Sunday 24 August 2008

Bank Statement


Attached is the latest statement from Banco Popular.

Wednesday 20 August 2008

Swimming Pool Open


Yesterday saw the event that we have all been eagerly waiting for, the pool opened and was soon populated by holiday makers and residents. Sadly less than 24 hours later one of the newly fitted handrails appeared to be broken, it would seem that a youngster was seen jumping on it. The handrails are not there for this purpose and so I appeal to all users to enjoy this community facility but with respect.

Sunday 17 August 2008

AGM

All the paperwork with respect to the AGM in September have been sent out to all owners.

TV Blues

On Tuesday 12th, plain clothed and duty patrols from the Policia Judicial and Guardia Civil based in Torrevieja, Alicante, Novelda and Pilar de la Horadada, raided the Telemicro Levante offices in San Luis. Telemicro clients experienced a temporary break in service during the morning. Selected channels were reinstated intermittently before computers and other technical equipment were confiscated from the Los Montesinos office during the early part of the afternoon. Broadcasting then ceased completely. Several representatives of the company were detained by the Guardia Civil. Independent installers were left as much in the dark by Telemicro Levante as it's customers.
Neill found his job in jeopardy and within two days had secured employment with Torresat. He has been inundated with calls requesting installation of a tv package consisting of 70 television channels and 20 radio stations. This package costs 190 Euros to install and 20 Euros monthly payable by direct debit. There are many who have paid Telemicro Levante either monthly or a year's fee in advance and it must be assumed that this money is not recoverable.
As usual there are rumours flying about that Telemicro Levante will resume services on Monday 18th, we will have to watch this space, in the mean time the quality of the new system Neill is offering far upstages that of Telemicro Levante.

Threats in the bar

Late in the evening of the 8th, Neill decided to have a quiet drink in the bar and was confronted by a disgruntled holiday maker complaining about the topic of the season, the pool. It was suggested that Neill had deliberately delayed the opening because "he didn't want to go ahead with the rebuilding of the pool anyway". This remark came from a not very helpful owner and is totally unfounded. Why did Neill go to such lengths to negotiate payment considering the state of the bank balance? All the odds have been stacked against him The adverse weather in May wasn't a good start and to discover other problems with the pumps and filters only detected after water was put in the pool, understandably creates frustration. It has caused disappointment to some to find that the pool has not been finished in time but if the finger of blame has to be pointed it must look towards the years of neglectful maintenance. Neill should be congratulated not only for his excellent negotiation skills but his patience, not threatened by a person who only visits for two weeks each year.

Monday 11 August 2008

Water Water Everywhere.... But not a drop to drink

Last Friday morning saw large parts of the Bar floor covered in up to an inch of water, initial reactions were to think this had something to do with the Swimming Pool. This was proved not to be the case, neither was it anything to do with the blocked ladies toilet. Investigations revealed it had probably been caused by an outside tap left running, and the water permeated into the Bar.

Naturally, comments abounded, my two favourites were, " there's more water in here than in the pool" and " so this is where we are having the jacuzzi !! "

Hopefully the Bar floor has not been damaged, and needing to be relaid, we will have to wait and see.

Sunday 10 August 2008

Bad Press

A few days ago an article appeared in a local English newspaper which said the local Green Party had complained to the Mayor regarding large amounts of rubbish and a plague of Rats on Parque Naciones, and for some reason the paper also included Mi Sol in this.

An irate Owner telephoned the newspaper and complained bitterly about the misrepresentation,
whether the newspaper in question prints an apology in the next edition remains to be seen.

Some points arise from this.
1. The Owners on Parque Naciones will not be very pleased either, as the land in question belongs to private developers, not the Urbanization itself.

2. The writer of the article had clearly not visited Mi Sol in the recent past, otherwise they would have seen there are not large amounts of rubbish laying about. We do get an isolated report now and then of sightings of Rats, but by no means a plague of them.

