Feb 2016

1

Around the valle February 2016 Issue no. 2

Chairmans report by carol caldwell

T

he weather in January has been exceptionally good but it has brought health problems with many of us with colds including myself hope everyone is feeling much better.

Ben and I have just returned back from England we were there to get our Chinese Visas for our holiday it was so cold it makes you appreciate this great

climate we have here.

The committee has been busy organising events for the coming months, on the 26th February we are having a Race night with a meal for only â‚Ź10 at Camping Bar it's a really fun night so please come and join us.

We have our AGM approaching in April again we are asking if

anyone is interested in joining the committee I will have nomination forms with me on our Monthly meeting on the 1st of February if anyone is interested.

It is with great sadness that I have to report the passing of Peter Goreham, who died suddenly last Thursday, our condolences to Christine and her family. He will be sadly missed. The funeral will be on Tuesday 2nd February at 12:00 in Benajarafe Church. All are welcome

2

contents CHAIRMANS REPORT JANUARY MEETING JANUARY WALK & NEWS FROM SAT.CO PANTO

1

2 3

4

REPORT

FORTHCOMING MEETINGS & EVENTS & WALK SCHEDULE

5

UPDATE FROM

7

SOHA SUPPER NIGHT & NEWSBITES QUAD REPORT COMMITTEEE

january meeting report by alan impey

6

8

9& 10 11

M

onday 11th January 2016 and the first El-Valle meeting of the year!!!!

A slightly disappointing 50 members turned up for this event which was to feature a "where in the world" picture quiz hosted in the main

by Stewart and Elaine and assisted by Sue. The meeting was opened at 7.50pm by Carol with the usual run through of recent El-Valle events and forthcoming events.

A reminder was given about the April AGM and that nominations were being accepted for committee places.

After a short break at 8pm it was time for the quiz and teams of mainly six competed to identify photographs projected onto a screen.

For each photograph three answers were required, the country, the town and the feature of the photograph.

The 31 photographs seemed to fly past and it was time for marking the papers which were duly swapped with adjoining tables.

Once the marking was completed and the answer

sheets returned to their respective teams Sue asked for any team with 93 points (the maximum) to raise their hands. This was treated to a lot of laughter!!!!

Sue went down in number until reaching 55 when two teams raised hands claiming 56 points.

A tie break was in place for just this situation but an anomaly in one teams answer sheet was found and it was decided that an extra point should in fact be awarded to that team so creating an outright winner and guess what!!!!! yours truly was a member of that team along with Maureen, Martyn, Ron, Jean and Peter. A captioned photo is included to put names to faces!!!!

Bottles of wine were awarded to the winning team members but as two of the team, Ron and Jean, do not

drink, they handed their wine to the second placed team, a nice gesture.

Before closing on the quiz it is worth mentioning an incident that caused merriment amongst the masses!!!! Sue was comparing with a hand held bulbous microphone and announced part way through the quiz "I think my batteries going" gazing at the microphone. This brought the "obvious" laughter but she compounded things by adding "Well I think it is, it keeps going in and out" even more laughter!!!!!

It was now time for the "cash box" and â‚Ź190.00 was up for grabs!!! but none of the five numbers drawn managed to match that all important key to open the box!!

Before closing some advance knowledge of a meeting date change. The May meeting scheduled for the 2nd will now take place on the 9th, a week later.

Thanks as usual to the committee and in particular Stewart and Elaine for the quiz.

A lunch has been arranged at Venta La Vina to celebrate the above. All are welcome. For further details contact Sue on 680407894. We would love to see you there.

3

JANUARY El valle walk by ALAN IMPEY

T

hursday 14th January 2016 was a beautiful walking day so it was surprising that only 15 walkers turned up at the start.

We have become used to numbers of around 25 walking.

The walk was led by Alan Clay and started from the large car park at the entrance to Torrox Pueblo.

We waited a few minutes after the

publicised start time of 11am in case of late comers but we were confined to the 15 already in attendance.

News from sat.co

F

Alan started the walk by taking us steeply up through the pueblo before emerging onto the main road circumnavigating Torrox Pueblo and then crossing the road to again climb steeply on good tracks always heading north. We climbed steadily for an hour or so eventually arriving at the walks highest point approx. 400metres above sea level.

We continued on in bright sunshine with amazing views all around and still heading in a northerly direction.

We started a gradual descent and at a confluence of tracks Alan asked us all to stop and he produced from his rucksack bottles of locally produced wine which to me

was reminiscent of Malaga Dulce.

