Soto SolWalk & Fun Run

SOTOGRANDE One of the big events this year, the Soto SolWalk & Fun Run takes place on Saturday May 12, starting at 9.30 at Sotogrande International School. This is a sponsored walk in aid of Children with Cancer (www.daniicharity.bbnow.org) to which everyone is welcome. Donations by onlookers and others are also welcome. To find out more and register, call Jo (671 733 522), Andy (664 581 954) or Alison (690 167 317). You can become a friend on Facebook, too:  http://www.facebook.com/sotosolwalk.

Soto SolWalk & Fun Run

SOTOGRANDE One of the big events this year, the Soto SolWalk & Fun Run takes place on Saturday May 12, starting at 9.30 at Sotogrande International School. This is a sponsored walk in aid of Children with Cancer (www.daniicharity.bbnow.org) to which everyone is welcome. Donations by onlookers and others are also welcome. To find out more and register, call Jo (671 733 522), Andy (664 581 954) or Alison (690 167 317). You can become a friend on Facebook, too:  http://www.facebook.com/sotosolwalk.

Soto SolWalk & Fun Run

SOTOGRANDE One of the big events this year, the Soto SolWalk & Fun Run takes place on Saturday May 12, starting at 9.30 at Sotogrande International School. This is a sponsored walk in aid of Children with Cancer (www.daniicharity.bbnow.org) to which everyone is welcome. Donations by onlookers and others are also welcome. To find out more and register, call Jo (671 733 522), Andy (664 581 954) or Alison (690 167 317). You can become a friend on Facebook, too:  http://www.facebook.com/sotosolwalk.

Big Band from the UK on Friday

SOTOGRANDE (via e-mail) This coming Friday, the 23rd March, we have the great pleasure of presenting to you a concert of the 'Big Band', made up of students of the famous King’s Bruton in Somerset, England, they have already gained a lot of fame and have performed in various places in Great Britain and abroad. The venue is at the Sotogrande Hípica Park, which you will find as you enter the Casa Club of La Reserva. We will start at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are €5 at the door, just a token amount to cover our costs as we are still out of funds!

New Saturday market opening tomorrow

Inside Mar y Sol

Opens every other Saturday

SAN ROQUE / Sotogrande Tanya Ward (a.k.a. known by us variously as The Hurricane or The Enterpriser) has organized a market at the Mar y Sol shopping centre (See map below). It will be open every OTHER Saturday starting tomorrow, March 10. She is looking for stallholders selling homemade items and produce such as crafts, jams, bread, cheese, and so on (this is on private ground, so less trouble re papers, etc.). Stalls are €10 for second hand items and €15 for new things. Set up time is from 9am and open to the public from 10 to 3. For more information, call Tanya on 666 157 917.

A truly magnificent performance

Quoting directly from YouTube: "First of all: This is a performance given free by the local communities' dedicated amateur musicians and singers, believe it or not! The concert was held in a church. The Hallelujah, an additional finale to the concert of Georg Friedrich Handel's Messiah Part 1, held on 3rd December 2011 at Nuestra Señora de la Merced church in Sotogrande, Spain. The Sotogrande Camerata Choir with invited singers and the Jimena Chamber Orchestra, plus four soloists - Soprano Esmeralda Espinosa, Alto Yvonne Edge Higginbottom, Tenor Luis Maria Pacetti and Bass Damian Del Castillo Choir Coach: Pascual Fernandez Director: David Higginbottom Sponsored by Jimena's CODA Cultural Association and Sotogrande's Cultural Association" 

December concert to feature Handel's Messiah

SOTOGRANDE (Pres release) On December 3, Saturday, a concert featuring the first part or Christmas section of Handel’s Messiah will be presented at the Sotogrande Church at 8:00 pm.  The concert is sponsored by the Cultural Association CODA of Jimena de la Frontera.  The main choir for the occasion will be the Camerata Singers of Sotogrande which will be reinforced by members of the Jimena CODA Choir, Coral Portus Albus of Algeciras and other individual guest singers. The augmented choir will be accompanied by a Chamber Orchestra made of principally the musicians from the Jimena CODA Choir and orchestra plus some invited instrumentalists.  The four soloists are stand outs in their profession, having performed in various concerts, operas and zarzuelas in many theatres.  They are Esmeralda Espino (Madrid), soprano, Yvonne Edge Higginbottom (Jimena), contralto, Damian del Castillo (Madrid), baritone and Luis Ma. Pacetti (Málaga), tenor.  The concert-director is David Higginbottom of Jimena.>>>

