Costa Tropical News August 2009

Issue 33 - August 2009

WE ARE THE ONLY ENGLISH PUBLICATION WHO DELIVER TO THE WHOLE COSTA TROPICAL COAST AND INLAND

LA HERRADURA, ALMUÑÉCAR, SALOBREÑA, VELÉZ DE BENAUDALLA, ORGIVA, TORVISCON, MOTRIL, CASTELL DE FERRO,

TORRENUEVA, GUALCHOS, CASERONES, LA MAMOLA, LA RABITA, CADIÁR, ALBONDÓN, ALBUÑOL AND MORE...

The publisher is unable to accept responsibility for the content and/or claims of advertisements or advertisers shown within and the views expressed are not

necessarily the views of the publisher. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher

Editor :- Simon Batchelor

Regular Contributors :-

Peter Webb - Swan Morrison

Gwen Boswell - Leslie Thomas

B. I. Shenman

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Mobile 620 676 843 - Office 958 069 058

[email protected]

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Contents AUGUST

2009

3

4 LIGHTER SIDE

The Best Humour in one place

8 ALL WOMAN

Nail Care and Trends

18 ANIMALS & PETS

Pet Issues

20 PUZZLED

Crosswords and puzzles.

32 GADGETS & GIZMOS

The wildest, wackiest and probably the

most useless gadgets around

22 A LETTER

Letter from the Southern Hemisphere.

Views and opinions from Latin America 26 HEALTH MATTERS

The Dentists

40 THE COMPASS

More musings on life from Leslie Thomas

46 WHAT ARE THE

ODDS OF THAT?

Ridiculous odds of silly events.

42 THE BULL RUN

Sunrise and Sunset in Pamplona!

36 AUTONOMOUS

A trip around Spain and the

autonomous communities

1 3 RECIPES

New quick and easy recipes - Stuffed

Squid & Lime, Chilli Lamb 14 BUSINESS NEWS

News and information from the local

Costa Tropical business community

A Texan is visiting Australia for the first time; He sees a sheep and starts laughing; he says to his Australian guide “ oh, at home in Texas, sheep are twice as big!” He then sees a cow ands bursts “ Puff, in Texas, our cows are much, much bigger!” And suddenly, he sees a kangaroo and asks, “What’s that?” the guide answers “ oh, that’s just a grasshopper...”

§

One night, a police officer was stalking out a particularly rowdy bar waiting to catch any drunk drivers.

At closing time, he saw a fellow stumble out of the bar, trip on the curb, and try his keys on five dif-ferent cars before he found his. Then, sat in the front seat fumbling around with his keys for several minutes. Everyone left the bar and drove off.

Finally, he started his engine and began to pull away. The police offic-er was waiting for him. He stopped the driver, read him his rights and administered the Breathalyser test.

The results showed a reading of 0.0. The puzzled officer demanded to know how that could be.

The driver replied, “Tonight, I’m the Designated Decoy.”

A businessman returns from the far east. After a few days he notices stange growth on his penis.

He sees several doctors. They all say: “You’ve been fooling around in the Far East, very common there, no cure. We’ll have to cut it off.”

The man panics, but figures if it is common in the East they must know how to cure it. So he goes back and sees a doctor in Thai-land.

The doctor examines him and says, “You’ve been fooling around in my country. This is a very common problem here. Did you see any oth-er doctors?”

The man replies, “Yes a few in the USA.”

The doctor says, “I bet they told you it had to be cut off.”

The man answers, “Yes!”

The doctor smiles, nods, “Bloody American doctors, always trying to make an extra dollar. It does not need cutting off.

It will fall off by itself.”

§

A man is dating three women and wants to decide which to marry. He decides to give them a test. He gives each woman a present of £5000 and watches to see what she does with the money.

The first does a total make-over. She goes to a fancy beauty salon, gets her hair done, new make up and buys several new outfits and dresses up very nicely for the man. She tells him that she has done this to be more attractive for him be-cause she loves him so much.

The man was impressed.

The second goes shopping to buy the man gifts. She gets him a new set of golf clubs, some new giz-mos for his computer, and some expensive clothes. As she presents these gifts, she tells him that she has spent all the money on him be-cause she loves him so much.

Again, the man is impressed.

The third invests the money in the stock market. She earns several times the £5000. She gives him back his £5000 and reinvests the remainder in a joint account. She tells him that she wants to save for their future because she loves him so much.

Obviously, the man was im-pressed.

The man thought for a long time about what each woman had done with the money, and then he married the one with the largest breasts.

§

This husband and wife are stay-ing in a hotel, and after a romantic evening wining and dining they go off to bed.

However, as soon as they set-tled down, the man leans over and whispers softly, “Hey snuggle boopy boops, your lickle hubby wubby isn’t quite ready for bye-byes yet.”

The wife takes the hint and says, “OK, but I have to use the bath-room first.”

So off she goes but on her way back she trips over a piece of car-pet and lands flat on her face. Her husband jumps up and exclaims in a concerned tone “Oh my little honey bunny, is your nosey-wosey all right?”

54

No harm is done, so she jumps into bed and they have mad passion-ate sex for three hours. Afterwards, the wife goes off to the bathroom again, but on her way she trips over the same piece of carpet and again lands flat on her face on the floor.

Her husband looks over and grunts “Clumsy bitch.”

§

A man entered a restaurant and sat at the only open table. As he sat down, he knocked the spoon off the table with his elbow. A nearby waiter reached into his shirt pock-et, pulled out a clean spoon, and set it on the table.

The diner was impressed. “Do all the waiters here carry spoons in their pockets?”

The waiter replied, “Yes. Ever since an Efficiency Expert visited our restaurant... He determined that 17.8% of our diners knock the spoon off the table. By carrying clean spoons with us, we save trips to the kitchen.”

The diner ate his meal. As he was paying the waiter, he commented, “Forgive the intrusion, but do you know that you have a string hang-ing from your fly?”

The waiter replied, “Yes, we all do. Seems that the same Efficiency Ex-pert determined that we spend to much time washing our hands af-

ter using the men’s room. So, the other end of that string is tied to my penis. When I need to go, I sim-ply pull the string, do my thing, and then return to work. Having never touched myself, there really is no need to wash my hands. Saves a lot of time.”“Wait a minute,” said the diner, “how do you get your penis back in your trousers?”

“Well, I don’t know about the other guys, but I use the spoon.”

§

A lady at the far end of the bar waves her arm in the air to get the attention of the waiter and by do-ing that, exposes her hairy armpit. Down the other end of the bar is a very drunk man who says “Hey, get the ballerina a drink would you.”“How do you know she’s a balle-rina?”

“Well, no one else would get their leg up that high.

§

A lady is eating breakfast out on her patio one morning, when she notices a massive gorilla climbing up her palm tree. This sight scares her so she runs inside her house.

Trying to figure out what to do she grabs the yellow pages and looks it up. Sure enough right in the yel-low pages is a big ad for gorilla ex-tractors. She calls the number and the man on the other end of the

line says he’ll be right over.

When he shows up he explains to the lady that it is a pretty common problem and it should only take a few minutes. First he must get his equipment. So from his truck he grabs a stepladder, a shotgun, an eight foot pole, handcuffs and a dog.

The lady exclaims, “What the hell is all that stuff for?”

The gorilla extractor explains, “First I climb up on the stepladder and ram this here pole up the gorilla ass. This will cause the gorilla to fall from the tree at which point that mean ass dog will bite the gorilla in the balls. This temporarily paralyzes the gorilla. At which point I put the handcuffs on the gorilla and take him away.”

The lady asks, “What’s the shotgun for?”

The man answers, “If I fall off the ladder, you shoot the dog!”

ONE LINERSLight travels faster than sound!

This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak

What’s considered bi-sexual in Wales?Someone who likes sheep and goats

AUGUST THOUGHT FOR

THE MONTH

Don’t protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends. .

