Professionalism should be applauded

I make a certain journey often enough to almost call it a regular commute. Twice along this journey the National Police have conducted document checks imposed on a random selection of drivers. The first time it happened I was one of those excused from examination, but the second time a different officer was in charge of selection. He took one look at me and I could see plainly what he was thinking by the expression on his face.

I am a foreigner driving my classic Jaguar Sovereign, which is a nice car, albeit somewhat aged in the tooth. His expression asked the question: what are you doing driving this car?

I stopped where indicated, shut down the engine and produced the documents required, even follow-up documents to the ones that should have given them comfort that all was in order. The particular officer was having some difficulty in accepting that nothing was out of place, but eventually he did, apparently to the slight embarrassment of the officer who held my documents, because he actually said, "Lo siento" when handing my documents back.

Ironically, that same day I drove into the parking lot at the Estacion del Tren Norte in Valencia city. I parked and realised that a vagrant and his girlfriend were taking undue notice in my car and I was reluctant to walk away from it. The time was 4:45pm and I didn't notice that four National Police had entered the vicinity and to them I was acting suspiciously by staring at the two people and by taking steps towards them.

The police came up to me and demanded my identification, which I promptly surrendered to them all the while explaining that I thought I had a problem with the vagrants. They checked out my documents and apparently they were speaking to the same person who confirmed my documents in the morning. What has he done now? Where you about 100 klms away this morning, I was asked. Yes, I was and your colleagues stopped me to check my documents in a routine stop.

Seems this is your lucky day, stated the officer. (Smiles all round.)

However, the reason they had arrived at the train station was due to the fact that fifteen minutes earlier in London a lone terrorist had struck down several people ending in the deaths of four, including himself, plus injury to about 40 others.

I find the security forces in Spain to all perform to a very high standard of professionalism in any dealings I have had with any of the branches, but I would much prefer to be on the same side as they rather than on the wrong side.

Just to be able to say that makes this a wonderful country to be living in.

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael 

That Time of year again

We here in Valencia are hard at celebrating our annual Fallas festival. The season was started in very late February, and it seems to get earlier every year. One reason we put forward in making a whole lot of noise is to scare away the old man of Winter. It always seems to work so why change it if it ain't broken.

As always, many of those downtown Valencian residents head out of town when the noise starts. It's fine for those of us who live in the suburbs as we can still get to sleep throughout the whole of the festival. When you live downtown there continues lots of noise late into the night, and to make matters worse it all starts again at eight o'clock in the morning as they come to wake you up.

Effectively Valencia shuts down against motorised traffic because so many streets are closed as they have Fallas monuments planted right in the middle of them. That's one reason why residents take their cars and head for the mountains. Fallas, as wonderful as it is becomes old hat after a while and we Valencians become jaded. Perhaps it's better to attend  every few years to keep it fresh.

It is so liberating to walk around to view the fine work that has gone on over the past year without having to be confined to sidewalks. There are so many people who head for the city as they consider that to be the main event that we can barely move. However, every pueblo has it's own contribution so there is no real need to go elsewhere, but people feel the need to at least visit the city at least once.

Part of the excitement is to turn a corner and walk straight into some wonderful event taking place involving bands and gaily dressed participants. It's great if you like pleasant surprises.

Long live the Fallas Festival, even if it is a pain in the neck for driving around. That part only lasts a week which seems a small price to stage one of the grandest shows on earth.

Drive carefully!

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael 

Promising much more than we could ever use

In the world of super cars there exists a strange mindset. Manufacturers produce vehicles that have top speeds over 200 mph, which are F1 speeds for cars that will be driven on the normal road network,and that can get you from zero to 60 mph in 2.7 seconds.

Firstly, under what circumstances would you want or need to do that? I suppose if you were sitting still and you looked in the rear view mirror and saw T-rex bearing down on you, or a great bear, or an avalanche or a fire ball about to roll over you, that type of getaway speed would certainly come in handy. It would also be handy if the woman's husband whom you have just spent the night with is about to catch up with you. The capability to get away that fast would be invaluable, but what's the likelihood of any of those things happening?

