Olive Press Newspaper – Issue 293

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Mijas Costa See page xx 2

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Vol. 12 Issue 293

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Roll up roll up... as the circus comes to town

679702_DFS_SPANISH_BOX_AD_40x40_MIJAS_COSTA.indd 23/02/2017 11:31 1

IN THE AIR: Amazing acrobatics while (right) the Master of Ceremonies

Expat ‘left in tears’ after official refuses her mixed race son an NIE as he ‘didn’t look like her’ EXCLUSIVE

By Laurence Dollimore

A BRITISH expat has been told her mixed race son ‘didn’t look enough like her’ while attempting to renew his NIE identity document.

Suzanna Dave, 45, ‘burst into tears’ as she left Torre del Mar police station after a civil servant repeatedly said she ‘didn’t believe’ her son was hers.

The alleged discrimination has shaken the mother, who is now planning an official denuncia over the incident.

Hated

“It was so upsetting,” Suzanne, from Cheshire, told the Olive Press.

“This woman just had it in for us, it was either because of the colour of my son’s skin or the fact that he looks Spanish and I’m a ‘guiri’, maybe she hated the idea I had married a Spanish man.”

Son Arun, 16, who speaks fluent Spanish has lived here for 13 years.

His father Sam, who works as a chemical engineer in the UK, is Indian.

The problems started when Suzanne and Arun, who is in

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Cirque de Soleil bring their magic to Malaga SEE PAGE 15

He’s not your son! the middle of sitting his IGCSEs, first attempted to renew his NIE so he could learn how

to drive.

“I took every document possible,” said Suzanne, “we had a lovely woman and all was going fine until another woman intervened.

“She said repeatedly that Arun looked ‘very different’ to me in his old NIE card photo.

“She asked what documents we had - which included his

TWO PEAS IN A POD: Mother Suzanne and son Arun

old NIE, passports and birth certificate - and said it was not enough ‘proof’ that he was mine.”

The woman, who reportedly has a reputation for being aggressive, said Suzanne would have to come back with a ‘full’ birth certificate - as British

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www.theolivepress.es NEWS IN BRIEF

Deliver-boo A JUDGE in Spain has ordered takeaway firm Deliveroo to pay a fine over labour rights it should have granted a former worker.

On the up SPAIN’S service sector has grown at its fastest pace in three months, according to euro zone bond market surveys.

Boost THE European Commission has announced plans to boost spending in Spain, while the country still faces double-digit unemployment.

Bets on SPAIN has seen a 27% year-on-year increase in online gambling revenue for the first quarter, after revenue hit €163.3m.

Expat claims at least one 4x4 is stolen by drug gangs every day EXCLUSIVE

By Laurence Dollimore

AT least one 4x4 car gets stolen by drug traffickers every DAY in the Campo de Gibraltar, police have revealed.

It comes after British expat Andy Mills, 60, had his Nissan Patrol stolen from outside his home in Los Barrios last weekend.

The semi-retired Brit called the Guardia Civil immediately after releasing his car had vanished.

crime

June 6th - June 19th 2018

Narcos nicked my car Police found the vehicle abandoned and stuffed full of drugs days later in Se-

villa.

“It was used for a drug run from La Linea,” Mills told

EXCLUSIVE: Fake taxi alert IRISH holidaymakers have warned of a taxi con artist operating on the Costa del Sol. John Parker, 73, was ‘forced’ to pay €77 by a fake taxi driver who had previously offered the trip for €6.

Parker was approached while standing at the Miraflores bus stop with his wife in Mijas Costa, waiting to go to La Cañada shopping centre, near Marbella.

A Spanish man purporting to be sent from the bus company pulled up in a brown Fiat and told the couple - who were celebrating their 50th anniversary - that all buses had been cancelled.

He said he was happy to take them to the shopping centre for the same price as the bus.

“The guy had a badge and seemed pretty official so we agreed,” Parker told the Olive Press.

But when they arrived and Parker’s wife first left the car, the driver locked the doors and parallel parked next to another car so Parker couldn’t get out.

“He just kept demanding €77 and became very aggressive,” he added.

“We thought best to just pay him as we were only here for a week and didn’t want it to ruin our holiday.

“We now just want to warn expats and other holidaymakers to avoid scams like these.”

Parker, who is disabled, reported the incident to staff at his hotel, who have now informed police.

Get Corner back inside!

STOLEN: 4x4 and Andy with girlfriend

the Olive Press. “It’s being examined by forensic investigators before they bring it back to me.”

Odd-job man Mills said he ‘couldn’t believe’ the difference in culture between Los Barrios and the Spanish village of Sedella in inland Malaga, where he used to live.

“The people here hardly look or talk to you and there’s been a noticeable increase in crime since we moved here,” he added.

“Police told me a 4x4 gets stolen by drug traffickers everyday in Los Barrios, I will definitely look into moving.”

Police confirmed that the vehicle had been found filled with drugs but declined to comment further.

THE father of missing expat Lisa Brown’s son has appealed a judge’s shock ruling to release the main suspect Simon Corner.

Her former partner Tony Tomillero, father to son Marco, is fighting Judge Garcia Ramila’s decision made in San Roque last month.

It comes after the judge shelved the two-and-a-half year investigation into the prime suspect and Lisa’s boyfriend, Corner, despite the expat becoming a fugitive and absconding twice.

Tomillero who is now the sole carer of their 11-year-old son has requested that his lawyer appeal the ruling.

He wants Liverpool-born Corner back inside as well as five others arrested for their alleged involvement in the case.

Spanish police are still investigating the case regardless of the outcome of the appeal.

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June 6th - June 19th 2018

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Stars flock in MARVIN Humes and James Arthur are among the stars scheduled to play in Marbella this month.

Former JLS star Humes will be spinning the decks at Mahiki Beach to kick off the summer season on June 15.

Meanwhile, Arthur, who rose to fame on the X Factor in the UK, will be performing at La Sala by the Sea on June 10.

Celebrating the launch of its night restaurant, La Sala by the Sea Unplugged will start at 9pm, with James Arthur performing a number of hits supported by Kin and Tony Capo.

For more info email info@lasalabythesea. com

But did superstar Cristiano pay for his stay in TWO villas EXCLUSIVE

By Jon Clarke and Elisa Menendez

IT was perhaps only natural for a man who mostly deals in hat tricks and braces that he wouldn’t just rent one luxury villa for a short break in Andalucia.

Fresh from his third Champions League victory in a row, Cristiano Ronaldo scored TWO, not one, amazing homes for the trip to the Costa del Sol. The Real Madrid ace landed one brand new Benahavis villa for his mates and staff and the other for him and his missus, Georgina Rodriguez, 23.

The main eight-bedroom home in Zagaleta - Spain’s most expensive luxury private estate - came with a spa, indoor pool and cinema.

Security was heightened throughout the stay, understood to be six nights, and photographers were kept out at all

Ronny rentals LAP OF LUXURY: One of the villas with indoor pool

costs.

“He rented G11 and another one right next door,” revealed an Olive Press source. “Designed by Diego Tobal, they are both on the market for between €11.5 and 13.5 million.

“They had only just been fin-

ished a few months ago and just furnished,” he added.

The Olive Press understands the villas, which would normally rent between €7,000 to €10,000 a night, were acquired via a deal with the Zagaleta owners, who built them.

EXCLUSIVE: Dining to impress RONALDO hired not one but TWO of the coast’s leading chefs to cook for him throughout his stay.

After eating at Dani Garcia’s two Michelin star restaurant in Marbella last week, he was so impressed he hired the chef to cook for him for three days in a row at his villa.

During the stay he also hired the services of well-known Japanese restaurant in Marbella, Takumi.

The restaurant was clearly rated by the footballer, who asked boss Alvaro Arbeloa to come back twice, and even posed up for a photograph with him at the villa.

“It was a great experience and I enjoyed it a lot,” Arbeloa told the Olive Press, this week.

STEPPING OUT: Couple in Marbs

“It’s the perfect coup for Zagaleta, which has now been seen all around the world this week,” continued the source.

“As I understand it they are hoping that he will consider buying a home in the estate… which is perfect with him due to its privacy.”

Ronaldo had arrived via private jet with a group of seven friend and children and during their stay they went horse riding, played tennis and golf.

He flew out again on Sunday to meet up with his Portugal team mates ahead of the World Cup later this month.

Ronaldo had won his fifth European title as Real Madrid beat Liverpool 3-1 in Kiev two weeks ago.

Although he didn’t score during the match, he finished the season as the Champions League’s top scorer for the sixth time running.

When contacted about the stay and whether it was paid or not, Zagaleta failed to get back before we went to print.

A female employee in the sales office said: “I’m not sure how much information I can give you on that. We will have to get back to you.”

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Whenever, wherever SHAKIRA is bringing her El Dorado tour to Spain.

The Colombian superstar will kick off in Bilbao in the Basque country on June 30, before moving on to Barcelona, Madrid and A Coruña.

Tickets are available at ticketmaster.com.

4

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MISSING PARROT - FOUND SHOPPING Voted BEST

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Vol. 12 Issue 292

679702_DFS_SPANISH_BOX_AD_40x40_MIJAS_COSTA.in 23/02/2017 11:31 dd 1

Mayday!

Olive Press grills mayor of Spain’s last communist town

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A

ll about

Issue 292

Marbella www.theolivepress.es

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Sponsored by May 23rd - June 5th 2018

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May 23rd - June 5th 2018

Photos by Jon Clarke

OUR STAR IS RISINGagain

Marbella may be an international brand but some things never change. Olive Press news editor Laurence Dollimore digs beneath the glitz to unearth the character he has known for two decades

T

HINK Marbella and a glamorous jet-set lifestyle springs to mind.

The classiest hotels, the liveliest nightclubs and the most fashionable and well-heeled clientele found anywhere in Andalucia and maybe Spain.

But peel back the ‘Marbs mask’ (you know, all the Arab billionaires, reality TV stars and ex-Premiership footballers) and you’ll find its hidden character and history.

Before we go any further, I’ll admit it.

I was lucky enough to grow up with a holiday home here, up in the leafy Guadalmina hills.

This pretty much meant sun, sea and sand on tap, along with many a late night staggering along the infamous second

row of Puerto Banus sometimes known as ‘hurricane alley’.

In other words, during my misspent youth sprawled out on award-winning beaches by day and crawling out of head-spinning bars by night, I never got to know Marbella’s deeper persona.

Over a decade later, no longer a callow and shallow teenager, I am doubly lucky to have been given a second chance at living here (albeit having to work hard), thanks to ‘the boss’ at the Olive Press.

And while the temptations in this tourist honeypot remain, I am finally appreciating the culture, the history and so much else that has changed for the better.

Continues on Page 18

A-LIST: Recent visitors include Michele Obama, Robert de Niro and Hugh Grant

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Fit for Queeny

Find out what a British expat once cooked for her Majesty

Page 49

A SQUATTER has been released on bail after allegedly trying to kill a British expat pensioner with an axe.

The unnamed Moroccan assailant was picked up in a midnight raid after allegedly hacking at Michael Devitt, 75, during an argument with two other squatters.

Witnesses told the Olive Press how the former lorry driver’s

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POLLY GONE: Soly missing again

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May 23rd - June 5th 2018

A PARROT - who is something of a night owl - has gone missing yet again Olive Press appeal found him after an propping up the bar at Marbella’s exclusive Olivia Valere club in 2016.

Soly, a stunning Hyacinth Macaw - valued at €14,000 - has escaped the home of his expat owner Richard Breuer.

Breuer, 42, is now offering a reward for anyone who can find him alive.

It comes after he disappeared two years

ago only to be found outside Olivia Valere discoteca by one of the Nightclub owner Olivia tookstaff. the partying parrot to her aviary in her Guadalmina Baja home, where Richard later collected him.

If you have seen Soly, email newsdesk@theolivepress.es or phone Richard directly on 671255918 .

Axe attack

Ex-RAF expat, who taught Prince Harry, reveals how his pensioner neighbour ‘nearly died’ in squatter assault

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HOSPITALISED: Victim Michael

SCENE: Of horror attack

a former RAF air traffic controller, who trained Prince Harry how to navigate.

“It’s ridiculous, it was surely attempted murder?”

The attack has shocked the British community in the Sierra Sur area of Sevilla province, where many Olive Press readers live.

They are now demanding action on the issues of squatters, who have illegally lived

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Devitt after treatment and (right)

EXCLUSIVE

By Laurence Dollimore

arm was ‘left dangling’ after the savage attack in the village of Aguadulce, near Sevilla.

“The guy came out of nowhere,” neighbour Alan McGarva, 70, told the Olive Press, “he just raised the axe in the air and aimed for his head, there was blood everywhere, it was horrific.”

By incredible fortune, Devitt blocked the blow with his arm, causing it to break from the impact.

The attacker, who was later arrested at a nearby squatted home, has been charged and will stand trial next year.

“He will only face a maximum of six years for grievous bodily harm,” explains Scot McGarva,

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X-ray of shattered arm

in homes on various private urbanisations for nearly five years.

“It’s just not fair,” McGarva added, “We’ve had five years of hell and they’re destroying homes and bringing down the price of everyone else’s.

“Our street has been plagued for years and no attempt has been made to rid the village of them by police or the authorities.”

He claimed that numerous families were living in at least six homes in his urbanisation, all of which have been destroyed and boarded up.

“The local Spanish are frightened to do anything against these people and it is just a matter of time before someone gets killed.”

According to McGarva, the

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June 6th - June 19th 2018

New PM Pedro Sanchez chooses cabinet full of women

DIRTY STOP-OUT: Party parrot Soly now home again

A MISSING parrot has been found perusing bargains at a shopping centre after disappearing from his expat’s home.

Soly, a €14,000 Hyacinth Macaw, was spotted at La Canada shopping centre by an Olive Press readMijas Costa er after reading our PARTY PARROT, appeal last issue (see MISSIN G AGAIN! right).

British owner Richard Breuer rushed down to the mall in Marbella, where he found his prized pet sleeping in a tree outside.

He had to wait until the following mornMosquito ing until he came to the ground Screensto recapture him. It comes after the pricey pet disappeared last year only to be found in the vicinity of Marbella’s popular nightclub Olivia Valere.

ne ws

incident erupted during an argument over a parking space when two female squatters asked him to move his car from outside his home so they could park their van.

“They started screaming at me, it was nuts,” he explained.

The former prison guard - who also worked for the RAF for years - agreed to move his car while neighbour Devitt tried to calm the situation.

But as the argument continued, McGarva’s wife Averil, 72, noticed a man running up the street with something in his hand.

“He just came running at Michael and tried to axe him in the head,” she recalls.

Police and an ambulance arrived within 20 minutes but the axeman had already fled the scene.

He is known locally for causing trouble, having moved into an abandoned home last year.

At least 10 homes on the street are empty following the financial crash of 2007. PSOE Aguadulce mayor Estrella Montaño blasted the attack but insisted only three homes were illegally occupied in the town.

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Tel: 602 514 384 WhatsApp: 602 559 385 Calle Acebuche No.6 Local La Cala Hills (56.96km) 29651 Mijas

SPAIN’S new prime minister Pedro Sanchez has already handed several key cabinet positions to women.

The Madrileño is following in the footsteps of former socialist PM Jose Zapatero, who was the first leader ever to create a majority female cabinet.

‘El Guapo’ Sanchez has named Carmen Calvo as both his deputy PM and the head of the newly restored Equality Ministry.

He has also brought in Teresa Ribera to head up the environment, Meritxell Batet for public administration and Maria Jesus Montero to run the Treasury.

Sanchez is expected to bring new focus to equality issues following recent furores over gender inequality in Spain.

Calvo, 60, is an expert in constitutional law and served as deputy speaker in congress under Zapatero.

Ribera meanwhile, previously headed up Spain’s Office for Climate Change between 2004

CLOCKWISE: Ribera, Batet, Calvo and leader Sanchez and 2011.

The first cabinet meeting is scheduled for June 8.

See the Rise and Fall of Rajoy and Sanchez on pages 6 and 7

Identity disgrace From front

ones don’t include the parents’ names - and an officially translated copy.

When Suzanne returned with the new documents, the woman intervened AGAIN and said what she had brought was not enough - despite having every passport since he was born, his birth book and full birth certificate.

“She just kept saying ‘I don’t believe he’s your son’,” Suzanne recalled.

“It’s so upsetting when you have brought your kid up for 16 years and someone doubts that they are yours.”

Suzanne eventually got lucky when she went in last Friday, one of the other employees printed out his card within 10 minutes before the woman had come into the office.

“They had obviously prepared everything beforehand, they rushed through our appointment and we had everything within 10 minutes.”

Suzanne is currently preparing an official denuncia for the Guardia Civil in Malaga, after being told off the record the official had acted ‘disgracefully’.

The Olive Press was unable to speak to anyone at the office, before going to print.

Have you experienced discrimination at the Torre del Mar NIE office? Or any NIE office? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es

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June 6th - June 19th 2018

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6

Fe at u r e

www.theolivepress.es Voted top expat paper in Spain

IN TWO CLASSIC TALES OF RISE AND FALL, AND FALL AND RISE, THE OLIVE PRESS PRESENTS EVERYTHING YOU NEEDED TO KNOW

A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than 500,000 people a month.

OPINION Cure for the cancer?

IT’S nothing short of amazing that he didn’t go years ago.

Almost the entire country knew that Mariano Rajoy had pocketed brown envelopes full of cash during his time as a younger minister for his corrupt PP party.

We know all this thanks to the ledgers of former treasurer Luis Barcenas and the Gurtel investigation that was launched a decade ago.

The Olive Press has covered the case since it broke - and even splashed on it, under the headline and a picture of Rajoy, asking: “Who will cut out the cancer destroying Spain?’

With Barcenas and his band of corrupt PP cohorts now facing decades in jail, could the recently departed Prime Minister also now face charges, in particular as it appeared he lied on oath during the trial.

Either way, Spain now has a chance to move forward with the new broom of Pedro Sanchez.

He seems to have what it takes, but first he needs to speak out and tackle the perhaps even more serious corruption that has shamed his own party the PSOE in Andalucia.

Paperwork shame The shameful treatment of Suzanne Dave and her son - who has lived here for 13 years - will be felt by expats countrywide.

Like her, tens of thousands of them have lived in Spain and paid their taxes for decades.

And they - like her - frequently have to bear the trials and tribulations of signing on, the endless waits and practically having to beg the Spanish authorities to renew their NIE paperwork.

That we are supposed to renew these documents every two years is already a disgrace.

To be made to feel like aliens and treated aggressively only makes matters worse.

One can only imagine what will happen when, and if, Brexit finally comes to fruition.

Publisher/ Editor

Jon Clarke jon@theolivepress.es Head of SALES Sarah Adams sales@theolivepress.es Admin Maria Angeles Vázquez (+34) 951 273 575 admin@theolivepress.es

Newsdesk newsdesk@theolivepress.es Tel: (+34) 665 798 618 Laurence Dollimore laurence@theolivepress.es Elisa Menendez Elisa@theolivepress.es Joe Wallen joe@theolivepress.es Aleesha Hansel aleesha@theolivepress.es Designer James Partington design@theolivepress.es

Office manager Héctor Santaella (+34) 658 750 424 accounts@theolivepress.es Distribution Graham Warters distribution@theolivepress.es

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Head office

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AWARDS

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2012 - 2018

Named the best English language publication in Andalucia by the Rough Guides group.

June 6th June - June 6th19th - June 2018 19th 2018

After making political history Spain’s new prime minister, Pedro Sanchez - dubbed ‘el guapo’ (the handsome one) - is used to defying all odds, writes Elisa Menendez

Pedro power

P

EDRO Sanchez made history in more than one way last week, after becoming the first Spanish politician to unseat a prime minister through a no-confidence vote, and then take on the role himself.

When sworn in as prime minister, the PSOE leader, a known atheist, made another first in Spain’s modern history by causing outrage by taking an oath to protect the constitution without a bible or HAND OVER: Rajoy admits defeat as Sanchez wins vote

crucifix.

Known to many as ‘el guapo’ - the handsome one - the Socialist leader, from Castille, is also certainly something of a comeback kid in politics, having been ousted by his own party last year. Just three years ago the idea of the 46-yearold becoming prime minister seemed an impossible feat, after Sanchez led the PSOE through an election which earnt the party its worst result since Spain returned to democracy in 1978.

To make matters worse, six months later long-time favourite, Susana Diaz, presithe Socialists crashed even further at a dent of Spain’s long-time Socialist strongsecond round of elections, after a ninehold of Andalucia. month political deadlock had forced Much like Sanchez’s appointment as Spain to hold no less than three naprime minister, his entry to Parliament tional elections, which were all inconalso didn’t follow the rule book. clusive.

The Madrileño and economist with Perhaps understandably unwilling three masters degrees, was a relto form a coalition government ative unknown when he became with Mariano Rajoy’s PP party, leader of the PSOE in 2014 after which was shy of a majority vote, rising quickly from the party’s backSanchez was voted out of benches. his own party.

Although Sanchez had It came after he was acfairly limited credentials Reconnect with cused of prolonging the in relation to other MPs, deadlock for personal inter- those who haven’t it was hoped - due to his ests, leading to the coup. and good looks been listened to, charisma Defiant Sanchez not only - that he would offer a resigned from the leader- to the grassroots young, new and attracship but also left his seat in tive image for the members Parliament, as he refused PSOE party. to follow his party’s deciWith two new parsion to facilitate Rajoy’s ties on the scene government.

(Podemos and Ciudadanos), Instead, he set off on a road trip the socialists had been strugaround Spain in a bid to reconnect gling to find their place in a with ‘those who haven’t been lisfragmented country tened to, to the grassroots members that partly blamed and left-wing voters.’ them for the And after seven months Sanchez came worst economic crisis back stronger than ever, winning a re-elec- since the Spanish Civil tion as the party’s leader and defeating

War. They are now right back where they want to be, albeit with the support of Spain’s leftleaning anti-corruption party Podemos, and a few small regional parties.

But what of El Guapo’s rise to power? He had first joined the PSOE when he was a student in 1993, while studying business and economics at Complutense University in Madrid.

After finishing his degree, he went on to serve as chief of staff to the UN’s leading representative to Bosnia during the Kosovo conflict in 1999.

It got him completely hooked on global affairs and more importantly politics and in 2004 he became a city councillor in Madrid for five years, before being elected as a PSOE MP for Madrid in 2009.

Two years later he lost his seat and went on to study for his third masters degree, while working in consultancy, before going back to politics in 2013.

Many people credit much of his rise down to his wife Maria Begona Gomez Fernandez, who he married in 2016 and with whom he has two daughters.

He also speaks fluent English and French and has been a keen basketball player since the age of 21 - where it is thought he developed his fierce ambition to win.

But his road forward is anything but simple.

With a somewhat unconventional career in politics so far, Sanchez now must work to unite a country that is facing its biggest political unrest in decades.

After winning the support of Catalan and Basque national parties, and with only 84 seats held by his party in a 350-seat parliament, the new prime minister faces the great challenge of keeping Catalunya happy while keeping the country’s strong economic recovery on track.

It seems Sanchez’s political journey is only just beginning.

Fe at u r e

www.theolivepress.es

June 6th - June 19th 2018

I

N January 2012, Mariano Rajoy texted a friend who was going through a rough patch.

“Luis, stay strong,” he wrote. “Luis, we are doing what we can.”

Luis was Luis Barcenas, a former treasurer in Rajoy’s People’s party (PP) and the focus of persistent allegations that Spain’s ruling party was receiving illegal funding.

Rajoy’s soothing words would come back to haunt him – as would Bárcenas and his business dealings.

Last week, Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, found Barcenas guilty of crimes including fraud and money-laundering, jailed him for 33 years and fined him €44m.

Not for nothing was the Gurtel case, as it came to be known, billed as the trial of the year. As well as juicy details ranging from Swiss bank accounts to the hiring of clowns for children’s birthday parties, the case involved several former senior PP members, including Barcenas.

The proceedings centred on Francisco Correa, an executive with close ties to the PP who was accused of paying bribes to party officials between 1999 and 2006 in return for contracts to carry out public works and organise events.

The police investigation was codenamed Gurtel, the German word for correa (‘belt’ in Spanish).

Barcenas and Correa – who was handed a 51year sentence – were among the 29 defendants convicted and jailed last week. Eight others were acquitted.

But far more damning was the court’s ruling that the PP party had profited, albeit unknowingly, from the an illegal kickbacks-for-contracts scheme.

Not only did the judges order the party to pay a €240,000 fine, they also expressed doubts over the credibility of the testimony Rajoy had given last July when he became the first serving Span-

Slush fund

Rajoy however fiercely denies the claims, describing them as ‘totally false’ and has said he will publish his tax returns online.

Among the other politicians accused of taking ‘bungs’ are current General Secretary Maria Delores Cospedal, Senate President Pio Garcia Escudero and even former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.

The money was allegedly taken from a €22 million slush fund hidden in a Swiss bank account controlled by former party treasurer Luis Barcenas.

Barcenas kept secret ledgers of money received between Turn to page 2

the key figures past and present of

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Opinion polls show that 77% believe he is now no longer fit to lead the country, while 54% believe there should be a general election.

Opposition leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba has called for his head, demanding that Rajoy be grilled in Congress about the allegations.

