Flight Status
Due all the bad weather conditions lately, Easyjet’s telephone lines have been overloaded with people calling to check on the status of their upcoming flights. The technical people at Easyjet have come up with a special webpage so that you can check the status of your flight online. All you need to do is click on the link below, select which airport the flight is leaving from and press the”check flight departures” button. Simple!
http://www.ideal-country-property.com/blog/EJfcheck
WE ARE AUTHORISED REPRESENTATIVES OF SECURITAS DIRECT SPAIN.
Securitas Basic Alarm Pack
One of the disadvantages of living in the countryside (en el campo) has been the lack of a reliable telephone service. Even if you are one of the fortunate people to have a land line by Telefónica installed, you still have to pay around 15€ +IVA simply for the privilege of having a line with them. On top of that you have to pay for the calls you make.
The Vodafone shop in the “La Trocha” shopping centre in Coín can help you set it up and they have English speaking staff, which is a bonus if you don’t speak much Spanish. Maybe now it’s time to start saying “Adiós Telefónica”!
And for those of you that DO have a regular landline and Internet, you should consider the possibility of using VOIP to make cheaper telephone calls. The Federal Communications Commission defines VoIP as “a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular phone line.” Certain VoIP providers may limit you to calling only people using the same service, but others open it up to anyone with a phone number – local, long distance, international and mobiles. Some services now include VoIP adapters for use on regular phones too.
As a final mention, something worthy of note is the Blog by Javier Prenafeta. He states regarding this service: ‘the quality of this service compared to a land line is not the same, there can be problems with coverage, outgoing calls will display the mobile number (not the associated land line number), and the price of calls to non-geographical numbers is a lot higher than normally expected with a land line.’
New ICP Office
If you have ever visited our old office on the Cártama road in Alhaurín El Grande, you will know that we were already long overdue for a move. The office seemed to get smaller and damper by the month! Now we have a lovely, shiny, bright & spacious new office that is not only better for us but also for our clients. We even have two new sofas, in ICP trademark Orange, for you to sit down and relax whilst you wait.
The move went well after weeks of intensive preparation. The new office needed four coats of white paint to cover all the old green, blue, red and black paint that was used by the previous tenants! We have a new alarm installed and are now Authorised Agents for “Securitas Direct” alarms, which means we can give you a great discount on a similar installation in your own home or office.
Where exactly are we located? Just two minutes walk from our old office. We are on Calle Gerald Brennan, number 83 in what was the old “Videoclub Milenium”, next to the “Casa Paco” Fish Restaurant and directly facing “Cafetería Fahala”. If you get to the BP Petrol Station then you’ve gone too far!
DivX
I personally am a fan of DivX files, which are basically compressed video files so they don’t take up a load of space. They have the distinct advantage over normal DVD files as they are a lot smaller and thus save valuable space on your hard drive or media player. The actual software to play these files is free and you can find out more about it and download it for both Windows and Mac here from the official DivX site: http://www.divx.com/
The same company offer a program (DivX Converter) that converts your DVDs to DivX format but after having experienced a problem with this, like many others too according to what I’ve read on the Internet, the solution was to install a free AC3 codec. For those of you who are not-so technical, this is a file that allows videos with AC3 encoded sound to be played correctly on your PC. Maybe you have downloaded a video and you can see the picture perfectly but there is no sound. Well, it could be that you are missing the AC3 codec. As to the DivX converter, after having installed this codec, my DVDs converted with no problem at all. You can download this free AC3 Codec here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TUWN1SXY
Screenplay Pro HD
Finally, if you have a lot of multimedia files and photos, I would recommend obtaining a multimedia hard drive. As more and more people are moving into the digital age and using digital cameras and videos, this means that we are now accustomed to dealing with multimedia files. Up to now, these have normally been viewed on a PC or burnt to a DVD and watched on a DVD player. However, the advantage of a good multimedia player is that you have ample storage space and you can keep all your files in one place and watch them on your TV without having to have the PC connected to it. I personally recommend Iomega’s “Screenplay Pro HD” that comes in both 500mb and 1Tb format as it accepts a wide range of multimedia file formats, plays Full-HD resolution and comes with a remote control and all the neccesary cables, including the high-definition HDMI cable. You can find out more about it at the offical site: http://go.iomega.com/en/products/multimedia-drive/screenplay/screenplay-pro/?partner=4735#overviewItem_tab
Auto Gordian Knot
So now you know what to play your DivX files on, HOW DO YOU MAKE A DIVX FILE? My personal favourite is a completely free program called “Auto Gordian Knot” (“AGK” for short). It’s made by a UK company and there is a very comprehensive help guide on their website: http://www.autogk.me.uk/modules.php?name=TutorialEN. You can download the program from there but I’ve made a direct download link here (you just have to wait about 30 seconds if you don’t have an account with Megaupload): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T62V4QN7
If you have any questions (and especially if any of the above links don’t work), then please feel free to leave your comments below.