54

The peak of nail industry development, including acrylic nails, came in 2000. Should we strengthen nails today in 2009? Acrylic nails are already in the past? What are nail cares’ new trends? What manicure and make-up will be relevant this season? What nails can tell about you?

This season trends

The trend this season - natural nails. With bright ele-ments, for especially “glamour” ladies. This is a landmark moment for us. If 3-5 years ago, acrylic nails were the main trend, now everything has changed. Pink, white coats, French, short nails are the main trends.

A woman’s status is largely determined by her nails state. Keeping nails healthy is far more difficult than hiding their defects by means of building. Updating a natural manicure should be done every one to two weeks.

Each person requires their own manicure, taking into account colour and form.

Beauty could lead to irreparable harm!

In pursuit of artificial beauty women sometimes do not understand they can cause irreparable harm to their body. The cost of nail building at salons is rather cheap. However, remember you will have to spend about half of that amount on adjustment every 2 weeks. And here not all is so “smooth” and “beautiful.” Even last year, doctors found that a popular procedure of nail build-ing is very dangerous for your health. This applies not only to the very fashion-mongers, but also masters of manicure.

Long live the allergy?

Studies have shown that polymeric drug methacrylate contained in special equipment for nail building, can cause severe allergic reactions.

To confirm their assumptions, scientists conducted a survey of nail building masters and their permanent cli-ents aged 20 to 70 years. It turned out they already are sick with some types of allergies. The most part includes skin allergy. In the United States methacrylate is offi-cially banned, but it is still used. After long researches, scientists found that methacrylate causes paronychia

(inflammation of area around nail) and onycholysis (nail lamination).

Back to natural make-up!

Keeping nails healthy is not too difficult: just do not build them! Manicure your own nails. For the office choose neutral colours. For parties choose varnishes containing elements of design - For example, neon polish. Which lacquer to use? - pearl or glossy - it’s for you to decide. These enamels serve different functions. It should be remembered that red enamel is demand-ing, it is more rigorous, and nail defects are very notice-able under it.

What manicure can tell?

If you want to get to know a woman better, look at her hands. Well-groomed, cared hands suggest that their owner is an extraordinary person, likes herself, has a bright personality and is constantly concerned on her image, despite the busy pace of life.

Groomed beautiful hands begin with beautiful nails. Nails reveal the true “I” and indicate attitude to oneself. People who appreciate themselves, caring for them-selves and their appearance earn other’s respect.

Nail design allows you to make women’s hands into a valuable work of art. Nails may be decorated with spar-kles and paste. You can create a newfangled “transpar-ent nail design”, or a stylish figure on enamel. And you need not worry about enamel’s tone not matching the colour of your costume now. Nail service and design experts take into account the fact that beautiful wom-en often change their clothes and offer a universal solu-tion - nail art design, made of several colours, matching clothes from your wardrobe. Such manicure will look natural and original, stressing unity and perfection of your image.

Diagnose through nails

Moreover, nails can diagnose disorders of the body and certain diseases:

If colour of nails is uneven, cyanochroic or more pale than skin colour, there is reason to suspect a circulatory system disorder.

8 9

Nail care and trends. Facts you did not know

Transverse grooves on nail surface show evidence of recent serious infectious disease.

Longitudinal scars on nails - a sign of unbalanced nutri-tion.

Horizontal indentations or holes are left on nails after a dramatic and adverse dietary impact on the body.

Frequent contact with aggressive cleaning agents of-ten cause brittleness of nails. Another more serious rea-son for nail friability - metabolic disorder.

White spots on nails point to a surplus of sugar in blood (possibly beginning of diabetes).

Yellow spots or complete yellowing of nails indicates possible lipid exchange disorders, and may indicate res-piratory diseases.

Appearance of convexities resembling small pearls are a sign of a lingering viral illness.

Concave nails can be a symptom of anaemia caused by iron deficiency in the body.

Nail holes turn whitish or pearl, if skin is malnourished.

Nails start splitting if there is a problem in the ovaries.

Through nails, you can set an approximate time of oc-currence of deviations in the workings of an organ. In a week hand nails grow at about 1 mm, and the full life cycle of a human nail is about 6 months. On this basis, it can be concluded that deviation, due to which spots or grooves were formed around the hole, appeared about 3 months ago.

Your hands

Hands can also reveal the secrets of internal changes in the body:

Purple colouring of fingertips indicates a poor digestive system.

Dark red colour with violet hue shows problems with the kidneys.

Red knots between fingers may appear due to thyroid gland diseases.

Nail form and nature

If your nails are trapezoidal

You have quite a flattering opinion of yourself, confi-dent in your power, possess self-esteem. If not all share that view - react rapidly, enjoy some proud solitude,

start avoiding people.

You are impressionable, inclined to fine arts, especially music and poetry, fluid, energetic, able to support any conversation in the course of events. Only egotism pre-vents you finding harmony with yourself and others.

If your nails are rectangular

You are an excellent performer in all areas. You try to investigate thoroughly every strange object, phenom-enon and have irrepressible energy, treat life with opti-mism. You like sensations and tend to believe them.

If your nails are square

You are a rarely balanced person, you know how to stay calm even under the most adverse situations. You never look back at what was left behind and have no regrets about the past, just look forward, being calm and a little mocking.

You prefer activities, which can be dealt independ-ently.

If your nails are round

You are easily excitable, vulnerable, like dreaming, can-not accept injustice, incorrigibly sentimental and not always objective in evaluations.

Unfortunately, you do not master the art to “present yourself” and often appear in a less favourable light, than it would be. You often find your weakness, not always know how to get out of a situation, you can suf-fer from an obscure sense of guilt in front of family and friends.

But despite all these features of your mentality, you can bring a genuine happiness to the person who will be able to access your good, clean soul.

Nail colour and character traits

Pink nails - a sign of hardness and permanence.

Rough, bent, twisted nails - a sign of capricious and predatory habits.

Bent and pointed nails, especially on thin fingers, point to a strict and spiteful temper, lung disease is also pos-sible.

People with pale (especially round) nails are dangerous in all respects.

White spots that sometimes stud nails predict happi-ness, black - misfortune. White spots are accompanied by high anxiety.

8 9

Lime and Chilli Lamb Cutlets

Ingredients:

3 tbsp lime juice1 small red chilli, de-seeded and finely diced

1 tsp caster sugar½ tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil12 trimmed lamb cutlets

Directions

Whisk together the lime juice, chilli, sugar, salt and olive oil. Brush this mixture liberally onto the lamb

cutlets and marinate for 30 minutes.

Place the lamb onto a hot barbecue and cook for 4-5 minutes, rotating once or twice.

Turn over and cook for a further 3-4 minutes. Use the remaining marinade for basting during cooking.

Serve with a tossed salad.

12 13

Stuffed Squid

Ingredients:

Squid tubesChopped prawns

ShallotChives, choppedCooked, cold rice

Lime juiceFresh ground pepper

Directions

Clean, wash and dry squid tubes. Combine the prawns, shallots, chives, rice, lime juice and fresh

ground pepper. Stuff the squid tubes and then secure the openings with toothpicks.

Cook the squid for ten to fifteen minutes, or until the squid turns white.

14 15

There Are No Flies on These Guys……..

Its official, summer is here and it is time to start enjoy-ing those very activities for which the majority of Brits flock to the Costas: sun, sand and eating al fresco. And with the weather hotting up there is now only one thing standing in your way, frequent invasion by pesky flies!

There is no denying that flies are a real problem in any hot climate. They get everywhere and it seems that there is no escape. Even when retreating indoors there is guaranteed to be at least one, just waiting to welcome you in and join you at the dinner table. Therefore, ‘Fly Slayer’ has introduced an ingenious way to eliminate the pests, and allow residents to reap the benefits of their Mediterranean home once more. First discovered on ‘Sky News,’ the importers were so impressed that they immediately commenced their mission to deliver the Fly Slayer to the people of the Andalucia.

