A Little Progress Perhaps?

I was hoping that I would be writing this entry with the knowledge that we had completed our purchase, as it's now over 2 years since we signed our contract.

When canton Valais changed the regulations regarding purchases by foreigners (again), we decided to write directly to the canton and ask when we would be getting our permit. We did not expect a reply, but received one teling us that our permit would be issued the following week. That was quite a coincidence I think.

Around 10 days later the solicitor who works for the Notary emailed to say that the permit would be granted and requested the remaining 50% of the funds. Since then, all is quiet, I sent several emails to the Estate Agent, and got no response, pity really, apparently we need an electrical inspection, and he's the man with the knowledge, oh, and insurance too.

So, we continue to wait, in limbo, we have now paid 100% of the cost, plus charges, and still have nothing to show for it. Welcome to our 3rd year on the permit list.

Zinal Powder

I decided to take a quick trip out to Val D'Anniviers. It was sheer good fortune that I arrived to fresh deep powder up on Sorebois.

The village was quite busy with racers, hosting the Dynastar Cup, so there were quite a few skiers on the hill, mostly feeling the cold. It was our good fortune that they all seemed to want to ski on a couple of slopes, leaving all the beautiful uncut powder to the lucky few.

I cannot really remember ever skiing in powder so dry and fluffy. I was really surprised that my lift ticket was only CHF30 each day, it seemed an amazing bargain.

The piste patrol set charges to release this snow from the ridge.




Whilst I enjoyed another day on the slopes, I doubt that there were more than 20 skiers and snowboarders on the entire hill. The snow continued to fall, the air was colder and the snow was very dry and powdery. I sank into a snowdrift thigh deep, and tested the efficiency of my ski bindings!

I had a pleasant surprise from the lift company. I was approached by a member of staff in the restaurant whilst I was having lunch, and advised that I had been overcharged on my ticket, and given a partial refund.



Zinal is a pretty little village and is looking very seasonal right now, in the run up to Christmas.

Tricky Little Gnomes

After my recent success with the bank account challenge, I may have been a little too smug. As we are on a long list waiting for a permit, we have to be quite patient, but we had been assured that we would eventually float to the top of the pile, and be able to complete.

Last weekend the Valais cantonal authorities changed their legislation regarding the permits. This year, they applied all 330 permits to the waiting list, which currently stands at 1290. Next year, they will give most of the permits to builders, and "Canton Approved Projects", and the list gets...wait for it...66 permits.

This means, that if you are at the bottom of the pile, then you could look forward to completion and legal ownership in....19.5 years. Whilst you wait on the sidelines, you will be able to observe foreigners view a newbuild being offered by a builder, and be given a permit...straightaway.

We await the release of next years' permit allocation. If we fail to be able to complete next time round, then we wait another year, and will have the option of cancelling our contract if either our Estate Agent or the canton are unwilling or unable to tell us when (if) we will be able to complete. We paid 50% of the purchase price 2 years ago, so our worst case scenario is, it's been a free loan to Valais canton for 3 years. So, a bit like the Swiss banking system really.

Unless, of course the canton changes the rules again.

Autumn Slide at Xscape MK

The Real Deal and definitely not Milton Keynes

Went along for a couple of hours to Milton Keynes indoor snow slope. Seemed like a good opportunity to remind my body what this skiing stuff is all about. After all, it's been a month since I had skis on in Zermatt.

As there are now signs all over the snow slope base area banning photography and videoing by the public I took no photos. Whilst I was there I met up with several skiers from Snowheads, namely JT, Snowball, Slikedges, Rob and Snowshark. I took my Monsters, and they were fine for the mixed conditions on the slope. I'm looking forward to getting them up to speed in resort, but that's next year, and seems ages away.

It's snow, but it's just not quite the real deal as the sun's not shining, and there are no deckchairs outside the cafe.

One Step Closer

I had begun to worry that I had no chance of getting an ordinary bank account in Switzerland. I am happy to say, that I have found a bank that caters for folks who count their change when shopping, :ie most ordinary people.

I made arrangements to open an account by email, and called in, gave them some money, and in return they handed me some pieces of paper. I now have an online service, and all the necessary access. If I spoke and read French, it would be a doddle.

One of the ongoing problems with "having a Swiss bank account", is that folks who know me, now think I'm really rich. If only it was true.

I'm really happy that one of our hurdles has been jumped, and now all we need is a permit from the Canton, and we can complete the purchase, and enjoy more views like this.

