even the new addition of ‘Foot Pool’, what’s not to like?! It’s easy to see why Happy Days has become a go-to destination since it opened last year. But what about the food? Simple, just visit the authentic Airstream American Diner the epitome of 60’s retro cool. If Burgers, hot dogs, buffalo wings, pizzas and nachos don’t whet your appetite then the bar most certainly will. “Kids parties are our speciality, they can play mini-golf, jump on the bouncy castle, ice skate and eat their favourite food all in one place,” says manager Sebastian. “We offer great all inclusive packages so you are always in control of the cost, we are here to help deliver the perfect party”. The Happy Days ethos is to provide their customers with great entertainment in a family friendly and safe environment. Even the dads aren’t left out with Live Sports and cold beer served all day long. Choosing Happy Days to host your kids birthday party is an easy decision. Call 693745454. The Boulevard San Pedro (Marbella end), San Pedro de Alcantara, Marbella, Malaga.

CC La colonia

www.theolivepress.es

ll about

September 28th - October 11th 2016

San Pedro’s evolving one-stop shopping destination is steeped in history and was built by an expat, writes Laurence Dollimore

T is probably best known as the home of Mcdonald’s and Dia, sitting beside the A7 on the outskirts of San Pedro. But La Colonia shopping centre has so much more to offer, with a fantastic range of shops, services and restaurants, all in one easy location and ample parking for free. One of the true nerve centres of San Pedro, anybody who has lived on the coast for a while will have used the Passion Cafe for meetings, both social and business… before perhaps popping into the clothes shop Twist boutique, next door, or the interior shops such as La Casa Bonita and, now, The King of Cotton across the way. Yes, this is a great one-stop shop for most things you need, with a golf emporium, an opticians, a card shop, florist and even a pet shop all sitting cheek by jowl. And don’t forget the trades and services specialists, who line the upper floor and include estate agent KMS, currency specialist Rational FX, and interior designer Liana Varini, who is just about to open. Yet, few people know the great historical significance of the name La Colonia , which comes from its farming colony days and was launched by one of the coast’s earliest expat families. The story starts when Scottish miner John Charles Mackintosh, swapped the chilly Highlands to found his own coal mine just inland from the coast in the early 19th century. He amassed a vast fortune over the next few decades, in particular by exporting his coal from a port depot near Funny Beach, just east of Marbella centre. Much of it was sold to the British navy. However the family’s luck was not to last and when civil war broke out in the 1930s things became tough and his son John Mackintosh was forced to flee from Marbella to Gibraltar, having much of his property confiscated in the

“It’s business, but it’s personal”

September 28th - October 11th 2016

23 23

C.C. La Colonia San Pedro de Alcántara Tel: 952 782 686

www.kmsproperty.com

How a colony became La Colonia

Continues on next Page

Mon-Fri 10am-6pm Sat 11am-3pm

C.C. La Colonia, 21, 29670 San Pedro de Alcántara Telephone: 951 507 019

www.theolivepress.es

ll about

September 28th - October 11th 2016

La colonia

One-stop shopping From previous Page

process. He lived out the rest of his days on the Rock, and left £20 million to the government when he passed away in 1940 - much of it helping to fund university fees for Gibraltarians. He is remembered today, having given his name to the social centre, the John Mackintosh hall. However, it is back in Spain that he had the most impact, buying up large swathes of land around San Pedro for an unofficial family he created with a Catholic lover from Sevilla. The Protestant felt so bad about neglecting this ‘illegitimate’ lover, who he could not marry due to their families’ opposing religions, that he gave all the land to her family in his will. Cue La Colonia, built by the third generation of the Mackintosh family, and still BOSS: Max at King of owned now by the fifth Cotton generation. Few people know the history as well as north Londoner businesswoman Jane Waters, who was previously married to a Mackintosh, and now runs popular home decor store La Casa Bonita. “The history is so interesting,” she says, “Even the square here is named after John Mackintosh’s mother Maria Luisa. “It’s a great spot, we are so easy to find and there is fantastic parking which makes it really accessible.”

Tel: +34 619 075 270 email: sales@kingofcotton.com www.kingofcotton.com Avenida Virgen del Rocío s/n, CP. 29670, San Pedro de Alcántara, Málaga

EVERYTHING YOU NEED: La Colonia centre

NEW: King of Cotton

COMING SOON INTERIORS BY

Interiors by Liana Interior Design Projects Architectural Projects Project Management Reforms – any size project small or large Full plot and build projects Property Maintenance exclusive to our clients Tel: (+34) 951 596 616 info@interiorsbyliana.com Mob: (+34) 633 715 876 www.interiorsbyliana.com

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

25 25

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Today the centre is thriving and continues to attract new businesses, like King of Cotton, the place to go for beautifully soft bed linens, towels and other bed and bath accessories. Supplying many leading hotel chains, including the Four Seasons, Hilton and Marriott, the chain realised it would do well when hotel guests kept asking where they could find their sheets, dressing gowns and scented candles. “The king has arrived,” store manager Max Bosse quips. “We have stores in the UK and Europe but now we are tapping into the Spain market and this location just off the A7 is perfect for us. “There’s a lot of footfall here because you have everything you could need.” No one knows that better than Irishman Malcolm Spendlove, who brings foodies from far and wide to his famous Passion Cafe. Its legendary breakfasts and international dinner menu has seen it notch up over 15 years on the coast, making it one of the most successful cafes around. “We are open throughout the day seven days a week

from 9am - 10pm, so we see all types of eaters,” can travel back and forth very easily.” explains the hard-working chef, who also owns Gour- The clientele has expanded over the years, with the met Burger nearby. new boulevard and road upgrades bringing holiday“You have a lot of businessmen having meetings makers as well as the locals. here but also families grabbing lunch and we have “There is a lot more footfall now,” explains Jane people from the UK, Ireland and, of course, the lo- Clark, owner of Twist Boutique for nine years. “The cals.” shops bring a wide group of people Liana Varini is also hoping to take which means more business... advantage of the international cliyou can literally get everything you The shops bring need from one centre.” entele that La Colonia brings. The former Emirates air hostess, offers fashionable easy wear a wide group of Twist who got her architecture and inand dresses made from high qualterior design qualifications in her ity materials, and from a range of people which home country of Italy, all while servhip brands. means more ing high-flying travellers, is looking Pair this with its golf shop Golfino, to diversify the clientele of her comthe Apollo gym and Rational FX and business pany, Interiors by Liana. you’ll have to think hard of what “I want to tap more into the Euroelse you could possibly need. pean and Russian market as well They even have the Playskool as hold on to my Middle Eastern ones and this spot creche upstairs where you can leave your children is great for that,” she says. “It’s very central on the to play in safe hands. costa, right next to Marbella and Banus but also Es- So don’t let its seemingly small exterior fool you, La tepona, and the roads make it very accessible so I Colonia can be your one-stop destination.

VARIETY: Mix at La Casa Bonita and (top) new arrival Liana

26 26

www.theolivepress.es

ll about

W OUR MISSION IS TO BRING YOU FRESH, HEALTHY, NUTRIENT RICH FOOD AND BEVERAGES AT AFFORDABLE PRICES. WE USE TASTY, NATURAL INGREDIENTS AND SUPER-FOODS PACKED WITH NUTRIENTS AND VITAMINS TO BENEFIT YOUR MIND AND BODY. GRASS-FED BEEF HEALTHY CARBS SALADS & SOUPS PROTEIN PANCAKES PROTEIN YOGHURTS GLUTEN FREE

FAT & SUGAR FREE

de Alcantara

September 28th - October 11th 2016

On the up and up!

Take control of your health with Gym Junkie Meal Prep Plan

DETOX JUICES & SMOOTHIES HIGH QUALITY WHEY PROTEIN SHAKES HEALTHY WRAPS GRILLED LEAN MEAT

S an Pedro

September 28th - October 11th 2016

TASTY: Buena Vida dish

San Pedro is becoming one of the key Costa del Sol restaurant hotspots, writes Jon Clarke

HILE Marbella's got the stars, San Pedro de Alcantara's definitely got the talent… and best of all, there are plenty of new restaurants opening up every year. With a focus on quality and style, the sheer variety of places to eat is what most impresses these days. “San Pedro has completely changed over the last few years,”

explains Ross Duggan, manager at the Hogan Stand. “It has a completely different atmosphere and all the scruffy builders and fraudsters have moved on, meaning we can concentrate on quality.” Fellow businessman Pascal van der Broek, of Happy Days, who once cooked for President Clinton, agrees: “Before the tunnel, everybody avoided San Pedro but now there are a lot of good

Kangen Water ANTIOXIDANT ALKALINE ANTI-AGEING

Hotspot for 30 years!

Change your water Change your life

PUB CHARLES has been the coolest secret haunt for Sanpedreños since 1982. At its helm throughout has been charismatic owner Jesus Leal, who insists on talking to everyone who walks through the door. The 64-year-old hasn’t had much time off since he began the bar 34 years ago, even completing a brand new refurb last year. “People come here for the attentive service and the ambience,” he explains. “Everyone is welcome here.” He’s not wrong. Any given night sees Spaniards and expats sipping on their fishbowl G&T’s or beautifully decorated cocktails.

tel: 0034 951 899 953 Mon - Fri: 9am till 6pm Sat: 10am till 5pm www.gymjunkiecafe.com AVENIDA MAR MEDITERRÁNEO LOS ARQUEROS BEACH NO.3 SAN PEDRO DE ALCÁNTARA MARBELLA 29670

restaurants opening. It’s definitely the new foodie area for the whole costa.” The leading purveyors of this drive for haute cuisine include L’Impronta, Macaao and La Buena Vida recently opened alongside the boulevard, while the town’s most famous chef Albert Benisty of Albert & Simon sadly passed away last month (see tribute on page 45). His legacy has now fallen to Francisco Vacas at elegant L’Impronta, an upmarket joint, that is constantly upping its game. Highly seasonal in his use of ingredients the Cordoba chef left school and began cooking at the age of 13, and always insists on fresh pasta and the best linecaught fresh fish. Best of all, when in season he is also a massive fan of mushrooms and truffle and you will not be disappointed with quality. Around the corner, look out for

Open every day from 13.00-23.00

taurant s e R & Cafe

Open 7 days a week

Home Bake Section

952 781 583

D DINNER N A H C N U L B R E A K F A S T,o u r s : 0 9 . 0 0 - 2 3 . 0 0 O p e n in g he v e r y d a y

Centro Comercial La Colonia, San Pedro de Alcántara, Marbella.

info@passioncafe.eu | www.passioncafe.eu

Olive press_April 2013_120x145.indd 1

01/04/2013 11:59:43

Call for take away tel. 952 785 257 Avda. Luis Braille 20, San Pedro www.gourmetburger.com