FLY MANMr Hu is a well respected businessman, guarding close connections with many influential powers throughout China. Harbouring a lifelong hatred of flies, he began to devise a product which would have the capacity to eradicate them on a grand scale. This resulted in the launch of his fly catching machine, which employs a slowly revolving circular drum con-taining sugar and water to attract the flies, before de-positing them in a clear plastic tank, from which there is no escape. Mr Hu explained,

“It is like a nightclub for flies. They just party them-selves to death!” The machine was introduced to the Asian market in 1998, and has since welcomed world wide acclaim, with proven success in the USA, Australia and Eastern Europe. It was even selected as the official fly trapper for use at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Mr Hu, who is now widely recognised as ‘Fly Man’ has developed the design to satisfy the needs of clients, now offering two sizes, the ‘Maxi Slayer’ and ‘Mini Slayer’. As the name suggests, the Maxi features a dual roller system, which attracts flies within an area of up to 50 square meters and is aimed at commercial and domestic use, while the Mini has a single roller, capturing irritating intruders at a distance up to 30 square meters and is perfect for use on the kitchen or patio.

FLY SLAYERWith a visibly unanimous ver-dict, Fly Slayer is ready to lend its services to the fly swatting masses up and down the coast. It currently has Agents located throughout An-dalucía.

Essentially, Fly Slayer offers you a sim-ple solution to a pest free summer. So don’t waste energy swatting flies, Call Darren on 677 442 593/952 665 161 and invest in your own unrivalled assassin. Alternatively, enquiries may be addressed via the website www.flyslayer.com or email [email protected]

Casa del cafe Albondon - 958 826 603 - What’s on August

Sunday 9th Caribbean night..Fancy Dress optional(prizes given) - Rum Punch 1€

Tuesday 18th Curry Night. (please book)

Friday 21st ´´ROD STEWART´´ (aka Steve)

Monday 24th John & Deb Wedding Anniversary Par-ty. (free buffet)

24th - 26th Albondon Fiesta ´´San Luis´´

Want to Save Money on your telephone calls ?

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14 15

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Motorbike Hire Spain based in Cadiár whose own-ers have a passion for bikes and the area started their bike hire business in 2006.

Located south of Granada and in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range lie the valleys of the Alpujarras, first settled in the 12th century by Berber refugees and later the final stronghold of the Moors in Spain.

Chestnut and oak forests give way to almond and ol-ive groves and in the lower valleys orange and lemon trees abound.

Deserted roads twist around mountainsides and drop into fertile valleys where traditional whitewashed vil-lages nestle offering travellers a hospitable welcome at traditional inns and pensions. South beyond the Si-erra de la Contraviesa and just 30 minutes’ ride away lies the Mediterranean coast line of the Costa Tropi-cal.

You can choose one of our their pre-planned ride outs and get a taste of what the area has to offer. You will be provided with an information pack, con-taining local information, maps, suggested places of interest and a Spanish phrase book (should you not have the lingo yet).

Visit their website www.motorbikehirespain.com and see their bikes - Suzuki GSF 600 Bandits and BMW F650s. Throughout the rental period they offer full recovery and roadside assistance and are never more than a phone call away.

They are about 1.5 hours from Granada airport to the north and Almeria airport to the south. From Malaga airport they are approx 2 hours

30 minutes.

Airport transfers from Malaga, Granada or Almeria airport are available to the independent hirer. They can also arrange B&B accommodation within the stunning whitewashed village of Válor.

Bikes can even be hired on a daily basis

Rates:- Daily - €75

Weekend Rate (3 days) = €180

Weekly rate (7 days) = €350

All prices include 3rd party insurance.

For more information call 958 850 988 or 626 065 343

Email [email protected]

Working up a good sweat in the hot summer months may be good for you, but it can lead to heat stroke in your pet and kill them in a matter of minutes. Heat stroke is a dangerous condition that takes the lives of many animals every year.

Your pet’s normal body temperature is 99.5 to 102.5 de-grees Fahrenheit. If it rises to 105 or 106 degrees, the pet is at risk for developing heat exhaustion. If the body tem-perature rises to 107 degrees, your pet has entered the dangerous zone of heat stroke. With heat stroke, irrevers-ible damage and death can occur.

Heat stroke is a condition arising from extremely high body temperature, which leads to nervous system abnor-malities (such as lethargy, weakness, collapse or coma). Abnormally high body temperature (also called hyper-thermia) develops after increased muscular activity with impaired ability to give off heat due to high heat and hu-midity or respiratory obstruction.

Heat-related illnesses, including heat stroke, heat exhaus-tion and heat cramps can occur after exposure to ex-tremely high environmental temperatures.

The Facts:The temperature in a parked car can reach 160 degrees in a matter of minutes, even with partially opened windows. And any pet exercising on a hot, humid day, even with plenty of water, can become overheated. Overheating of-ten leads to heat stroke. As a pet owner, you should know the dangers of overheating and what to do to prevent it. You should also know the signs of heat stroke and what to do if your pet exhibits those signs. Others at risk include:

Puppies/Kittens up to 6 months of ageDogs that have a thick coat, heart and lung problems or a short muzzle are at greater risk for heat stroke .Overweight pets.Pets that are over exerted during exercise.Pets that are ill or receiving certain medications.Pets with short, wide heads like pugs, English bulldogs, Boston terriers.Dogs with airway obstructive diseases.Pets with pre-existing fever.Pets that are dehydrated.Pets with poor circulation due to cardiovascular or other underlying disease.Older dogs (large breed dogs over 7 years of age, small breed dogs over 14 years of age)Older cats

Cats/Dogs with heart disease. Signs:Rapid pantingBright red tongueRed or pale gumsThick, sticky salivaDepressionWeaknessDizzinessVomiting - sometimes with bloodDiarrhoeaShockComa

If your pet is overheating, he will appear sluggish and unresponsive. He may appear disorientated. The gums, tongue and conjunctiva of the eyes may be bright red and he will probably be panting hard. He may even start vomiting. Eventually he will collapse, seizure and may go into a coma.

If your pet exhibits any of these signs, treat it as an emer-gency and call your veterinarian immediately. On the way to your veterinary hospital, you can cool your pet with wet towels, spray with cool water from a hose or by providing ice cubes for your pet to chew (providing he is conscious). What you can do:

Monitor outdoor temperature and minimize your pet’s ac-tivity on hot, humid days.Remove the pet from the hot area immediately.Limit sun exposure during the hours of 11 AM to 3 PM on hot days.Walk or exercise your pet in the morning or evening.Keep your pet in a comfortable environment (air-condi-tioned room or partially open windows with a breeze) during extremely hot weather.NEVER leave your pet in a car (even with the windows partially rolled down) for any reason at any time. Leaving pets in a car during warm weather is the most common cause of heat stroke.Provide your pet with plenty of fresh water and plenty of shade. Take extra care with puppies and kittens.If possible, allow your pet to acclimatise gradually to high temperatures. Heat illness is common in the spring when the animal has not had sufficient time to acclimatise to the warmer temperatures.After travelling to a warmer climate, allow your pet sev-eral days to become acclimatised before allowing any vig-orous exercise.Make sure outside cats have access to shade.Allow your cat to have access to cooler areas of the house.

1918

Heat Stroke in Dogs/Cats

Summertime Hazards to AvoidForeign Bodies: Foreign bodies such as needles, fish hooks, bones and grass awns (fox tails) are most com-mon. Foreign bodies can become lodged in the stomach and intestines creating an obstruction. Summer is often a time when people fertilize their lawns and work in their gardens. But beware: Plant food, fertilizer, and insecticides can be fatal if your pet ingests them.

