It has been some time since my last pair of glasses gave up the ghost. I’m not sure if the final straw was when my son accidentally dropped them in the toilet or if it was the dog sooking off the elastoplast that held the glasses’ legs on that finally did it but finally, sadly, I bade my beloved old specs goodbye and resolved to get a new pair in the following few days.

Well, one thing after another and days turned into weeks and weeks into months. I think the world has a certain special charm when seen through a constant fuzzy haze and who cares about littering and graffiti when they are perceived only as pretty colours anyway? No doubt I have offended or confused more than one person as I sailed past them in the street totally oblivious to anything that is going on outside of about a five-foot radius.

I am dreadfully short-sighted but it doesn’t bother me too much. After all, I work at home all day in front of a computer. I only need to see far enough to recognise the keyboard. I suppose I could have gone on quite happily in my soft-focus bubble had I not taken a trip to Carrefour with my nearest and dearest.

After my mother and I had wittered round the shops for a while and hubby had stamped off to the car, my mother decided she needed to visit the loo. There was a bit of confusion between her going in and me coming out, and before you know it I was stranded alone at the door to the carpark. There was a vast sea of cars in front of me and not a nearest or a dearest in sight.

Okay, so there was nothing for it but to plunge off into the murk and trust my sense of direction. Some time later I was rescued from spending the night wandering about the Carrefour carpark by my mother and husband who had been watching me from afar (probably giggling hysterically and taking bets on how long it would take for me to get arrested).

After that experiences glasses were placed firmly back on my To Do list but first they had to fit on my Can Afford list. I was horrified at the quote I got in the first opticians I tried – €500! Jeez I need a pair of specs not the Hubble Telescope!

Next stop was a shop in San Eugenio which had Rebajas signs plastered all over its window. The sales woman talked down to me and stalked my husband round the shop like a hungry lion. The ‘great deal’ at this shop included not charging for an eye test if you end up buying specs from them and a 10% discount on frames. Big deal! Specs from here would cost about €360. My husband was quite happy for us to go ahead and order them but the sales lady had put me off and I would have rather gnawed off my own leg than throw any of my hard-earned cash in her direction.

And then inspiration struck. Hubby looked up a shop he knew from Paris called Afflelou on the internet. Yes! There are two in Santa Cruz. Had I but been able to see it in the first place, Afflelou, is right there in front of the food checkouts in the same Carrefour that kicked off my latest quest for specs and they have a great offer on right now. Buy one set and get a second for €1!

Brilliant. But even better is that the first pair have a standard price. It is about €79 for under 16 (it is some time since I could claim to be under 16 so I didn’t pay to much attention to that offer), €129 for those over €16 and €329 for bi-focals. Imagine that, two pairs of bi-focals for €330!

In my case, I wanted a pair of ordinary glasses and a pair of sunglasses both medicated for my short sight. I had to pay an extra €50 for the sunnies but in the end, I have now got two fab pairs of specs for a total of €180!

So happy as I am at the outcome of my tale, I have two bits of advice to share. The first one is, if you need specs get yourself over to the Afflelou store in Carrefour Santa Cruz before 28 February at which time this fab deal will expire. And the second is to Mr. Alain Afflelou himself. If you are kind enough to offer such a fabulous deal to the optically-challenged and cash-strapped, I suggest you make the posters advertising it at least ten feet tall so people like me can actually see it when we are shopping in the supermarket right in front of your store.

Credit to Dimitris Kritsotakis for the great picture!

The death of a three year old girl in the Costa Del Silencio, of suspected child abuse, has left the community in shock. Admitted to Mahon on Wednesday in cardiac arrest, the child’s body was found to have marks of a suspicious nature and the police were called in.

The 25 year old boyfriend of the child’s mother is being detained and questioned by police. He denies any wrong-doing, claiming that burns on the child’s body were due to overheated bath water and the bruises because she fell down so much.

Aitana died in the early hours of Friday morning. Her school held a minute’s silence for her on Friday, as did several government offices.

Judging by the roving bands of little demons and witchlets that were terrorising the neighbourhood last night, nobody paid much attention to the bishops’ warnings of the pagan nature of Halloween. I thought my own little devils looked great although Sami was a bit miffed with his make-up. He thought it was ugly but eventually got into the spirit after he was forced to agree that there was no such thing as a pretty pirate.

Leaving the kids with Gaga we went off into the night for a bit of trick or treating of  own own. We stopped by at The Penalty and then made our way to Scottish bar.  The owners, Pauline and Bobby cook up a fab fish and chips and great breakfasts but Bobby’s Saturday curry is so good it sells out early so get there before nine if you want to be sure you get some.

As it happens if you missed out on Bobby’s curry you could have stuffed your face with the free chilli con carne that was on tap at Our Place but as Chef Igor doesn’t do mild, you did need to like it hot. Not that that would have been a problem last night because the only people in the place were the evil and the undead.

Everyone was there from Cruella de Ville to a victim of the Whitechapel murders. There were enough skeletons to open a boneyard and more witches than you could shake a broom at.

More pics on Facebook

In a bid to cause as little disturbance as possible the final asphalting of the Añaza to Caletillas stretch of the Southern Tenerife highway (TF1) is being done between 22:00 and 06:00 hours right through the night. This caused signifcant tailbacks on Saturday night but quite likely was nowhere near as inconvenient as if the twenty kilometre stretch had been closed off during the day.

Even so, from today and for the next four or five days there will be one lane cut between Taibaba and Añanza(going to Santa Cruz) so expect delays if you have to drive to Santa Cruz this week. The lighting and signage has also to be done so some interference or blockage of the slow  lanes of the carriageways in both directions can be expected until that is finished.

TF1 Roadworks

Further to yesterday’s post about revolting neighbours in Costa Del Silencio, today’s Diario de Aviso reports that a spokesperson for the owners at Chayofita contacted them to deny that there was a majority uprising against the planned urbanization works. On the contrary, he said, “the majority is in favor because at the owners’ meeting there were only two votes against.”

Oh what a shame. I was looking forward to a bit of a public mêlée.  Not that two people sat down in front of a small digger would have been much of a spectacle.

Anyway sticking to the whole Costa Del Silencio development story yesterday Costa Del Silencio’s shiny new image was unveiled to the  media and sundry worthy government bods who were proudly shown the finished work at Jose Antonio Tavio and Calle Diana.

Much was made of the broad walkways, gardens and the aesthetically pleasing fence that is set to sweep round the town in a uniting ribbon of metal.

I wonder if anyone  told them that though the broad walkway is complete at Calle Diana the aesthetically pleasing fence has only just been started. You can see the foundations for it behind the original fence which is still standing  up the length of the road from Bella Vista to Maravilla.

Once it has actually been erected the new fence for all its modern chunky poles is pretty useless anyway as I have seen a whole family squeeze between the bars in a shortcut to their apartment in Eureka.

According to the Mayor, Jose Alberto Gonzalez Reveron, there is still plenty of money in the kitty to finish other streets of this town (which I am sure will come as a great relief to the residents of Calle Minerva where works are currently in progress) as well as for a  65,000 square meters park.

There has been talk of a theme park being built in the neighbourhood for years so it will be a significant leap forward for this area should this rumour actually come to pass. The park when completed would be roughly a third the size of the spectacular Siam Park and no doubt shovel tourist money into the area by the coach load.

Diario de Aviso:  Costa Del Silencio Renews its Image

The neighbours are revolting in Costa Del Silencio.

Current roadworks and refurbishment of the CDS area has caused much upheaval in the last 18 months. Where once pushing a toddler’s pram along the path was risking death by car or getting hobbled by the cobbles now one could easily drive a JCB up the centre of the pedestrian walkways.

Walkers, cyclists, roller skaters, pram pushers … all can now skip along the pedestrian walkways arm in arm if they feel like it because the paths have gone from non-existent, ankle breaking road verges to great swathes of feet-friendly concrete. This is great news of course for those who didn’t enjoy taking their life in their hands when nipping to Hermusa for a pint of milk but in order to achieve this rambler’s nirvana there has been a bit of land grabbing going on resulting in great bites of garden being snatched off the local residential complexes.

Oddly, although in certain areas  the contractors appear to have finished, tidied up and sodded off all is not as it seems. A peek over the wall at the tennis courts at the corner of Poliferno and Calle Diana shows that despite work being apparently finished foundations have been laid for a new wall bout seven feet in from the current one.

Something similar must be going on at the Chayofita end of Costa Del Silencio because the residents of block 10 are up in arms about a new wall that is scheduled to bisect their garden.They have made formal complaints to the appropriate governement departments (which  shows the usual triumph of hope over experience) and no doubt expecting their petition to fall on deaf  ears they have also been in touch with the newspapers. The Diario de Avisos reports that the nighbours will not stand to have their gardens shredded and are willing to stand in front of the spades.

Ooooh. While it all sounds a bit ‘pitchforks at twenty paces’ tempers are running high. Watch this space.
View Costa Del Silencio in a larger map

The Tenerife Design Festival (TDF) is dedicated to fusing the ‘current trends of design with the main features of the Canarian identity’ and focusses on the three key concepts of local identity, landscape contrast and tourism.

Expect the unexpected during that week as designers from around the world get together to turn Tenerife into a ’seething mass of creativity and design’.

Oooo er. I’m not so sure about the seething mass bit. Whoever wrote the English blurb on the TDF website has done so in that annoyingly arty-farty nonsensical wittering beloved of those who think design concepts have to be drowned in a bucket of words before the rest of us plebs can get the point (or lack thereof).

Here slighty toned down are the descriptions of the TDF sections taken from the Tenerife Design Festival website.

TDFSigno – designers, industry and craftsmen collaborating on new products and ways of development which involve both fresh  ideas and traditional Canarian concepts.

TDFAtmósfera – ominously threatening to ‘involve the public’, TDFAtmósfera promises to bathe Santa Cruz in a wash of exhibitions and urban interventions. If you venture into large spaces within the city during this week in October such as the TEA, La Recova or the port itself expect to be pounced on by a creative installation or two.

TDFLab – three-day workshops for professionals, students and general participants to experiment with different ways to  generate new objects, graphics and interventions in different spaces with a focus on the interaction between design and the Canarian environment.

TDFAward cunningly sponsored by Turismo de Tenerife proposes Tenerife Design Paradise, an international prize, which encourages designers to work on elements that will make up a dream beach of the future.  Based on the idea “Design Paradise” the aim is the creation of products that may be further developed later by the sponsor to enhance the tourism experience.

TDFSolution brings together different professional approaches to spread and support advances in culture, innovation and design. The Symposium will consist of the presentation of works by businesses, local, national and international designers, stirred into action by a critic or analyst. The point of departure will be TDF’s three central concepts: nature, local identity and tourism.

See the Tenerife Design Festival website for more information including a Programme of Events and a Registration page which showing fabulous international creativity is only available in Spanish. According to the translation it seems registrations will not be open till September:

Inscriptions

To participate in various workshops and activities of TDF, you can simply register by filling out a form. In September the program will be more detailed for you to decide which section is more suited to your interests …

But you should be aware: the seats are limited!