Nerja Legion raises over €13,500

The Nerja branch of the Royal British Legion has so far raised in excess of €13,500 through collection boxes in bars and restaurants throughout the region, the ever popular Poppy Ball, collections at the Tuesday and Sunday markets in Nerja and profits from monthly lunch raffles during the year.

Although the focus this year is on Afghanistan, the Nerja branch also remains absolutely committed to the needs of the local ex-service community. The branch is looking for volunteers to take on the roles of secretary and public relations officer.

Anyone who is interested is asked to contact Nick Ball on (+34) 95 252 2630 or Jacky on (+34) 95 252 9671.

NADFAS lectures

Libya Uncovered is the first of two lectures for the Nerja Decorative and Fine Arts Society this month. To be given on March 9 by Christopher Bradley, it is entitled The Magnificence of Leptis Magna, Sabratha and Cyrene.

Closed for many years, Libya is slowly exposing its ancient Phoenician, Greek and Roman cultures. The 3rd century AD is the golden age of the very finest examples of Roman mosaics and art. Ancient rock paintings deep in the Sahara show the artistic skills of semi-nomadic traders 10,000 years ago. The Phoenicians developed the early trading ports of Sabratha and Leptis Magna, whilst the Greeks built the magnificent city of Cyrene.

But it was under the powerful Roman Empire that Leptis Magna became the greatest city in Africa, when local leader Septimius Severus became emperor. His huge public buildings are adorned with magnificent carvings and the private villas of the wealthy show more personal tastes of design and artwork. Many of these villas have only recently been uncovered, showing that the 3rd century AD was the golden age of the very finest examples of Roman mosaics and art.

 

During Byzantine control, a unique Berber culture also developed in the mountains, where they created strange architectural homes and granaries. The arrival of Islam brought new forms of mosaics, Ottoman influenced mosques and ornate houses inside Tripoli's old city.   Deep in the Sahara desert are many sites of ancient rock art and old trading towns.  One of these is Ghadames, a UNESCO world heritage site famous for its lavishly decorated house interiors.

Christopher Bradley is an expert in the history and culture of the Middle East. As a professional tour guide and lecturer he

has led groups throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He has written extensively on

Arabia and is the author of The Discovery Guide to Yemen. As a film producer and cameraman, he has made documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic TV and Channel 4.   On March 23, there is a talk about the last 100 years in and around Nerja by Pablo Rojo Platero. It will be digitally illustrated with about 80 old prints/ photographs.   Pablo has written a book about Nerja lavishly filled with hundreds of photographs of old Nerja and Frigiliana which has been translated from Spanish into English and it will be on sale at the lecture or from Smiffs Book & Card Store, NADFAS Sponsors.   Both lectures are at the Nerja Cultural Centre at 6-7.30pm.

Divorcing Telefónica

I always thought that it is strange how easy it is to get married but often much more difficult to organise a divorce. It seems logical to me that it should be the other way round and perhaps there would be less divorces!

I was reminded of this when we tried to cancel a telephone line the other day with Telefonica. Having the line put on as I recall was rather simple and involved a single phone call as we already have other lines with Telefonica. “Please put the phone on at this address on this account.” Fine.

Cancelling however is a whole other ball game. Having previous experience with this I know it is much better easier handled in Spanish so gave the job to one more fluent than I. Well it took him three days to actually get through to a person who could ask him what he wanted. He tells me this is in part because he called from a mobile, and when he was asked what he wanted was put through to the department for business mobile phones – Movistar and not business Telefonica lines. He didn’t want to call on a land line as then he would have been put through to Telefonica for personal phones!

Eventually, he was asked to provide a fax with a signed letter saying we would like to cancel, a copy of both our IDs (the partners in the company) and a copy of the tax paper which says we have a CIF no. The papers were eventually collated, faxed and… two weeks later the phone appears to have been cut off!

Ladies Festival

The Nerja Lodge of European Fraternity is holding a Ladies Festival on March 20 at 7 for 7.30pm at the Nerja Caves restaurant.

Tickets are €35 and include reception with drinks and canapes, four course dinner and dancing to the Lindsey Rose Duet. They are available from Michael Traill on 95 253 1312, or 608 75 0980

Rockin'
the boat

The Nerja Players present a musical evening featuring the somgs and music of Frank Loesser on March 10.

“Sit Down, You´re Rockin´The Boat” and “I´ve Never Been In Love Before” are just two of the popular songs featured in his greatest musical “Guys and Dolls” Other songs he wrote for some sixty films include “Baby, It´s Cold Outside”, “Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen” and “Slow Boat To China”.

The evening provides an opportunity to experience the music and lyrics of this versatile and iconic composer of “Guys and Dolls” which signposted a change of direction in stage and film musicals. The concert is at the Nerja Cultural Centre and starts at 8pm. Tickets are €10.