Stings/Bites: Our homes and environments are shared by numerous animals, some we choose to live with and some who come in uninvited. To make things worse, a few of these critters are even venomous. In addition to causing injury and illness in people, these creatures can also sting or bite our pets. Burns: Hot pavements can be downright painful for pets and could account for the rise in claims for burns. In addi-tion to burns on the pet’s paws, sunburns are more com-mon in the summer months, especially on body areas not protected by fur or dark skin.

Otitis Externa: Ear infections are frequently caused by water getting trapped in a dog’s ear after swimming or bathing. If your pet is prone to water activities in the sum-mer, speak to your veterinarian regarding specific ear cleaning products that will help dry the ear canal after water exposure to prevent recurring ear infections. Near Drowning: Although relatively rare, cases of near drowning do increase in summer months. If this happens, be sure to keep the pet warm, and dry thoroughly with towels. Then, take the pet to the veterinarian immedi-ately.

Heartworm Prevention: Check with your Veterinarian to see if your pets should be taking Heartworm prevention medication. Heartworm disease, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, can be fatal in both dogs and cats. Dehydration: Provide plenty of water and shade for your pets while they’re enjoying the great outdoors so they can stay cool.

Fleas and Ticks: Another summertime threat are fleas and ticks. The Summer is one of the most important sea-sons to protect your pets from these pesky & potentially harmful parasites.

Sunburn: Pets can get sunburned and your pet may re-quire sunscreen on his or her nose and ear tips. Pets with light-colored noses or light-coloured fur on their ears are particularly vulnerable to sunburn and skin cancer

Hazardous Liquids: Watch out for antifreeze. Hot weath-er may tempt your pet to drink from puddles in the street, which can contain antifreeze and other chemicals. Anti-freeze has a sweet taste that animals like, but it’s extremely toxic.

Direct Sunlight: It’s important to have an adequate shel-ter to protect your pet from the sun and heat. For dogs a large doghouse with a cool floor or straw bedding works well. For cats create a comfortable area with their soft bed in which they can lay in the whole day.

1918

I think I failed in my attempt to explain that favourite of English language devices, the pun, to my friendly foreign-er here the other day. Observing the fresher temperature that heralds winter in this part of the southern hemisphere, it’s a question of “winter drawers on” I offered with a hope-ful grin.

Because it’s not such a common use of the words “draws on”, however, I then I had to spend the next 30 minutes or so interpreting the meaning of “winter draws on”. By the time the sense of this had sunk in (I think), I began the ill-fated attempt to distinguish “draws on” and “draw-ers on”, in order to reveal the side-splitting humour that is the pun in everyday English. Needless to say, perhaps, I sensibly gave up what would have been another hour or so’s explanation, before my bemused audience died of boredom and confusion – without so much as a hint of the humour I’d intended. So much for the much-vaunted humour of the English!

All of which is a thoroughly long-winded way to intimate something of which you’re already quite aware: as Europe basks in its summery sun, the southern hemisphere battens down its hatches for winter. Well, fairly lightweight hatch-es in this part of the world, to be fair. As by far the largest of Latin American countries, there is a considerable – and, to me, still surprising – range of climates in my adopted home. Whilst the tropical rain forest of the Amazon can still be sweltering under its, well, tropical heat, the south of the country can have its fair share of snow. Though between such extremes here where I live, it’s nevertheless that time of year to dig out a woolly or two.

As in many parts of the world – with the exception of those engaging in the frenetic madness of Alpine sports – winter is also a time for taking cover. Not so much tends to hap-pen during the winter months, when more of the popula-tion spends more of its time sheltering indoors. In this part of the world, where the majority of people are more than well-accustomed to living their lives outside, things cer-tainly do slow down quite markedly when winter comes around.

With fewer events to report back to you upon from this immediate part of the world, therefore, I’ve been spending more of my time looking at the goings-on “back home”. Sadly, some of it is the kind of fare that gives British sum-mers a particularly bad name – and I don’t mean the weather. The “spare” plinth in Trafalgar Square for exam-ple. Now, there’s a rock-bottom expression of civic art and pride. A succession of “ordinary” people standing atop a stone table in one of the world’s foremost landmarks for an hour at a time. It took no rocket scientist, surely, to predict that any passing media interest in the event would very soon vaporize into nothing. And that has been the case, by all accounts. Nothing. A non-event. It almost brings to mind the supposed “happenings” of the psychedelic 60s as evidence of “live-art”. In particular, it brings to my personal

mind the phenomenon that was “Live-Art” as an anagram of a couple of friends of mine – Alison (“Ali”) and Trevor (“Trev”) – at the time. Poignantly needless to say, perhaps, that too was a relationship that, in the fullness of time, was a complete non-event, too.

There’s a summer waste of space, and there’s summertime tragedy, too, though.

I’m trying to fathom the peculiarly British relationship with alcohol, for example, and wondering how it is that “cel-ebration” – especially amongst the young – is almost in-variably associated with getting “paralytic”. I see that it has cost at least two young men nothing short of their lives who had gone to Newquay in Cornwall to celebrate in this way. Better minds than mine have been applied to trying to understand where this culture of binge drinking comes from; I’m none the wiser, but I can’t help but be appalled by its consequences. Of course, there are incidences of al-coholism (not to mention other forms of drug abuse) here where I live in Latin America. Whatever form the abuse takes, however, it never seems to be part of anything even remotely connected to a form of “celebration”, but rather a desperate attempt to “escape”. It’s seen as an illness rather than a lifestyle choice, therefore. What is Britain’s answer to this scourge of the 21st century?

In a strange sort of way, that took me to my next unan-swerable question about what it is that makes some peo-ple dice with death in such a spectacularly painful and public way as the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona. A 27 year-old man from Madrid, of course, became the first person in nearly 15 years to be killed on the streets of the Spanish city during the annual festival made famous by Er-nest Hemmingway’s The Sun also Rises. Why do they do it? It is not only the St Fermin festival, of course, when grown men face the prospect of death during the course of a “celebration”, but what is it that makes the challenge that draws so many people from all over the world. If you have any answers to that we’d be pleased to hear from you.

But from the tumultuous crowds lining the streets of Pam-plona it is really not so far to the bucolic picture of sleepy, summer England, in fact. And even here, I read, a woman veterinary was trampled to death by a herd of cows with calves, somewhere in the north of England, as she tried to rescue her dogs. It certainly undermines the scene of peace and tranquillity in the English countryside and per-haps serves as a timely reminder that almost nothing we do is absolutely safe and free of the cruelly fickle hand of fate.

In a strange and quite unbidden way, it all helps to under-line that this most dangerous and unsafe cities in which I have chosen to make my home these last few years, is ac-tually quite par for the course – absolute safety is only for those of use who have chosen to give up on life complete-ly; for the rest, it is simply a matter of taking your chances and enjoying every moment whilst you have the chance.

