Caleta de Fuste

Caleta de Fuste is 6km south of the airport and is on the East side of Fuerteventura.  The beach here is its biggest selling point; especially from the point of view of a family holiday.  Even on a weekend day its uncrowded; and has full facilities and ameneties.

The thing thats really sets this beach apart from others I've been to sround thr Canaries; and we've visited 4 islands here now. Is that a fishing ban around the harbour and bay have resulted in there being more fish than you can shake a fish net at ! As my 5 year old daughter eloquently put it ' theres millions and millions of big fish, little fish and medium sized fish' .  And if your kids miss seeing the fish in the sea while snorkelling then they can feed the fish off the harbour; fish food is available at the floating shop at a Euro a bag.  Just as an additional tip - we found that as soon as the kids where given nets that was the last we saw of the fish.  Try it without ! Or take some bread with you.

Other things to do in Caleta de Fuste

for the family - with kids

As well as snorkelling and feeding the fish there's also a park on the beach.  Plus the sand is of a quality that sand castle building is an option.

If your looking at the boat trips then I highly recommend 'FIND OUT TOUR NAME and sea lion exprience' .  The boat trip itself is much better than some other glass bottom boat trips thanks to the fact that you have a school of fish that are fed by the skipper that circle the boat for the whole trip.  So even if you miss the parrot fish, sting rays and other local sea life your children will be more than amused.  The trip also includes a helpful educational introduction into what to look out for.  And some time with the sea lion.  Regarding the sea lion; i hate to see animald like this in captivity but on the plus side it is third generation in captivity and had access to a fair part of the harbour.

Caleta Dorado in Caleta de Fuste

I half expect that you've stumbled across this blog after finding a decent priced deal and then reading the mixed bag of trip advisor reviews.  So you probably want me to tell you to take it.  The honest answer is that if I where to go back in time and put myself in the position you are now; then yes I am really glad i booked this holiday.
Lets have a look at the good points.  Please consider that I write this from the point of view of a family holiday.

Excellent Kids club and childrens disco.

Swimming pool with slides and section with water fountains.

Table tennis and football courts.

The local beach Caleta de Fuste has plenty to do there. 

The bad points.

This first one is quite a biggy; and if you've exprienced similar please let me know at the end of this blog, but on day 3 of our stay I was warned by someone else 'to be warned' as 4 apartments had been looted from that night. 

Cockroaches:  sure we had a couple but nothing to be concerned about; even if my wife was trying to convince me there is a possibilty of death if I choked on one in the night.  I'm guessing this is a long shot.

Cats:  the first 2 days we had several visits by stray cats.  After they realised they weren't getting food from them they stopped visiting.

Airplanes.   The airport is about 12k .  Yes they go on to fairly late and start early.  Not gonna be an issue for most as you don't notice them after a short while!

Is it worth taking a Surfboard with you on your Family Holiday

A couple of days before our family holiday to Fuerteventura I scoffed at a friends remark regarding where he said ' i wish i had a free sport like surfing that I was into. ' .  It was those words 'free sport' .  It's a phrase that has always been attached to surfing;  for sure it originated as a free sport.  Back when some Hawaiians grabbed a log and paddled out.   I started listing the costs to my friend of what was needed to surf all year round here.

SurfBoards -  at least 3 to cover all conditions.

Wetsuits - winter and summer wetsuits.  Possible a shorty; if you're going on holiday.

Wetsuit boots, gloves, cap.

Leash x 2  .  just incase one breaks while your in the middle of decent session.

Car Surfboard Rack & Straps and Car!!!!

Key safe. 

Tail pads

Board Bag

Surfboard Wax

Petrol

Money for Car Parking.

And after spieling out such a list there's only one thing he could say and that's 'is it worth it?'

Its a phrase that I've had said to me a few times over this winter; due to it being so cold.  And also a phrase that was weighing on my mind while trying to decide whether to take my surfboard on our forth coming holiday.  The last 2 family holidays hadn't been successful for me in regards to getting waves.  After calculating cost it was quite possible I was spending well over £100 a surf.  After having a look at the forecast I decided to take a punt.  Being a dad and a surfer is a balancing act and never more so than when on holiday, I'd be limited to 3 or 4 days where I could surf at best.  And as it panned out it wasn't until 5 days in that I got to snatch my first session.  A shoulder high wave at Los Lobos.  My board choice had been perfect for here; not too steep a take off with some slack sections you need to pump through.  It was fun but was the price per wave count worth it? 

