Pic by lilinhah
Low in Funds
I received an email from Jill who wants to stay a bit longer in Tenerife but whose funds are running low. After her contract expired Jill looked around to find cheaper accommodation but the best she found was an €18 a night B & B in Los Cristianos. That’s daylight robbery!
My neighbour’s comfortable two bed/2 bath with terrace and garden has been reduced to €450 a month from it’s previous rate of €550 because of the crisis which makes it cheaper to rent for the month than one measly room in a hostel.
Of course, you can’t get long-term rates on short-term stays and neither is anyone likely to hand you the keys to their pad unless you are in gainful employment and have both a down payment and a deposit in hand. So what can you do?
Hunting for Flat Shares in Tenerife
Well, look for a flat share is the answer. You will still really be paying for one room plus use of the flat’s facilities but you’ll get a much better price and who knows you and your new flattie may just get on like a house on fire. Er… maybe that’s not such a great idea!
Anyway, where to find these fabulous flats shares in Tenerife?
A good place to look is the notice boards in any Cultural Centre or some of the supermarkets.
As it was on my mind I cast an eye over the notice board in Las Galletas Cultural Centre and found three possibilities right away.
Flats to Share
1. Rent of one room in a two bedroom apartment in Guargacho. €180 per month. Tel: xxxxxxxxx
2. Flat share in Las Galletas (sea view) €200pm Tel: 922 xxx xxx
3. El Fraile flat share – no price given but it says economico! Tel: xxx xxx xxx
(Contact details have been removed but these are real examples of rates on offer.)
Any of these would be a better bet for a budget-conscious visitor than a pay-by-the-night hostel.
There is a humongous notice board in the Los Cristianos Cultural Centre and if I were looking for a flat share that is where I’d start.
And if anyone reading is looking for a flat mate then you are welcome to say so in a comment below. You never know…
Happy hunting!
You know the story, The Emperor’s Clothes, in which two swindlers convince the Emperor that the robe they weave for him out of fresh air is in fact spun from thread so pure that only the most worthy can see it? The town go wild swooning over the quality of the fabulous robe while the Emperor struts around in his altogether like a bantam cock (oops) until one little boy pipes up that the Emperor has no clothes on.
In my humble opinion a lot of Emperor’s Clothes syndrome goes on in the art world. Some rich, powerful or insane art critic gives the nod to some ghastly piece of work and because of his or her stature everyone else falls over themselves to agree how wonderful the monstrosity is.
Tracey Emin's 'My Bed'
Take Tracey Emin’s My Bed for example. (Please take it somewhere far away. Then burn it). It is an ugly and depressing thing that detracts from its environment and blights the world. Who in their right mind would give it house room (Charles Saatchi, actually!) much less put it up as a contender in a major art competition?
Fountain of Fuglies
Something just as ugly has sprung up in the middle of Costa del Silencio. As part of the general refurbishment of the town the council in all their wisdom have removed the totems that stood in front of El Chapparal for over thirty years. The residents were told that the old wooden structures had started to decay but replicas would be made and would soon replace the original carvings.
The best of a bad bunch
The totems had a meaning and a place in the heart of the town. They represented the combined community of the seven Canary Islands and yet as each totem was unique, they also represented the individuality of each of the islands. The totems also stood tall and proud, fulfilling a basic requirement of most landmarks. They could be seen from a distance.
Soon after the totems were taken down workers started construction on a large oval basin. Obviously some sort of fountain…
Is it a bird, is it a plane...
It seemed to have seven pipes and light fittings. Could this mean a dancing fountain of seven different coloured water spouts? That would be nice to sit and watch of a summer evening, eh?
Work went on and on. Much time was spent on the mosiac round the outside of the ‘fountain’. It was almost as if the workers did not want to get to the next step – installing the figures. I am not suprised.
All boobs and no brains
God in Govan, who dreamt this horror up? And who rubber stamped it? If art is deemed successful if it inspires emotion then I must say this monstrosity is a runaway success because I hate it so much I am inspired to smash it to pieces with a baseball bat.
I am not alone. No-one in Costa Del Silencio likes the thing. The consensus of opinion is that the government is poking fun at the tourists. But what cruel fun. Look at these dumpy, gormless creatures!
Duh!
