A Bright Winter’s Day

Yesterday the weather in Gibraltar was lovely, keeping in touch with the notion that we live next to “Sunny Spain”. Instead of staying in Gibraltar I had  to go to Tarifa to get some ferry tickets for Morocco where I shall be travelling to in a few weeks time. Tarifa is a town not far from Gibraltar and is also considered a wind-surfing capital in the world as it is always windy there. Anyways, we arrived to the ferry terminal and got our tickets, by this time it was lunch time so we went on the search for a restaurant.  We sat down for lunch and as luck would have we came across some friends of my girlfriend there and they joined us for lunch.

After lunch it was decided that we would go to another nearby town called Bolonia which is about 15 – 20 mins away. Bolonia is famous  not only for its large beach but also for some roman ruins that are  next to the beach. Although these ruins are not as famous as others there are still impressive to see and there proximity to the beach  makes it a nice walk in the winter or summer as it is never to hot due to the sea breeze.

We did a short walk along the beach and had a quick coffee at the beach bar. Oh, by the way, it is only January and I am already enjoying the beach.

Weekend Party

Last Friday was my birthday and in true fashion I do two parties. 1^st this year was the party with my friends which due to the rain was a bit on the quiet side as the amounts of water on the street put a lot of people off, and the other one was with the family. But actually I would not like to go into details on how this went. The party I really want to mention is the weekend full of birthday presents that I have had.

It started on Thursday night. After I got back from work my girlfriend decided to give me my 1^st surprise by getting the house full of balloons and decorations and there was also a small cake and wine. When I woke up on Friday morning there was a present waiting for me in bed and I thought: “How nice is that”.  As the day went at work, she decides to show up in my office with balloons and cupcakes which is something I really did not expect -  I am still eating the cupcakes today. Anyway, all of my birthday present slowly but surely showed up at different times of the day. Saturday came and I thought there can’t be any more gifts as I had already have been given loads, but I was wrong. We both left for the party which was at Gaucho’s where the food was very good. The time for the presents came and I get the ones from the family and at the end of it, my girlfriend passes me one last one and I am thinking “Wow, there is one more, I did not see that one coming.” Anyways, I just wanted to say thank you to her and for the gifts and making my birthday a really good one, full of surprises.

Also would like to thank everyone that wished me a Happy Birthday over the course of the weekend.

The Changing Face of Gibraltar

As a local born and raised in Gibraltar, I have seen it change and develop into a more modern city. Some of the biggest changes was the reclamation of land from the sea and the greater amount of high rise buildings that have appeared over the last 10 years. .

But this is not a new concept in Gibraltar as we have been reclaiming land from the sea for the past 30 – 40 years or even more.

So let’s look back to the not so distance past when a major project was already under way, this is the Westside project. This area was area of sea which is adjacent to town within the harbour, as can be seen on the photo below.

Gibraltar’s population was growing and the need for new housing projects arose but Gibraltar had no extra land for it. So the government started to reclaim land from the sea in an area we now know as Westside. Later on it became part of the city, now populated by a housing estate  -  some fetors still remain to mark where the sea once was. My favourite one is the old Montagu Bathing Pavilion.

Moving on to more recent times, in 1996 Main Street was given a much needed facelift and the street was closed to traffic, that’s right - you could drive down Main Street many years ago. The new Main Street was made to look old to match most of the old buildings that are still on it. I personally like it the way it is now.  Many years have passed since and there are more buildings being built and old ones being knocked down.

The biggest change of very recent times is Ocean Village and the Mid Harbour Estate, both of them very different to each other.

 Ocean Village was a major leap forward into the 21^st century as I think we needed a new modern marina and also a new leisure area for all to enjoy. Sometime when I walk down this area, I think one would be forgiven if you thought you were in  Marbella or Benalmedena in the Costa del Sol.

So in recent history Gibraltar changed quite a bit, even beyond recognition in some areas. I can only say I look forward to what the future holds and how much further Gibraltar will change within the next 10 – 20 years.

Gibraltar: British or Spanish???

When I go away from Gibraltar I am often asked “Do you feel British or Spanish?” I am British in almost every way but most importantly I feel Llanito.