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Nibbles & Lite BitesTuna Salad Wrap, Coleslaw & Chunky Chips € 5.95Chicken Salad Wrap, Coleslaw & Chunky Chips € 5.956 Prawn Camerones with sweet chilli dip € 4.95Portion of Chunky Chips € 1.95

ItalianLasagne with Chunky Chips and side salad € 8.9512” Pizza Hawaiian - Ham & Pineapple € 8.9512” Pizza Meat Feast - Ham, Salchichon & Chorizo € 8.9512” Pizza Del Mar - Tuna, Olive & Anchovy € 8.9512” Pizza Buena Vida - Ham & Mushroom € 8.9512” (House Speciality) BBQ Chicken € 9.9512” (House Speciality) Doner Kebab Meat € 9.9512” (House Speciality) Bolognese with beef and mushrooms € 10.9512” (House Speciality) Tex-Mex, Spicy Tomato Sauce, Chicken, Roasted Onion and Peppers € 10.95

AmericanHomemade Cheese Burger € 3.50Homemade Cheese Burger, Coleslaw & Chunky Chips € 5.95Homemade Bacon & Cheeseburger, Coleslaw & Chunky Chips € 6.95

Homemade Tex-Mex, Coleslaw & Chunky Chips € 7.95Homemade Chilli burger, Coleslaw & Chunky Chips € 7.95Homemade Double Burger, Coleslaw & Chunky Chips ( It’s Huge) € 9.95

Giant Hot Dog & Chunky Chips € 4.95Full rack of sticky BBQ ribs, Chunky Chips and coleslaw € 11.95Sticky BBQ Chicken, Chunky Chips, salad and homemade coleslaw € 8.95

SaladsMixed Salad - Mixed Leaves, Cucumber, Tomato, Onion, Sweetcorn and Tuna € 4.95

Classic Chicken Ceasar Salad - mixed leaves, cherry toma-toes, chicken, parmesan and our creamy ceasar dressing € 7.95

Warm Chicken & Bacon Salad - fresh chicken strips and crispy smoked bacon on mixed leaves and served with honey mustard dressing

€ 7.95

TurkishLamb Döner Kebab & Chunky Chips, spicy salsa and sour cream. (Lamb doner meat, tomato,cucumber, onion and cabbage)

€ 5.95

MexicanHomemade Chilli con Carne served with Rice , tortilla chips, spicy salsa & sour cream € 8.95

Chicken Fajitas served in a sizzling skillet sizzling with 4 wraps, spicy tomato salsa and sour cream. € 9.95

Burritos served smothered in cheese and tomato salsa served with chunky chips and mixed leaves € 9.95

SpanishPork escalopes served with Chunky Chips and salad € 7.95Fingers of lightly battered cod served with Chunky Chips and salad € 6.95

Grilled Chicken Breast served with Chunky Chips and Salad € 8.95Grilled Tuna Steak served with Chunky Chips and Salad € 9.95

Filling rotten baby teeth may be an unnecessary trial for children to endure, experts say.

Some 40% of five-year-olds in the UK have tooth decay and at least one in 10 of these is treated with fillings.

But anecdotal evidence from 50 dentists gath-ered by Manchester University researchers sug-gests filling baby teeth may not offer significant benefits.

Advisers to the NHS are now beginning a study on treatment options to provide dentists with clear guidelines.

Experts already know there is wide variation in care which means that a young child with signs of tooth decay could have no treatment, a filling or the tooth pulled out depending on which den-tist they attend.

Without any clear guidelines, dentists currently have to rely on their experience and judgement to decide whether or not to intervene.

If the child is in severe pain and having sleepless nights, and the parent is confident that their child will cope with and benefit from the treatment, then the choice may be clear.

But when the decay is not causing symptoms, it can be difficult to decide what is in the child’s best interests given that their tooth will ultimately fall out by the time they are 11 anyway.

Indeed, anecdotal evidence gathered from the case notes of 50 dentists suggests filling baby teeth may achieve nothing but expose children to the discomfort of an injection and the sound of the drill.

Dental phobia

Professor Martin Tickle, of the University of Man-chester, found no difference in the numbers of extractions for pain or infection whether baby teeth had been filled or not.

And when he surveyed the parents of all five-year-olds living in Ellesmere Port and Chester in 2003, he found only 6% would want their child to have a filling if they had symptomless decay in a baby tooth.

In comparison, a third would want the dentist to monitor the tooth but provide no treatment.Experts working for the Health Technology As-sessment Programme plan to recruit over 1,000 children from across the UK to take part a study that will compare the outcomes of three treat-ment options.

They are conventional drilling and filling, no fill-ings or a painless paint-on tooth treatment that merely seals and contains the decay.

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‘No proof’ for filling baby teeth

Lead investigator Dr Gail Topping, of the Univer-sity of Dundee, said: “This is a really big question to answer.

“At the moment there is no clear winner and we do not know which is best to recommend. There is no guidance or mandate.

“At the moment, dentists are doing what they be-lieve is the right option for the child on a case by case basis.”

She said dentists would welcome evidence-based guidelines because the treatment decision can be a difficult one to make.

Softly, softly

Kamini Shah, dentist and honorary secretary of the British Association for the Study of Com-munity Dentistry, said: “There are two schools of thought, one being that baby teeth can cause pain and sleepless nights and so dentists should fill.

“The other is that actually the evidence around filling baby teeth is questionable.

“Sometimes you need to adopt a pragmatic ap-proach rather than go in with all guns blazing.

“If a child is very uncooperative but has a mouth-ful of non-symptomatic holes you might decide to apply a fluoride varnish to stabilise the disease rather than to do conventional fillings.”

Painted on with a small brush, the banana-fla-voured varnish is totally painless and can slow or even stop the decay if applied often enough.

Dr Shah said: “That way you gain the child’s con-fidence and can work on prevention. You do not want to upset the child and make them phobic of future treatments.

“The problem arises when children come in aged three or four and it is their first experience of the dentist and it is because they are in pain.“In that scenario you can well imagine that they might not be most cooperative.”

She said in extreme cases, and when the decay was so bad it necessitated treatment, a child might be referred for anxiety management or have the teeth removed under general anaesthetic.

Recently, an eight-year-old girl starved to death because of an apparently severe dental phobia.

Sophie Waller, from St Dennis in Cornwall, is thought to have been so traumatised by her phobia that she refused to open her mouth af-ter having eight teeth removed under general anaesthetic.

The full trial will run for four years from 2011 across England, Scotland and Wales, with a feasi-bility study starting in the coming months.

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C0317 – CADIAR

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PRICE 35,000€

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When the going gets tough, you just have to put a brave face on things, smile be positive and hope that your more welcom-ing face on the world can turn fortunes around. This seems to be the message behind the current campaign being tested in Spain, with the hope of helping to turn around the biggest declines in its tourism numbers for at least 15 years. Those working in the Spanish tourist industry are going to be taught to be friendlier to visitors, if a pilot scheme currently being run in the Canary Islands is successful.

Whereas 2007 saw some 16 million British visitors alone to the whole of Spain (around one in every three tourists) the numbers plummeted by a million last year and the figures con-tinue to fall. Winter bookings, for example, are down by some 20.5% over the same period last year, with Andalusia and the Costa del Sol seeing the biggest hit with 26.8% fewer visitors. According to the ministry for industry, tourism and commerce, the number of foreign visitors to Spain is now at its lowest since records started to be collected 15 years ago.

Efforts to make Spain a more attractive destination once again have seen hotels reducing their prices by an average of around 2%, but this has made little inroads into the plunging value of sterling against the euro, which has left the two cur-rencies little better than par value at the moment.

Some of the more “creative” advertising of Spanish delights has left more than a little egg on faces, too, as agents have been caught out using unspoilt beach scenes from more ex-otic locations the other side of the world and passing them off as pictures of Spain. In March, for example, Catalonia’s tourist authorities published a brochure purporting to show a stretch of beach on the Costa Brava – the photograph was actually taken some 9,000 miles away on a beach in Perth, Western Australia. Only last year, the same Catalonian authorities used a picture of a woman strolling bare-foot across a stretch of golden sand in the Bahamas as a local scene. Catalonians, it would seem, have a hard time recognising their own beach-es!

There have been campaigns before, of course. As recently as last August, in advance of an industry-wide brain-storm-ing session in Seville, tourism chiefs switched the emphasis

from sunny summer holidays towards snow-capped winters in the mountains and a range of outdoor adventure holidays. This was an attempt to lure a different type of holiday maker to Spain after a particularly disastrous few summer months, during which even the Spanish themselves had cut holiday spending by an estimated 30%.