On my second surf day I'd opted not to go drag the family over to Los Lobos again; that in itself is 40 euros for the ferry from Corralejo.  A north easterly wind meant many other spots where extremely messy.  After an entertaining afternoon of driving through the mountains we eventually got to El Burro.  Nothing to write home about here: a 7 second period - Rocks to beach dump.  The kind of wave you wouldn't bother with in the winter at home, but let's face it; it wasn't the winter and with the water warm enough for a surf in a shortie or even just boardies it was good fun and even the search had made for an enjoyable day.  Enough for me to momentarily abandon counting the cost of waves. It is what is. Plus my board choice had been perfect for here, for the second day in row.
The following days were spent snorkeling at Caleta de Fuste and a day by the pool, as requested by the kids. 
I'd been keeping my beady eyes on the swell and the last day was looking more than promising; with a 8ft swell from the north and offshore winds for the west coast.  I had a break near Majanicho in mind but on arrival it wasn't quite big enough and Majanicho and other volcanic reef breaks along this stretch would be too big for my 5'8 wingnut.  We headed over to el Cotillo - I'd surfed there before and I knew it should be fairly good on the low tide.  There's also beaches and rock pools here that are good for the kids.  I'd lucked out; it was pumping.  And a decent barrel on set waves. 

At that moment I wish I'd packed my 6'4  .  I'd got a couple of the smaller ones as pictured here but  I wanted one of those barrels on the set waves. 


However I was getting nailed on the steep take off.  After stacking my second set wave and getting a proper drilling it seemed a good idea to take the go pro off.  The price per wave would go up drastically if I'd knocked that one off my board.  So your going to have to take my word for that fact that in the end I managed to make a couple of decent set wave barrels. 



At this point in the trip they're was no doubt in my mind whether taking my surfboard was the right thing to do, my only regret was not taking a second board.    I say 'at this point'  as a day later at 2am while carrying my sleeping 4 year old daughter out of the airport; ruck sack on my back, surfboard bag over 1 shoulder, laptop bag in the other hand and with my wife carrying the same amount of bags; that I realised at this stage of being a parent that traveling with 2 boards still isn't an option. 

Peppa Pig childrens roller skates strap not working

Here's a silly one that had us baffled for a little while.  after purchasing these Peppa Pig roller skates ; one of the straps wasn't holding.  The fix is real simple - the yellow clip was facing the wrong way !! 

how to make money from a clothing website

Oddly enough the first website I worked on back in 1998 was for a online clothing company. Although there have been many advances in Internet technology and the online clothing market has grown massively; the fact remains that customers like to try clothes on before purchasing.

How big is the online clothing Market?

well here's the thing because the online clothing market has grown more than 150% despite the recession, reaching sales of £4.8 billion last year. Confirming that something that many of us though might never take off has taken off and [link:http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG8451109/Online-clothing-sales-double.html] online clothes shopping has come of age [link]. Let's take a look at why clothing sales online may be taking off.

Firstly any potential business looking to be succesful at selling clothing online should be warned that the return rate is much higher online than it is on the high street. Figures reported are that one in three items are returned online as oppossed to one in five sales on the high street. [link:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1353496/How-40-cent-clothing-bought-online-returned--internet-trade-rise.html] High amount of returns on the high street[link]

Have the Advancements in the Internet been the answer to the recent increase in online clothing sales


Back in '98 the Internet was hampered by a slow connection and low quality displays. Many of the advancements in how clothing is presented revolve around this.
* 360 degrees views of clothing using video or JavaScript displays.
* Über big images that load in the background.
* live feeds and recorded fashion show / cat walks to view.

Case Studies
_____________

Fits.me - Providing a virtual dressing room solution. This company go a bit further than the normal handful of angles; but have photographs of all neck sizes & weights to show what the item would look like on you. I believe that they use a robotic dummy that can inflate and reduce its size; so they can take all the images needed. There's no prices on here, I'd have thought setting up your products on here may well be too much for Independent retailers; as even with the help of a robotic dummy there's a huge amount of leg work to be done.


Ann's Cottage Surf Shop

Quite easily the shop I've spent most of my money at over the years ( except for Grocery shopping ). Oddly I've only ever made 1 online purchase from them. So it's good to note that it's not only direct online sales that you'll be profiting. The reason I'd like to highlight Ann's Cottage is because I know they're becoming a profitable online store and it's down to persistence and fighting from all fronts. In fact the list of all the things they are doing represents a good checklist for others that want to be successful.

