La Costa Geriatrica

[Mac]

The huge influx of Britons into Southern Spain, first as young
holidaymakers then as retirees, has left in its wake a population of
aged and infirm expats who now need to be looked after. Yesterday we
made our first venture into deep Costa del Sol territory, Benalmadena,
west of Málaga, where a friend from home is helping his daughter, a
qualified nurse, to set up a business to do this caring. She has been
employed this line for several years by a firm which, like many here,
is operating more or less illegally. Several care homes have been
closed down, and further crackdowns are expected, so she is complying
strictly with the law.

What a nightmare! Licences, lawyers and beaurocrats extract money at
every turn, and arrangements are caught in a web of often conflicting
regulations. When they find premises for a residential home, many
more requirements will apply. All this of course is why so many
businesses of all kinds operate outwith the system. She won't be
short of business - enquiries from desperate old people and their
children have already started to arrive, and she hasn't even set up
yet.

But getting old isn't all bad - we've been in Málaga for a couple of
days, and after labouring to the top of the Castello de Gibralfaro,
which for some reason I've never visited before, this jubilado/
pensionista was pleased to pay a fractional entry fee: every little
helps in the face of an appalling exchange rate (1GBP =€1 just now).
The Gibralfaro is a must for the Málaga visitor (you don't have to
walk up, but while I can I will), giving perhaps the best series of
views of any Spanish city and its setting. Thankfully the high-rise
horrors of the resorts to the west are lost in the haze, but swifts
dart around the cliffs below to the sound of sirens wafted on the wind
from the city, the lopsided cathedral prominent in the foreground.

Meanwhile, Málaga hasn't changed much since last year: the western
approaches are still in the chaos of Metro construction, the
Atarazanas market is still shrouded in trompe d'oeile sheeting, the
Bar los Pueblos opposite still brusque and boisterous, and Casa Aranda
is still perfect for breakfast churros.

As usual, we're heading for the hills now - not quite ready yet for La
Costa Geriatrica.

¡Suerte!

Mac