The prime minister stands accused of accepting illegal cash payments made to topranking party officials over a 12-year period.

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1

denly looked vulnerable. For perhaps the first time the in his long political career, the 63-year-old Galician FREE had begun to bleed.

His opponents were quick to pick up on the scent.

The day after the Gürtel sentences were handed down, the Spanish socialist party announced that it had filed a motion of no confidence in Rajoy.

The verdict in the case, said PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez, had ‘seriously damaged the health of our democracy’.

The aim of the motion, he said, was ‘to bring normality back to our public life and to do away with this corruption thriller into which the PP party has plunged our politics, so that we can talk about the things that matter to our citizens’.

Rajoy’s response was blunt. He said: “This motion CONCERN: How we probed the question when is bad for Spain, bad for Spaniards, brings with it too much uncertainty and is damaging to all citinews of Gurtel first broke six years ago zens.”

For most of last week, things appeared to be goish prime minister to give evidence in a criminal ing Rajoy’s way. The centre-right Ciudadanos party refused to have anything to do with the motrial. tion, calling instead for a snap election in the Rajoy, who was the PP’s vice-secretary Autumn. general between 1990 and 2003, told But then rumours began to circulate that the the court that his duties during the period small Basque Nationalist party in question were exclusively was on the verge of supporting political and not financial.

Sanchez’s motion, even though He also dismissed suggestions Rajoy had offered the region His stubborn that a slush fund was used to increased investment to win its pay illegal bonuses to senior and fatal refusal backing for his recent budget. party officials as ‘absolutely Their backing proved crucial, false’. to deal with helping the PSOE eject Rajoy from However, in its ruling, the Auoffice in Friday morning’s vote.

PP’s festering diencia Nacional judges con“It has been an honour to be the firmed the existence of a slush corruption prime minister of Spain,” Rajoy fund known as ‘box B’ (caja B), told parliament as he waited for describing the axe to fall. it as ‘an ac“It has been an honour to leave a better counting and finance Spain than the one I found.” structure that ran in Even Rajoy’s critics would not deny the parallel with the ofrole he played in bringing Spain back from ficial one and which the brink of economic ruin. But he is likely to had been in use since be remembered more for his handling of the at least 1989’.

Catalan independence crisis and for his stubEven for a party as born and ultimately fatal refusal to deal with the steeped in corruption alfestering issue of corruption within the PP. legations as Rajoy’s, the Rajoy took his own advice, staying strong right up reputational damage was to the vote. But in the end, there was nothing he, or disastrous. anyone else, could do.

The prime minister, a man famed for his powers of sur*a slightly different version of this article first apvival and inveterate tendenpeared in The Guardian cy to sit back and let others DOWNFALL: Rajoy’s countdown to disaster came from make the first move, sudBarcenas arrest SPANISH Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is battling to save his political career after facing increasing pressure to resign over the PP corruption scandal.

Nearly a million people have signed an online petition calling for him to step down, amid widespread protests.

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- June 19th 2018 June 6th - JuneJune 19th 6th 2018 news

8

Don’t leave your coat at home!

IF you’ve lived in Spain long enough you’ll know the ‘40 de Mayo’ saying - or basically don’t leave your jacket at home until June 10.

Well this year it will ring truer than ever, with temperatures forecast to remain in the low 20s until at least next week.

EXCLUSIVE

By Elisa Menendez

LETHAL painkiller Nolotil could be on the ropes as health bosses in Madrid are set to decide on nationwide action next month.

A campaigner, leading an investigation into the drug, revealed she has finally secured a meeting with Spain’s top medication governing body.

It comes after the Costa del Sol’s main hospital also confirmed to the Olive Press that it was ‘aware’ of adverse reactions among northern Europeans.

Last year, the Olive Press launched a campaign, Kill the Drug, after many readers revealed how their loved ones had died after taking it.

Health campaigner Cristina Garcia del Campo, based in Alicante, is now to take her findings to the Agencia Española de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios (AEMPS) in Madrid.

She has been tirelessly gathering case studies of Anglo Saxons who have suffered or even died at the hands of the commonly prescribed painkiller, also known as Metamizol.

“This is the one and only chance to get results,” she told the Olive Press, “This is the highest authority and the only one with the power to ban medicines.”

As a final push, the legal and medical translator is urging expats and holidaymakers to come forward immediately if they know anyone who has suffered severe side effects from the drug.

She added: “I want to take a very strong case to Madrid.

This means no case history must be missed. It would be really helpful for people to email me medical reports of serious cases or deaths.

It comes after a series of unseasonal downpours and storms over the last months in what has been one of the wettest springs in recent years.

The end of May saw the rest of Europe bask in 30C temperatures while a cold wind front saw southern Spain miss out

on the heatwave action.

May was also the coldest in Malaga since 2004.

The whole phrase is: ‘No te quites el sayo hasta el 40 de mayo!’

Spotlight on Nolotil

KILL THE DRUG

UK-banned painkiller Nolotil finally facing highlevel review, as Costa del Sol hospital also confirms it’s ‘aware’ of the issue Voted BEST

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EXCluSiVE By laurence dollimore

A BRITISH expat couple are fighting to save their Malaga home from demolition over a technicality.

Gill and Bob Ward, both 74, have been locked in a battle with their town hall, which claims their house in Almayate is illegal.

Just yesterday the retired couple from Cornwall were given

Continues on Page 8

August 2nd - August 15th 2017

Doctors and dentists join Olive Press appeal for ban on dangerous painkiller Nolotil THE Olive Press is calling on Spain to ban a lethal painkiller that is killing countless of unsuspecting expats.

British dentists and doctors are supporting the ban after Briton Graham Ward, 75, complained to the Olive Press of how he was prescribed the deadly Nolotil drug by a dentist last week. It’s the very same drug that was blamed for killing his wife in 2006.

The Marbella-based expat was furious when he was told to take the painkiller by his Spanish dentist, after suffering from a difficult abscess.

His wife Mary, 59, had died after being prescribed the same drug following a double vasectomy at Costa del Sol Hospital.

“Within 24 hours she was in intensive care, her white blood cell count plummeted to zero within days,” explains Graham, a former computer technician, from London.

She never regained consciousness and was on a life support machine for FOUR months, before spending three years fighting the impact of the drug, which led to organ failure.

“The chief surgeon at the hospital promised me he would never prescribe that drug

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one month to knock down their only property (pictured above).

In a court order seen by the Olive Press, the Wards are warned they will be held criminally responsible if they refuse.

“I don’t know what to do anymore, I’m at the end of my tether” Gill told the Olive Press, “I’m totally exhausted from the whole ordeal.”

The retired pair, who have now spent thousands of euros on legal costs, bought the old farmhouse ‘in ruins’ in 2004, and were given permission from Velez-Malaga town hall to rebuild it.

But when the original wall collapsed of its own accord during construction, the Wards’ architect told them it would be fine and that he would let the town hall know. Unfortunately for

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tribute bands Think Floyd, Deeper Purple and Whole Lotta Led rocking out the greatest hits of Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin at the Plaza del Toros on August 26.

For a chance to win a pair of tickets to see Bolton, just answer the question; what year was Michael Bolton born in?

For the Pink Purple Zep Fest in Estepona, just tell us; Where was Jimmy Page born? Email answers to the newsdesk@theolivepress.es.

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Kill ThE drug

need for more research

Dr Nina King, of Oasis Dental Care in Marbella, fully supports the campaign, telling the Olive Press the drug is not something she prescribes.

“It’s not a drug I use, I stick to safe and standard medication,” she said, “And after seeing what damage it can do, it’s a drug I won’t be using in the future.”

Marbella-based private doctor Dra. Victoria María Chacón Almeda also agrees the drug is dangerous. “I don’t prescribe the drug,” she told the Olive Press, “I have lots of British patients and I am aware of what it is capable of doing.

“There needs to be a lot more research on its impact.”

HAPPIER TIMES: Graham with wife, and Billy Smyth

again.

“He said she would be alive if she hadn’t taken it, but I have heard from dozens of Brits and Irish who have been given it,” added Graeme.

It is the third victim of the drug the Olive Press has reported on in under a year.

Sometimes known also as

Metamizole, Nolotil is banned in the US, the UK, Ireland and most of Europe, but it is prescribed widely in Spain.

Irishman William ‘Billy’ Smyth was given a five-day course of the drug in February.

But when the 66-year-old returned to a different Spanish

doctor to get a renewal in April, tests showed the drug had caused a toxic poisoning in his bone marrow and his white blood cell was dangerously low.

Billy, a keen sportsman, developed sepsis and necrotising fasciitis as a result and required ‘radical surgery’ to remove the affected tissue in an attempt to save his life.

The dad-of-two later died from septic shock – believed to be linked to taking the Nolotil.

Another British expat Hugh Wilcox was prescribed the same medication for mild shoulder pain on the Costa del Sol. He developed severe head

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“It will be impossible for the AEMPS to doubt anything I say,” she added.

“If we miss out on getting this resolved now, you will never be sure whether you are going to be given this painkiller at some point.”

Until now, Garcia del Campo has been targeting individual hospitals in Spain in a bid to alert the authorities.

A spokeswoman from Hospital Costa del Sol, in Marbella, told the Olive Press, this week, it is ‘aware of the findings of adverse reactions in British citizens’.

She refused to elaborate on whether action was being taken at this stage.

It comes after Garcia del Campo’s findings prompted a large Alicante-based health network, Marina Salud, in Denia, to issue an official warning in April.

It advised staff against administering the painkiller to Anglo Saxons and Scandinavians.

Anyone who has been affected by Nolotil is urged to message Cristina before June 29, by emailing cristinadrugresearch@ gmail.com and to contact newsdesk@theolivepress. es.

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DOGGONE DISGRACE

The Olive Press does NOT and has NEVER accepted sex ads as a genuine family-friendly newspaper

A DOG owner in Andalucia is being investigated after his pet had to be freed from suffocating inside his car.

The greyhound had been locked in the back of the car with the windows only left open by a centimetre.

Police were called to the vehicle, in Almeria, by passersby who were concerned by the ‘visibly distressed’ dog.

Police freed the dog by breaking one of the back windows.

The owner did not arrive until 30 minutes later, where he was informed he would be investigated for animal abuse.

Guardia Civil began a campaign against animal abuse last summer after a spate of dogs had to be rescued from boiling cars.

www.theolivepress.es news June 6th - June 19th

9

They’re coming!

Spain is set for a sharp rise in cockroaches this summer

IT is an announcement that will send shivers up the spines of holidaymakers and expats alike.

Spain is set to see an explosion of cockroaches this summer, a health body has warned.

The creepy, hard-backed creatures will be back in their droves after the deluge of heavy rains this Spring, claims the National Association of Environmental Health Companies (ANECPLA).

Most of Spain will be at a 'very high' risk of a steep rise in the bugs in the coming months, as tem-

peratures soar.

The heat and humidity cause the insects to 'leave their natural habitat' to find 'new shelters with water, food and an optimum temperature'.

That means they'll be invading - or at least attempting to invade homes and restaurants.

Infections

The bugs, that are able to fly, are known to contaminate food and increase the risk of infections like dys-

entery or salmonella poisoning.

ANECPLA said cockroaches are more nocturnal but are often seen during the day 'when the population is very high or they need food'.

As a preventative measure, the health body recommends hiding or throwing out any sources of water or food that could attract cockroaches.

Homes or establishments should also have good ventilation and cover up cracks in the wall or floors.

June 6th - June 19th 2018

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Abortion law stays

Despite Ireland’s vote to repeal anti-abortion laws, Gibraltar refuses to follow suit EXCLUSIVE

By Elisa Menendez

THE Gibraltar government has said it will not reconsider its anti-abortion laws despite Ireland’s recent landslide vote to repeal its ban.

Pro-choice campaigners had hoped it would put pressure on the Rock, but it seems their fight won’t be over any time soon.

A Gibraltar government spokeswoman told the Olive Press: “We have already dealt with progressive issues like civil partnerships and equal marriage… The Cabinet has not considered changing this [abortion] policy.”

It added that it did not have a mandate to change the abortion law as it was not included during the election campaign.

The act is punishable by life imprisonment on the Rock - the harshest abortion laws in Europe.

Although no woman has ever

been sentenced, the threat weighs heavily on residents and many go to Spain and the UK to have clandestine procedures, where they don’t receive adequate before or after care.

One woman, who chose to remain anonymous, told the Olive Press she had an abortion at 19 in the UK while at university, after falling pregnant to a violent boyfriend whom she had escaped.

“I remember reading up on how to stop being pregnant. I drank more and took laxatives… it’s so dangerous,” said the Gibraltarian who now has two children.

She added: “I think that if I had kept it I would not have been here today due to mental health, or he would have got to me… it freed me.”

Campaigner for Pro-Choice Gibraltar, Tamsin Suarez, felt ‘very emotional’ on hearing the news in Ireland but frustrated at the lack of change on the Rock.

“We pride ourselves on being a

diverse, accepting nation where everyone’s views are accepted but this is a new law which was introduced in 2011.

“Just because it’s not happening in Gibraltar, doesn’t mean it’s not happening. It doesn’t get spoken about because people are scared,” the 44-year-old told the Olive Press.

Gemma Briggs, 28, also a campaigner for Pro-Choice Gibraltar said it saddens her that women are given such little choice in a nation that is ‘supposed to be an international player’.

She added: “As a British citizen a woman in Gibraltar should be given the same level of healthcare as she would in UK. “Gibraltar as a community offers such little help for expecting parents with little maternity pay and child welfare help. By not leading with a strong policy to catch up with the rest of the world, the government is showing very little respect to women and their choices.”

Prouder than ever MORE than 50,000 people attended Torremolinos Pride over the weekend.

The number broke all records and Saturday saw the most people ever for the parade, with just under 20,000 thought to have come out to show support.

There were six floats this year, all sponsored by fashion stores in La Nogalera, which saw drag queens and go-go dancers launch condoms into the crowd while spraying everyone with water pistols.

Uber’s in UBER has begun operating on the Costa del Sol. You can now use the popular taxi-style app between Marbella and Malaga after it contracted 200 vehicles this week. The company is offering its service all around Malaga, Torremolinos, Benalmadena, Fuengirola and Mijas, and will expand across the Costa del Sol throughout this year. A spokesman said: “Our third launch in Spain is special for us, we have finally reached one of the main tourist destinations in the Mediterranean.”

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AN ELDERLY British mountaineer has been rescued by officials after he was found hanging onto a cliff edge.

The 69-year-old was found by a Guardia Civil rescue unit at 2am in the Picos de Europa national park, in northern Spain.

Officials reported that the mountaineer, who was doing the trek alone, had taken the wrong route after becoming confused by thick fog.

After slipping on a steep slope, the man fell around 33 feet and was stuck hanging onto a ledge narrowly avoiding a much bigger, certainly fatal, fall.

He was rescued after he managed to get in touch with his family in England by using an emergency app on his mobile.

They in turn contacted the British consulate, which got in touch with the Guardia Civil.

The Brit is being treated for hypothermia and exhaustion.

G REEN

www.theolivepress.es

11

June 6th - June 19th 2018

Dirty old Spain

Parrot pogrom CRYSTAL: Clear waters

Clear water revival HOLIDAYMAKERS can take the plunge in Spain with confidence this summer.

A very creditable 85.5% of the country’s bathing waters have been declared ‘excellent’ for swimming - half a point above the European average. And a merit-worthy 96.2% of the 2,219 rivers, pools and beach areas tested in Spain passed the quality test.

Not only that, the number of areas where the water quality failed to pass the swim test has reduced to a mere 1.7%, according to a study by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

While Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus, Greece and Austria dominate the rankings, surpassing 95% in terms of quality, fewer bodies of water were examined in those countries.

Luxembourg, which scored a perfect 100%, only had 12 bathing areas tested.

In Andalucía the handful of swim zones that didn’t make the grade include the Genal, Genil and Maitena rivers and Los Molinos stream.

MALAGA town hall has declared war on invasive green Argentinian parrots. The feathered interlopers breed like wildfire in the city every spring and their numbers have reached pandemic proportions.

Now Andalucia’s Junta has given the town hall permission to give them the bird without killing them, by destroying

Sierra de las Nieves could be National Park in 2019 MALAGA’S Sierra de las Nieves natural park could have National Park status by 2019.

Isabel García Tejerina, Spain’s Minister of Agriculture and Fishing, Food and Environment announced during a visit to the park that she expects the draft bill to be presented to Congress before the year end.

their nests and using nets and traps to capture them. The possibility of employing birds of prey to scare them off is also under consideration.

A non-indigenous species, the pesky parrots are considered to be vermin because of the diseases they spread and the amounts of droppings on the streets resulting from their vast number.

PARROTS: Breeding

National treasure

Hefty

It would become the 16th National Park in Spain and the third in Andalucía, along with the Sierra Nevada in Granada and Doñana which covers Huelva, Cadiz and Sevilla provinces.

The Sierra de las Nieves covers a hefty 20,163 hectares and includes the towns

The more you take out, the more you get back.

Spain’s carbon emissions set record high SPAIN has fallen well short of reaching its targets to reduce carbon emissions in line with 2005’s Kyoto Protocol.

Emission rates were actually higher in 2017, at 4.4% above 2016’s.

This negative record is due to extended use of fossil fuels like carbon and natural gas which were responsible for 76.1% of toxic emissions.

Use of petroleum has risen by 0.5% and natural gas by 9.8%. Begoña María-Tomé, head of the environment department at the CCOO, has declared: “We need urgent action”.

The workers’ union has called for the closure of the seven nuclear reactors still active in Spain when they reach the age of 40, as well as stopping the use of carbon fuels and redeploying workers in that sector.

The CCOO is also urging the Spanish government to support the electric car industry and take other measures to promote energy efficiency, such as introducing a tax on pollutant gases.

STUNNER: The Sierra de las Nieves to be recognised

of Ronda, Lifa, El Burgo, Yunquera, Tolox, Ojén and Istán in the northwest of the region.

Tejerina said the new status is the unanimous wish of local residents and businesses as it will bring economic prosperity to the Sierra.

The Minister added that the government also plans to protect the Mediterranean sealife corridor travelled by many species of whale and dolphin as well as bluefin tuna through a 12% expansion of marine reserves.

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Stepping down

MARIANO Rajoy, who was removed from power last week following a confidence vote, will step down as leader of his centre-right PP party, setting the stage for a leadership battle.

Rajoy, who has led the People’s Party since 2003, said the decision to make way for someone else was ‘best for me, best for the party and best for Spain.’

11 11 ry 18th - January 31st “The time has2018 come to put an January 18thJanuary 31st The 2018PP must end to this story. continue advancing under the leadership another “We have of worked hard to perachieve a son,”balance he added. between the expensive high street the bargain There willchain be aprices partyand meeting basement prices foundin all the over the to pick a new leader internet,” said Janet Styles, Spexcoming months.

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Rajoy will stay on until a new leader isoverriding chosen. ethos is such that we “Our Frontrunners take over treat all our to customers withinrespect andAlberto communicate withFeijóo, them on a clude Núñez Our experience headpersonal of thebasis.

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June 6th - June 19th 2018

‘Terrorist’ Rapper breaks cover

SPANISH rapper Valtonyc has finally broken cover after fleeing Spain to avoid going to prison for ‘glorifying terrorism’ in his lyrics.

The Mallorcan artist broke his cover for the first time since May 23 when he sent a tweet announcing his de-

Madrid’s rule in Catalunya came to an end, as Pedro Sanchez’s new ll aboutservice and empathy withgovernment customer www.theolivepress.es S ierraourourNevada customers’ needs. And treating customers as we would like to be was sworn in e. It offers pre- treated.

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parture, insisting the Spanish authorities were ‘fools’ and a ‘fascist state’ and that ‘disobeying is an obligation’.

Yesterday, he sent a tweet out to his millions of fans denying he was appealing to Strasbourg’s European Court of Human Rights.

It came after various media reports claimed he was planning to become a political prisoner.

The rapper is hiding out in Belgium, where he intends to continue campaigning for freedom of expression.

The singer has now contracted a leading Brussels lawyer to fight the three year sentence handed to him in February.

Spanish police have already sent out a search and capture warrant for his arrest to Europol and have ordered a surveillance team to track the rapper’s whereabouts.

The singer, from 11 11 Sa Pobla, was senJanuary 18th - January 31st 2018 tenced by Spain’s January 18th- January 31st 2018 Supreme Court for his controver“We worked hard as to he achieve will have not be the case plansa new diasial lyrics, said to

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Tel: +34 971 690 155

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ASSAD: NOT A FIRE SALE! FABIAN Picardo has been forced to defend the controversial sale of 6-9 Europort in a heated Parliament debate.

In a long ten-minute statement he answered seven questions tabled by the opposition about the transaction, which would benefit Syria’s Rifaat al-Assad.

In particularly, the Chief Minister insisted it did ‘not appear to be a fire sale’ and confirmed that he had personally been working with the French and Spanish authorities, who have been investigating Assad, for years.

He also claimed a RGP police investigation into the affair was continuing but that he could not reveal any more details at this stage.

He also confirmed that Assad (left) had applied for Cat-2 status on the Rock in 1999, but that it had been turned down.

Al-Assad, the uncle of current Syrian president Bashar alAssad, is being probed in Spain, France and the UK for money laundering, corruption and tax evasion.

The so-called Butcher of Hama, bought the building in 1999 allegedly in part with money lent to him from the royal family in Saudi Arabia.

In the debate on Thursday, independent MP Marlene Hassan Nahon asked whether, given the judgement, compliance standards were ‘seemingly lower’ in Gibraltar.

Another GSD politician asked whether ‘given the price that has been paid’ the sale ‘appears to be in haste on the part of Assad’.

Picardo backed the Supreme Court’s recent decision to clear the sale, insisting it was ‘entirely in keeping with the valuation’.

He also angrily defended the decision of the Judge saying he hoped his fellow politicians were ‘not seeking to impute his reputation or actions’.

He did however say the Office of Criminal Prosecution was also continuing to work on it.

g i b r a ltar

We are always watching

Outrage as Gib leader spends £30,000 of public money on personal lawsuits

By Laurence Dollimore

THE Chief Minister has spent an alarming £6,000 of taxpayers’ money on threatening legal letters this year alone.

And Fabian Picardo has issued at least ten separate writs against individuals since he came to power, it has emerged.

In total, the GSLP leader has spent £29,978 on legal letters threatening residents

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with lawsuits since 2013.

Each was ordered to stop writing and delete ‘defamatory’ comments about him online, the majority on Facebook.

Gibraltar’s leader - who came to power in 2011 - was forced to release the figures after being asked by the GSD opposition party, following complaints.

“We seem to have a Chief Minister who is ever-so-sensitive and out of sync with the attitudes of other leaders in Western society,” insisted a spokesman from the GSD. “And this from a Chief Minister who complained about the previous administration being dictatorial.”

The figures were released after he was grilled in parliament on the matter by both Roy Clinton and former GSD leader Daniel Feetham.

They showed that Picardo had

UNDER FIRE: Picardo spent this figure on letters to six local Gibraltarians and four individuals outside of the Rock, via law firm Hassans.

It is not known if he has taken out any personal lawsuits in addition.

Picardo defended the legal letters, insisting it was in the ‘public interest of Gibraltar’, that its ministers should ‘defend their reputations when

confronted with defamatory and untrue allegations’.

“Too often on social media, individuals express themselves without a filter of truth or any understanding of the need to ensure that the things they say are not libellous of others.”

He said some of the comments included threats to him and his family.

The GSD later uploaded a post on its Facebook page, asking: “Is it right the Chief Minister should use your money to defend his reputation?” It added: “Careful what you write on social media, you are being watched.”

Residents reacting to the clip said they were ‘gobsmacked’.

“Unbelievable,” wrote one, “they should pay for it out of their own pocket. Why use the taxpayers money?

It’s shameful, the opposition should act.”

Crashing it Why Cambridge Weight Plan is the healthiest way to lose weight fast

S

O-called crash diets have better results than more common weight-loss regimes and should be prescribed on the NHS, an Oxford University obesity expert has said.

‘Phenomenal’ results from a major new trial show those put on a rigorous 800-calorie-a-day programme lost three times more weight than those assigned normal diets, said Professor Susan Jebb.

Her study of 278 obese patients in Oxfordshire found that those placed on a meal-replacement diet – where breakfast, lunch and dinner are swapped for nutritionally complete soups, shakes and meal bars – were 10kg lighter after one year.

By comparison, those given standard advice – to cut down on calories and eat healthily – were only 3kg lighter 12 months later.

The results of the study, nicknamed Droplet, have just been presented at weeks. That is a little more than the the 25th European Con14kg average Prof Jebb gress on Obesity in Vienna. saw in her study at that Droplet used Cambridge point: the typical patWeight Plan, where dieters 1 in 4 UK adults is tern is to put weight back ditch all normal food for on in the following nine now obese, with months. shakes, soups and meal bars formulated to make diabetes costing One in four adults in the the dieter feel full.

UK is now obese, with diathe NHS £10 After two or three months, betes estimated to cost they slowly ‘wean’ themthe NHS £10 billion a year. billion a year selves on to real foods.

Prof Jebb warned: ‘If we The approach was recently don’t tackle this, we will road-tested on four voljust see the burden on the unteers in BBC documentary The Big NHS going up.’