Are these seven hefty bathers, staring slack-mouthed at the sky supposed to express the unity yet individuality of the seven Canary Islands? If so I wonder which one is represented by the men-things which have a bigger moob problem than Jack Nicholson.
The water that you see in the pictures really is that colour. If people in CDS start to succumb to swamp-borne disease you will know where to find the hot zone. I don’t think the council has ever turned on the pumps making this eyesore also an excellent nursery pond for mosquitos.
Many think that this street installation is an insult to the tourism and expatriate money that made Tenerife what it is today. To me it is a blot on the landscape and a dire waste of council money which could have been better spent renovating poor, neglected Damon Park. To one little boy, it is something of a mystery. “Couldn’t they do people good?” my son asked me in a puzzled tone.
It’s true. You would have thought that if someone’s bright idea of modern art was a stone bath full of metal transexuals in the centre of the town that they would have hired a half decent artist to make a proper go of it.
Still, you never know. Tenerife’s ‘Fountain of Fuglies’ may succeed where Tracey Emin failed and win the Turner Prize. If so, can we spend the prize money on Damon Park, donate the ugly thing to Charles Saatchi and have our totems back please.
Give us back our totems!
It has been some time since my last pair of glasses gave up the ghost. I’m not sure if the final straw was when my son accidentally dropped them in the toilet or if it was the dog sooking off the elastoplast that held the glasses’ legs on that finally did it but finally, sadly, I bade my beloved old specs goodbye and resolved to get a new pair in the following few days.
Well, one thing after another and days turned into weeks and weeks into months. I think the world has a certain special charm when seen through a constant fuzzy haze and who cares about littering and graffiti when they are perceived only as pretty colours anyway? No doubt I have offended or confused more than one person as I sailed past them in the street totally oblivious to anything that is going on outside of about a five-foot radius.
I am dreadfully short-sighted but it doesn’t bother me too much. After all, I work at home all day in front of a computer. I only need to see far enough to recognise the keyboard. I suppose I could have gone on quite happily in my soft-focus bubble had I not taken a trip to Carrefour with my nearest and dearest.
After my mother and I had wittered round the shops for a while and hubby had stamped off to the car, my mother decided she needed to visit the loo. There was a bit of confusion between her going in and me coming out, and before you know it I was stranded alone at the door to the carpark. There was a vast sea of cars in front of me and not a nearest or a dearest in sight.
Okay, so there was nothing for it but to plunge off into the murk and trust my sense of direction. Some time later I was rescued from spending the night wandering about the Carrefour carpark by my mother and husband who had been watching me from afar (probably giggling hysterically and taking bets on how long it would take for me to get arrested).
After that experiences glasses were placed firmly back on my To Do list but first they had to fit on my Can Afford list. I was horrified at the quote I got in the first opticians I tried – €500! Jeez I need a pair of specs not the Hubble Telescope!
Next stop was a shop in San Eugenio which had Rebajas signs plastered all over its window. The sales woman talked down to me and stalked my husband round the shop like a hungry lion. The ‘great deal’ at this shop included not charging for an eye test if you end up buying specs from them and a 10% discount on frames. Big deal! Specs from here would cost about €360. My husband was quite happy for us to go ahead and order them but the sales lady had put me off and I would have rather gnawed off my own leg than throw any of my hard-earned cash in her direction.
And then inspiration struck. Hubby looked up a shop he knew from Paris called Afflelou on the internet. Yes! There are two in Santa Cruz. Had I but been able to see it in the first place, Afflelou, is right there in front of the food checkouts in the same Carrefour that kicked off my latest quest for specs and they have a great offer on right now. Buy one set and get a second for €1!
Brilliant. But even better is that the first pair have a standard price. It is about €79 for under 16 (it is some time since I could claim to be under 16 so I didn’t pay to much attention to that offer), €129 for those over €16 and €329 for bi-focals. Imagine that, two pairs of bi-focals for €330!
In my case, I wanted a pair of ordinary glasses and a pair of sunglasses both medicated for my short sight. I had to pay an extra €50 for the sunnies but in the end, I have now got two fab pairs of specs for a total of €180!