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

TASTY: Francisco Vacas, (below) Gourmet burger and (right) Alberto at Cantinero

A place to enjoy! One of the most beautiful restaurants in Marbella

La Buena Vida, recently opened under the watchful eye of Chilean chef Gaston Aigueuren and Irish owners, well established foodies, Des and Roisin. Attractively designed by Roisin, alongside local designer Jonty Lewis, the place has a bright, exotic feel and feels warm and welcoming. “We’ve been in the restaurant trade back home for generations so we know what we are doing,” explains Roisin, 29. “We are trying to do something different, change the menu regularly and create a bit of excitement here.” Chef Gaston, who worked for five years at La Sala, certainly has it in him, having won prizes around Spain, including at Madrid Fusion. His tuna salad with generous portions of marinated tuna in seeds showed some skills, while simpler fare, such as potato skins with cream cheese and bacon, plus a pulled pork burger were tasty and well executed. Another man helping to change the face of San Pedro is Mal-

colm Spendlove, who has been at the helm of the ever popular Passion Cafe for nearly two decades and now heads up one of the coast’s best hamburger joints, Mr Gourmet Burger on the boulevard. It counts on 100% beef burgers, halal too, while Kids are encouraged to make their own 'Junior G' burgers in 'four easy steps'. Next door and rarely quiet look out for popular Irish pub and restaurant Hogan Stand, named after the famous Gaelic football stand at Croke Park. As well as having its typical bar snacks it also has a good mix of quality dishes, including rack of lamb and fish, and you dine on a nice terrace at the front. And then there is the new Gym Junkie Cafe, Spain's first protein eatery, serving up vitaminstacked meals - ideal before or after a workout. The cafe’s mouthwatering menu includes grass-fed beef, protein pancakes and an omelette bar - complete with seaweed, broc-

coli and tuna omelettes. Last, but not least, if you are looking for something between traditional and modern Spanish, look out for La Bodega del Cantinero, run by amazing host Alberto, who has been working in restaurants since he was 14. His place is THE place on the coast for lovers of sherry and he has hundreds of them and many going into the dozens of euros, including a 1946 Pedro Ximenez and a 40-year-old Amontillado from Azuleta. But aside from the wine list the food is excellent and varied and there are always plenty of specials, including one of the best ajo blancos I have tried on the coast. Best of all though - in fact maybe the winning dish in San Pedro was the amazing tartaki of bluefin tuna, with a wakame salad, egg roe ‘tobiko’ and mayonnaise wasabi. In a word; perfect! (see above).

Enjoy our beautiful and unique decor – Unlike any other Enjoy quality food – We make our own fresh pasta Enjoy meat and fish dishes – Made with best quality produce

tel: +34 952 78 59 43 www.facebook.com/trattoria.limpronta info@trattoria-limpronta.com www.trattoria-limpronta.com Av. de Salamanca 14. Urb. Nueva Alcántara, San Pedro de Alcántara, Marbella

Abierto de Martes a Domingo de 9.00 a 23.00h / Open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9.00am to 11.00pm

Reservas / Reservations: +34 951 914 452 Avda. del Mediteraneo, nº5, 29670 San Pedro Alcantara, Marbella, Málaga

A SChallenging an Pedro de Alcantara Great, www.theolivepress.es ll about

Fun for the Whole Family!

September 28th - October 11th 2016

A World of trampolines on the Costa del Sol! September 28th - October 11th 2016

SAN PEDRO

Fiestas, Parties, Cumpleaños Groups, y Birthdays, mucho más! and Groups

Visite www.CostaJump.com para más Go to información

much more!

Edificio Lunamac, Calle Carril de Picaza s/n, Poligono Industrial, 29670, San Pedro de Alcántara

(2 julio - 28 agosto):

10-22 hrs

tel: 952 787 018 e-mail: info@CostaJump.com

www.CostaJump.com

tio ndi n

www.CostaJump.com horario for more info verano

Air Co

28 28

Opening Hours Open 365 days/ year

monday - thursday friday saturday - sunday school&public hols.

15 15 10 10

20 hrs 22 hrs 22 hrs 22 hrs

S an Pedro

www.theolivepress.es ll about

de Alcantara and Guadalmina

September 28th - October 11th 2016

29 29

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Get your skates on IT is one of the coolest skateparks on the Costa del Sol. Opened a year ago the San Pedro park is a real treat for bladerunners, roller skaters, bikers and skaters alike. The 3,400sq metre skate park, which cost €592,000, has certainly given San Pedro

competitive edge over its neighbours. Surrounded by palm trees and just yards from the brand new boulevard, it is a cool space. As skate teacher Alex Petrntsov explains: “It is perfect for beginners and kids of all ages, with just the right combination of obstacles.”

The Ukranian, who has been teaching for five years, offers classes to kids all week. “I insist on protective equipment and wo r k at all speeds and abilities,” he adds. “Safety is paramount.” Contact Alex at 603612600

Wood Factory: Dutch owned business with focus on quality THERE’S a good reason why WoodFactory’s designs can be found at the coolest spots along the Costa del Sol. The San Pedro-based company creates naturally beautiful, functional and durable furniture for both interior and exterior spaces. Just check out the works at restaurants, including Siroko Beach, Dezentral and Finca Besaya. The Dutch-owned company uses the best quality recycled wood from Holland, selecting every plank by hand to ensure it will work with the furniture. The carpenters can optionally treat the wood with an oil to ensure they are smooth and these treatments can be chosen in different colour options, like white-wash, grey-wash or naturalwash. They employ an ancient, hand-crafted technique enabling an extremely strong fit without noticing hardly any screw or nail in their furniture. Why not visit the factory to meet the carpenters and owner Kristel Schoeman-Daneel and chat

Acrylic is our speciality Waxing & Threading COMING SOON! about the perfect bespoke sofa, chair or table to fit your home. There are hundreds of items to see and plenty of fun, innovative and durable designs for living rooms, kitchens, terraces and bedrooms.

+0034 673 12 59 67

Visit www.woodfactory.es 620230376

www.paulfosternails.com

call

info@paulfosternails.com Mon to Fri – 10am till 9pm & Sat –10am till 6pm

www.woodfactory.es

CONTEMPORARY WOODEN FURNITURE MADE OF RECYCLED WOOD

VISIT OUR SHOWROOM Poligono San Pedro de Alcántara, Calle Budapest 16 29670 San Pedro de Alcántara, Marbella, Malaga T: +34 620 630 376 info@woodfactory.es

OPENING HOURS Mon - Fri: 10.00 - 16.00 Saturday: 11.00 - 14.00

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Winkworth. Our’s is a different kind of Estate Agency, the sort of company who really listens to what you want and will work in a way that suits you. Why not find out more? Winkworth – it’s the experience that makes the difference. Come and visit us at: Centro Comercial Guadalmina (close to Sabadell Bank) Urb Guadalimina Alta, C.C. Guadalmina 4, Local 12, San Pedro de Alcantara, Malaga

tel: +34 952 880 941 Email: info@winkworth.es

-final of Spanish TV talent show 3065 views

SOCIALMEDIA

www.theolivepress.es OlivePressNewspaper olivepress

BE ‘APPY!

LOCAL expats are up in arms after a Spanish neighbour started adding a second storey to his home with only a licence for ‘internal decoration’. The homeowner is said to have begun building a small walled perimeter around the top of the property and has now installed a flat roof. But hisThe neighbour the Hacienda OliveatPress Guadalupe urbanisation are in uproar over what they see as an illegal TOP for news in Spain! extension. “This is in total breach of the civil

May 25th - June 7th

RANKED No.1 for

Currency Exchange

& Money Transfers

2016

Booming July predicted following ‘pause’ in run-up to EU referendum Special report by Iona

BOSSES: Cox and Wells

IN COME THE BIG BUCKS! A HUGE US property fund is splashing €45 million on three new Costa del Sol developments. The American bosses Real Capital Solutions behind have snapped up sizeable plots in Estepona, Mijas and Benahavis and continue to look at further opportunities along the coast. The company, based in Marbella since 2013, already has five other developments, including The Retreat, in Elviria.

“We have spent around lion here so far and have€86 mila fund of €100 million to spend,” plained Managing Partner exWells, based in Colorado. Peter “We are one of the largest opers on the Costa del develSol and our emphasis is on distressed properties.” He added: “Also we do transparently and always things try and deliver on price and quality.” The company - which made hundreds of millions buying ing distressed propertiesand sellUS - has 16 staff working in the its office at Centro Plaza. out of Local boss Taylor Cox, added: “The coast is really starting come alive and it’s a pleasure to to live in such a beautiful part of the world.”

RANKED No.1 for

Currency Exchange

& Money Transfers

Napier

ESTATE agents in Spain lining themselves up for and Gibraltar are the busiest July on record. It comes as some British buyers put purchases on hold due to referendum on June 23.the forthcoming EU Most agents the Olive Press firmed they had various spoke to con‘paused’ awaiting the result,sales currently despite the British market remaining The majority believe that strong. pected result - to stay in the ex- will lead to the pound Europe strengthening with a red hot summer of sales to follow. Ben Bateman, at Holmes Sotogrande, described the lead up as a ‘pause forreferendum British buyers’ due to thought for concerns over the weak pound. “After a remain vote however, we expect to see a strong finish to the den wave of bids from year - and a sudBritish buyers,” he told the Olive Press. One agent in Gibraltar has gone one step further actually employing July. Savills director Sammy extra staff for Cruz-Armstrong said: “Everything is on but I am convinced we hold due to Brexit, and am taking on extra will stay in Europe with the expected delugestaff in July to deal Benahavis agent Scott of business.” Marshall of Proper-

Spanish property sales

Remain

PAGE 19

Where are the coolest Airbnbs?

PAGE 24

Deals

by nationality and quarter

www.spanishpropertyinsight.com

Where is Gillian buying?

tieSpain, meanwhile, described the pause as ‘very psychological’. He said: “It’s a combination the vote and the exchange of the uncertainty of While many agents have rate right now.” rently on hold, some havea couple of sales cur“We have up to ten sales seen more. til after the referendum,” currently on hold unboss of Castles, in Manilva.said Victor Witkowski, “Buyers are not necessarily they are biding their time pulling out, but to see what happens.” Fellow Manilva agent, confirmed a slowdown, Shani Hamilton, also predicting a huge influx but added: “We are a decision is made.” of business as soon as

Source: Registradores

Q1 2013 Q2 2013 Q3 2013 Q4 2013 Q1 2014 Q2 2014 Q3 2014 Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015 Q1 2016

Either way, official statistics out this month confirm the British market remains strong and tens of thousands continue to look for their dream home. Respected analyst Mark eign demand for SpanishStucklin insists that forin the first quarter with property was up 16% of foreign buyers at 22%Brits the biggest group “The British still dominateof the market share. property and there is no the foreign market for able decline in demand evidence of a noticeas yet,” he said. And certainly not everyone One agent, Graham Govier is suffering. of Inland Andalucia has seen ‘no negative impact’ at all during the referendum lead-up. “In fact it is the opposite. cheap right now and we Prices are extremely are selling two times as many properties as we were He added: “My salesman last year,” he said. a local celebrity - has justPaul - already a bit of enth consecutive sale and completed his sevpeople are buying because they can see that won’t wait around for themthe incredible deals Paul made headlines in forever,” he added. the Olive Press last year when he sold an impressive nine properties in a row.

