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CAMPOPULSE IS BACK ONLINE!!!

We got a communication from Blogger this morning: Hello, We have received your appeal regarding your blog http://campopulse.blogspot.com/. Upon further review, we have determined that your blog was mistakenly marked as a TOS violator by our automated system and, as such, we have reinstated your blog. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused in the meantime and thank you for your patience as we completed our review process. Thank you for understanding. Your sincerely, The Blogger Team.- (At this point, we're glad we didn't publish all the nasty things we were about to ... ) Now all we have to do is catch up, so we still beg your forbearance (nice old word that).

CampoPulse is down temporarily

CampoPulse was marked as spam by Godgle. We have never spammed anyone but been the victims on many occasions over several years. Godgle promised us that the blog would be restored in two days - that was on January 26, and we're still waiting. We have been told today that it may well be restored over this weekend. If not, we have a cunning Plan B that does not involve Godgle, but this will be revealed only if Godgle decides we are guilty of any misdemeanor. ADVERTISERS: Please do not be too concerned as your advertising will continue for another month FREE OF CHARGE.

Apologies

Prospero has been in and out of bed more frequently than usual. Man flu, cricked back, age, call it what you like, it has not been pleasant, and even less so because he has felt the enormous pressure of his commitment to JimenaPulse and CampoPulse. But it has also given him time to review that commitment, and some decisions have been made, about which he will be informing his readers in due course. In the meantime, we will be trying to catch up with a busy weekend, probably through Easter and beyond (!)...

WHY YOU COULDN'T SEE JIMENAPULSE ON MONDAY AND TUESDAY

I've had e-mails, phone calls and questions in the street: Why couldn't I see JimenaPulse yesterday? My answer has been an explanation of how it would be like if you, Dear Reader, had not subscribed to the site. There is a hardcore of about 120 daily readers, and between 200 and 350 who look in at least twice a week, depending on the time of year. And only five people who have made a donation in the last twelve months! Thanks to the present economic climate, advertising has dwindled and I've had to make allowances to many of my faithful advertisers to help them help the site. But despite my pleading for donations, I regret to say that you have not responded. A short article takes about an hour to publish: it has to be found, bookmarked, translated, edited and put up on the site. It is a lot of work to put out each day - and sometimes I have to put it aside so that I can afford to eat (this is not a lie, as good friends will attest). It is becoming increasingly obvious that JimenaPulse is taken for granted by those who seek and use information about Jimena, so I have a couple of options: 1. To give it up altogether; 2. To require subscriptions for which you have to pay. It is up to you, Dear Reader: please make your comment below, and your donation via PayPal on the sidebar, or in person. PROSPERO

"All advertising but no content!"

That is what we are expecting to hear from someone collaring us on the street. And we wouldn't be surprised and they would be right. Thing is, we've been werry busy this week one way or another. So we have to use the weekend to catch up with ourselves (ever tried that? Watch a puppy trying to catch its tail). The fact is that we have to earn money; we don't get much from the advertising but our commitment to Jimena leads us to allow certain things in terms of payment that don't really help when we have bills to pay. Still, we are grateful for whatever comes our way but can't help wishing it were more. As you know, we put up a little notice saying, "If you find this article interesting, useful or entertaining, please consider the work, effort and cost it takes to bring it to you. We would appreciate a donation to continue a free service." If that isn't begging, what is? (Go to the PayPal icon on the sidebar and follow instructions, it's easy!)>>>

New look for CampoPulse

We would appreciate a donation, too

We will be working on a new look for CampoPulse over the weekend, but speed depends on dodgy internet connection at this time of year. So, if you don't see a lot of items coming up, please forgive us. There will also be some excellent advertising deals, aimed at celebrating the fifth anniversary of JimenaPulse, so watch this space.

We need your help

This is the time of year when everyone asks for help, so why should JimenaPulse be any different? If you've enjoyed our articles, or found them interesting or useful, you might want to consider making a donation. We bring you something new every day, sometimes it is news, or a reminder of something, or maybe a little piece of history. Whatever it is, it takes time, knowledge and effort to do so. Our commitment to the English-speaking community of Jimena is as strong as ever, as is our being able to serve as a bridge between our hosts and the community. But we need to pay bills, too, just like you, Dear Reader. In the past, we have said that we were looking into charging for reading this site. We are as reluctant as ever because we are aware that there are those who would be unable to do so and would have to miss out on the useful things we offer. If you are able to help, we would be most grateful if you went to the DONATE widget on the sidebar and followed instructions. Thank you.

Global revolution this weekend, back to work on Monday

As someone who was part of the (late) 60s 'revolution' and has never quite been able to rid himself of the memory of the adrenalin those anti-War (Vietnam) demos in London and other places produced, I have not been able either to want the world to change for what I happen to believe is the better. So, in my elderly way, I cannot help support in some little measure what the youth of today is trying to do - which is only what I tried to do at their age and failed, together with several million like-minded people of many nations. But failure is the only reason to try again, even though the banks, politicians and 'markets' have a firmer grip on our collective b***s than ever. Go for it, kids! How I wish I could carry a banner and walk at the same time!

