The Curmudgeon

The most popular day for a día de descanso in bars and restaurants in Spain is Monday. Doh!

Do pubs and restaurants in England have a day off? I think not.

OK, so given that Spanish bar owners and managers seem incapable of organising their rotas to open every day of the week, why do most choose Mondays to close?

I’ll tell you what they say. “We’re tired after the busy weekend!”

Do me a favour!

Preamble

Do English hostelries close for two weeks so that the landlord/lady and his/her family can go on holiday? Of course they don’t – they get a locum in.

And another thing, off season, lots of places round here only open Thursday to Sunday.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems that bars and restaurants are no longer a service to the public, but simply money-making enterprises for their owners.

Many of my good friends are “publicans”, to use that quaint English term, but they cannot see this issue from my point of view.

“Why shouldn’t we close if it’s not worth opening?” they chorus.

Sorry, I see it differently. If you are an alcoholic, a heavy drinker, a coffee addict or simply a sociable person, who wants to indulge your passion 7 days a week, why shouldn’t you be able to?

Clearly, if you rent your bar/restaurant and have to employ staff, it’s very different to a “landlord” who owns his premises and only family work there, BUT NOWADAYS THEY CLOSE ALSO!

Last night, Monday 25 November

We went out for tapas with English friends, A and T, who have lived in Montejaque (Málaga) for a number of years. Not yet old enough to retire they have “kept the wolf from the door” by renovating properties, renting to tourists and selling at a profit.

Now they have sold their house in Montejaque – they go to the notary tomorrow – and they are leaving to go and live in a house they own near Mojácar (Almería), some five hours away by car.

They are sad to be leaving the Serranía de Ronda, but they now see their future in the far east of Andalucía.

So, as a farewell we decided to go out for tapas in Ronda, bearing in mind that one of us is vegan. Most of the places on my list of favourites which offer vegan dishes were closed. These included Bar El Puente, Bodega Casa Mateos, El Almacén, Miyagi Express, and Siempre Igual.

We started off at another favourite, Café-Bar Sensur. Because of the dearth of other places to go, we stayed there for nearly two hours and ate our fill. Delicious.

Oddly at 10.00 pm the bars that had been open in Plaza del Socorro were already closed or closing. Weird!

Nightcap

We decided to go to Calle La Bola for a nightcap, where a couple of places were still open. We chose Toro Tapas, where we just had a drink and continued our chat.

Interestingly, we discovered that Toro Tapas currently opens every day of the week, lunchtimes and evenings. Good for them!

We had a really nice evening, despite the problem of it being Monday, and promised we would visit A and T in Mojácar next year.

I was in Mojácar for two weeks in 1989 with my first wife and our two young kids (aged 5 and 2 – they are now 41 and 38, each with two boys, my British grandsons). But Rita hasn’t been there.

I remembered enjoying Mojácar, and A and T clearly like it also.

The Verdict

We had a nice time. But I still think all the closures, which are now the norm, it seems, are taking the mickey. But it will never change.

© The Curmudgeon

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alcoholic, Andalucía, Bar El Puente, Bodega Casa Mateos, Café-Bar Sensur, Calle La Bola, coffee addict, Covid-19, Curmudgeon, day off, de tapeo, día de descanso, El Almacén, heavy drinker, landlord, locum, Miyagi Express, Mojácar, Monday, nightcap, pandemic, Plaza del Socorro, Serranía de Ronda, Siempre Igual, sociable person, Toro Tapas, vegan

By The Curmudgeon

British TV in Spain via satellite was switched off for good last April. What is the situation 7 months on?

My original article, here, had so far been viewed a massive 7,235 times when I looked at the analytics a few minutes ago. And there have been 24 comments offering advice and also pointing out that in some areas further north British TV is still available via satellite.

Some of my friends and other contacts provided different alternatives to the one I chose, all of which I included in my article, and none of them have reported problems.

I am grateful to Carolyn E, Nick Flynn, Elaine Gilfillan, Jill LP, Freida Maybury, Christopher Seward, Paul Whitelock, and Julie Wilkinson.

They live in different places in the Serrania de Ronda including Cañada del Real Tesoro, Fuente de la Higuera, Jimera de Libar, Llano de la Cruz, Montejaque and Ronda.

