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Almerimar - Almerimar 24, properties, golf, marina, directory, listing, information... Your independent information guide to Almerimar |
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| Legs and Co. (not the Top of the Pops dancers) |
While I was down at Alcor working this afternoon, Sharon handed me a flyer from "Legs and Co", a new lingerie shop recently opened in Roquetas de Mar Urb. Read More.
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| Busy Thursday |
Jacqui is working on a website. I am finishing off cleaning a PC that has had some virus problems and doing some other PC support work. Then I have to go and do the supermarket shopping. Then buy the bottles and sort out the teams for Friday golf (normally Jacqui´s job but she is out this afternoon).
So this means that we have had to miss out on golfing with Penny and going to the first beach barbie of the year being organised by Lawrence and Chris for later this afternoon.
We came over here to do less work and have more leisure time but it doesn´t seem that way in the last day or two.
However, we will probably make up for it in the next few days (golf tomorrow, a 70th birthday party on Saturday and the Servicios Nauticos Paolo golf competition on Sunday).
Plus music at the castle tonight and tomorrow night. Plus various concerts and events in Almerimar on Friday, Sat and Sun. See the Event Calendar for details. Not sure which of these we might get to attend but if we go to some of them we will take some pictures and publish some stories about them here.
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Posted by john on Thursday, July 24 @ 15:10:24 CEST (0 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| New website for Gestoría Cantón |
Our gestoria, Alberto Cantón is based in El Ejido. We were recommended to use him by Alcor Properties and it has worked out to be a great recommendation. Alberto is always helpful and he and his team have been very efficient in dealing with our needs.
They have just developed a new website that you can see here.
So if you need a gestoría Jacqui and I can recommend this company strongly.
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Posted by john on Thursday, July 24 @ 14:14:20 CEST (3 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Bike ride along the promenade |
We decided to go for a bike ride along the promenade this afternoon and whilst we were at it, we took the opportunity to take some photos on the progress of the promenade and the road to the lakes through the old camp site. Read More.
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| Beachwear with style |
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A girl friend of mine in the UK told me about a website selling ladies designer beachwear so I checked it out! ...Read More.
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| Photos of Playa Serena hole 12 - 22 July 08 |
Jacqui and I were at Playa Serena again today playing with Penny.
Big progress on the refurbishment of hole 12. They have now started to fill the new lake.
See the Photo Gallery for more pictures.
Posted by john on Tuesday, July 22 @ 20:07:31 CEST (4 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Almerimar24 in the press |
At the end of the Caiman Latin Brothers gig in Almerimar last Saturday evening we got chatting to a tourism guy from Roquetas. He introduced us to a woman called Tere who works for the local free newspaper, La Voz de El Ejido.
It was noticed that we had been taking a few photos and some video for this site and we were asked if we would allow the paper to publish some pictures.
The article was published today. You can see a small version below and a larger copy of the article here (click on the image this link leads to for an even bigger version).
You can see a close up of one of the photos with a credit in my name in the bottom right hand corner here.
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| Progress on PortoFino in Almerimar - 21 July 08 |
One of our members, Paul C, asked for an update on progress with Porto Fino. So I popped out this evening and took some photos. See the Photo Gallery. I tried to name the blocks correctly in the gallery. If you think I have got any wrong please get in touch.
While out I took a couple of pictures of progress on gutting the old hotel ready to rebuild it. Plus I bumped into Sam from Proidal. She said that they still had some shutters to put on some windows plus tidy up some of the entrances and communal areas. Apart from that the complex is just about done.
Chatting to friends a few days ago they said that the people from the 3rd age (pensioners) centre are looking forward to moving into their new place on the ground floor at the back.
There are a large number of office/shop premises available and as yet there is no sign of any of the promised council offices being worked on (police station, post office, fire station etc.). I´ll only believe that we are going to get these amenities once I see some evidence of work progressing on them.
