Coming up on CampoPulse this week, God and the health service willing

Lots of things coming up this week, if possible: the full programme for the Novena at Jimena Estación, the best of all the local 'ferias' (which this is not officially); Can Ceuta and Melilla be compared to Gibraltar?; Is he or isn't he? (is Jimena exMayor José Carracao Chief Minister Fabian Picardo's close advisor and mediator?); Flamenco Festival in Estación de Jimena; latest news on changes to your TV channel availability;>>>

All about Jimena ... because we live here

JIMENA We've just put another widget on the sidebar. This one is all about Jimena, which we also have on JimenaPulse, for all that that site is dormant. The new widget will give a good idea of pretty much all aspects of the village, including History, What To Do, How to Get There, Places to See , etc. etc. - all you have to click on the drop-down menu and see for yourself. We would love to do the same for all seven municipalities of the Campo - can you help?

Living in a cloud, a CampoPulse facility

It's over there, near the bottom of the sidebar, it's called a cloud list and reflects the number of items labelled under any of the words: the larger the size the more articles on or referring to that subject. (The one marked Jimena is in another colour here only because just checked on it.) If you click on a word that interests you, you will access every item labelled with it, going back several years in most cases. After that, all you have to do is scroll down. Labels for each item in the original article are listed below it. For more serious stuff, click on Law, Property or Business, for example. If you want a laugh, there's always Funnies or Sunday Laughs. Then there's Music, say, or Sex (now, now). Or even a more general label like Spain, or Tarifa, or Sotogrande. Try it, it's fun!

Reader's comment: CampoPulse has provided reliable, invaluable information for years

CAMPOPULSE After all the controversy and acidity that passed between Myra Azzopardi Swainson, of  Citizens Advice Bureau for Spain, and Alberto/Prospero on Facebook regarding Andalucía's (and Spain's) Energy Efficiency Certificate (it IS obligatory), one of CampoPulse's stalwart readers, wrote the following as a comment on Fb, for which we are very grateful indeed: "Just wanted to chip in as an ex-pat resident of the village where Alberto lives. Over the years he has provided us all (through his blog) with reliable and invaluable information and helped us to be part of our Spanish community. He is a good person and most certainly doesn't do it for the money (what money I hear him cry!). I have no view on the debate that has been going on here, but felt the need to defend what I am sure are his very best intentions and desire to help us all. I have signed up as a group member and also want to thank Myra for what she is doing to help us all." (Please feel free to comment below, as Myra did on the original article.)

Much ado about Energy Certificate: tornado of controversy on Facebook

FACEBOOK You might like to follow the thread of controversy about whether the Energy Compliance Certificate (as it's called in the UK) is obligatory or not. This follows my posting a link to the item we put up earlier on a Facebook page called Citizens Advice Bureau for Spain run by Myra Azzopardi Swainson. One of the missives therein begins as follows: "In Fairness, even though I find the attack on my person slanderous, I suggest everyone read the article posted by a Mr. Alberto Bullrich Ward. May I also add Mr Ward. That all British expats understand what the 'something like a Citizens Advice Bureau' is. I suggest that you do some research on the internet to educate yourself on the subject." Rather confusingly, I can't find the words 'something like a Citizens Advice Bureau' in our original text, nor even anything slanderous, but then, one is easily confused these days. There's what I think is a polite answer to various comments made by someone who feels attacked. As far as I am concerned, Ms Azzopardi Swainson and I are only trying to help our readers - of course, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Anyway, just make up your own mind - but remember, whether the certificate is voluntary or not at this time, at some future date you're going to need one if you're selling, renting, or getting new electricity, so save up some money 'cos cheap it ain't. (NOTE: A comment below by Myra Azzopardi Swainson herself, though Blogger is having a bad and the comments are not coming through yet - watch this space!)

Two bikers die in head-on crash on the N-340, four injured on A-7

(Photo: europasur.es)

ALGECIRAS / TARIFA A man and a woman riding the same motorbike died in a head-on collision with a van yesterday, Sunday, morning. The accident happened at the first of the crossings to Tarifa off the N-340 (see our earlier item A-7 and N-340 Among Spain's Most Dangerous Roads). Another bike was involved one of its occupants is in hospital with serious injuries, another came away with only slight injuries. The dead riders were heading towards Cádiz when they hit the van, apparently at great speed. These two raise the number of fatal accidents in the Campo to four so far this year, when the summer season, which accounts for many of them, has yet to get under way. In a separate incident, four people were injured in a variety of seriousness on the A-7 yesterday afternoon, in an accident that involved three vehicles on the Algeciras by-pass, close to the entrance to the La Menacha industrial estate. Two women aged 40, another aged 28 and a man of 27 were taken to the Punta de Europa Hospital.

