guesswork

His name is Geronimo and his wife is Trinny

LordMayor

I know many people who had lessons in this school and were very happy. Speaking fluently Spanish, I have been impressed by how well most of them could speak. If you want to learn Spanish, I highly recommend this school.

Kath Las Colinas

Thanks Guesswork
That makes them into real people who care about the business. They also now have a website for online courses. I would definitely consider them when we are able to spend more time in CE. At the moment most of our time there is spent in the garden; it is a lot bigger than we had thought when we bought it!!!!!!!!!!
Kath

Jon-Bxl

Hi Les and Silke Ive read through the posts, and as you can see there are a lot of helpful people on CE... meet them when you are here and I am sure you will have new friends as well..... worked for us

I have always dreamed of doing a morning course at this school Escuela Atenea (SP) and try and practice what I learn over a coffee next door at Laguna place after. They were also quick to answer my queries and send me a newsletter regularly. You can sign up too. They do morning courses 5 days a week leaving the afternoons free. Sounds great - and I will do it one day!

However I have also found another Ayamonte based school to consider

http://www.spanishheaven.com/

I cant recommend either... but now you have a choice.

I havent done any price checking but, an A/C with an INVERTOR is supposed to be more energy/cost efficient - they also cool, heat and de-humidify. At the moment we have a LOT of humidity. We can feel it in the appartment. The insulation is useless IMHO, and we find that we can quickly warm up our place with a combination of cheap blower heaters and the A/C. The air gets warm quick and its comfortable. I am wary of having other heaters on for longer periods as it kind of seems like throwing money away due to poor insulation. We therefore do a 'blast' when we get in and within minutes its warm and then we switch off the additional heaters, hide them away. We warm up our bedroom 30 mins before going to have it warm when we get there. We have a separate A/C just for our bedroom as we didnt want a central one warming everything when we are there alone - and the grills are a pain to open/close. However not having say an oil heater keeping the ambient temp up during the day would also increase humidity. The oil radiators warm up slowly and give out a constant heat, so need to be on longer and whilst you are out.

Also here's how to find other threads referred to in the replies... just in case you didn't know already

http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=138 just look down at the topics and you can find the other discussions. You can also get to the Ayamonte club by opening the general Spain forum and you will see it on the top. In the general forum there are lots of threads with info as well.

The moderator was right to keep this on the topic. Only doing his job!! Some of the newer posters, like Longrangesniper LRS and NP, have not been around a long time and they need to learn the rules and build up credibility. LRS has tried to change the subject before - and doesn't respond after. Appropriate name. Click on the name of a poster and you can find posts from them in the drop down box... he has posted 4 times. Judge for yourself. As you can see another post was deleted by the Mods. It happened to me once and I understood why.

This thread is about helping some new people who have asked for it - not to drag them into alternative subjects that can cause argument and annoy people off the thread from posting. Anyone can see the other threads by clicking on the info above. Thanks Fred for keeping us on track... and giving the newcomers a 'real-life lesson' on forum rules and etiquette and a re-coup of the rules for us longer term posters.

Jon

Les and Silke

Dear Members!

This Forum is so helpful! Sorry if we are asking about subjects that have already been discussed before!

We read about Internet connection in other threads but we saw around our house these sockets that look like telephone sockets. But we are not sure. Do they maybe have Landline Connections with Telefonica? At the moment we use Iberbanda for Internet and Landline but try and reduce the cost by looking into different Options.

Any experience?

Big Thank's again!

EsuriJohn

Can we assume that you are on Lomas? If so you are at the end of the line for connections to Telefonica. We are just beyond you but no landlines here we have to use Iberbanda. 2 years ago ther were about 20 spare lines for BB in the grey cabinets at the corners of the estate. I know some people have switched from T to I in that time but others will have joined. I know that at the low speeds the prices are comparable but as you get better speeds T gets cheaper. It is worth noting that at the bottom the upload spread of I is faster so Skype works well with video.

PS this has been discussed fully in the past there should be a thread on this forum if you search!

Jon-Bxl

Here it is....

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...light=alandeve

I have the TMN dongle and its the best internet system I have seen (for my kind of usage in Europe). Not permanent resident - needing access - but not paying monthly.

Now we have the 4G dongles advertised everywhere and if they are half as good - with the same excellent system of paying for time.... then we are on a winner...... (for my usage profile)

Jon

LordMayor

Just for information: TMN is Portuguese.

Jon-Bxl

Sure but as it says on the thread, it works fine from Esuri, using it now in fact!

We are often enough in Portugal to reload it, however if you have a Portuguese bank account you can do it on line (apparently). Can reload it at any Portuguese payshop or Post Office... or phone shop with the TMN sign.

Great for email, surfing and eg Skype..... e.g allows us not to pay a phone line....I don't download/upload a lot so can't comment about that.

Excellent product...

Jon

bxpuser24710519

TMN being Portuguese is a good point, some folks may not realise and if like me, you do not drive, nor don't have Portuguese bank account not so easy !

I am happy so far with what I have ( hope that is not tempting fate.)

Jon-Bxl

All the TMN info is on the thread, as requested by Les and Silke, but I am sure there were other threads as well on internet access, I remember discussions in Iberobanda, line of sight, Vodaphone etc etc.

I dont know how to find them though as I'm not good at searching. So if you posted back then - maybe you can add those links.

However the NEW 4G dongles sound very interesting as well... if half as good as the ads - they are good! Im happy with my 'old' dongle that I got as a result of the thread I linked to above. I will certainly consider them if for some reason my current system seems slow...

Jon

EsuriJohn

Up here on Esuri it is important to get your choice of provider right. Some areas particularly around the GC and Jags Spanish mobile reception is poor even where we are where Movistar is OK Portuguese Vodafone was better and that was what we chose for our dongle when that was our only Internet connection. If you decide to go the dongle route sit where you will use your laptop most and check on your mobile which signal you can get best.

MikeJ

Good tip John. I bought a mobile router from Maplin (about £50 ISTR) put my dongle it that (TMN PAYE) and get pretty good WiFi for all my WiFi enabled PCs Tablets etc. I can leave the 'hot-spot' out on the terrace and use the laptops indoors no problem. Before that indoor use was sometimes variable but that's because we are in a block surrounded by blocks. I've not tried video streaming etc but the normal net-warrior stuff is fine. We are in Marina Esuri so quite low down.

I talked to the guys in the TMN shop in Tavira about the 4G but they didn't have much info at that time just some flyers in Portuguese, but it was claiming 100Mbs connection so will defo have a go with that sometime.

Jon-Bxl

Hi Mike - VERY interesting.

I use my Dongle with some discipline to save the cost. I connect download email disconnect. Same for sending from the outbox. Surfing/Skype, I do as I like but immediately disconnect when finished. Having Skype OUT is great to call landlines whenever we want ( and PC's of course). We dont need to pay a monthly charge for a phone line.

I don't know what PAYE is - mine is PAYG but if I bought your router, could I do the same, switch it on use wifi, then immediately switch it off? Handy for say my kindle and if friends come over for simultaneous use.

My dongle had software on it that I had to download to my PC and I have to plug it into the PC, each time I do it for the first time I need to reload the autostart programme (quite quick). Then its immediate after that on/off till I switch off the PC. So I don't know how that software could be put on the router.

As you can see I'm not very techie, but would like to have wifi, if it as fast as the dongle now and I can switch on use and switch off, if that switching is instantaneous (ie not having to wait for ages for dis/connection)

All this talk of my 'dongle' reminds me of that old Chuck Berry song 'my ding-a-ling'

Jon

EsuriJohn

Especially if your wife gets an iPad!