News from Palma de Mallorca – Majorca – 3rd February 2024

News from Palma de Mallorca – Majorca – 3rd February 2024

Today is Saturday it’s the 3rd of February 2024 and I’ve got a bit of a news update for you some things have been catching my eye in the news and one of the things that’s going to be in the news a lot I think over the next uh well year 18

Months is etas this European travel information and authorization system several people have written to me asked me about this um I’m not the expert well I’ve read about it but uh what you should do is go to the official etas website it’s run by the European Union

And it gives you all the correct information and it’s up toate unfortunately if you go to other websites you might get information but it might not be up toate uh and I’ve seen websites that say that it’s coming into force in 2023 well clearly didn’t

Um and it’s not going to come into force in 2024 either uh according to the official website it’s mid 2025 what’s this all going to mean well this etas is a Visa waiver and it’s not just for British people some people seem to think it’s a it’s a brexit thing and

We’re trying the Europeans are trying to get their own back on the the Brits it’s because the British uh United Kingdom decided to leave uh the European Union uh they became a third country and there’s about 60 countries which don’t require visas the UK is one of them but

You will require from next year if all this goes to plan this Visa waiver which is called etas so there’s nothing to worry about for 2024 but something to definitely think about for 2025 one of the concerns that was um mentioned was about if you’ve got a criminal record hopefully that doesn’t

Affect too many people but if you do have a criminal record then depending on that criminal record and how old it is and the type of criminal record uh you may be refused one of these ETS and if you are then you’re not coming to Europe

Or you’re not coming to the shenen part of Europe um all this will depend on another thing it’s the EES the entry and exit system this is an electronic system that’s going to scan your passport it’s going to take a photograph of you so you get the facial recognition and you’re

Going to have your fingerprints taken all that gets stored in a database and they’ll know exactly when you come in into the country when you go out of the country this is particularly important because uh if you’re not a European citizen then uh you can’t stay for more

Than 90 days uh unless you’ve got a Visa of course if you got a Visa then it depends what your Visa says so this will keep a track on that and uh you will be scanned as you go in scanned as you go out and as a non-european union member

You’re only allowed to spend 90 days in a an 80-day period and the way that looks is as you come into the country it will look back 180 days and count how many days you’ve actually been in the European shenen area in the European Union and that mustn’t exceed 90 days if

You’re not uh if you don’t have the right to travel and live in the European Union and those those days will move uh move forward so it’s always looking back from today whatever day that might be back 180 days and it counts how many days you’ve been there it sounds a bit

Complicated so some people have devised apps which help count those days for most people who are spending two or 3 weeks here and two or three weeks there uh it’s not going to affect them what it does affect are people who are homeowners in uh France or in the Spain

Or mua and they want to spend a long time in the in the winter perhaps in the in their home and they can’t they can’t spend more than 90 days in any 180-day period um if you read some of the newspapers the mior daily bullet being

One of them um there was a bit of excitement because it looked as though the French might have got a way around it uh but the French actually threw it out of their court because it was against the Constitution and uh it left the the Spanish on their own and according to

The the bulletin they’re fighting hard to get this 90-day REM uh uh rule removed I’m not sure about that um some of the comments I’ve read says they’ve got too many other problems on their plate in Spain to be very much concerned about 90day rules and uh just uh last

Week it was in the news that uh they’re imposing a 10,000 Euro fine this is Spain are uh imposing A1 fine for anyone who stays more than 90 days so it really does start to get serious if uh if you spend more than 90 days there are some exceptions um if for

Example you fell down and broke your leg and you got put in hospital um then you’d get the exception there so the there will be some loopholes and some ways around this but for most people 90 days in any 180-day period looking back uh is all you’ve got and uh you need to

Be very careful and keep an eye on that um keeping on the Travel uh jet 2 as as said they’re going to be operating 276 flights weekly to the Bal aric and bringing a total of over a million 1.2 million British tourists to the to the island uh mayorca for example expecting

730,000 tourists just from one Airline this is just from jet 2 and uh they’ll be joined by some celebrities uh We’ve uh all perhaps seen in the news that uh klopp the Liverpool manager has a house here he’s had it for some time now and has been a regular visitor to the island

Well having announced his uh resignation from Liverpool Football Club from the end of the season um one of the suggestions is he’s probably going to be moving into his house here in Santa pona um there’s been a lot of work that’s been do on that and uh it looks as

Though that could be really uh a place for him to to spend more time in the future there was jokingly a report last year that he might take over Rail mayorca and following n last night’s result we might need his assistant um we um we lost 4-0 against Athletic bilbow

Which is a little bit embarrassing um I did put a video out uh last week on the Paso maritimo there’s been lots and lots of work going on on the pass of maritimo and uh it’s starting to take a little little bit of shape we’re starting to see the the prominade near

To the businesses near to the shops near to the bars near to the restaurants that’s starting to finish off it’s not nearly there yet but it’s still got progress to be made uh but it’s starting to look better there is a part though there’s a a social club uh it’s actually

A British owned Social Club there’s a little bridge that goes over to it and it’s right in the middle of the Dual carriageway so the uh the road goes around it and uh it’s got a car park in front of it and behind it and uh that

Should have been demolished last year it should have been demolished in November so that they could continue the the work we were there over the Christmas period having a look around and it was open and it was doing business and uh they were just getting ready to welcome guests uh

To one of their social club parties well they uh they’ve been now told that they’ve got to sell it and it’s been uh compulsory purchased they’ve been offered 500,000 and uh they declined that they said that’s not enough well now it’s gone to that next stage where it’s going

To be compulsory purchased and they’re going to be told what they’re going to accept um what that figure is will depend it might sound like not a lot of money but their lease ends in uh just two or 3 years so it’s not a very long lease that they had on that uh