Catalan candidate insults Andalucía and is forced to 'explain'

Josep Antoni Durán i Lleida

CATALUÑA / ANDALUCÍA There have always been what might as well be called racial or class tensions between Catalonia (NE Spain, capital: Barcelona) and Andalucía and Extremadura. North of the divide, Andalusian workers are considered lazy and too fond of fiestas. South of it, the Catalans are seen as slave drivers, tight with the money (that is the perception of Catalonia in the rest of Spain as well). These are just some of the epithets they occasionally throw at each other. This is one such occasion. The candidate for President of the Government (i.e. Prime Minister, this being a constitutional monarchy), Josep Durán i Lleida, of the CiU nationalist party, said at his party's conference on Saturday ,"No hay derecho a que mientras un agricultor catalán no puede coger alguna fruta porque no le sale a cuenta, en otros sitios de España, con nuestra contribución, reciben un PER para que pasen el resto de la jornada en el bar de su pueblo."  Or:>>>

On the Silk Road at the weekend

Prospero has only just recovered from the magnificent meal he was kindly invited to on Saturday evening at Casa Henrietta. The place was full: extra tables had to be set up, the kitchen was bustling with familiar faces almost unable to lift heads from chopping boards, the friendly 'waitresses' remained friendly despite the rush - and absolutely everyone said how good the meal was. It was what in Spain is called a menú degustación, taken directly from the French, which means a try-it-and-see kind of thing. Try it we all did, and liked it - well, there was nothing left on the plates that we saw returning to the kitchen. Best of all, there was a very good turnout of local Spanish guests, mostly the younger, more adventurous generation. Keep it up, Melissa and great team! (The Chinese Silk Road menu is on Saturdays from 8pm for the whole of this month.)

A new look to part of the sidebar - just for you

(Click to enlarge)

We've been revamping the sidebars a bit. Thought you should know. The image is a screen shot of the links you can find there, below the 'crease line' (old-fashioned newpaper parlance for what is now the bottom of your screen on the main page of any site). We have added something called Very Useful Local Info, which is about ... yes, you guessed it. It contains all sorts of phone numbers and will be seriously updated when we get a moment (in 2077) - but needs your help, like with what you think might be useful.

The list is divided into Partners and JimenaPulse series. The former links to some of our partner sites (i.e. out of the same stable: OneLine Publications), and we've added All About Jimena, which is also on the right sidebar, in readiness for our Great Leap Forward on Facebook (yes, we have no alternative but to succumb - Twitter, here we come!).

The latter (you still with us?), aside from the Very Useful Local Info link, offers a new look to our earlier series, including It's Choreetho, Not Choritso (how they make chorizo around here), The Story of Health Care in Jimena (yup, you got it), Living and Dying in Southern Spain (what to do when and if...) and How Did That Cork Get in Your Bottle? (the whole, complete process from tree to bottle - fascinating, if we say so ourselves).

New WeatherWidget on sidebar

Having received complaints that our previous WeatherWidget was not working properly, we've decided to change it, although it's from the same source. You will find it on the right sidebar. At the bottom of it, in tiny writing, it says '+info' - click on that for a seven-day forecast and a lot more weather stuff. Enjoy!

DON'T PANIC! IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S US!

WE'RE MAKING A FEW ADJUSTMENTS TO THE SITE -NOT TOO MANY, PLEASE DON'T BE ALARMED- BUT IT MAY LOOK A BIT PECULIAR FOR A DAY OR SO. THERE IS NO NEED TO ACQUIRE NEW GLASSES OR TO PUT DOWN THE DRINK. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE.

August is silly season but are we being silly?

Okay, we know the world is coming to an end pretty soon; we do read the papers. What we don't think you need, Dear Reader, please forgive our presumption, is more headlines filled with more doom and gloom. So we've gone on holiday, like most of the European Prime and Other Ministers. And like them, we keep in touch so you won't be absolutely bereft of our wonderful website. What you won't see is the Daily Headlines (until September) and we'll be missing quite a bit of news. On the other hand, you will get the important, mainly local (lo-cal?) stuff you're used to. If you're not a regular reader (and even if you are and are having withdrawal symptoms) we urge you to click away happily and explore the site - you can always come back to the front page by clicking on the site name at the very top. See you soon!

There is more news out there...

...well, there must be more than just the elections. Ah, here you go: Iceland volcano spews ash cloud; various things about Gibraltar; there's crime, always a joy; and there must be some good news ... we will be trying our best to catch up with it all as soon as we can. If anybody's bored with the elections, we apologize but it ain't our fault that the country was turned upside down - or maybe it is 'coz we voted. Did you vote? Please tell us about your wonderful experience: we like nice stories.

OUR APOLOGIES FOR AN ABSENCE OF ITEMS TODAY

We hereby grovel, Dear Reader, in apologies and other such grovellings, but we have had a technical hitch all day with our connectivity. In other words, we have had Internet connectivity issues since early this morning and as it is now thirteen hours later we have decided to shut shop for the rest of the 24 hours and see if we can get back some of the sleep we lost with worry at siesta time. The tech gods willing, we will be back tomorrow as usual.

B***er Blogger!

We have been unable to blog today because some major thing has been going on at Blogger, our hosts, as it says on the screen we've been getting until just a few minutes ago. For the moment, they are being very cagey about it but we will try to find out, if nothing else for our own curiosity. In the meantime, we will attempt to catch up over the weekend. Our apologies.

COMING SOON on CampoPulse!

We are preparing items on the electoral list for each of the Campo's seven municipalities. Given the variety and number of parties taking part in the ELECTIONS ON MAY 22, this is an arduous job that must be published correctly. Other news will be updated as soon as we have put aside earning a living. Watch this space...

We appreciate it

Received with donation: Thanks for all the work you do on Jimena- and CampoPulse - hope this helps you keep up the good work. Thank you for the donation and the kind words - it's nice to be appreciated. All donations are anonymous unless specified otherwise, in writing. You can donate via PayPal (click on sidebar icon), as this donation was, or any other way: just let us know. We try to make it easy (well, we would, wouldn't we?), so brown envelopes are accepted eagerly, too. Seriously, thank you.