If It Isn’t Broken, Don’t Try To Fix It

I should have known better than to open my mouth 🤷‍♂️ In my last ramble I rather stupidly mentioned that we could just relax, as there was nothing official to be done, and additionally, no outstanding personal admin to complete, however, those ‘Dark Forces’ were listening weren’t they, perhaps I should just keep what I may be thinking to myself 🙄

Although I rarely read the UK ‘doom and gloom’ mainstream media these days, just perhaps some of the headlines but not the actual content, I do however tend to read more of the local stuff, mainly what’s happening here in Spain, but also ‘some’ headlines from what is happening in other mainland European countries. It is a good job really, for there was an article reminding foreign Immigrants (Expats) in Spain to re-register on ‘El Padron’, which is similar to the UK Council Nominal Roll, or a population census as it is known here in Spain. Now to be completely honest, we didn’t know that we had to re-register at certain periods, nobody had told us this when we first registered on ‘El Padron’ in June 2023. However, I did some on-line research after reading the article to see if it did actually apply to us, and of course, it did 😲 For those who are ‘Non-Eu residents’ and who, like ourselves, currently only hold ‘Temporary Residence Status’, then it seems that you have to re-register ‘every two years’, otherwise your residency status on the register may be cancelled 😳

Being registered on the ‘Padron’ is important because without being on it there are several ‘official’ services that you cannot gain access to e.g. Health Services, Driving Licences, or other associated renewal processes and, even simple thing’s like purchasing a car, not that we are thinking of changing it but these are some things that you wouldn’t normally think about. The first document they ever ask you for is, proof that you are registered on the “Empadriamento’ and this proof is via a ‘Certificate’ that has to be valid within three months of the product or service that you are attempting to gain access to. The most important aspect for us, at the moment, is that being on ‘El Padron’ is the official record of how long we have been officially resident here in Spain, as next year we need to renew our ‘Temporary Residency Permit’ for a further two year’s and then, at what will then be our 5 year point, in June 2028, we can finally start the application process to obtain our ‘Permanent Resident Permit’. However, if we do not re-register at the appropriate periods, and are subsequently taken off El Padron, then, when we come to apply for our ‘Permanent Residency Permit’, we would be unable to provide ‘Official’ proof that we have lived here for the required 5 ‘consecutive’ years 😲 Not being aware of this mandatory renewal process, until now, meant that we were already four months past that renewal date and so, as far as we knew, our proof of residency status may already have been removed from the register 😲

Our first hurdle in checking that status, and renewing it, was that it just happened to be the weekend of Spain’s ‘National Day’ celebrations, with a Public Holiday on the Monday, so of course all Government Offices were closed 🤷‍♂️ The next issue was discovering whether we had to drive up to ‘Manilva’, to the location of the official Town Hall, where we initially had to register on the Padron or, could we go to the ‘Foreign Residents Department’ at a smaller Town Hall Office building in our own local Town 🤔 In the end, we discovered that we didn’t re-register at either, a friendly official in the ‘Foreign Residents Department’ directed us to another Government Building in the town, only a five minute walk away. Once there, I explained to an extremely friendly non-English speaking lady, in my bestest ‘Espanyol’ of course, why we were there and asked for the appropriate form, thinking she would provide the form and tell us we needed to go away and complete it and then make an appointment to return to start the renewal process, or worst case scenario, our residency status had lapsed and we needed to start from scratch 😳 She asked for our current Spanish Residency Cards and then entered our details into her desktop computer, she asked us to wait for a moment and she disappeared into a back office. To be honest, at that point my heart sunk as I wondered whether she was going to consult with a Supervisor about our 4 month overdue re-registration 😳 However, when she returned from the ‘back office’ she had actually produced, and completed, the re-registration Forms on our behalf, which she just asked us to sign. She tapped away some more on her computer, then turned and smiled at us and announced, ‘Todos Completo’ (All Complete). She had not asked us to produce any of the supporting documentation that we had taken with us 🤷‍♂️