Málaga Beach
There are few clouds in the sky over Málaga again today and this will contribute to the temperatures increasing slightly according to the AEMET (State Meteorological Agency).
The minimum temperature recording during the wee hours of the morning was 26ºC and they are predicted to rise up to 36ºC. That is why AEMET have put the Costa del Sol on Yellow Alert (important risk) between the hours of 12 noon and 7pm today.
If you are planning to visit the beach today, then here are a few things to keep in mind to make your trip a pleasurable one:
These are the new bus timetables for buses leaving Alhaurín and Coín. Other areas covered are Cártama, Fuengirola, Guaro, Málaga, Marbella, Mijas, Monda, and Tolox. The journey times are also included as well as the times for the return journeys.
Alhaurín Bus Timetable JULY 2011 (File Size=169kb)
Coín Bus Timetable JULY 2011 (File Size=111kb)
To view the above files you will need Adobe Reader, which you can download for free from here: 
Road Works Las Peñuelas
Alhaurín town council has given their approval to start developing the urbanization known as “Las Peñuelas”. This will mean significant improvement in the areas between “Huertas Altas” and the southern ring road.
The area comprises of 19,000m² of land and the work has already begun next to the “Parque de la Libertad” (‘Freedom Park’, next to the roundabout at the top of the ring road heading up from the ‘Stone Cross’).
The current home owners in the area have been arguing amongst themselves about how to improve the urbanization so finally the town council itself has taken the matter into their own hands and approved the work to be done, given that it will be a significant improvement and benefit to all.
No doubt those of us who have had to travel up that bone-shaking, pothole-dodging track will be most appreciative of the new and improved tarmac, 10-metre wide road. Now that we won’t have to be constantly repairing our car suspension and tyres, what will we spend our money on?
Bins in Alhaurín de la Torre
Bins in Málaga
After approving a motion from the local Spanish Socialist party on the 21st of this month, the Alhaurín town council are going to do a study as to which areas it is viable to install new underground rubbish bins. If you’re wondering what they look like, then take a look at the photos on the right. They are very futuristic looking and have several advantages over the normal, unsightly and smelly green waste bins that can be seen on the streets. This new type of rubbish disposal can be seen in Coín, Alhaurín de la Torre and Málaga. Some of the benefits are:
At the council meeting it was suggested that studies be undertaken to first see which areas in the town centre it is physically possible to install such bins as well as the system in which they operate. As for new urbanizations being built, this type of rubbish disposal will be the decision and cost of the promoters. It looks as if Alhaurín is finally moving into the 21st century!
Bulb Recycling
By now I’m sure that all of us have heard of energy-saving lightbulbs. If not, they’re normally the wierd shaped bulbs and take a while to turn on and get up to full brightness. Whether it’s for ecological reasons or for economic reasons, more and more people are changing their standard lightbulbs for the energy-saving ones. In fact, as part of the Spanish government’s plan to get everyone in Spain switched on (excuse the pun) to this energy saving lighting by the year 2015 (just 6 years away), work has already begun in sending out around 20 million vouchers to exchange for these lightbulbs to Spanish homes during this summer and on into 2010 at an estimated cost of 137 million Euros. This, they hope, will encourage people to think more about the environment and also the savings on their pockets.
But are these lightbulbs really as green as they seem? According to the organization “Ecologistas en Acción” (Ecologists in Action) they actually contain mercury; yes the stuff in thermometres! Although they contain just 2 miligrams of mercury (1,000 times less than the amount in a thermometre), this substance is extremely toxic and can severely harm the fetus of an unborn child. The problem (and part of the solution) lies with the consumer or end user as this only really presents a problem if not disposed of correctly, or better put, recycled correctly.
Mercury has the capacity to accumulate in bio-organisms, especially in marine life. If these fish, like tuna for example, contain traces of mercury and we then eat those fish, it can pose a threat to our health, especially to pregnant women. This is why Ecologistas en Acción are urging the government to provide proper recycling sites for these types of lightbulb. THEY MUST NOT BE THROWN AWAY WITH THE NORMAL RUBBISH!
Currently there are only a few recycling centres (“Puntos Limpios”) that actually accept this type of household waste and not all of them even recycle the lightbulbs correctly. Málaga city council recycles this type of waste at the Emily Bronte rubbish centre in the Guadalhorce Industrial Estate (Punto limpio de Emily Bronte, polígono Guadalhorce).
The final word? By all means buy these energy saving bulbs and do your part to contribute to the saving of the environment as well as a few Euros but afterwards, make sure you recycle them correctly, otherwise you could indeed be doing more harm than good.
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