Crash Diet Experiment.

On average, each lost 17kg after nine For more info visit www.cwpespana.es.

 Gibraltar schoolgirl reaches semi

-final of Spanish TV talent show 3065 views

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The Olive Press Friends The iconic works of Andy frenzy Warhol have TOP for news in Spain!

taken pride of place this week in the Picasso Museum in Malaga ANDY Warhol’s most iconic works have officially arrived on the Costa del Sol. Visitors can now get up close and personal with some of his most famous pieces of art, such as Campbell’s Soup Cans, at the Picasso Museum in Malaga.

The exhibition, Warhol. Mechanical Art, promises to take visitors on a ‘journey’ starting with Warhol’s earliest work as a commercial graphic designer in the 1950s, with almost 400 pieces on display on loan from 45 different sources.

Showcasing paintings, sculptures, short films, photography, magazines and album covers, the exhibition is set to bring fans closer to the underground art world which emerged in the second half of the 20th century, when Warhol opened his legendary

what’s on

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2,000 tons of materials for assembling the show arrived in Malaga three days ahead of launch.

According to Javier Pérez González, security chief on the European Tour, the circus has to follow strict rules which differ from country to country. Every step of the process is calculated way before the circus arrives. From the stage construction to the location of restaurants and offices, nothing is left to chance.

Pop art takes over Malaga

2 for 1 glasses

the display focuses on the innovative way Warhol drew inspiration from the 19th

et it sew!

A selection of sewing workshops to suit any level will let you complete a project which you can start using or wearing the very same day. Kids welcome and workshops can be run from Sotogrande, Cancelada or your home with everything provided. Get 10% off with special code OLIVE. Visit www.notimetosew. com

Tickets, priced from €28, can be booked at www.cirquedusoleil.com

New York studio, The Silver Factory.

Aptly named Mechanical Art,

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Send your informati on to newsdesk@theolivep ress.es

Circus comes to town

AFTER a decade’s absence, popular alternative circus Cirque du Soleil has returned to Malaga this month with its new acrobatic spectacular, Totem.

Expected to attract a Big Top crowd of 2,500 spectators on the opening night alone, the show is in town for Download our app now and the entire month of June. begin enjoying the best Spanish Popular with all ages for its theatrinews on the go. cal, character-driven approach and absence of performing animals, each show is a synthesis of circus styles from around the world, with its own central theme and storyline.

A convoy of 76 trucks laden with

THOUSANDS of Friends fans have flocked to Madrid to take a nostalgic trip back to the 90s. #FriendsFest, Spain’s first ever exhibition dedicated to the legendary US sitcom, has welcomed almost 5,000 visitors at the Casa del Lector in the capital.

And it seems the hit TV show is just as popular as ever, as the €5 tickets sold out online in just under 48 hours.

TV Channel Comedy Central has recreated the iconic apartment of character Monica Geller, played by Courtney Cox, where visitors can enjoy a cuppa in the kitchen or pinch one of Joey’s sandwiches from the fridge.

Fans can also pose on the famous orange sofa which the actors sit and chat on during the opening credits of the show, while the soundtrack ‘I’ll Be There For You’ by The Rembrandts echoes across the exhibition.

The show first aired in 1994.

Do you have a what’s on?

June 6th - June 19th 2018

June 6th - June 19th 2018

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The party that kicks off the summer season returns to Marbella’s La Sala by the Sea promising great live music and friendly atmosphere, info@lasalabythesea.com

The Festival of Cultures in Torremolinos with more than 10 participating countries.

The event at plaza La Nogalera will feature typical gastronomy, shows, live music, dance and stands with artisan products.

century American industrial revolution by using machines to create screen prints and his interest in video forms of art.

Special emphasis has been placed on Exploding Plastic Inevitable - a series of live multi-media performances, which included performances with The Velvet Underground and Nico. Warhol is still one of the most famous and most popular artists of all time, widely recognised as the inventor of pop art, creating iconic portraits of the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor and Jackie Kennedy. Warhol. Mechanical Art will be on view from May 31 through September 16.

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It’s not all doom and gloom for expat Netflix users, locked out of the UK version... here are some top Spanish chestnuts

T

HE recent Netflix news that Brits in Spain will have to ‘settle’ for the Spanish version of the streaming site has left viewers up in arms.

But never fear, while you may have to ditch a couple of your faves, or try to trick the site by downloading a VPN app (you didn’t hear it from us!), there are plenty of great Spanish movies and series to hook up to. Here are nine to get you started.

la cultura

June 6th - June 19th 2018 June 6th - June 19th 2018

Stream n

Veronica Described as one of the most terrifying films in recent years, and based on a true story.

The plot follows a teen who finds herself besieged by an evil supernatural force after playing Ouija with two classmates.

After passing out during the ritual, Veronica is then subjected to three days of unexplained, ghostly incidents which eventually lead to her untimely death.

Directed by one of the most famous names in Spanish horror cinema, Paco Plaza, the film is unnerving viewers because they cannot work out what part of the story is real and what is fiction.

Volver Vis a Vis Vis a vis (meaning conjugal visit), follows a young woman who is sent to prison in Spain.

Macarena Ferreiro falls in love with her boss and commits accountancy fraud while under his spell. She is accused of four tax crimes, and is sent to Cruz del Sur Prison with a high bail set. The gripping drama follows her emotional shock at being locked up, and the complicated and at times dangerous relationship between the inmates.

This is one of the classics by Spain’s most famous directors Pedro Almodovar. Madrileño Raimunda - played

by Penélope Cruz - misses her mother Irene who died several years ago in a house fire, along with her father. A former neighbour from their hometown reports that she has seen the ghost of Irene but both Raimunda and her sister do not believe her. After a murder and a family tragedy, Irene’s spirit begins to materialise around her daughters to help comfort them.

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Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother)

Kiki El Amor Se Hace This film addresses love and sex through five different stories.

There’s Paco and Ana, a married couple looking to reignite their passion after an extended cold spell.

And Jose Luis, who is trying to win back the affection of his wife Paloma who is in a wheelchair following an accident.

Meanwhile, Candelaria and Antonio are trying to keep their marriage afloat while being parents, but Candelaria struggles to orgasm during sex. There’s also Lex, struggling to satisfy the sexual fantasies of Natalia while she starts to doubt if he will ever ask her to marry him.

This is another great from Almodovar. Manuela is an Argentinean nurse who oversees donor organ transplants at Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid while being a single mother to Esteban, a teenager who wants to be a writer.

On his 17th birthday, Esteban is hit by a car and killed while chasing after actress Huma Rojo for her autograph following a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which she portrays Blanche DuBois.

Manuela has to agree with her colleagues at work that her son’s heart be transplanted to a man in A Coruña.

After travelling there, Manuela quits her job and journeys to Barcelona, where she hopes to find her son’s father, Lola, a transvestite she kept secret from her son.

Amores perros This dramatic thriller is the first installment in González Iñárritu’s Trilogy of Death (succeeded by 21 Grams and Babel).

Released in 2000, it follows three distinct characters who are connected by a car accident in Mexico City - a teenager in the slums who gets involved in dogfighting, a model who seriously injures her leg and a mysterious hitman.

Each overlapping story is connected by dogs in various ways.

Spanish movie

Tiempos de Guerra The year is 1921 and a group of trainee nurses have opened a hospital in Melilla for Spanish war soldiers fighting in Morocco.

The nurses have been recruited from the upper classes in Madrid on the orders of Queen Victoria Eugenia. The women find friendship and romance along the way while saving the lives of the soldiers.

17 17

Sin Senos Si Hay Paraisos If drama and telenuevo are your bag, this series is for you.

Based on a novel by investigative journalist Gustavo Bolivar it tells the real-life story of a

young prostitute who seeks massive breast implants to attract a rich cocaine smuggler.

Drama erupts when the main character, Catalina Santana,

begins a rivalry with best friend Yesica Beltran, who attempts to steal her smuggler husband.

Expect plenty of slapping, murder and sex.

If you love Scary Movie, Not Another Teen Movie or any of the many parodies that were all the rage in the 2000s, then this is right up your street. The clumsy Ramira is hired to work as a housemaid and nanny of two children, Simeón and Ofendia. Scenes include Ramira falls in love with her landlord’s paraplegic brother Pedro San Antón. It’s black humour and funnier than it sounds...

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la cultura

On the wild frontier

Lenox Napier pores over medieval maps to discover how Andalucia’s ‘border towns’ got their names, ending in ‘de la frontera’

W

HAT do Jérez, Arcos, Morón, Vejer, Chiclana and a number of other Andalucian towns have in common?

Their full and proper names end in ‘... de la frontera’ but despite the common suffix, there’s no frontier in sight.

The Cádiz city of Jerez de la Frontera, for example, is 242 kilometres away from the nearest frontier – Portugal.

One could argue that early Spanish

The place names make perfect sense when you roll back a few centuries cartographers were not very good at their jobs, or that the Royals were never wrong.

But the fact is, the place names make perfect sense when you roll back a few centuries to the time of the Moors and the Kingdom of Granada.

The Christian forces of Aragon and Castile were slowly (oh, so slowly) taking the country back from the Moors.

These North African colonists had been in control of almost all of Spain

June 6th - June 19th 2018 June 6th - June 19th 2018

SHIFTING FRONTIER: The marauding Moors and Christians fought over towns including Conil de la Frontera (above)

for anything up to 750 years (depending on which bit we happen to be talking about) although, by the beginning of the 15th century the writing

- whether in Arabic or in Latin - was definitely on the wall. Granada, capital of the ‘Nazarí Kingdom’, fell in 1492, the same year as Spain discovered the

Americas, AKA Spain’s golden era.

Geographically poised between the Christian and Moorish territories during the years leading up to the final

push in the later 15th century were a number of frontier towns which watched uneasily over a no-man’sland (or ‘Terra Nullius’ as it was officially known – an unclaimed space between the two forces).

During its existence, this border strip had great military, political, economic, religious and cultural importance. Beyond being a border like many others, it was for more than two centuries the European border between Christianity and Islam. It became a place of exchange and barter, keeping alive the spirit of the Christian crusade and the Islamic jihad together with the chivalric ideal, already anachronistic in other European territories.

It also made possible illicit economic activities, such as trade in oriental products, as well as regular military incursions aimed at

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Jerez de la Frontera

Jimena de la Frontera

Moron de la Frontera

taking booty and hostages BATTLE LINES: The border of the Kingdom of Granada in the late 13th to maintain the slave busi- century and (in brackets) the years towns fell to Christians ness or simply to ransom captives. Religious orders point their kingdom stretched as far well as Almería, Jaén took sides in this regard. The border north as Pamplona. and Huelva). It is known for was a key element in the formation Of all of the ‘frontera’ towns, mostly sherry, horses, flamenco and of the identity of Andalucía and in located in Cádiz, the largest is Jerez motorcycles. the formation of the vision of Islam de la Frontera with Morón de la Fronthroughout Spain. its magnificent Alcatera, in the province While another culture might have zar, an 11th-century of Seville, takes its For 200 years dropped the Arab names once they Moorish fortress. The name from a major the often uneasy conquered, the Spanish appear to Moors called their garrison established have been gracious enough to keep city ‘Sherish’ and after it had been conborder between them. Such towns as Vélez-this and held it until 1264, alquered in 1240 by Alhama-that are quite common (the though the Christian Fernando III, a base Christians and first comes from the Arab word for forces controlled the from which the ChrisMoors persisted tian forces could ha‘land’, the second for ‘baths’). In- surrounding lands deed, anything beginning in ‘Al’ from 1248. The town rass the Moors. comes from the Arab prefix ‘the’: Al- eventually became a Morón de la Fronhambra, Almería, Alpujarra... ‘frontier’ with the Granada kingdom. tera may not have a frontier but Al-Ándalus, as far as the Moors were Jerez is the largest non-capital city the nearby American-controlled airconcerned, means and meant any- in all of Andalucía, with a popula- base of Morón established in 1953 thing which was under Moorish con- tion of around 210,000 (larger than (and actually located in the nexttrol on the peninsular – and at one Cadiz – its provincial capital – as

Cortes de la Frontera door municipality of Arahal) does. You’ll need a passport to make it past the heavily-armed gate and on to the PX sherrty store...

Another town with a de la Frontera suffix is Chiclana. It is just up the road from both Conil de la Frontera and Vejer de la Frontera.

There must have been a gleam in the eye of King Fernándo IV when he got into the swing of naming his towns in the Most Loyal Province of Cádiz...

Noted for its monuments and wineries, Chiclana has a new claim to fame as the tourist resort with the most hotel beds in the province.

With a population of over 84,000, it’s only marginally smaller than its capital city, 24 km away..

Neighbouring Conil de la Frontera, again referencing its far-off ‘frontier’ with Granada, is a beautiful resort

19 19

whose population quintuples in size during the summer season.

But the prize for the most charming ‘frontier’ town must go to Vejer de la Frontera, a vertiginous white village commanding views to the Atlantic. A maze of narrow streets and white houses, it’s a deserving member of the Prettiest Towns in Spain Association.

I like the story of the Moorish prince and his Christian damsel who fled Vejer as enemy forces arrived. She tearful, he defiant. ‘I’ll build you another town as pretty as this one’, he promised her and, back in North Africa, that’s what he did, creating the beautiful turquoise-blue town of Chefchaouen. Since the Olive Press circulates the breadth of Andalucía, we can’t omit Murcia’s frontier town of Puerto Lumbreras.

The Port of Lights may have been a trading or military ‘port of call’ but it is around 32 kilometres from the sea and its name actually refers to its frontier status. It faces Almería’s Arab-sounding Huercal Overa across a 23-kilometre strip of no-man’s-land and was a heavily-garrisoned fortress-town. For 200 years, the sometimes uneasy border between the Christian and Moorish cultures persisted until Spain’s famously revered ‘Catholic Kings’, Fernándo of Aragon and Isabela of Castille, brought the reconquest to an end in 1492, and Spain was reborn from the ashes.

Watch this space for a feature on that coming to the Olive Press soon.

Lenox Napier runs the successful Business Over Tapas newsletter from his home in Mojacar de la Frontera.

20

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FOREIGN AFFA Find out in IR our Property Voted Magazine inside BEST www.theolivepress.es

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MOVINGMay IN Denise Van 9th - May 22nd 2018 been spottedOuten has on the Costa hanging out after investingdel Sol in her first home here

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May 2018

Issue 20

SEE PAGE

15

III >>

DISNEY INSPIRATION: Thrones As Game descends on Spain’s of castles once magnificent the country’s more, we take most enviable a look at fortresses historic

Brits make up the biggest foreign market in Spain and Malaga is booming

M

alaga was one of the popular regions most ers last year, for foreign buy- last year was new figures 2008’s crash. the highest number More thanrevealed. have est percentageBrits still make up since ber one 460,000 tered in Spain sales were of the foreign the larginvestment, 15%, with last year, and Alicante tionals accounting Brexit seemingly and the market with foreignregis- put off investors.

The total doing little at It comes as rounding off the Canaries saw for na- Malaga The numbers number of 13% of purchases. top to erties sales figures by was the properties Panoramathree. revealed compared shoot up by 11.15% fourth most revealed Benahavis Marbella, bought area for foreign buyers Propto the year popular lowing the are officially Estepona and pre-2007 levels before, in 2017 in the country, ‘most Balearic Islands by 10.4%. exceeding fol- from mature’ markets the hottest and a result of Spain’s And now, as the numin Spain. the longest-running booming as Figures International Monetary in Marbella market, the the country’s estate showed economic Fund has raised the three agent in 2018 growth forecast to 2.08% towns - giving gest economic growth in Spain the stronthe Eurozone.

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By Joe Wallen

A BRITISH travel organisation has spoken out to warn holidaymakers after reporting a surge in scams targeting tourists at Palma Airport.

Swindles recorded by the Palma Airport Info (PAI) organisation include queue stallers at security and baggage carousel ‘bumpers’.

The group drew attention to ten different scams in opera-

tion at the airport.

Some, such as the ‘broken taxi meter’ or the ‘pickpocket’ will be familiar to holidaymakers

across the world.

Others, such as the ‘queue staller’ or the Free WiFi are relatively new.

The ‘queue staller’ sees someone deliberately stall travellers from collecting their valuables at the other end of the security scanner by fumbling with their own items.

By the time an individual passes through the body x-ray to collect their baggage, Untitled-1.pdf 1 16/06/2017 their 15:36

It’s your move!

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valuables have been swiped Germany spoke to the Olive by an accomplice who was al- Press. ready through on the other “It is disgusting here and the side. counters are totally infested,” Meanwhile, the free WiFi scam the airport worker, who asked sees open networks become to remain anonymous, said. available to travellers passing “Not only will the airport lose through the airport. its staff but it’s only going to When these networks were get worse as it gets busier here used, tourists reported having and more people and their their passwords and personal pets start arriving. information stolen.

“The airport needs to do someAirport employees have also thing now or else it’s going to gone public this week with be a horrible summer.” their complaints about an in- AENA, the public body managfestation of fleas, mosquitoes ing Palma Airport, told the Oland cockroaches in the air- ive Press that they had taken port. steps to secure WiFi connecSome employees even report- tions in the airport. ed that they required ‘constant A spokesperson also told us medical attention’ in order to that a specialist company deal with the bites inflicted. hired to deal with infestations One employee working on one in the airport deciphered that of the 20 counters dealing the fleas were actually moswith transporting expats pets quitoes and that they were from the island to the UK and currently being dealt with.

ARRESTED: Brandon McCahill and (right) Jay Brown

Firestarters FOUR Brits accused of starting a fire at a Mallorca hotel have been released on bail after appearing in court.

A judge, who has confiscated their passports, ruled that they are banned from leaving the island

until they cough up €30,000 between them.

A court official said after their closed hearing: “The head of the Palma Court of Investigation Number 12, acting as a duty court ordered the release on bail of the four people arrested over a fire in Magaluf.

“The judge confiscated their passports and imposed a civil liability bond of €30,000 to be paid mutually.

“If they pay the money they will have their passports returned to

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Email: bia@gibraltar.gi Facebook: GibraltarBIA

We prefer Rock to Scotland ENGLISH voters would rather keep Gibraltar than Scotland if the Brexit situation demanded it, a new poll has found.

They would also prefer to keep the Rock British, rather than lose Northern Ireland.

A total of 37% of English voters said losing Gibraltar would not be a price worth paying for Brexit, compared to 35% for Scotland and 31% for Northern Ireland.

The hypothetical answers, posed by Panelbase, has deeply wounded many in Scotland, which only narrowly voted to stay in the Union in a referendum three years ago.

XXXX

The poll, commissioned by pro-independence website Wings Over Scotland, put the question to 1020 people.

“The voters of England – that’s Remainers and Leavers combined – would drop Scotland like a hot potato if it were somehow to be necessary to secure Brexit,” website owner Stuart Campbell insisted.

“The only thing that our English cousins were almost reluctant to sacrifice was a tiny rocky outcrop of someone else’s country and has roughly the same population as Dumfries.

“The English would rather hang on to the 34,000 citizens (plus some apes) of Gibraltar than the 7.2 million of Scotland and Northern Ireland.”

The Rock’s ONLY free local paper

Fears over first big Brexit casualty despite government giving stiff denial that Bet365 ‘plans move to Malta’

By Laurence Dollimore & Susie Granic

THE Gibraltar government has denied the Rock could be set to lose one of its biggest employers thanks to Brexit.

It comes after the Times of Malta claimed Bet365 had announced it will relocate to Malta once the UK leaves the EU. In the alarming report, the newspaper claimed 1,000 workers could lose their jobs as the online gambling giant planned to take its business elsewhere.

Both Bet365 and the government were this week forced to rebuke the story, claiming the company ‘remains committed’ to the Rock ‘and its workforce’.

“We have decided to increase our existing presence in Malta, which provides a mature and robust regulatory environment for the industry,” a spokesman for Bet365 said.

XXXX

“We can confirm that we will be retaining our strong presence in, and commitment to, Gibraltar where our main operational hub is based and will continue to maintain our existing dual regulatory and licensing strategy and presence.”

Bet365 has an annual revenue of GBP1.5 billion and around 23 million customers worldwide.

It is the leader of the online gaming industry, employing over 3,000 people on the Rock

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- the equivalent of 10% of the territory’s population.

There have been fears since the UK’s leave vote that some

of the 30 gaming companies based in Gibraltar could move their headquarters.

Financial expert Chris Cousins told the Gibraltar Olive Press the Bet365 move - if true could be catastrophic.

“It would be a big loss for Gibraltar,” said the boss of fintech company Ignite. “It would be pretty devastating for the local economy.”

He added: “It’s understandable that they have to prepare for such a move.

“Most of their workers live across the border in Spain, if there are problems post-Brexit and there are daily three-hour border queues for example, that’s going to impact their business, so they have to hedge their bets a little.”

Minister for Gambling Albert Isola meanwhile agreed that Bet365 was managing risk by scaling up in Malta, but said the company was not leaving the Rock.

He said: “We understand that business

needs certainty and has to manage risk.

“There is no single risk management solution here as the issues are complex.

“That is why we are working with operators and with other jurisdictions to establish the best overall regulatory framework in which to do business.”

He added: “They are not leaving Gibraltar by any stretch of the imagination. Neither are they having to choose between us and Malta.

“What remains true is that Gibraltar remains the jurisdiction of choice for the most

reputable gaming companies in the world. Brexit isn’t going to change that.”

A cyber security expert who works for several gaming companies told the Gibraltar Olive Press other big names in the industry were considering an emergency relocation from the Rock in case of unfavourable Brexit outcomes.

“It’s the clever thing to do, every big gaming company I work for has what’s called a Disaster Recovery (DR) site in another location, and Bet365’s DR in Malta was set up two to three years ago.”

Asked whether Bet365 or the government would withhold information about the alleged move, the expert, who asked to remain anonymous, added: “It’s an extremely delicate situation, news like that could have big on consequences the industry and Gibraltar itself.

“It’s not something you would want to become publicly known.”

Letter

Change your act

4

www.theolivepress.es

Heartbreaking My heart goes out to all the beautiful donkeys in Mijas. I have recently returned to the coast and have been to Mijas twice. Each time I have seen the depths of sadness in the donkeys, which look so unwell and uncared for. Their beautiful eyes speak volumes. I always wish that I could bring them all home with me. Blessings to you Mike and all your work for the donkeys in Mijas.

Jayne Fitzgerald, Malaga

In Gibraltar

May 23rd - June 5thMay NEWS 2018 23rd - June 5th 2018

www.theolivepress.es

MIJAS town hall has reneged on its promise to introduce measures to protect ‘abused’ donkeys used as taxis in the pueblo.

It comes after Swedish expat Mike Frizell was told by Mayor Juan Carlos Maldonado that ‘immediate action’ would be taken following his seven-year campaign to bring in new laws.

Campaigners say animals have died after working in the stifling heat and carrying adults too heavy for their frames, CAMPAIGNER: Mike Frizell and (right) tourists riding donkeys while they are allegedly beaten by their owners and bound-up to walls, forcing them to sleep stood up in their own faeces.

Lies

www.rondaguitarfest

Kick in the teeth

“The town hall have told lies after lies,” the 55-year-old told the Olive Press, who said tourExpat vows to end Mijas ists leave the town crying after donkey trade after town witnessing the donkey cruelty.

In what he thought was a breakhall abandons plans for through move last week, Frizell new laws ‘held back tears’ as town hall officials agreed on new working animal rules, including only Frizell, who claims he has reallowing children to ride the ceived death threats for gendonkeys. erating ‘bad publicity’, is now He also received permission to planning a 4,500km walk from build a safe stable where all 140 Mijas to Sweden via the UK to donkeys would be housed after raise awareness across Europe. raising the €120,000 needed A previous meeting with the through his own money and town hall in April had to be donations from locals and even cancelled after officials failed the Swedish royal family. to show, leaving Frizell and 70 “They told me they would make supportive locals waiting for changes starting that same ‘NOT GOOD ENOUGH’: Donkey shelters hours. day,” added the campaigner, been done and Frizell who set-up the 1,400-strong been told action will has now close down the donkey busi- The town hall failed to combe taken ‘in ness. ment in time for press.

Facebook page, Mijas Pueblo the future’.

“The respect for animals in An- Visit www.mijaspueblodonCruelty.

He vowed: “The town But one week later, nothing had keep their promises, hall don’t dalucia is the worst I’ve ever keys.webnode.com to help Friso I will seen.” zell.

Should know better III INTERNATIONAL

ROND hours A standing in extreme heat. In this day and age, should know better to either GUITA R people promote or use this disgraceful practice. It's downright FESTIV AL cruelty. THE COAST’S LEADING Even in the shade these poor donkeys suffer

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Homeward Bound..

FRANCE - ITALY - PORTUGAL

www.theolivepress.es NEWS IN BRIEF

Brexit hit

Bad move

SPANISH exports to the UK fell by 6% last year as uncertainty over Brexit caused the pound to retreat against the euro.

Meanwhile Spanish exports to the EU rose by 8%.

Summoned ISRAEL has summoned the ambassador of Spain after it voted in favour of an investigation into the death of over 100 Palestinian protesters on the Gaza border at the UN Human Rights Council session.