When it came to the crunch, however, the winter months showed no improvement in visitor numbers and the words of Jose Luis Zoreda, vice-chairman of the Alliance for Tourism Ex-cellence, Exceltur, rang through all too plausibly: “The drums of crisis have started to roll. The outlook is stormy. There’s nothing to indicate that the rest of the year will compensate for the fall in business that occurred in July”. It is unlikely, even, that the €500m pledged by the Spanish government to up-grade tired and somewhat tatty hotels and resorts will have a big or swift enough effect in reversing the present trends.

So, it’s very much back to grass-roots basics for the current campaign which appears to give more than a nodding ac-knowledgement to the perceived “grumpiness” of some of those working in the tourist trade and an attempt to spruce up the expressions of a friendly welcome. The shock troops in this friendlier-face-of-Spain campaign are taxi drivers, shop-keepers and hotel receptionists who are being encouraged to attend “friendliness” classes and learn some rudimentary English phrases to bolster their appealing image to (mostly English) holidaymakers.

Keys to turning the tide, according to some of the official news releases, are such gems as “make yourself at home” and “have a nice day” – though there seems to have been a dearth of very sound market research into just how effectively such ex-hortations will go down with the average British visitor. Other encouragements – such as “the importance of smiling” and “a demonstration that the visit is appreciated” – also seem to lack much in the way of practical or objective evidence of value.

Nevertheless, taxi drivers are being encouraged to go out of their way to display a welcoming reception. Since they are of-ten the first encounter with the locals for many visitors, they are told to make sure that their taxis “smell nice” and are not driven “too fast”. Drivers are also being encouraged to expand and their local knowledge for passing on to eager foreign fares – “how many days of sunshine there are each year” is one handy fact singled out by the project as a useful piece of information to pass on, whilst drivers will also be given a lo-cal guide book in English to take home and study. Mercifully, perhaps, the “smile for Spain” campaign is restricted to the pi-lot project in the Canary Islands, where a spokesman for the Lanzarote Chamber of Commerce said of the €40,000 trial: “We´re aware that Spaniards are not seen as overly friendly by British holidaymakers and we want to change that grumpy image. If we want British tourists to keep coming back year after year, and encouraging their friends to visit, we must be cheerier and friendlier to them”.

This particular correspondent found that it all started to get a bit surreal in fact. Insistence by the project coordinators that “a smile costs nothing and is the most effective welcome” conjured up somewhat disturbing images of queues of wait-ing drivers at the local taxi rank, shop assistants behind their tills and receptionists at hotel check-in desks all with a forced, marketing-inspired leer on their faces. Time will tell, of course, whether any of this has the desired effect in enticing back a bigger band of happy travellers to Spain – but I’m not sure I’ll be holding my breath.

A smile on the face of Spanish tourism?

Remote-controlled boats are for sissies. If you re-ally want to make your barbecue guests run scream-ing from the water (and, after all, who doesn’t?), bring on the Remote-Controlled Robotic Hammer-head Shark .

The RC swimming pool killer of the deep is 23 in. long and swims just like a real shark as far as 40 feet from the RC unit, and up to 9 feet deep. Best of all, the RC unit is submersible, so you can swim with your shark, controlling it underwater. And because each shark operates on its own frequency, you can play with more than one for your own private feeding frenzy.

The RC shark swims for 15 minutes on a one-hour charge. It’s great at night, too -- the shark’s eyes light up. The shark is blue with orange or green high-lights.

The mighty painted band Kiss once sung their heads off about rock and rolling all night. They also expressed a desire to back up that rocking by partying, well, every day. Such a hard-living mani-festo calls for a gadget like the Tailgater. A combined iPod amp, PA system and karaoke kit, it’s got the rock star looks to back up its sonic clout too.

Tailgater is a portable sound system with an integral iPod dock and the look of a stack amplifier. Yep, just like the bands use. It’s got a high-powered amplifier and speakers inside, and as well as the iPod dock, it sports extra inputs too. Extra inputs means you can plug in a mic for Karaoke (which comes included), a guitar for strumming along to your band’s best chops and licks – hell, you may even plug in a keytar for all we know. They’re all the rage again, after all.

A battery indicator lets you know just how far you’re going to get through that Lynyrd Skynyrd solo before needing to recharge – and you also get to choose whether you want the Tailgater to charge up your iPod while you’re on the last riff. Tailgater makes an awesome PA system to rap out some beat poetry or even just call out bingo numbers.

You know those ads where the likes of Ronald-inho and Henry get to show off their fancy foot-work whilst battling it out within the confines of a small playing area? Well now you can do the same thing with your mates via the brilliant Subbuteo In-flatable Soccer Pitch.

A distant relative of the bouncy castle in football pitch form, this ingenious blow-up enclosure is ideal for four-man kickabouts in the back garden. Simply plug in its über-powerful pump and the entire she-bang - goalposts, pillars and all - inflates in about 30 seconds. Even Sir Alex on full hairdryer mode couldn’t manage that! Indeed it’s so simple to erect we can’t understand why the slowcoaches at Wem-bley haven’t gone down the inflatable route.

Once word gets out you’ve got one, everyone will want to pop round for a close quarters kickabout. Measuring 20ft x 12ft there’s enough room inside this

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squishy enclosure for 4 adults (c’mon, you didn’t think it was for kids, did you?). We suppose you could squeeze in a few extra friends, but seeing as you’ll need a bit of space to pull off those fancy nutmegs we sug-gest you refrain from full-on pitch invasions.

Digital photography is great, but nothing beats holding an actual photo in your mitts. So wouldn’t it be spiffing if eggheads created a camera capable of spewing out prints on the fly? They have, and it’s called the Polaroid Two - Digital Instant Cam-era .

Combining the instant fun of an old school Polaroid camera with the groundbreaking technology of the smash hit PoGo Printer, this up to 7 mega pixel snap-per does exactly what it says on the tin; takes a pic-ture then ejects a print on a 2”x3” slice of sticky-back photo paper. Cool, eh!

...40 seconds later - shazzam!The whole process takes about forty seconds and, unlike the Polaroid cameras of yesteryear, you can dispense with duds by checking your efforts via the 3” LCD screen. You can also crop pics before printing, add borders, remove red-eye and print dates.

Throw in an electronic timer, movie mode with sound, rechargeable battery (15 prints per full charge) and 4x digital zoom and you’re looking at a camera that’s guaranteed to elicit oohs and aahs every time you pull it out. And let’s be honest, taking Polaroids has always been about other people’s reactions, good or otherwise: “If you don’t rip that up right now…”

Just like a normal digital camera, this best-of-both-worlds gizmo records images to a memory card so

y o u can USB snaps to your computer if you don’t fancy printing them. Talking of printing, the PoGo’s integrated printer uses heat-activated Zink paper, smudge-proof, water-resistant, fade-resistant and tear-proof, the only thing this miraculous stuff can’t do is make you look attractive after a ten pint session.

Think of beer guts and you typically think of boozy blokes exposing their builder’s cleavage as they lean over to pick up another pork scratching. But you won’t once you see the amazing Beerbelly® in action. Because although this ingenious device looks just like a spare tyre when worn under cloth-ing, it’s actually a hi-tech stealth beer dispenser.

The Beerbelly Made up of an insulated neoprene sling and a polyurethane bladder connected to a drinking tube, the Beerbelly® holds up to 2.3 Litres (over four pints) of amber nectar and it will stay cold for hours with the optional freezer pack. Brilliant, eh? Okay, so you’ll look a bit podgy when wearing it, but who gives a XXXX when you can surreptitiously swig your favourite brew wherever you may roam.

The Beerbelly® Just think of the possibilities: no more queuing up and forking out on overpriced drinks at festivals, gigs and games. Why, the savings you’ll make at just one event will pay for your Beerbelly® and still leave you with enough change to buy some nuts. Probably. You can even go jogging, skiing and hiking wearing your Beerbelly® (but perhaps it’d be best to fill it with water, not beer).