He of course had the required vessels for us all to partake of a New Year toast announced by Martyn.

After imbibing we doubled back along a track which steadily descended south and slowly made our way to the edge of Torrox Pueblo.

We then meandered down through the pueblo before arriving at Carmen's Pena for an eagerly awaited three course lunch for a reasonable 8â‚Ź.

Many thanks to Alan for taking the time to lead the walk and for supplying the midway bebida!!!!

by dick atterbury

or those of you that have had an Icecrypt Satellite Receiver Installed you may not have the latest Software which is now available. Also you may not be watching programmes in HD. The box comes without the HDMI cable in the package and some installers do not provide this and just use a SCART cable. Have a check and see.

We at Sat.CO have found quite a few recent installations lacking this cable. Remember that the HDMI cable provides the HD link and Stereo sound. The SCART cable cannot do this.

The Southern Ireland TV Service is now broadcasting on Astra 2G. Known as RTE. For those of you who wish to view this service and the Radio programmes should contact us to see how we can provide this Service. The service carries a mixture of BBC and ITV programmes including all the Major soaps from the BBC and ITV. Emmerdale, Home and Away, East Enders, Corrie, Neighbours. If we lose any more satellite services in this part of the world this may be the way forward!!!

Some of the new TVs on release are able to convert 2D to 3D and

we are trying to show this in our weekly Demonstrations on Saturday and at the Market on Tuesday.

All these new sets are very low power consumers using two thirds of the power of a domestic light bulb.

Finally don't miss the 6 Nations Rugby starting on the BBC on the 6th of February

4

Glug, glug, glug, he’s behind you!!

O

n Tuesday 5th January thirty five "kids at heart" joined the coach for Fuengirola! Thirty of them intending to enjoy the pantomime Mother Goose the remaining five to experience the "high life" of Fuengirola!

This was to be the last performance of the panto for this year. (described as a hilarious Egg strava- ganda) Oh Yes It Was!!!

This was my first experience of seeing the Mother Goose pantomime.

Briefly, the story consisted of an old lady (Mother Goose) who had fallen on hard times whilst the landlord (Squire Goodheart) wanted his rent. A fairy enabled Mother Goose`s goose (Pricilla) to lay golden eggs. Thus making everyone happy and rich! `Mother Goose`s son (Billy) had a soft spot for the Squire`s daughter (Jill). He also had a plant that, when watered, (everyone say "glug, glug, glug!) produced sweets which Billy threw at the audience. Add an Evil Demon to mess things up a bit to complete the story.

And they all lived happy ever after.

Oh Yes They Did!!!

For me, the most enjoyable part of the show was watching the children, both on the stage and in the audience. They all seemed

By peter goreham

to thoroughly enjoy the whole experience. It made a change not to see their faces glued to their I-phones etc.

finding a suitable place to watch the Three Kings procession.

After the show some of us had a drink in the bar. There, we were joined by some of the members of the cast. ( A few of whom looked a lot older than there photo in the programme!)

The theme this year appeared to be cartoon characters. All the floats and the Three Kings distributed handfuls of sweets as they passed by. (local dentists will be busy over the next few months!) There were adults and children scrambling to gather as many sweets as they could.

The procession was closely followed by the Council`s road cleaners, (They`re Behind You!!!) sweeping up sweet wrappers and unclaimed sweets. Within a very short time there was no sign of the procession having taken place.

Back to the coach by 11pm!

I slept most of the way back, but woke just in time to say our goodbyes and collect our car.

Another successful El Valle trip!

Thanks to all those who planned and organised the day.

We then had a few hours to deciding on somewhere to eat and

With thanks to Ben Caldwell & Sue Jones for the photographs.

5

FORTHCOMING MEETINGS FEBRUARY 1st

TALK BY GORDON WHATMAN - CRUISE DIRECTOR FOR ROYAL CARIBBEAN

MARCH 7th

BARBER SHOP CHOIR

APRIL 4th

AGM followed by Music Quiz hosted by Peter & Dorothy Girvan

MAY 9th

PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE DUE TO MAY BANK HOLIDAY. Possible Flamenco night

February 26

th

Race night camping bar, 7PM for 7:30 enjoy a night at the races including a meal €10 members

€13 non members

This is a really fun night where we have our own ‘horses & riders’ who have to navigate a course down a pre laid track March 31st day trip to sierra nevada & granada leave mis tapitas, (hotel romero) At 08:30 for a visit to the ski slopes (you don’t have to ski, just enjoy the atmosphere) then down to granada, free time for lunch or just to explore before returning at 6:00 pm €10 members €13 non members

6

April 19

th

Petanc in torre del mar 10:30 am Followed by lunch at tanit Only 32 players allowed but others can join just for the lunch - the price is the same â‚Ź10 members â‚Ź13 non Our 4 day, 3 night trip to cadiz & jerez Is now full Please remember your second payment is now overdue.