Target Practice in Zermatt Sept-Oct 07

I have just returned from a ski trip to Zermatt. The conditions on the glacier slopes were superb, and the weather was kind to me. This was my first visit to Zermatt, and I was amazed at how busy the whole resort was with tourists. Everywhere I looked there was a party of Japanese or Americans, all raising their cameras in unison to take exactly the same photo of the Matterhorn. The tourist shopping was of course, geared to meet their needs.




I had signed up for a package to test skis, through the Tourist Office. This included my hotel, lift ticket and a range of skis to test. I managed to test 3 different pairs of skis during my stay, and this provided quite a varied experience.

These were:


Movement Chicka http://movementskis.com/

Scott Aztec Maya http://www.scottusa.com/gb_en/product/155/23/aztec_maya

Dynastar Exclusive Legend Powder http://dynastar.com/product.php?id_seg=&id_product=583&id_dyn_category=2&id_dyn_segment=92&acturub=1


My first outing was on the Movement Chicka, and I really thought I had forgotten how to ski. Perhaps they were too short, or poorly prepared, but once I swapped them for the Scott Aztec Maya I was much happier. The best ski of the bunch were the Dynastar's, and I was most surprised that they were 172cm. All my own skis are under 165cm.









The glacier slopes were very busy with race teams undertaking training in fenced off areas. That worked fine as long as they stayed there, but it was quite off putting to have skiers regularly go past me extremely fast in a race tuck, apparently using me as a "gate". After a near miss, I took to stopping behind the lift pylons for safety. I'm quite risk averse, having had a speeding skier break my collarbone 2 winters ago.

There was some lovely fluffy powder to play in. This was of no interest to the racers as it was not groomed. Perfect for me though!

On my last day, I saw these folks out on their antique kit. This equipment looked really difficult to ski on.










I shared a lift with a teenage member of the German Moguls Team. This is what he was training on. Young knees can take the impact. The speed of descent defied belief, to stand and watch it looked like a speeded up film clip.

Why is it so very difficult

Okay, so I made an assumption. The assumption was broadly this. Someone who is buying a property in Switzerland should be able to open a bank account in order to pay their bills.

Well, technically it's still possible. Practically, it's turned into a surreal experience, more like a nightmare.

I send off an email, telling a bank about where we are in the process, who we are buying through, who the solicitor is etc. By return, I get either, a request for a considerable amount of money 25,000 to 100,000 CHF, or, a request for pretty well everything except my blood group. Still, I'm sure they will ask for that in the next mailing.

I queried the amount at one bank, just to make sure. I was told "It's quite normal". Yeah, right, I'm sure all the Swiss checkout staff and refuse collectors deposit 100,000 CHF in order to get their pay cheque processed.

All this effort is to get a very ordinary current account, paying no interest, with online banking and a bill payment facility.

Given that Switzerland has very low interest rates, I'm starting to feel that it would be cheaper for us to pay cross border banking costs for at least the next 10 years, before we would break even on the losses that a hefty banking deposit would incur in our savings.

I have now learned that Spanish Banks in all the performance aspects I have encountered so far, are miles ahead of Swiss ones.

And we still have no information about when we'll get our permit.

A Most Pleasant Walk

A pleasant day, and a good opportunity to walk a little of the Thames National Path. It's an easy level hike with ever changing scenery. The weather was kind to us, and we saw lots of local wildlife, mostly birds on the Thames.

It's amazing just how busy the Thames is with folks in boats, from Narrowboats to racing dinghys and rowing boats all trying to use the same bit of water.

Something For The Weekend Sir?

In this case, the "something" turned out to be a loan of a Toyota Prius Hybrid. We were prepared to give one a decent road test, especially as cheap road tax and good tax breaks are on offer for company car users.

We were not convinced.

1. The fuel consumption was only around 45 miles per gallon (Imperial)

2. The engine starts straightway when the aircon is on, so burning the planet like any other car.

3. The passenger footwell is very cramped.

4. The suspension is plain awful, I felt car sick on a road I have been using for many years.

5. When you try to accelerate, the engine revs up...and then you finally gather momentum.

6. The music system is inferior.

7. It's quite hard to get beyond 10 mph without the engine starting.

8. The view through the back window is poor, it has a reversing camera, just as well.

9. The gear shift arrangement is counter intuitive.

10.If you forget to engage the foot parking brake after selecting drive, you go nowhere.

11.It's expensive.

12.The battery materials are definitely not environmentally friendly.

The delivering dealer announced that it was "the future". We will settle for the past for the time being thank you. It was collected without comment or enquiry.