* Regular statuses on all major social networks.
* Competions and involvement through social network stream.
* Regular blogging.
* Regular Sales and promotions
* a product range and front page that reflects the season.
* A newsletter and incentives to join the newsletter.

Tintagel - Ye Olde Malthouse

They'll no doubt be places that do nicer food in Tintagel.  However at Sunday Roasts for a family of four with puddings and drinks for £50 you won't find many places that are better value for money.  If your rating this place just on food though then your kinda of missing the point. 
You see the real beauty of Ye Olde Malthouse is in that it slots comfortably into your Tintagel experience.  Really feel like you've stepped back in time with a log fire and traditional english pub, of which are a dying bread.
YeOldeMoatHouse

DJs Awesome Pumpkin Soup -

I just freestyled the best soup; so good that I thought I'd better blog it for future reference for myslef.


Ingredients:

* Half a medium sized Pumpkin
* Half a onion
* A tin of tomatoes
* 2 cloves of garlic
* 50g of butter
*  600ml Vegetable stock
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tsp cumin


> Sauté the pumpkin and onion for 5 minutes.  Adding the garlic at the end ( don't burn )
> add the stock
> add the cumin and salt
> add the tin of tomatoes

> boil/simmer for half an hour.

Serve with fresh brown bread :)

do i need to buy a freeview hd box for my lg42lw450u

After much searching it seems that this Tv's freeview isn't freeview HD I'll need to buy an extra box for that.

Meaning that I got the wrong end of the stick regarding what 'full HD' means.

Early May

I  managed to ruin a heap of tomato plants this week by leaving them in my small greenhouse shelving this week.  I've plenty of spares at the moment.
 I 'm thinking that about 15 tomato plants will be my maximum if I can get them there.  However due to these unusually cold nights I'm having in an issue trying to remember to close and open the little green house.  meaning my poor plants are getting burnt in the day n overly cold at night. It's still a few weeks until I'll want to plant the tomatoes out.  I found this blog last week that has some good info for growing tommies

-  'One of the best ways to prevent blossom rot is start before you plant your tomatoes plants.  Check the PH of your soil, you want a PH  of 6.5 for optimal growth.  After planting maintain a regular water schedule to prevent soil dry out.  Keep the soil moist but not wet.' My second load of broad beans have gone in this week.  note to self!

Need to put some slug pellets around it.

My weekend job is to put a fence in the garden, so I won't have too much time for gardening.

Gardening to do list . Cornwall -End of April

Gardening list April 28th

Things to do this weekend.

* plant 2nd crop of broadbeans



* i was thinking of Planting chiles in bigger tub but found this text

good idea to avoid potting on to early as there are many theories that potting on too early into too big a pot focuses the plants growth on growing the roots rather than stems, leaves, flowers and ultimately chillies. A general rule of thumb is to only do this when roots are appearing through the drainage holes at the bottom of the pots.

On this blog Growing Chilli Peppers Guide

* plant pumpkins in window sill small pots

* plant beans, apparently they should be in already

A note for next year.  tomato seeds will not take in my plastic green house at th beginning of April but now here at the end their fine.

Palmera Mar Apartments Gran Canaria

Palmera Mar Apartments

My first impressions weren't the best.  I'd read others comments about the reception not being open very late, and ignored this as being unimpotant.  however after arriving late after a very long journey with 2 kids. And considering that these apartments are a fair distance away from the shops then it seemed an issue at the time.
the other issue that I read was of some that didn't get a sea view.  You have to pretty unlucky at the Palmera Mar not to get either a decent sea view or be right next to the swimming pool.  needless to say we were one of the unlucky ones.  here's a pic of our balcony view.

However I have to say a few days in I really like this place, the staff are really friendly and helpful and the swimming pool heated and the kids loved it. to be honest I I we're to do the trip again We'd maybe try to find somewhere with a kids club but the area itself and apartments were ok. Check this link for a 360 degree view of the Palmera Mar Gran Canaria apartments

The big Pumpkin Challenge

This Pumpkin is 2ft wide!!



So now we have to work out how we're going to get through it all. So far we've had Pumkin Pie, Pumpkin soup, pumpkin pasta and Pumpkin cake. The plan is to make some Pumpkin Pickle as well. I've also got my eye on Pumpkin Sweet & Sour and Pumpkin with Lemony Lentils, not forgetting we'll make flavouring to go with the seeds and will also try and go a couple of these seeds as well ( April should be a good time to plant them here ) . Recipes will follow, but if you're looking for recipes then check www.pumpkinrecipes.org

Can I save my wii memory to SD card.