EXCLUSIVE

By Laurence Dollimore

SERIAL expat fraudster Paula Neale who was first exposed

CRIME

CAGED AT LAST!

by the Olive Press has finally been arrested in Spain.

It comes after dozens of stories over the past FOUR years Gone fishin’ detailed how the British fraudster was cheating holidaymakers out of thousands through fake holiday rentals.

Thanks to our tip-offs, authorities began Operation Neale in a bid to track her down.

The 44-year-old was reportwhere?? edly picked up in Burgos as ANTHONY’S she was getting into a stolen PAULA: Previous 2 issue for 1 Book with the coast’s most trusted transfer company

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Seasoned conwoman Paula Neale ‘flees to France’ with cops in pursuit Estepona

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Sabinillas

Manilva’s laidback vibe is founded on fish and wine and that authentic flavour is still something to savour, writes Jed Neill

Born to be wild

I

TS rock pools full of tiny darting fish recall British seaside holidays of old while fishing boats still compete with sunloungers for space on the beach.

Manilva is quite unlike your average Costa resort.

Even in swanky Duquesa marina, you sense the history of a town whose first health tourist was Julius Caesar.

And when you tuck into the shellfish - Duquesa’s speciality - you realise the locals know something about fish.

In Roman times, Manilva was to garum (a paste, like Gentleman’s Relish, that was all on one of the many rocky coves Jerez drying squids, while (inset) kids play you can practirage in August, theoutside July andwhat of Rome) beaches include a shopping line of Indeed on many weekends NATURAL WONDERS: Sights on Manilva’s sherry.and a good number have great is to yourself… cally have the beaches to wild grasses and flowers owe The town’s roots in fish saltTS hidden craggy coves fringed with chiringuitos to eat on. ing still runfindeep you to explore - and place Spain’s Costa del Sol. you d the perfect more to Cornwall’s rugged coastline than On one beach at Punta Chullera, of of tourists remains a handful seeatthe another natural beaches of Manilva, a stillwhile the sea, But these are the attractive protectedaway from the heavily commerrock pools and dive into can on a line. true haven for nature lovers. Worlds sunbathe next to a group of squids drying 16 which is on Page of Manilva, four kilometres of golden draws that lie below the main N340 Continues to the half dozen of unspoilt beaches, But the beaches are just one of the natural cialised sands of nearby Mijas or Fuengirola, reserve.

Sabinillas, port-side Duquesa ecological rocky Manilva shallows coastal road. as anAn wildDAY: eel in the being kept broadly split into three areas; beach-front playas areCATCH OF THE on the Costa del Sol and some chameleons and rare species of Endangered western snowy plovers, fauna in renaissance here since “These are some of the best beaches Continues on next page owner of local Castles of the least known,” explains Bish Witkowski, dune plants are among the flora and the conservation zone was created in 2011. to be drawn estate agency. eagle-eyed tourists are also beginning BRUNOS Unsurprisingly,

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EXCLUSIVE

By Jed Neill

POLICE are in pursuit of seasoned expat fraudster Paula Neale who has fled to France following an Olive Press probe.

Detectives contacted us following a tip off that the mother-of-two was staying in a hotel in Catalunya and preparing to cross the border this week.

She had been staying at Hotel Figueres, near Girona, and asked to pay for the room using her ‘husband’s’ credit card.

It comes after four years of investigation by the Olive Press has uncovered more than 30 victims of her rental scams undertaken in various false names.

info@simply-shuttles.com

Tel: 951 279 117 www.simply-shuttles.com

BORDER DRAMA

Ransacked

Neale, 43, took rental deposits for properties she didn’t own and allegedly ransacked properties she had rented before selling the stolen goods online.

However, despite four stories and at least eight denuncias ON THE RUN: Paula and (above) Spain-France border and against her, she has yet to be her hotel picked up by police.

They’re singling He refused to leave his hoThis is looking increasingly me out! hire car.

NEWS tel room or open the door to unlikely after a receptionist They claimed she had a long at Freeze on her, setting off alarm bells for the hotel confirmedplastic that Paula chequered track record of Neale, who packed up and left had checked out on Tuesday scams and problems, and had after repeatedly trying to raise morning. a third son, who was taken him.

She had been planning to into care.

Neale’s speedy departure cross into France with her two The friend described her as an came as the Olive Press was children, Nina, 12, and Oscar, ‘unfit mother who long dishanding over details of vari14 and live in Bordeaux. played erratic behaviour’.

Balcon wins big ous denuncias and victims to Staff at the hotel saidAllthe aboard! room On one occasion she even prewas left in a ‘complete mess’ PROBE: Previous story in the Guardia Civil in Malaga. tended to be her daughter to A detective confirmed they after she left in a hurry, with try and strike up a connection the Olive Press CHANGING FACES: Paula were ‘in a race against time’ police arriving within an hour. with her long-lost son. to get an arrest warrant with Her plan to escape to France Neale fled to France LIBERTYHOME ducer’.

Catalan police. was rumbled by her own pal, But after meeting her at the One of her victims, Sara Belactor Anthony Webster, who RRP 3,000€ hotel and agreeing to drive mont, says Interpol has been ratted on Neale when he found her to Bordeaux, he said he notified but because the out her real identity. felt ‘something wasn’t right’ crimes were committed in Webster told the Olive Press you when she claimed have her mother Spain, she must be charged this week that he had recently got that had suddenly died and that there. she befriended Neale online.

Liberty needed to leave immediately.

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NEWS

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NEWS IN BRIEF

Ashya thanks

BRITISH ambassador to Spain, Simon Manley, has thanked the Hospital Materno Infantil in Malaga for its treatment of Ashya King, on behalf of the British government.

www.theolivepress.es

IN DENIAL: Guerrero

Wasn’t me

THE alleged lynchpin in Spain’s biggest ever political fraud claims he made SIX previous confessions up.

Former Junta employment boss Francisco Guerrero insists he did not personally gain from the ERE scandal, that saw up to a billion euros embezzled over a decade.

He claims he only gave details of the so-called ‘reptile fund’ that he allegedly oversaw, after police put considerable pressure on him.

Guerrero is facing eight years in prison for embezzling €65 million of money from the €647 million emergency public fund that he managed between 1999 and 2008.

Struggling

ICELAND is the first supermarket in the world to remove plastic packaging from its own-label products.

Customers of Overseas, which stocks Iceland products in 20 shops across Spain and Portugal, will benefit from the five-year plan to reduce plastics in 1,400 products. Calling plastics a ‘scourge’ on the world, Iceland managing director Richard Walker said: “A truckload is entering our oceans every minute, causing untold damage to our marine environment and ultimately humanity – since we all depend on the oceans for our survival.”

Plastic ready meal trays will be removed first, followed by frozen vegetable bags changing to a paper based material.

Top stamps

SPECIAL edition stamps of King Felipe and Queen Letizia have been launched by postal service Correos. Showing official photographs of the Royal duo, they can be bought for €1.

Pensioner, 70, complains of discrimination after being ordered to take down extension, despite neighbours all having the same

January 17th - January 30th 2018 EXCLUSIVE

By Rob Horgan

year legal battle with the town hall after they served her with a demolition order and fined her €24,300 in 2008 for building a loft extension

without the correct planning permission.

Several other properties in the Seghers community have similar extensions without planning licences - including Balson's next door Spanish neighbour - but Balson is the

Boozy trips

ONE in seven youngsters coming to Spain on holiday have admitted that they are drunk on the plane, according to a survey by website Jetcost. com.

Big Willy

MANCHESTER City goalkeeper Willy Caballero has told La Liga officials that he was approached by a match-fixing syndicate when playing for Malaga last year.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: Terttu’s ‘illegal’ extension and

adjoining neighbour’s (right)

5

only resident facing court action.

"It is completely discriminatory, I cannot help but think that it is not a coincidence that I have been chosen when I am the only foreigner living here," she told the Olive Press.

Balson believed she had received planning permission when she contracted a Spanish architect Mario Jones in 2005.

Now however, she feels that he did not do his job properly despite being paid €2,500 to take over the project and sort out the building licence.

Jones, however, said he feels 'no guilt or responsibility and that Balson is to blame for the situation.

He said: "I told her from the beginning that she wasn't allowed to build. Most people get away with it but she DESPERATE: Balson hasn't.

"She is definitely being un- and dogs fairly treated and I am not with so many foreigners livsure why. I hope that the ing on the coast I don't think town hall is not targeting her it happens now." because she is foreign.

Despite numerous attempts "Maybe that sort of thing Estepona Town Hall did not happened in the old days, but answer any of our questions.

Still on-the-run

EXCLUSIVE

By Jed Neill

A SEASONED British fraudster has struck again.

Paula Neale - exposed in the Olive Press four times in two years - has brought her dirty tricks to the Costa del Sol again.

The rentals conwoman has snared a series of unsuspecting foreigners through her well oiled ruse of sub-letting properties.

A number of victims have lost thousands in lost deposits, after she took over a two-bedroom apartment in Mijas.

Using the alias ‘Sharon Tate’ she rented the Riviera apartment for three months, before

A FINNISH grandmother ordered to demolish a nineyear-old extension has accused Estepona Town Hall of being 'racially motivated' and 'singling' her out.

Terttu Balson, 70, has been involved in an ongoing six-

Strike four!

Seasoned conwoman Paula Neale caught by the Olive Press a fourth time

Offer

A WANTED property fraudster has been tracked down to a luxury home in Benahavis, after an exclusive Olive Press investigation this month.

According to neighbours in kids barely went to school upmarket La Heredia urbanand rarely even came out to isation, Rebecca Wells, 37, play. has fled owing money to sev“She never mixed with the loeral businesses. cal community here and one Keen horserider Wells - who day she was gone leaving an spent eight years posing as unpaid electricity bill.” an estate agent - is now being The Olive Press has still been sought by police, as reported unable to contact Wells, over in the Olive Press last issue, her defrauding of expats who after four denuncias were paid rent on properties she posted against her. did not own.

“She owes money to the Wells, aka Prior, allegedly DISAPPEARED: Wells and La Heredia, where she rented a butcher, restaurant and the took a series of deposits for home baker, as well as for repairs to homes which she did not own. reported concern for her four If you have any information her car,” said one neighbour. former neighbour Frank CoAn expat couple living oppo- myn, president of the Palmchildren. about Rebecca Wells, please site Wells’ house in the ur- eras del Golf urbanisation Comyn, who lived opposite contact newsdesk@theoliveher for two years said: “The press.es banisation reported that they in Benalmadena Costa, has saw her packing all the family’s possessions into a rental car on October 1 the day our expose came out.

When the Olive Press visited a few days later, the house had clearly been abandoned and the family car - a black Fabulous food and entertainment including a 5* Christmas Chrysler - was apparently or New Years Eve Gala Dinner with fine wine dumped outside.

Meanwhile another

FaNtastiC DEals For

Christmas & NEw YEar the locks she has preto change

Paying €1,700 from November to February, Paula said she was Taken her child and with for moving in a ride black cat.

However, after reading our expose on Neale in early December, Belmont quickly started to investigate and found her property being advertised to rent through a variety of Facebook groups.

One had been shared an incredible 4,000 times.

Fortunately she was able to move fast and after coming over olive press

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vented anyone else moving in.

However, in just the short amount of time she was over this month, two disappointed couples arrived to stay.

“One couple from Russia had paid a two month deposit of €1,400 for a year’s rental. They were gutted,” Belmont told the Olive Press.

“Then a few hours later an English couple turned up, also with a year’s lease and having paid a deposit.” It is unknown how many people in total fell for the scam, but her property was in a terrible state with a stereo and a toolkit also stolen. It took three days to clean. “It has got to stop,” added Belmont. “When is this going to end?” So far she has been unable to track down Neale, but has put up reward notices in various vets around Calahonda. In 2017, the Olive Press twice exposed Neale’s antics. But it has also emerged that we exposed her using the name ‘Sharon Tate’ in 2016 in inland Malaga. A new UK number Paula had been using did not answer our calls.

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FLASHBACK: Wells’ scam revealed last issue

ALL CHANGE: Passport names and (right) 2016 story the owner, mother-of-three, the authorities in Gibraltar, Sara Belmont, rumbled the where she believes Paula keeps her money. scam.

The 41-year-old owner, a fire- She told the Olive Press how she fighter from London, has now was contacted by Neale through brought in police and contacted an online rental website.

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IT has the best caves in Andalucia and some of the best beaches in Malaga province.

Known as ‘Balcon de Europa’ it is somewhat fitting that Nerja has been chosen as one of the must visit destinations this year.

Travel site Tripadvisor has listed the resort among its top 10 emerging worldwide destinations.

It is the only destination in Spain to be tipped, with Gdansk, in Poland, Riga, in Latvia and Rovinj, in Croatia.

THE first ever ferry link between Ireland and Spain has been announced by Brittany Ferries.

The company presented its new route from Cork to northern Spain today.

It will begin at the end of April and will link Cork and Santander, with two return trips per week.

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It comes after she just managed to evade police earlier this year after we alerted authorities that she was hiding in Girona with her two children.

The British mum managed to escape to France, where

POLICE TAKE A BATTERING The money had been set aside to support struggling Andalucian businesses.

Instead, Guerrero allegedly awarded fake grants to companies registered in the names of more than 100 of his family members, friends and fellow PSOE politicians.

His driver, Juan Francisco Trujillo - nicknamed the ‘co-

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OLIVE PRESS – 70mm x 40mm FRONT COVER 14 February

SEVEN people have been arrested after tion’ for the recent crackdown a mob attacked a group of off on mafia duty po- gangs in the well-known lice with clubs and bottles in Algeciras. drug trafficking hotspot.

A 40-strong gang allegedly attacked the The officers are part of Guardia group after they dined a specialised cal restaurant out of uniform. at a lo- team that has been deployed in Cadiz from Madrid to tackle the The fight left eight of the police growing needing drug crisis in the area. hospital treatment, mostly minor inju- Families of the ries, and only stopped after one fired the officers’ faultarrested claim it was three shots in the air. that they started the fight because they ‘had left the Four of the seven detained restauallegedly rant drunk’. Algeciras have police records for drug-traffickhas seen a record number of cocaine drug ing. recent months. Some 40% of busts in A Guardia Civil spokesperson all drugs the attack could have been in claimed which are trafficked to Spain arrive via ‘retalia- various ports in the province of Cadiz.

she set up a new Tinder profile, describing herself as ‘not your typical English woman abroad’.

The Guardia Civil said: “The detainee is suspected of vehicle theft, stealing car num- They focused ber-plates, falsifying public immigrants whoon incoming appeared to documents and fraud, namely come from wealthy four crimes of holiday rental and would promise families to help fraud.” Neale hooked in vic- them reunite tims by placing fake holiday lies in Spain. with their famirentals on Facebook and tak- They instead ing money from them over them to a house transported Paypal. Brit Sara Belmont, la, in Algeciras. in La Bajadiljust one of more than a dozen The immigrants victims we have spoken to, in rooms, strippedwere locked of all their told the Olive Press earlier this personal belongings, and year how two couples turned then interrogated up within hours of each oth- determine how in order to er to rent an apartment she could be askedmuch money from their owned in Riviera del Sol near relatives for their Fuengirola after it is claimed The gang would safe return.

Neale moved in as a tenant the relatives by then contact telephone and under the alias Sharon Tate. ask them to pay a ransom of A source said Neale had been anything between released on bail after appear- €2,000, depending€500 and ing before a judge in a closed family’s financial on the circumcourt hearing pending an stances. ongoing criminal probe. The The men were responsible source said she had not been for finding the immigrants remanded in custody for the and transporting them to the time being because of her house, while the women were young children. in charge of the custody and surveillance of the victims.

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Not your place The british have to learn to respect Spanish traditions (Matador mayhem, issue 292). Bullfighting has been popular in spain for hundreds of years before the British lived here so if you don’t like bullfighting just DON’T GO. Remember the English are guests in Spain so have no rights at all to try and tell the Spanish what to do.

Richard Upton, Manchester

You can’t run forever (Caged at last, issue 292) she will get what’s coming to her. She ripped me off on a removal and the furniture I brought wasn’t even hers. Pure scum.

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..

Neil Walton, Benahavis

Immigrants kidnapped FIVE people have been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping immigrants in Algeciras.

The Guardia Civil detained four Moroccans and one Spaniard - a mixture of men and women - as part of an operation launched last August.

The gang has been charged after imprisoning immigrants before demanding money from their families in exchange for their return.

Alex Neate, Ardales

DEFRA AUTHORISED ANIMAL TRANSPORTATION

Regards,

May 23rd - June 5th 2018

If they let Paula Neale go she is gone, her children have not gone to school for years (Caged at last, issue 292)! Horrible person. The car she was driving and had stolen allegedly belonged to a disabled person. People from Ardales will be happy when she is in jail.

Dumped

SPAIN - UK - IRELAND

Paula Neale cuffed after defrauding holidaymakers in Spain for years

VALUE DESIGN & QUALITY • GREAT

2

week

A severe lack of long term properties versus an ever growing amount of holiday rental properties (mostly undeclared) is making life extremely difficult for your average family in southern Spain.

Two bed properties are now starting at €900 per month before bills, pretty ludicrous by any imagination. Recently I saw one 'real estate' company advertising a two-bed property at €1800 per month, once you added all their 'commissions' and upfront 'fees'... it would be something along the lines of €10,500 just to move in! We lived in the same urbanisation a few years back and paid €700 a month with a one month deposit! How can the cost of moving increase eightfold in five or six years?

Why also are the tenants now having to pay a month’s commission to the 'agent' on top of their deposits etc?

You never see 'Se Alquiler' signs anymore, why?

I earn an above average salary, however it is looking increasingly likely that we will have to move from the village we live in (Benahavis) as there are no properties for rent long term anymore, anything there is, is of very low quality!

A once charming and community orientated village is slowly turning into a resort of holiday homes and short term rentals...a huge new development bang in the middle of the village is being sold as 'great holiday rental investment'.... not only an eyesore in the valley but a stab in the back to the people who reside there, truly sad! It's very difficult to explain to my kids that they have to leave their friends, teachers, activities and the place where they have grown up, because there is nowhere to live!

My apologies for the rant, but as you can gather I'm pretty frustrated, as are a lot of people! There are similar problems I believe in Barcelona, Mallorca and Madrid which get reported on, for some reason it never gets reported on here!

EXCLUSIVE

By Elisa Menendez

I was impressed with the sights, and the views down towards the sea. Then, rounding a corner, I came across several donkeys waiting in the heat of the day, they were in an appalling state. One had its head dangling to the ground, with its tongue hanging out, it was swaying from side, to side, covered in sores, and flies. I was told that the council was going to act, to improve the welfare of these animals....That was 30 years ago.

Michael Bath, London

4

of the

Dear Olive Press,

Readers react to the news that Mijas town hall reneged on its promise to introduce new donkey laws

1

A day with Spain’s most famous communist mayor to celebrate May day SEE PAGE 6

June 6th - June 19th 2018

DONKEYS After a long drive to Mijas, I was looking forward to visiting a part of Spain I had never been to before.

Brits have been warned about conmen increasingly operating in Palma Airport ahead of the peak holiday season

M

Cookshop, Household Goods, General Hardware, Beach Accessories & more

LETTERS

www.theolivepress.es

Jon Battison, Tenerife

We have rights If you are an EU citizen, technically you are not a guest, but a citizen of Europe with all the rights of a Spanish Citizen. May change for UK citizens after Brexit of course. Many Spanish citizens are totally opposed to bullfighting.

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David Coughlan, Malaga

Still not right Just because it's a tradition doesn't make it right. Or should we stay out of humanitarian issues if they take place outside of our native country?

Marnie Douglas, London

Has anything piqued your interest in this week’s Olive Press? Have your say on the matter by emailing letters@theolivepress.es or alternatively message us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OlivePressNewspaper or Twitter @olivepress

Property www.theolivepress.es

olive press

www.theolivepress.es

June 2018

Issue 21

be And s a m t p luc ag ro ia az pe ’s in rty e

A hippy commune, Scottish castle and a21 June 6th - June 19th 2018 ‘priceless’ pool, but which connects to who?

Becker, picasso and king alfonso all inside

This Arabicstyle stunner comes with a wine cellar and staff quarters... wait till you see the view SEE PAGE IV

BACK ON FORM Brits lead the way as sales in Spain return to near pre-crisis levels

SPANISH home sales this year are the highest they have been since the market turned the corner towards recovery in 2014, and growing foreign demand contributed to the increase, led by the British.

There were 128,990 home sales inscribed in the Land Register in the first quarter of the year

(see chart on page II), an increase of 13.4%, according to the latest property market report just released by the Association of Spanish Property Registrars, known locally as the Registradores.

“This volume of quarterly sales was the highest in the last 38 quarters, and you would have to go back to the third quarter of 2008 to find a

bigger figure,” explain the Registradores in its latest report.

Foreign demand hit a high of 16,833 purchases in Q1, up by 13.2% compared to the same period last year. Spanish property is clearly still Continues overleaf

PROPERTIES SELLING FAST AT THE SPANISH ESTATE AGENT!

Continues on Page 21

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It’s your move!

B II 22

From Page I

Property

www.theolivepress.es

rit oom

seen as a good investment by buyers from all over the world, led by the British.

Despite the increase in buyers, as a percentage of the overall Spanish housing market foreign demand remained at 13% of the market due to a slightly bigger increase in local demand.

UK nationals purchased more homes in Spain than any other foreign nationality in Q1 2018, with 2,451 acquisitions in the period, followed by the Germans with 1,316, and the French on 1,290. As a result, the UK’s share of the foreign market was 14%, followed by Germany and France with just above 8% each. So even after Brexit, the UK market is still almost double the next biggest market, and bigger than Russia, China, and Italy combined.

That said, 44% of buyers came from the ‘rest of the world’ in a sign of the increasing global diversification of demand for property in Spain.

Demand from Bulgaria grew the most, up 16%, followed

by Morocco, the Ukraine,

and the ‘rest of the world’, which contributed the biggest increase in foreign buyers in absolute terms with more than 600 more buyers, followed by the UK with 301 more buyers, up 14%.

At the other end of the scale purchases by the Swiss were down 15%, and by the French down 10%.

Switzerland is a small market of around 150 purchases per quarter, so a small change in buyer numbers can deliver a high percentage change and we can’t read too much into one quarterly decline, though generally speaking sales are about 10% down from 2016 when the Swiss Franc was incredibly strong against the Euro.

France, on the other hand, has traditionally been the second biggest market, and a decline of 10% is noteworthy. What might be the cause of this double-digit decline whilst almost all other markets are growing? I suspect the answer has something to do with the constitutional crisis in Catalunya, a Spanish regions that borders with France, where the French have long been the biggest group of foreign buyers, with 43% of the

June 6th - June 19th 2018 June 2018

foreign market for second homes, according to the latest figures from the Association of Spanish Notaries. The Catalan separatist drive to break away from Spain has shattered foreign confidence in the region, and some developers in Barcelona I have talked to report their foreign clients

have vanished since the crisis erupted with a disputed referendum last October.

The Registradores do not say how foreign demand breaks down by region, but it is likely that all regions have seen an increase in buyers from abroad, with the possible exception of Catalunya.

Property

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June 6th - June 19th 2018 June 2018

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Not my problem

GAME AND SET: Becker home squatted

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Plans to make historic farmhouse in Mijas into an art gallery ONE of Mijas Costa’s last surviving links to its past could become an art museum.

The run-down cortijo Los Limones, which sits by the A-7 motorway between Fuengirola and Mijas, had been scheduled to be demolished.

But, the opposition PP party believes the historic farmhouse at the start of the Camino de Coin, shows an important link to Mijas’ agricultural and cultural history.

BORIS Becker has hit back at claims hippies have taken over his mansion in Spain insisting it is no longer his.

It came after bearded Bohemian Georg Berres, from Germany, said he planned to ‘save’ the exWimbledon champion's holiday home in the rural town of Arta, Mallorca, by turning it into a commune.

However, the former tennis star spoke out explaining the home had been repossessed some years ago, after financial

Recycling history 16 IV

Historic home will become epicentre of new pedestrianised Torremolinos ...

SCRAPPED ... while petrol station to other protected Costa delreplace Sol site

VESTIGE OF THE PAST:

A

Cortijo de Los Limones

PROTECTED Costa del Sol property is to be knocked down to make way for a petrol station.

The 100-year-old farmhouse in Mijas is to lose its listed status to allow developers to prime land beside themove onto the A7 motorway.

The controversial move has angered locals and environmentalists, who had hoped the historic Cortijo de to maintain los Limones building.

Rural

story of María Barrabino, who inherited the home from her aunt, Maria Melgar,as well as the hacienda San Miguel.

Architect Moreno Peralta added that the house allows us to discover ‘the origin of Torremolinos’.

Once opened to the public, the museum will tell the story of María, who donated land to the poor, assisted with the creation of several soup kitchens and helped to eradicate tuberculosis in Torremolinos.

"She was a great benefactor," added the architect.

WELL RESPECTED: The Barrabino family gave land away and opened soup kitchens

The former lemon and tation, on the Caminoorange plande Coin, in Las Lagunas, is one minders of the area’sof very few re“Why are we losing rural past. this valuable historic building to make way for a gas station?,” asked Angel Nozal, of Mijas former mayor PP party.