Once back outside of the Office I commented to Shazza at just how friendly and helpful the lady had been, and also how surprised I had been that she had not asked to see any of the supporting documentation. Shazza said, “Did you not recognise either of the two ladies in the Admin Office ?”, “Not really, why ?” I responded. She told me that they were both regular mid-morning customer’s at one of our favourite Cafe/Bars, usually sat on a table comprising of about six other ladies that we always passed pleasantries with. To be honest I still didn’t recognise her, I tend to just see a group of six to eight ladies sat around a table together and don’t really pay that much attention to them as individuals 🤷‍♂️ However, our experience that morning may perhaps justify that saying of, ‘It’s Not What You Know, But Who You Know’ 😉 Then again of course, it could just have been a total coincidence and that in truth, she was probably in fact just a very nice friendly and helpful lady 🤷‍♂️ Perhaps now though I will pay a little more attention to who I am speaking to and, perhaps, one morning buy them all a coffee, well you just never know where else some of them may work, perhaps in the local Police Station, or Immigration Office, or Driving Licence Office or local Health Centre 😂 All of which may be places with services that we will both need to access at some point in the future. However, one thing is for certain, I won’t miss the next ‘El Padron’ re-registration date, due in June 2027, as my OCD Buddy made sure that that is now already firmly marked in my diary and ‘Oh Yes’, just one other thing 🤔 “Up Your’s Dark Forces” 😂

Shazza’s mum had spent eleven full days with us and we took her back to Malaga Airport for her flight back home on the twelfth day. Prior to her arrival, we had agreed that as she had already seen most places in our area, right up the coastline into Malaga City, Up into the nearby mountains and she had also visited Gibraltar several times, so on this visit, apart from taking her back to any places that she particularly wanted to re-visit, we would just let her have days relaxing on the balcony in the sunshine, especially after her recent ‘Little Incident’, it is a nice part of the apartment where she could look out upon the views, read her book, or magazines or do her crosswords and sudoku, and of course take her frequent ‘Siestas’, something I think people of a certain age do naturally, whatever country they may be in 🤭

But that is not the way it actually turned out, for we were out every single day, mostly from late morning until the early afternoon, whilst the temperatures were a little cooler, if you could call 25 degrees(c) at 10:30am cool 😳 We had numerous morning coffees in a wide variety of Cafe/Bars, lunches out, the occasional dinners out on some evenings and lots of visits to places in the local area that she had already been to on her previous trips. She also provided us with ‘practical’ reminders of her liking for the taste of Spanish Cervesa, Vino Tinto, Tinto Verano, Sangria and the odd tipple of ‘Baileys’, she may need to enrol with ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’ once she gets back home 😂 She also enjoyed the introduction and temporary membership to our ‘People Watching’, ‘Fashion Police’ and ‘Body Beautiful’ club, although we had to keep reminding her that this was supposed to be a discreet and silent activity, and not one intended to be vocalised to any ‘others’ in our immediate vicinity, especially those who were the subjects of our observations 😲 However, after apologising profusely on her behalf, numerous times, and stating that we were just returning her to the ‘Care Home’, we managed to escape without any abusive exchanges taking place 🤭 Perhaps we should have introduced her, and then left her, with the groups of older matriarches who regularly sit gossiping, and who certainly do not disguise who the victims of their observations are, often by pointing with their fingers, or a nod of their head in their direction, like a well aimed missile and when six or seven heads turn and stare in one particular direction it leaves little doubt as to who, or even what, is the focal point of their interest 😂 This, generally morning activity, is not just a privilege reserved for the older ‘female’ generation, for I have quite often observed the older men folk also doing this, sat at a Cafe, or more usually on a park bench, or low wall, smoking their cigarettes, or with the palms of their hands crossed, resting atop their walking sticks, their eyes flickering from one passing target to another, although I do have to say that they do tend to be a little more discreet than their female counterparts. I often observe them and think to myself that I would actually fit quite well into those male groups, only when my time arrives you understand, right now I would probably only be considered more of a young apprentice, learning how to hone those finely tuned skills 😂 But I have to say that I do actually enjoy watching these characters, male and female alike, a case of watching people, watching people, it has become a sort of natural progression and addition to my more usual ‘People Watching’ activities 😉

As well as visiting our more usual haunts, we also managed to find a couple of new sightseeing opportunities to visit, just to mix things up a little bit and by way of a change for Shazza and myself too. Around a one hour drive up the coast is the ‘Castello Monumento Colomares’ (Colomares Castle). Now this isn’t a typical castle fortress of any real military historic significance, those that I more generally like to explore, but it was constructed as a tribute to ‘Christopher Columbus’ and is a major tourist attraction in the neighbourhood, although to look at it, well let’s just say that it is probably more in keeping with something you would find at one of those Disney type Theme Parks.

It was not a sprawling area, perhaps summed up by the entrance fee which, for a tourist attraction was quite cheap really, €2 each for those of a more senior status (yes that did include myself 🙄), and €3 for younger adults, which came as some sort of amusement for Shazza for some reason 🤷‍♂️ Inside the grounds there was a small Cafe/Snack Bar and surprisingly, even that was quite cheap, nowhere near the usual touristy prices where you need a bank loan just to purchase a coffee.