Particular business and another report that I made uh well some months ago now was about the Hessa building if you’ve driven into Palmer uh on the cathedral side there’s this copper colored building which has been derilict for years it’s known locally as the Hessa building it was the

Gas and electricity building it was their offices and uh they left and moved into new offices uh near to poral and it just got left and Abandoned and it’s been left like that for such a long long time um not sure what it’s like on the inside but the the outside

Hasn’t been damaged as much as you might think it’s got a complete glass facade and uh you might have thought vandals would have destroyed that but uh it doesn’t look too bad uh it’s actually a listed building uh which always amazes me every time I think about it because I

Think of Buckingham Palace when I think of a listed building something palatial or some something that’s got some historic significance and the Hessa building certainly doesn’t fall into that well the government had been insistent that they wanted to purchase that and €25 million EUR is the agreed amount there’s money coming from

Central government so it’s not all the local government and some from the European Union and the idea is to convert it into some sort of a cultural center um with various different cultural things going on there’ll be an auditorium a library the city archives will be there Arts Museum all of those

Sorts of things it could be interesting um what they’re going to do with the copper colored glass I don’t know apparently it’s not double glazed so it’s not very eny energy efficient and uh one suggestion is that uh they might have to replace all of the windows and

That is going to be very very expensive the reform itself it’s not the cost of buying it that’s 25 million but the reform um we’ve had some Architects and surveyors going in and they are estimating between 30 and 47 million EUR so it’s a very expensive project and uh

It’s one that they’re going to be pushing forward um I was asked a week or two ago about masks in uh mayorca face masks um following the the covid uh announcements that covid was on the increase but it was more actually about flu and bronchitis and and chesty coughs and

Things and so the the the local uh well not local the the national government said that masks had to be worn in Hospitals and Clinics in those sorts of surroundings well that’s now gone uh as of yesterday um they’re still recommending if you go to a hospital put a mask on

Especially if you’ve got a cough or you’re spluttering then I think that’s a good idea don’t you uh wear a mask uh though it’s not going to be um obligatory well we’ve just finish the fiestas surrounding Christmas uh surrounding San Antonio and San Sebastian lots of party atmosphere going

On all over Palmer uh but uh as of tomorrow Carnival starts and that’s another big set of fiestas so um some of the things are actually starting tomorrow February the 4th in uh Palmer and uh the lots of things going on for the children and then next week there’s

Going to be even more festivals uh going on and then big processions there’ll be going on in all sorts of different parts of the island so on Saturday we’re going a week today we’re going to Y mayor and we’ll be going to have a look at the

Procession there on the Sunday it’s in Palmer but different parts of the island will be having them on different days and uh always really quite a big celebration here in newor excuse me um also I’ve just read that uh the Chinese New Year will be celebrated

Around that time as well around the 11th of February so even more celebrations the weather very much in the news as a Brit I think we’re always talking about the weather and we’re always complaining about the rain or the cold well it’s been the biggest topic of conversation

The biggest topic of news in Spain uh for the past number of weeks now because they just haven’t had any rain it’s very very dry and um some consequences of that is that food prices have uh shut up uh particularly olive oil uh which you may have seen in one of

The news reports that I spoke about olive oil is incredibly expensive and very much a part of the uh the national diet um but now we get in restrictions not yet in mayorca but certainly in the Barcelona area uh if you got a swimming pool in the Barcelona area and it’s got

No water and you can’t fill it up and there’ll be other restrictions as well um whether we’ll get those in Palmer we’ve never had them as far as I can remember in the nearly 40 years that we’ve lived here um but the water does uh have to be come from somewhere at the

Moment we’ve got two reservoirs up in the mountains which are very very low but much of our water comes from aquifers so we have a bore hole which pumps water out of the ground and that water actually comes from the Pyrenees or much of it does uh and if they

Haven’t had any rain or snow in the Pyrenees then uh we’re going to be suffering here in myca one uh way out of that of course is desalination and we do have several desalination plants on the island uh that’s just a very expensive way of obtaining drinking water so uh we’ll

Keep our eye on that on the the the government the authorities here have said um It’s kind to rain between now and the summer but not for the next couple of weeks the next couple of weeks it seems to be sunny and dry and warm temperatures we’ve had

Temperatures um around 18 20° for weeks now even going higher at some points uh there’s a little bit of a breeze now but uh it’s been beautiful today uh settling around about 18 where we are but but um up in maybe a little bit higher Elsewhere on the island so if you’re

Coming out now you’ve got some fantastic weather but it does go cold at night uh we went out last night to watch the football perhaps wish we hadn’t gone I don’t know we lost 4-0 uh but as we went out it just felt really nippy in the air

And uh we’re glad to put a coat on and a scarf on uh once you’re in inside a bar or it’s very warm and the atmosphere very warm too and uh well the outlook for the weather over the next few days is more of the same more sun uh more

Cloudless Skies or just gentle cloud and no rain on the horizon at all yet well uh football we’ve got another match on Tuesday this one is a Cup match and uh well I think Maya really should be concentrating on the league uh it’s really important that we stay in La Liga

Um we lost terribly against Athletic Bilbo uh we’re going to be playing ra soad on Tuesday night that’s a home it’s the first leg and uh the second legs the following week clubs actually uh organizing a day trip uh but I don’t think we’re going just over 300 EUR uh

To go for a day trip that’s the flight there the coach from the airport to the stadium the match and then the return uh we’ll probably settle to watch that on on the TV and we’ve got our daughter coming anyway so we’re looking forward to seeing her so anyway thanks very much

For watching and we’ll look forward to seeing you in the next one bye for now

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