Posted by john on Monday, July 21 @ 20:16:20 CEST (8 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Lunchtime Swim |
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I decided to go for a swim today after dropping off some laundry at our 1 bedroom apartment. Read More.
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| Barry Castle - His life in music - Part 2 |
This is the part two of the interview with Barry Castle and his wife Claire.
The first article provided an overview of Barry´s life in music, information about the French and German horns, plus information about Barry and Almerimar. You can read the first part here.
This second article provides more details about the early part of Barry's career up to the time he finished his National Service at the age of 20.
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| Sunday Golf in Almerimar |
Just back from the Onda Cero competition. Jacqui had 35 points and just missed out on the prizes. I didn´t do as well. Neither did we win anything in the sorteo (free raffle).
I was playing with Silvia from the caddy master staff and she confirmed that the Remax competition is cancelled next week. However, we have just checked and found out that there is now a competition being sponsored by Servicios Nauticos Paolo instead so we will be playing competitive golf next Sunday.
Now for an afternoon watching the Open on TV.
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| Caiman Latin Brothers - Almerimar - 19 July 08 |
Just back from watching the Caiman Latin Brothers at the Brisamar sports complex in Almerimar.
Earlier in the evening I was a little worried about this being another possible no-show. I popped down to check whether they were setting up at around 8.15pm and there was nothing happening. Apart from the finish of the 3 a side basketball competition which was quite interesting. The band last Saturday had started setting up at around 7.30pm so I was a little worried that the band this week may not turn up (as we had two no-shows last week at two of the Virgen del Carmen events).
So I popped back again at just before 10.00pm and the band were just setting up. So Jacqui and I arrived to an empty sports area at around 10.30pm. Carrying our drinks and our beach chairs. Marion arrived a little later followed by Barry and Claire.
By the time the band started it was around 10.45pm. It was a short set that finished around 11.45pm. So Lawrence & Chris and friends missed the show as they turned up at around 10.20pm, went for a drink at Espigon and didn´t arrive back until 11.55pm.
When the band started there was around 20 people watching. By the end there were 70-80 people. Mostly Spanish locals who had come out for a bit of a dance. Not a great turn out but a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday evening in Almerimar.
We will probably try get along again next week for the blues and jazz quartet at the same venue. Although there is also music in the castle at Guardias Viejas on the Thursday and Friday so I am not sure we will go to all 3 events. Guess we will have to wait and see what mood we are in. See the Event Calendar for details up the upcoming events.
See the Photo Gallery for a few more photos and a couple of short videos from this evening.
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| New recipes in the Recipes Forum |
Many thanks to JCA, MandM and Chalky for adding some more recipes to the Recipes Forum in the Area Forum.
A very varied mix including Fried Egg Butties, Home Made Burgers (going to try this if we manage to get a barbie on the beach soon), The Perfect Poached Egg and Tagliatelle with Prawns and Ginger.
Funnily enough I am cooking Swordfish Kebabs with Herb Yoghurt and Couscous again this evening.
If you have a favourite recipe why not share it with the other readers by registering and adding it in the Recipes Forum.
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Posted by john on Saturday, July 19 @ 18:55:45 CEST (5 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Flights to and from Almeria |
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We are looking for some help keeping an eye on the winter timetables for flights into Almeria. Read More for details.
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| Saturday haircut and chat |
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I went down to the AR Hotel here in Almerimar for my regular wash, cut and blow dry with Pauline this morning. Read More.
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| Welcome to our latest reader in Australia |
After golf yesterday we got chatting with Claire and Barry. Claire mentioned that she has just got in touch with a friend that she hasn't seen for 40 years who is now living in Australia.
She said that she sent her the URL for this site so her friend can see where Claire is at the moment and what she looks like.
So welcome to our latest reader in Australia. Hope you like the site.
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Posted by john on Saturday, July 19 @ 13:47:53 CEST (8 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Friday Golf, Barbecues and the weather |
The wind got up today, particularly this afternoon. So Lawrence & Chris have decided to cancel the beach barbie we were supposed to be having this afternoon/evening. Bit of a shame as we were going to try the beach at Guardias Viejas as a change from going to the nature reserve.
