The hard work it takes to get a cork into your bottle

JIMENA Isidoro Herrera, retired foreman of Jimena municipal maintenance workers, has just created this lovely piece on YouTube about the workers in the cork oak hills that are in and around Jimena, including several Campo municipalities that border on them. You will have read that the Council voted unanimously to seek help from the European Commission to investigate what is happening to the trees that are drying up for no apparent reason. If the cork oak disappears it will mean the ruin of many local families, not only of Jimena but of all municipalities that have part of the Los Alcornocales Nature Park within their boundaries. And this is a very good reason to insist on buying ONLY those wines that use real cork, not those nasty plasticky wannabes. (To get the perspective of Isidoro's movie, you might also want to read How did that cork get in your bottle? one of several in-depth articles published first on JimenaPulse several years ago. (Thanks to TioJimeno for putting this up so we could find it.)

Party, party, party! All day Saturday

It all starts here ...

JIMENA The youth association Mirador Joven has organized a series of events for this coming Saturday, August 25 at the 'Caseta de la Juventud' (youth marquee that ain't no marquee but a bunch of columns). A host of colourful posters came our way, too many to illustrate this item (see JimenaPulse). But here goes the programme: At 12 noon is the Water Party (Fiesta del Agua); at 6pm the Kiddies Party (Fiesta Infantil); at 10pm Flamenco with Antonio de Palmones and Manuel Cortés; and at half past midnight, the Burn Party (Fiesta Burn - a brand of 'energy' drink, we wrinklies understand). See you somewhere - maybe...

What was DominGo and is it worth recovering?

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR We have many new readers these days (CampoPulse is now averaging 893 unique visitors every day!), whom we welcome warmly - okay, it's too hot for a hug, people! Those who have faithfully followed the beginnings of CampoPulse, when it started out as JimenaPulse in March 2007, will remember that we had a 'Sunday Magazine'. It was great fun to make but an awful lot of work with very little (financial) return, alas, so we stopped it. But if you, Dear Reader, don't know about it, you can click on each issue below, and you will be wafted away to the page-turning magazine online. We would really appreciate your honest reaction (we can take constructive criticism, too), and an answer to the question in the headline above.

SUMMER READING: Headlines and links from the original JimenaPulse

Gibraltar border slowdown (June, 2008); Tarifa in Top 10 world beaches (June 2008); Let's Improve this blog! (July 2007); Letters Received (July 2007); Che Guevara Dies in San Pablo (Minus photos, July 2007); Our Councillors and What They Earn (August 2007); Bull Shot Dead in Marbella, Three Women Injured (October 2007); Nudism on Beaches Curtailed (August 2009 and we didn't even notice the pun until now!); Pirate pay-TV arrests in Andalucía and Canaries (August 2007); Did you Know? World’s largest solar power tower is in Sevilla (May 2009); Are the chiringuitos saved? (April 2009); Music Festival: New Orleans Jump Band (June 2009 - with YouTube movie); Music Festival: Pilar Jurado (June 2009 - with video); Sports Roundup Now Includes Cricket (June 2009); Earthquake in Castellar? (September 2009); Are You Monogamous? The Answer's on Your Ring Finger (September 2009). Right, a little something for everyone. You can mark this item among your Bookmarks or Favourites, so you can come back to it when you like. (That's a very naff heading we had then, isn't it?)

We can, and we did - back then

This was taken from the old JimenaPulse site, the mother of them all around here. It read: "In case you hadn't heard, it’s the UEFA Cup final tonight at 8.45 – SPAIN vs. Germany. Thought you should know which side we support"  That was on June 29, 2009. Tonight's match with Croatia is almost as important. (BTW, we have photos of the celebrations when we won the cup that year - and we hope to get some more recent ones soon enough.)

Have you found Snoopy yet?

JIMENA Yesterday, Monday, we posted a picture of the firefighters' building just outside the main village. Snoopy is on there, as we can prove herewith. The idea was to get you, Dear JimenaPulse Reader, to move over to CampoPulse, as this one will be disappearing at the end of the month - that's Thursday! So if you haven't yet put CampoPulse into your Bookmarks /Favourites list, this is the time to do so. Note to advertisers: as from Friday, June 1, your ads will now be appearing exclusively on CampoPulse, which gives you better value for money as the readership increases considerably and your message spreads further. If you have any questions, please e-mail us, or comment below.

Where's Snoopy?

JIMENA Can you find Snoopy on this building? It appears the firefighters were bored one day last week and put up a Snoopy doll somewhere on this building. We'll give you the answer tomorrow, Tuesday. This is a trick so JimenaPulse readers get to move over to this site, as it will soon be transmogrified (merged is a synonym) into CampoPulse because it gets to be boring and tiresome to duplicate items in both places. Have you put CampoPulse into your Favourite/Bookmark yet?

JimenaPulse's very first item - originally published on March 5, 2007

Title: WALKING ALONG THE RIVER
(Picture missing, will try to find it!) Along the Hozgarganta River, on the village side, is a footpath that was probably created originally by the Romans, who carved their way into the limestone rock (see picture). Later, in the XVII Century, a foundry mill (known today as La Fábrica de Bombas, The Bomb Factory) was built at great effort and expense, near the present bridge at Pasada de Alcalá. However, due to miscalculations about water levels in the summer (there ain't none), it only functioned for eleven years and was abandoned in favour of another similar mill near today's San Pablo. See the original here. Given that this is our anniversary month, we will be putting up some of our old articles, and stats, and other bits and pieces - always supposing we have the time between trying to earn a living. WATCH THIS SPACE!

