WEDNESDAY, September 8th 2010
Opinion & Comment n 13
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Juliette Robb just thought I would write to say that on many occasions I have had to go to La Trocha and park up to go to the cinema. I was unable to drive at the time due to recent operation, so my friend dropped me off whilst she went to find a car space as near as possible to the entrance. There were no spaces at the invalidity car park due to one van being parked over two bays and other cars occupying all the spaces. Not being fit enough to climb the stairs I waited in a queue at the lift. Couldn’t get on it first time as all the keep fitters(!) off to the gym were waiting, complete with bags, and there was no room. A load more of keep fitters arrived and I had to juggle to get back out of the lift, much to their annoyance as they had blocked me in.Leaving the cinema and heading to the car park I noticed the
Stargazing
Coin keep fitters all coming out and they all went to their cars in the invalidity car spaces, EVERY ONE of them. They all exited the car park and whilst I waited for my friend, yet another car arrived, parked up in the invalidity spaces and out got.....yes you have it, a keep fitter.Nothing invalid about his walking ability nor health. These spaces are right outside the security office where a man sits all the time and yet NOTHING stops these people from parking haphazardly and incorrectly in the invalidity spaces whislt denying access to those who need it. It must be so difficult for these keep fitters having to possibly climb the stairs, with only one lift in place, to get to the machines to keep them fit!!!!! I feel for them. Whilst La Trocha is keen to get people into their complex it seems sad that
By Ken Campbell
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they don't have the capacity within their remit to stop fit, healthy people parking in these spaces specifically marked out for people who are not fit.Possibly the only way they will appreciate these things is if arthritis suddenly sets in or a weight drops on their feet ! It seems a total waste of time to have these designated parking spaces but I suppose if La Trocha are seen to do the right thing, and by law have to have designated space, then they don’t have to implement it. Seems to be the trend these days.
Linda McKeller & Zia Tennock La Cala de Mijas With regards to the letter from Marjut Arvinen, which you published on Wednesday 25th August, we would like to add our voices to the sentiments expressed in that letter. We started a programme of sterilization of the feral cats in our area in La Cala de Mijas, three years ago. Initially we were given some financial assistance from the local hotel and from a nearby urbanization. The rest of the money we have raised ourselves by selling books, and from donations from like-minded people – Spanish and English. To date, we have sterilized over 100 cats, given veterinary assistance to those
cats in need of it and, as a last resort, put to sleep those who could not be helped. We have also managed to re-home a few cats and kittens. We have noticed a significant fall in the number of feral cats in our area. The only problem we have now is that domestic cats are being dumped here, often not neutered. We too feel that Mijas town hall should be helping us, not penalizing us. We are not personally asking for any financial assistance, merely an understanding of what we are trying to do to improve our area for everyone concerned, and to improve the life, however short, of the feral cats. We do feed them, but in a responsible manner
– only dried food and water. Unfortunately there are some misguided holidaymakers who put down left- over pizza, Chinese food, etc., which is a problem, especially in the summer. We clear this food away ourselves. It is lamentable that the only solution Mijas has is to impose a fine for feeding the cats, or to round them up and send them to a fate which none of us like to contemplate. We would like Mijas town hall to treat animal welfare sensibly and sympathetically, and we are sure that local communities would respond positively.
Jonathan Smythe Marbella I heard on Sky News this morning (Monday) that the Cabin Crew of British Airways are once again “in talks” about going on strike again. What is it about this time? The only thing that Sky news would call it was “pay and conditions”. And when are they talking about going on strike? Yep, Christmas time! What I don’t really get is why if they think the terms and conditions are so bad they don’t leave us all alone to
enjoy our holidays etc and get themselves another job.But they won’t do that, will they, as they get much more pay and better looked after at BA than any other airline already. In such economic times, one would think that they’d be happy to have a job to get on with. So many people have been made redundant because the companies they worked for have not been able to survive and have not
been able to find another job. Perhaps that’s what BA cabin crews want. If not, they should think again before such rash actions when it is reported that BA are already struggling. This is a very shortsighted, not to mention selfish action once again by BA staff. I for one won’t dare to book a ticket with them as I can’t be certain I’ll get to my destination. Their loss is Air Lingus’ or Monarch’s gain!
Relative positions of Jupiter & Uranus
Uranus, the first Planet to be discovered In ancient times people knew that there were 5 strange objects in the sky that wandered throughout the stars so they called them Planetès from the Greek word meaning wanderers. We call them planets. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were well known to ancient astronomers but in 1781 Sir William Herschel, a German born but English astronomer and music composer discovered a brand new planet, Uranus. The name Uranus, which has been the butt of a thousand schoolboys’ gags for many years, was not his first choice. Originally Herschel was going to name the Planet ‘George’s Star’ after King George III. But this name was not very popular outside of Britain, especially with the French and Americans who were at war with us at the time! It’s surprising that Uranus wasn’t discovered before 1781 as it can sometimes come just within the range of being seen with the naked eye and there is evidence to suggest that it had actually been seen before Herschel discovered it, but it was considered to be just another star as it moves so slowly against the background stars. And if you have a pair of binoculars or a small telescope then this month you will be able to see Uranus for yourself. For the whole of September Uranus will be less than 1° from the planet Jupiter so it will appear in the same field of view as Jupiter as seen through your binoculars. Go outside after about 10pm and locate Jupiter, which is the very bright ‘star’ you can see rising in the east, now using your binoculars, focus on Jupiter and just slightly above it you will see a tiny
blue coloured disc; this is Uranus. Uranus, which is pronounced with the ‘A’ as in apple not ‘A’ as in day, is a strange world. The Earth has a tilt of about 23° from being straight up whereas Uranus is titled over by more than 97° which means that during its 84 year orbit around the Sun then it is in fact rolling around on its side with one pole receiving 42 years of sunlight and then 42 years of darkness. It is about 3 billion km from the Sun which means that the light and heat it receives from the Sun is about 1/400th of the light that we receive making it a very cold dark place to be. It has more than 27 moons orbiting about it; the five largest, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon are all named after characters from Shakespeare’s plays. So stop tittering about its name and go outside and show Uranus to all your friends!
The ISS. Our friends at NASA are sending the International Space Station back again this weekend. Look to the North West on Sunday September 12th at 9:35pm and you will see it passing at 17,000mph across the sky. Don’t forget to get the kids to give the astronauts a big wave because the captain says he’s going to lean out of the window and wave back at you!