Come and see us at meson sara on a Friday morning or a the club meeting on Monday please

WALKS SCHEDULE FEBRUARY 11th

Led by Alan & Maureen Impey. Start take A7 from Torre towards Nerja.

Take first Nerja exit towards coast and then take coast road back towards Torre. After the Repsol garage look for Venta San Miguel on right and park t here for start. (Also a garden center there) at 11-00am

MARCH 10th

The walk for March will be re arranged as soon as it is possible. Please check the website.

APRIL 14th

Led by Terry & Jane Frost in Guaro area. Start 11:00

7

NEWS FROM SOHA BY JOHN MUNNS Jan 2016 News Update Enero 2016 Actualización de las noticias In line with standard practice for clubs and associations, members only were admitted to the Annual General Meeting (AGM).

En consonancia con la práctica estándar para los clubes y asociaciones, los miembros sólo eran admitidos en la Asamblea General Anual (AGM).

Click here to find out about SOHA’s new initiative, voted on at the AGM. Haga clic aquí para obtener información sobre la nueva iniciativa de SOHA, votada en la Junta General.

Click here to read SUR report on SOHA’s AGM. Haga clic aquí para leer el informe SUR en AGM de SOHA. Click here for front page article on SOHA in Euro Weekly News. (There is a sliding scale at the bottom left of the page for enlarging).

Haga clic aquí para ver artículo de primera plana en SOHA en Euro Noticias Semanales. (Hay una escala móvil en la parte inferior izquierda de la página para ampliar).

Charmaine Arbouin, British Consul for Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla, sent congratulations to Phil Smalley, SOHA Chairman, and Maura Hillen, Chairperson of AUAN (Almeria’s equivalent association), on their work towards legalizing homes.

Charmaine Arbouin, cónsul británico para Andalucía, Ceuta y Melilla, envió felicitaciones a Phil Smalley, presidente de SOHA, y Maura Hillen, Presidente del AUAN (asociación equivalente de Almería), en su trabajo hacia la legalización de viviendas.

Changes are being made to the News Update and the soha.es Website, to make the website more easily navigable and accessible, to make payment of membership fees and donations easier, and to add vital information. The changes are already being initiated, and will take place over the next week or two.

Los cambios se están realizando para la actualización de noticias y el Sitio Web soha.es, para hacer que el sitio web sea más fácil de navegar y accesible, para hacer el pago de las cuotas de afiliación y las donaciones más fáciles, y añadir información vital. Ya se han iniciado los cambios, y se llevarán a cabo durante la próxima semana o dos.

You may not be able to click on the links from this page, but they take you to www.soha.es

8

Supper & film night BY ALAN IMPEY

E

l-Valle Film Night Friday 22nd January 2016.

The latest El-Valle film night presentation is the movie San Andreas, released in May 2015, directed by Brad Peyton and starring Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino and Alexandra Daddario amongst others.

The film is 114 minutes in length and had a budget of $110 million, (E.101,724,571.19)(£77,797,147.98) At the Box Office it made, $474.

Million.

(E.438,455,248.99)(£335,189,228.

36) A very brief synopsis of the plot is; In San Andreas, California is experiencing a statewide earthquake that goes on record as easily the biggest earthquake in history. Dwayne Johnson plays Ray Gains, a helicopter rescue pilot for the Los Angeles

Newsbites

M

Fire Department, who is trying to find his daughter, Blake, played by Alexandra Daddario, who is in San Francisco amid the chaos. Ray’s separated wife, Emma, played by Carla Gugino, has to turn to him for help as a last resort to find/rescue their daughter.

Twenty six members made up the audience and when the doors opened we made our way to pre=set tables which were set with snacks/crisps/olives.

It was a “bring your own booze” affair and everyone had done just that!!!!!

Once we were all settled the food choices were announced and comprised off Pulled Pork with stuffing and apple sauce and Chilli con carne with boiled rice. Baps were also available either buttered or not.