The wind had an impact on the Almerimar24 Friday Golf today. It was a real struggle, particularly the back nine when the wind got up. However, Marion, John F, Heinz and myself managed to win on countback. It was all pretty close but the chocolates went to Richard, Mike C, Chris P and Chloe. (You can get to the full results by clicking on the link to the Friday golf pages in the Classifieds).
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| Friday and Saturday music around Almerimar |
No free Friday concert at the castle in Guardias Viejas this week but the Caiman Latin Brothers are playing for free at the Brisamar sports complex next door to Spirit Mar on Saturday night. Scheduled to start at 10.30pm.
Looking on the internet they appear to be a 3 piece band playing keyboards, a guitar and sax.
When we went to this venue last week there was no bar and it is a wide open space. The stage was set up at one end of a sandy football pitch.
So it may be worth taking your own drinks along. Also, if you might want a sit down there is plenty of room for you to use your own beach chairs.
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Posted by john on Friday, July 18 @ 10:00:33 CEST (7 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Busy golfing week! |
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Lots of golf this week :-) Read More.
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| More events in and around Almerimar |
Just added a kids painting exhibition and ballroom dancing & barbecue in the Event Calendar. Both at the Circulo in El Ejido which is where they have the jazz and modern music events later in the year.
Plus there is a swimming competition in Almerimar on Sunday.
See the Event Calendar for details.
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Posted by john on Thursday, July 17 @ 10:49:51 CEST (6 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Decision made - quiet night in (but not so quiet) |
We have decided not to bother going down to the port in Almerimar for the Virgen del Carmen as we went down last year. So it is a quiet night in with a glass of red wine.
Will will go on the terrace and watch the fireworks later on instead.
No chance of going to bed early as there will be flares going off all evening and fireworks later on.
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Posted by john on Wednesday, July 16 @ 21:33:35 CEST (7 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Copo bargain of the month - July 08 |
Just back from getting a bit of computer work done at Batch PC in Copo.
While there I noticed that the bargain of the month at Copo this month is a bike for only 65 euros. Available until the end of July.
So for those people over here in Almerimar soon, with a car big enough to take a bike back to their house/apartment and somewhere to store the bike it seems like a bargain to me.
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Posted by john on Wednesday, July 16 @ 20:13:06 CEST (7 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Onda Cero Golf Competition, Sunday 20 July, Almerimar |
Another golf competition here at Almerimar this Sunday. This time Onda Cero Radio is the sponsor.
It will be individual stableford and most probably a shotgun start at 9am.
The entry list is up on the notice board just outside the pro shop. Get your name down soon if you want to play as they take the list down on Friday afternoon.
The trophies have been pretty tacky over the last couple of years it has to be said. John´s is on the terrace gathering dust!
Their sorteos have been good though and one year I played poor golf and won a bike!
Posted by jacqui on Wednesday, July 16 @ 12:13:58 CEST (8 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Virgen del Carmen day today in Almerimar |
It is the 16th of July again so it is the day for the parade of the statue of the virgen around the port, with fireworks later of course.
The weather is overcast at the moment. We hope it improves for the evening.
We have checked the photos from last year and the times suggest that the parade is going on around 7.45pm and the fireworks around 11-11.15pm. So if you are in Almerimar why not pop down to the port to take a look.
One further thing this year is that there is meant to be some music from Orquesta Simatria this evening (if they turn up, of course). This is being organised by the forum of businesses and is taking place at the beach club. Not sure of the time but the flamenco started around 11pm. Guess they may have to schedule the music around (or with?) the fireworks.
You can see photos from last year in the Photo Gallery here.
Posted by jacqui on Wednesday, July 16 @ 11:48:36 CEST (9 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Barry Castle - His life in music - Part 1 |
This is the second in the series of occasional articles about people in Almerimar. On Wednesday 9th July 2008 Jacqui and I spend a lovely afternoon interviewing Barry Castle and his wife Claire about Barry´s life in music.