Scroll down to catch up

JIMENA / World CampoPulse Headquarters) We've been busy at things other than your favourite site. If you scroll down you will find items that should have gone up in the last couple of days. Also, there was a power outage at the office all morning yesterday - this time there was notice. And then, it was Europe Day yesterday, for which there had been plans for all local schoolchildren to hear about Europe - but there was also a school teachers, parents and students strike, so nobody turned up in the main square...Then there were the swarm of bees. Another day in paradise. (Interested in language? Try and explain that completely illogical headline to someone learning English!)

WE'RE BACK ONLINE - AGAIN!!!

An alternative header picture we considered, but the real one won

CampoPulse had been removed because an automatic system thought we were spamming (definition of spam in blogs by Wikipedia here). As we told Blogger (by Google), we wouldn't know how to do that. However, as a precaution, we have asked our commentators to register with one or other of the social media when wanting to make a comment (see what we mean by clicking on Comments below). It was there that the problems began. We apologise for any inconvenience. We will continue to post things on Alberto Bullrich Ward (formerly Prospero Campo on Facebook)

Slowly but surely, we're recovering from the enforced hiatus

What Blogger did to our stats

Our faithful readers -and plenty of the unfaithful ones, we notice- will know that Blogger, one of Google's myriad children, had us removed for almost a month. We certainly had withdrawal symptoms, so now we're OD-ing, slowly but also surely. Here are some of the things you may have missed: Estimated electricity bills to disappear in April; Spanish Embassy in London opens employment website; How to pay traffic fines; The state of the Spanish nation; address in Congress; Andalucía has a 'dignified death' law; Are there any defaulting owners in your homeowners association?; Is your fish what it's supposed to be? There are several ways to catch up with your favourite site's posts: you can scroll all the way down till you reach 'OLDER POSTS' and click on that for the next page; you can go to the Archive close to the bottom of the sidebar and click on it, then the month you want, where you'll find everything that went up at that time; you can check the Most Popular Posts (last 7 days) on the sidebar to see what everyone else is looking at; you can turn over and go back to sleep, too, if you like...

CATCH UP WITH THE HEADLINES

Regular readers will have noticed that we have been absent without leave from the internet of late. May you continue to be regular. Here we offer some of the headlines, dating back to late November. The MoD adds up at least 178 incursions by Spain in Gibraltar waters - There has been a new record in bank debt (clients owing the banks, that is), which rose to 10.71% in September - Banks ask for more more homes to be built and offer more mortgages (didn't over-building and easy credit start the whole crisis of??) - There was a small tornado in Estación de San Roque on Nov 18, which tore off roofs and uprooted trees - Court procedures continue on the A-7 'diversion' that threatens Pinar del Rey in San Roque - Busted: Russian prostitution ring accused of supplying some 8,000 women to brothels across Spain -

Yes, it's Henrietta's Christmas Fair on Sunday

JIMENA Henrietta, that peculiar girl with the big eyes, is having her annual Christmas Fair this coming Sunday, December 2, from 12 noon onwards. Needless to say it is to be held at Casa Henrietta, that lovely hostelry on the main street, Calle Sevilla, 44, just up from the village's main square and convenient parking. All kinds of stalls have booked their space and will be setting up - just the right things to be getting on with your Christmas shopping. Of particular interest to CampoPulse, are the several stalls taken by contributors and backers of J.A.W.S., whose sales will be going to the Jimena Animal Welfare Society, as we announced here.

At last! We found the snag on Facebook

We? Whose we? It was Prospero himself (a.k.a. Alberto Bullrich) who found the way to get back into his usual Facebook account. Something to do with e-mails and Fb's BF way of doing things we don't understand. Anyway, you are now invited to 'like', be'friend' and, of course, visit http://www.facebook.com/alberto.bullrich, which is where we shared most if not all our stuff off CampoPulse. If you need to catch up, just scroll down on this page until you say to yourself, "This is where I came in!" (Remember when you could spend hours at the same movie theatre and see a film twice on the same rainy afternoon? I digress...)