“There are already two petrol stations on the same stretch so it makes no sense.”

He added: “It is a miserable decision as it has been cultural reminder ofan important lives of the people whothe former were alive in the fifties.”

The decision to remove ing’s status came after the buildhall, run by Ciudadanos, the town decided that the building had no integral architectural value nor historical

LANDMARK: It stands

and its cobbled form inside

interest.

Town planning boss has now started the Andrés Ruiz process to modify its status.

Ruiz said: “After asking the owners as well as our town planners, both parties agree that the farmhouse does not have any special feature that deserves such protection.”

The PP party had previously planned to see it renovated and some sort of museum. turned into The petrol station will 10% of the land, with only take up to be used for further the rest likely Nozal pointed to thedevelopment. success of similar restorations Ermita building and of the Doña the old winery Don Elías.

What is your view?

Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es

on key location on A7

AT RISK: Cortijo Limones and (right) previous story last year

ed buildings in the town.

Town planning boss Andrés Ruiz launched the process to modify its status in September last year, but it has still not been formally agreed.

Ruiz said: “After asking the owner as well as our technicians, both parties agree that the farmhouse does not have any special feature

that deserves such protection.”

But as Nozal countered: “There are already two petrol stations on the same stretch so it makes no sense.”

He added: “It is a miserable decision as it has been an important cultural reminder of the former lives of the people who were alive in the fifties.”

Paddy power

SLEEK: Interior of hotel

IRISH businessman Denis O’Brien has built a second hotel at his PGA Catalunya Resort for €6.5 million.

It brings his investment in the hotel and golf resort to date to about €120 million.

He is now developing some 400 villas and apartments on 300 hectares to include a lake and winery.

The just-built 50-bed Lavida Hotel is aimed at golf enthusiasts and tourists drawn to the area’s cycling, hiking, trekking, and horse riding trails, not to mention nearby historic Girona.

The PGA Catalunya Resort already includes two fine 18-hole golf courses, the 145-bedroom Hotel Camiral and 250 apartments, townhouses and villas.

Ivory towers

THE members of Spain’s antiausterity party Podemos have voted unanimously that leader Pablo Iglesias should not step down after buying a €600,000 ‘luxury’ home.

The party’s half a million members voted with a 70/30 split that it was not wrong for the staunch left-wing politician Pablo Iglesias to buy the property - which has a swimming pool and a guest house - in Galapagar, northwest of Madrid.

He explained that he and his girlfriend, fellow Podemos polítician Irene Montero, need the extra space as they are about to have twins.

September October 27th2017 - October 10th 2017

ORNATE: The home will be restored to its former glory

T

ORREMOLINOS town hall has vowed to fork out more than €1 million to protect its landmark Maria Barrabino house.

It comes as part of a project by the town to pedestrianise its historic centre.

The house, built in the 19th century, reflects the tastes of the then Malaga bourgeoisie, and still retains much of its original design and structure.

The town hall will pay €1.1 million to the heirs of Barrabino, who was a key figure in the area, and whose family still own important property there.

PSOE Mayor Jose Ortiz described the purchase as a ‘great milestone’ for the city as ‘the first symbolic stone of the great pedestrian boulevard’, which has been designed by the architect Salvador Moreno Peralta in the center of Torremolinos.

He added that the building ‘treasures unforgettable memories of the municipality in different times and is one of the forgotten buildings with the most architectural value on the Costa del Sol.’ The bad state of the house has led to acts of vandalism that have damaged the hand-decorated kitchen tiles and vintage stair handrails, which are topped with carved wooden lions.

Although the remodeling work is said to be complicated, the town hall remains convinced of the necessity of integrating the property into the urban strategy of the town centre.

This strategy includes the pedestrianization of the Costa del Sol square, an enclave intimately linked to the

ties now housing CAC Mijas Contemporary Arts Centre.

The Olive Press reported last year how it was scheduled to be knocked down to make way for a petrol station, under orders from the current mayor from Ciudadanos.

It came after leader Juan Carlos Maldonado took it off the catalogue of protect-

UNDER FIRE: Iglesia

www.theolivepress.es Property

SAVED

Petrol station

PP leader Angel Nozal wants to renovate the building, which has been abandoned for several years.

“It could be a key municipal tourism office or an art museum,” said Nozal, “If it has been there for so long... it deserves to be protected and to have a use that benefits all residents.”

The house, next to the Las Islas Marianas roundabout, would add to the town’s list of rescued heritage buildings being put to municipal use, such as the old Don Elias winery, a former flour mill and the historic proper-

troubles.

Berres, 44, later admitted he only discovered the €14 million villa, called Son Coll, was previously owned by the former world No 1 tennis player when German media showed up.

He has already cut weeds and picked up rubbish as a number of helper friends have already moved in with him.

Becker, 50, was declared bankrupt last June after blowing his £100 million fortune and neighbours confirmed to have not seen the tennis star in years.

MODERN: PGA Catalunya

Iglesias had previously criticised the former Economy Minister Luis de Guindos for buying a similarly priced apartment in 2012.

“Would you hand the economic policy of the country to someone who spends 600,000 euros on a luxury apartment?,” Iglesias then tweeted.

Several political commentators and real estate experts questioned the timing of the purchase of the house in Galapagar.

“With the public data we have, it looks like the couple have taken on more risk than is advisable,” said Juan Villen, the head of mortgage services at Idealista.

“It is not setting a good example to get into debt in this way, especially at a time when we’re asking for prudence from the financial industry to avoid the excesses of the past.”

Iglesias and his partner took out a 90% mortgage of €540,000 on the property, which they plan to pay off over 30 years.

Property

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June 6th - June 19th 2018 June 2018

€16,200,000

B

S e Em do pai st v ai ln n i ew yo ? ew W i u sd es thi ha n k@ n t ol k? ive pr es s.e s

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Es Bosc, Ibiza If you’re looking to excite all your senses you’ve come to the right place ... this sprawling villa, built on stone and perched on a cliff, really has it all.

Built in Mudejar style, it’s filled with Moroccan-inspired furnishings (below left) and comes complete with an infinity pool and stunning views of the whole island.

Other features include a wine cellar, staff quarters, huge gardens and fireplace.

Christiesrealestate.com ID: IS10723

WOAH… We’re going to

Ibiza

I

BIZA is officially the priciest property hotspot in Spain.

According to Pisos.com, the Balearic island’s four municipalities are the most expensive in the country after prices rose 17% last year.

Average home prices in Ibiza town now exceed €495 per square foot, which is 25% higher than Sitges, in Catalunya, and 40% higher than prime locations on Mallorca.

The surge in prices has come with a reboot of luxury island attractions, including the expansion of the marina in Ibiza Town, which can now accommodate super yachts, as well as several new top-tier hotels and restaurants.

These include the likes of Sublimotion, which has fixed-price dinners at €1,550, or La Granja Ibiza Retreat, where stays also fetch €1,550 a night. In the spirit of all things luxury, we’ve rounded up the island’s most impressive high-end properties.

Villa Nell, Ibiza Town Villa Nell’s architecture blends seamlessly into the landscape.

From the immaculate green lawn and fragrant citrus trees, to the white walls against the blue Ibiza sky and the sound of the waterfall along the rear façade. Situated on former agricultural land, the villa enjoys a unique unobstructed view of the town and bay, and year-long unrivaled sunsets.

The property boasts almond trees, vineyards and 66 olive trees which produce an exquisite range of organic oil.

There is also a gym and outdoor pool.

+€10,000,000 (POA)

www.theolivepress.es

www.laherradurahomes.com

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30 % SO L

D

Visit o u SHOW r FLAT on sit e

5000 EURO FURNITURE VOUCHER IF YOU RESERVE IN MAY

35 recently finished townhouses with 2, 3 and 4 bedrooms all with big terraces, sea views, garage, storage and community pool within a short walk to the beach and amenities from 265,000â‚Ź

Call our on site sales office on 652 736 253 or email us at costadelsol@maklarringen.se Bought to you exclusively by

Maklarringen is a Swedish real estate agency with 70 offices in Sweden and a long presence in Spain and on the whole Costa del Sol.

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Property

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€17,000,000

Villa Bemus, Ibiza Perched on a cliff above the sea, this estate sits on more than one hectare with the house sprawled over 1.000 m2.The villa is built on three levels with spacious terraces and porches, containing a whopping 22 rooms and 24 bathrooms, a fully equipped professional kitchen, various lounges and seating areas and a service apartment. The spacious garden has various chill-out areas, viewpoints and a large infinity pool surrounded by Palm trees, with a tennis court to boot!

Christiesrealestate.com IS10164

ID:

+ €10 million (POA)

Villa Marés, Can Pep Simo This 28.000m2 villa on top of a hill offers majestic 360º views of the island and beyond.

It counts seven bedrooms, a huge outdoor pool, gym and a guest house for visiting friends or staff.

Christiesrealestate.com ID: IS4090

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84 5, 00 0€

Tel +34 952 816 250

VILLA – EL CAMPANARIO, ESTEPONA 4 Beds • 3 Baths • 550 Built m2 • Terrace 200m2 • REF 176-01380P New project now being built and with estimated delivery summer 2019. This very well located residential site overlooks the charming El Campanario Golf & Country Club, just minutes from San Pedro and Marbella. The development will consist of 4 luxury, southfacing golf villas with built sizes of over 300m2 and plot sizes of over 550m2. Modern design and high quality materials are the principals of the project. There is now an opportunity to reserve your new home and customize & modify the choice of materials and even the layout and distribution. There are basement options and an option for a roofterrace with wet bar and jacuzzi. All villas have 3 off-street parking spaces. Prices starting at 845.000 euros

Centro Comercial Plaza 63, 29660 Nueva Andalucia, Marbella Tel +34 952 816 250 • info@andadev.com • www.andadev.com

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Benalmadena

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Issue 293

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August 7 - August 20 2014

June 6th - June 19th 2018

A different spirit Benalmadena is uplifting in more ways than one, discovers Iona Napier

AFTER my wife died I spent three years travelling the world to find the perfect place to spend the rest of my life,” explains Bob Bainbridge, who moved to Benalmadena two years ago.

“And there is something very special about this town, something undeniably different.”

He isn’t kidding. We’re on a sleepy back road in Benalmadena pueblo, heading towards an enormous gold monument glinting spectacularly in the midday sun that happens to be the biggest Buddhist temple in Europe.

Honour

A whopping 33 metres high, it was the final project of Buddhist master Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche, who was so smitten by Benalmadena’s multi-cultural mix that he built the stupa in 2003 in its honour.

“The sense of calm and community feeling here is very strong,” continues Bob, who had quickly volunteered to become my self-appointed guide for the day.

Touchingly, friendly Bob cut short his cana to give me a personal escort around the village, chucking in his abridged life story for free.

Strolling around in surfer flip flops, with long grey hair, he is the very epitome of the sort of laid back, cultured travellers who would have first arrived in the village in the 1960s.

Up here, in the hills, it is a very different feel to the heaving tourist meccas of Benalmadena costa, Torremolinos and Fuengirola far down below.

The cluster of white houses sit at 280m and count on lovely sea views and a sense of green space and hills.

“You’re close to the action but not in the thick of it, and there are some really good people here, not to mention great bars,” enthuses 68-year-old widower Bob, a reBREATHTAKING: Buddhist stupor and (inset) Bil Bil castle

Continues on Page 30

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From Page 29

ICONIC: Watch tower in Benalmadena

tired electrician from York whose new home overlooks the stupa.

As the temple represents peace, prosperity and harmony it’s good feng shui although not something Bob considered at the time.

It’s also only one of Benalmadena’s many curiosities that intrigue all-comers.

Enchanting Colomares Castle is another – an ornate palace built in 1992 by a certain doctor Esteban Martin in honour of Christopher Columbus – go figure.

Without a single architectural qualification to his credit he did a stunning job with this unlikely Gothic hillside structure whose ornate towers and spires rise skyward like a fairytale illustration.

Once used for falconry shows until locals complained about the birds preying on their cats, everyone loves it for its Hans Andersen vibe.

And while you’re up here, don’t miss the Mariposario – another extraordinary attraction housing 1,500 exotically-coloured butterflies.

The pueblo is a bijou gem of gourmet tapas bars clustered along narrow alleyways that emerge into picturesque floral squares.

Restaurants like Longhorn del Sol, stylish tapas bar Gastro La Tajea, and Italian trattoria Palo Doro give the village a gastronomic edge.

It’s not just Brits who flock to this enclave. Teresa Garcia, on holiday with her doctor daughter and adorable baby grandson from Madrid, waxes lyrical as they look out over the ocean from Colomares castle, getting to geographical grips with Benalmadena’s triple

Sanitas Seguros C/ Sagitario, 5, Arroyo de la Miel, Benalmadena - Malaga, 29631 Tel. 952 964 728 Mobile: 648 747 828 louisemetherell1@gmail.com Imetherell.pex@sanitas.es mgemovic.pex@sanitas.es

FAIRYTALE: The Hans Andersen style Colomares Castle

decker topography that epitomis- The Moors developed agricules the something-for-everyone ture, introducing sugar cane, figs, cliché – from feathered vultures grapes and mulberry trees from wheeling skyward to fodder for the East during the 11th century, culture vultures when the local down at sea levpopulation was el, where we can concentrated Bil Bil recalls spot Moorishwithin the pretty the age when inspired Bil Bil walled town.

Castle, host to But that’s anMuslim foreigners countless modother story. Mine ern art expos continues downinvaded these and concerts. hill to Arroyo de shores Bil Bil recalls the la Miel, jutting age when Musout like a ballim foreigners incony between vaded these shores and brought the sky above and the sea below. huge prosperity to the pueblo in This is Benalmadena’s sharp the hills where Benalmadena’s end where the real business of story began. shopping, working and living gets

done.

It’s also home to one of the resort’s most enduring family attractions - Tivoli World, open every day in June from 4pm to midnight and in July and August from 5.30pm-1.30am.

From here, via the iconic Teleferico cable car, you can go up or down. Once you get used to seeing sea, and not snow, beneath your swaying cabin you can appreciate being lifted up to the peak of Mount Calamorro, over the A-7 road, with spectacular views and live shows in summer.

If you prefer to walk to the bottom, take the route through stunning La Paloma park, a peaceful 200,000m2 urban oasis of

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SCENIC: Church in Benalmadena pueblo and (right) the port

greenery with shady lakeside rina while 10km of coastline can walkways and a menagerie of deliver the perfect beach – rocky surprising wildlife. cove, sandy strip or nudist colony They say the Spanish embrace - whatever your whim. siesta culture and Benalmadena Here you will also find the incredat 4pm presents strong evidence ibly popular Sunset Beach Hotel, to support this. probably the coast’s most sucBut down the bottom of town cessful place to stay, balancing I fall upon Irish bar El Chorrillo quality with value and rarely less where the mainly British clien- than 80% full. tele are discussing Brexit over Sybarites and socialisers head their pints of Guinness and G & for Calle Bonanza, where the Ts. Lounge Bar is the unofficial Guiri Iris Lawrence, 68, swapped Army HQ but most visitors end south London for the south of up at the port, the jewel in the Spain in her 40s, after a career resort’s crown. as PA for one of BP oil’s top ex- Winner of the ‘Best Marina in ecutives. She has some tales to the World’ award more than tell. once, it’s an allJust like Bob, white and more she came here down-to-earth The pueblo will on holiday to version of mulstill be there visit her friend ticoloured SoJill and ‘never retogrande Port, to soothe your ally left’. with pseudo“It’s changed a Moorish archihangover and lot here in 20 tecture and years with con- quench your thirst minaret domes siderable desuggesting velopment,” Iris Mr Whippy ice relates, gesturing at old photo- cream – and you can still get a graphs of donkeys and traps in 99 here. the street, taken just decades Designer boutiques, bars and ago. “But I still love it here.” restaurants do a roaring trade, Outside siesta time, breezy Be- especially after dark when the nalmadena Costa is undoubt- waterfront twinkles with rainedly the beating heart of town bow-coloured lights and the diswith its bar-lined beach strip and cos get going. pumping port.

By day there’s scuba diving, SegTwo glorious kilometres of ways, bikes, dolphin cruises - it’s seafront stretch between the not for lazy landlubbers. ziggurat-shaped Benal Beach In my best Spanish I ask four apartments and the swanky ma- handsome seadogs basking

atop a luxury white catamaran in smart shirts if I can take their photo. Skipper Jason replies with an English ‘yes’.

This working Brit guarantees to show you dolphins Monday to Friday and his two-hour booze cruises top Tripadvisor's list of outdoor pursuits in Benalmadena.

Just down the promenade, Laura Castillon can take you on a 10-minute Segway tour of the marina to give you a taste of these curious pogo sticks on wheels.

“I would say 70% of tourists here are Brits,” she reveals.

“After that there’s around 20% Dutch and the other 10% is a melting pot with a tiny 1% of Spaniards.”

She continues: “I should add that the English always behave impeccably and we love working with you.”

Time to sample Benalmadena’s coolest bar, entirely made of frozen water.

Essentially a walk-in fridge with blue walls, garish music and all revellers dressed in floor-length fur ponchos, if you’re seeking respite from the 40 degree heat, the Ice Bar has my full recommendation. So don your furs – whether for an elegant, on-board soiree or a spell in the fridge bar – and strut your stuff until the wee small hours. The pueblo will still be there to soothe your hangover and quench your thirst for peace and quiet tomorrow.

Considering purchasing a

Maze Solutions experienced retail consultants based on the Costa Del Sol. So if you’re considering purchasing a bar, restaurant or shop, we cover everything you will require from

£ Removal Planning

Menu Planning

Pet Transport

Supplier Introductions

Detailed Gross Profit Plan

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Health & Safety Documentation

We also work hand in hand with Seradsur consultancy who will guide you through all legal aspects of setting up the business, including recruitment and contract implementation.

We provide the full package From door to door to ensure you start in the right direction with no stress.

Or if you need help with your established business we can also offer assistance.

BUSTLING: Tourists and locals enjoying Benalmadena beach

(+34)689 253 010

mazesolutions@hotmail.com

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Benalmadena has transformed dramatically since its modest fishing village days

Do I need health insurance?

Need health insurance? Struggling to make sense of Spanish insurance policies?

Look no further. Sanitasforexpats based on the Costa del Sol, has been created specifically for expats looking to take out a new health insurance policy.

Seguros We spoke to Sanitas Sanitas’ Client Relationship Manager, Louise Metherell, about how health C/ Sagitario, 5, Arroyo deprivate la Miel, insurance could not only save expats a lot of time Benalmadena - Malaga, 29631 but also unnecessary stress.

Tel. 952 964 728 Mobile: 648 747 828 1. Why should Brits have health insurlouisemetherell1@gmail.com ance?

Whilst the Spanish healthcare system is excellent, Imetherell.pex@sanitas.es the waiting times for appointments can be long. mgemovic.pex@sanitas.es With private health insurance it is significantly

Rolling back the years!

I

T h o S The dev awa But day her Sitt gor its n But trad From the

shorter and sometimes the client can be seen the next day. It also offers a wider choice of doctors and hospitals which can be invaluable.

2. Why should they choose Sanitas?

Sanitas has a huge network of doctors and hospitals and as part of Bupa it enjoys the best facilities in Spain. We have over 40,000 professionals working with us.

BACK IN THE DAY: Benalmadena coast had the feel of Galicia’s Costa del Muerte in the 1950s, while its historic Torremuelle (above) has changed little

3. What makes Sanitasforexpats different to other insurance companies?

Sanitasforexpats was created specifically to help expat clients who may struggle with the healthcare system in Spain. We are renowned for our excellent customer service - we can book appointments, authorize treatment and due to our in-depth knowledge, we can recommend specific doctors. We also provide all documentation in English.

4. What services do you cover?

Sanitas covers medication, diagnostic tests, hospitalisation and surgical procedures. We also provide dental cover and funeral insurance.

5. How easy is it to insure with Sanitas?

It is a very easy process. There is a simple application form which can be completed online, over the phone or at our office.

6. What are the main issues expats face when dealing with health care abroad?

One of the main issues is the language barrier and having English speaking medical staff can make the experience a lot less stressful. Also, as a lot of companies only produce their documents in Spanish, it can be difficult to understand your policy. This is why we created Sanitasforexpats - to make sure you know exactly what policy you are taking out.

7. What advice would you offer to expats regarding health cover?

Make sure you understand the policy before you purchase it to ensure that you are getting the level of cover that you require. This is particularly important if applying for residency. Be careful of special offers that have very low starting premiums as they may suddenly double later! Read the small print!

8. How can expats get in touch with Sanitasfor expats?

By visiting our website: www.sanitasforexpats.es, calling us on: +34 952 964 728, visiting our Facebook page: SanitasForExpats, or by coming into the office in Benalmadena.

SURROUNDED: Bil Bil Ca

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T’S hard to imagine Benalmadena as anything other than the buzzing holiday hotspot it is today, but it was once a poor modest fishing village accessible only by dirt roads and nestled on a sprawling countryside reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands, or, closer to home, Galicia’s rugged Costa del Muerte. e town was transformed in the 1950s when it became among the first to be veloped into a resort for UK and European jet-setters who could afford a break ay from the likes of smoggy London and Berlin. t since the tourism boom throughout the 70s and 80s and the package holiy phenomenon of the 90s, hotels, restaurants and beach clubs have sprung up re at break neck speed - and it’s hardly surprising. ting just west of Malaga, a short drive from the airport brings you to 7km of rgeous sandy beaches packed with a multitude of restaurants and bars along newly improved promenade. t there are still remnants of the old Spanish village up in the pueblo, with its ditional Spanish architecture and culture. m churches to historic look-out towers, it’s comforting to see the remnants of ese now tourist hotspots still exist beyond just black and white photos.

astle today and 50 years ago

Costa del style

AFTER celebrating its first year of business in September, New Styles Hair and Beauty continues to dominate, offering the best beauty treatments on the coast.

The salon is the brainchild of Lynn Montgomery who, having learnt the tricks-of-the-trade in Ireland, hopes to turn it into a recognised brand.

'Five star service at normal prices' is their motto and with treatments including waxing, massages, facials and nail treatments for both ladies and gents there really is something for everyone.

Located in Arroyo de la Miel, the salon can also look after all your needs with regard to hair styling and colour.

"Having set up shop over a year ago the response has been fantastic," Lynn told the Olive Press.

Dubliner Montgomery says the Costa del Sol has it all.

"Everything from the weather, the people and lifestyle is a dream.

"I absolutely love it."

TALENTS: Lynn with Tracy

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Benalmadena has some great places to eat when you know where to look, writes Jon Clarke

Sunset dreaming With a huge range of facilities, activities and shows, it is no surprise that Sunset Beach Club is one of the Costa del Sol’s most successful hotels, writes Jon Clarke

Pasaje Malaga 2 Local 10 Arroyo de Miel Benalmadena info@nickysenglishacademy.com 951 391 798 - 666 215 125 Opening times 16:30 - 20:30

Try Our Heated Indoor Salt Water Hydro Pool

W

ITH its Padi dive school, gym and round-the-clock entertainment, you hardly need to look outside its four walls.

Add in three restaurants, a supermarket, hairdresser and beautician and it feels like a town in itself.

This is the Sunset Beach Club Resort, one of the most successful hotels on the Costa del Sol. Occupation has been up every year for the last decade, despite the recession, and the hotel caters for nearly 2,000 guests a day in peak season – and rarely under 1000 at any time of the year.

And is it any wonder, with the amount of activities on offer, including aerobics, cookery and Spanish classes all year round, not to mention billiards, live music and power walking.

And then come the weddings, with around two dozen in the key months of May and September alone.

“We get over 90 a year and starting at €5,400 (40 guests) an event we think that is terrific value,” explains manager Mark Wardell.

It doesn’t seem much.

But, of course, by the time you have factored in the guests rooms, their meals and mini-bar tabs (the majority are Irish, after all), it becomes a profitable business for the hotel.

Sitting on a fantastic head-

land next to two lovely beaches, it is perhaps no surprise that Sunset has continued to grow every year for the last seven, despite the recession.

An incredibly well-run ship, the hotel - one of the biggest on the Costa del Sol - consistently delivers to holidaymakers from all around the world…. over 50 different nationalities this year so far!

And it definitely does not scrimp and save on food, entertainment – or indeed on its fantastic rooms – having spent a whopping €22m upgrading its facilities since the Millenium, and millions more being spent to keep the standards up.

Without a doubt the price/ quality level is one of the best in Southern Spain and the food in all three restaurants is excellent.

Locals rave about the live concerts – some of the best on the coast - which are free to expats, as well as the beach restaurant and fantastic pool and playground area for kids.

“My ideal guest never leaves the premises and is never in need of anything,” explains Dubliner Wardell. “Security and safety would always be our number one priority but on a day to day basis from the moment the cleaning team moves in at 2am to the last bar closing at 4 am our real job is to make people happy.”

“We are now investing regularly to keep us at pole position on the Costa del Sol.”

Pick and mix

I

N the bustling tourist hub that is Benalmadena you could be forgiven for failing to find anywhere genuinely decent to eat.

With mass tourism the norm, hundreds of average Fish Alleystyle establishments bash out bog-standard fodder, whether it be in the port, sea front or up in Arroyo de la Miel.