How to reclaim floor clause fees

PAGE 25

Introducing OP’s Agony Uncle

PAGE 31

Save money when buying or selling your property in Spain

For more information please or email spain@smartcurre call us on +34 951 401 921 ncyexchange.com OUR PARTNERS

Anger as rogue DIY developer goes unpunished

code and is not in keeping with all the other buildings, it’s like having a blue house in a white village,” neighbour Peter Fake, 61, told the Olive Press. “People standing on his roof can see right onto my garden, it’s an invasion of my privacy.” Mr Fake claims the homeowner has

failed to put up any notices prior to or during the new works and failed to install health and safety notices, which he says is required by law. After requesting evidence of his neighbour’s licence, Fake was shocked to discover it only allowed for ‘internal decoration’. Another resident, Matthew Stirrup, 36, believes his new neighbour is slowly building a second floor. He said: “He has begun building one side up, he’s obviously building another floor and once it’s done it’s done, and mine and a lot of others’ views will be ruined.” Stirrup says a council officer has informed him that the license is legal if the walled perimeter is only 50cm high, but Stirrup and Fake say they are now at least two metres high.

‘Emblem’ of Malaga

Shocked

TOWERING: Skyscraper plans

Has anything been learnt in the property game over the last 13 years?

11+

years experience in

ALL PROPERTY MATTERS

Learning curve

RICS SURVEYORS & VALUERS BY BUILDING CAMPBELL FERGUSON

For peace of mind follow these property buying rules

Don’t miss our Property magazine out in November

Extended nightmare

+TheolivepressEs

A €120 million five-star hotel is to be built in Malaga’s main port. With 350 rooms, plans for the 135-metre tower have been put forward by Qatari-based developer Al Bidda. The 35-storey hotel will also feature a cinema, casino, shopping centre and numerous bars and restaurants. Architect Jose Segui believes the skyscraper hotel will become an ‘emblem’ of Malaga.

olive press

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016 Roll on

September 28th - October 11th 2016

olivepressnews

Download our app now and EXCLUSIVE Byenjoying Laurence Dollimore begin the best Spanish news on the go.

Property

Find Your Property

EPTEMBER 18 saw the 13th anniversary of the Survey Spain website www. surveyspain.com , which we take as the founding date of the business. Much has happened since 2003. Looking through the old articles I’ve written over the years for newspapers and magazines, plus their transfer to website Articles and then blogs, Facebook, Twitter and all, I’m struck by how little appears to have been learnt. article headings tell it all – ‘Why didn’t they get the property Surveyed?’, is a constant theme as so often we come across stories of ‘disasters’ that could have been avoided. To rush forward to spend tens or hundreds of thousands and even millions, based on the word of somebody who is only being paid, and reluctantly at that, if the deal goes through, must be the height of naivety. Often it’s expressed as buying ‘in good faith’, but there are more blunt ways of expressing it too. An article I commented upon started with, ‘We spend about the same time choosing shoes or buying a suit as deciding which house to buy’. In a speech to a real estate conference in Almería in 2004, I noted that there was a reduced number of buyers, but the house building market was still progressing strongly. I was complaining about the increasing spoiling of the natural Andalucía that brought many of the residents and tourist here in the first place. “It must be intelligent development, meeting what occupiers want and not just immediate profit”.

What prescience that was! Now still we see new builds and reports of so many 1,000s of Instruct properties being sold. However, the onlyInstruct sales Building Surveyor Lawyer that really count are the ones to eventual individual occupiers. Sales of 1,000’s of investment properties from a bankrupt bank to a Buy with Knowledge & Confidence cash rich fund just don’t count as they are still individually on the market. Remove all of those and many ‘buy-to-let’s’ and that gives us the +34 952 923 520 real market figure. admin@surveyspain.com surveyspain.com Back on the individual properties and we see the same defects again and again, principally relating to – rain! Yes, damp is the main defect we find. Fortunately, with little wood in the structure, except in older buildings, there isn’t much rot associated with it. However, why don’t the architects build for the 8 months of temperate climate when it rains, is cold and even snows in places, rather than just for the 4 months of summer? Too rooted in mimicking Arab styles perhaps, originally designed for truly dry climates. Drain the water away from the structure with proper field drains, plus guttering and downpipes connected to these drains, and so much mould, crumbling plaster, coughs, colds and sneezes could be avoided. But then what would Survey Spain do if all that was perfect? Maybe we should just be thankful that it’s not and carry on advising and helping clients avoid problems or at least know what they are taking on. When it comes down to it, it’s so much easier than watching others repent on their mistakes.

Contact Campbell and the team on +34 952 923 520 or email info@surveyspain.com

Connect with us!

“We just don’t know what to do at this point, it seems like the rules don’t apply to him,” Stirrup added. A Manilva town hall spokesperson told the Olive Press: “For legal reasons we cannot confirm whether or not this building is being built illegally.” He added: “It is not required by law to put up notices of your works or to inform your neighbours.”

€60 million comeback THE iconic Byblos hotel in Mijas is set to reopen after it was sold for €60 million. Madrid-based Ayco Inmobilaria purchased the hotel has said it will open its doors within the next few months. The re-opening of the hotel, which was owned by UK business tycoon Lord Alan Sugar and has welcomed the likes of Princess Diana, is said to have created 300 new jobs. The 135-room hotel has been closed since 2010 after Lord Sugar became involved in a lengthy legal battle with troubled developer Aifos. It will reportedly receive a full refurbishment, though Ayco maintained it would keep the iconic elements of the construction and stay true to the building’s character.

LAUNCH: Arboleda bash

Amid the trees IT was a top rank gathering of industry professionals, politicians and potential clients at the launch of the new Arboleda development, in Atalaya, between Guadalmina and Benahavis. The hundreds of guests, including Estepona mayor Jose Maria Garcia Urbano, were treated to an excellent spread of food and drinks, before being invited to an on-site visitor centre to see plans. Launched by Real Capital Solutions the stunning development borders 50,000 sqm of protected woodland. The group of beautifully designed villas will bring sophistication to the charming community.

CLOSE VIEW: At plans

Visit www.arboleda-villas. com or contact 674128105 for more information.

Pop up home THE first pop-up house built using only an electric screwdriver has been constructed in Spain. The house is made from stackable and recyclable wooden blocks that are held together with wooden screws. The homes are easily customisable and the whole process of designing, ordering and building can last just four months. Multipod and Spanish homebuilders Wilbat House created the popup house in L’Armentera in Catalunya. A couple paid just €197,000 for the 1,660-square-foot pad, which comes complete with a master bedroom, two smaller bedrooms, living room, kitchen, two bathrooms, a garage and swimming pool. The homes are only available in France and Spain but Thiercelin, the company behind them, hopes to expand into the UK and US. Pop-up homes are part of a growing sustainable architecture movement called ‘passive construction’ and are designed to be low-cost and energy-efficient.

956 682 656

687 838 263

Ta r i fa I n m o b i l i a r i a faii nnm ob wi nfo@tar w w. t a r iifa mo b i l iiar a riia. a .com com

Ta r i fa I n m o b i l i a r i a w w w. t a r i fa i n m o b i l i a r i a . c o m

32 32

www.theolivepress.es

PROPERTY

by mortgage broker Tancrede de Pola

EWER homeowners are being forced out of their homes because of unpaid mortgage payments. A combination of a growing Spanish economy, a plummeting Euribor rate and stabilising banks has led to a healthier property market for homeowners. In fact, mortgage foreclosures are down 30% compared to last year, with just over 11,000 foreclosures served in the second quarter of the year. Out of this figure, around 6,000 foreclosures were loans registered with individuals, while the remaining mortgages were registered with businesses. And it is not a one off. The last quarter of last year registered a drop in foreclosures, while the first quarter of this year saw a decline of 28%. In real terms, this means fewer families are being forced out of their homes. And it is good for both the banks and the lenders as the economy continues in a positive direction. However, meeting mortgage payments can still be a huge burden for some. If you’re unable to meet your mortgage payments, lenders are usually willing to reschedule your mortgage so that it extends over a longer period, thus allowing you to make lower payments. If you are unable to make a payment you should contact your lender as soon as you have a problem. Lenders are quick to embargo a property and

Mortgage foreclosures are on the decline as Spain’s economy picks up

could eventually repossess it and auction it within a few months, so the time to act is before you miss a payment, not after. Changing mortgage lender or re-negotiating mortgage terms with your existing lender is often the way forward, and can be done through a broker. Banks are required to issue a list of conditions and interest rates - that are binding - so that clients can shop around and get the best deal by comparing rates. There are two ways of improving existing mortgage terms. The first is by ‘compulsory substitution’ where the lender offering more favourable terms/interest rates (a requirement by the Bank of Spain) takes over the existing mortgage. However, normal costs apply including those to cancel the mortgage and take out a new one, often making this option non-viable. Then there is by ‘variation’, where the existing lender offers a reduced interest rate or changes the repayment period. There have been instances whereby banks have been contacting clients directly and offering to move them onto a favourable fixed rate, and this has proved popular.

To contact Tancrede for all your mortgaging needs call: 666 709 743 or for insurance queries call: 951 203 540 Email: tdp@thefinanacebureau.com The Finance Bureau Centro Commercial Guadalmina, 2nOffice No. 7 Guadalmina, 29670

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Lawsuit filed against Rothschild after British expats lost hundreds of thousands in alleged fraudulent scheme

MORTGAGE THINK TANK

The big payback F

September 28th - October 11th 2016

ON TRIAL: Rothschild FOUR British expats have filed a lawsuit against N M Rothschild over an alleged fraudulent property investment scheme in Spain. The group have filed a High Court action against the investment bank in which they accuse it of mistreatment. The scheme allowed them to take out mortgages worth up to 75% of the value of their Spanish homes. These proceeds were then invested with an insurance company to provide an in-

In the docks

come but the pensioners claim the investment did not perform as well as promised, leaving them unable to pay off their mortgages which were due to be repaid this year.

Buy-to-let boom A THIRD of homes in Spain’s biggest cities are owned by buy-to-let landlords. Housing markets in cities like Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia are dominated by buy-to-let investors who capitalised on the housing crash that wiped up to 75% off the value of many Spanish properties. The market has been aided by a high tenant demand, leading rental returns to increase to an average of 6.1%, up from 5.5% on last year. Barcelona is the most popular city for buy-to-let buyers with 40% of all of the city’s sales going to landlords.

Michael and Roberta Carney, 72 and 71, say they lost €124,575 after taking out a loan of €292,500 on their Malaga home in 2006 on the advice of the now defunct Spanish advisory firm Henry Woods. They say Rothschild employee Stephen Dewsnip promised he would save participants in the scheme ‘a fortune in Spanish inheritance tax’ as well as provide them with a modest income. The expats say Rothschild abused its position as a ‘highly respected bank’ and profited by taking advantage of the elderly who had little or no experience in investments. The investment bank says the claims have no merit and has vowed to ‘vigorously contest them’.

The 40 hct. is perfect for any touristic use. 800 m River frontage, very old mill, flat lands! Olives + Cork wood’s, old buildings to renovate. For training centers, Eco farming, horses, animals sheep, etc.. Summer schools for children, Yoga, executive training, Art Hotel/ Restaurant. Idea plan’s available, Townhall approval. Work team, best price’s and experience. 15 min. two Villages, 45 min. to Estepona.

More information call or email: Margarita, tel. 952 11 74 51 / margaritaftaylor@hotmail.com

Or Peter, mob. 670 01 52 02

-final of Spanish TV talent show 3065 views

SOCIALMEDIA

www.theolivepress.es OlivePressNewspaper olivepress

BUSINESS round-up

olivepressnews

New Office BE ‘APPY!

