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,,,
..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!
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,,,
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