Bangs, Bulls and Beer

We were in Spain for Fiesta in our Spanish seaside town. It's a very big event for the Spanish, with 2 weeks of events, parades and fireworks. As we were hosting an elderly parent, we did'nt get about as much as some other years, and those events we did attend were not met with huge enthusiasm by our guest. For us the event was as exciting as ever.

For example there is a large firework display which begins at midnight of the beachfront, which is attended by thousands of locals and tourists alike. I have never seen such large fireworks, which are launched with a "whump" noise and a large flash of flame, before the firework opens. We were about 300 yards away.

Then there is the "bullfighting". There is much critcism of formal Spanish bullfights, and having watched elements of the event here, I feel that it owes more to the right of passage for the young men of the town who enter the bullring in T shirts and jeans, to face a stroppy bull. Their defence is to run between the bars of the bullring base to avoid the bull. They have no swords or other weapons like the traditional Toreador. The bull's seem to be rotated, and here are some images of the bulls at changeover.

The images are a little grainy as it was dusk, and it's a bit daunting to put myself through the bars to get a good image!!

The bulls eventually get a run up the beach each evening, which can surprise some tourists.

This is the view of the bullring from the castle approach. The low building on the rear left, is the local emergency clinic!

There are many Church services throughout Fiesta at the church in the old town, which are open to the public.

We managed to entice our guest away from the only English Bar and the English Beer, to enable him to experience a bit of real Spain. He was able to put up with a pitcher of San Miguel, just occasionally.

The weather, was absolutely fantastic throughout our stay.

A great Fiesta trip, and we were quite pleased to have paid our taxes to the Ayuntamiento, and had some interesting dialogue with a proper Spanish Builder about some alterations to our house. We await their proposals and the estimate of the costs!!

The Pull of The Paper

We have just finished hosting an elderly relative at our place in Spain. This involved driving him around, and sourcing his idea of Spanish holiday bliss. This consisted of finding an English Bar, where the staff speak to him in English, English football on TV and today's copy ( absolutely not yesterdays'copy) of the British tabloid "The Daily Mirror".

Well we achieved all that, though I'm really not convinced that he had a good time, despite it being Fiesta fortnight and a really big spectacle. Of course, all this excess of English language
exposure, did inevitably lead to an unfortunate Daily Mirror incident for my partner. Despite heaping scorn on the UK tabloid press and working hard at blending in with the Spanish way of life, he could not help himself!

The Ridgeway

As it's a Bank Holiday in the UK, we decided to take a hike along the Ridgeway. It's an ancient road, and recently motor vehicles were banned from using it, so conditions have improved for hikers and bike riders.

We started and finished at White Horse Hill, which was busy with tourists, hang gliders and model aeroplane enthusiasts.

After walking round the Fort, we hiked as far as Waylands Smithy, which is a Neolithic Long Barrow burial mound, decided that there were too many tourists around and headed back to White Horse Hill.

Just time to take in the scenery and then off home for lunch.

It rained a bit here yesterday

We had rather a lot of rain in our bit of the UK yesterday. It's not just that we had lots of rain, but the problem seems to be where it goes once it's fallen, ie: nowhere fast.

When we went out walking today, we saw that between our village and the adjoining one, some folks were clearly coping better than others.

We managed to complete most of our walk, through careful planning, use of hedgerows, and the odd bit of backtracking.

Some folks were clearly enjoying a chance to justify owning an off-roader!

There was a cloud, just the one though.....

We were feeling rather fed up of living under a blanket of uniform grey sky, so we headed off to Spain to get some sunshine and, well, daylight really. There was a cloud one morning, the only one we saw, so I grabbed my camera! Our resort town was in full summer swing and on Saturday night we headed down to the beachfront.

This photo was taken about 10pm, and the locals are just coming into town, there are still a few folks on the beach, and we were a little surprised to see no-one in the sea.

We had already walked up the North Beach promenade where the resident sand sculptors were doing their best to remind us northern europeans, of the cold weather we had left behind, and that the same weather was waiting for our return.

We had originally planned to do some more walking, but the weather seemed quite hot, and as there had been some fires in the countryside north of us in Tarragona. We agreed to chill out by the pool instead!

Flying back over the Pyrenees and Andorra, we saw lots more snow than is usually visible in July, and it made me think about getting away for some summer skiing.

