Local holiday in Jimena on Monday

JIMENA This weekend is the Feria de San Pablo, which accounts for the fact that the rest of the municipality also gets a 'hangover Monday' holiday on - yes, Monday. Called Fiesta Local, not all shops will be closed, but official offices, post offices, banks, etc. are likely to be so. CampoPulse may or may not be open, we have to decide yet .. yeah, the beach'd be nice. Read a book and not get the iPad full of sand (Wot iPad?)... Shouldn't be any midges left ... Enjoy!

School holidays coming up next week - WHAT?

ANDALUCÍA When we first published our School Calendar for this school year, we ran 'Wot, no days off?' across it for April. The nearest holiday to that was May 1 (a.k.a. Labour Day when nobody labours). But we hadn't heard from local authorities about their 'special' arrangements with the school unions and teachers. Now we hear that there is one of those blessed puentes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Good luck to parents who have to make their own arrangements about their children... In any case, check with your local school!

Easter holidays rubbish collection schedule

Punto Limpio recycle centre
just outside Jimena
(Photo: File)

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR Easter collection schedule has some changes worth noting. Thursday 27, as usual; Friday 28 (Good Friday), no collection; Tuesday April 2, no collection. All the rest are as usual: no collection on Sunday, collection as usual on Monday, etc. This schedule applies to all the municipalities using the ARCGISA collection service, but since the law states that there can not be two consecutive days without collection (except when they're on strike), it probably applies to other municipalities as well - your town hall will be able to inform you, or there may well be a Bando Municipal (Official Notice) pinned up in the nearest bar.

School holidays coming up

ANDALUCÍA According to our School Calendar (on the sidebar) schools all over Andalucía are closed for a week over Easter, starting this weekend. So the last day is this coming Friday, and they come back on Monday April 1 - April Fool, indeed! The weather, though, does not look too fantastic for that week, so maybe a little forward planning is in order, especially for the smaller ones.

Hangover, yes, but when?

Local holidays published late

JIMENA (Source: a friend who pointed it out) This announcement appeared in the official provincial bulletin (BOP) on August 20, as you can see. It specifies the two local holiday dates available to the municipality. One of them, in June, has been and gone (darned if we can remember taking a day off!). The other is on Monday, September 3, which is the Monday after the end of the Novena celebrations in Estación. Hangover Monday, but a different Monday than usual.  (Prospero note: we will probably get chastised for calling this a Hangover Monday because a Novena, after all, is a religious thing involving much prayer...)

Cameron to Majorca and Clegg to his wife's pueblo

Camerons on holiday

Ministerial holiday rota is in effect

LONDON/SPAIN (GibChronicle/Agencies) David Cameron yesterday headed off on his summer holidays on the Balearic island of Majorca, as the leaders of the three main political parties joined the post-Olympics exodus from the UK. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was also setting off for his traditional two-week sojourn with his wife’s family in Spain, in Olmedo, Valladolid. To his wife's pueblo as Spaniards would say. Labour leader Ed Miliband was following through with the Olympic theme for a fortnight in Greece. Have no fear, Britain is in good hands: in Mr Cameron’s absence, Foreign Secretary William Hague will take charge of the day-to-day business of government as the senior duty minister in London this week. There is a ministerial holiday rota put into effect every year, to keep the home fires burning, as it were. Well, at least the two leaders of the coalition agree on something ... Spain is the best country for a holiday. (But you knew that, didn't you?)

(Fictional) Reader's Question: Why has there been nothing new on CampoPulse for a whole three days??

...and the answer is: because Prospero is on holiday!! Well, sort of. Not really, just doing things for which he gets paid - and paying old bills with. If, on the other hand, this answer bothers you, you don't have to do anything other than make a handsome donation via the sidebar PayPal icon (it says, DONATE, in case you're not familiar with it). Prospero has not been to the beach yet, as his incredibly white legs will attest. He has not been to the polo at Sotogrande either, because he can't afford the tickets, which are free. He has only been to various official and unofficial offices, to attend to other people's bureaucratic needs, and he has been attending to the excessive needs of a very small cat, which sleeps in his hair. So there. (Relax, there's some good stuff coming up, people.)

La Viña de Liñán

Brits urged to take out travel insurance as hospitalisation cases soar

New report reveals Spain has highest number of hospitalised Brits worldwide

SPAIN (Press release) More than 1,100 cases of Brits ending up in hospital were reported to consular staff in Spain last year, according to a new report from the Foreign Office. The number is equivalent to 20 hospitalisations in Spain every week, and represents nearly a third of the total number of cases around the world.  The figures come from the annual British Behaviour Abroad report for the period 1 April 2011 - 31 March 2012. In the Balearics, the number of reported cases has soared. Over the last two years (since 2009/10), Mallorca has seen a 132% increase in hospitalisations, and Ibiza a 40% rise. Many of these cases involve teenage holidaymakers. Common causes are road accidents, balcony incidents and heart attacks. Meanwhile Malaga has seen a 45% increase over the last year alone. Jeremy Browne, Minister for Consular Services, said:>>>

Monday June 11 is a local holiday

JIMENA As we told you on JimenaPulse, Monday June 11 is a local holiday in the whole municipality of Jimena. That's because the feria in San Martín del Tesorillo, or Feria del Corpus (see poster), is this coming weekend. Your community in the Campo de Gibraltar has similar local holidays - and we'd love to be able to offer our readers a complete list of them. However, municipal websites rarely carry any such listings, and on the whole contain precious little information with enough time to warn you. If you know of one (or even a list of holidays at all) in any of the Campo municipalities, please let us know via comments below. 