This question has been asked for years and the answer has always been the same or similar. As I look back at our history, important events in my opinion were: 1704 when Gibraltar was taken by the British, 1713 when Gibraltar was given to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht in which Spain gave up its claim over Gibraltar, and 1967 when the Gibraltar Referendum happened.

For me, the most important event is the 1967 referendum which is the living memory of most people in Gibraltar. It is a shame I was not around back then to witness this event. Nearly everybody said they would rather be British than Spanish – very few people actually wanted to be part of Spain. People came out on to the streets to celebrate the victory of the Spanish threat and democracy. During this time the whole of Gibraltar was painted red, white and blue – even today some of the paint and artwork can still be seen in many areas of the old town – in Upper Town.

This is still being celebrated today on the 10th September as it was declared our National Day. National Day is the day where Gibraltarians all come out to the streets dressed in our national colours (red & white) and celebrate our day of unity. Even tourists or foreign workers have become part of this tradition and also dress in red and white for the occasion.

After the referendum was done Spain saw it had failed to take over Gibraltar politically so Franco decided to make our life in Gibraltar hard and the last siege of Gibraltar was put into place when Spain closed the border with Gibraltar and cut communications off. In the years that the border was closed (1969 to 1982) the Gibraltar community and unity was built.

Many years have passed since these dark days but most people if not all feel proud to be called Gibraltarian (Llanito).

Living in Gibraltar

Living in Gibraltar is quite unique in a way, you are living in a city which feels big and busy like any other one but at the same time, it is a small town of just 30,000 citizens and most people know each other. So when walking down any street the chance of meeting someone you know is quite high.

Anyways, I have a funny story to tell you…

Yesterday as I was walking through Landport Tunnel there was a group of teenage girls panicking inside the tunnel. Just as I was walking past them one of said “por ahi no paso por que hay un mono” (I am not going through there because there is a monkey). I thought to myself: now that is odd to say because the monkeys rarely do the go into the tunnel, although they go past it often. So I took no notice of it and carried on my way. However, just as I was going to walk out of the tunnel I came across a very big monkey, just sitting at the entrance. We both really just looked at each other for a moment before I walked away. As I was starting to make my way again, I heard the call of another monkey so I turned around to see if there was another one. And there he was outside, eating some leftover noodles that have been left by someone at the nearby noodle bar. The owner of the bar came out chased both monkeys away.

I thought it would be a bit of fun to see what some of the monkeys in Gibraltar get up to sometimes.

Photos of Gibraltar

Some images of Gibraltar

More to come soon......

Local heritage

I, like most llanitos, like to drive around Gib on nice sunny days and enjoy the views from up the rock and other places, such as the beaches. The other day I came upon something that has deeply saddened me. For some time now a local Scout group has been painting some old guns up the rock and just before Christmas they had finished one of them off. It has taken less than one month for different people to ruin all the effort by putting senseless and ugly graffiti on it, some of  it even by tourists.

What has upset me is that people should have a little bit more respect for the local heritage, especially tourists. At the end of the day, I do not go to other countries and deface their landmarks, buildings etc so why should they come to Gibraltar and do it here. I am all for street art as an art form, but this must be expressed in approved spaces. An example of this is seen not far Gibraltar, in the refinery in Spain just across from the bay. The local council have painted over the perimeter walls of the refinery and have allowed street artist of the area, along with art schools, to paint the walls, they have come up with some good art work which could be enjoyed by all the workers and people that use that road. (Will put some photos up soon.)

I just wish people would be more socially responsible and respectful. Then I can only post about the nice things which happen around me

Just some Photos of the Gun

Welcome!

Today is the 1st time I write in.
Just to introduce this - I am going to look at the lovely weather we are having in Gibraltar this January.
It is a hot sunny day, temperature is 15 degrees and it invites you to be out doing all sorts of things like going up the Rock.

For the people who may not know where Gibraltar is:
Gibraltar is a small bit of land at the bottom of Spain. We are not Spainish, we are British and proud to be such.

Anyway one of things I like to do when time allows it is to go up the Rock, as you can see from the picture above. The views from some areas are just breath-taking and when you get the weather just right it is the best place in the world, like no other.