Time in the Fridge-Summer Skiing

As it's summer here, I start to miss skiing and snow, so decided to pay a visit to Xscape, Milton Keynes to give my new Monster77's a little try out. It's around a 50 mile drive to the indoor slope from our UK house, so I can get there fairly easily. The slope is part of a large leisure complex, so my first stop was to the branch of Ellis Brigham to get my bindings checked and adjusted to my boots. To my suprise, the set up I had done (my 1st) was correct. The staff at EB's are always friendly and helpful, it's a pleasure calling in there.

I would have liked to include some general photos of the slope and facilities, but Xscape do not allow photography by the public. When I enquired as to the reasons for this, I received several different answers, however I did see a large notice on the slope advising customers to call at the slope rental desk to view photos that are taken by their machine. They also employ a photographer to stand on the slope and take photos, which are also for sale. I found it disconcerting to have flash guns going off repeatedly on every descent, and I certainly did not give my permission for the company to take my photo.

The complex has been open for a few years now, and is looking in need of refurbishment, with broken lockers, toilet basin's taped over as out of order, and dingy lighting in the public areas.

In the locker area, I counted 9 vending machines, all selling much the same snack food and fizzy drinks. The price I paid for entry and an hour's skiing was £16. This should give access to 2 public slopes and 1 teaching slope.

Today, the teaching slope had 1 student and teacher, and all public users were obliged to use one of the main slopes, whilst the other was being kept for "something". I did enquire, after riding the poma to the top, and was told that the slope was closed due to "lots of children coming soon", and I was turned off it. No children materialised, and the poma lift was turned off. The slope remained empty.

There are many horror tales about on the web regarding the ice at Xscape, today, it was visible under the surface, but the conditions were quite grippy, and perfectly acceptable, in an artificial snow sort of way. The poma lift track needed attention with torn matting visible, along with what appear to be wooden battens holding the matting in place. The track was deeply rutted.

I was quite amazed to see several workmen digging a large hole in part of one of the slopes, using what sounded like a roadworks drill. If you like your skiing to the sound of jack hammers' this is the place to be. I enquired about the works, and was advised that the cooling system was being moved to another part of the slope. This would mean that the central slope would be narrower, and the teaching slope was being widened.

I cut short my hour, as the poma lift began breaking down, and this led to slope congestion and queues. Also a diesel powered "cherry picker" was being run on the closed slope, and the fumes were pretty unpleasant.

The best bit of the day, was getting a feel for my new skis. They are very stable, and carve really easily. Longer and heavier than my Stoeckli's, it's not noticeable when moving, they were a bargain, and will make a great 2nd ski. I'm really looking forward to skiing them in resort.

One Careful Owner

The Sale notice says it all " Perfecto Estado"!!

I Love My Hiking Boots

Not just because they are comfortable either!. They are Goretex lined and I never realised just how valuable that would turn out to be when I got stuck in a malfunctioning Spanish "Superloo".
If you have ever wondered what happens when the superloo you wanted to use goes into a cleaning cycle I can now tell you.
Of course they are meant to lock automatically to clean when the last person leaves. However in my case, the door locked after I entered.
Pumps and machinery started.....
The seat lifted up by itself.......
The dim light got even dimmer......
The floor became awash, and water started spraying in the general direction of the toilet bowl and me.....

All this happened in a few seconds, so naturally I wanted out and hit the emergency exit button, hoping that it too was'nt having a bad day!

The door opened and I must have looked quite shocked, and I was quite damp as I stumbled out onto the promenade. I do know that my boots outers were pretty wet, though inside my feet were nice and dry!

Serra d'Irta

Just completed several days of hiking in the Valencian Regional Park. May is probably perfect hiking weather for coastal Spain, with warm weather and a steady breeze. We hiked mostly on the coastal path, the route is easy going, with one cliff to climb, El Volante.

At the top of the cliff is the ancient watchtower of Torre Badum, and beyond that we walked on to Pebret.

As summer approaches, the routes become hotter and drier, and we saw the Fire Marshal driving round, as well as the park wardens riding trail bikes several times a day. On the longest climb we kept being passed by endurance racers, running uphill, numbers on their hydration belts and desert hats on. Made me feel quite fat, old and unfit to watch them.

We stopped off at Pebret Beach, the sea was very refreshing!

The park is quite unspoiled, and very quiet to walk around. It's one of the few places of natural beauty in coastal Valencia, where the developers have not covered the hillside in concrete and built holiday homes. However the Regional Government plan to build 3000 homes here. If you want to visit, make it soon.

It's good that we completed our hikes, as the weather went very warm on the last day, so we did a bit of housework...and lay by our pool, while the temperature rose to the low 30's. Flew into the UK to be met by 13c and rain!