Everyone was quickly served and settled down to enjoy their food. It was quickly announced that “seconds” were available and in some cases, (yes guilty) “thirds” Judging by the clean plates no one was disappointed by the food on offer and after everyone was finished the tables were cleared/moved and we settled down for the “movie”.

It seemed that everyone enjoyed the film and there was even a round of applause at the end!!!!

A lot of thanks must go to the committee members who organised the evening and provided the food so thank you David, Gerry, Dorothy and Peter and as usual I will have missed someone but thanks to you all who made the evening a suc-

cess.

by jenny wright

y latest Grace magazine suggested sucking on a ZINC lozenge before you fly as a way of protecting yourself against the germs of others. How often have we complained that ....we caught this cold on the plane? I do not know if you can still buy the lozenges but you can certainly buy zinc tablets and I was recently reminded by a friend how good they are during the colder months to help boost the immune system. Zinc is needed to help form enzymes within the body and a deficiency sometimes shows up with a loss of the sense of smell or taste, white marks on finger nails, osteoporosis, skin and hair ailments, or problems caused within the nervous system. A high protein diet is needed to improve the body’s ability to utilize zinc, which is found in foods like red meat, dairy, shellfish, wholegrain flour, beans, dried fruit, seeds, garlic and many others. Citric fruits increase this ability to use it, whereas alcohol will flush it out of the system into the urine, and processed fats – chips,

pastry, etc in the diet will require a lot more zinc.

I also read that Porridge Oats are good for the heart and when combined with Vitamin C, eg Orange juice, its ability to remove cholesterol is more than doubled. I recently saw an advert on TV for Oat Pots – just add boiling water, and thought...What? I have been doing that in a dish for years without paying over the odds and possibly having loads of sugar thrown in! No need for a saucepan as long as I leave it long enough for the water to be absorbed and I then add yoghurt.

You can do the same with Muesli, and if it is one that contains seeds, the body is more likely to assimilate them.

Yoga is supposed to be particularly good for IBS because it is often triggered by stress. The exercise class I go to, held on the Bandstand in Torre del Mar, has some Yoga thrown in with a bit of Chi Gong, Pilates and whatever flows. I should be improving my Spanish but as the class is given in German and English, I am improving the former, particu-

larly over coffee, the most important part of the session!

We continue to find disappointing numbers of bird species when we go out so if any of you feel you see ‘early’ birds, back from migration, or ones that you would not expect to see, do let us know. We were at Fuente de Piedra last week and there is so little water about that very few species were seen. I went walking with one of the ladies, hoping to see flowers, but there was just nothing. We enjoyed seeing the beautiful spiders’ webs, looking just like frost, but little else! However, the company was good. I will enjoy the March trip up to Cabo de Gata, as much for the company as the birds, and if the weather is good, will paddle in the sea, whereas at present the sea is just too cold for me to enjoy. I have been surprised by the number of ‘surfers’ when the sea is rough and am waiting to see if my brother will venture in with his wet suit during February. I suppose compared to the sea in England it is relatively warm – or am I just kidding myself?

9

January quad report by Jackie and Roger Frewin After a disappointing December (when so few of us were available to participate in the outings, including us for the first half of the month) January has been a far more notable month. That said, our first trip out on our return to Spain in December was an excellent one, though unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to report on it last month.

Angelika and Klaus were also back in Spain and Klaus led us on a very extensive and very different mystery tour. It took us through Venta Baja, towards Venta Alta then over ‘Kitchen Mountain’ (for Derek’s benefit, as he’d not been that way before) through Espino and out to the Zafarraya to Alhama road. Heading back south we stopped at the Chicken Shack, by the Zafarraya pass, for refreshments before heading off along the old railway track then weaving down some very rugged and narrow but amazing trails.

These eventually took us down to Periana school after which we followed the lower road around Periana that led down to more country tracks heading to the west of Lake Vinuela. A road closure forced us to go yet further west past Los Marines from where we climbed up to the main A356, which we followed for a few kilometres before turning off, back towards the lake. Once again we meandered along various grades of tracks and trails, at times close to the water’s edge, where the views were enhanced by the beautiful autumnal colours of many of the trees, and eventually reached Hotel Vinuela, then Cortijo Romero and finally stopped for a de-brief at Meson Sara in Puente de don Manuel. A big thank you to Klaus for finding and leading such a wonderfully exhilarating route.

It has been lovely to see so many of the early spring flowers already emerging this month. The weather has been surprisingly mild most of the time, although we have donned extra layers at times to keep the chilly winds at bay while traversing the countryside.

