Fernando does it!

We all knew he would but today Fernando Alonso became the youngest ever Formula 1 world champion, and also the first Spaniard to achieve the title.

Watching it unfold on Tele 5 was great. The Spanish presenters get so emotional that they really make it exciting to watch. They add a lot of drama (and humour) to the whole thing and really bring it alive. In contrast to ITV where excitement is normally kept to a minimum (although I actually prefer the ITV commentators!).

So, for the next few weeks Spain will be going mad with "Alonsomania" as it's called.

Well done Fernando, you really deserved it today....can't wait for the next season now!

The beach

Well, it's nearly the end of September and it's still ok for the beach. Today was a glorious day (again). The beaches are quite quiet now too as all the tourists have left. We even squeezed in a pizza by the seafront and the kids played on the beach till late.

We then drove (2 mins) home with no traffic around anywhere.....

Days like these really remind us of why we moved to Spain.

Saying that, the town hall is about to close off our road as they never actually finished it meaning that we'll have to park quite a way away until they sort it all out.

You win some, you lose some.

Writers and poets

There seem to be a lot of budding writers and poets out there looking to feature their works on a website. At Eye on Spain we've now set up the facility for people to contribute their Spain related articles or poems to enjoy.

To read current articles, or to submit your own go to

Articles about Spain

To read the latest poems, or to submit you own go to

Poetry about Spain

We'd love to hear from you!

Refreshing efficiency

Today we had our bunk beds delivered for our daughters' bedroom. We bought it through a German furniture store based in Sabinillas. The furniture they have is fantastic, imported from Denmark. The owner rang the other day to tell us that he would be delivering the bed at 10:30 in the morning on Tuesday.

In true Spain style we took this to mean anywhere between 11:00 and 11:30. But no!! The van pulled up outside at 10:28 and the owner was knocking on our door at exactly 10:30....how refreshing...and unexpected.

It seems that the Germans are the rare breed that do not seem to adopt the Spanish "manana" practices when setting up business here. Even the English here are not as efficient as they would be back home.

Thank god for the Germans.

By the way, if you're looking to furnish your property in Spain you may want to read our recent article on this subject, hope it help:

Furnishing your property in Spain

Hasta la proxima

It's all about the weather

What do you do on a boring Sunday afternoon? Today we went with some friends to a glorious restaurant in a lovely little sea-front village called Castillo (meaning "castle"). It really is a tiny place but it's famed for it's fish restaurants. I think there are more waiters than residents in the village.

The food was fantastic, although we had a screaming 2 year-old amongst us! We later took a stroll along the paseo at Sabinillas for a refreshing ice cream and to listen a bit more to the screaming 2 year-old. The kids played on the beach for a while whilst the hot sun was beating down on us.

It really is a hard life here in Spain! To be honest, Sunday's are not boring at all. There is always so much you can do just because the weather is normally on your side.

By the way, if you ever want to check out what it's like over here our "not such a good view" web cam is live all day long. Take a look at our Manilva web cam.

Must go and relax now after such a hard day!

Trip to Malaga

I lived in Gibraltar for 18 years, we moved to Spain last year and today was the first time that we actually went to Malaga. I don't mean the airport (as that doesn't count).

I was quite surprised...pleasantly. We really liked the city. They have a really nice town centre with some great shops (according to the other half), loads of nice places to eat (and some not so nice), lots of things to see and all with a general nice atmosphere.

If you don't already know, Malaga was Picasso's home town and the city has lots of things about the painter. The Picasso museum is well worth a visit (our two kids, aged 3, fell asleep which helped!). We also took the the open-top Malaga Tour Bus which at 13 Euros each is well worth it as you get to see everything.

So if you're over this neck of the woods, I definitaly recommend a trip to Malaga, although not recommended in July and August!

Dinner will be ready soon so just going out to the terrace......

Hasta manana!

Here we go

Why start a blog? I can safely say that life in Spain is rarely dull! Living on the Costa del Sol (otherwise lovingly known as Costa del Crime or Costa del Cranes) I have seen and experienced things which would be unheard of in the UK, where we moved from 18 months ago.

So this will be me telling it as it is...and it's not always pretty!

Where do I start? Well, we moved into our new apartment just 6 weeks ago and were starting to settle in, despite the lifts not working, the rubbish piling up and not being collected, still being on the developers electricity and water (not reliable), just to mention a few problems. Now, without even telling anyone, the council has fenced off the main road around the development, blocking all the garages and it about to pull the whole road up as they didn't build it properly! It is about to turn into a building site again! Great.

It is generally assumed that Spain is a relaxing place to live, which it is sometimes, but it can also be incredibly frustrating!

Still, not one to moan....

The weather is great, I can;t remember the last time it rained.

I've got lots of interesting stories to tell so come back soon!