We had selected the right morning to visit as there were very few other visitor’s, I have edited the photo’s above, so it actually looks empty, however it wasn’t. There is very little public parking nearby, which we were pre-warned about after reading ‘Reviews’ prior to our visit, so we ended up having to park up a very steep hill, Shazza’s mum did manage the walk down, albeit very slowly, as even the footpaths, which is hardly an accurate description of what we encountered, were more an accident waiting to happen, broken and raised paving slabs and Ill-fitting manhole covers, they don’t do public Health & Safety here, more a case of you being responsible yourself for avoiding the hazards. The alternative would have been to walk on the road, but with blind bends and speeding motorists the safer option were the poor footpaths. When we were finished at the castle, after about an hour, if that, we left her stood outside the castle entrance whilst Shazza and I walked back up the hill and retrieved the car, it would take the two of us to safely manoeuvre out of the tight parking space into the flow of fast moving traffic. We hoped that her mother had learnt the art of silent ‘People Watching’ in our absence 🙄 Fortunately there were no blue flashing lights when we got down to the castle (Police or Ambulance) so it seems that she had managed to behave herself and not cause a disturbance, I am not sure that I would have been prepared to have paid her bail to have got her released from custody 😂

Our next new location, not a million miles away from the Castle as it happened, was the ‘Mariposario’ (Butterfly Farm) which was housed in a very ornate Asian-style building, this however was a much more expensive visitor attraction 😳 Although we were able once again to park for ‘Free’, this time on the side of the road just a short and fairly level walk away.

In truth, personally I hadn’t expected to enjoy this place very much, with loads of different coloured, and sized, butterflies flapping around or landing on my head. However, I was quite pleasantly surprised, it was more like walking into an enchanted very humid tropical woodland, with water features and walkways and even an upper viewing platform. In the main the vast assortment of species just flew around keeping their distance, although one did decide to settle on my arm for a few seconds. Although some of the photographs (below), and I have kept them to a minimum, do not show it, their were dozens on dozens of butterflies just constantly flitting around, far too fast moving for my camera to catch them in flight, so I had to settle for those that were stationery on leaves, or on the feeding stations.

The exit led into, and through, the more usual mandatory gift shop and, to be honest, I was very nearly tempted to purchase one or two large butterfly themed ceramic wall ornaments, I thought that they would have made a colourful edition to the already resident multicoloured decorative wall vases, and the large colourful ‘Salamander’, that are already in situ on our balcony walls. However, a rather forceful tug on my arm from Shazza indicated that she thought otherwise ☹️ There was a sympathetic smile from the lady at the till counter as I passed, I did the Spanish thing, held my arms out to the side, moved the palms of my hands in an upward direction and shrugged my soldiers. It could of course have been a lot more embarrassing if Shazza had reverted to her former teacher’s method of displeasure and discipline, by grabbing the lobe of my ear and frog marching me outside 😂

We actually thought that Shazza’s mum had done quite well over the duration of her visit, coping with the constantly high temperatures, as there was just no let up whatsoever, with afternoon temperatures regularly reaching between 30-35 degrees(c). The ‘Works of Fiction’ being their usual inaccurate selves, forecasting ‘Maximums’ of ‘up’ to 30 degrees(c) and occasionally promising rain, that of course never actually materialised, unless you happened to be in more Northerly parts of the Country where they have again recently experienced severe flooding as a consequence of ‘Storm Alice’, which once again automatically started the ‘jukebox’ in my brain to start playing that 1976 pop hit by ‘Smokey’ entitled ‘Living Next Door To Alice’ 😆 Just by the way of one of those useless bits of pop trivia, the song was actually originally recorded in 1972, by an Australian band called ‘New World’, so you see, these rambles can also occasionally be quite informative and educational at times 😂

Although Shazza and I do enjoy our own company for most of the year, we do also enjoy having the occasional visits by family and friends, we are not completely anti-social 🤭 However, after nearly a fortnight, we were once again ready for our own space and to get back into our more normal routines, after being out every single day we agreed that for the next couple of days we would be happy to become complete ‘couch potatoes’, it wasn’t as if we hadn’t done any exercise walks, just not at our usual pace although their was a distinct advantage too, the partaking of ‘daily’ Anti-Covid Vaccines, and often more than just once a day😂

In Other News…………………….

