Austerity Carnival: No Queen but plenty of (Hello) Sailors!

 The local council was true to form and issued these barely legible posters about three days before the start of carnival! The theme was "Musicals" - which gave Claire at Blue Rock a headache, but the bar was decorated on time with references to ten different films.
The showground was prepared as usual, but there was no funfair, and the 3 Euro entrance price was a deterrent in this year of crisis - so not much attendance there - even Drag Night wasn't full! Furthermore we had no Carnival Queen because the necessary quality of costume was beyond the budget!
We missed the opening procession, but caught some glimpses during the week, and it was clear that the main troupes had made a good effort.
For the final Saturday we did our bit with an homage to South Pacific and ate at the American Burger (Chicken George). There were plenty of floats - perhaps a little less lavish than in some years - and too many went down the same Chicago route. Out in the street however there were a number of sailors saluting Bob, drag Sound of Music nuns, a couple of Phantom characters and a lot of Mary Poppins! Mix this with St Patrick's and a good time was had by all until very late.
Next day there was musical-related debris to be seen as we struggled out for the Sardine Funeral!
This year we decided to sacrifice the procession in order to better and more comfortably see the fireworks, so we revisited La Marquesina after many years. When we first started holidaying here it was the only place in the Michelin guide and was a clear favourite. Somehow it has gone off our radar except for the odd daytime tapa, and you will see it gets a bit of a slamming on Trip Advisor. The service was slow, but we had two fishy starters that we remembered as delicious from olden times (and they still are) and shared a half-lobster dish that was also mighty fine! We may have failed to see the late Senor Sardina itself, but we had a very good encounter with fish. The ceremony on the beach was so speedily executed that friends almost missed the fireworks. We had a ring-side position from our table.  After last year's pathetic effort they  were excellent:- perhaps because they were sponsored by our 5-star hotel.

Broadcasting News - some not so Hot!

When you land at 11 am in Fuerteventura and the temperature is announced as 16C you know there is something wrong! So it was on 15th February! We walked out of the airport and met someone we know. He told us the previous couple of weeks had been bad! We hadn't been checking the weather whilst away, so this was an unpleasant shock after UK. We also had Angelika and Katinka (Paleo pals) arriving a few hours later with our assurance that it would be nice for their week. Well they were happy enough with the daytime sunshine which got better through their week, but the evenings and nights have been bitterly cold with a North to North-East wind, and that continues. We have rarely been able to dine outside. Oh dear, what is happening to the climate?

..and something else is not so Hot! Regular readers will know that Ruth has been presenting a weekly show of themed music and a quiz on Corralejo's Hot FM whenever we are in residence. There has been talk of a legal difficulty for over a year, but whilst in Goa we received an email saying that the station had moved urgently to Internet-only. A later email said that it would go off air completely on February 12th. So we missed the farewell, and Ruth didn't know her last show before Goa was her last show forever. The reason is the Spanish authorities' decision on licenses. There is a lot of sadness about  it around town, and a need for a home for elderly frustrated DJ's!

All the more important, then, to solve the internet radio problem! We are avid listeners to BBC Radio 4, to Radio 2 on Saturday mornings, and to Radio Caroline. This has all to be done from the computer downstairs. Fed up with pointing speakers up the stairs, and not wanting to buy another laptop just for this we bought a WiFi internet radio. It works well picking up thousands of stations, being a good FM radio and also playing music from a USB stick, but it won't play anything from the BBC!  The software that comes with it makes great promises, but the dear Beeb only streams for Apple devices because of some very dodgy commercial arrangement. Grrrr! So it was "back to the drawing board" and this wonderful thing was found on sale from Radio Caroline. It plugs into a USB slot and transmits whatever sound is there as a FM signal on the frequency of your choice, so that you can listen on any FM radio within range. Magnificent!

Good News on the UK TV front too! Last year we subscribed to FilmOn in order to access a fair number of channels via the internet. This year we haven't bothered because we have been using TVCatch-up, which is free - though blocked to non-UK users. It has a very wide range of channels, including the "plus 1" versions. We have a VPN for which we pay a small sum monthly (through consult-here - recommended!), so we could receive this, but the VPN slows things down and we have had spectacular buffering especially in the evening.

Now FilmOn has announced that its standard quality broadcasts will be free within Europe - and no need for a VPN. It buffers much less and is good news. (To avoid interruptions register, and make sure you select the free low quality option!)

(You still do need a VPN for downloading from BBC i-player, streaming on-demand from other UK TV sites, and for some UK channels live or "plus 1".. but what an improvement!)

With these desperately cold evenings we have been watching far too much British TV - but    March 9th to 18th is Carnival Time,,,