3. A local Spanish newspaper also printed an article on this subject, but correctly reported that the land in question was NEXT to Mi Sol.

Saturday 9 August 2008

Selfish attitude

Regular readers of these posts will know that normally I try not to make comments, preferring instead to stick to the truth and the facts as best as I can report them.
However sometimes events occur which upset me and make me feel I should comment on them. This is one such post.

Friday morning was a particularly busy time, there was an unexpected problem with the pool, an inch of water on the Bar floor, toilets blocked in the bar, two serious drain blockages, and documents to be sent to the Administrators. This was not a problem, everything was sorted out in a couple of hours. I then had the misfortune to be in the Office when a long time Owner came in with some of her family. She asked when the pool was going to be open, a reasonable question as it is nearing completion. Unfortunately she did not receive the answer she was clearly hoping for, as there will be a couple of days delay in the anticipated opening date, due to an unforeseen problem.

This was her cue to launch into a diatribe of how she and her family had come for their annual holiday and wanted to use the swimming pool. She knew all the answers to the problem, how work should have been started in January, how we should have taken all the debtors to Court, how we should have asked Owners to make extra payments to pay for the pool. No amount of explanation of the facts and the legal position of various things would pacify her, she had a friend on another Urbanization who had told her things !! This is a recurring theme with some people, but of course Mi Sol is not just any other Urbanisation, it has its own peculiarities, and laws which apply in other places are different here. Fair enough people are entitled to their opinion, and if they don't want to listen to the facts and the truth, that is their prerogative.

Then true colours started to appear with expressions such as " only the people who live on Mi Sol permanently did not want the pool repairing" this is patently untrue, I know many owners who only visit Mi Sol for their holidays who never go near the pool, and would much rather have the roads sorted out or security in place than have the pool repaired.

Next came "the people who live here all the time have not supported Mr Morans at the Bar" I tried to point out that it was not the fault of the permanent residents that the bar had not been open since February, or that there was no live music on the terrace anymore, this was to no avail. It was this "us and them" attitiude that upset me, it is interesting to note that at the very moment this conversation was taking place, several Owners who live here permanently, some of whom do not use the pool, were giving of their time and effort to paint the walls surrounding the pool to make it nicer for everybody, including her and her family.

She seems to have taken no account of the many hours of time and effort by the Committee and myself to make every effort to have the pool open as soon as possible, not to mention the worry and sleepless nights trying to balance the accounts so that the pool could be done and at the same time make the Park neat and tidy for all owners to enjoy whether they live here or just visit.

Let us not forget the Pool Company in all of this, who by agreeing to an informal deferred payment system allowed us to even start work this year. Without that we may not even have been able to have the pool in operation next year. Not forgetting the cooperation of one particular owner (who lives here full time) without which work would have definately HAD to stop last week, until probably the New Year. The next Bank statement will demonstrtate this quite clearly.

Mi Sol today is a very different place from 30 years ago when Owners could buy their own little bit of Spain on Mi Sol for 500 Pounds sterling, today new Owners have to pay anywhere from €50,000 to €100,000 for their property on Mi Sol, and naturally want a better return for it than two weeks cheap holiday so their family can use the swimming pool.

It is the resposibility of the Committee and myself to work for the needs and aspirations of ALL Owners,
I beleive we have done that, and will continue to so.

Whilst I very much regret we have not been able to have the pool open for this Owners cheap Summer holiday, I make no apologies, simply because of all the hard work and effort put into trying to have it open in time by many of the people this Owner clearly despises.

Whatever you do you just cannot please some people.


"Quote of the week" In an unrelated incident it was reported to me that an Owner entered the Office and alledgedly said,

"We are going to send Mi Sol a bill for the taxi fares and entrance fees for having to use the pool at a local bar"

BBQ

The barbecue planned to be held on the Bar Terrace tomorrow afternoon, has been cancelled.

Several reasons contributed to this decision, the pool is not quite ready, the bar is not quite ready, and at this moment in time no live music is being held on the bar terrace.