I am also grateful to the many people from across Spain who posted comments which were also helpful.

My choice

I went for the pre-loaded Amazon Firestick. I bought two, one for home in Ronda and one for our rental house in Montejaque.

I am very pleased. It works better in Montejaque where fibre-optic cable has been installed throughout the village.

Our international guests over the year appreciated the channels at their disposal

In Fuente de la Higuera (Ronda) where there is no fibra yet, it buffers occasionally, but I can live with that.

The main thing is I got to watch Match of the Day, International Rugby, and the Olympics in Paris, on the TV in our guest bedroom.

And now that winter weather has arrived it’s nice to sit down in front of the telly and watch Strictly Come Dancing, Question Time, Newsnight or a film on Netflix, all washed down with a glass of wine or two!

© The Curmudgeon

Links and Contacts:

https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/2024-04-08/bbc-switches-off-satellite-signal-whats-next/87701

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Elaine Gilfillan, Qualified teacher of EFL, Jimera de Libar   Tel: (+34) 711 01 15 27

Freida Maybury, TEFL qualified English tutor   Tel: (+34) 634 33 01 51

Paul Whitelock, translator and corredor (independent estate agent)  Tel: (+34) 636 52 75 16  www.help-me-ronda.com 

Julie Wilkinson, translator and independent gestora ("fixer")  Tel: (+34) 744 60 65 03 

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Tags:

Amazon, Amazon Firestick, British TV in Spain, Cañada del Real Tesoro, CharryTV, Christopher Seward, Curmudgeon, CyberGhostVPN, Elaine Gilfillan, ExpressVPN, fibre-optic cable, fibra, Freida Maybury, Fuente de la Higuera, Hitsmobile, International Rugby, Jimera de Libar, Julie Wilkinson, Llano de la Cruz, Match of the Day, Montejaque, Netflix, Newsnight, Nick Flynn, NordVPN, Olympics in Paris, Paul Whitelock, Question Time, Ronda, Strictly Come Dancing, Wikipedia

By The Curmudgeon

What is going on? When I first came to Spain some 50 plus years ago, you could get a drink and a tapa or a coffee at any time of day.

Nowadays it’s a different matter!

Photo courtesy of Trip Advisor

The problem

I have just driven 17 kilometres from a village of just under 1000 inhabitants to my home just outside a large town in the Serrania de Ronda and ALL THE BARS WERE CLOSED, bar three.

I left Montejaque (Málaga) at 18.50 for the 20-minute drive to my home in Fuente de la Higuera, a pedanía just outside Ronda, and nearly everywhere was shut, except my local where I am writing this, the Hotel Ronda Valley (formerly Hotel Don Benito), Bar La Melli and Bar 101.

I feel like naming and shaming the closed establishments for ceasing to be a service and being only interested in the bottom line. However, I might lose a lot of friends and goodwill by doing so.

Hotel Ronda Valley [Photo A1 Inmobiliaria]

Suffice to say that in Montejaque, in the main square, two were shut; the third, the admirable Bar La Melli, was open. The other two were shuttered up: Bar El R. and Restaurante E.A.

Driving out through the village, Bar El Altillo was shut, although it always is in the evenings. Café Bar 101 was also open.

Next stop, Benaoján.

N’es was shut, Bar El E. also. Newly opened Bar El Escalón was closed (día de descanso, rest day - fair enough).

    Two happy customers at Bar La Melli [Photo: PW]

On the stretch from Benaoján to La Indiana there are three bars: Las B; Bar Restaurante C del G and Venta El P. – all shut.

Next was my local, already mentioned. The nearest to my house, Restaurante La C. has just closed for three months!

What do I think?

As I said in my title, W**t the F**k!

© The Curmudgeon

Acknowledgements:

Photos:

Paul Whitelock

Trip Advisor

Tags:

Bar El Escalón, Bar La Melli, Benaoján, Fuente de la Higuera, Hotel Don Benito, Hotel Ronda Valley, La Indiana, Montejaque, Paul Whitelock, pedanía, Ronda, Serrania de Ronda, tapa, The Curmudgeon, Trip Advisor, WTF, W**t the F**k!