Have you seen the new J.A.W.S. Facebook page yet?

JIMENA Here it is, if still under construction: the new Jimena Animal Welfare Society's Facebook page. Many of you have already become friends and even liked it, but many more haven't even seen it yet. Please put it in your Favourites/Bookmarks listing. This page will be telling us how J.A.W.S. is getting on and what we're up to. Among other things you'll see that the stalwart Val Jubb has already done a fantastic job in rescuing several dogs in Jimena already. Get the stories here: http://www.facebook.com/JAWS.es. Please LIKE it, SHARE it and make FRIENDs with it. As usual with these things, we need all the help we can get.

Ana Pastor, sacked by RTVE, goes to CNN

SPAIN On August 28 we reported on the politically-motivated dismissal of several presenters on Spanish TV and radio (a subject BBC Radio 4 featured yesterday, listen to it here on iPod), including one of the country's best interviewers, Ana Pastor (See Changing faces on public television). Today the news is that the former presenter and coordinator of Los Desayunos de TVE (TV Breakfasts) has been signed up by CNN to carry out interviews for CNN International and CNN in Spanish. This is excellent news for those who get CNN because she is really very good. Now we want some good news about the other reporters sacked for political reasons at RTVE.

Over 30,000 children started school in the Campo yesterday

©JimenaPulse 2012

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR  On the whole the first day at school for over 30,000 children went without incident. However, there were incidents at several school, where parents protested about various items. In Algeciras, parents at the new infants/primary school, Miguel Hernández (which last year was an Instituto) found that there were only two teachers, one each for the two Primary classrooms. No support teacher and no concierge, said the parents, who added that they would not be bringinging their kids to school today in protest. (SOON YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO READ ITEMS SUCH AS THIS WITHOUT SUBSCRIBING. Subscription info coming soon to this site near you.)>>>

What is there to do in the Campo? (Teenage version: 'I'm bored! There's nothing to do!')

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR That is a question we are often asked and frequently we have to hum & hah because, frankly, we haven't known how to answer (See? we don't know everything!). Has that happened to you? Well, we are preparing an answer that may help. Most of our town halls have a tourism department of some kind. Some are well attended and updated online, others, alas, don't seem to have any interest in promoting one of the things that in these financially straitened times would help at least a little. Some examples of the hidden treasures that might be of interest not just to the visitor but also to the resident: have you ever seen the Saccone Gardens? Or, where to learn about making your own natural cosmetics? Or, why you might like to take the Pérez Villalta Tour? These questions will be answered during this week. So watch this space but please be aware that in the near future, you will have to subscribe to see articles such as those we're preparing.

Olympic Sports Schedule

Please note at the top of the sidebar: a complete, exhaustive, fantabulastic widget. Click on it and go straight to the official schedule. You can choose whichever sport you like, and find out when it is on. You'll have to see your TV schedule separately, though - unless we have time to find one for you... Another CampoPulse service at your fingertips.

New Facebook page for CampoPulse

Yes, we've given in - and spent hours and hours and hours - so we can all be Friends on Facebook. Anyway, you can see five albums there (http://www.facebook.com/pages/CampoPulse/147057975340574?ref=tn_tnmn) where we need and want absolutely everyone to Like us. We'll be Sharing a lot of what appears on this site on that page, but you can also see a lot of our photos, from way back, on our Picasa Web Albums.

CampoPulse on your mobile

CampoPulse has made it easier to view our site on your mobile device. So now you can get all the latest posts right where you are. The idea is that the design fits in on your device and is easily viewed. Content is exactly the same as on the full blown site. We would appreciate some feedback about how you can -or can't- see us.

SEND US YOUR PHOTOS!

WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOUR PHOTOS: Parties, Halloween, trips, journeys, travels, people, places, things - whatever, as long as the subject is Jimena or the photographer lives here. We'll put them up and make a feature of them, with your name and the title of the photo. Just attach them -maximum of ten up to 150 Kb and in JPG format, please- to an e-mail with your name (or anonymously if you like) and a little info such as where you live and/or where the pics are taken. Quality doesn't matter but we choose to publish or not. Write to this address: jimenaprospero@gmail.com. Easy!