There are, of course, exceptions, one of the best being stylish Coast, in the heart of the busy marina.

Owned by the talented Metro Group, which runs over a dozen restaurants on the coast, this attractive spot has tables overlooking the boats, or on comfortable banquettes in the seductively-lit interior.

There is an It serves up an impressive mix of and international dishimpressive salad Spanish es, with a nice wine list to boot.

I particularly liked the mix startsection with ers sharing platter for only 21 7 selections, euros, which included some real including sesame including Waldorf chestnuts chicken fingers and prawn and avocado cocktail.

There is an impressive salad section with seven choices, including the world famous Waldorf salad, with goats cheese, apple, celery and grape.

Main courses include a fabulous Wagyu beef burger, with smoked cheese, which is moist and succulent, as well as delicious lamb cutlets.

Nearby you might also check out Jack’s American, as well as Gaucho and Metro for other decent spots in the poart.

Up in the village, one of the best places to check out is Italian Pala d’oro, which is set around a patio and with cool, stylish in-

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STYLISH: Hip interior of Coast

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June 6th - June 19th 2018

NIGHT AND DAY: Luna beach is Benalmadena’s best chiringuito

VARIETY: Kaleido and Blankko

terior.

Hosts Sandro, Alessandro and chef Matteo Manzato, from Venice, have a great repertoire and you will love the gnocchi stuffed with courgette and a natural goats cheese Asiago, especially imported from Italy, while the speck ham with rocket and walnuts and a balsamic sauce had just the right balance.

A stunning dish of pappardelle with truffle comes highly recommended, while the wine list is appropriately angled towards top Italian vineyards.

If modern tapas is more your thing, make a beeline to superb La Tajea, a hip spot in a backstreet of the casco historico.

Set up by four local friends, it aches with stylish touches, in particular its lighting and upside down garden on the ceiling.

But the food is also excellent - and superb value - with such chestnuts as blue fin tuna chops, which were delicious and tasty on the wallet at just €4.50.

A beetroot ‘porra Antequerana’ soup was very original and almost as good as the ajo blanco, with pine nuts, grapes and cherry tomatoes, while the artichokes with jamon iberico and foie was rich

TEAM: At Palo Doro in the village and delicious.

Down on the coast, it is well worth seeking out the amazing chiringuito Luna Beach, run by the nearby hotel Sunset Beach.

You literally couldn’t ask for a more romantic spot, right by the water with the waves lapping at your feet.

Subtly-lit, this natural spot - all thatched roofs, simple deckings and rope fences - also counts on an excellent menu, at extremely good value.

I particularly liked the grilled langoustines, which came with a choice of sauces and a very generous green salad, while the brochette of chicken and salmon looked great too.

A starter of veggie spring rolls were excellent in sweet chili relish, while a rack of lamb is available for the more hearty eaters.

A wine list includes the excellent Payoya Negra from Ronda, as well as the good value Habla de Silencio from Extremadura, at €22.

Once you have been wined and dined, head next door to Salitos, for some of the best cocktails on the coast, and in a great position too.

Also on a romantic tip, you must definitely take a look at Blankko, which sits under an old defensive fort in Torremuelle with views up and down the coast.

Here, you sit overlooking the sea, with stylish white tables and plenty of creative flourishes.

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IX 37

June 6th - June 19th 2018 June 2018

Sherry appealing

AMBITIOUS PROJECT: The family seat of Jerez’s sherry magnates, the Gordons, has come up for sale in Scotland

ORIGINAL: Architect John Adam

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ONCE grand mansion linked to the Span- He said: “Of course, I am sad to let Wardhouse ish royal family has gone up for sale in go but I have got to this stage with the project Scotland. Wardhouse near Insch, Aber- and now is the time to hand it on. It is an absodeenshire, was left behind in the 1950s lutely brilliant project for someone to take on by the ‘Spanish Gordons’, a - an architect’s dream.” branch of a prominent north He added that the current head east family whose lineage took of the Spanish Gordons clan, King Alfonso XIII on an Iberian connection after who lives between Sevilla and several of its members moved spent part of his Madrid, has already been in to Jerez to make their fortune in touch. honeymoon at sherry.

It is said that King Alfonso XIII The sprawling estate was despent part of his honeymoon at Wardhouse in signed by Scottish architect Wardhouse in 1906 following John Adam in 1757, but it has his marriage to Victoria Eug1906 fallen into disrepair since being enie of Battenberg, the grandabandoned 60 years ago. daughter of Queen Victoria, who But now it can be yours for was born at Balmoral Castle. £500,000 (€573,000).

The King was a close friend of the 10th laird Current ownr Architect Douglas Forrest tried to of Wardhouse, Rafael Gordon, who was born at create his vision for the historic site, but is now Madrid’s Royal Palace where his mother was passing the project on. lady-in-waiting to Queen Maria Cristina.

VISITOR: King Alfonso XIII

SCOPE: Much can be done at the mansion near Aberdeen

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In the

June 6th - June June19th 2018 2018

NEW BUILD: Recent Marbella project

As it reaches a ten-year milestone, Laurence Dollimore asks Sally Blackshaw what the ingredients are to her design company’s success

S DESIGN QUEEN: Boss Sally

ALLY Blackshaw has come a long way since sketching out her dream homes as a child back in the UK. And in the end her creativity paid off dividends, when after becoming the first person in her family to go to university to study design, she landed a top job in London as a shop designer for Gap. And, now the Leicestershire girl has gone many steps further running her own inte-

CREATIVE: Light and spacious interior

rior design company, in Marbella.

The hard-working entrepreneur is now celebrating 10 years at the helm of Black-

Naked luxury

shaw Interior Design, which launched back in 2008.

And despite years of recession in Spain, she has managed to build an instantly recognizable brand for the business, that employs four designers in the heart of Andalucia’s wealthiest resort.

Blackshaw’s handpicked team of designers, architects and structural designers come from around the world and are capable of taking on any job.

And today, it is a lot more than just interior designs, with the company also undertaking renovations and new builds across the entire residential, retail and commercial sectors.

“I just love the satisfaction of breathing new life into something,” explains Sally, who was most recently tasked with turning the exclusive Nine Lions development in Nueva Andalucia, into something amazing.

And her secret? Caring about the client.

SHOWROOM: In Marbella

CAPTION. Sequiam rerferu ptatur aspero quunto

A

GLASS house in the middle of the Tabernas desert is giving new meaning to living with transparency.

Available to rent on Airbnb, the villa’s walls are made entirely of see-through crystal. Although, being in the middle of nowhere, it’s unlikely to attract peeping Toms.

Featuring just one single room and a glass-walled toilet, the Glass Pavilion is the brainchild of OFIS architects and Guardian Glass.

The floor-to-ceiling windows are also structurally and thermally efficient and work with the light and shade to create the illusion of separate rooms.

The flat roof reflects the desert back into the building, creating an immersive effect. Its angular design, pointed in the direction of the mountains, ensures that sunlight only reaches the interior of the home at cooler points of the day.

The pavilion will remain as a holiday home for now, with guests being able to rent it for a week at a time on tourist sharing platforms like Airbnb.

Just remember to throw no stones, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t.

“We work really closely with our clients and get fulfillment in giving homes and businesses a new functionality. “We’re not your typical design studio, it’s not just cut and paste and we really care about our client’s vision and want the best for them.

“We always keep in touch after the project is finished, and they often send us pictures saying they still love what we did, and that’s a great feeling.” The company has made a name for itself for delivering complex interior design and building projects both on time and to budget. “You can leave us to handle everything from obtaining the necessary licences to overseeing the construction,” explains Sally.

“We’ve just built our first villa from scratch in Nueva Andalucia, and ahead of schedule! So we look forward to doing more projects like these.”

Contact Blackshaw Interior Design on 951 403 787 or email info@blackshawinteriordesign. com. www.blackshawinteriordesign. com

Property

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June 6th - June 19th May 20182018

BEFORE // AFTER

Since 2008

New builds, architectural renovations, construction, licenses and project management. Commercial and residential interior design. Design studio and construction offices / showroom Marbella centre.

www.blackshawinteriordesign.com +34 951 403 787 I +34 681 662 000 Avd. Canovas del Castillo 25, Marbella, Mรกlaga, 29601

226_blackshaw.indd 1

21/05/2018 16:04

XII 40

Property

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June 6th - June 19th June 20182018

PRICELESS POOL: Aerial shot shows off the Picasso sketch at the bottom of the pool

RECORD PRICE: The home once owned by famous dancer went for ‘over €15 million’

VIEWS: Frontline vistas by Banus

Stroke of genius

A

LAVISH: Interiors are grand and luxurious

BRITISH-owned beach mansion featuring a Pablo Picasso work has sold for ‘at least €15 million’ at auction.

The Malaga maestro painted and signed the bottom of the Marbella pad’s pool for his good friend and famous flamenco dancer Antonio El Bailarin Ruiz Soler.

The property has been sold at auction tomorrow with no reserve price, although it was previously on the market for €15 million.

The bidding will close on May 31 and is being handled by Concierge Auctions.

The painting is a primitive sketch of a figure that could be that of Soler, featuring extended arms and a pointed toe.

Picasso wrote ‘Para Antonio’ above the figure and signed the bottom, dated October 29 1961.

The six-bedroom main house features polished stone floors and Greco-Roman-inspired fixtures, including marble fireplaces and a dining room lined in columned

archways. Two guest houses contain three bedrooms and additional living spaces, according to Concierge.

The home currently belongs to a limited liability company linked to British citizens.

Charlie Smith, a European adviser for Concierge Auctions said: “Beachfront properties are rare in this sought-after area of Southern Spain and beachfront villas offering this level of luxury living even more so.

“The buyer of the villa will not just be purchasing one of the region’s most prestigious properties, but also a one-of-kind piece of art.”

The home was previously on the market in 2014 for €15 million.

Owners turn to auctions when aspects of the home make it difficult to appraise the market price - in this case the Picasso sketch.

A bar, additional indoor pool, sauna, elevator and private beach access also come with the sprawling pad.

MAESTRO: Picasso was a friend of the owner

LUXURY: Home is decked out in the style of Versace

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41

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Property

Rock result www.theolivepress.es

Gibraltar turns heads at London’s biggest property expo

E

FPG Estate Agents based at 15 Irish Town, announced a joint initiative with Raine and Co, one of Southern England’s largest independent Estate Agents and have recently returned from a spectacularly successful exhibition at Olympia in London.

We reported in our previous edition EFPG Raine-international Ltd was the only company representing the Gibraltar property market in a property show that was dominated by Spanish companies and the response EFPG Raine-international received was phenomenal.

The exhibition A Place in the Sun Live far exceeded expected visitor numbers as people seemed to have shrugged off any Brexit blues, having endured a particularly cold British winter. Thoughts haveOLIVE definitely turned18 ANUNCIO PRESS ENERO again to owning a property overseas with warmer climates proving to be the biggest attraction.

June 6th - June June 19th 2018 2018

HUGE TURNOUT: Visitor numbers were much higher than expected at A Place in the Sun area with cafes, bars and restaurants, while residents will also benefit from state of the art leisure and concierge facilities.

This is an exciting time for Gibraltar and property investment has shown year on year consistent growth, the demand for quality property has continued to increase as a direct result of Gibraltar’s successful economy which continues to show no signs of slowing down.

Gibraltar offers many attractions to anyone considering purchasing a property overseas but also offers a great return for investors typically achieving yields in excess of 6% in the buy to let market. EFPG Raine-international received an overwhelming living in this small British outpost. ternational were offering all types of response to UK investors and holiday “The most frequent comment we reGibraltar property, a main feature of home buyers from the show, who are ceived was that ‘Gibraltar was not their exhibition was the new Eurocity now making arrangements to visit on the radar’ for the vast majority of development being constructed by the them to help and guide them in the visitors and we certainly gave many Bentley Investment Group. Eurocity is right move. people something to think about,” a to set a new benchmark of quality in If you missed out on this Exhibition spokesman said.

Gibraltar, to be formed of three towEFPG Raine-international said it was and are interested in what Gibraltar “Especially those looking to move to ers including Gibraltar’s tallest with fascinating to hear people’s views of can offer in the property investment southern Spain, who will now consider 22 storeys.

The development will offer Gibraltar1 and quite remarkable the market please contact EFPG Raine- inOK.pdf 22/1/18 15:33 366 apartments, some with unrivalled lack of knowledge some British people Gibraltar as a possible alternaternational Tel 00 350 200 65065 or views towards Spain and Africa. The actually have about Gibraltar with the tive.” email – enquiries@efpgestateagents.

Although EFPG Raine-inground level is to offer a lively retail many benefits of owning property or com.

Looking for Design Inspiration?

by mortgage broker Tancrede de Pola

MORTGAGE THINK TANK

Forget me not

Spain may be booming, but that’s never a reason to skip on hiring a mortgage broker SPAIN’S property market is the healthiest it’s been for years.

And the facts don’t lie, sales in the first quarter of this year were the highest they have been since the third quarter of 2008, the height of Spain’s property golden era.

A sign of good times ahead is that, according to the Land Register, foreign sales were up 13.2% compared to the first quarter of 2017.

It means the country’s property market is seen as a strong investment from buyers across the world.

More encouraging is that the Brits remain the biggest international group with a foreign market share of 14%.

It seems Brexit has been firmly shrugged off by the British, who have long been fundamental to the success of Spain’s property market.

Here at the Finance Bureau we have been kept extremely busy by Brits looking for a home in sunny Spain, and they made the right decision in seeking out a mortgage broker.

Buying a property overseas can be one of the best decisions you ever make, but if the correct steps aren’t taken, it could end up being the worst, without sounding too dramatic!

With established links to all the major Spanish lenders the Finance Bureau acts as a gobetween for the client and the bank – but it is important to remember that the broker is not connected to the bank - and works to find the

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The leading home decoration magazine for homeowners with style…

Tel. (+34) 951 38 38 97 | info@homeandlifestyle.es | www.homeandlifestyle.es

buyer the best deal available.

It’s important to have someone in your corner to highlight any hidden fees or compulsory add-ons tucked away in the small print and to ensure you get the best possible mortgage rate to suit your needs.

One of the biggest pitfalls can be ‘trap-related products’ that often get hidden in the small print.

These additional products get attached to your mortgage and usually include insurance policies.

It is important to know exactly what is attached to your mortgage. What may seem like a great rate can be soured by expensive – and sometimes unnecessary – insurance packages.

Using a broker will save both time and money as they will be looking out for these hidden add-ons and will always look for ways to lessen their impact.

And while the vast majority of banks specify the fees and commissions they charge, not all of these costs are always declared.

But the best way to ensure a good mortgage that does not hide anything in the fine print is to solicit the help of a mortgage broker.

When it comes to picking a mortgage, you must get it right on the first try as due to the relatively high transaction costs, it is virtually impossible to reverse.

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

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-final of Spanish TV talent show 3065 views

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BE ‘APPY!

The first land link between Europe and Africa could be green for go

A PROJECT to build an underwater tunnel connecting Spain and Africa is back on, experts have claimed.

Download our app now and A Spanish government combegin enjoying the best Spanish mittee currently exploring the possibility has said it is news on the go. still viable, despite construction challenges.

The 38 km-long tunnel would provide the first land link between Africa and Europe. It would be built 475 metres below sea level and mainly used MALAGA’S Logistics Park is to transport cargo by rail.

Rafael Garcia-Monge Fernanreaching bursting point.

Olive Press dez, president of the Spanish Just 3.9%The of the 800,000m2 complex is now available Society of Studies for Fixed Communication through the due to TOP the city’s exponenfor news in Spain! tial economic and commer- Strait of Gibraltar (SECEtold a press conference cial boom and businesses GSA), in Algeciras that the project is are running out of suitable back on. spaces to set up and grow. Previous studies questioned For instance the space the feasibility of the project shortage has forced Amazon but Herrenknecht, the largto locate its future distribu- est tunnel construction comtion centre in Los Prados. pany in the world, carried out And while the Trévenez In- a new assessment with the dustrial Zone is set to ex- University of Zurich which pand, the new 92.000 m2 of concluded that the tunnel is units are already reserved, possible. according to the consultory A tailor-made prototype of a CBRE. The only alternative tunnel borer will be the next for businesses in Málaga at step, costing €32 million. the moment is to wait for Spain and Morocco both want someone else to leave or set the tunnel but at an estimated

Logistically full

Tunnel vision PRICEY: An €8 billion cost means the EU may have to help fund the tunnel

€8 billion, the EU would have to provide serious funding.

High speed trains in the tunnel would make cargo jour-

up further afield in Cártama or Antequera.

neys between Madrid and Marrakech up to three times shorter.

The tunnel could also be used

to carry solar energy from the Sahara to Europe and cut passenger times to Moroccan cities like Marrakech in half.

Spanish brands make the Z List ZARA and Movistar are among the world’s top 100 companies according to the prestigious BrandZ rankings.

Developed by Kantar Millward Brown and WPP, the list is headed by Google for the second year in a row and features the world’s 100 most valuable brands.

Although Zara has dropped from 34th place last year to 42, it is still the second highest-ranking clothing brand on the list, behind Nike and ahead of Adidas, the thirdplaced fashion brand.

Movistar, which descended 10 spots from 43 last year to 53, is the eighth-placed telecom brand and was beaten by newcomer Spectrum but its brand value has increased by 4%.

Bubbling under the Top 100 are Banco Santander and BBVA whose values have increased by 32% and 31% respectively.

At the top of the list after Google come Apple, Amazon which beat Microsoft into fourth place, and Tencent, all with improved brand value.

MALAGA REMOVALS

Relax, your move is in safe hands

Chaos in the skies HOLIDAYMAKERS to Europe could be facing a summer of discontent as Ryanair cabin crew continue to threaten strike action during peak times this season.

Unions representing flight attendants across Europe are calling on the budget airline to stop using Irish labour laws and follow those of the countries where it operates.

The unions represent some of Europe’s top summer hotspots including Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium.

Ryanair says negotiations are making progress but Spain’s cabin crew union Sitcpla said the talks are ‘useless’ unless mediators address and acknowledge their legitimate claims in writing.

And Spain’s 70,000-strong USO union has threatened: “If Ryanair refuses to meet our demands, and setting June 30 as a deadline, the unions will start all necessary procedures to mobilise at a European level for the summer, including calling a strike.”

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JuneMarch 6th - June 2018 29th19th - April 11th 2018

REMOVALS

EXPLOITATION: Migrant workers also claim sexual abuse

Strawberry fields furore THE MANAGER of a strawberry farm in Andalucia has been arrested after a group of his immigrant workers accused him of sexual abuse and coercion.

The 47-year-old is in charge of supervising the workers and arranging their shifts at the farm in Moguer, Huelva.

But three of his workers have come forward after months of alleged abuse.

There have been repeated reports of labour and sexual exploitation in Huelva’s strawberry fields for years, but only now has an investigation been launched.

As complaints have intensified in recent months Interfresa, based in Huelva, has claimed it’s all part of a smear campaign by rivals in other countries.

The company said: “They are taking advantage of information not yet confirmed by the judicial courts to favour a campaign that will impact the prestige and important activity of the sector in Huelva.”

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Tourist trap SOME 20.5 million foreign tourists have already visited Spain in the first three months of this year, new figures have shown.

The number, a 2.3% year-on-year increase, saw international tourists spent €21 billion in the holiday hotspot, an increase of 4.6% during the same period last year.

In April, however, the country received 6.8 million international visitors, a 4.4% decrease on the same month in 2017.

They also spent €6.659 billion here, a 1.8% decrease. The losses were attributed to the fact that Holy Week was held in March this year instead of April.

In March and April combined, the number of international tourists who visited Spain increased yearon-year by 1.3%, with an expenditure of €12.386 billion euros, a 4.2% rise.

The UK supplied the most amount of tourists in the first quarter, with 4.3 million Brits visiting, albeit 1.6% less than in the first four months of 2017.

It was followed by Germany, with around 2.8 million tourists (a decline of 3.1%), and France, which produced almost 2.8 million visitors, a 1.8% decrease.

The Canaries saw the most amount of visitors in the first four months with more than 4.8 million, followed

by Catalunya (4.7 million) and Andalucia 2.9 million.

Out of the top three Andalucia was the only region which saw a boost in numbers, with the amount of visitors increasing by 2.7%.

business

June 6th - June 19th 2018 June 6th - June 19th 2018

Sound investment Advertorial

F

ROM Baku to Berlin, from Moscow to Munich, from Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam and sojourns in Turkey, Cyprus and Bahrain, Andrew Heath has successfully advised clients from all walks of life on how to grow their wealth.

Now he is set to playing a key role in a leading independent financial advisory group, spearheading the significant expansion of their Spanish operations to cater for the fiscal needs of the growing expatriate community.

The ambitious plan heralded by the Woodbrook Group comes amid a growing economic upturn that sees new businesses opening daily along the costas, boosted by an invigorated tourism, commercial and property market.

The appointment of Andrew Heath as Country Manager for Spain, greatly adds to Woodbrook’s expertise in holistic financial planning to the individual and corporate fiduciary service.

A strong competitor who played professional basketball for five years, Andrew combines his twin passions of “fitness, hard work and success” to give his clients all the tools they need to make the right financial decisions.

Andrew told The Olive Press: “We take a unique approach at Woodbrook in that each client who asks for our help is given the same level of service, all individually tailored to meet their unique needs. So, whether I’m holding my meeting on the back of a client’s €20 million yacht in Banus or drawing up a retirement plan for a TEFL teacher - the quality of service

Grow your wealth, the Woodbrook way

EXPANSION PLANS: Bosses Doherty and Heath always stays the same.

“Every one of our clients requires their own unique plan, and anyone who deals with us will get the benefit of our expertise to manage and grow their wealth.”

Andrew’s appointment couldn’t have come at a better time for the growing expatriate community on the costas.

Business is booming, and house prices have risen consecutively for the past four

years, with growth of 6.1 percent forecast for 2018, according to the Property Outlook report by the IPE. Spain is a key area for growth, a component of ambitious, global expansion plans for the Woodbrook Group, who have embarked on an ambitious expansion plans across Europe and Asia.

Centred in Marbella, Woodbrook’s Spanish operation focus will be on the consid-

erable and rapidly expanding business and personal needs of the expatriate community.

“Europe has a fast-growing expat population, and Spain and Portugal are very popular locations for expats,” Andrew said. “Expatriates go for the sun, the way of life and to set up businesses. But it can be so easy for them to forget about protecting their financial futures, and that’s where our experience will help.”

Woodbrook Group CEO Michael Doherty added his voice to the expansion of the Marbella office, which signals a strong vote of confidence in the local economy: “With our acquisitions and the outstanding new members who have joined our team, the future is extremely positive, and we will continue our strong growth through 2018.”

For more information, contact Andrew Heath and his team at the Woodbrook Group Office in Marbella: Av. Ricardo Soriano, 72 Edificio Golden Portal B, 1ª Planta 29601 Marbella, Málaga, Spain.

Telephone: +34 952768471 Email: officemarbella@woodbrookgroup.com Woodbrook Group is regulated by CySEC.

business

www.theolivepress.es

You’re hired!

ESTEPONA mayor José María Urbano has signed off on the first six contracts of the New Employment Plan, which will hire 77 unemployed people by the end of the year.

The town hall will recruit people depending on its needs.

During the last four years the town has hired 700 people under its direct employment programme. Estepona now has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Andalucia.

Making it work A CAMPAIGN to help job seekers adapt their skills for the posts available is being launched by Malaga’s Confederation of Businesses (CEM).

Under the slogan Malaga for Employability, the new programme will gather and analyse data from local employers so that job hunters can more closely match their professional skills to companies’ needs. CEM Vice-President NataliaSánchez Romero said: “The education, experience and expectations of candidates applying for jobs do not always coincide with the requirements of the company.”

June 6th - June 19th 2018

No change Wages remain stagnant despite booming Spanish economy SPANISH wages have failed to increase despite the country being one of the fastest growing economies in the Eurozone.

New figures have revealed the average regular salary in 2016 fell by one euro

to €16,497.4, meaning an average monthly salary of €1,178.

Meanwhile, inflation has risen 1.6% since the start of the decade, meaning the average Spaniard’s earnings go less further.

If all earnings are taken into account - including millionaires and billionaires - the average wage sits at €23,156, a growth of 2%, but campaigners say the success of wealthier residents distorts the

picture.

The number of people who still earn less than minimum wage has increased from 44.9% to 45.71%.

Women, meanwhile, continue to earn less than their male counterparts, with a staggering average wage difference of 22.3% for the same job.

And it’s the young who have been most stung, with the average youth under 20 seeing their salaries reduced by 4.6% to a measly €7,182 per year.

The highest earners were aged between 55 and 59, with average salaries of €27,282.

Farming revolution INVESTORS from the US’s Silicon Valley and Europe will join forces to promote Agrifood in both continents. Kicking things off will be the Startup Europe Smart Agrifood

Summit in Málaga, from June 20 to 22. Some 14 private invesment firms , more than 5,000 professionals and 300 European startups are expected to visit the event. Big data,

robotic advances in farming and automomous machinery will be some of the topics discussed. Its goal is to promote digital innovation in the farming sector.

M

MATHSTONE

47 47

June 6th - June 19th 2018

We want what EU get SPANISH workers are

paid almost a fifth less on average than their European counterparts.