Following a suggestion by Mimmo after our first article about Hans Ooft and his life in football we have decided that rather than write one large article about Barry we will write three separate shorter articles.
This first article provides a summary of Barry´s career along with information about his chosen instrument, the horn, plus information about why he chose to buy a property in Almerimar.
Subsequent articles will cover more details of Barry´s life in music plus stories about his two other passions, flying and golf.
Read More for details.
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| Update on the electricity story |
Further to the information from Mary McKnight earlier this week. She spoke with her gestoria, Alberto Cantón, and he confirmed that Endesa are making these calls so at least the calls are genuine.
However, as Mary says, she still doesn´t feel she should be agreeing to anything in Spanish over the phone as she may not know exactly what she is agreeing to.
If anyone else knows more about this issue of Endesa phoning people to offer discounts please feel free to get in touch.
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Posted by john on Tuesday, July 15 @ 20:52:14 CEST (6 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| UPDATED - Golf and beach barbecue in Almerimar |
UPDATED: Just spoken to Lawrence and there has been a change of plan. It is windy here and people haven´t got their act together today so we plan to do the beach barbie on Friday afternoon instead. Get in touch if you fancy coming along....
Off to play golf at Playa Serena with Penny, Issie and Jacqui. My guess is that I won´t be talking much during the round.
After that, as Lawrence & Chris are around they are planning to organise the first beach barbecue of the year if it is not too windy this afternoon. I think it is being organised today as Geradine is going back soon and would like to attend a barbie before she heads off back home.
A few people take barbecues onto the beach in the nature reserve in Almerimar and everyone takes their own food and drink. We eat, drink, have a natter and play boule until it gets cold or the sun goes down.
If it goes ahead today we will probably be taking some pictures and publishing them in the Photo Gallery.
If anyone newcomers to Almerimar would like to come along to any of the beach barbecues you are very welcome to come along and meet people. Just get in touch with us at info@almerimar24.com and we will send you an email each time the barbies are taking place.
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| Bird Watching in Almeria - Part 7 |
Many thanks to John Witham for the latest in his series of articles about bird watching in the area.
We look forward seeing John and Cynthia when they return to Almerimar later this year.
Read More for details.
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| Yippee - good progress on the Barry Castle interview |
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Even though Telefonica did their best to screw up our PC work today we managed to complete the write up of the notes of the interview we did with Barry Castle a few days ago. Plus we have emailed the first part of the resulting article to Barry and Claire for their approval. So hopefully we will be able to publish this article soon.
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Posted by john on Monday, July 14 @ 22:30:50 CEST (6 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Bad weather in Spain and internet connectivity in Almerimar |
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We have found that on days when there is bad weather in Southern Spain we tend to get poor internet connectivity on our ADSL service in Almerimar. Read More for my theory of why this happens.
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| Flamenco at the Beach Club in Almerimar last night |
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We met up with Chris and Lawrence around 9.45pm before heading off to the Beach Club to watch the Flamenco show. Read More.
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| Wet and cloudy morning in Almerimar |
Very unusual for July. For the first time in ages we woke up to the sound of rain.
Checking the forecast it appears we should be back to normal this afternoon. Sun, some cloud and a breeze with a high temp of 27 degrees.
What is the weather like with you?
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| Beatles Connection - no show last night? |
We are not certain about this but according to Lawrence & Chris and Marion it appears that The Beatles Connection didn´t show up for the show last night here in Almerimar. So this is perhaps the second time they have not shown up.
We are probably going to go along to the Flamenco event this evening so we will try to get a bit more information about what happened while we are there.
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Posted by john on Sunday, July 13 @ 19:28:34 CEST (6 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Progress on Almerimar hotel and clubhouse |
Just back from playing in the Virgen del Carmen golf competition. Not a great day on the course today but there is always another time.