Andalucía Masters scheduled at Valderrama for October 27 to 30

SAN ROQUE / Sotogrande The second edition of the Andalucía Masters golf competition was officially presented in Los Barrios yesterday by Luciano Alonso, the Junta's head of Tourism, Commerce and Sport, and San Roque Mayor Juna Carlos Ruiz Boix, among others, Scheduled for October 27 to 30 at Valderrama, the event will bring together such golfing luminaries as Thomas Björn, Paul McGinley and Martin  Kaymer, as well as Miguel Angel Jiménez, Alvaro Quirós, Sergio García and José María Olazábal, who captain's the European team for the 2012 Ryder cup to be played in Chicago. The Junta de Andalucía has backed the competition with €3 million in prize money. Its representative, Luciano Alonso, pointed out that>>>

Congratulations on number 5, Alexa!

Beautiful family!

Our friend Alexa Fontanini, who has a home in Jimena, gave birth to her fifth child yesterday. "It's a BOY!" she says. Here are all the kids with their new brother, who is as yet unaware of his exalted position among his siblings. Our best wishes to the newborn (whose name we don't yet know) and, to use a Spanish wish for Alexa and Tim: ¡Salud para cuidarlo! (Health with which to take care of him!).

Soto walks for breast cancer research again tomorrow

Photo of last year (SotograndeDigital)

This year's Soto Walk in aid of Breast Cancer Research takes place tomorrow morning, May 28. Starting at Sotogrande International School (registration from 9am; walk starts at 10), it ends at the port. There will be free cake and water stops (!), plus water stops for dogs, cats and weasels (yes, you can take your pet - alligators not allowed). Also a not-exclusive personal trainer will be on hand for a warm up. Lunch at the finish line for only €8 (at Midas). Donations to Cancer Research from participants and/or onlookers will be accepted gladly. Sounds like a fun day out, doesn't it?

Sotogrande Cultural Association concert on Sunday

The Sotogrande Cultural Association is holding a concert by Collegium Musicum and Camerata Singers directed by Annemarie Philipps, next Sunday, May 29, starting at 8pm at the N.S. de la Merced church in Sotogrande (follow the 'Iglesia' signs once you're in Sotogrande). The programme includes music by Handel, Haydn and Hummel and features Ángel T. San Bartolomé on trumpet. Donations will be taken at the door.

Sotorox3 concert at Sotogrande International School tomorrow night

They do it twice a year, these Sotogrande International School kids. They enjoy themselves, and so does their appreciative audience consisting mainly of their peers. This Friday, March 25, at 7pm, Sotorox3. Sponsored by Lloyds Bank and Patricia Darch, all proceeds will be going to the school's NGO, The Kindred Project. The programme is full of good music, of all kinds (see below), and a great deal of fun. Enjoy!>

A fairy tale of an excursion

You're minding your own business, checking out the camera from another assignment, you turn the corner into Jimena's main square, and what do you see? A whole lot of little people and their minders, all dressed up and somewhere to go. It turns out these are the Sotogrande International School pre-school lot, on an excursion/visit to Jimena. Their topic is Story Telling, so there they are, all dressed up. But what we liked very much was that their teachers were dressed up, too, and not at all embarrassed about it. They were walking up to the castle after we took the photo. Hope you all had a great day, people! (It wasn't easy to get them all into the photo, so we'll be putting more pics on our WebAlbum as soon as poss.)

Ely Cathedral Choir tomorrow at Sotogrande

This concert is part of the tour of the Ely Cathedra Choir from Oct 26 to Oct 30 along the Costa del Sol and Gibraltar. It is a rare opportunity to hear this world famous choir that has taken the 'Ely Sound' around Europe and America. The Sotogrande concert includes the Camerata Singers, whose chance to sing with the Ely choir must have them ecstatic. Entrance here is free, at the Nuestra Señora de la Merced church in Sotogrande, tomorrow, Friday, October 29, at 8 pm.