ONE of Spain’s biggest groups, ACS will be opening its Caucasus and Central Asia regional office in Azerbaijan.

IRAN is fast becoming a key crude oil provider to Spain at the expense of South America. Since the removal of crippling sanctions on Iran last January, Spanish oil firms like Repsol and Cepsa have rushed to sign con-

tracts with the once pariah Islamic Republic. Spain has imported 1.1 million tons of crude oil from Iran during the first seven months of 2016, while imports from Venezuela have dropped 63.1% in the same period.

Top of the shops

begin enjoying the best Spanish CAIXABANK news on the go.has planned to raise €1.4billion from a share sale to fund a takeover bid of Portugese bank, Banco BPI.

Super Store

Profits soar for Spanish fashion giant

The Olive Press

SUPERSTORE Lidl will be opening a new loTOP for news in Spain! gistics centre in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). INDITEX, owner of the It will be completed in multi-billion Zara brand, 2018.

Deliveroo THE famed start-up company Deliveroo, that delivers food to offices, has expanded to the Spanish market.

Exchange rates 1 euro is worth

1.12 American dollars 0.86 British pounds 1.48 Canadian dollars 7.46 Danish kroner 8.70 H Kong dollars 9.10 Norwegian kroner 1.53 Singapore dollars

has seen an eight percent jump in profits. The fashion store, which sees clothes go from factory to shelf in just two weeks, has overtaken Swedish H&M for the top spot. In total, the amount realised from the eye-watering turnover saw a €1.3 billion increase in sales in the first half of this year. Notoriously shy business mogul Amancio Ortega also owns much loved fashion chains Pull & Bear, Bershka and Massimo Dutti. Pablo Isla, chief executive for Inditex said the sales jump was due to an impeccable ‘global business model’.

SUCCESS: Ortega

Strategic Zara only makes its clothes on shores close to home in Spain, Portugal, North Africa, Turkey and Eastern Europe, which is a reasons for its quick turn-

Property AGONY ANT

around production time. This year alone Zara has opened more than 80 stores, retailing its clothing to new markets in Aruba, Paraguay and Nicaragua. Owner O r t e ga was named the richest man in the world earlier this OVERTAKEN: m o n t h , Gates the first time a Spaniard has topped the Forbes’ 100 Richest list. The list was previously headed by Microsoft chief Bill Gates.

YOUR LEGAL PROBLEMS ADDRESSED BY ANTONIO FLORES

N my last column, I discussed a number of ‘legal’ urban legends believed by both expats and locals. Here we discuss a few more: Squatters have rights: This idea has been thrown around many times, without legal backing. Squatters have no title to property and can be evicted…but always through the courts. Verbal rental contracts don’t exist: if anything, a rental agreement exists the moment the tenant makes one rental payment. Where no term was agreed, the contract will be deemed agreed for at least one year (and can be extended to three at the tenant’s discretion). Contracts not in Spanish are void: I cannot count how many times I have heard this. According to Spanish legal practice, any language that is recognized as official in any country of the world is good for a contract; the reason is that it can be ‘officially’ translated by a registered interpreter.

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Crude to be so kind

+TheolivepressEs

NEWS IN BRIEF

Download our app now and Takeover

3333

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Legal myths in Spain

Urban legends still believed by both expats and locals

MYTH: Squatters have rights in Spain

Email Antonio at aflores@lawbird.es

‘Without prejudice’ law phrase in a letter: In some countries, when used in a document or letter, without prejudice means that what follows (a) cannot be used as evidence in a court case, (b) cannot be taken as the signatory’s last word on the subject or c) cannot be used as a precedent. In Spain, such a phrase has no legal significance. The only exceptions are letter or other communications between lawyers, which are by statute ‘without prejudice’ and can never be used as evidence in a court of law. You could be arrested if you have debts: Article 1 of Protocol No. 4 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, of which Spain is a signatory country, states the following: “Prohibition of imprisonment for debt: no one shall be deprived of his liberty merely on the ground of inability to fulfil a contractual obligation”. This means that you will never be arrested at an airport if you have debts here.

WARNED: Rajoy’s government

On the edge

THE economy of Spain could take a devastating hit if it fails to ratify a budget for 2017. Analysts have warned that if no budget is approved, spending will be frozen at 2016 levels, which could have a substantial impact on the country’s growth. HSBC economist Fabio Balboni said: “If the 2017 budget cannot be approved by the end of the year, all of the main spending items will be frozen at current levels, including wages and pensions. That would be equal to spending SUPERSTORE Specsavers Opcuts of about 1% of tica is encouraging better eye GDP. This might help health. to reduce the deficit, The store has teamed up with but it would also have the Royal National Institute of negative consequences Blind People as part of Nationfor growth. This risk al Eye Health Week. should also provide a Specsavers is helping educate strong incentive for people with eye health, eye the political parties to tests and reducing sight loss. avoid a third election." In shops, Specsavers are holdThis could be coming free eye tests throughout pounded if the EU deSeptember. cides to punish Spain for its missed deficit To find out more go to visit targets following a new www.visionmatters.org.uk. round of negotiations in October.

Super sight

Advertorial

Crowd funders THE current return on investment in real estate outshines other products like bank deposits, stocks, shares, pension funds, treasury bills, bonds and traditional real estate. Normally, property investment involves substantial sums of money, or a mortgage just to buy one property, with more risks and possible long-term debt, but with ‘crowd-funding’ the opportunities are endless. The term speaks for itself and basically means a group of people investing varying sums of money to finance something; in this case property, and investments start from as little as €50 (£45)! You can invest in just one property or as many as are available, depending on your financial situation and goals. You may also wonder if there is

much risk of losing your capital but, as we are talking of a physical asset, that is normally located in the centre of big cities like Madrid or Barcelona, the risk is very minimal indeed. There is no catch or small print concerns to worry about either, as everything is aboveboard and transparent with full supporting and notarized legal documentation provided for every investment you make. You could money from monthly rental as well as the eventual sale when the time is right. Visit our website today and sign-up at housers.com where you’ll find everything you need to know. Alternatively, write to: support@housers.com or call 911 930 730 (working hours).

28 34

www.theolivepress.es

REVOLUTIONARY treatment is helping hundreds of people to drop unwanted weight on the Costa del Sol. Helping people from all over the world to drop weight, the threefour day treatment uses proven psychological interventions underpinned with weight loss hypnosis. Widely recognised as the gold standard in permanent, nonsurgical, weight loss treatments, the service is available at the Elite Clinic in Fuengirola. Established by Martin and Marion Shiran in 2008 the treatment received global media attention following a double-page feature in the Daily Mail, in which esteemed journalist Claudia Connell hailed the treatment as lifechanging. Trips to New York, Portugal and Poland followed, as the Shirans were beamed into the homes

Shed the pounds, for good

August 31st - September September 28th - October 13th 11th 2016

The most effective way to achieve permanent weight loss is with Gastric Mind Band Therapy of Americans via a Good Morning America TV special, before being invited to speak at a number of European psychology conferences in Europe. Describing the treatment as ‘safe, effective and non-invasive alternative’, Gastric Mind Band treatment does away with depressing diet plans and gruelling exercise regimes to achieve permanent weight loss. “Helping people to successfully, and permanently lose weight is a complex task, requiring a careful fusion of empirically proven interventions. “It's a fact that each new client

arriving at the clinic walks in the door with their own unique set of issues and problems that have usually all played a part in them having developed an unhealthy relationship with food, resulting in each client requiring, and of course receiving a completely personalised three or four day

treatment plan. “With the GMB treatment you don’t have to consciously limit what you eat to lose weight. “By getting your mind and body working together and changing your relationship with food so you no longer want to overeat, weight loss is no longer a struggle, it almost becomes natural. “That’s hugely liberating and that’s what the Gastric Mind Band® is all about. It delivers just what it says: Permanent Weight Loss.” The treatment focuses on a num-

ber of therapies and approaches which work with each other to achieve the best result. They include cognitive behaviour therapy, neuro-linguistic programming and tactileCBT registered by the centre itself. Other therapies including mindfulness techniques and hypnotherapy are also used during the three-four day treatment plan. For more information visit www.gmband.com or call 951 311 591

Before undertaking any treatment, clients at the Elite Clinic undertake three important tests: 1.

Blood test: To check glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride levels

Calorimetry test: Using the latest Korr Medical equipment, developed in the USA, to establish patient’s Resting Metabolic Rate (AKA Meta-

bolic Fingerprint) 3.

Body analysis: The Tanita Body Composition Analyser is used to establish a patient’s starting weight, body fat percentage, fat mass, visceral fat rating and metabloic age

Katie

Kay

Sarah

Diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and Hypoinsulism, Katie went on to lose 95 pounds after undergoing Gastric Mind Band Therapy. Featured in the Daily Mail, Katie described the treatments as ‘life changing’

Losing 105 pounds following her Gastric Mind Band treatment, Kay was interviewed on GMTV breakfast programme by Lorraine Kelly. As a result of her weight-loss Kay has also overcome her Diabetes as well

Weighing over 20 stone when she arrived at the centre, Sarah was registered as morbidly obese with a BMI of 46.7. Following her treatment, Sarah lost half her body weight and her story has featured in media across the world

www.theolivepress.es

European delivery available

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Delivery cost included* when you spend £80 using code FREDEL80

We currently ship to 23 European countries including Spain

Visit www.international.boots.com for more information

let’s feel good

*Delivery is provided by Boots Delivery Services Ltd. Boots UK Ltd will pay the delivery charge on behalf of the customer. This offer is valid between 1st August-30th November 2016 when you spend £80 online at www.international.boots.com - Standard terms and conditions apply. See site for more details.

Boots online advert mag ad 256mm x 342mm.indd 1

20/07/2016 09:42

36 36

www.theolivepress.es

Home time SPANISH nurses in the UK are rushing to ‘come home’ post Brexit, according to reports. The NHS has started to look further afield to the Philippines and India to keep up with the sudden decline in staff. Leicester Hospital has reported a surge in worried healthcare workers halting plans to bring their family from Spain oto the UK. Julie Smith, chief Nurse at Leicester Hospital said: “Those from Spain particularly want to go back. People are worried about their ability to return to their home nations." She continued: “About 20 nurses have gone back following Brexit. "Quite a number were about to move their families over here but now feel this is a risky move.”

BREXIT Bulletin

Medieval

Newspaper cover adds to ‘18th century claims’ that Gibraltar will lose sovereignty over Brexit CHIEF Minister Fabian Picardo has slammed Spain’s ‘medieval’ government and accused it of acting ‘against the spirit of Europe’. In a damning outburst, Picardo savaged foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, who is reportedly lobbying EU members to demand joint sovereignty over Gibraltar. In a letter to his European counterparts, the controversial minister insisted Gibraltar should be barred from Brexit negotiations and become a bargaining chip in exit talks. The tub-thumping led to Span-

‘LYING’: Garcia-Margallo

ish newspaper ABC provocatively using an image of Gibraltar on its cover with the Spanish flag under it (see right). The pro-PP paper claimed the deal was a no brainer, as Gibraltarians would ‘enjoy’ dual na-

Brief By Charles Gomez

How MPs could side-step the referendum result

Can Parliament stop Brexit?

