What is this?

What is going on here? Is he (we know it's a he coz we took the picture) making churros? Is he winding up a friend? Is it an old DJ mixing table (what d'you call those things, anyway?)?  The answer, next Wednesday, on CampoPulse only!

Have you found Snoopy yet?

JIMENA Yesterday, Monday, we posted a picture of the firefighters' building just outside the main village. Snoopy is on there, as we can prove herewith. The idea was to get you, Dear JimenaPulse Reader, to move over to CampoPulse, as this one will be disappearing at the end of the month - that's Thursday! So if you haven't yet put CampoPulse into your Bookmarks /Favourites list, this is the time to do so. Note to advertisers: as from Friday, June 1, your ads will now be appearing exclusively on CampoPulse, which gives you better value for money as the readership increases considerably and your message spreads further. If you have any questions, please e-mail us, or comment below.

Firemen at work - and a good thing, too!

JIMENA This photo was taken on Friday morning when a delivery lorry popped its brakes as it was parked at the furniture store opposite the petrol station and rolled down towards the main road (and the aforesaid petrol station!). Fortunately, a street light post got in the way and stopped it. The firemen are removing the post. The driver ran after his lorry but wasn't able to clamber in until the vehicle stopped. Poor man was not in a good state but luckily there was no major accident nor was anyone hurt. The firemen had to spray the road as there was a diesel fuel leakage.

Where's Snoopy?

JIMENA Can you find Snoopy on this building? It appears the firefighters were bored one day last week and put up a Snoopy doll somewhere on this building. We'll give you the answer tomorrow, Tuesday. This is a trick so you come back to JimenaPulse again - even though it will soon be transmogrified (merged is a synonym) into CampoPulse because it gets to be boring and tiresome to duplicate items in both places. Have you put CampoPulse into your Favourite/bookmark yet?

Prospero makes a fool of himself

(Photo: Kiko Segovia)

... but I enjoyed it! It was last Friday, Día del Libro, and I was asked to do something about books for the kids - but they couldn't tell me what time, so I had to wait until the end, when most of the children had gone home. Probably a good thing. My theme was an old Spanish saying: Las palabras se las lleva el viento, or 'words fly away with the wind'. Which is why books exist, so we can capture the words and read them again as many times as we like. Amazing things happen when we do that, don't you agree?

What are we complaining about?

This video has been around the internet for a while (unless you understand this language, you don't need sound, just an open mind). It is just a reminder to ourselves that we do whinge a lot, don't we? (Thanks for the reminder, Notalot!)

Don't worry, it's Friday the 13th

SPAIN Yes, today's Friday the 13th!! But we have news for you. We are in Spain, right? And in Spain the equivalent to Friday the 13th is martes 13, that is, Tuesday the 13th. So we have nothing to worry about at all. In fact, if you're really clever, you can get away with not worrying about martes 13, either, just by saying you're not Spanish. The same applies to April Fool's, Mother's and Father's Days and all sorts. Prospero's been doing it for years...

Carrots in love

Domingo Calvente is well known in Jimena for his eye: he can see a shape in a twisted branch that, with a little shaving here and there, becomes an animal, or a telephone, or ... his imagination is endless. However, this carrot he grew in his huerto didn't need any help. And we can all see that these two carrots are deeply in love. (Photo by J. Calvente, via TioJimeno)

Rumour has it ... Jorge and Ketina are coming back

JIMENA A little bird just flew past this morning and let it be known that Jorge and Ketina, who used to run the once-popular La Cuadra at the top of the village, are back. But they are on to bigger and better things, apparently, and are about to take over the campsite restaurant. Given their professionalism, and Jorge's excellent cooking, the news will be very welcome to their former clientele - who have missed them for the time they were working on the coast. One of their many specialties was pizza, and there are those who swear they were the best in town. We are told that Jorge will be bringing a professional pizza thrower to liven up the campsite! Watch this space to confirm this piece of excellent news. (The enthusiasm for this item stems from the fact that Prospero is having breakfast and reminiscing about the breakfasts he used to enjoy at La Cuadra.)

We knew she liked cats, but ...

Our friend Sheila likes cats. She has several of them, but on Sunday she met another one and no doubt wanted to bring it home. Here's the story: she and friends went to Castellar Zoo to see the new arrival, a baby tiger that is yet to be named. We had coffee with Sheila this morning and were told that another friend, Graham Who Works At The Zoo, is itching to get Prospero down there to take photos of the changes that have been going on. We'd love to do that, except we have no car at the moment - so if anyone's heading that way, let us know (or, if you see Graham Who's Hard To Miss, tell him what we said here). Nice pics, Sheila.