While we were passing the hotel and the clubhouse I took a few pictures of the progress with the building work. They are really stripping the guts out of the old hotel. See the Photo Gallery.
Also, happy 40th wedding anniversary to Hans Ooft and his wife Marjo. One of their two sons flew over from America to surprise Marjo. He and Hans played in the golf competition this morning so I took a snap of the two of them on the tee.
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| Quiet Saturday night in Almerimar |
We have had a busy day today. First cleaning our 1 bedroom apartment ready for some visitors, then doing a little shopping and then processing the first lot of recordings of Barry Castle ready for the feature we will be publishing about Barry next week.
Plus we have early tee off times in the Virgin del Carmen golf competition tomorrow morning. It is a pairs competition. I´m playing with Sharon from Alcor Properties and Jacqui is playing with Alan. May the best team win.
So we have decided to have a night off and not go to the event organised by the forum of businesses at the Beach Club this evening.
Our friends Lawrence & Chris were supposed to come to the event at the Brisamar sports ground last night but didn´t manage to get further than the door of their close neighbour Geradine. L & C are going this evening so we will pick their brains after golf tomorrow and publish a review based on what they say.
We hope the event is a success this evening and wish the forum of businesses success for events over the coming days.
We will probably try to get along and see the flamenco tomorrow night.
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Posted by john on Saturday, July 12 @ 21:58:07 CEST (7 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Issues to do with Electricity |
Got a couple of pieces of useful information about electricty prices from Barry & Claire and from Mary McKnight.
Read More for details.
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| Sun Rockets - Almerimar - 11 July 2008 |
We went down to the Brisamar sports ground, next to Spirit Mar, to see the first in a series of concerts to be held there in July organised by the Ayuntamiento.
Read More for details, see the Photo Gallery for pictures & video and see the Event Calendar for further events.
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| Bits and pieces |
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Read More for some bits and pieces that happened today.
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| More music tonight in Almerimar at Brisamar |
Don´t forget there is supposedly some musical entertainment down at Brisamar tonight at 10.30pmish (in between Spirit Mar and La Barbera).
This has been billed on posters distributed by the town hall as a "Paul McCartney Tribute". The "Sun Rockets" a rock and roll band, were also billed for the same event, so there is some confusion as what we will actually get. See John´s earlier post this week about upcoming events.
We´re planning to grab a bite to eat down in the port and then wander along to see what transpires.
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Posted by jacqui on Friday, July 11 @ 18:22:31 CEST (8 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Vän The Jazz at Guardias Viejas last night |
A busy day yesterday followed by a trip up to the castle at Guardias Viejas for the Vän the Jazz concert. Read More.
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| More on Zone Alarm issue |
If you know someone who only has a single PC which isn´t working because of the Microsoft/ZoneAlarm issue, here are the instructions for them to follow instead of you downloading the new version of Zone Alarm for them.
1. Go to the Zone Alarm page below and follow the instructions on removing the Microsoft patch.
2. Download the new version of the Zone Alarm product you use and apply it.
3. Go to Microsoft Update or Windows Update and reapply the patch Microsoft DNS security patch.
See here for instructions on how to remove the security patch and download the new Zone Alarm product you are using.
Don´t forget to go to Microsoft or Windows Update afterwards to reapply the Microsoft patch as it is important.
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| Warning to users of ZoneAlarm software |
2 days ago Microsoft released a major security patch for XP to do with DNS. This particular patch has caused users of ZoneAlarm software to be unable to connect to the internet after they have downloaded the patch.
So if you have a problem with one of your computers losing its internet connection recently or you know friends who have just recently lost connection to the internet on their computer check whether they are running ZoneAlarm.
If yes, then use another computer to download the latest version of the ZoneAlarm product you are using and install it on the computer with the problem. The computer should work fine after that.
See here for a story from the BBC about this issue.