Sponsored by

September 28th - October 11th 2016

OME 801 years ago the Magna Carta set in motion the gradual erosion of the English monarchy’s absolute powers, leading to today’s concept of parliamentary sovereignty. This allows the Parliament in Westminster to make or repeal any law. The process has not been uneventful; there has been a civil war, Charles I was beheaded; James II was exiled after the ‘glorious revolution’, and, more recently fear of bolshevism quickened the pace of democratisation. So what happens when the will of the people (as expressed in the referendum of the 23rd June 23) is not much to the liking of the people’s representatives in London? This is a legal column and not the right forum for a political debate on how, if we are to believe the Bremainers, it has come to pass that a majority of the people’s representatives apparently hold different views to the majority of the people. So, can the body of MPs ignore the referendum result and refuse to approve a notice of withdrawal from the EU under article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty? Can the 650 MPs and the 760 Lords (the second biggest Parliament in the world after the Chinese), ignore the 17,410,742 who voted for the UK to secede from the EU? Constitutionally, Parliament can do just that but the precedent thus set might make people question their faith in democracy, a thought process that normally ends up in tears. Ironically it is a remnant of pre-Magna Carta absolutism that looks set to ensure that the

popular vote is respected, and Westminster is side-stepped. It is called the Royal Prerogative whereby the Queen retains the power to make and repeal international treaties. By constitutional convention the monarch exercises the prerogative via the government of the day. The government in Whitehall is not, of course, the same as Parliament which sits at Westminster and the decision therefore rests with Theresa May’s cabinet. The Prime Minister has made it clear that an article 50 notice will be given in early 2017. Some lawyers point out that after the accession treaties, a European Communities Act of 1972 was enacted by Parliament. That Act, they argue, can only be repealed by Parliament and not the government. The long title of the ECA 1972 is: “An Act to make provision in connection with the enlargement of the European Communities to include the United Kingdom, together with (for certain purposes) the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar”. My own view is that if the Treaties of Accession go, the 1972 Act becomes inoperative because it was passed ‘in connection’ with the treaty of enlargement. In other words, to stop Brexit, the UK parliament would have to pass a vote of no confidence in Mrs. May’s government and replace it with a pro-remain administration but that would put at risk many more political careers and seats and ... pigs might fly. Next week more on Brexit as disillusionment with the EU spreads.

Readers of the Olive Press are invited to discuss this or any other legal matter with Charles Gomez by emailing charles@gomezco.gi

tionality under Margallo’s plan. This is despite prime minister Theresa May stating clearly that Gibraltar’s government will be ‘fully involved’ in future talks. “It seems to me that Mr Margallo can’t work out the simple meaning of the simple word ‘no’,” Picardo told the Olive Press this week. “The mendacious manner in which Spain are lying to the international community about Gibraltar and trying to push an advantage is short sighted, medieval and undemocratic.” He added: “It runs against the spirit of Europe and the threats

with which they back it up will hurt Spanish workers in Gibraltar more than anyone else.” A British government spokesperson, added: “We will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar can pass under the sovereignty of a state against their wishes.” The flames were further fanned when King Felipe labelled Gibraltar a ‘colonial anachronism’ at New York’s UN General Assembly, last week, and called for the Rock to be handed back to Spain. His comments were described by Gibraltar as showing how ‘official circles in Spain remains stuck in the eighteenth century’. “Madrid has still not come to terms with having lost Gibraltar over 300 years ago. It’s time they realised they are never going to get it back - and never means never,” said a spokesman. On Sunday in a BBC interview, foreign secretary Boris Johnson stated Article 50 should be triggered by May 2017, signalling a two-year countdown until Britain leaves the EU.

Brexit Blues BRITAIN has to be braced for an ‘inferior trade deal’ post brexit. The Prime Minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat, who will head the Brexit negotiations when he takes up his rotational chair next year, has said that Britain cannot ‘have its cake and eat it’ when securing a deal. He said: “I don't see a situation where Britain will be better off at the end of the deal”

Simon says BRITISH Ambassador to Spain Simon Manley has insisted that Britain will remain close with mainland Europe after Brexit. Manley made the comments at a digital and technological festival in Segovia. He said : “British people voted to leave the European Union, the country is still European, it will not turn its back on Europe.”

This follows speculation of new Prime Minister Theresa May triggering article 50 next year. Mr Muscat added that Britain's intentions post Brexit are frustratingly unclear. A meeting with 27 European leaders occurred in September to plan a future for the EU without Britain. “One of the problems is that in order to negotiate you have to know what the other side wants … right now, we don't know what the UK side wants. "Can you tell me if the UK government wants access to the single market? Because I don't know. What does Brexit mean at the end of the day?" said Mr Muscat.

Boris’s boast THE British government is likely to trigger article 50 early next year, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has claimed. But Downing Street has refused to confirm Johnson’s unusually frank statement on the move, which would kickstart the process of Britain leaving the European Union (EU). Once article 50 is invoked, Britain has two years to negotiate a withdrawal from the EU. Johnson said the government is ‘talking to our European friends and partners now in the expectation that by the early part of next year you will see an article 50 letter’. He added: “I’m sure we will be setting out some parameters for how we propose to take this forward.

“I don’t actually think we will necessarily need to spend a full two years.” However, Prime Minister Theresa May, who has been annoyed with ministers making statements on how Brexit might play out, was keeping her cards close to her chest. A Number 10 spokesperson said: “The government’s position has not changed – we will not trigger article 50 before the end of 2016 and we are using this time to prepare for the negotiations.”

Brexpats unite THE Brexpats in Spain group met at La Cala Town Hall as part of a Costa del Sol tour. The Facebook group has gathered 2,000 members in just seven weeks and the figure is growing daily. President Anne Hernandez said their immediate plan is to ‘extend our membership and strengthen our voice’. The group also has a website, brexpats.es, and will next meet at Benalmadena Town Hall on October 4.

Erasmus facing the axe FEARS are growing for a popular student european exchange scheme as Brexit tension mounts. The Erasmus scheme, which sees Brits go to overseas universities in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Greece and the Americas has an uncertain future as Britain tries negotiate deals. Around 31 students graduated from the European Union funded, continental project from St Andrews University in Scotland this month.

Spanish Lecturer at St Andrews, Professor Gustavo San Román said: “We hope and believe that the UK will continue to be a member of the Erasmus programme, but this is of course to be negotiated.” He added: “It would certainly be a pity not to be able to be part of a programme such as this one, which St Andrews contributed to creating and which has gone from strength to strength in its 11-year history.”

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

38 38

GOlf

www.theolivepress.es

Spain bound YORKSHIRE’S Howley Hall girls could be heading to Spain as they eye up the semifinals of one of the UK’s biggest National competitions. The side, captained by Becki O’Grady, defeated Rochdale 3-2 on home soil in a tense encounter that earned them a place in the quarter-finals of an event that attracts more than 3,000 clubs. The winning quarter-finalists will compete in the Mail on Sunday Classic semi-finals, with the final to be held at the El Rompido resort in Huelva.

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Putting back

Sergio Garcia is easy to rattle in the Ryder Cup, say insiders

US Open Champion Michael Campbell has agreed to play in a charity golf tournament in a bid to raise $100 million (€89.5 million). The Marbella-based golfing star will play in The Gary Player Invitational in South Africa from November 24-27 at the Lost City Golf Course. Sponsored by Coca Cola and Sun International, the invitational has so far raised €55 million from a series of six tournaments around the world. The proceeds will go to underprivileged children in South Africa.

Trash talk STAYING PUTT: Sergio Garcia optimistic for Ryder Cup

ON COURSE: Yorkshire ladies

Posh Pets

GOLF insiders have claimed Spain’s Sergio Garcia likes to play ‘bulls**t games’. The comments were made ahead of the

Spain

Dog & Cat Grooming Salon

Boutique Dog Hotel & Cattery

Pet Grooming Courses Pet Transportation Shop

tel: 0034 952 597 035 www.poshpetspain.com Follow us on Facebook ‘Posh Pets Spain’

GLORIOUS: Golf course in Cuba

Cuba out of the bunker SPANISH companies are flooding in to invest in golf resorts in Cuba since the US lifted its trade embargo on the island last year. 2015 saw 3.5 million people visit Cuba, a 17% increase on the year before, and it seems the country cannot build hotels and golf resorts quick enough, changing the law to allow increased foreign direct investment as long as there is a cuban partner involved. In June, Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism said it was close to a deal with Spanish consortium La Playa Golf/Resorts S.L to build the vast Punta Colorada Cuba Golf Marina in remote Punta Colorada in the Pinar del Río province. They are also said to be closing in on a golf development deal with another Spanish firm just west of Havana at El Salado. Meanwhile, Spain’s Urbas Grupo Financiero announced in March that it had begun gathering funds for a resort of 1,500 villas and 3,000 apartments with several golf courses at Rancho Luna-Pasacaballos, near Cienfuegos, with an investment budget of €519 million.

www.esteponagolf.com

Estepona Golf +34 952 937 605

Ryder Cup as Golf Digest interviewed players, coaches, caddies and others involved in the sport on the condition of anonymity. “He's comfortable winning playing those bulls**t games if he can't beat you with his clubs,” the quote continued, “And if you do give it back to him, it can affect him." Garcia, 36, has won 18 of his Ryder Cup ties, drawing nine and losing five, and is seen as one of the tournament’s greatest ever golfers. Despite this he has yet to win the title or any other major.

Choker

"Sergio isn't a choker,” the anonymous source continued, “but has he ever made a putt in a major when it really counted at the end? No, and that's why you feel like he can be beaten." Garcia has said he is optimistic about Europe’s chances this year. ““Our team is quite young, but I think it’s going to be a great mix of experience with some of the younger guys and rookies getting a great taste for it,” he said. “The only thing they have to do is go and do what they do every week, which is to play great golf.” Garcia will join the likes of America’s Jordan Spieth and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy at the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota, US, on September 30.

HUMBLE: Campbell

For Marisa ONE of the top Golf competitions on the Costa del Sol has rung in its 64th year. The Marisa Sgaravatti trophy and Third Senior Master competition, in Marbella went off with a bang. The winner was Italy’s Albertina Pavesi, who triumphed with 90 points to take home the trophy. The competition is in honour of Marisa Sgaravatti, a trailblazer in women’s golf and the founder of the popular event.

Winning streak LAS Colinas Golf & Country Club has been named Spain’s best villa resort at the World Travel Awards for the second year in a row. Some 40 minutes south of Alicante, the 330 hectare site was also crowned as having Spain’s Best Golf Course at the World Golf Awards last year. It is noted for its quirky clubhouse and sushi bar and has hosted many major championships.

The Early Bird Breakfast before or after play 18 holes of golf inc buggy hire 55€ per person Tee times available every morning from 08:00 hrs to 10:30 hrs September to December 2016 Call us to book today or email information@esteponagolf.com

Motors

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

39 39

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Desperate Migrants plight A GROUP of migrants have been found wedged in between car seats. Three men and one woman were near suffocation as they tried to cross Spanish border of Melilla. Exhausted, the migrants tried to stay silent as the investigation continued, before bursting into frantic screams of anguish. A Spanish police spokesman said: “Up until this moment, they had been silent but then they started to shout. The woman was screaming in French, pleading with us to get her out. She said she was scared, could not feel her legs and had swollen feet." Custom officers rushed the desperate travellers believed to be from Congo and Guinea, to hospital. The car-driver is reportedly part of a known people-smuggling operation.