By Peter Webb

Our tour of Spain’s autonomous communities this month takes us back to “real” Spain, after a break in the islands and disputed mainland territories of the country proper. Yet Cantabria is also a very dis-tinctive part of the mainland and quite different to the common stereotype of the Spain most tourists know.

The principal reason for this distinctive character is the community’s geographical location in a rela-tively remote part of the country, bounded by the sea (the Cantabrian Sea or Bay of Biscay) to the north and the range of mountains known as the

Cantabrian Mountains to the south. To the east is the equally separate and distinctive Basque Country and to the west, the Principality of Asturias. Locked in by significant topographical features, it has a mild and wet maritime climate, strongly influenced by the Atlantic weather systems that are trapped in by the mountains.

This does not mean that Cantabria has been an in-hospitable place for human habitation, however. Some of the cave paintings at Altamira, for example, are reckoned to be between 11,000 and 18,000 years old and feature along with nine other caves

Spain’s “autonomous communities”

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in the region as World Heritage Sites, providing evi-dence of human habitation from the Upper Palaeo-lithic Age.

With a continuous human presence from then on-wards, through the Roman occupation of Iberia, subsequent rule by the Visigoths, brief occupation of the southern parts of the region by the Moors and a key role in the reconquista, Cantabria has a partic-ularly long and unique history. Indeed, it is the sort of continuity which saw the region formally consti-tuted as the Province of Cantabria as early as 1778 and on which the bid for status as an autonomous community was successfully bid in 1981 on the ba-sis of its being a “province with a historic regional character”.

One of the characteristics shared by Cantabria and its neighbours in the “green” swathe of northern provinces that stretch from Galicia to the Basque Country (and called “green” on account of the mild, wet, maritime climate that gives the whole area its lush, verdant vegetation) is a particular tradition of myth and legend. There is also a Celtic influence here (Cantabria is on the Celtic fringe of western Eu-rope), which sees a lot of magic, mystery and super-stitions in the mountains and forests of the rugged interior. A great deal of the myth and legend is little short of frightening and you can just imagine the terror that could be struck into Cantabrian children’s hearts as the stories were told and re-told through an essentially oral tradition.

Take the mythological and fabulous creatures that crop up in Cantabrian stories, for example. One of the most frequent is the Ojáncano. This mythical creature represents and embodies all that is wicked and evil amongst the Cantabrians and, so, is famed for his brutality and cruelty. He is a giant of a Cyclops – the local version of the Greek Polyphemus. The Cantabrian version, however, has a wife – Ojáncana or Juáncana – who is even more brutally wicked, since her victims include even children.

For every wicked witch, however, there is also the good fairy – in this case the Anjana – who is the very opposite of the Ojáncano and Ojáncana, and who protects and safeguards all the honest people, lovers and those who are lost in the woods, forests, highways and byways of the region. There is also a large troop of mainly mischievous, rather than wicked, goblins. These come in two principal forms: the Trasgo and Trastolillo, which live in or around people’s homes; or the Trenti and Tentirujo, which inhabit the woods and forests.

The local folklore and mythology even includes a specific Christmas character, the Esteru. He is a lum-berjack by trade and lives a hermit-like existence in the forests, where he also spends his time making toys to give away to children throughout the prov-ince, come Christmas time.

One of the scariest mythological creatures to in-habit Cantabrian (and Asturian) folklore is the cuéle-bre, a dragon or giant winged serpent which lives in caves, guarding secret treasure or imprisoning xanas (fairy nymphs of extraordinary beauty which live in fountains, rivers, waterfalls or forests where there is pure flowing water – xanas are typically described as being small and slim, with blonde or light-brown hair, which is tended with golden or sil-ver combs and brushes woven from the rays of the sun or moonbeams). The cuélebre has its hands full guarding such treasures and, so, rarely moves from its lair, but when it does move, it is always to make a meal of cattle or people. Myth has it, however, that the cuélebre has one fatal weak spot. On midsum-mer’s night, the beast’s powers are at their lowest ebb and it is possible for brave men to kill the mon-ster by feeding it a meal of red-hot stone or bread full of pins and needles, thus allowing the hero to escape with the cuélebre’s treasure, free the xana and marry her.

Hideous to look at, maybe, but one of the most sought-after of the mythological animals of Cantabria is the ramidreju. They are extremely rare, with one being born only once every one hundred years from a weasel or marten, which it resembles somewhat. However, it also has a very elongated body – almost snake-like – with fur that it tinted with green and eyes that are yellow. Its snout is hog-like and is used to dig very deep holes. These mythical creatures are highly prized, however, since the animal has an insa-tiable lust for gold and can therefore lead its tracker to the treasure. Moreover, the ramidreju’s fur is said to be capable of curing any sickness known to man.

Some of the legends are clearly those with roots in classical Greek mythology that have found their way into local cultures throughout most of Europe. An example of this – with a Cantabrian slant – is the legendary sirenuca (little mermaid, or siren). In her Spanish incarnation, the sirenuca is a very beautiful, but rather spoiled and disobedient, lady with a pas-sion for climbing the most dangerous cliffs at Castro Urdiales (today, a small port on the Bay of Biscay, on the far eastern coast of Cantabria). Legend has it that sirenuca would climb these cliffs and spend her days singing to the sound of the waves before being transformed into a siren.

36 37

Isn’t it strange how most of us are irrationally afraid of something or other? Spiders, mice, beetles all strike fear into the hearts of otherwise brave souls. I suppose fear of flying is a phobia that’s very much in vogue at the moment. The reasons are pretty obvious, although I personally would want to say that I am not the least bit afraid of flying. I’m much more afraid of NOT flying – especially when I’m in an aircraft two miles above the Spanish plain!

I guess many of us have flights booked at the moment and more than a few will be nervous at the prospect. None more than a good friend of mine who had been visiting her sister in Rome for the summer holidays and was booked onto a flight back to Madrid. The date of her flight was September 12th 2001. Never a fan of fly-ing she looked into the possibilities of coach or train for her homebound journey. However, she eventually rea-soned that after the events of the previous day across the Atlantic, airport security was never going to be higher than at that time, so she nervously decided to fly. She got home safely on a rather empty aircraft that had flown between two decidedly quiet international airports.

This all reminds me of a conversation I had some years ago when I was working at a conference with a group of American colleagues. One of them told me that whenever he flew, he would chat away with his fellow-passengers because he was almost always treated to the most extraordinary stories. The strangest had taken place back in the 1970s before all of the modern secu-rity measures were installed at international airports.

The man in the next seat told him, “You know, I enjoy flying now, but I used to be terrified of being on an air-craft. It all started after a man took a bomb on board a flight intending to kill his mother-in-law. I could never get it out of my mind that someone on board one of my flights might be carrying a bomb”. My friend asked him how he had conquered his fear.

“Well,” he replied, “I went to a therapy group for peo-

Have you packed these bags yourself?

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ple who are afraid of flying, and they told me there was only one chance in a hundred thousand that someone would be on board my flight with a bomb. That didn’t make me feel much better. The odds were still far too short. But then I reckoned that if there was only one chance in a hundred thousand that one bomb would be on the plane, there was only one chance in a billion that two bombs would be on board. And I could relax about odds like that.” My friend was mystified about how that particular piece of logic could bring his neigh-bour peace of mind and asked him why. He was unpre-pared for the quick response. “Oh, ever since then, I’ve always carried a bomb in my hand luggage to guaran-tee myself better odds.”

Although that has to be the strangest “lucky charm” I’ve ever come across it remains just that, and has about as much chance of guaranteeing good fortune as a rab-bit’s foot or any other amulet that happens to take our fancy. Living life “up front” with no guilty secrets from man or God is a much more effective route to peace of mind and a fulfilled life. Happy landings!