So happy as I am at the outcome of my tale, I have two bits of advice to share. The first one is, if you need specs get yourself over to the Afflelou store in Carrefour Santa Cruz before 28 February at which time this fab deal will expire. And the second is to Mr. Alain Afflelou himself. If you are kind enough to offer such a fabulous deal to the optically-challenged and cash-strapped, I suggest you make the posters advertising it at least ten feet tall so people like me can actually see it when we are shopping in the supermarket right in front of your store.
Credit to Dimitris Kritsotakis for the great picture!
The death of a three year old girl in the Costa Del Silencio, of suspected child abuse, has left the community in shock. Admitted to Mahon on Wednesday in cardiac arrest, the child’s body was found to have marks of a suspicious nature and the police were called in.
The 25 year old boyfriend of the child’s mother is being detained and questioned by police. He denies any wrong-doing, claiming that burns on the child’s body were due to overheated bath water and the bruises because she fell down so much.
Aitana died in the early hours of Friday morning. Her school held a minute’s silence for her on Friday, as did several government offices.
Judging by the roving bands of little demons and witchlets that were terrorising the neighbourhood last night, nobody paid much attention to the bishops’ warnings of the pagan nature of Halloween. I thought my own little devils looked great although Sami was a bit miffed with his make-up. He thought it was ugly but eventually got into the spirit after he was forced to agree that there was no such thing as a pretty pirate.
Leaving the kids with Gaga we went off into the night for a bit of trick or treating of own own. We stopped by at The Penalty and then made our way to Scottish bar. The owners, Pauline and Bobby cook up a fab fish and chips and great breakfasts but Bobby’s Saturday curry is so good it sells out early so get there before nine if you want to be sure you get some.
As it happens if you missed out on Bobby’s curry you could have stuffed your face with the free chilli con carne that was on tap at Our Place but as Chef Igor doesn’t do mild, you did need to like it hot. Not that that would have been a problem last night because the only people in the place were the evil and the undead.
Everyone was there from Cruella de Ville to a victim of the Whitechapel murders. There were enough skeletons to open a boneyard and more witches than you could shake a broom at.
In a bid to cause as little disturbance as possible the final asphalting of the Añaza to Caletillas stretch of the Southern Tenerife highway (TF1) is being done between 22:00 and 06:00 hours right through the night. This caused signifcant tailbacks on Saturday night but quite likely was nowhere near as inconvenient as if the twenty kilometre stretch had been closed off during the day.
Even so, from today and for the next four or five days there will be one lane cut between Taibaba and Añanza(going to Santa Cruz) so expect delays if you have to drive to Santa Cruz this week. The lighting and signage has also to be done so some interference or blockage of the slow lanes of the carriageways in both directions can be expected until that is finished.
Further to yesterday’s post about revolting neighbours in Costa Del Silencio, today’s Diario de Aviso reports that a spokesperson for the owners at Chayofita contacted them to deny that there was a majority uprising against the planned urbanization works. On the contrary, he said, “the majority is in favor because at the owners’ meeting there were only two votes against.”
Oh what a shame. I was looking forward to a bit of a public mêlée. Not that two people sat down in front of a small digger would have been much of a spectacle.
Anyway sticking to the whole Costa Del Silencio development story yesterday Costa Del Silencio’s shiny new image was unveiled to the media and sundry worthy government bods who were proudly shown the finished work at Jose Antonio Tavio and Calle Diana.
Much was made of the broad walkways, gardens and the aesthetically pleasing fence that is set to sweep round the town in a uniting ribbon of metal.
I wonder if anyone told them that though the broad walkway is complete at Calle Diana the aesthetically pleasing fence has only just been started. You can see the foundations for it behind the original fence which is still standing up the length of the road from Bella Vista to Maravilla.
Once it has actually been erected the new fence for all its modern chunky poles is pretty useless anyway as I have seen a whole family squeeze between the bars in a shortcut to their apartment in Eureka.
According to the Mayor, Jose Alberto Gonzalez Reveron, there is still plenty of money in the kitty to finish other streets of this town (which I am sure will come as a great relief to the residents of Calle Minerva where works are currently in progress) as well as for a 65,000 square meters park.
There has been talk of a theme park being built in the neighbourhood for years so it will be a significant leap forward for this area should this rumour actually come to pass. The park when completed would be roughly a third the size of the spectacular Siam Park and no doubt shovel tourist money into the area by the coach load.
Diario de Aviso: Costa Del Silencio Renews its Image
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