DESPERATE: Migrants

NICKED: Police motor

Copp-a Car

CRAFTY criminals stole a car belong to the Gibraltar Commissioner of police. Eddie Yome, was holidaying on the Costa del Sol, when his wheels went missing. The crime was reported to police before the car was returned later on. No arrests have been made regarding the theft.

SEOUL POWER: Drivers

It takes two A DARING duo tasked themselves with getting from Malaga to Seoul by car... before being stopped just 4000 kilometres from their destination. David Pozo and Antonio Cabrera took on the trip in a 1993 Volkswagen Vento, before the trip was halted at the Kazakhstan border. It turns out that the twosome had forgotten official documents needed for the last leg of the journey. Seven days earlier than expected, the forgetful pair made the trip back home.

In a bid to crackdown on high pollution, Malaga City will participate in European Mobility Week, focusing on a new initiative for the city; sustainable transport and tourism

Going green

ONE hundred experts are set to gather in Malaga City to talk about sustainable transport and tourism in the region. Organised by Transport and Tourism councillors, Elvira Maeso and Julio Andrade, the conference is part of European Mobility Week, which is now in its third year. The exhibition aims to reduce pollution levels and increase physical activity across Europe. Elvira said: “The conference will put the city at the forefront of innovation and development of sustainable mobility” Malaga is one of 22 European cities taking part in the week. It was one of the few cities that met the requirements of being ‘golden participater’. This includes active enforcing of initiatives such as ‘car free days’, cycle lanes and improved bus lanes. The conference, the first of its kind that addresses transport and tourism, includes an exhibition of different urban transport systems and methods. This comes as a dramatic turnaround after Spain was dubbed the ‘most polluted’ country in the EU in a 2015 report. The report from the European Environment Agency, scored Spain the highest for exceeding pollution levels on 150 of the 183 day threshold, making Spain the ‘worst performing’ out of its European counterparts. The event will be held at Museo de Patrimonio from September 22-23.

Caught out SPANISH police have foiled a luxury car theft ring. Around 44 stolen cars worth €100,00 were recovered in three European countries. So far, 31 arrests have been made in Spain, Italy and France.

GREEN GOALS: European Mobility Week

LUCY: Legend

On the Moo-ve A GROUP of cheeky chaps from Cornwall will be driving around the coast in a cow-print car for charity. Edward Martyn, Stuart King, David Northey and Jack Kent will be on Spanish soil for the annual St Austell Round Table Banger Rally Challenge 2016. The budding foursome -all farmers- spent €600 on the head-turning pair of wheels, transforming their Honda Legend into ‘Lucy the Legend’. The self-funded rally is founded by The Young Farmers Club, with the friends hoping to raise €2,500 for various charities. The team will set off from Cornwall on October 6.

40 40

www.theolivepress.es

ABC adverts are available in 3 sizes. Full Colour and a choice of standard or rounded frames. ROUNDED

These rates are for the whole year!

Single 50mm x 24mm (1-15 words) double 50mm x 48mm (16-30 words) treble

To book a space email: 50mm x 72mm abcsales@theolivepress.es (31-45 words) or call: 0034 6587504242 Mr Fixit. GARDEN AND POOL Property Maintenance 0034 951273575 MAINTENANCE & Construction. From 90€ a month, 10€ a hour Benalmadena to Marbella Ricardo 637160129

Professional Service. San Pedro Region 677787524/952781478

247 PSYCHOLOGIST Experienced UK Qualified Professionals AVAILABLE 247 Book Appointments Online! www.247psychologist.com

AIR CONDITIONING installations, repairs and servicing Airflow 952443222 airflowspain@live.com

} } }

SATELLITE TV Working on the Costa del Sol since 1990

info@orbitsl.com Puerto Paraiso Local 15 29680 (Estepona Port)

€280 + IVA €450 + IVA €580 + IVA

Satellite, Internet & Terrestrial TV Community Specialist TV for all Nationalities Multiroom Viewing NEW 4G Wireless Internet Speeds up 50MB

SUPERFAST BROADBAND

AVAILABLE ANYWHERE IN SPAIN UNLIMITED DOWNLOAD

Choose from nine colours

Dark Blue Light Blue Dark Green Light Green Dark Purple Light Purple Red Orange Yellow Having difficulty sending and receiving mail on Spain?

lnjuries Pain Muscle contractions Release tensions Stress Consultation in Algeciras. Working at home. Set an appointment: Whatsapp: 645872867 E-mail: ostemasalud@gmail.com

services

home automation - internet - satellite - tv - audio

Tel: +34 952 80 24 57 Mob: +34 654 75 84 15

17 40

Affordable Business Contacts

Advertise with us

Standard

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Tel: 952 591 053

OFFEX offer a secure, reliable and cost effective solution for both businesses and individuals requiring mail and courier services to and from Spain Full range of Royal Mail services Worldwide door to door courier service for time sensitive documents and small packages Economy Courier: Worldwide for to door courier service for less urgent documents, small packages and parcels Budget Courier: European door to door service for non urgent items Luggage Service: Low cost unaccompanied baggage service for your personal effects Iberian Peninsula Courier: Overnight deliveries within Spain Postal Service: Priority Courier:

THE POST SHOP

Avda. De Tivoli, C.C. De la Miel, Local 13, Arroyo de la Miel Tel: 952 577 816 Mon to Fri: 10.00-17.00 Sat: 10.00-12.00

tRANSPORT SERVICE/removals SWIMMING POOL SHOP

Chemicals & Equipment • Parts & Fittings Toys & Games • Free Water Analysis Leak Detecting Repairs • Renovations New Builds • Professional Maintenance Urb Dona Pilar, Ctra de Mijas Below restaurante Valparaiso splashpools@electronbox.net

www.splashpools.es

legal

Satellite EXPERIENCED BRITISH SOLICITOR

THE BOOKEND

Spanish speaking providing legal advice: conveyancing, residency and commercial matters. 1 hour free consultation Contact Victoria at: www.britishlawyerspain. com or 678826771

parking

Construction

misc SERVICES English Bookshop

DIRECT FROM SATELLITE BBC 1,2,4 · ITV1 · CH4, CH5 & RADIO STATIONS IPTV

200+ CHANNELS, TV CATCHUP OVER 4600 MOVIES & BOXSETS ON DEMAND

617 169 792

robsat.spain@gmail.com

courier

10,000 English books for sale C/ Juan Relinque 45 Vejer de la Frontera 625 870 255

Classifieds www.theolivepress.es 41

Nigeria

Air-conditioning

If you are living between Estepona, Gibraltar and Gaucin. And have lived and worked in Nigeria. Would you like to share your memories and experiences with like minded people? If so, drop an email to John and Jill at jjt144@hotmail.com

For all your advertising needs contact

Tel: 951 273 575 Mob: 655 825 683

11 12++

years experience in

Get all the facts before you buy a new home with a building condition report. Tel +34 952 923 520 admin@surveyspain.com www.surveyspain.com

tRANSPORT SERVICE/removals

Drainage

September 28th - October 11th 2016 Property

Repair service

On-Board Repair Service PCs, Laptops & Phones GPS, Internet, Radar, Satellite, IPTV Virus Removal, TV & Entertainment Systems

Tel. 951 25 41 10

https://yachtcomputerservice.com info@yachtcomputerservice.com

Recruitment ESCUELA DE IDIOMAS

Office Manager/ Administrator COIN AREA

We are a growing family run business looking for an Office Manager/Administator to work full time in our busy office. The person must be self motivated, thorough, have good organisational skills, a good telephone manner and most importantly be able to work within and support a busy team. Duties to include; answering of sales enquires and telephone calls, arranging of appointments, meeting and greeting new clients and general organisational tasks. Must be native English speaker, fluent Spanish and other languages are a bonus.

Please send curriculum vitae to Jo Wood jo@grapevine-properties.com

TRINITY SCHOOL 25 YEARS TEACHING SPANISH TO STUDENTS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD

Are you a Spanish Teacher? Would you like your students to learn Spanish in Spain?

WE CAN HELP!! Bring your students on a cultural trip to Spain and learn the best way With 25 years experience we can offer the perfect course for your students We can even arrange your accommodation! Contact us now for more information... Escuela de Idiomas Trinity School Accredited Instituto Cervantes School Calle Ave del Paraiso 6 / P.O.Box 720 11500 El Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz. Spain

Tel: +34 956 87 19 26 info@spanishforschoolgroups.com www.spanishforschoolgroups.com

Would you like to represent an award winning media group? We need agents in the 3 key areas of: Benalmadena / Torremolinos Mijas / Fuengirola Marbella / San Pedro YOU NEED: Excellent local knowledge Good contacts Determination and drive Some Spanish preferable WE PROVIDE: Fantastic commission rates Paid expenses, Training Leads and support If you have what it takes then please contact chris@theolivepress.es with your CV

www.theolivepress.es

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Food, drink & travel

www.theolivepress.es

with DINING SECRETS of ANDALUCIA.com

Strawberry Surprise A NEW pink gin has been launched on the market. The strawberry flavoured gin is a collaboration between Freson de Palos based in Palos de la Frontera and the Rives group, housed in the iconic distillery in El Puerto de Santa María.

Brave hearts

SPANISH restaurant chain Iberica is to open its first restaurant in Scotland. It is the chain’s eighth opening in the UK and will be followed by another in Edinburgh next year.

Top Spanish chef insists his mother taught him more than Gordon and Ferran A LEADING Spanish chef who trained under Gordon Ramsay and Ferran Adria insists it is his mother who must take the biscuit. Omar Allibhoy, 32, insisted he learnt more from her as he launched his latest cookbook, Spanish Made Simple, in London.

Mum knows best He said: “I learned more from my mum than any of the top chefs that I have been lucky enough to work

Uncle Albert

OU sit by the waterfront in one of the genuine secret spots on the Costa del Sol. An institution, that was for decades run by a confused costa Queen, today Alberts is the stand-out restaurant in the port of Cabopino. Just a stone’s throw from some of the coast’s best beaches, the port, which sits on the boundary of Marbella and Mijas, is only really known to expats and locals. And they flock to Alberts for its attention to detail, excellent service and mixed and varied menu, that has a distinct modern British flavour, with a pinch of Asiatic and Spanish for seasoning. This is exemplified by the Scotch egg starter that comes with apple and sage and a green bean salad, as well as the crispy baby back ribs in a sticky sweet chili and plum glaze, not to mention the ‘retro special’ puddings of Sherry Trifle and Eton Mess. Overseen by Gordon Ramsaytrained Lawrence Otterburn, who runs the dozen or so restaurants of the coast’s Metro Group (Jacks, Metro, Cibo, Mumtaz, etc), you can be assured that quality is paramount. “Ultimately we try not to be too clever as we have loads of long-term loyal customers that we have to keep happy,” he explains. “So things have to

4343

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Top tipple A MALAGA wine has been named the best supermarket buy in Spain. Alora wine, Vega del Geva, produced by Bodega Perez Hidalgo topped the 200-strong list in The Supervinos 2017: The Supermarket Wine guide. The wine, which costs just €8.85, is described as ‘perfect’ getting a maximum 5/5 score, something that has not been achieved for three years.

