Writing this mid-December to meet the publishers deadlines I am in the throw of festive season preparation, but when you read this it will all be over! It made me think of when I came to Spain over 20 years ago. Christmas Day was not celebrated except for the wholly religious meaning – decorations were almost unheard of and certainly not until the week before the 25th. Three Kings Day (January 6th) was the gift/fun/family/friend day when the Spanish had huge celebrations – is that not the sensible day for gift giving? Then commercialism came along and the Spanish started to decorate and celebrate both events! Now Leroy Merlin devote a third of their store to Christmas decorations at the start of November! Not sure whether to be Mr Joyous or Mr Grumpy!
Last month we mentioned we were in between foster dogs, but as expected our services were soon required and we welcomed Pearla into our lives. Almost immediately after being shown on Facebook she found her forever home. She was owned by an elderly gent who became ill and very reluctantly realised he could not keep her and give her the life she, as all animals do, deserved. Friends of Mazarrón Animals stepped in and we fostered before Kathy found Pearla a home. Please support FMA events, if you can.
Could you foster? Contact us for information.
TV NEWS
Have you tried internet TV and been very disappointed with the results and are now hesitant to try other methods of internet TV reception? Rainbow Satellites can now use android boxes or Firesticks you purchased to install and run our all-inclusive professionally run and managed (which are the key elements) TV system. We are happy to visit you, install and show you our system on your device and leave it with you for a free no-obligation trial of up to seven days. You can therefore thoroughly test our TV system before you commit to subscribe. Give us a call to arrange a convenient date.
As we predicted, the UK satellite TV system has lost some more channels here in Southern Spain, although we would say the channels that are available have excellent signals at the moment. Part of that is due to the increased signal strength we always get in winter time, but we need to see what happens this spring & summer. It will not be many years before the UK satellite system is defunct and you will have to move to the internet route.
TV reception via internet can be excellent, but you are dependent on two factors; a very good very stable internet supply from an ISP who understands all the TV systems requirements – and some seem not to – and a well managed professional TV system – and there are many out there that are not. Every business will have a problem at times – no-one is perfect! – but over 90% of the TV issues that come back to us turn out to be internet related! The TV plays up so contact the TV company – we fully understand that, but remember there are two services involved and the fault could be with either.
A reboot of the internet router followed a few minutes later by a reboot of the TV digibox will often resolve all sorts of problems – try it before reaching for the phone as it is the first thing the ISP or TV company will ask you to do.
Many of you are now getting ‘fibre’ internet installed and it is without question a huge improvement, but not perfect. Most of you with ‘fibre’ will have had the odd issue along the way. If you have the opportunity, get it installed. There is a moderate installation charge, though some companies have free install-offers at times. Monthly running costs can be less than ‘hard wire’ and ‘over the air systems’ and decent TV!
If you are buying a home here and TV is important (it is not all sun and swimming in Spain!), get us to look at the TV possibilities before you finally sign. We have seen properties purchased and UK TV is just not available.
Rainbow Satellites, the company for all your TV needs in the Murcia area of Spain.
For free friendly advice on any TV issue, email rainbowsats@gmail.com
Tel (0034) 686 358 475
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More TV news in February!