An analysis by Swiss firm Adecco found the average salary is €1,639 per month, compared to €2,000 across the rest of the continent.

The disparity between the Spanish and European averages has increased slowly since 2014.

However, Spain still ranks 13th out of 28 EU countries for average monthly wages.

Denmark tops the table with an average wage of €3,807 per month, followed by Luxembourg on €3,228 and Ireland on €2,790.

The lowest are found in Bulgaria (€407 ), Romania (€563) and Lithuania (€566).

Germany (€2,719) and France (€2,356) are in sixth and 11th respectively, while the UK is just ahead of France on €2,381.

The research reveals a huge difference of more than €3,000 between the highest and lowest monthly wages in the EU.

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48 48

www.theolivepress.es He was labelled a ‘serial killer’

by Vladimir Putin

Cashing out ALMOST 2% of Spain’s population have no access to a bank or ATM machine.

Some 1.2 million Spaniards have no access to a branch, representing 2.7% of the population.

The number of banks has decreased by 39% since 2008, with just 27,706 remaining across the country.

The regions most affected are those currently struggling with depopulation, including Castilla y León, where 15% of the population has no bank access, followed by Navarra (7%), Extremadura (5.6%), Cantabria (4.8%), Aragón (4.3%), and Castilla-La Mancha (4%).

A BRITISH businessman has been released after being arrested in Spain on an Interpol arrest warrant requested by Russia.

Bill Browder, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, tweeted that he had been arrested by Spanish police and was en route to a police station ‘right now’.

The London-based hedge fund manager, who was picked up in Madrid, has been battling with Moscow for years.

“In the back of the Spanish police car going to the station

business

June 6th - June 19th 2018

Russia’s orders on the Russian arrest warrant,” he wrote.

“They won’t tell me which station.”

Browder, who was born in the US but took on British citizenship, was released after police discovered the warrant

was expired.

It comes after Browder told MPs in March he believed the Russians would like ‘more than anything’ to arrest him and ‘get me back to Russia and then kill me in the control of their own system’.

The financier has been one of Russia’s most highprofile public enemies and was once branded a ‘serial killer’ by president Putin.

playing games ONLINE gambling revenue in Spain has soared by 27% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.

Total earnings by online gaming giants hit €163.3 million in the first three months of 2018.

Online casino revenue jumped by 51% to €56.6 million, more than half thanks to slot games (52.7%).

Sports betting rose by 15.9% year-on-year

to €81.7 million, representing just over half of the overall online revenue for the period.

Spain’s finance ministry also reported an online poker revenue of €21.5m in the first quarter, with cash games up almost 30% to €8.4 million and tournaments by 50.2% to just over €13 million.

Online bingo jumped almost 30% year-onyear to €3.5 million.

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Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer working for Bowder, uncovered a £174m (199m euro) fraud – which allegedly involved Russian officials – against Browder’s investment firm, Hermitage Capital Management.

Magnitsky was soon thrown behind bars under what many believed to be false charges and died in jail amid claims he was tortured.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s chief Brexit co-ordinator, said: “Worrying that autocratic Russia can get democratic Spain to go after someone fighting to expose Putin’s crimes and those responsible for Magnitsky’s murder.”

“Bill Browder’s rights must be protected,” he added in a tweet messaged to Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy.

Organic takeover FOOD giant Nestlé has launched an organic range in Spain after customers demanded more healthy, sustainable products.

The organic products will include baby food and coffee, which will be the first organic items the company has ever introduced to the Spanish market.

“Nestlé has decided to bet heavily on organic products in our country," said a spokesman.

Some 65% of the produce will be manufactured in the company’s factories across Spain, in Caceres, Cantabria, Asturias and Tarragona.

On the up THE OECD has increased Spain’s GDP growth forecast to 2.8% for this year.

It’s higher than the government’s current 2.7% prediction.

It has also increased its forecast for Spain in 2019 from 2.1% to 2.4%.

The institution chaired by Ángel Gurría highlights that the Spanish economy has been growing for more than 3% for several years (in particular since 2015) and estimates that the ‘robust rhythm’ will follow, but in a more ‘moderate’ way in 2018 and 2019.

business

www.theolivepress.es

49

June 6th - June 19th

Bubbling over

World’s most famous drink refutes claims recipe originated in Spain

COCA Cola has denied its original recipe came from a small town in Spain.

It comes after a tiny distillery, Destilerías Ayelo, in Aielo de Malferit, in Valencia, claimed it had the original recipe in a safe.

"This story from Spain comes up every few years. There is well-documented evidence that John Pemberton invented the secret formula for Coca-Cola in 1886," a Coca Cola spokesperson said.

Atlanta pharmacist John S. Pemberton is credited with inventing the original syrup (in 1886), which he brought to his neighborhood pharmacy to mix with carbonated water, according to Coca-Cola's official history site.

However since 2011, rumours resurfaced

about Coke's invention at the Spanish distillery.

The distillery says its invention, Kolacoca, was the precursor to Coca-Cola's syrup, and that one of its first founders traveled to Philadelphia in 1885, a year before Pemberton's drink hit the market.

The distillery in Spain says it just wants recognition, not money.

Others believe CocaCola bought the brand off the distillery all those years ago.

ANDALUCIA’S GDP will grow by 2.7% this year and Extracts from coca 2.5% next year, BBVA has forecast. leaves and kola nuts According to the bank, the growth means 190,000 are reportedly two of jobs will be created in the region, seeing the unemthe main flavorings in ployment rate reduced to 19.8% by the end of 2019. cola drinks traditionThe region has grown by 0.6 - 0.7% in the first half of ally, which may ex2018, meaning it’s on track to grow by 2.7% this year. plain the similarity in names.

Steady growth

June 6th - June 19th 2018

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Stop the car!

SPAIN’S DGT recently published a list of driving offences that could get you pulled over by the cops. Some of them are less well-known than others. Check out our list of nine deadly driving sins that could get you stopped in your tracks by the traffic police. ●●

SHOCKER: Scooter

Easy rider THIS is the moment a middle-aged madman on a mobility scooter stunned motorists in Spain.

The Scooter XL, top speed 15 kph, was spotted crawling nonchalantly down the slip road onto Malaga’s busy MA-21 highway where the minimum speed is 50 kph.

The 15-second video clip of the potentially disabled daredevil attracted thousands of Facebook views.

It is not known whether the driver had taken a wrong turn onto the busy stretch - part of the old three-lane N340 coast road between Torremolinos and Malaga - or was merely using it as a handy shortcut.

“Things that only happen in Malaga,” posted Juan Jesus Reyes Pacheco, who uploaded the astonishing footage.

Local authorities are trying to track down the scooter menace whose lawnmower speed posed a hazard to other motorists as well as himself.

Carrying an infant without an appropriate child seat

All you need to know about changes to Spain’s ITV TOUGHER new ITV regulations came into force in Spain last month. Stay savvy at the wheel with our checklist of the main changes.

Greater flexibility: The ITV test date can now be moved forward by up to one month.

Also, if your car fails, you can now go to a different centre for the retest providing the faults have been put right first.

On Board Diagnostics: This system checks how the electronics and engine of a vehicle are working. It has been introduced due to the more complex electronic systems in modern vehicles and can detect issues that may previously have passed unnoticed, such as tampering with emissions controls or mileage.

●● ●● ●● ●●

Driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs (can also carry a jail sentences) Faulty parts such as dodgy brakes or broken lights Driving without lights Too long at the the wheel, applicable to professional HGV and coach drivers whose hours are registered on a tachograph

●● ●● ●● ●●

An overcrowded car with more passengers than seats Excess polluting exhaust emissions Manipulation of speed limits in the car Carrying a car device that nullifies radar speed traps

You have been warned.

S.P. on the ITV

Tougher emission controls: Post ‘Dieselgate’, the test will check for removal of parts designed to control emissions such as particle filters or the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation), both of which reduce nitrogen oxide content but are expensive to maintain which is why some drivers take them out.

Exhaustive checking of electronic security systems: For the first time, the Electronic Stability Control (ESC), Antilock Brake System (ABS) and Airbag system will also come under scrutiny.

New requirements for classic cars: If you want to register your car as classic, it must be

at least 30 years old.

Slackening of rules for imported cars: Cars from another country of the European

Union will no longer have to pass the ITV in Spain if they have already done so in their country of origin.

Easter blessing SPAIN’S earlier Holy Week in 2018 saw 31% more cars roll off production lines in April than the previous year, after a first quarter of negative growth.

The number of models produced rose by 268,363 over April 2017 when Semana Santa fell in the same month, a time when the industry grinds to a go-slow.

A total of 1,039,659 vehicles were manufactured, a 2.8% increase which was also fuelled by the launch of new models in Spain, like the SEAT Arona, and an increase in exports - mainly to the UK, Germany and Turkey.

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53 53

Drivers KAMIKAZES Merging onto roads like the A-7 is not always the easiest task. Having to swerve into 100km/hr traffic takes timing and accuracy – but many haven’t got the memo. A day will rarely go by without you having to slam the brakes and yell ‘estas loco?!’ – complete with tutting and furious head nodding – as a driver slowly edges onto the motorway, forcing you to brake hard or swerve to the left.

from

hell

There are certain types of motorists you come to expect on the Costa’s carreteras, writes Laurence Dollimore

L

ET’S face it, driving on the Costa del Sol is not without its challenges.

Soon after negotiating your first rotunda or motorway slip road you’ll notice there are certain ‘elements’ on

the highways and byways that will not be changing anytime soon.

Ranging from slightly annoying to genuinely life-threatening, we’ve rounded up the seven most typical drivers.

LOOK AT ME! They’re rich and you know it. Mostly because it’s their fifth lap of Puerto Banus in that red Ferrari and they’re still not sick of the attention.

Symptoms displayed by these look-at-me types include booming foreign rap or dance music and severe growling of the engine… Making up for something, lads?

JENGA HEROES If you’ve ever wondered whether you can fit all your worldly possessions on top of your car, no worries … you can! From sofas to bikes and suitcases full of clothes, just a few flimsy strings and belts will be enough to strap every precarious item to the roof of your vehicle, even when travelling at speed, sending the fear of God into every other road user in your slipstream.

Just ask Spanish police who are still looking for a suspected builder who strapped 20 wooden boards to his roof (see pic above).

MARBELLA BELLES They’re orange, wear reflective sunglasses and can only be spotted in the latest Range Rover or 4×4 of the moment. Usually accompanied with a pomeranian doggy wearing a scarf or collar to match the dress of their owner.

Heels, ridiculous phone cases and dagger-like nails are common accessories.

SUMMER DRIVERS As the temperatures heat up, so do expats’ tempers as the ‘summer drivers’ – holidaymakers – return in full force.

They are easy to identify – a rental car sticker, inability to stay in their lanes and a person in the passenger seat pointing at or trying to read signs while slowing down to an almost complete stop at roundabouts. Still, at least they indicate!

DOUBLE PARKERS BLIND BUS DRIVERS Is poor eyesight a requirement for being a Spanish bus driver? It wouldn’t be a surprise, given that every 30 seconds a car is nearly rammed into oblivion by a bus leaving its stop along the A-7 (not official figures).

You would think this dogged attitude is to make sure the buses arrive on time…. It’s not. Buses are just bigger.

The drivers do it because they can. If you see a bus ahead, get into the fast lane pronto.

There’s a special place in hell for those who park their car alongside legally parked cars and put on their hazards while they go for lunch or to the bank. Cue furious horn beeping when other drivers return to find their cars blocked in. A cacophony loud enough to wake the dead continues until the offender appears some 20 minutes later, with an apology if you’re lucky.

Some drivers also think it’s acceptable to park up on roundabouts, often right before the exit – cheers pal, not in the way at all there!

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Food, drink & travel June 6th - June 19th 2018

June 6th - June 19th 2018

Ferran Adria is set to transform the famous former El Bulli restaurant into an innovative culinary lab

Scandelicious

SCANDALS bar has grown from strength to strength since opening in February this year.

And it’s no surprise, with British owners Gail and Kevin Johnson having years of experience, previously running a bar in Mallorca and a pub in Sheffield.

The Yorkshire duo guarantee one of the most friendly and chilled out experiences at their latest venture, located in Mijas Golf.

Serving a wide range of drinks and cocktails - which you can now enjoy on their sunny terrace - they also have a range of foods to tickle everyone’s taste buds.

With English, Spanish and Italian chefs, your breakfast, lunch and tapas needs will all be met.

And throughout this year they’re offering six tapas dishes and a bottle of house white, red, rose or cava for just €25.

Dr Adria’s laboratory ONE of the world’s top chefs, Ferran Adria, is set to open a cutting edge food laboratory in his legendary former El Bulli restaurant in Catalunya.

Adria announced his plans, which he says have been in the pipeline for the last seven years, since he closed the doors of his iconic three Michelin-starred restaurant in 2011.

The lab, appropriately named El Bulli 1846, will be a centre for creating innovative gastronomic inventions and is set to open between June and October 2019.

"For seven years we have done many things to prepare this moment, and now it will be born," said Adria.

The 56-year-old is world-renowned as one of the masters of the multi-sensory culinary art form, ‘molecular gastrono-

my’, which uses scientific disciplines to explore how chemical and physical changes can transform traditional dishes into something extraordinary.

And this is exactly what won El Bulli, based in Cala Montjoi on the Costa Brava, the title of the World’s Best Restaurant a record-breaking five times.

And the lab has been a long

time coming, after refurbishment plans were blocked by officials concerned about the impact of construction work on the environment due to its location in the Cap de Creus national park.

Some years later, the culinary icon finally received planning permission last week after scaling down his plans.

Open every day from 11 to 11 Corredera 33, Vejer de la Frontera tel: 637 423 506 www.CalifaVejer.com

HOTEL MADRESELVA

55

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with DINING SECRETS of ANDALUCIA.com

June 6th - June 19th 2018

Fabulous Fairuz

Beefing up A SPANISH city has broken the Guinness World Record for cutting the heaviest piece of dried meat by knife in the world.

More than 70 people were needed to cut the 283.1 kilo of cecina cortada - a type of dried beef - in the Spanish Capital of Gastronomy, León, which is renowned for the high quality delicacy.

The skill is considered a great challenge which only two other cities have

June 6th - June 19th 2018

RECORD: Cutting session in Leon

cilla, ‘black pudding’, in 2013.

But the biggest hunk of meat that had ever been skillfully cut before last week weighed in at 250 kilos.

COUPLES who eat more seafood have sex more ofExpert meat cutters ten and are more likely to conceive, scientists have flocked from all over claimed.

Spain to take part In a new study, researchers at Harvard University said in the traditional nutrients in fish - a core element of Spain’s mediterevent, uniformly ranean diet - can stimulate ovulation and boost sperm dressed in black quality and embryo development. aprons and white Reseracher Audrey Gaskins said: “Our study found shirts, which was that couples who consume more than two servings overseen by a Guinof seafood per week while trying to get pregnant had ness Record accreda significantly higher frequency of sexual intercourse itor from London. and shorter time to pregnancy.”

After slicing the ceWhile following 500 couples’ food intake, the study cina, the meat was found that 92% of those who ate seafood more than placed onto dishes twice a week had conceived by the end of the year and sold at the event compared with 79% of those who had eaten less. for €2 with proceeds (SEE OYSTERS ROCKAFELLA on P60) going to charity. achieved so far, with Toledo using jamon in 2016 and Burgos using mor-

The power of fish

w Ne lla rbe t a M o tsp o h www.cascadamarbella.com | +34 951567849 Urb Montua, 39, 29602 Marbella

THE best Lebanese restaurant on the coast is back open for business.

Fairuz, in Fuengirola, has made a name for itself for its largely vegetarian-friendly menu and fresh plant-based dishes.

The eatery first opened in London in 1998 and is named after the legendary Lebanese singer who has captivated the Middle East for more than 70 years.

“We place an emphasis on pairing our cuisine with the art of Lebanese wine, whose industry has been thriving for over 5000 years,” explains boss Isaac.

“Our wines are from the rich Bekaa Valley in the East of Lebanon and have been selected from the finest and most established wineries of the region.”

You can visit Fairuz any day of the week on the Maritimo Rey De España in Fuengirola.

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Looking for the perfect island holiday this summer, the Pollensa area of Mallorca is all about understated glamour and exclusivity, explains Jon Clarke and Lesley Keith

S

ITTING high on a promontory lording over the bay of Pollensa sits one of Spain’s most exclusive properties.

Owned by British financier, Lord James Lupton, La Fortaleza was once the country’s most expensive home on the market for €125 million euros and most recently became famous as the home of scoundrel business mogul Richard Roper, played by Hugh Laurie, in the BBC drama, The Night Manager.

An incredible place surrounded by water and pine-covered hills, the 400-year-old fort

June 6th - June 19th 2018 June 6th - June 19th 2018

Island escape DRAMA: The Night Manager was set in Pollensa, a historic family based tourist town in Mallorca

Take a look around the marina and the moored boats before taking a stroll along the shaded Pine Walk has put up countless VIPs over the years, including Spanish artist Joaquin Sorolla, who painted it.

A massive 25,000 square feet of immaculately manicured terraces and gardens, it counts on two pools and seven separate villas in its grounds.

But it is the location at the start of the protected Formentor peninsula that makes it so exclusive - and perhaps justifies its price tag.

For this is perhaps Mallorca’s most remarkable stretch of scenery.

A dramatic finger of soaring peaks and plunging drops, no visitor to the island will forget the breathtaking 20 km drive - or cycle if you’re fit - to its historic lighthouse at the end.

It’s as stunning as anywhere in Spain and not dissimilar to the famous New Zealand backdrops in Lord of the Rings.

But the whole Pollensa corner of the island is amazing and just when you think the scenery couldn’t get any better, it does.

As a PR job the award-winning Night Manager couldn’t have done more to promote the area featuring both the town and its nearby environs heavily in the series.

The main thing to know is that Pollensa is

PRIVILEGE: Stunning Formentor peninsula and regular visitors include Graham Le Saux, David Cameron and Louis Theroux

only 45 minutes from Palma airport despite feeling like it could be a million miles away.

I have lived here for nearly two years now and can verify quite how different it is from the better known Mallorca towns of Andratx, Calvia and Portals.

While they are all about being seen and splashing the cash, Pollensa is about understated glamour and refined taste.

This is the sort of place where you will bump into former British Prime Minister David Cameron having lunch, or TV presenter Louis Theroux, as I did recently on the beach,

playing with his kids.

Pollensa is also the home of former England star Graham Le Saux (you know, the only footballer to ever admit to reading the Guardian), as well as the boss of UK supermarket group Iceland. In the hills nearby the famous March family (of the private Banca March) have their amazing estate.

Most tourists stay near the coastal town of Puerto Pollensa, or as it’s known locally ‘PP’.

You will first be amazed at the views and how calm the sea is here… it is also a little

Monday - Friday – 10.00 - 19.00 Saturday – 10.00 - 17.00 Sunday CLOSED Facebook / Mia Del +34 952 81 91 96 miadel@miafruto.com Calle Rio Volga 3 29660 Nueva Andalucia, Marbella

bit warmer than most other beaches on the island as it is so protected.

From here take a look around the marina and the moored boats before taking a stroll along the shaded Pine Walk, which curves for several miles around the bay.

Flanked by a wonderful sandy beach on one side and some of the most desirable properties in Mallorca on the other, this is a mustdo stroll.

Head in the other direction and the long beach stretches for miles, with numerous places to stop for lunch or a cocktail, or to

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SETTING SAIL: View of boats on Pollenca beach

rent a sunbed.

If you have children they will be thrilled as there are several well constructed play areas where they can let off steam to their heart’s content while you can sit nearby keeping an eye on them but still relax.

For a bit of activity, why not head out for a snorkel via a local dive company, or rent a kayak or paddleboard. There are also various yacht charter companies in the town.

Looking for somewhere to eat? You will not be disappointed. All along the seafront there are numerous quality restaurants, such as Cappuccino and Abacco, which offer up a brilliant place to people-watch combined with wonderful sea views.

If you want something really special head for lunch at the privileged Royal Yacht Club or check out La Llonja, which has an amazing position just by the entrance to the port. It’s upstairs so has arguably the best panoramic view of the bay.

Alternatively, step two streets back and you’ll find the vibrant town square where there are often events or festivals.

With so many options, choosing the best one is very hard indeed but do look out for Osteria N15, this boasts chef Roberto Maggioni who has worked in the famous Lago restaurant in California and has a fantastic Continues on Page 58

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menu and great ambience.

On the subject of numbered restaurants, I also like No 31, recently opened by Scottish owner Siobhan, as well as the fabulous Finca 49, which recently featured on Channel 4’s A New Home in the Sun. Once the sun sets and you’ve eaten to your heart’s content it’s time for cocktails. Look out for performances from local guitarist Guillermo Rotger, who often teams up with the founder of The Climax Blues Band Derek Holt. Both brilliant musicians who live here

58 Food, drink & travel Food, DRINK & TRAVEL Food, drink & travel June 6th - June 19th 2018 June 6th - June 19th 2018

Perfect Pollensa

This beautiful and historic place has managed to keep the feel of a typical Mallorcan town all year round and appear regularly bringing us top quality music to enjoy for free.

Anything you need for the perfect holiday is here. If you should find something’s missing however then just speak with the very helpful Ian and Sam at Multihire who will sort you out with pretty much anything at all be it cots, bikes or food hampers.

You name it, they’ll sort it and the trusty Brian will deliver it as required. They’ve been here 16 years now and there’s not much they can’t get.

When you fancy a change of scenery take a five minute drive (or just hop on the frequent bus) up to the historic old town of Pol-

JAWDROPPING: Views of Pollensa bay and (right) aerial shot

lensa.

Somehow this beautiful and historic place has managed to keep the feel of a typical Mallorcan town whilst embracing all the tourists that come along to experience it.

A network of cobbled streets boast beautiful architecture at every turn, and a large shady town square flanked with quality restaurants and coffee shops.

Follow the discreet signs to the foot of the Calvari Steps and a smaller but equally vi-

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brant square.

If you’re feeling strong then here are 365 challenging steps, split into 12 sections, that take you up to a tiny chapel and café at the top.

If you can make it the views are truly spectacular. There’s a gentler way down which has 12 statues representing the stations of the cross and giving different vistas of the countryside. Directly opposite the Calvari is another even more impressive hill called the Puig de Maria. This is definitely not for the faint-hearted and is a serious walk of about

45 minutes.

It’s only to be attempted if you are feeling fit and are wearing sensible shoes, but at

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MOLINO DEL SANTO: Pictures by Jon Clarke and Lesley Keith

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WHAT A VIEW: Diners (top right) treated to gorgoeus countryside vistas

the top you will be treated to an absolutely breathtaking 360 degree view of the whole region.

There’s an overnight hostal up there too with a really good café, also plenty of seating to rest up before you return to civilisation.

For those who fancy a bit of shopping, the centre of Pollensa has some excellent boutiques, while there is a good Sunday morning market that takes over the town with quality home made goods and jewellery, clothing and fresh food for sale.

Whenever you visit be sure to stop at Club Pollensa for a truly Mallorquin experience.

Not only is the food amazing but the actual building itself is very beautiful with some really good artworks on display inside.

This was originally built at the start of the 20th century as a club for local cyclists, and cyclists are still one of the key tourist sectors in the area.

The surrounding roads are smooth and easily navigable and there is a whole network ready to support and enable them, be it the casual afternoon jaunt on an electric bike or a lycra dressed team out to train hard and fast.

One of the key links to the area is the British cycling team, as well as Team Sky, who are now annual visitors, including heroes Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins.

Take a look inside the beachside Tolos restaurant in PP and you will quickly understand the impact.

The walls are lined with photos, while one of Wiggins bikes hangs from the ceiling.

The link began before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when the British team was meant to be training in Italy, but they just couldn’t find enough privacy or the right places to rent.

“I ended up having to find the whole team accommodation here in peak season,” explains the restaurant’s PR Clair Merrigan, who moved to Pollenca from Wales two decades ago.

“It was May but somehow we managed to get everyone housed and we mostly fed them in Tolos,” she added. “It worked so well we have continued the relationship until the present day.”

Before returning home no visit would be complete without spending some time at the little seaside village of Cala San Vicenc, a charming little resort consisting of three small and pretty sandy coves.

The sea is much more forceful here but is deep blue and clear. Sit outside Café Mallorca and be dazzled by the most amazing view of sheer mountains, blue sky and sapphire sea.

All in all, the Pollensa area is truly a magical place and it is no surprise that tourists return year after year, and often dream of settling here.

It’s a welcoming place, chic and sophisticated, yet casual and relaxed. I am so happy my partner and I made the leap to move here. We have never looked back.

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The number of people who visited the hotel and restaurant in 2017 they can’t all be wrong!

The number of ideas we provide of things to do in the area request a copy via info@ molinodelsanto.com

The number of lovely staff who work at Molino del Santo assuring you of excellent service

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€115

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The number of delicious dishes on our menu - excluding our very popular tasting menu

The cost of a balcony room with breakfast included in low season, before discounts

The number of flowerfilled pots on our dining terrace - spectacular!

5%

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91%

The minimum discount applied to room reservations for returning guests

The number of seasons we have been open.