What to do with the kids over the summer holidays

JIMENA Summer holidays are approaching fast (school ends on Friday, June 23!) and various organizations are offering what they call 'Summer Workshops' This one, run by the local youth organization, Mirador Joven, begins on July 1st at the library and Civil Protection building, on the other side of the street and just uphill from the Ayuntamiento. At a cost of €35 per month, per child, the activities will be ongoing through July an August, for kids between the ages of 3 and 14, from Monday to Friday, and from 9am to 2pm. Pre-payment must be made at Cajasol/Banca Cívica (account number 2106.1221.11.2319594229) and the receipt taken to the library on June 28 or 29, from 11 to 12, together with a photocopy of the child's identification document (DNI if Spanish, or passport if not) as well as of a parent or legal carer. Places are limited. For more info: 637 013 502. (Watch this space for more ideas and other activities in different towns.)

Monday is a school holiday, too

Just in case your child neglected to inform you (which we doubt in the extreme), Monday and Tuesday are both school holidays. That Tuesday is May 1st and a national (bank) holiday, is no news (we wonder: Why is Labour Day, as it is in some countries, a day when very few people actually labour?), and that Monday, the day between (a puente, or 'bridge', in Spain) a weekend and a holiday is chosen by teachers' unions with too much power in Andalucía, is not exactly a surprise. Isn't it time that there were mass protests about the enormous amount of time off teachers get, when Andalucía schools remain at the very bottom of European education lists? PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ITEMS SUCH AS THIS MAY BE SUBJECT TO SUBSCRIPTION IN THE FUTURE but you can make a donation NOW, too! Please click here for more information on how to help us continue.

School's out until Thursday!

In the teachers' union's inimitable fashion, they have managed once more to get away with a very long puente (bridge: long weekend). Because Tuesday happens to be Día de Andalucía, and Monday, by sheer coincidence no doubt, is officially Education Community Day (Día de la Comunidad Educativa), they are also taking Leap Day, Wednesday February 29, off as well. Five consecutive days off without a thought for anyone else but themselves. No thought for parents, that's certain: if Mom or Dad or both are lucky enough to be working, how can they take time off to take care of the kids in the present unemployment climate? If they're not working, a day or three with either or both parents would probably do the children quite a lot of good ... but that can be a big if. (Tell us what you think: click on 'comments' below)

Why is February 28 a holiday? (and so is the 27th)

(Image: Wikipedia)

ANDALUCÍA Every autonomous region of Spain celebrates its Day. This one is ours. Anyone with a child in primary school in Andalucía will not be allowed to forget it, as the kids are involved in numerous activities and events related to it. And anyone with a child, etc. will know that Monday is also a holiday, by sheer coincidence, of course. But to go somewhat deeper than that, below are a few pieces of information that, if not useful, they at might at least be interesting. True, over the years, at about this time, we publish items related to the community in which we have chosen to live (a couple of links are below).>>>

December 'bridge' to be eliminated

SPAIN Business leaders and labor unions have reached an agreement that will do away with the December "macropuente," the several-day midweek mini-vacation traditionally enjoyed by Spaniards in the first week of December for Constitution Day on the 6th, followed by a holiday commemorating the religious Feast of the Immaculate Conception on the 8th, with a "bridge" day in between. This year's fell on Tuesday and Thursday respectively, which meant a whole week off for lots of employees, many of whom called in sick. Other holidays that come in the middle of the week are also in the sights of the Government to be moved to a Monday: these will be the August 15, November 1 and, of course, the one on December 8.

Cortijo El Mesonero

Cortijo El Mesonero

Cortijo El Mesonero

Cortijo El Mesonero

Big, big bridge ahead next week

(c) Alberto Bullrich 2011

This is the big one. This is a holiday after a holiday in the middle of the holidays. This is when Tuesday is a bank holiday and so is Thursday. This is because some bureaucrat didn't take the trouble to look at the calendar (or was bribed to look elsewhere). This El Puente de la Constitución (Tuesday, 6), or El Puente de la Inmaculada Concepción (Thursday 8). In both cases using the word puente, meaning bridge - clever, that. Now, we have no trouble with any immaculate conceptions except believing in them. But a holiday? Should at least be a miracle shouldn't it? Anyway, chances are that the whole week is shot: Weekend, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Weekend. (Red means its a holiday or a weekend, black is a working day.) So we will try to find out about such mundane details as shop and official offices opening schedules, rubbish collection, and, of course, school schedules. In the Spanish vernacular, this is un puente muy largo. Depending on whether they are a parent or a teacher, they will have a smile or a frown - guess which is which.