Our outings this month included a trip to Algarrobo where, unfortunately, Restaurante Pippo was closed so we had to try a different restaurant instead. Whilst the food was very nice it was not a menu del dia so the price was not comparable with our normal venue. We were also treated to another mystery tour led by Klaus, during which Mike’s quad suffered a technical hitch but he was eventually able to continue and the trip culminated in a pick-your-own mandarins session in Klaus and Angelika’s garden. Of course a trip to Alfarnatejo couldn’t be missed and once again we enjoyed an excellent menu del dia at Restaurante Los Pirineos, We took a shorter route back than normal but the mountainous countryside was equally stunning.

The penultimate trip of the month was probably its greatest highlight. We were undecided if we should go out at all, given that it had been raining most of the morning, but we thought we’d at least meet up at Trops and then make up our minds whether to go on from there. We had indeed got a bit wet just getting that far but the cloud covered mountains looming above looked so alluring that we just had to give it a go. With some warmer and shower-proof clothing, we made our way along from the back of the poligono towards Velez, then up along the Arroyo del Mineral towards the radio masts. We drove up into the clouds that inevitably restricted our views of the sea and the mountains that we would normally admire from up there but that in turn opened our eyes to the spectacular views closer to hand. The rain had made the colours of the rock and vegetation so much richer .… the striking pink and white of the almond blossom, often emphasised against a backdrop of deep rusty orange or red rock and soil, the bright yellow flowers of the gorse-like bushes, which had just recently started to open, not to mention plants and trees displaying all manner of bright and rich shades of green. All this surrounded by the misty clouds gave everything a delightfully magical, mystical feel. Periodically, we did get a bit wetter but there was always something beautiful to take out minds off that

10 ……. like mountain peaks peering out through the top of the clouds, small patches of sunlight acting like spotlights on the landscape and all the time that marvellous fresh air smell that the rain brings. Just wonderful!

Our plan had been to make our way to Canillas de Albaida along the route that caused us so many problems after the heavy rain in October but with the weather against us we erred on the side of caution and opted for the easier route, still along fairly rugged tracks but ones less prone to landslides. After a very agreeable menu del dia, during which we and the weather had dried out, we made our way along tracks to Salares and stopped there for more refreshments before making our way home along the main road past Sedella, then along tracks towards Valverde and Rubite.

For our final trip Mike offered to lead us from Mis Tapitas to the dam, down along the concrete road, up towards Karma Guen and the Stupa and then along the ridge, which seemed considerably more bumpy than normal, towards Los Romanes. From there the views of the lake were stunning with picturesque reflections of Periana and the mountains. Turning left, away from the back of Los Romanes, we passed Arthur’s Vineyard and started the steep descent down to La Zubia and into the river bed.

There was no water at all for the first kilometre or so but then we started to encounter a few muddy puddles followed by a small stretch of flowing water, then more muddy puddles. The quads were splattered with thick brown mud by the time we reached Benamargosa, where we stopped for refreshments and bacon sandwiches. Roger led for the return journey up through the back of Benamargosa and along tracks to take us back up to Los Romanes, then down steeply from the front of El Charco to take us down towards the lake, then along the main road and across the dam where the group split to make their respective journeys home.

Are you interested in joining our friendly group? It’s a really fun way to explore and appreciate the area. You’ll find more information and contact details on the El Valle web page at http://www.el-valle-asociacion.com/the-quaddies/.

11

Asociacion el valle del embalse Committee 2015/2016

Chair : Tel: Carol Caldwell 635291532

Treasurer: Chris Wishart Tel: 609952926

Secretary: Stewart Common Tel: 647076177

Newsletter Editor Sue Jones Tel: 680407894

Almoner: Christine Goreham Tel: 635361233 MEMBERS

Elaine Edwards Tel: 647076177

Judy Maycock Tel: 673847608

Pauline Ward Tel: 665886471

Peter Girvan Tel: 676320615

Jane Harris Tel: 633615154

Barbara Jenkinson Tel: 616264067

Dorothy Girvan Tel: 676320615

David Evans Tel: 622690581

INFORMATION NEWSLETTER EDITOR newslettereditor2012@gmail.com WEBSITE - www.el-valle-asociacion.com A REPRESENTTIVE OF THE COMMITTEE WILL BE ON DUTY EVERY FRIDAY BETWEEN 11:30 AND 12:30 AT MESON SARA