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Today I am thinking a lot about our past times in Almerimar.

Sadly, earlier this week, one of the 6 people who are the reason that Jacqui and I are living in Almerimar passed away. Doug's wife Marjorie is no longer with us.

Doug & Marjorie, Idris & Shirley and Joan & Peter welcomed us into the golfing world at Almerimar in the late 90s or early 2000s. We were staying at the golf hotel for a golfing holiday. At that time we were looking around Spain and Portugal with the idea of eventually buying a holiday home.

We spotted that there was an official competition due to take place. It was a competition organised by Bahía San Miguel. At that time Doug was on the committee of Bahía San Miguel.

We were told we could take part for fun but could not win a main prize as we did not have an official Spanish handicap.

There was a big meal in a marquee on the lawn of the golf hotel after the competition. We wandered in to the marquee knowing nobody apart from the people we had played with earlier. Doug & Marjorie, Peter & Joan and Idris & Shirley invited us to sit with them at their table.

Straight away we found that the people here had an attitude unlike anywhere else we had played golf. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. The friendliness shown to us then was the reason we have ended up living here.

This is my way of offering my condolences to Doug and his family at this sad time.

The article here on the Almería 360 website has the results of the recent major windsurfing competition held in Almerimar a few days ago.

Read More for a Google translation of the article.

I think there will be a lot of fleeces and puffa jackets on show here today. The maximum temperature is only expected to be 16 degrees with a minimum of 12 degrees.

At least the sun should be out.

Yesterday I read somewhere on Facebook that Almerimar will be hosting the petanque (petanca) world championships in May 2019. Now I cannot find the item where I found this out so I have had a poke around on Google.

The page here on European Petanque Federation site confirms that the singles, doubles and mixed doubles events will take place here on 2-5 May 2019.

The photo above is of the Kings arriving in Almerimar on 5 January 2019. It was taken from the El Ejido Es Mi Prioridad Facebook page. You can see more photos from the day on this page.

One significant change in the 2019 golf rules is that clubs have the option of adopting the local rule described above to speed up play. Both Playa Serena and Almerimar have adopted this local rule for use from now on.

Juan posted the information above on the noticeboard in the Almerimar pro-shop earlier this week.

In the case of Almerimar it states in the heading that the local rule applies when not playing in competitions. I assume this means in all circumstances other than when playing in official Spanish Federation golf competitions.

Just a quick reminder that Kings Day falls on Sunday 6 January this year.

I was in Mercadona yesterday and noticed that they have signs up saying that they are closed all day on Monday 7 January.

My guess is that the majority of other businesses in the area will probably be closed as well this coming Monday.

El Ejido council issued a press release before Xmas about what is going to happen on 5 January 2019 for the Kings Day event this coming year. I have only just spotted it.

The events start with the Kings arriving by boat in Almerimar at 4pm.

Read More for a Google translation and the Spanish original.