Tesorillo medical centre to house physiotherapy centre

(Press release) The health centre at San Martín del Tesorillo is being extended in order to house a physiotherapy centr that will be available not only to Tesorillo residents but also to those from San Enrique, Montenegral an Sotogrande, according to Councillor for Health Mercedes Segovia. The project, financed by the Junta's Plan E with a budget of €120,274 and is being built on municipal land next to the health centre, was created following prescriptions by the Health Authority of the Campo de Gibraltar and will provide an up-to-the-minute service that until now has been housed in rented facilties.

Are you keeping an eye on CampoPulse?

Our partner site CampoPulse is full of news about the Campo de Gibraltar in general. We are beginning to publish our Jimena articles there as well, in preparation for moving everything over there. However, in the meantime, we urge you to have a look at the sidebar, where a selection of the latest articles are listed under the Did you miss anything on CampoPulse? heading. Preponderant among the subjects to be found on CampoPulse is the current La Línea 'congestion charge' situation, which is updated daily and that is affecting many of our readers, and will certainly do so in the future if things continue as they are. So keep an eye on CampoPulse to get the latest for your town or village. (Photo: mollymccloy.com)

Ignorance is bliss, if only they knew it

SOURCE: TioJimeno Nice little piece by our friend Ricardo Gómez, who tells of a story Juan Lobillo told him: Juan came across a group of 'high standing' (known as pijos in colloquial Spanish - and defined circumspectly as 'upper class') visitors to Jimena. One of the group's mobile rings. "Where are you?" she was asked. Juan heard the answer: "We're in Jimena. In the Sotogrande Mountains." Ignorance is bliss, as we say, though one can`t help feeling sorry for people like that.

Castellar-Sotogrande road 'will take two months to repair'

The Provincial Delegate for Public Works, Pablo Lorenzo (l. in photo) yesterday visited the 'hole in the road' on the Arenillas road (A-2100), which has been closed since February. Accompanied by Mayor Francisco Vaca, Lorenzo said that work began soon after the subsidence caused by bad weather (estimate €350,000) but reconstruction of a tube under the road has been needed. The tube, dating from the 1960s was made of corrugated iron and is to be replaced by one made of concrete. Work is expected to take another two months to complete, according to Lorenzo. The Mayor and the Delegate also visited the industrial estate, where flooding occurred several times during winter storms. Lorenzo repeated his promise that the under-road water courses on the A-405 will be widened, without specifying when.

Gaucín expat girl launches her first single with grand success

Sponsored by:

This is Ella Chi, 23, of Gaucín. Educated at Sotogrande International School, she has just released her first album Gobstopper, which is enjoying a lot of success on YouTube. Ella has appeared at Glastonbury and on the Johnny Ross Show and is preparing for greater things to come this year. Her influences, she says, are in the rhythms and counter-rhythms of the flamenco music she has listened to in Andalucía, which she left five years ago five years ago to embark on her singing career in the UK, where she and a cousin began writing the album with  a garden shed in Oxford. Her proud mother, Penny Hoggs, who still lives near Gaucín, says, “She is so talented and energetic, but above all determined.She’s gone from practising in recording studios in the village to performing in New York clubs where the likes of Bob Dylan and Lady Gaga have all starred. A lot of people are tipping her to become huge in 2010.” Chi’s album On the Radar is due out early next year. (Source:  The Olive Press) Ella Chi's official website.

Santa María Polo Club is awarded Sports Promotion prize by the Sports Press Association

(Photo by Paisajes Aéreos) The Sports Press Association of Cádiz has awarded the Santa María Polo Club this year's prize for Sports Promotion as a recognition of its work promoting the sport and in making the Campo de Gibraltar an area of reference at European and world levels. Among the best clubs in the world, Santa María has three tournaments among the World Polo Tour (WPT), the Ignacio Domecq Memorial in the Challenge Cup category, the Sotogrande Gold Cup in the Grand Slam category (ranking with the British Open at Cowdray Park and the US Open at Palm Beach), and the Silver Cup, which ranks in the WPT Championships Cup with The Queen's Cup at the Guards Polo Club and the US Gold Cup. (See more in a sneak preview of CampoPulse.)