WEDNESDAY, March 30th 2011
14 n Opinion & Comment
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Name supplied How we hard hit inland commuters struggled for two years –bouncing along the dug up bumpy road that led from Alhaurin el Grande cross roads to the petrol station near Alhaurin Golf, and then trailing across the Mijas pueblo road, potholed and slow, as work on the closed off main road to the coast dragged on painfully slowly. How many of us had to sort out punctures, replace wheel rims and fork out for more fuel because of the longer journey? So, it was greeted with huge relief when the main road was finally opened, and the road from the cross roads was finally finished. Jolly good – the main road has been widened, with an overtaking lane at various stretches, all designed to help the harrassed commuter. Well, you’d think. But it seems that if we are not all very careful we’ll have all paid for the cost of the work
Alhaurin el Grande by way of speeding fines to the police over the next few months. Now, I am no speed hog, and personally I don’t want to see people hurtling along at high speed. But the authorities seem to have placed an unreasonably low limit on both the first stretch from the cross roads to the Los Morenos roundabout, and then on the main drag down to La Cala. I was pootling along at 60 to 62 kms (less than 40 miles) an hour when the police stepped out at the Casa Flores garden centre and hauled a number of us over to present us with speeding tickets. Apparently we had passed a parked unmarked car with speed detection equipment in the stretch by El Postillon restaurant, where the speed is 50 kms.ie about 31 miles per hour. Then of course we hit the heady heights of the “new” improved road, to find a limit of 60 kms – about 37.5
Elaine Gonzales A reader’s letter last week mentioned the excellent letter by Pete Woodall, Woody’s Passport Renewal Services, in Los Boliches, published in the previous edition, which explained very clearly what constitutes a legal ID in Spain for a British citizen. Unfortunately, the letter of last week is actually wrong. Until April 2007 non-Spanish residents had a Residencia Card, which bore a photo and a fingerprint; it was a legal ID within Spain. Those who have renewed their Residencia status since April 2007 have been issued with a Residencia Certificate, printed on green paper, which clearly says on it that it is not proof of ID nor nationality.
Robert Smith Mel Brooks’ musical comedy 'The Producers' opened at Fuengirola's Salon Varietes Theatre on Friday March 25th for a ten-day run. It was absolutely first class! The acting was terrific, the direction was expert, every clever witty line came across and the audience was roaring with laughter
miles per hour. And guess what, the police have been out in force there too, dishing out speeding fines. Again, according to the police, there is a parked car with detection equipment somewhere along the route before you begin the descent down the hill. Quite honestly, it’s incredibly difficult for a modern car to go down that hill at such a low speed unless you change right down the gear box. And if you are driving an automatic then you can expect to start replacing brake pads on a regular basis. It’s not so much the speed limits as the inconsistencies. Why is the newly opened road set at a limit 40 kms an hour less than large stretches of the road from La Trocha in Coin to the coast at Marbella? Oh well, it may be my imagination, but I would urge readers to keep their eyes peeled for a silver Citroen C4! A frustrated commuter.
by email
The writer last week confusingly refers to DNI cards, which are Spanish citizen ID cards and nothing to do with foreigners. The writer says she had copies of her passport and Residents Cert 'compulsada' (stamped) by Mijas town hall. I have checked with Mijas town hall, who confirm that copies stamped by them, as with all town halls, do not amount to legal ID.(I know such copies and other documents, including driving licences and copies of a variety of documents may be accepted by people who know no better, gas stations, shops etc. but they are not accepted by the police, courts, notaries or any other official department). The only legal ID for a British
resident in Spain is a valid Residencia Card (i.e one issued before April 2007 with a photo and fingerprint which has not expired) an original passport or a copy of the passport 'authorised' by the British Consul. Nothing else, no matter what it is, authorised by any one, is legal. So even if on an everyday basis you carry a copy and get away with it, to go to an official office, police, notary, court etc.take your legal ID. Editor says: The letter published last week under the name of Elaine Elliot of Torreblanca refering to Pete Woodall’s letter on why we no longer get recidencia photo cards was in fact from Antonia Hagelen McIntosh. We apologise for the error .
Fuengirola throughout.I could nitpick about a couple of minor glitches with the scenery moving but I won't as this was the first night and I am sure it will be fixed by the second night. What else can I complain about? The Mars bars sold by the charming usherettes melted in my pocket before I had a chance
to eat them both. The Salon Varietes Theatre is an English language theatre, the only one in Spain I believe. Where did they find these star performers? I don't know but I am going again om closing night. If I lived closer I would probably go mid-run as well. This is not to be missed.
Stargazing By Ken Campbell
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It’s about time Did you remember to put your clocks forward by one hour last Sunday morning? Well, here in Spain if you put them from 2am to 3am then you have set them to the ‘wrong’ time. On Sunday morning we changed from Greenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time. In 1675 Greenwich was a small village just outside London where a Royal Observatory was built by King Charles II and a job for the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, was created to accurately measure the Earth’s rotation by means of the stars. As Britain was such an important naval territory it was vital for the sailors to know their longitude position i.e. their position east or west. If mariners knew what time it was at Greenwich and compared that to their local time then they could determine their true position. In 1851 it was decided that Greenwich was to become the prime meridian, that is to say that a line running from north to south of the Earth and passing through Greenwich should be longitude 0°00’00”. I visited Greenwich observatory once and kissed my wife across this line, I was standing in the east as Marilyn was standing in the west! By 1884 two thirds of the world had adopted this line as the prime meridian. But some parts of the UK still relied on their own local time which was determined at noon being when the Sun was at its highest point in their sky and subsequently due south. But with the invention of the railways a standard time had to be adopted to accommodate the railway time tables. Therefore the time across the UK was determined as 12 noon when the Sun is due south of Greenwich. But even this turned out to be not true because the Earth orbits the Sun at slightly different speeds- faster when it is closer to the Sun and slower when it is at its furthest from the Sun. If you have a sundial in your garden then it will only be accurate for about 4 days out of the year, two days in spring and two days in autumn. This discrepancy can add up to as much as 16 minutes before or after true solar time, so an average or mean time was set; Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or
Universal Time (UTC). UTC is a more accurate time measurement introduced in 1972 relying on several atomic clocks placed at various positions around the world. The Earth was then divided into 24 equal segments running north to south, every line to the east of Greenwich is one hour+1 ahead of Greenwich and every line to the west is one hour-1 behind Greenwich. 180° from Greenwich is the International Date Line, which is where today becomes tomorrow. Rockets and satellites - including the International Space Station - orbit the Earth several times a day and can have no specific time so set their on board clocks to UTC. Spain however is to the west of the prime meridian, which means it should be at least 1 hour behind UK time. Spain's time is the result of Franco's Order established on March 8th 1940 abandoning Greenwich Mean Time in favour of GMT+1. This time change was most likely enacted to be in keeping time with Germany and Italy, but included was a provision for it to be phased out in the future, which never happened. Due to this, Spain is almost two hours ahead of its local solar mean time during the summer and one hour ahead in winter, which probably explains the notoriously late schedule which we have all come to love! Mañana.