It is a local bank holiday in the El Ejido area tomorrow. So expect various businesses to be closed. In particular, Mercadona will not be open tomorrow.

The article here on the Olive Press site has some details.

The earth did not move for me at 07:15.

You can see more details about this here on the Olive Press site.

Another step in the new normality. The study room in Almerimar re-opens from Monday. So kids can study during the summer holidays.

Here is the story in Spanish on the town hall website.

After a very long time in various forms of lock down today is the first day of the "new normal" in Spain.

For me it has not been too bad a start.

I woke up this morning with a smile on my face. As I remembered that Almería won 2-0 away from home last night. In a big match against the team second in the league.

Then the hangover kicked in. We had some friends round for dinner last night. It was a lovely evening. However my head hurt this morning.

We tried to blow away our hangovers with a round of golf. It seems to have worked even though the golf was not very good.

It is not going to be long until I veg out on the sofa for the rest of the day.

All seems pretty normal to me.

THIS IS THE ROLLING CORONAVIRUS STORY FOR THURSDAY 28 MAY 2020 - DAY 74 OF LOCK DOWN (NOW PHASE 2 HERE IN ALMERIMAR)

Daily info from my preferred Spanish stats guy

Note that a multiplication rate of 1.0 means approximately 0 events (cases or deaths) when comparing today`s 4 day average with yesterday's.

Note that this is the data from yesterday - due to timing changes to the release of data by the government

Google translation:

Shaun Price has sent me some more videos of Idris and Shirley Browning. Thanks Shaun

The first one is a slow motion video of the last drive Idris took on the Almerimar course.

The next 2 videos are of Idris and Shirley saying goodbye to their friends in Almerimar. At the clubhouse after the regular FGS competition on 10 August 2018

The last time many people saw Idris Browning in Almerimar.

Jacqui and I were lucky. We saw him when he called in to say goodbye to the Friday Golf Society players on his way to the airport.

We send our condolences to his family.

Last night we heard the sad news that Idris Browning had passed away. He was and always will be a legend in Almerimar.

On behalf of everyone in Almerimar we send our condolences to his family.

I picked up this poster off Facebook.

It is not often that I write about restaurants in Almerimar. However our lunch yesterday was excellent. We went to Defonitina & Uva.

We had shared starters of wok vegetables with chicken & a big plate of patatas bravas. Followed by two gourmet burgers (pronounce the t in gourmet when you ask for it). Plus a very nice bottle of red wine. Not cheap but very good.

We also went for a walk along the prom yesterday and it was pretty windy. However it is much, much, much worse today. Blowing a gale out there at the moment.

Spotted the article here on the Eye on Spain site. Will have to look out for some of these.

A lot of them can be bought in supermarkets here and in El Ejido.

A reader Kenneth P sent this information a couple of days ago. He received it from the administrators for his urbanisation.....

"Buenas tardes vecinos,

Hoy se ha procedido en Almerimar al cambio de las frecuencias de la televisión(dividendo digital).

Si no ven los canales de tv deben resintonizar su televisor.

Si aún así siguen teniendo problemas, llamen a la Administración para solucionarlo.

Igualmente, también les avisamos que en estos días habrá fallos hasta que no terminen con dicho cambio.

Un saludo"

From Google translate:

Good afternoon neighbors,
 
Today, Almerimar has changed the television frequencies (digital dividend).

If you do not see TV channels you must re-tune your TV.

If you still have problems, call the Administration to solve it.

Likewise, we also warn you that these days there will be failures until they finish with that change.

Greetings

Just a quick update about the couple of groups being organised to play cards in Almerimar. One regularly and one on an ad-hoc basis.

The progressive whist group is having it's 3rd regular Tuesday afternoon event later today. The events are organised via an Almerimar Progressive Whist WhatsApp group I set up.

The WhatsApp group I set up for experienced bridge players has now showed a bit of progress. A group of 4 people organised their own ad-hoc get together in Almerimar late last week. There are probably not enough people here to have regular events scheduled. However hopefully groups of 4 players will choose to meet from time to time on an ad-hoc basis.