I will keep you informed if and when it is planned to hold it in the future.

Friday 8 August 2008

Committee Meeting

Attached are the minutes from the Committee meeting held on the Bar Terrace Tuesday 5 th August 2008.

Tuesday 5 August 2008

Some good news at Last

It is pleasing to report that finally, filling of the Swimming pool began yesterday. Hopefully it will be ready for use by the weekend. This coincides with the opening of the newly refurbished Bar area.

A barbecue to celebrate the reintroduction of these two important facilities to the Community was planned to take place this coming Sunday 10th August at 3p.m, however in light of the incident that took place last Sunday afternoon, reported in the previous post, it is as yet unclear whether alterations will be made to the original plan. Details will be posted here as they become available.

Monday 4 August 2008

Too Loud .. Man

For some time now Mi Sol has been entertained during Sunday afternoons by a group of local musicians " jamming" as the term goes, often inviting singers and other musicians to join in.
Recently they have tried to persuade me swell their numbers by playing one of my keyboards.
Before agreeing to this I decided it would be prudent to go and listen to the kind of music they were playing. This I did this past Sunday afternoon, the music was good, and very much enjoyed by those attending. However it was quite loud, and seemed to me to be getting louder by the minute.

Just as I was wondering about the wisdom of making so much noise during siesta time on a Sunday afternoon, the local Police arrived, and promptly put an end to the proceedings. It would seem someone on Parque Naciones had complained, and the Police had no choice but to take action.
This is the second time in a few short weeks I have witnessed the musical entertainment being stopped on the Bar terrace by the Police. This is a perennial problem, it happens every year, no doubt some of you will recall that in the not too distant past, music of any kind, either day or night was banned completely from the terrace. Any musical entertainment had to take place inside the bar, an unpleasant experience in the heat of the summer months without air-conditioning

It would seem lessons are not being learnt here, on an Urbanisation such as Parque Naciones, which is predominantly Spanish owned, even the swimming pool is closed every afternoon, to allow those who wish to have a siesta to do so in peace, so it would seem reasonably obvious they are not going to tolerate loud music during this time. A balance needs to be struck between the holiday makers and residents who wish to be entertained, and the needs of the local population living in the surrounding areas adjacent to Mi Sol.

Interestingly, the previous evening, the regular entertainer was performing and I noted that although I could hear him and his music quite clearly, it was still possible to hold a conversation with people around me without us having to shout at each other. That would seem to be a reasonable criteria to judge whether the music was too loud or not. At the end of the day, they are entertaining a handful of people on Mi Sol terrace, not a crowd of 100,000 at wembly stadium.

Sunday 3 August 2008

Bank Statement

Here is the latest statement from Banco Popular. As you can see , things are getting a little awkward, still to be deducted is the cheque for €3,6369 . 50 for the swimming pool filters. Included in this statement is an amount of €498 . 96 this is for Tax regarding the employment of the Administrators. The cheque €2,140 . 13, this is two payments to the Administrators, we are still catching up for the year they were not paid. The cheque for €500 is for petty cash, to pay for things like the hire of skips for the Gardening rubbish, and other incidentals such as paper and ink etc. Hopefully there will be no more unexpected nasty surprises before more money is paid in. So far we are still on course to have Mi Sol free of debt by the AGM in September. The only exception to that will be the 12 monthly payments to the swimming pool Company of €2000 . 00, made up of €1500 . 00 monthly repayments, and €500 for the monthly professional maintenance of the pool.

Congratulations

There were celebrations on the Bar terrace this weekend, with dancing, and the "Bucks Fizz" was flowing, as long term Owners Mr and Mrs Les and Lou Harris celebrated their ... wait for it... 66th wedding Anniversary. Certainly an event to be celebrated in style.

I am sure you will all join me in congratulating them, and wishing them many, many more years together.

Newsletter 7

Here is issue 7 of the excellent Newsletter produced by Owner Mrs Mo Taunton.