OUR APOLOGIES FOR AN ABSENCE OF ITEMS TODAY

We hereby grovel, Dear Reader, in apologies and other such grovellings, but we have had a technical hitch all day with our connectivity. In other words, we have had Internet connectivity issues since early this morning and as it is now thirteen hours later we have decided to shut shop for the rest of the 24 hours and see if we can get back some of the sleep we lost with worry at siesta time. The tech gods willing, we will be back tomorrow as usual.

We appreciate it

Received with donation: Thanks for all the work you do on Jimena- and CampoPulse - hope this helps you keep up the good work. Thank you for the donation and the kind words - it's nice to be appreciated. All donations are anonymous unless specified otherwise, in writing. You can donate via PayPal (click on sidebar icon), as this donation was, or any other way: just let us know. We try to make it easy (well, we would, wouldn't we?), so brown envelopes are accepted eagerly, too. Seriously, thank you.

Environment Department asks palm tree owners to report possible red weevil infestation

JIMENA (Press release/Photo: illustration only) A campaign was launched earlier this week informing residents about the dangers of the red palm weevil (photo), which affects several species of palm tree and can devastate whole colonies of trees in a single season. Councillor Fernando Gómez is asking residents to help trace infected trees, especially those who have palms in their gardens or properties. A form is available on the Council website (www.jimenadelafrontera.es) which needs to be filled in to report each case. Gómez points out that a Junta law passed last year places the responsibility of deaaling with the weevil on both public agencies as well as owners of private palm trees, these last being obliged to report symptoms of infection and>

Looking back on our history

In an effort to bring ourselves up to date, and in preparation for moving all our sites under one roof, we have spent some time looking back to the very beginnings of JimenaPulse. We realize that we have actually been pretty funny, serious, fighting-your-corner, investigative. Here are some examples of some of the items we brought to CampoPulse on the dates they were originally published: Have you ever thought what you get for the price of a coffee?; European citizens no longer need 'residencia' card; What is the sesentaycinco card? and how you can get one; Alternative energy or hot air? for Jimena (we admit we adjusted the headline to the present - its about an Irish investor); About 'huevos' and fish, not to mention female chickens (not hens) - it's about language, and funny if we say so ourselves... These are from 2007, with our fourth anniversary coming up next month. But you can peruse the old JimenaPulse site at your leisure, which we highly recommend. And we will continue bringing such items forward, slowly but surely, as it's very time consuming (any volunteers? it doesn't need any high tech knowledge, only time).

Jimena is Miss Universe 2010

Yes, you read that right. This year's Miss Universe is called Jimena Navarrete. She was Miss Mexico, and was crowned on Monday at the 59th edition of the pageant, held this year at the Mandalay Hotel in Las Vegas. In fact, Jimena is a fairly common name in Mexico, as you can see if you choose to waste time (as we have) by Googling the name... There's a very popular singer by that name, apparently, and a hurricane was called that last year. It is the name of the legendary mother of Bernardo de Carpio (no, not Di Caprio, silly), whoever that was, and Jimena Díaz was the wife of El Cid, of course. King Alfonso VI of Castile (c.1040 – 1109), called The Brave, had a mistress called Jimena Muñoz ... and then there's JimenaPulse, JimenArte, Holidays in Jimena, Jimena Property Listings ... Well, done, Jimena!

Jimena National Dog Show coming up, too!

JIMENA
The 8th edition of Jimena's National Dog Competition takes place on Sunday, May 9, as part of the Feria de Mayo 2010 (see item below). Organized by the Canine Society of Western Andalucía, it is validfor the Championship of Andalucía. There are all sorts of sections in the competition, from Puppies to Breeders. As with the Feria programme, The Translation People will be offering our English-speaking readers a translation of the competition rules and events, so keep an eye on the sidebar on JimenaPulse for the poster.

Jimena May Feria coming up!

JIMENA
Jimena's traditional Feria de Mayo gets under way on May 7 to 9 (weekend after next, already!). Cork loaders' competition, dog show, horse parade and events,  flamenco dancing, music, sherry, all sorts of activities in and around the sports pavilion ... it's all there again this year. The Translation People are kindly translating the programme for you, so keep an eye on the sidebar on JimenaPulse for a link. (Prospero note: This is my favourite feria of the year because it is more 'intimate' than the August one, more of Jimena. I have a feeling everyone thinks the same... Hey, is that me taking a photo in the poster? I take my 'job' seriously, I do!).

Haiti: Is there life after death?

(Picture by 'Haitian Masters') Almost a year after he had apparently disappeared, without warning and no further ado, we get an e-mail from our old friend Alexander Bewick, whose blog was a feature of JimenaPulse for quite a while - until he vanished. His e-mail points to an article on his Soap Box, titled as above and dated today, about Haiti, its history and its people. Hard-hitting, it is well worth a read. (We will keep an eye on it -his blog- and maybe renew his 'featureability'.)