We were out and about in the marina late this morning. After which we had lunch in the golf clubhouse.

We had a very nice meal. Not cheap but very enjoyable. They do a menu del día lunch on Monday to Friday for 15 euros including a drink.

Today we had a goats cheese salad and wok vegetables as shared starters. Followed by very good burgers each. They normally come with chips. However Jacqui swapped the chips for some salad.

We washed it all down with a couple of beers to start. Plus a bottle of house red ribera del duero.

Very enjoyable indeed.

Take a look here to a  trip back in time for Almerimar Today.

This example is from 2009. There are many more archives of the site there that I did not know existed until today.

The waybackmachine looks like an awesome site.

I now know that you can get passport photos taken in Almerimar. In the photography shop in Porto Fino. On the left as you turn in to the port at the golf clubhouse roundabout. 5 euros for 8 photos.

That has saved us a trip to El Ejido.

This article was first published in November 2019.

UPDATED 9 JANUARY 2020: We are running our first trial event this coming Tuesday afternoon (14 January). So far we have 14 people interested in taking part. Please get in touch soon if you are interested in taking part this coming Tuesday. Or in subsequent events. We will then add you to the Almerimar Progressive Whist Whatsap group.

This idea came about following a discussion between members of the El Ejido Bowls Club. (Watch out for some advertising about the bowls club on here soon - as the EEBC committee is looking for more people to try out playing short mat bowl in a venue close to Almerimar.)

There is already a Whatsapp group for people in Almerimar who want to play bridge here on ad-hoc occasions. As yet, the group has not yet organised the first game together. However people in the group are now saying when they are in town. To see whether there is a group of 4 or more experienced players who want to play together here in the near future.

The latest suggestion is for a progressive whist group in Almerimar. So a progressive whist Whatsapp group is being set up.

We plan to play on Tuesday afternoons starting in January 2020. On Tuesdays throughout the year when enough people say they are interested in playing.

The venue will be the pensioners club at the back of Porto Fino. We will play in the afternoon for a couple of hours (with a break half way through). So perhaps starting at a time to be agreed between 16:00 or 17:00. Finishing at no later than 19:30 (as we have been told that is the latest that the centre shuts).

The timing is likely to be a bit flexible at first as we will all be learning the format of the event. Our guess is that the speed of play will improve once the group has met a few times.

It is likely that we will have our first trial event on Thursday 14 January 2020. Where some members of the bowls club will show us how progressive whist events are run.

The progressive part of the name is about moving between tables on the afternoon we play whist. Each table has 4 players and you move from one table to the next. When you have finished playing a game.

We do not need exact 4s to play. We need at least 8 players. We can cope with 1 or 2 extra from exact groups of 4. In this case everyone drops out occasionally during the event. However 3 extra players is awkward to handle. So 8, 9 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 players on an afternoon is ok. 11 or 15 players is not OK.

Entry into an event will be on a first come first served basis.

It does not have to be the same people each week. There is just a winner on the day of the event. So it would not be a commitment to play every week. We would  run an event if 8+ people say they want to play that week (and someone offers to organise the event - the organisation each week is likely to be a floating responsibility - not the same person each week).

There would be a small entry fee of something like 1 euro a person. With a prize being given to the winner(s) on the day.

If you are interested in taking part in progressive whist events in Almerimar please get in touch. We will then add you to the Whatsapp group.

The story here on the Eye On Spain site provides some hostory about the tradition of eating 12 grapes at the end of the year. An interesting read.

The article here on the Diario de Almería site describes plans for a modernisation of the Almería football stadium. The aim is to have the stadium open again by September 2020. My guess is that some preparation work might be done during this season. However I guess that the bulk of the work will be done in summer 2020.

The original stadium can be seen in the bottom half of the photo above. At the moment there are temporary stands on the running track behind the goals. It looks like these will be removed. With the new roof covering what was the running track when the stadium was used for the Mediterranean games in 2005. The idea is to keep the sun off the people in the stands.

A lot of fans had hoped that the pitch would be lowered. However this work is not being proposed as it would take too long.

Read More for a Google translation of the article.