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Posted by john on Thursday, July 10 @ 21:44:59 CEST (10 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Circus in Almerimar - 11-15 July 08 |
Just back from buying the bottles for the Almerimar24 Friday Golf competition. 18 people this week so not a bad turn out.
While there we noticed an advert for the circus that was stuck to the wall at Mercadona.
At 10.00pm every night from 11-15 July so we have added an event for this in the Event Calendar.
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Posted by john on Thursday, July 10 @ 18:42:10 CEST (7 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| The weather in Almerimar |
It was hazy here in Almerimar yesterday and it looks like it is the same again today. It feels quite sticky so I thought I would have a quick look at the weather forcast for the area.
Looking up El Ejido on Accuweather it looks like the maximum temperatures for the next few days will be 31 degrees but it will feel hotter as it is not going to be windy. Minimums are 21-22 degrees.
I understand that this is a little better than the weather people are having back in the UK at the moment.
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Posted by john on Thursday, July 10 @ 10:20:31 CEST (9 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| Interview with Barry Castle |
Jacqui and I had a very pleasant time yesterday afternoon and early evening recording an interview with Barry Castle and his wife Claire who have an apartment here in Almerimar.
Barry is a professional musician who has worked with various orchestras. He has also been involved in various freelance activities in the music industry such as playing on film scores, supporting various artists live and playing as a backing musician on a number of recordings.
In between he managed to qualify as a pilot and play some golf.
I think Barry was enjoying himself and we recorded about 4 hours of material on our iPod so we will be writing a number of articles about Barry starting with an overview article.
So look out for the first article about Barry appearing here soon.
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| The power of the red t-shirt |
At least we now know the secret of Spanish success in the football.
The key factor was the power of the red t-shirt.
As you can see from the photo below, Spain won because Lawrence and Chris were wearing the lucky red t-shirts while watching the final back in England.
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| Busy Wednesday in Almerimar |
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Read More for details.
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| Virgen Del Carmen - 11-16 July - Almerimar |
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Many thanks to our gestoria, Alberto Canton, for providing us with some more information about some of the Virgen Del Carmen celebrations in Almerimar. We have already published some stories about this and there are events in the Event Calendar so this is a reminder of what is coming up in the next week or so.
All events will be held at the Beach Club (next to the rugby pitch, where the Sunday markets used to be).
Alberto explained that the forum of businesses in Almerimar has been a main sponsor of the Virgen Del Carmen fair for some time. Here are some more details of the events.. They start at midnight on 11/12 July with an inauguration event. The night bar at this event and each of the subsequent ones for the concerts is being run by Fosil and 2F. There are then midday fairs each day from Saturday until Wednesday. One of the bars at the midday fairs is being run by Hacker and members of the local rugby club here in Almerimar. On the evening there are music events as follows: Sat 12 July - Beatles Connection - a tribute band
Sun 13 July - Flamenco
Mon 14 July - Fiesta Ibicenca
Tues 15 July - Fiesta Ibicenca
Weds 16 July - Orquesta Simetria
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| Live from Escapate - 8 July 08 |
This story is being written while we are sitting in the new bar, Escapate. Thanks Shaun for letting us know it is now open.
Speaking to Jesus (the boss, in red) and Chema, it opened last Friday night. It is open daily from 3pm until late throughtout the summer.
Good music, plenty of outdoor seating overlooking the beach. An excellent place to call into if you are down at the beach.
See the Photo Gallery for more pictures.
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| 12th hole at Playa Serena golf - 20 minutes from Almerimar |
We played golf with Penny at Playa Serena earlier today and checked on progress on the modernisation of the 12th hole.
The rocks are now piled up ready to be put round the edges of the lake. All the tees are built and look ready for turfing. So although I doubt they will meet their mid July target date for reopening the full length hole, hopefully it should reopen in August.
See the Photo Gallery for a few pictures.
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Posted by john on Tuesday, July 08 @ 19:34:48 CEST (9 reads) (comments? | Score: 0) |
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| La Barbera, Escapate and volleyball - 8 July 08 |
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