Of course, one of the biggest news stories over the last week or so has been about the introduction, in the Schengen Areas of Europe, of the new Entry Exit System (EES) and how that process has effected Non-EU traveller’s. Now it depends on which News Media Publication you read as to their version of events on whether its implementation has been successful or otherwise 😉

So there you go, no chaos in Spain according to the Interior Minister, that is of course as long as you do not mention the Spanish Island of ‘Tenerife’ 🤭 But it has not been such plain sailing elsewhere it would appear and, the reason there have been no problems in other Spanish airports, well perhaps that is because they only implemented it, initially, on a very early morning flight into Madrid but have not yet started implementing them at some of the much larger airports, it will be interesting to see how Malaga for example, with its 20 million annual tourists passing through its gates each year, gets on 🤔

So I guess only those ‘Third Country Nationals’ actually travelling through Airports, within Europe, will know the actual truth of the matter but, as with any new system I guess, to be fair, their are always going to be some teething problems. Considering that the actual introduction of the EES/ETIAS system has been delayed in it’s inception for the last two year’s, it is probably considered a success, well by some, now that it is actually operational 🤔 But do not get too comfortable just yet, as it would seem that their is even more ‘Bureaucracy’ for travellers still to come, not only for you, but also for those of us that live here in Europe 😲

Now to be completely honest, this next stage of bureaucracy is actually not new at all, it has in fact been an official requirement in most areas of the ‘Schengen Zone’ for very many years, but it is not something that has been ‘routinely’ enforced, but with the introduction of the new EES/ETIAS systems, and the issues with Immigration, you can be assured that it will be the next thing to be more strictly enforced.

Now the formality below ‘Only’ applies to those visitor’s who are staying with ‘Private’ hosts and does not effect those staying in Hotels, so by way of an example, any guests coming to stay with us will mean that ‘we’, Shazza and I, will have to obtain, prior to their visit, a ‘Carta de Invitación’, which will cost us around €70 ‘per visitor’, we then send that ‘Certificate’ to our visitor(s), who must produce it at the point of Immigration, along with their Passport and proof of some other formalities e.g. Health Insurance, Return Travel Ticket and Funds available during the period of the visit 😲 So let me just stress again that this is NOT a new requirement, just one, that until recently, has not been ‘routinely’ enforced but, it would appear from recent media articles, that some European countries are now becoming more pro-active with enforcing these procedural requirements.

Now, just because I made a brief mention above to ‘Immigation’, and also, in one of my more recent rambles, I also mentioned how both Portugal and Spain were introducing tighter Immigration protocols which, I am certain is happening elsewhere too, but I also just recently saw this article……………..

Also coming soon, for us here in Spain, is the new legal requirement to carry ‘Emergency Warning Beacons’ in our cars from 1st January 2026. ‘Ditch the Triangle’, well actually don’t ditch the triangle, for this new Law is only currently a requirement here in Spain, so if you travel across European Borders you will, for now at least, still need to put out your warning triangles if you break down along a road.

Yes, like the good law abiding citizens that we are, we have already purchased our’s and are ready to go 😁 However, it would have been helpful if they could have also provided a list of what other ‘European’ countries are part of these new ‘Traffic Agreements’ because, for those that are not included, then we will obviously still need to carry our warning triangles to remain road legal in those countries 🤷‍♂️ I can actually see the good road safety reasons for this new device, if the system works that is and, the monitoring stations do not get overwhelmed, but could this also be a surreptitious way of the Spanish Authorities creating more employment opportunities 🤔 You can see now for yourselves just how my cynical nature still remains pretty active 😂 Not that increasing employment is actually to be considered as a bad thing here in Spain.

So, what else is changing here in Spain 🤔 Actually it is not just here in Spain and again, this is actually not anything new, as we have been doing it every year for god knows how long 🤷‍♂️ For yes, from the early hours of Sunday morning, 26th October, many of us will be putting our time-pieces back by one hour, it means that it will be lighter in the mornings, but darker earlier in the evenings.

But it would seem that here in Spain the agreement to continue to comply with both the ‘Spring’ and ‘Autumn’ time changes expires in 2026, after that, who knows 🤷‍♂️ From a purely personal, and extremely selfish perspective, let’s change the clocks back to Summertime in Spring of 2026 and then, stop any further clock changes, that way it will be light in the morning just as I am having my first cup of coffee on the balcony, but it will remain lighter for longer in the evenings, when I am still admiring the sea views, all the boats and yes okay, I admit it, when I am still able to conduct some ‘People Watching’ 😂

Sometimes I just wish that certain things in our every day lives would just stay the same, I mean why can those in a position of authority not just apply the common sense reasoning of, ‘If It Isn’t Broken, Don’t Try To Fix It’ 🤷‍♂️ In my personal experience, things tend to get worse when you do try to fix them, just ask Shazza about my home DIY projects 😂

Until my next ramble…………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena