If you see a fair few old but extremely well-looked after cars on the roads in Tenerife today, you’ll be seeing the XII Clásica de Tenerife – the 12th classic car rally. The video above is of last year’s, and as you’ll see, there is a great range of old cars, from minis to Porsche, MGs to Ladas! This year, 38 teams are participating, and today’s stages are:   ... Read more...

Update 27 September: Well we didn’t see much of it in the south, and that’s putting it mildly, but it rained a fair amount in north Tenerife, and as far south as Arafo. There were several minor accidents on the motorways in the north, and some flooding, but Tenerife needs a lot more where that came from, and it wouldn’t be taken amiss if it shared it with the south either!   ... Read more...

I’m delighted to post that Rosie has now had her stitches out, and has lost the lampshade around her head which was driving her crazy. She’s now back to normal, bless her! I’ve updated her diary HERE.

An 80-year-old man died this afternoon after being knocked down by a hit and run driver in Puerto de la Cruz. Emergency services were called to the accident at the promenade around 5.30pm and found the poor man with serious head injuries. Despite their efforts at saving his life, sadly they could do nothing to help him and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver was subsequently detained, and found to have been over the limit.

Update 25 September: The La Gomera Cabildo has said the fire, which started on 4 August, was at last brought under control at 10pm last night. It was declared stabilized on 24 August, and since then firefighting work has continued to boundary it and dampen down. The decision to declare it under control was made after 48 hours had elapsed without smoke in the permiter zones, and when all the lines of firefighting could be considered “cold”. The President of the Cabildo, Casimiro Curbelo, expressed his satisfaction at being able to announce the news, but stressed that the island hoped for rain which would help finally to extinguish the fire. Almost 3,000 hectares have been affected on the island, some 8% of its entire surface, of which 720 were in the Garajonay national park itself: the final damage there is to 18% of the forest.   ... Read more...

There is a group of people in the situation of having received a fine for illegal letting, but who did not find out about it, normally through discovering their details published in the BOC, until it was too late to put in an appeal.

From a meeting that I had earlier this week with José Escobedo, it has become clear from his research that Spanish constitutional law, together with precedent, requires the Government to do more than just send a letter to whatever address is readily available here, and then go straight to publication in the Boletín. Constitutional legislation is quite clear that all possible means of identifying someone’s whereabouts must be exhausted before a fine is imposed without individuals being able to defend themselves.   ... Read more...

Update 21 September 2012: Animal rights campaign group “Proyecto Gran Simio” took Morgan’s case to Europe to try to force her release into the wild, but the EU Parliament has now ruled that her transfer here was legal, and that she should stay at Loro Parque. The group had argued that Morgan was in danger at Loro Parque after being transferred last year from the Hardwick dolphinarium in Holland. President of the Petitions commission, Erminia Mazzoni (PPE), however, said that after hearing evidence concerning the manner of Morgan’s transfer and the conditions at Loro Parque,  the case had now been closed.   ... Read more...

Update 18 September: I was really pleased to meet Jordan’s mum, Karen, recently when she was in Tenerife on holiday. It was lovely finally to put a face to the name and the online person. Karen asked me to post to let everyone know that although she felt apprehensive about coming to Tenerife for the first time since Jordan died, once here she actually felt really peaceful, and found it helped to visit the places Jordan would have visited himself while here.   ... Read more...

Rosie has been to the vet today to be spayed. I feel very sorry for her because it’s obviously sore – she only had the operation a few hours ago – but she’s fine. She doesn’t like the plastic flower-pot thing around her head, though, so the next ten days are going to be fun before she goes back to the vet to have it removed, and the stitches out …

Only a week ago I posted about a 65-year-old man who was critically ill after nearly drowning in Las Galletas, one of a series of such accidents recently, and now the same thing has happened to a 55-year-old woman who had been swimming at Playa del Camisón in Los Cristianos. Again, emergency services were called out with reports that she had been pulled unconscious from the water, and she too was resuscitated, stabilized, and transferred to hospital where she remains in critical condition, but alive. It seems to me that people get too hot while sunbathing, and some add alcohol into the equation, and the coolness of the water is too much of a shock to the system. Take care on the beaches here, beause this happens far too often.