Reader's Question: 'Are they still collecting clothes in Estación?'

JIMENA 'Someone just told me that the Casa de Cultura in Estación is no longer collecting clothes. Is this true do you know - and if so do you know of any other collection point please?' Our answer: 'Just spoken to Olivia, the Councillor for Estación. You're right, it has stopped because -as usual- only one or two people ended up doing all the work (shades of J.A.W.S.). Would you or any of your friends be interested in taking it over? Let me know. In the meantime, the local Cáritas chapter is taking in children's clothing ONLY, which you can leave with Isabel here at the Cámara de Comercio office (next to Nailah's Ximena English Academy) - the building is the next down from the fire station (I know you know that, Jan, but directions are for anyone else reading this).

(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.)

You say scrapyard and we say 'desguace'

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR If you're North American, you call them junk yards. In Britain they're called scrapyards. In Spain they are desguaces or chatarrerías and although they have different names and some different functions, they are often the same place. We have been asked many times where to find a used spare part, for instance, and being non-tech to a sickening degree, we can't always answer. However, a little research around the Web elicited several desguaces in the area, most of them in the various industrial estates scattered about the Campo de Gibraltar (see below). A desguace, incidentally, is where you dump your car when it dies - but that needs a bunch of paperwork about which we will be writing soon - though you may have to pay for it if we don't get any substantial donations in soon!>>>

Reader's Question: How do we find out if a building extension is legal?

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JIMENA  (Via e-mail) "The ironworks just down from me is building a huge extension, which is going to bring all his noise and dust closer to private houses.  A neighbour was told some 5 years ago that the guy was moving a bit further out of the village, but that was probably to encourage the sale of his house. I do admire the guy who owns the works, because he really does put in the hours, but even before the extension was started, we are woken at 7am by crashing & banging and can't contemplate going to bed before midnight due to the noise in the street.  Bestest, Sleepless in Jimena!!" See the answer below>>>

Reader's Question: How can I stop Movistar from calling me with a sales pitch?

(Via e-mail) "I got totally freaked out by Movistar today - I received 4 calls from them, 3 during siesta and one at 9.20 tonight.  I called 1004 in an absolute fury and was told by the girl to log on to www.listarobinson.es.  There was no way I could get this website to translate into English.  Can you help me before I throw my phone, and anything else to do with Movistar, into the river (probably not enough water in there anyway!) and slit my throat." Our (temporary) answer: Please refrain from throwing your phone system or yourself into the river - there's not enough water, as you say. As for slitting anything, practice on a cat or another such animal first (when in Spain ...). While you disentangle yourself from all those cables, I will attempt to find out how to stop those calls effectively. (Do I detect a need for more Spanish?)

Reader's Question: How many people are employed in the gaming industry in Gibraltar?

(Via e-mail / Photo title: 'Gambling away futures' from Oceans Rehab) This is not the first time the question has been asked, but until now, we've been unable to come up with an answer. However, we googled the question as it was written, and the answer we got was as follows (but, just as we were posting this item, there was an electricity cut and we lost the source, which we are sure is reliable): "There are a total of 1,905 persons employed by the 18 'remote gambling companies' established in Gibraltar as at September 15th 2010. Gibraltarians account for 274 of the placements, with ‘other British’ taking up 981 of the jobs and Spaniards 110. The remainder is made up by a variety of nationalities. The largest employer is Victor Chandler with 266 employees (50 Gibraltarians), followed by Stan James 253 (14), PartyGaming 201 (28) and 888 Holdings with 196 (31)." (Have a gambling problem? Maybe Gamblers Anonymous in Gibraltar can help.)

Readers ask about an Endesa letter re your ICP

Several people have stopped Prospero in the street to ask about a letter they received from their electricity company, like the one here, our old friend Endesa. Why nobody has asked us online, we cannot fathom;  it's the kind of thing we are here for (what would you do without us?). Back to the letter. Our sponsors TheTranslationPeople have kindly translated it into comprehensible English, available free below. If you have any questions, ever, please do not hesitate to contact us - we will do our best to help.>