Lighting up

under. “She is my inspiration in the kitchen, she taught me from the age of three when I started mixing eggs or doing whatever she needed help with, and I loved it. “She helped me develop my incredible passion for cooking and she is the reason I am the chef I am today.” Allibhoy was a prodigy of world-renowned Adria at Spain’s elBulli, which was ranked as the number one restaurant in the world several times. The Madrid-born restaurateur, dubbed the ‘Antonio Banderas of cooking’, trained with Gordon Ramsay in 2008.

THEY’RE growing like weeds. An incredible 268 members-only marijuana cafes have set up in Barcelona over the last year, new figures show. Some 200,000 people are now believed to be members of these socalled ‘cannabis clubs’, which operate in a grey area of the law. The clubs function as nonprofit associations where members SUPERMARKETS in the UK are pay a small anshrinking their food packages and nual fee and using cheaper ingredients to counpool money to ter the costs of Brexit. When Sterling fund the operaplummeted 10% after the shock June tion, meaning 23 vote, imported goods became more there is techniexpensive, leaving retailers scramcally no selling bling to maintain profit margins. or buying involved. This means consumption is private as long THE sale of citrus fruits is at its highest as the drug stays on the premises, level for years. Valencia officials insists this year’s har- making it legal vest will reach 3,953,226 tonnes, a 23 per as private use is not penalised. cent increase on last year.

Slim down

Pip pip

K It has been an institution on the coast for years. Now Alberts is coming into its own, writes Jon Clarke

change little by little.” His head chef Jason Coupe cut his teeth at Michelin-starred 1 Lombard Street in London, and also brings in plenty of his own style and panache. And then there is maitre d Olivier, from Paris (although you’d never guess), who holds the team together with aplomb. The pick of the starters was definitely the mussels, which came steamed in Pinot Grigio and with shallots, cherry tomatoes, basil and parsley. A lovely looking dish, they definitely got better and better as they continued to cook in their own sauce at the table. For mains we avoided burgers, steaks and pizzas, and went for the Goan fish curry, which is a clever ‘deconstructed’ dish with all its constituent parts - sea bream, rice, curry sauce and mango chutney - laid out separately on the plate. Oh and with these original ‘coconut clams’, which most definitely deserve a mention. Ambience-wise, there is a distinct Caribbean feel about the place, although the bold run of pretty hydraulic tiles give it a Spanish touch. There is a grand piano and even a penny farthing installed at the back. In terms of wine, the list is a little short, but includes Taittinger champagne by the glass, as well as a fantastic New Zealand white, Lawson’s Dry Hills, and a decent Saint Emilion. Condado Address: Puerto deportivo Cabopino, 29604, Marbella. de Haza from Ribera del Duero Tel: 952 836 886 is a good pick at €28.50. www.alberts-cabopino.com

KOKOMO RESTAURANT, GARDEN & GRILL

For information and reservations

951 560 905 / 685 218 054 Please mention The Local when responding to advertisements Page 89

44 24

www.theolivepress.es

Food, drink & travel

September 28th - October 11th 2016

HOBBIT-LIKE: Cave homes

restaurant | lunch and dinner

WWW.ELMUELLE-ARRIATE.COM ESTACIÓON DE ARRIATE | ARRIATE (MA 7400, KM 4) 0034 637 784 416 | 0034 952 166 370 CLOSED ON MONDAYS

Guadix

AUNTERING merrily between two rows of fairytale cave homes, we could so easily have been in J.R.R Tolkien’s mythical Shire for short people. Except there are a few key differences between Guadix and Bilbo Baggins’ underground home in Middle Earth. For one thing, these cave homes are inhabited by humans, not hobbits. There’s no need for horsedrawn carts, either, as a regular bus service takes visitors here from Granada city in just over an hour. And, possibly most crucially of all, there is a tourist train in Guadix - one of those annoying little road trains which crawl along at a snail’s pace, belting out tinny pop chants. The sprawling town is rather bleak on first impression, possessing none of the Shire’s verdant green hills. Well off the beaten track, the surrounding landscape

Granada Shire

In the vast, reddy expanse of Granada province is a land of caves where Bilbo Baggins would feel at home, writes Tom Powell (left)

is almost Martian, its crum- perfect antidote. As we bly ochre and muddy brown stepped off the bus into this earth resembling the sur- apparent ghost-town, there face of the ‘red planet’. was quite literally no-one I arrived in the balmy spring around. sunshine We followed with my signs to the mother, durBarrio Troging her Eas- Hobbit homes aside, lodyte and don’t leave Guadix within ter holiday ten visit, when minutes of without paying we needed to your respects to its arriving in escape from the ‘cave cathedral the city’s district’ we populous Sewere passmana Santa ing a bizarre processions. landscape of whitewashed Guadix proved to be the chimneys poking up through

QUAINT: Kitchen inside cave home

the sparse, hilly terrain. Two years in Andalucia have taught me that this region packs plenty of surprises but we hadn’t been quite prepared for what we saw in Guadix. As we ventured deeper, passing the occasional hire car filled with equally openmouthed visitors, we came across circular hobbit-style doorways cut into rock faces with wonderfully maintained front gardens, just like those in the Shire. Clearly, the residents of Barrio Troglodyte are as caveproud as Bilbo and even more hospitable. Most owners will happily invite you in if you show a polite interest. In one area close to the church and dinky Visitor’s Centre, several caves are regularly open for visitors for explore. The appeal of these quaint subterranean dwellings is undeniable. The lack of sunlight might put some people off but during the searing heat of a Spanish summer it’s a positive advantage. Of course, the real benefit is the cosiness they provide during the region’s stark winters. I was told the cave homes are even more beautiful at that time of year, when the landscape is covered with a soft blanket of snow punctuated by chimneys billowing smoke. And forget dripping stalactites and rising damp. Most caves are fitted with the latest mod cons including fitted kitchens, television and wifi connections, while some are positively luxurious. Two shiny BMWs parked out-

with DINING SECRETS of www.theolivepress.es 45 September 28th - October 11th 2016 ANDALUCIA.com

Molino del Santo is only open until 2nd November 2016... so if you are planning to experience Andalucia’s most popular small hotel and restaurant don’t leave it too late before you head to the hills.

STUNNING: Cathedral in Guadix

side one residence would suggest that owning a cave home is a mark of prestige. We explored the entire area on foot, literally trampling over people’s underground homes, winding past cavespeckled hills along footpaths and tarmac roads. Just as Bilbo’s Shire has its Green Dragon pub, there are various cave hotels and B&Bs offering weekends away with a troglodyte twist, some with private pools, while day trippers have a choice of places to eat including a formal restaurant in the cave district. We opted for a more rustic option, an €8 menu del dia at a small bar where we feasted on a hearty and scrumptious homemade stew. Hobbit homes aside, don’t leave Guadix without paying your respects to its magnificent cathedral. Right up there with Malaga’s and Granada’s, this aweinspiring feat of architecture – way more grandiose than the town surrounding it - is yet another jaw-dropping surprise in this surreal region. Bilbo Baggins might even be envious.

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN HAS STARTED... September 28th - October 11th 2016

There are lots of reasons to visit Award-winning Molino... v Fantastic Food v Wonderful Walks v Amazing Attention v Relaxing Rooms v Tremendous Train Trip v Stunning Scenery v Perfect Peace v Brilliant Birds v Fascinating Flora and Fauna v Delightful Discounts for Olive Press Readers UNIQUE: Homes burrowed into rock

Au revoir, maestro Albert! ONE of the coast’s genuine stars has faded out. San Pedro legend Albert Benisty has passed away at the ripe old age of 63. The former michelin-star chef suffered from a heart attack hours after cooking at his famous Albert y Simon restaurant last month. Born in Morocco in 1953, Albert dreamt of being a chef from the age of 15 and went to Sweden for his first bout of training. He returned to Marbella in the 1980s to work at his parents famous restaurant Casa David. He had soon taken the reins with his brother Simon, before going on to earn Andalucia’s second ever Michelin

star at Marbella’s Le Souffle in 1987. He became one of Andalucia’s most famous chefs abroad, working with the Chaine des Eurotoques Rotisseure, an international cooking collective, that allowed him to mix with the world’s best chefs. It was while mixing with the likes of Bocuse, Troisgros and Ferran Adria, that he came up with plenty of his own original dishes, always though with true French panache. His good humour and talent will be sorely missed at his restaurant Albert y Simon, which remains open with his daughter Deborah and son David - both chefs - at the helm.

So what are you waiting for?

Hie Thee in Haste!

NOW TAKING BOOKNGS FOR NEXT SEASON OPEN FROM THE 17th MARCH 2017 Contact us via e-mail info@molinodelsanto.com or phone 952 16 71 51 at any time – and check out our website for more information www.molinodelsanto.com Mention The Olive Press for special last minute rates. ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

More information of any kind e-mail

info@molinodelsanto.com

www.molinodelsanto.com | info@molinodelsanto.com | 952 16 71 51 ESTACIÓN DE BENAOJÁN, NEAR RONDA, MÁLAGA

www.theolivepress.es

Columnists

September 28th - October 11th 2016

Surviving Ikea You can get everything in the Swedish furniture store – including a quickie divorce

VEN knights of the realm (my ex-boss, as it happens) are at risk from the ‘Ikea Effect’. I refer to ex-Daily Express editor Sir Nicholas Lloyd, whose journalist wife Eve Pollard admits to many a marital meltdown while shopping in the Swedish Lego-for-adults store. “I never go with my husband without rowing ... about going there, parking, walking through the store trying to find everything and getting out again,” she says. I thought it was only the Flat-

It was the Food Truck madness that set me off this year

TESTING TIMES: IKEA can make or break a relationship pack Challenge that frayed a stop for coffee and brandy tempers (psychologists have (only one chupito, officer) and dubbed one piece The Di- the promise of a sherry lunch vorcemaker because marriag- in El Puerto de Santa Maria, es are almost as likely to fall he was almost looking forapart as the unit itself, during ward to it. Panic set in when we saw the the tricky assembly process). But since Dave and I lost our sheer scale of the beast. Not Ikea virginity in Jerez, I know quite as humongous as Ikea’s flagship store in Stockholm, where she’s coming from. Our own relationship is ap- the size of 10 American footproaching the dreaded sev- ball fields, but getting there. It en-year watershed and Dave lured us in with free gifts – a wasn’t itching to go. But after stubby elf-sized pencil and a miniscule order sheet – then

