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A funny ole two weeks

It certainly has been a funny ole two weeks - Alonso won the Singapur grand prix in his Seat ibiza - sorry Flavio! Both Real madrid and Barcelona got off to a reasonable start in The Champions League - yeah footy’s back on the TV in case you forgot!
I’m going to give a thumbs down [...]

2Oct2008 | catalonia spain | 1 comment | Continued
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Another Noche de San Juan over in Barcelona

It looks like people are still suffering the after effects of another Noche de San Juan from where I’m looking out! Didn’t see too many people on the trains and public transport - all suffering from hangovers I expect.
I just read in the newspaper that there were around 85,000 people celebrating the “Verbena” on Barcelona’s [...]

25Jun2008 | catalonia spain | 0 comments | Continued
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Spanish lorry drivers strike is over - for the moment.

It looks like the Spanish lorry drivers have decided to stop striking at the moment in order to ease the economy. The strike started a week ago over the increasing price of fuel has left supermarkets without supplies and caused traffic jams all over the country.
The strike was instigated by three of the biggest transport [...]

17Jun2008 | catalonia spain | 0 comments | Continued
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More than half a million Catalan workers are over qualified

According to a recent report by the CCOO trade union, almost 550,000 employees in the Cataluña region are over-qualified for the jobs they are being paid to do. Almost half of them have degrees or postgraduate qualifications.
As a result of these findings, CCOO regional socio-economic secretary, Dolores Llobet, insists that improvements in professional training “should [...]

4Jun2008 | catalunya spain | 0 comments | Continued
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Recent rains in Catalonia allow water restrictions to be lifted

Water levels in the Ter-Llobregat reservoir system that supplies Barcelona have been swollen by twenty cubic hectometres to 28.9% of total capacity as a result of the recent heavy rain, meaning that the exceptional drought alert can be downgraded from a level two to a level one.
In turn, this means that domestic water usage restriction [...]

15May2008 | catalunya spain | 0 comments | Continued
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Catalonia’s president’s son fined for vandalism

Arnau Montilla, one of regional president Jose Montilla’s five children, has been fined €300 euros for damaging two telephone boxes in Barcelona city centre.
The incident occurred at around 3:15 a.m as thousands of alcohol-fuelled fans were celebrating Montilla admitted kicking in the glass of one cabin and breaking the receiver, but denied vandalising the second.
The [...]

17Apr2008 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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Barcelona to eliminate more than 4,300 Franco plaques

Barcelona is to eliminate over 4,300 plaques and remnants from buildings and façades from the General Franco era. They will also be taking away statues and fascist monuments such s those dedicated to “Primo de Rivera“.Horta-Guinardó, Nou Barris and Sarrià-Sant Gervasì are where most of these Franco relics are to be found.
Most of these plaques [...]

10Apr2008 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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Max Mosley really should get his coat and leave

I really do think Max Mosley should get his coat and leave…..forever! To think that this guy cost McLaren 100 million dollars for the same thing that Renault did and is still sitting pretty in his connolly leather FIA president’s chair is beyond me.
I’m glad that the rest of the F1 fraternity are turning [...]

5Apr2008 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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fines of up to €3,000 euros for parents of kids who play truant

Badalona town council is following the example of El Prat, where a similar scheme was first introduced two years ago, and will be fining the parents of children who persistently miss school up to €3,000 euros.
Ten sets of parents in the Sant Roc districts have been targeted initially after a number of alternative options failed [...]

1Apr2008 | admin | 1 comment | Continued
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Badalona gets rid of half of its “pisos patera”

I suppose I’d better explain what a “piso patera” is first. It’s usually a flat in a rundown area of a city which is “over occupied” usually with immigrants who have no official documents or who are in the middle of getting them processed by the good old Spanish government.
Badalona, which is just on the [...]

26Mar2008 | admin | 0 comments | Continued