This car, and others in its league are called touring cars. One thing is certain; the car looks absolutely great. Its performance is superlative and in motion it is a sore temptation to put the foot down a little too much. I drove a Jaguar F-type which is a naughty thing. It whispers in your ear constantly, "go on, give me more; you know you want to." Well, there are rules and limits to the speed you can get up to on roads that are being used by other people.

There are no roads at all that are safe and that permit us to drive at speeds of more than a maximum of 130 kph, so under no circumstances will we ever be able to use anything more than  those limits. In Germany it is different in that on certain parts of the autobahn  there are no limits, but the average driver will not be proficient in fast driving techniques. It is very likely that such a person will be taking an extraordinary risk in driving so fast. You would have to be an experienced racing driver to be able to control the car from fishtailing if you tried to stay within that 0-60 thing in 2.7 seconds. That is incredibly fast. If you lose control at that fast a start you could flip the car and then all bets are off.

I don't know about using this car for gran  touring because there's only room enough for overnight bags, and even then you may not be able to get much more than a couple of handkerchiefs in them, so I'm not sure what practical use such a wonderful auto would be other than the admiration of all who see it. When I drove the F-Type Jag the looks I got and the respect was something I will never forget.

I had to content myself with that pleasure and with the thrill of entering a motorway at a moderate speed and then blasting forward up to 120 as fast as I could just to feel the G-forces on my chest. Other than that I had to drive the car as I would any other and be a good motorist by staying within safe limits.

The problem is that once in a while someone will pass me and all the other motorist in the so-called fast lane travelling at what seems like supersonic speeds. They seem to forget that there are constant monitoring of the roads by cameras mounted on poles and in helicopters, so while you may not see them, they see you.

In summary we pay for a lot of excess power, speed and capability that we will never experience, and we pay a massive premium for those things. I once watched a person drive his car round the race track at Cheste on an open day at the track and he took one of the bends a little too fast for his ability and went into a skid. I think he might have soiled himself, poor fellow, because for the rest of the route he drove very sedately to the great amusement of us spectators.

Ah well! 

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael

Still Here?

I came across a car this week that I had not seen for a little while that is on foreign plates that I first encountered when I arrived here in Spain 18 years ago. I only noticed it because it's a very attractive vehicle but with the steering wheel on the right, but I liked it so much I always wanted to buy it if it came up for sale. That would most likely have been a mistake had I done so.

Back then there was some confusion caused by the barroom lawyers as to the maximum time limit for changing your foreign plates to Spanish ones, or if you ever had to do it. The owner of this car evidently believes that it is not necessary at all, but he would be mistaken.

When he causes a crash the first question on the claim's checklist will be: Is the claimant's license and car documents all in order? To answer yes to this question the driver's license  must be valid and appropriate to drive in Spain. That means if a U.K. citizen has been in the country for more than two years and is driving on his British issued permit that permit is no longer valid.

If the car has been kept in Spain for more than six month's and is being driven on it's British plates those plates are no longer valid as the owner/driver is now properly deemed to be a resident for tax purposes in Spain and the car should have been converted to Spanish plates not later than six months after first having landed in Spain.

That means there will be a resounding No to the claim's question and that will result in the claim being  denied without considering any other information. No matter that you have paid your premiums faithfully for years. This could now be a very serious matter for the owner who will be liable for the full extent of the damages caused. We sometimes wonder why the police don't make more of an effort to take these cars off the road as they are a danger to all road users. If I suffer serious damages from another driver and that driver is one such example who effectively has no insurance I am the one who is the loser. The police have much to do to keep them busy so perhaps they give a person enough rope to hang themselves. This would be very cynical on their part, so I hope it is for other reasons they don't act.

The thing is that I first noticed this car eighteen years ago. I think it's time something was done to rectify this situation.

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael