What are the strange new metal structures popping up all along the front at Los Cristianos. Are they bicycle stands for aliens, toast racks for giants or modern art gone mad? Actually, none of those, they are gym equipment installed by Arona council in a bid to encourage a little day to day excercise.

The 2 main areas are the small plaza with the fisherwomans statue facing the old beach, and to the east a mini park area just past the tiny plaza with the newly mended fountain. The latter area is mostly metal beams, a nearby plaque explains their 3 main benefits to the cardio vascular system, strength and flexibility. The other area has a treader for step ups and 2 seat benches fitted with pedals to improve lower body strength.

Â

Â

Â

Â

Â

Â

Â

Â

Â

Â

Â

I’ve seen street gyms like this on a much larger scale in Arrecife, the capital of Lanzarote, and i’m told they are also popular in Miami. The Tenerife versions have popped up over night with no big fanfare, and are becoming a curiosity among passers by. I tried to get some pics of dolly birds trying the equipment out, but strangely they didn’t seem keen to exert themselves while a shifty looking blonde man lurked in the shadows with his camera.

If you go near the new additions, don’t just look, have a little play, it might encoursge others. I’m not too sure about the pedal machine, I have heard that it is linked to the cafe behind, where the owner is contemplating vastly reduced electricity bills. Besides that, when people pedal really fast using both seats, I could swear that Tenerife starts moving slightly nearer to La Gomera.

It’s enough to make the Major choke on his cornflakes and Basil chew the carpet. Puerto de la Cruz council want to twin their city with Torquay, the cream of Devon, forever immortalised by Fawlty Towers.

 You can see the similarities, both coastal cities with a big fishing and boating community and popular with tourism, but that’s not the connection. Agatha Christie is the key to this mystery. The famous crime writer, born in Torquay in 1890, stayed in Puero de la Cruz in 1927 and was inspired to write the short story “The Man From The Sea”. Last year Puerto held an Agatha Christie festival from November 23 to December 1 to mark the 80th anniversary of her visit.

Grandson Matthew Prichard, who now handles Agathas estate and rights to her works, came over to attend a number of events including the unveiling of a bust at La Paz, the mirador (viewpoint) that looks down on much of Puerto de la Cruz. The plan is for a second festival to be held in June 2009 and the twinning arrangement with Torquay would fit in nicely with that.

The Devon city has its other claims to fame, comedian Peter Cook was born there and the lovely Helen “Hells Bells” Chamberlain is probably their most famous supporter of Torquay United. I doubt if we can look forward to a literary festival based on the works of Derek and Clive, or the contents of the Torquay football programme, so murder and intrique will continue to forge links between the 2 cities.

Â

Â

Â

Money makes the world go round, well so Liza Minelli sang, I find that a dozen bottles of Dorada Especial makes most things go round. Anyway, giving the World an extra spin is a new 12 euro coin made by the Real Casa de la Moneda, the Spanish mint.

The new coin weighs in at 18 grams, is 33 mm in diameter and is to commemorate 2008 – the International Year of Planet Earth. Although it is technically legal tender, it’s not issued for general circulation like other coins, and you would probably have a hard time getting shops to accept it. I thought this was a one off but delving deeper, I found that there is a history of these 12 Euro coins to mark special occasions, the last 2 years has seen specials to commemorate the Treaty of Rome and the 5th centennary of Christopher Columbus.

The coins are in the tradition of the British crown, they had a face value of 25 pence or 5 shillings in pre decimal terms. The Queens silver jubilee crown of 1977 is probably loitering around in the bottom of many peoples change jars, I still have my 1965 Churchill crown tucked away and gathering dust somewhere at my parents. They were often given as little birthday presents with the idea that they would grow in value as collectors items, though there were so many of them, they wont make you rich.

Â

Â

Â

Â

International football and a chance to see the next generation of England players comes to Tenerife next week in the Under 17 European championships qualifying round. La Orotava, near Puerto de la Cruz, is the setting for most of the games as England, Spain, Armenia and Estonia battle it out for the 2 top spots that will take them through to the Elite qualifying stage next year.

All the England players are pushing to make the big breakthrough with their club sides, but for some it’s easier than others. Arsenal have already bloodied some of their home grown talent in the cup competitions so names like Luke Freeman, Emmanuel Frimpong, and Jack Wilshere (below)Â may ring a bell. One of the star forwards is Jacob Walcott of Reading, a cousin of senior star Theo Walcott.

The games start on Wednesday October 22 at 5 pm with Spain v Estonia followed by England v Armenia at 7.30 pm, both at La Orotava. On Friday October 24 it’s England v Estonia at 6 pm follwed by Armenia v Spain at 8.30 pm. Because the last 2 games may be vital to qualification places, they both take place at 8.30 pm on Monday October 27, Estonia v Armenia will be the only tournament game to be played at Los Realejos while England take on Spain at La Orotava.

Spain’s squad will be dominated by future stars of Real Madrid and Barcelona, realistically they should be looking at going through with England, but they will be wary of the 2 outsiders springing a surprise. England under coach John Peacock, may well contain a few emerging stars that go on to senior glory in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Â

Â

Living here in Tenerife, it’s easy to get used to the constant arrival of illegal African immigrants on the pathetic wrecks of boats known as pateras or cayucos. Living in comfort in a beautiful setting, it’s hard to imagine the hardship and poverty that drives these people to risk their lives in search of a new life and new hope. Only a couple of days ago, another 69 were beached at San Miguel, most of them dehydrated and suffering from hypothermia.

Sadly, where there is suffering, there is often someone profiting from their misery, and in this case it’s the gangs that operate the boats and take a meagre lifes savings off their desperate passengers. In many cases they are abandoned at sea once the police patrol boats come into view, that is those who survive that long, lots including women and children die on route. Even if they finish the crossing, many are forced into slave labour, often to pay off the balance of their fare.

This week there was some payback in a Santa Cruz court against 3 boat operators from Mauritania who had brought over 67 of their own country men and women in a rickety cayuco in January. They were spotted off the Tenerife coast by the Guardia Civil patrol boat and towed into Los Cristianos harbour, and on to hospital for treatment. All 3 “captains” got 3 years in jail for their exploitation, there are many more over in Africa, just as ruthless and greedy, ready to take their place – but it’s a start.

Â

Yesterday, Macca’s concert seemed so far away, now it looks as though he’ll be here to play. It was starting to look as if the proposed Paul McCartney concert at Golf Costa Adeje on Saturday Decemeber 6 wouldn’t happen but a leading Tenerife hotel has started to take reservations for package deals that include accomodation and tickets.

There is still no confirmation on the official Paul McCartney website or anywhere else I can find on the internet but the 5 star Grand Hotel Iberostar Anthelia at Playa del Duque are taking bookings for 2, 3 and 5 night stays. Iberostar is a major international chain and of course local to the golf course where another British knight, Sir Elton John performed back on January 24. The same promotion company, Canarias Live Sun Festival, are behind the Macca gig, which was announced tentatively a couple of months ago.

The deals on offer are all for a double room with a sea view in the luxury hotel and spa, and include breakfast. For 2 nights the cost is 195 euros each, 3 nights 255 euros each, and 5 nights 425 euros each, but that option includes a meal in the poseidon restaurant, that could be quite an adventure.

Hopefully confirmation and ticket prices will follow soon, but to give you an idea here are the prices from the Elton John concert. The flash seats were 120 euros, dropping to 90 euros and 35 euros in the cheaper areas, they can get 20,000 people in and should have learned a few lessons from the scrum down at the start of the Elton concert.

So get practicing folks “Simply having a wonderful christmas time” and of course “bom bom bom, we all stand together bom bom”

Â

Â

A few years ago in the UK, war was declared on waste in the form of excessive wrapping and packaging whenever you buy things, guess what, it never reached as far as Tenerife. It struck me again today when the supermarket down the road started to share my meagre bit of shopping around 4 plastic carrier bags, I tried to protest as always but they seemed quite offended, as if I was questioning their professional packing skills.

 It’s a similar tale with food, I ordered a cheese bocadillo (roll) in a bar, out it came on a plate with 3 napkins, and all the bar/cafe tables have a plastic cube full of little tissues anyway. Order a take away and it gets even more like pass the parcel, a paper bag with at least 3 napkins, then a bocadillo wrapped in tin foil, tap it and unwrap it and yes, there are 2 more napkins around the roll.

First prize though for waste goes to El Corte Ingles, the multi storey department store in Santa Cruz. I often pop into their food hall to drool at the cream cakes (not on them you will be glad to know) and might get a slice of pizza or a filled roll to chomp on the way into the city centre. They swathe my food in napkins as if they are the make up ladies on the latest Mummy film, and then for good measure they stick the package in a full size plastic carrier bag, I have to send a search team in to find it. I try to stop them but they insist on the full routine.

Some countries have limited or even banned new carrier bags, but anything illegal would soon become hot property over here. People would siddle up to you in a seedy nightclub and try to sell imported white, blue or even top of the range M & S bags. As you can tell, life is pretty good here if this is the worst thing I can think of to moan about. I can report though that the worlds financial problems have really affected me this week. My morning coffee in town normally arrives with 2 biscuits, but this week they have cut back to just the one, damm you banks, it’s hello credit crunch, goodbye Abbey Crunch.

An uneasy calmness has descended on the sea at Los Cristianos, the 2 sides in the great boat tug of war are considering their next move in this long drawn out drama. The scene is the old beach, just beyond the swimming zone, for years there has been a flotilla of small boats moored up, some seemingly abandoned. The port authority declared war on these 80 or so boats about a year ago and issued eviction notices, where they could find owners.

As from the start of October, the port has taken action, forcibly moving some of, what they consider to be, the more neglected boats, only 5 so far. In the meantime, the Associacion Barqueros y Playeros de Los Cristianos (the boat owners association) has hit back saying that it is a working port and the boats bobbing up and down are part of the natural scenery and atmosphere. They have also raised a petition of 3,355 names, against the enforced removals, and have sent copies to the port authority head office in Santa Cruz, Arona council, and the governments of the Canary Islands and Spain. We await the next move.

With moorings on my mind, I thought it was a good time to pay an overdue visit to Las Galletas. It’s interesing to note that their Marina del Sur, see post about its March birth, is now filling its pontoons quickly as well as the hard standing area. Charges for these are probably pretty excessive, so I wonder what their attitude is to the 20 or so loose moored boats that have been out in the bay for many years. I swim there fairly often and recognise the same battered old boats, especially those with a cover on, that have been continually decorated by the friendly seagulls. The locals (business units) on the marina are still empty, including the Policia Local office and the new posh fish gutting station, slowly slowly as ever.

Echoes of the Euro 2008 Cup Final rippled through my mind as Spain and Germany squared up to each other, but this time the sport was beach volleyball and the setting was Siam Park. Germany went into this tournament as one of the favourites and lived up to their billing, Jonas Reckermann was a tower of power serving and Misha Urbatzka mopped up most of the balls that threatened to hit the sand. Blimey, I almost sound like I know what I am on about! Well I have enjoyed the Tenerife Champions Cup, it has taught me a new respect for this sport that I pass by so often at the beach.

Germany won 10,000 euros in prize money, the cup and individiual trophies, plus some rather nice winners shirts, can’t be bad. Great Britain had fallen by the wayside in the group stages but Jody Gooding and Robin Miedzybrodzki are relative newcomers to the sport and hopefully their learning curve will peak in London 2012. Spains first team and Germany made it through from one group and France and Poland from the other, ready for todays semis and final.

Spain and France were first on court, the weekend brought the crowds out and the Champions Girls cheerleaders had a new range of skimpy swim wear to tantalise the chaps. Loud happy clappy music was the order of the day, between play, and the action was top notch. France took a surprise first set lead by 21-17, that spurred Spain to move up a gear and they levelled with a 21-19 second set. All to play for in the deciding set, this time Spain made sure they killed off their opponents 15-11.

Poland and Germany followed, another surprise as Poland went one nil up with a 21-19 set win. The powerful Germans marched back taking the second set 21-11, it seemed they had broken the Polish spirit. No chance, Poland pushed Germany all the way before losing out 15-13.

After 2 such cracking semis, the final, televised live on TV Canarias, had the crowd licking their lips but it was over fairly quickly as Germany crushed Pablo Herrera and Raul Messa 21-14 and 21-12. To the winners the spoils, and the glory of course. The tournament grew in stature and crowds as it went on, and cerainly proved the Siam Park amphitheatre to be a welcome new venue for sporting and musical events. You can also find some of my other pics and reports from the event on www.discovercostaadeje.com You what? you want one last peak at the girls? Oh go on then, twist my arm.

Â

Â

It’s a serious business this beach volleyball, I arrived in good time for the start of the Tenerife Champions Cup at Siam Park, to find the staff watering and raking the sand court, and a player taking a right pummelling in the physio tent in the corner. Moving into the press and hospitality area around the court, it was baking hot but the sight of the Champions Girls cheerleaders barely dressed and bopping sent my temperature through the roof.

First in action were Pablo Herrera and Raul Messa, Spain’s first team (yellow and red), and Jody Gooding and Robin Miedzybrodzki of Great Britain (blue and red) . At the launch party last night, I got a chance to ask the GB pair (below)about their life as professional players, Jody (left)Â from Worcester and Martin (right)Â from Edinburgh had just flown in from a tournament in Brazil and they fly out to Dubai in the early hours of Monday, hectic by any standards. The pair train out of Bath University under their New Zealand born coach, and it’s tunnel vision for the next 4 years as London 2012 is their aim. Before that it was time to take on Spain again after beating them in Brazil.

Watching the game unfold, I started to appreciate some of the finer points like the finger signals behind the back to the team mate and the subtle changes of pace from long shots to short flicks over the net. During breaks in play the pairs rested in their seating areas, honing their concentration, not easy to do with the cheerleaders gyrating just behind them.

Â

So what of the match, Spain took the lead and left GB fighting to stay in touch, before winning the first set 21-15. GB looked to be more even in the next set, but a late burst saw Spain take the set 21-16 and wrap up the match.

It’s a shame the crowd was so sparse, but hopefully the weekend will see a few more people make the effort to see some great sporting action as the competition reaches its climax.Â

Â