Experience counts for a lot

The amount of “Excellent” reviews on Trip Advisor giving us a 5star rating

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65%

The number of rooms we have that means you are assured of personal service

The number of crystal-clear mountains streams passing by the hotel’s terrace

The amount of guests who have visited the hotel before and return each year

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The times that one English couple living in the UK have returned to the hotel since they discovered it 27 years ago

The maximum number of people who can accompany Eddie the Dog on a guided stroll near the hotel

The risk you take in visiting the hotel - if you don’t like it we’ll give you your money back

10%

The special discount available to The Olive Press Readers who mention this ad and book a room before 30th June 2018

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The commitment of the hotel to ensuring you have a wonderful time

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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

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TALES OF A HOTEL DOG

By Benaojan Eddie

Short-cut to happiness I TRY to communicate. I really do. Why are some owners just a little bit slow on the uptake?

If I sit in every puddle and make a bee-line for every river and stream and submerge myself don’t you think it might be obvious that I am too hot? I need a haircut. It’s hardly rocket science.

Finally the penny does drop and this week has seen me whizzed off to my canine beauty salon where the lovely Fran smartens me up and makes me look gorgeous.

I’m pretty wellbehaved during Shorter hair gives the process if I me a new lease say so myself but I have not been of life and puts a keen on the scissors around my spring in my step muzzle in the past.

This time I decided to be more mature about the whole affair and Fran pronounced my behaviour ‘the best yet’.

Shorter hair gives me a new lease of life and puts a spring in my step. Sadly the operation of a few years ago – one vet says I have no pom-poms - means I am no longer interested in a love life but I am available for playing chase the stick for as long as the old master wants me to.

Seeing the way the old boy behaves recentl y perhaps he should try having a haircut himself. He never was that good at chasing a stick and as for the love life bit …. come to think of it maybe he doesn’t need a haircut at all.

Food, DRINK & TRAVEL

June 6th - June 19th 2018 June 6th - June 19th 2018

Back at last Malaga’s celebrated La Consula cookery school and restaurant is open again

FOR many years it was one of Spain’s leading training schools for young chefs.

Now, after three years closed, La Consula has reopened again to the public.

The Malaga school, which trained leading Michelin-starred chefs including Dani Garcia (below right) and Diego Gallegos, is back serving lunch from Monday

This dish I made for Frank Sinatra NOT many can say they’ve cooked for some of the world’s biggest icons.

But expat chef, Steve Hyatt based in Mijas, lists Frank Sinatra, the Queen, Rod Stewart and Michael Jackson as some of his top diners.

After Sinatra personally congratu-

lated Steve for a lavish dinner, three nights of late-night drinking followed with the iconic Rat Pack crooner.

In our second part of Steve’s celeb dishes, we reveal the chef’s top recipe for a Sinatra-favourite, Oysters Rockefeller.

Oysters Rockefeller Ingredients ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●●

6 oysters 40g spinach 20g arugula/rocket 1 scallion/spring onion 1/2 clove garlic (small) 1/2 tbsp butter about 8g 1 tbsp pernod 1 tsp lemon juice 1/8 tsp hot sauce 1 tbsp parmesan finely grated 1 tbsp breadcrumbs

Instructions 1.

2.

To get in touch with Eddie, contact his owners Andy and Pauline at the Hotel Molino del Santo.

Bda Estacion s/n, 29370 Benaojan, Malaga. 952 167 151 - 952 167 927. info@molinodelsanto.com

to Friday.

Once dubbed by the Olive Press’ sister website Dining Secrets of Andalucia, ‘among the Top Five restaurants in the region’, diners are treated to an exotic menu served up by 40 students.

A campaign to reopen the restaurant was backed by Hollywood star Antonio Banderas and Spain’s top chefs including Ferran Adria and Pedro Subijana.

Brazilian-born Gallegos (below), whose Fuengirola restaurant Sollo won its first Mi-

Preheat oven to 450F/230C. Lightly scrunch a piece of foil and put it in a baking dish big enough to hold all of your oysters so it covers the dish.

First, shuck the oysters and loosen the meat from the shell. Pour off the liquid, setting it aside. Clean the oyster shell then place the oyster

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Expat chef recalls the meals he cooked for celebrities including Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra and even the Queen EXCLUSIVE

By Elisa Menendez

EVER wondered what it would be like to share an evening with a global superstar?

A Costa del Sol chef has cooked for many of them, including Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson and Shirley Bassey, to name just a few.

British chef, Steve Hyatt, has also served up dishes for the Queen and Frank Sinatra too.

“I spent three nights drinking until the early hours with Frank, he was such a nice guy,” added the 66-year-old expat, who upped sticks to open his restaurant the Blue Marlin in Mijas three years ago with his wife Alison.

The expat, who has worked at a string of five-star hotels from South Africa to Australia, recalled how the Rat Pack crooner called him to come out of the kitchen to congratulate him on a great meal.

Night with the stars CELEB CLIENTS: Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and Rod

Stewart

My dish for Queen

Scrambled Egg with Black Truffle and Smoked Salmon A favourite of Queen Elizabeth

Open Tuesday to Sunday. until Closed 12.00 22.00 until mid February

Ingredients

· This creates a breakfast for Instructions 4 persons 1. Beat the eggs, cream, salt, · 100 grams Smoked Salm- pepper and the finely grated Jazzed up on, cut into slivers Truffle in a small bowl. · 25 grams Black Truffles 2. Lightly toast the bread A night of drinking ensued (finely grated, a small quantity on each side, and butter. slices in the city of Durban, in reserved for shaving on top of 3. Melt a tablespoon of which they shared ‘numerbutter finished dish) ous’ travellers tales. in a non stick pan and lightly · 6 Eggs (stored overnight cook the egg mixture.

“The next evening I cooked with the fresh truffles) him oysters but he wasn’t 4. Spoon the egg mixture over · 60 ml Cream keen,” laughed Steve, who the toasted bread, layer the · 4 slices of bread later jazzed up the dish and smoked salmon slivers on top, · Butter prepared ‘Rockefeller-style’ and finish with truffleshavings. · Salt and Pepper to taste oysters which were more to Sinatra’s taste.

On the third night, the superstar burst through the doors and shouted: “Stevie, it’s post time!” and poured a strong glass of liquor before a small, private performance.

Another major icon to walk through the Southern Sun Hotel doors was the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson.

“He was quiet and polite and really quite childlike,” recalled Steve, who cooked a traditional South African dish for the superstar.

“She was stoned out of her room service at 1am and But not all of the expat’s ce- brains and hacked off after requested lobsters, she leb encounters were plain she performed a concert claimed she had not orsailing, as he recalls how where a lot of people walked dered them and an aggresDame Shirley Bassey was out,” he added. sive outburst followed. ‘horrible’.

After the singer ordered “She got abusive towards

MAESTRO: Steve Hyatt the staff and even a bit racist,” added Steve, who said the diva had no recollection of her actions the next morning at breakfast.

High life

The fine-dining chef got his first taste of the high life when he became an apprentice at the age of 16, on the prestigious Queen Elizabeth 2 ship.

It was there that he met his first global figure, the Queen of England. “It was quite intimidating,” he admitted.

He cooked a dish of smoked salmon and truffles (recipe below), as the Queen apparently doesn’t eat starch.

Now, the expat is enjoying his own new-found celebrity status as he is recognised as ‘the man off the telly’, following his appearance on the TV show, A New Life in the Sun.

meat back into the shell ple minutes so and place in the baking everything softens and the dish so they are sitting liquid largely evaporates. flat.

5. Add the pernod, lemon 3.

Roughly juice and hot sauce. Stir chop the spin-Jumping forthrough and cook a minJoyce ach and aruguute more so the liquid la/rocket and evaporates then remove thinly slice from the heat. the scallion/ 6. Spoon the mixture onto spring onion. the oysters.

Finely chop 7. Top with a heaped teathe garlic. spoon of breadcrumbs 4. Melt the and Parmesan cheese butter in a small mix. frying pan. Add the 8. Bake for approx 8-12 spinach, arugula, scalmins until the top is lightly lion, oyster juice and garbrowned. lic. Cook, stirring for a couA SPANISH chef had to be content with third place after being topped by an Irishman and an Englishman in the Best European Chef competition of 2018.

Javier Artero was pipped by Irishman David Joyce to the crown in the final head to head session with six chefs.

In true Masterchef fashion, the finalists had to prepare a three-course

meal in four hours from a pre-selected shopping basket.

The winners were chosen by a panel, including Carlos Fernandez from Martin Berasategui and Oscar Teixido, culinary coordinator at the School of Hospitality in Barcelona.

UK chef Stefano Corrias came in third in the competition set up by Aramark.

chelin star in 2015, attended La Consula from 2006 to 2008, told the Olive Press two years ago: “I think it’s very sad what is happening. La Consula taught me everything I know about cooking. All the people who work in my restaurant

WINNER: Javier Artero

restaurant||lunch restaurant lunchand anddinner dinner

are from there.

“The students called me to help them and I slept there with them and the people who work there. They have to organise and make more noise.”

Along with the Fonda cookery school in Benalmadena, it will be open until the students break for their summer holidays.

WWW.ELMUELLE-ARRIATE.COM WWW.ELMUELLE-ARRIATE.COM

ESTACIÓONDEDEARRIATE ESTACIÓON ARRIATE||ARRIATE ARRIATE(MA (MA7400, 7400,KM KM4)4) 0034637 0034 637784 784416 416||0034 0034952 952166 166370 370 CLOSEDONONMONDAYS CLOSED MONDAYS

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Columnists

Love is in the air

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EGHAN and Harry set the benchmark for wedding wow factor but the Spanish are no slouches when it comes to swanky nuptials. If our street isn’t knee-deep in horse manure from the back-to-back procession of bridal carriages trotting past our house during the merry marrying month of June, I’ll eat my fascinator.

Even in a village as ‘campo’ as Los Barrios, the guests’ get-ups could pass muster on the manicured lawns of Windsor Castle. Posh?

Nothing less than heels the height Victoria Beckham wore to the royal wedding will do - and that even goes for the mother of the bride’s mother. But there’s a pair of flatties in the car boot because not even Sara Baras could dance the Macarena in those all night.

While your typical British bash might respectably wrap up in six hours, the Spanish boda is a 12-hour test of endurance and it has other singularities. Take the wedding present. Don’t think you can get away with a set of sherry glasses from El Corte Ingles. In Spain, cash is king, whether paid to the chosen bridal gift store, brought with you in a brown envelope to pop in the basket passed round during the reception or, increasingly, wired directly into the happy couples’ bank account. If there’s a long number printed on your invitation, take the hint.

How much? Nothing less than €100 per guest if you don’t want to be thought a tacaño (cheapskate). Your gift should cover the cost

June is the month for brides and no one does a big fat wedding like the Spanish

T

Ambassador’s Party

hose of you of a certain age will remember a famous advertisement for an upmarket brand of chocolate.

A luxurious cocktail party was in full swing, the women all wore shoulder-padded power dresses and the men white tuxedos.

At a given wink from the suave ambassador, an ancient manservant appears with the aforementioned chocolates arranged in a pyramid.

“Oh, Ambassador “ one of the guests exclaims, “With these chocolates you are spoiling us”.

It’s an advert so bad that it’s good and has stayed with me since the 90s, with the catchphrase “The Ambassador holds such memorable parties,” used on the odd occasion.

One Friday afternoon I was casually trawling through my email, when a message from the Foreign Office landed in my inbox. It was an invitation to a garden party to be held at the British Ambassador’s residence in Madrid, in honour of the Royal Wedding, and I was being invited in recognition of my work in the British Community.

I was a little stunned, to put it mildly, and quietly relieved that the Ambassador hadn’t done a background check into my, ahem, ‘colourful’ past that mainly involved being run out of town by angry villagers carrying burning torches…

Since my ‘lifestyle change’ however, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing British Ambassador Simon Manley on several oc-

of your cubierto (meal and drinks) plus a bit more, a tradition since the days when that was the only way some families could afford a wedding.

The Spanish don’t do small or intimate. It’s not unusual to see half the wedding party gossiping outside the church while the ceremony is in progress because there’s no room inside ... or hanging out in the local bar – if there’s one near the church, and in Spain there generally

casions, especially on the run up to the Brexit referendum. Our Man in Madrid is a thoroughly good guy with an excellent sense of humour, so I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity of a trip to Madrid.

As the invitation was a plus one, I took fellow Olive Press columnist and ‘proper writer’ Natalie with me, who looked fabulous for the occasion, although due to my frankly rubbish organisational skills, rather than an effortless AVE ride we ended up driving to Madrid in Zappa the Ford Focus. We left Marbella at crack of sparrow fart, getting to the event at 1.30pm. I fumbled into my jacket and trousers outside the Ambassador’s Residence, while Natalie pulled off that female trick of managing to look as if she had just stepped out of a salon.

The first people that we bumped into were, of course, the Olive Press crew. “You just had your name called out,” they announced.

I hadn’t realised that they would be giving

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is – because Catholic services do run on a bit ...

After you’ve thrown your rice (preferred to confetti) the bride and groom will disappear, sometimes for several hours, for the wedding album shoot, leaving guests to their own devices, usually another bar, so everyone’s well allegre before the party’s even started; or you could go home, have a kip and have to get dressed all over again.

If they ever created an Olympic Decathlon for gastronomy it would look a lot like your average Spanish wedding reception. It starts with cocktails and canapés, progresses through a five-course sit-down banquete and gathers momentum after the sobremesa (coffee and wedding cake) with the dreaded Open Bar. Cue cigars the size of small rocket launchers to be offered round and copas dispensed in quantities that use up your entire week’s recommended alcohol units in one glass.

Later, it will be time to ‘Follow my leader’ and do a ‘movemiento sexy’ and it inevitably ends up in someone’s swimming pool wearing nothing but your bow tie or tocado (fascinator).

Spanish weddings are marathons, not sprints – a point worth remembering unless you want to be the hilarious anecdote everyone’s talking about next day. ¡Viva los novios!

awards and had missed the Ambassador’s welcome speech. The good news was that the wedding was being shown on flat screen TVs throughout the residence and that the Ambassador was pleased to see us. As highly trained, professional journalists we all decamped to the G&T bar, debated how to pronounce the word ‘scone’, wondered what trouble a single man might get up to in Malta, and feigned outrage when one of our number was refused a second slice of wedding cake - an incident we christened ‘The Great British Bake Off Sod Off”.

And then Natalie spotted the podium where the Ambassador had spoken in a quiet corner of the garden. Not wishing to waste a great photo op, we made sure that no one was looking before she leapt on the small stage, doing her best ‘Live from the UN’ pose.

“Caught you!” came a voice from behind me as Simon Manley strolled around the corner. Natalie looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights, but the Ambassador burst out laughing, a possible Olive Press related diplomatic incident was narrowly avoided.

And no, there were no luxury chocolates, but the Ambassador does, indeed, hold memorable parties!

What reception?

Under the current town hall rural dwellers get nothing

I

MIJAS MATTERS

By Bill Anderson

F you live in an urbanisation you may feel exploited by the heavy taxes you pay and the few services you receive. There has been a lot of talk about ‘reception’ of the urbanisations. What does it mean?

In Mijas there are three urban centres: Mijas Pueblo, Las Lagunas, and La Cala. In these areas, the Council takes care of … well, everything: street cleaning, gardening, repairs, street lighting and so on. Instead of developing around these urban centres the urbanisations developed in rural locations and began to spiral out of control. After all the council got more money from licences and the business and employment that this brought with it.

For many years, they ran themselves, as, technically, they were not finished, and the Socialist governments were very happy to receive all the income at no cost to them.

Forty years later, this is nonsense. In 2011, when Angel Nozal came into power, he began a process of ‘reception’ of the urbanisations. He felt it unfair that they paid more than people living in these urban centres and received less services. Firstly, he changed all the street lighting bills over to the council’s account since the Council pays less for electricity than other consumers. He also installed recycling bins around the urbanisations, previously the urbanisations’ responsibility. He strimmed all abandoned plots, put street names and house numbers, so post could be delivered. Nozal planned to extend this process around Mijas, but when they lost their majority in 2015, it ground to a halt. So, why didn’t he just take over everything?

Here’s the first rub. To take charge of, for example, road repairs, the urbanisations have to sign the roads over to the council. If not, any work done would be a grant ‘in kind’, and the Tax department sees it as income, thus creating individual tax liability on this ‘income’.

The Tripartite town hall has paid around €200,000 for a report on reception of the urbanisations, but, in their usual transparent manner, the opposition parties haven’t seen a copy. Now, the second rub. The report was to look at the original plans submitted for the construction of the urbanisations on the basis that they would only be ‘received’ if the plans had been followed to the letter. In theory, none of the houses should have been granted First Occupations Licences if the plans had not been followed, but the successive PSOE governments weren’t interested in that; they were only interested in having people in the houses and extra taxes.

So, where does that leave the Urbanisations? Frankly, in deep doo doo. There is a ray of hope, however. At the last meeting of the International Community last month, Angel Nozal restated his commitment to ‘finishing the job’.

Nozal said: “This is about working with the urbanisations and to make this happen. We don’t want to take possession of the urbanisations, but we do want them to be treated with equality and fairness, as Mijas is much more than just the three Urban centres.”

-final of Spanish TV talent show 3065 views

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SPAIN’S World Cup players have played the most club football this season than any of their competitors.

With more than 80,000 minutes played, Spain has racked up 10,000 more than England, 5,000 more than France and 6,000 more than Brazil.

The data, provided by independent research group CIES Football Observatory, encompasses domestic and contiDownload our appnental now and competitions between July 1 2017 and May 31 2018.

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ANDRES Iniesta has not ruled out playing for Spain after this summer's World Cup in Russia although he admits ‘it's difficult.’

The former Barcelona The captainOlive Press who left for Japanese side Vissel Kobe last month, was TOP for news in Spain! speaking to the media ahead of the start of the finals next week.

"I am not ruling out continuing with the national team, but I know it will be difficult," Iniesta said. "If I am called up, though, it should be for what I can bring to the team, not for what I have done in the past."

The Spain team were visited by new prime minister Pedro Sanchez last week. He was received at the Ciudad Deportiva in Las Rozas by RFEF president Luis Rubiales.

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Shock as Real Madrid lose French manager Zidane ZINEDINE Zidane has shocked the football world by resigning from his Real Madrid post.

The French coach made the announcement just five days after winning his third Champions League title with the Los Blancos side.

President of the club Florentino Perez and much of the players were stunned by the decision, especially given the good relations between everyone at the club.

Zidane said: “After three years the team needs another mission statement, another work methodology and that is why I took this decision.”

The devastating call came just days after both Cristiano Ronaldo and

Gareth Bale indirectly threatened to leave the club.

Zidane took over the Madrid role from Rafa Benitez at the beginning of 2016, leading them to win their twelfth Champions League title against Atlético de Madrid, followed by their third Uefa Super Cup when they defeated Sevilla FC. 2016/2017 was probably his best season in La Liga, with Real Madrid picking up three titles.

His last season saw the team crash out of the Copa del Rey at the Bernabeu while ending up 17 points behind Barcelona, but the Los Blancos still managed to claim three cups.

ON FORM: Nadal

Straight aces SPAIN’S leading man and woman of tennis are sailing through this week’s French Open.

Rafael Nadal, who is seeking his 11th title at Roland Garros, is through to the quarter finals after coming through all of his last four matches in straight sets.

Garbine Muguruza has also sailed through her first four matches, winning three in straight sets while her last opponent, Lesia Tsurenko, retired.

Nadal will play Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman either today or tomorrow while Muguruza will play Maria Sharapova, who recently returned from a ban after she was found to have taken illegal performance enhancement drugs.

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The

Real Bale

10 things you didn’t know about the UK’s most famous expat, writes Pablo Balbontin

H

E was the hero of the UEFA Champions League Final in Kiev, scoring what was quickly labelled as one of the best goals in the history of the competition. It was a stunning chilena - or bicycle kick - that sent fans around the world to their feet. But off the football pitch, Bale has led a quiet life in Spain.

Since moving to Real Madrid in 2013, the Welshman has kept a low profile, only being spotted at exclusive resorts, including the Finca Cortesin, in Casares, on the Costa del Sol. Here are 10 facts about his life in Spain that you might not know.

STUNNER: ‘Chilena’ at cup final

Open Tuesday to Sunday. until 22.00 Closed 12.00 until mid February

5:

Bale is known for his generosity and earlier this year bought his sisterin-law a new car and a €285,000 home in Cardiff after her husband tragically committed suicide.

6:

Like most footballers, he has a vrooming passion for cars. His Madrid pad is home to a Mercedes SLS AMG, Lamborghini Huracán and a Ferrari GTC4Lusso.

7: 1:

He rarely speaks in Spanish - although he gave his first full interview in the language last year - but not because he does not know, he simply doesn’t feel confident enough to use it yet. Although that didn’t stop former Real Madrid coach John Toshack from calling him ‘disrespectful’ this week for not having learnt the lingo.

He has two daughters with Spanish names. Five-year-old Alba, which means ‘dawn’ en Español, and Nava, 2, whose name comes from the Basque word naba meaning a ‘treeless plateau’ or open space next to a mountain. He also has a son, Axel Charles, who was born in Madrid on May 8 this year.

9:

restaurant||lunch lunchand anddinner dinner restaurant

But what else does Britain’s most famous expat do with his money? Well, following the likes of Ronaldo and Messi, he puts it into hospitality. Bale has opened several restaurants and bars, including Eleven’s Bar & Grill in Cardiff.

2:

Unlike many of us expats who love a caña - or few - in the sun, Bale is strictly Tee total and for obvious reasons, doesn’t smoke either. He is engaged to his girlfriend Emma Rhys-Jones, who he has known since he was 11 years old.

3:

Unlike many of his colleagues, he is not a big fan hitting up the Spanish fiestas ‘till the break of dawn. He prefers to stay at home playing video games or watching films.

8:

To get his mind off the beautiful game, Bale loves to go swinging - at golf clubs that is. He even built a golf course in his back garden in Wales. But when in Spain, he prefers golfing hotspots like Finca Cortesin in Casares.

4:

He lives with his family in the exclusive La Finca urbanisation, in the upmarket Pozuelo de Alarcón, district of Madrid. The pricey dwelling boasts famous neighbours like Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos.

10:

Like any other expat, he loves food and good weather. His favourite spots to eat in the capital include Michelin-starred El Filandón and the 30-year-running Mesón Txistu.

WWW.ELMUELLE-ARRIATE.COM WWW.ELMUELLE-ARRIATE.COM ESTACIÓONDEDEARRIATE ARRIATE||ARRIATE ARRIATE(MA (MA7400, 7400,KM KM4)4) ESTACIÓON 0034637 637784 784416 416||0034 0034952 952166 166370 370 0034 CLOSEDONONMONDAYS MONDAYS CLOSED

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FINAL WORDS

Flick-ed off THE Spanish Tourism Board is now ‘seriously considering’ suing hit Netflix film Ibiza, citing a lack of respect for the island’s culture, people and music

Pretty woman RICHARD Gere, 68, has said he is ‘the happiest man in the universe’ after marrying his Spanish 35-year-old girlfriend Alejandra Silva, in a fairytale wedding ceremony in New York

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Vol. 12 Issue 293

A POPULAR park has become a ‘no-go zone’ for children after being invaded by chickens.

A sharp rise in the numbers of hens and roosters has left visitors crying fowl at La Paloma park, in Benalmadena.

The town hall has confirmed it has received hundreds of complaints from visitors that the chicken population has got out of control.

Roaming

There are now said to be over 400 birds roaming the park, with some visitors claiming they have completely ‘taken over’.

The actual figure could be much higher, as a lack of an official record makes it impossible to record accurately.

The town hall says the problem has proliferated due to chicken owners dumping their unwanted

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Crying fowl

Anger as hen and rooster population make a Costa del Sol park into a no-go zone

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He’s been back HE’S easily one of the scariest characters in global cinema.

Now the Terminator - famous for the phrase ‘I’ll be back’ - has returned to film for the latest sequel around Andalucia this Spring.

Played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terminator 6, also starring Linda Hamilton has been in Almeria for two weeks.

The film crew have taken over the small hamlet of Isleta del Moro, in Cabo de Gata, until this Friday.

A number of scenes have been filmed in the area, as well as in neighbouring Murcia.

The locations and logistics are all being handled by an expat owned film company, based in Malaga.

Fresco Film, owned by German Peter Welter, has just finished producing the crime series Snatch, and also worked on Game of Thrones.

Schwarzenegger last visited Spain in 2014, when he attended a bodybuilding competition in Madrid. He previously filmed Conan the Barbarian in Almeria, in 1982.

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are increasing the risk of infections and diseases, such as bird flu, in the town.

It comes after the budget for park maintenance was cut by €1 million last year.

The town hall has acknowledged the problem as ‘annoying’ and agreed to try to resolve the problem as quickly as possible’.

Rest in peace SPAIN’S oldest nun has died.

Victoria de la Cruz Garcia, from Malaga, passed away at 110 after spending more than 80 years in Japan.

The devout catholic - who never forgot her home and was always playing the castanets - suffered a cardiac arrest just days before her 111th birthday.

She first moved to Japan in 1936 and witnessed the horros of World War II and the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Victoria was born in 1907 at the current site of the Trillo restaurant, in Malaga city.