More photos added to 'People of the Summer (4)'

Just a few new pics added to that album. You can see all our Picasa Web Albums by clicking on the picture of the baby on the sidebar. Our albums are in constant upheaval as we store some 15,000 photos there - yes, 15,000 pictures we've been taking since JimenaPulse went online in March 2007. It is important for our readers to note that all our photos are COPYRIGHT; you may not use them for any purpose whatsoever without our express permission. To do so means you could be prosecuted. We are working on a way for a selection of the better ones to be available for purchase.

A bit imperialistic, this kind of parking...

(Photo: JimenaPulse)

Today is market day in Jimena, which is why this large van was moved yesterday evening from the place where the market is held,  to here. Here is not more than thirty meters from another flat piece of land. But no, the van had to take up three parking spaces at the busiest place in the village, on its busiest day. Imperialistic, we call it! As well as extremely inconsiderate and selfish.

Yes, it's open but...

LOS BARRIOS Our good friend Phil Heinzl sent this photo in this morning with the comment, "I misread this and had to look twice....yes it should read ABIERTO, but I couldn't help to adapt it." So on behalf of Yours Truly (that's Alberto to the rest of you), many thanks, Phil! You might have to click on it to get the point, but the management at the new Holiday Inn Express Hotel at Palmones may have something to say about it...

Did you see Google's tribute to John Lennon?

John Lennon would have been 70 today if that shithead (no need to excuse the French it's what Mark David Chapman is) hadn't shot him dead on December 8, 1980. Anyway, Google has paid tribute to John: if you click on the drawing, you'll hear a little of one of his best post-Beatle songs - and, because Google now owns the world, you'll be transported directly to the what else but Google page for John Lennon. We like the little movie (Google also owns YouTube now) that accompanies the music, but they went a little OTT, don't you think?

Not sure about this...

We found this, um, strange cactus on our patio this morning. It didn't just appear, you understand, it was there, all summer, upright, perky like a cactus should be. But this morning it looked like this. We don't know why it suddenly just, er, had a downturn. Has anyone any idea? Will it ever recover? Will it ever be its ready-for-anything prickly self again? How much TLC can one give it? Has this ever happened to you? Please help.

Sunrise over Jimena

Here's a new gadget (which we're getting used to and will improve). This is a slide created via Photobucket, where we will be storing most, not all (of over 11,000) of our photos. We hope this doesn't slow everything down. The photos are strictly COPYRIGHT, even if they're shown in a public site - and incidentally, they're not bad, not bad at all. (Prospero note: got up early this morning; all for you, Dear Reader)

Boy, Google's fast!

We had just finished posting the previous item about Alexander Bewick and his public confession, where Blogger advises us that the article has been posted correctly (image), and what should the Google ad that normally appears be? Click on the image to find out! You might also want to read the item in question - maybe even write a comment!

We applaud enterprise, especially among the young

This photocopy -actually on white paper- came through our post box this morning. It advertises 'The Brilliant Nail Salon' and says 'come to the magical world of colour for your nails at only €0.50.' The address is given as Calle Ancha, 16, and has a mobile number (699 354 273) presumably for an appointment. Judging by the handwriting, this, or these, are young entrepreneurs. We applaud the initiative and regret not having enough nail space to take advantage of the opportunity.

She's only number 10!

Beyoncé (photo)  is only tenth on a Top Ten list of summer celebrities, according to a ranking created in Spain by agency Personality Media. Who else could possibly be on the list? Well there's Iker Casillas's girlfriend Sara Carbonero (he's Spain's goalie), two TV presenters (Pilar Rubio and Patricia Conde), two former Cristiano Ronaldo items (Russian model Irina Shayk and Kim Kardashian, evidently of Armenian heritage - what is it about footballers, girls? What was that, Posh?). Then there's Cuban actress Ana de Armas, US celebrity Megan Fox, as well as Spanish celebrities and actresses Elsa Pataky and Amaia Salamanca. But you'll want to see in what order, don't you, boys? So you'll just have to go to CampoPulse, then!

What do the Spanish like about Britain?

According to Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), Spaniards like things British, although the item does say "We prefer our own, but if they only had the sun..." (If you place your cursor on a photo in the slide, you will see the caption.) Now then, what is it the British like about Spain? Send us your ideas via 'Comments' below or e-mail.