I happened to pop in to Mercadona this morning. At the tills there were notices saying that the shop will be closed on Thursday 13 and Friday 14 April for Easter.

While I was there I also noticed a spelling mistake on one of their big signs. At the end of the fridges that hold the milk and yoghurts there is a big sign hanging from the ceiling that advertises coffes instead of coffees. I have no idea how long I have walked through Mercadona and never noticed this before.

I was in Mercadona this morning stocking up on chocolates for future FGS Friday golf competitions. There was a sign at the checkout saying that the shop will be closed on Tuesday 28 February 2017.

Having looked it up on the internet it is closed because it is Andalucía day.

I was down in the square this morning and spotted a couple of changes.

The small computer shop over the road from La Gaviota has closed down.

It looks like a bakers shop is opening up where the English shop used to be. Various display units were being set up in the shop when I walked past it this morning.

Further to the story the other day. We have received an email from the people now running La Solea as follows:

"Hello John,

We've noticed your news and yes, there are new people running restaurant La Solea. We would like to introduce ourselves, restaurant entrepreneurs and a couple Mikko & Lilia Monkare from Helsinki Finland. We are serving cook to order made fresh tapas and plates (fish, veg, meat)Scandinavian and European even russian style. Lilia is the Head Chef of the restaurant with over 20 years of experience of the kitchen. We speak english, spanish, russian, swedish, some german and of course finnish.

Welcome all to La Solea to try something new!

Best Regards,
--
Mikko & Lilia Monkare, Nuevo Restaurante La Solea
+34 681 24 98 17"

We will definitely be calling in to meet Mikko & Lilia at some point soon.

I have heard that there are some new people running La Solea. I cannot remember who it was that told me but I seem to remember being told recently.

Also, the gym that is opening is apparently upstairs above La Solea in what used to be El Segoviano. Thanks to a friend for posting this info on my Facebook page recently. So I guess the roof must have been fixed now.

Over the last few days I have spotted some building work going on not far from the new vets that is over the road from Mercadona.

As I was passing there this morning I took a couple of photos of what was going on.

There appears to be a mezzanine floor being installed at the moment.

I asked one of the guys doing the work if he knew what the new business was going to be. He said he did not know. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

I was passing the Chinese shop in the square this morning and I spotted this poster in the window. I have to admit that I do not know how long the poster has been there so the gym might be open by now.

Just a quick update about local restaurants......

I was in Darsena 1 this morning and spotted that the pizzeria close to the Stumble Inn is under new ownership. I was going past it in a car so I did not get a chance to catch the name of the new business.

Also, a couple of nights ago I was in La Plaza in "the square". The new people running the place have produced a very nice menu. The tapas was very good. Also their main course burger was really good as well.

Just a quick reminder that Mercadona will be closed all day this coming Monday, 2 January 2017.

I spotted on Facebook that Ikari has a couple of special menus for the period from 14 December 2016 to 7 January 2017.

When I was in Mercadona at the weekend they had signs up telling people that the shop will be closed on Tuesday 1 November 2016. That day is a Spanish bank holiday.

It is a bit late to publish this. However our internet went out yesterday and I had problems getting tethering from my phone to work so I could publish stuff here from my normal computer. Still waiting for the engineer to sort out the problem but tethering is working OK now.

Today is a bank holiday. Mercadona is closed today. Carrefour is open. I know this as Jacqui went up to the Copo complex today and got some soles on some shoes smoothed so she can use the shoes when playing short mat bowls.

Jacqui has just told me that there is a rumour saying that Mango and H&M will be opening shops in the Copo complex where the cinema used to be.

I was shopping in Mercadona this morning and they announced that the shop will be open the next two Sundays until 3pm.

At long last we now know that the new business over the road from the back of Mercadona is a vets (apologies for the reflections in the photo).

Not that long ago we had a very nice meal at the Ikari sushi bar in the Golf Hotel. At the time we were told that Ikari would be taking over part of the hotel terrace during the summer.

I have just spotted on Facebook that this has now happened.

I happened to be on Darsena 1 earlier today and spotted that Churros Paraiso looks like it is reopening again. The place just along from Pizza Guzzi.

The parafarmacia is now open on Darsena 3 next to Cajamar bank. El Buccanero  is now open again on Darsena 3 not far from the parafarmacia.

Perhaps the longest ever shop fitting exercise in Almerimar continues over the road from Mercadona along from the driving school shop. Perhaps one day a sign will go up and this new business will open.

Perhaps the longest ever "coming soon" advert is still up on the wall for where the dentist is eventually relocate to. Just over the road from the back entrance to Yachting golf. No progress on fitting out the place yet.

I spotted the results from the tapas week somewhere a couple of days ago. Gula won, Yachting Golf came second and Defontina came third.

Jacqui mentioned that D'Bar are on Facebook and are advertising what sound like some very nice tapas of the day at the moment.

As you can see, the windows have now been installed in the new place setting up just over the road from Mercadona. Almost opposite to the entrance to the Mercadona underground car park. Looks to me that it may open reasonably soon.

I have been a bit busy the last couple of days so have only just got around to writing this.....

I was driving around Almerimar on Monday 2nd May. It was a bank holiday so Mercadona was closed. When I drove past the new Coviran supermarket I noticed that it was also closed.

I would have thought that opening at times when Mercadona is closed would be just about the only way for the business to survive. As I doubt they will be able to undercut Mercadona on price or provide much better quality products.

Also, a PS from someone I was speaking to recently. It appears that they do not stock "fresh" milk at the moment.