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The hidden bird is: HUMMINGBIRD

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It attracts thousands of local and foreign tour-ists each year, yet strikes me as an odd way to choose to dice with death. But this is what the famous running of the bulls through the streets of Pamplona represents – as was tragically driv-en home this year with the goring to death of 27 year-old Daniel Jimeno Romero, of Madrid. His was the first fatal goring since 1995, when a 22 year-old American, Matthew Tassio was killed.

The ages of these most recent casualties of the bull run perhaps points up its dare-devil appeal to young men intent on proving their machis-mo, but it is not only the young who join the crowds who choose to run before the small herds of fighting bulls that course through the town’s narrow streets en route to the bull ring; the most recent fatality before Snr Romero was a 63 year-old native of Pamplona, Fermin Etx-eberri, who died in the event of 1995 after be-ing trampled on the head.

Why do they do it? And why is it so popular? The second question is probably slightly easi-er to answer. One of the key reasons for the event’s fame undoubtedly stems from the fa-mous people who have been associated with the nine-day festival. Most notable amongst these, of course, is the American author Ernest Hemmingway, whose novel The Sun also Rises includes an account of the first recorded death on the horns of a San Fermin bull, of 22 year-old Esteban Domeño (The novel Death in the Afternoon was also set against the backdrop of the bullfighting world). Hemmingway paid his first visit to the encierro that marks the festi-val of San Fermin in Pamplona in July of 1923 – just three years before publication of his first successful work, The Sun also Rises. In all, he at-tended the festival on nine separate occasions – the last being in 1959, just two years before his own suicide in Idaho, but on the very eve of the San Fermin festival.

Sunrise

and

sunset

in

Pamplona

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Hemmingway, then, put the capital of Navarre quite firmly on the map and many of today’s visitors will still be able to recognise many of the haunts he frequented whilst there – Bar Txoko, Hotel La Perla and Café Iruña, all in the Plaza del Castillo, and Hotel Yoldi, the bullfighters’ hotel. These were the landmarks that were already there when the pioneer of early cinema, Louis Lumiére, filmed the Encierro de Toros as early as 1931. So, although Hemmingway might not have been the first to put Pamlona on the map, he certainly did it in lasting style and his foot-steps have since been followed by other celeb-rities such as director Orson Welles, the actress Ava Gardner, Hemmingway’s granddaughter, Margeaux Hemmingway and, in more recent times, the playwright Arthur Miller, the photog-rapher Inge Morat and the West Indian Nobel Laureate for Literature, Derek Walcott.

So the trail of famous names has brought fame to the event of the festival in Pamplona itself. The question of why people should clamour for the opportunity to be gored or trampled by a bull weighing well over 1,000 lbs is, however, rather more open to speculation. There is never any shortage of runners and the event is entire-ly open – the only qualifications being that en-trants must be over 18 years of age and declare their entry before 7.30 on the morning of the run; they will not be allowed to run if they ap-pear to be under the influence of alcohol and are prohibited from running in the opposite direction to the bulls’ route or from “inciting” the bulls.

Apart from these scant “rules” the run is open to anyone with the bravado to enter and prac-tically anything goes.

There is a degree of stagecraft, of course, as be-fits a tradition. Before the off, the runners are expected to sing out three times “A San Fer-mín pedimos, por ser nuestro patrón, nos guíe en el encierro dándonos su bendición” (“We ask Saint Fermín, as our Patron, to guide us through the encierro and give us his blessing”). The chanting finishes with the words: “Viva San Fermín!, Gora San Fermín!” (“Long live San Fermin” in Spanish and in Basque). Traditional clothing for the festival and the run are white

shirt and trousers, with a red waistband and neckerchief. Runners also hold in one hand a rolled up copy of that day’s local newspaper with which to draw the bulls’ attention if it be-comes necessary.

The start of the encierro is announced by the launch of a signal rocket, announcing that the corral gates have been opened. A second sig-nal is launched to warn that all six bulls and the accompanying six steers have been released. A third rocket signals that the bulls have complet-ed the run through the town and have entered the bullring, whilst a fourth and final flare an-nounces that the herd has all been marshalled into the bullring’s corral. Between the first and fourth rockets (in other words, the start and the finish of the encierro) the interval is, on aver-age, some four minutes.

Bulls and runners travel a course of about 840 metres, which runs through four streets in the old part of the town (Santo Domingo, Town Hall Square, Mercaderes and Estafeta) and a section called Telefónica before finish-ing in the bullring, where the six bulls will be fought (invariably to their death, of course) in the afternoon. The fastest part of the course is up the hill of Santo Domingo and across the Town Hall Square, but the individual bulls often get strung out and separated as the herd slows down for the entrance to Estafeta. For the hu-man runners, this can be a dangerous sign, since the animal stranded alone, apart from the herd, can become disoriented, frightened and angry. Few runners would want to be faced by a solitary, frightened and angry bull and this is when most gorings are likely to occur.

The event, of course, and the risks run by the participants, is as colourful and dramatic as spectators could wish.

Given the risks, in fact, it is perhaps, only sur-prising that more people do not end up be-ing killed during the run. Just 15 runners have been killed in the annual event since 1910 – 15 in nearly 100 years.

The odds are 1 in 167 (.6%) that you have blood type AB-.

20% of 4 year olds in the United States are obese.

The odds are 1 in 3500 (.029%) that you will be injured this year by your pet.

Women are more likely to die in the week after their birthday than any other week of the year.

Americans choke to death on toothpicks more than any other object.

The average human body contains enough iron to make a 3 inch long nail.

If you are a pregnant woman, the odds are 3 out of 4 (75%) that you strongly crave unusual foods. If you suf-fer from those cravings, the odds are 1 out of 6 that you crave chewing on coal.

By age 60, most people have lost half their taste buds.

The odds are 1 out of 214 (.4667%) that you will be ad-mitted into the hospital with knee problems this year.

Every blue-eyed person on planet Earth has descended from a single common ancestor with a genetic mutation who lived 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, according to re-search at the University of Copenhagen.

While the general consensus is that being overweight is not a good thing, people who are 25 pounds overweight survive infections, disease and accidents better than their thin counterparts.

People who take three 30-minute naps per week have an amazing 37% reduced risk of heart disease, according to a recent study of 23,000 people.

An average adult is covered by 20 square feet of skin.

A one-minute kiss burns 26 calories.

A twenty-minute full-body CT scan exposes you to the same radiation as if you had stood 1.5 miles from ground zero of the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima.

Good posture can burn up to 350 calories each day.

Your two nostrils register smell in different ways. The right nostril detects more pleasant odors, while the left nostril is more accurate.

One-third of all asthma cases in the United States is re-lated to an allergy to cats.

Nearly every astronaut experiences trouble locating their own arms and legs while in space.

A premature infant is five times more likely to be left-handed.

Although calcium is important to bone strength, 99% of the calcium in the human body is in the teeth.

There are more germs on your body than people in the United States.

An Englishman was admitted for leg surgery but sur-geons found green blood. The man was taking too much sumatriptan (a migraine drug); the drug caused sulfur to be combined with the hemoglobin in his red blood cells. When the dosage was reduced, the man’s blood returned to its normal red color.

The British Medical Journal has estimated that smoking one cigarette takes 11 minutes off the average person’s life

Canadian researchers in the Arctic recently bared their arms, legs and torsos and reported as many as 9,000 bites from swarming, newly hatched mosquitoes. At this rate, a human could be drained of blood in two hours.

Only ten percent of the 100,000,000,000,000 cells inside each one of us are human. The rest are bacteria, fungi, and other microbes.

The human body creates 2,500,000 new red blood cells each and every second.

Just 10% of beer drinkers drink 43% of all beer sold. These beer drinkers average almost a gallon of beer each day.

If you took all the human urine produced in the world in one day, it would take a full 20 minutes for it to flow over Niagara Falls.

An Australian study found that vegetarians were more intelligent than people who ate meat.

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What are the odds of that?

Costa Tropical News August 2009

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Transcript of Costa Tropical News August 2009