Couldn't find this one on google but it's REAL easy.

Click on the Wii button on the bottom left corner.

> click on 'Data Management'

> Save Data


then your there :)

Fifa World Cup 2010 Links

In the build up to the Fifa World Cup South Africa 2010 . I've put together a website that searches for world cup related tweets and twitter. And also has any twitter from World Cup football players that I've found.

Here's the teams in World Cup Group A - South Africa Football Team twitter

Mexico Football Team twitter


Uruguay Football Team twitter


Uruguay Football Team twitter

Escape Surfboards Twin Keel 5'10" board test

I reckon there's five main elements that are invloved in taking out the right surfboards.
The size/shape of the wave and the  size/shape/ability of the surfer.  When I did the 'view from joe blogs' write up for Wavelength Surfboard surfborad tests the conditions on the day weren't perfect for the board.
However on this day with this board everything came into line and I had the perfect surf. The surf on this day was a nice clean 2ft (English not Aussie) and just a bit on the small side for everyday choice surfboard a 6'2"ft squash tail thruster.  I managed to get shacked a handful of times had some nice big layed back cutbacks and a decent floater chucked in for good measure. On top of that most of the waves I caught were on my backhand which is important in the fact that if I had taken in my normal board I tend to lose a lot of speed on my backhand in these sorts of conditions - this time I didn't.  I'd definatly like to add one of these boards to my quiver, to have missed out as fun a session as this was would be criminal.  I consider myself an average surfer, after this session I felt like an above average surfer; which goes to show the difference a board can make an the avantages of having a good quiver!!

The measurements of the Escape Surfboards Twin Keel  Sandwich Epoxy I was testing is 5'10" x 21 1/2" x 2 3/4"
The surf on this day was a nice clean 2ft - south fistral at low tide.   As pictured below. 

The rider 12 1/2 stone average surfer.


Check these links fot the latest Polzeath Surf Report,  Polzeath Surf Reports Facebook Fanpage, Polzeath Surf Reports Twitter.

MGMT - Congratulations Album Review

Every review I've read on MGMT's second album 'Congratulations' before this record came out stank. It even seemed that the band themselves had apologised for the album saying that they did not know why anyone would let them make an album like this. Sure there may not be any hits like 'Time to Pretend' or 'Kids' on this record but I still think its a great album.

If you liked the rest of 'Oracular Spetacular' and not just the hits then you'll be fine with this album. If your record collection includes the likes of 'Air - Moon Safari', 'Pink Floyd', 'Super Furry Animals', 'Flaming Lips', 'Vampire Weekend', 'Supergrass' and 'Mercury Rev' - I reckon you'll get on with this album and highly recommend ignoring the critics. Sony should be commended for letting them release this record and not channelling their creativity towards being more commercial.

My personnel highlight of the album is the epic Siberian Breaks" which is a 12 minute nine second journey of electro pop. So no worries MGMT, no need to apologies as I reckon this album will be pulled out of the collection regularly for a long time to come.  Also love 'its working' (vampire weekend ish), song for Dan Treacy - ( Supergrass ish ), 'i found a whistle' - (mercury rev moment ish)  - However I'm sure most people won't agree with me ;)

 

My new blog

Welcome to my new blog, dedicated to everything that's not work related. I have been running a 'work log' blog for a couple of years now and bouyed by some recent small successes with the ads provide by google I have now decided to add to my blog collection.
My Work Blog.
My Website - Little Ripples .com

The ethos of my work blog was to write about things that I'd found difficult to find answers on in google. However the ethos of this new blog is slightly different.

1. to write things of interest.
2. to provide useful information that is difficult to find.
3. to make money ( through the google ads that appear on the side.)


One promotion tool I've never really used for my work blog is twitter. Mostly because many of my work blogs are just far to geeky and boring unless your doing the exact thing that the blog is based. However with my 'Everything but work' blog I do intend to use Twitter to get people in to read it.
Here are my thoughts on Twitter. I am only aiming to add people who I think are of interest to myself or maybe interested in what I do. At the moment my 'tweets' are primarily about surfing with the occasional music based one. I am now planning to expand that to my other hobbies and outside of work activities such as fixing the van, gardening, cooking, travelling, reading, seeing bands and others.
I visit Twitter on a daily basis and have a look to see what links are of interest and worth following. Clicking on google links is a false economy, if you see something interesting then click on it and bookmark it. And where possible make your purchases through the internet. After all that's the bottom line, if people are making money on the net then they'll invest in advertising on it.