Regular readers will know we foster dogs for Friends of Mazarrón Animals (FMA), an official local charity. Last month we reported the arrival of our latest girl, Jaina. She has settled in well and now after some basic training she will make a delightful pet. Our friends at the charity Galgos de Almeria have agreed to find her a home and we will foster until then. Just like any country, Spain has some terrible cases of animal welfare and the more we get involved with FMA the more we see. If you could volunteer in any small way please contact us; drivers to take animals to kennels or the vet, helpers at our monthly market, organise a fund raiser or be a fosterer. We can guarantee to find any animal a good loving home given time, but it is the period between taking it on and getting the home that is always so difficult. Kennels cost money even with huge discounts and dogs don’t start to rehabilitate as quickly as they do in a home environment.
VOSE (generally films with the original language sound track – not Spanish dubbed) cinema viewings.
Nueva Condomina in Murcia used to show these just on a Tuesday, but over recent weeks they have had several titles every night of the week, so any night is shop, eat and cinema! Check titles and times online, but VOSE can catch you out! If it’s a French film the sound track will be French. I expect the Oscar winner Parasite has caught a few people out! It is listed as VOSE, but of course it is Korean and the VOSE version has Spanish subtitles.
TV News
FREESAT is a popular way of watching UK TV. The signals come from a satellite dish and although weak here they can be received on a HUGE dish and once installed it is a free service. Many viewers use recording boxes so that they can record for later viewing, or watch one programme whilst recording another. There used to be many brands available, but slowly they have all disappeared including HUMAX. We were asked to replace a faulty FREESAT recording box recently, but could not find one for sale. A call to HUMAX revealed they had lost the contract to make FREESAT boxes and there would be no more from this manufacturer. That left just Manhattan making FREESAT, but they revealed there are no plans to make one again even though they are the only licensed FREESAT box manufacturer, saying that no-one records anymore – everyone uses the catch-up services; Iplayer etc. If you have a FREESAT recording system that you ‘love’, treat it well as it is not replaceable. We can buy standard non recording Manhattan boxes, but there are simply no recording boxes on the market. A small tip is that the hard disk recording device is often the item to fail in these boxes – generally a disc reformat will prolong the disc and box life, but in doing so you will lose all the recordings on the box. Every six months when you have caught up on recorded viewings, get the manual out and format the disc. We can do it for you if requested for just our €30 ‘call out’ charge, but a word of warning – occasionally and it really is very occasionally, a disc will not format and can lock down making the recording function inoperable. On balance it is worth formatting every six months to save the disc, but occasionally this can go wrong. This is rare, but is a potential problem and a replacement box is simply not available.
If you have a recording problem with a SKY box and call them they will immediately take you through the format procedure – having warned you that all recordings will be lost – but if it does go wrong they will just send you a new box out. Like FREESAT it is worth reformatting SKY hard drives now and again. We can do this for you with the warning!
That’s it for March – a quarter of the year gone!
Rainbow Satellites SL – the company for all your TV needs in the Murcia region of Spain. Contact us for free friendly advice on any TV issue.
Email rainbowsats@gmail.com
Tel 0034) 686 358 475
www.rainbowsats.org
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More TV news in April 2020.