Meals on wheels

ummer 2016 was the summer of the food truck fair. It seemed that any piece of open ground had a food truck event at one point. For those of you who aren’t aware of what a food truck is, they generally tend to be a VW camper van or retro Citroen van that has been revamped and generally dishes out noveau type cuisines – a quirky take on the taco, gourmet burgers, that kind of thing. These are, of course, a million miles away from the type of food that I’ve grown up with being served from food trucks. My experience, if I’m honest, tended to be from a kebab van outside the pub at just after closing time – some frankly undefinable meat smothered in thermonuclear chilli sauce and with a couple of straggly lettuce leaves in a token nod to salad. The main aim of eating it was to soak up the copious amount of Stella Artois that I’d drunken and often it failed. Nothing can compare with the gastronomic horror of waking up, horribly hungover, face down in a half eaten kebab. Though I once almost drowned in a bowl of chilli con carne in a Mexican restaurant when I slumped forwards into it after too many jugs of Margaritas, but that, as they say, is a different story. My other experience of food truck style dining came several thousand years ago, when I was at school. Every lunchtime an ice cream van would pull up outside the school gates and its owner, the legendary Stan, resplendent in white coat, would sell 99 Flakes and others to the mob of excitable schoolboys. Lunch money that was supposed to be spent in the school canteen was diverted to Stan’s van and, off our little heads on sugar rushes

TRENDY: Food trucks

and additives, we would return to wreak havoc on the afternoon lessons. I’m sure Stan would have been banned on Health and Safety grounds these days, but perhaps the headmaster was getting a kickback... So I was a little immune to the Food Truck Fever that gripped the Coast this summer. In Spain we’re spoiled for choice when it comes to cheap, unpretentious street food in the form of tapas. As you are no doubt aware, because you are all clever people, the tapas started out as something free to keep the flies off your drink, and when I lived in and around Antequera (a time I now refer to as my Year in Provence period) they were still free. And they were normally excellent. Only once were we served bad tapas, in a restaurant on the coast. They were so awful that one of our party likened it to a scene from Gladiator. “Whatever comes through those doors boys” he said, glancing fearfully towards the kitchen “We stand a better chance of surviving if we all stick together!” + 34 675 314 678 Marbella, Spain

flicked us up into its gaping maw with its blue escalator tongue. Now I know what Jonah felt like when the whale swallowed him. Trapped! Passageways that look like escape routes merely recycle you deeper into the windowless maze. The one-way system might well have been designed on the large intestine of some mythical Norse monster, forcing you forward and counter-clockwise in what Ikea calls ‘the long, natural way’. Dave needed the loo and was gone aeons. “It’s miles away at the bloody end,” he panted, when I found him on the point of collapse in bedding. Ten per cent of babies in Europe are conceived on an IKEA bed, but Dave wasn’t in the mood for love. As for copying down un-spellable Scandi names and coded numbers longer than Donald Trump’s bank balance onto a flimsy scrap of paper with a Lilliputian pencil ... even when balanced on the arm of a Sodderhamn sofa using a set of Imbjudande placemats to rest on, it’s a right pain in the butt. The cabinet I chose had no name or number tag and turned out to be a hybrid of three, requiring special instructions spewed out by a computer. There were reams of component parts and an ill-omened 13 types of screw.

Screwed

In the warehouse, a cardboard box city with aisles as wide as New York streets (and an equally scary standard of trolley driving), we were screwed. One part was out of stock! And the checkout lines were longer than the Gibraltar queue. Happily, Dave and I are still together, and so is the cabinet. But it was touch and go when we had to survive Ikea all over again in Málaga for the missing piece. It’s somewhat ironic that a store promising to ‘make a house into a home’ provides a shopping experience that’s a relationship wrecking ball waiting to swing. Of course, if you are contemplating divorce, it’s a fast track not unlike the Islamic way of doing things in some countries. Simply whisper the magic Swedish mantra into your partner’s ear: ‘Ikea, Ikea, Ikea.’

Sport

www.theolivepress.es

Footy on the Rock

September 28th - October 11th 2016

MARBELLA-BASED Gaelic football team the Costa Gaels are gearing up for the Andalucian Championship season opener against Gibraltar Gaels. Lining up at the Marbella Rugby Club on October 1, both teams will be looking for a strong start to the season as they attempt to take the Andalucian trophy from last year’s winners Eire Og Seville. Ahead of the curtain raiser, Estepona Irish bar and restaurant Healy Mac’s unveiled the Costa Gaels new kit.

As club sponsor Healy Mac’s manager Chris Day presented the kit to the team during the all Ireland Gaelic football final between Dublin and Mayo. “It is great to have the support of Healy Mac’s,” Costa Gaels secretary Tom Marray said. “It makes a huge difference to have their support. He added: “We are raring to go and can’t wait for the season to begin. “We have been training hard and are going to have a big push to win the league this year.”

Time to go home

Legal doping

CHELSEA goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has announced that he would like to return to Spain at the end of his contract. Thibaut, from Belguim spent three years at Atletico Madrid, which he counts as ‘home’. Thiabaut told the Marca Newspaper: “I consider myself half Spanish, I miss not just the club [Atletico] but Madrid and the country. He continues "Since the first minute, I fell in love with Spain -- the people, the way of life, the food. I have kept up the late dinners, the siesta, and most of the television I watch is Spanish." When I left Spain I had it very clear in my mind that I would return one day The 24-year-old has said he plans to reassess his contract in 2018.

LEAKED records on Rafael Nadal and Mo Farah have shown they were permitted to use banned substances. Hacker group Fancy Bears has released a list of World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) drug test results of well-known athletes, which includes Britain’s Olympic golf champion Justin Rose.

Back on court

Leak

SUSPICIOUS: Farah and (right) Nadal

options. The leak comes after Mo’s former coach Jama Aden became embroiled in a doping scandal earlier this year. Spanish tennis legend

Nadal, who has won every grand slam, including the French Open nine times in a row, was issued TUE certificates in 2009 and 2012, when he was allowed to

take the banned substances betamethasone and corticotrophins. Olympic gold golfer Justin Rose also received a TUE this year to use predniso-

lone, the leak revealed. WADA has confirmed the validity of the leak, saying the group had obtained the confidential details illegally.

glass th from

59€

Free varifocal lenses

SPAIN has returned to the Davis Cup World Group after whitewashing India with a 5-0 victory in New Dehli. David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez won both their matches on the tie’s opening day, taking the pressure off the following doubles match. Doubles Olympic champions Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez then wrapped up the rubber in four sets against a formidable Leander Paes and Saketh Myneni, clinching victory for Spain, who last won the Davis cup in 2011.

The records show that Farah received a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) form to take triamcinolone, before being given permission to use three separate prohibited substances in 2014, including one by intravenous injection. But when asked by the BBC if he had ever received a TUE in 2015, the Olympic legend specifically stated that he had only received one. TUEs allow athletes to take banned substances to treat illnesses or injuries if there are no other viable medical

47 47

Togged out

THE Gibraltar Football Association is aiming to get all home matches on The Rock soil. Hopes of hosting the home matches at Victoria Stadium, are down to a special clearance required from the UEFA. Talks between the government of Gibraltar, Gibraltar Sport and Leisure Authorities and the GFA are in progress. The GFA has announced that it will soon release the details for the upcoming matches against Cyprus, Estonia and BosniaHerzegovina.

Medical records show use of banned substances by the world’s top athletes

September 28th - October 11th 2016

At Specsavers, if you buy any single pair of glasses from our 59€ range or above, we’ll fit Standard varifocal lenses, usual price 79€, free. Alternatively, if you prefer any other varifocal lens you can still save, with a 79€ discount. All our lenses include a scratch-resistant treatment at no extra charge. And what’s more, an eye test is included in the price. Request an eye test online at specsavers.es or by calling your local store

Marbella 952 863 332 Avda. Ricardo Soriano 12 Fuengirola 952 467 837 Avda. Ramón y Cajal 6 Cannot be used with other offers. 199€ Fineform and Rimless ranges: include 1.6 Standard varifocal lenses. All lenses are scratch-resistant. Extra Options available at an additional charge. Subject to suitability. Ends 4 December 2016. Eye test usually 15€. ©2016 Specsavers. All rights reserved.

OLIVE PRESS – 105mm x 256mm – Colour

28 September / 12 October

Covering Andalucia with over 200,000 papers (130,000 digital) www.theolivepress.es and around 500,000 website visits each month…

Voted BEST expat paper in Spain FREE

The only way is Marbs

FINAL WORDS

THE cast of popular reality TV-show TOWIE have hit Marbella to film episodes for the new series.

advice

Tip Top ONLY three-quarters of people in Spain leave a tip, according to recent reports. The average amount left for waiters is less than 5% of the bill.

Speechless A POET has offered his own lyrics to the Spanish national anthem, which currently has no words.

High as a kite!

September 28th - October 11th 2016

A WEED grower may have been high as a kite when he insisted a pot plant grew on his terrace after birds dropped seeds there. The dopey pothead told a Gibraltar court that birds must have been to blame for the Amsterdam-style ‘pot’ plant that was seized by police on his terrace.

Vol. 10 Issue 249 www.theolivepress.es September 28th - October 11th 2016

Driving with Digby! A BRITISH woman has been forced to drive her 13-stone dog 2,500 kilometres to Spain because an airline said he was ‘too big to fly’. Sam King, from Herefordshire, had been hoping to fly to the Canaries with her Great Dane, Harold, but was told by Monarch that at four feet he was too tall for their cages. Undeterred, the dedicated mother has decided to spend thousands on the road trip, and is taking her two other dogs Ellie and Pillie with her.

Our man in Manilva!

AN expat author has been awarded for writing the first ever guide book for Manilva. Nick Nutter, who has lived in the town for nearly two decades, was presented with a plaque for Road to Manilva, which read: ‘Thank you for showing the world our best secret’.

Derailed

Mother to drive 63 hours from UK to Spain with dog deemed ‘too big to fly’ The estimated €2,800 journey will mean that Sam, 49, a care assistant, will take two ferries and travel for four days before being reunited with her son Danny, 20, who is living in Tenerife. “I was pretty shocked when the plane

company said Harold was too big for them but apparently they don’t have a pet crate big enough,” she said. “It’s not the airline’s fault but it does mean I’ve got a hell of a drive to go and see my son.” In total, the dog-lover will drive for 63 hours, hopping on a ferry to France at Folkestone before driving all the way down to Huelva. She will then have to catch a staggering 34-hour ferry to Gran Canaria before taking a separate crossing to Tenerife.

A SPANISH train driver cut short the journey of more than 100 passengers because his shift had ended. The train was travelling from Spain’s north coast to Madrid but stopped some 300km away from its final destination in the village of Osorno at 9.15pm. Still some two hours away from Madrid, confused passengers eventually discovered the driver was refusing to work overtime so had decided to put on the brakes.

Does the

perfect pool

Homeward Bound.. FRANCE - ITALY - PORTUGAL

exist?

SPAIN - UK - IRELAND

REALTY Building the perfection since 1962

DEFRA AUTHORISED ANIMAL TRANSPORTATION We are Defra Authorised and you can rely on us to take very good care of your pet. We will make sure that they are comfortable and have regular stops to be made a fuss of and carry out neccessary business. Our professional and friendly service will keep them happy until they are reunited with you..

For a quote and some friendly advice

Just Call Jack on the dog & bone.. (+34) 902 109 560

info@unionjackremovals.co.uk

www.unionjackremovals.co.uk

Plots | Villas | Chalets

SALE, RENTAL & CONSTRUCTION Avda. Cabo de Plata, 1 11393 · Zahara de los Atunes +34 956 439 151 atlanterra.com