Pablosho,
I don't know much but I do know that on most forum's a person with a business is allowed to promote their business in a minor way because they have donated a small fee. Is it the same here I wonder?

Oh go on - you know you want to
Yes, its a big reason I chose to sign up here. I always think the more serious you are about things, the more time you can spend being tongue-in-cheek, and my cheeks could shame some hamsters
Thank you. I'm doing here what I do in my R & D work. As I discover new issues I post the solutions or steps I'm taking to relevant forums to give back to the community. I work mostly on open-source software so its a part of the Free Open Source Software (FOSS) ethic.
I know precisely what you mean - its a balancing act with a fine line. I think you were quite diffident, if its any help, and your site has been duly read and bookmarked for later
It seems strange to think I had no thoughts of Spain until 3 days ago, and in many ways it was the attitudes of many in the ex-pat community forums I was skim-reading that made my mind up. Then again, when I make my mind up to do something I don't hang about!

I feel as if the Costa del Sol delivers a good balance of southern latitude, sun, sea, good food, slower pace, outdoor activities whilst the ex-pat community offers a good linguistic prop if I have problems getting the hang of Spanish.
Fantastic Here at home I'm often the last one out of the nightclub (I love to dance non-stop all night) so it'll be nice to be leaving when the place is still full.
Thank you - that's the kind of thing I've been wanting to hear. So, as I've observed previously, mastery of the language is the key?
Oooooo now you've made my ears prick up! I'm thinking of at least 100 hectares (247 acres) for preference. Exactly how much land are we talking, in your area for example ?

Also, do the planning regulations for these properties restrict how much upgrading of the accommodation and buildings can be done ?

One of my major interests is designing and building environmentally neutral off-grid homes using novel materials such as straw-bale construction, composting toilets, rain-water harvesting (a bloody big tank to you and me!), a mix of solar, hydro, and wind electricity generation, low-power devices, and so on.

In the U.K. there is a very welcome encouragement of these kinds of developments by planning authorities, but I'm wondering how avante-guard the Spanish equivalents are?
Thank you, I appreciate that
A change is as good as a rest, I reckon. Everything I've read of the positives confirms my feeling I'll enjoy it immensely.

Ah you watched Marbella Belles too

Ive been reading this thread and its making me laugh a lot. We left the UK four and a half years ago my wife and i both worked for bt in the upper network management and design areas we are as geeky as it comes we follow tech stuff have tech stuff other than our children thats were our money goes i have 500 plus dvds all ripped on my htpc which is connected to my plasma and projector. But this means nothing. In the uk i had my msce ccna cne im a lucent and acisco design project and recovery manager but out side of the uk it means very little unless i go to the states which is a horrid place. the best thing you can do with that 3g phone is throw it away the networks out here are sparce to say the least and it fare from impressive having a pc in a car if you had a db7 now that would be cool. and i would like a go in it. outside of the uk technology is approched in a some what different way.

That aside good luck on the adventure ahead of you its such an eyeopener.

Ka Ora, please tell me more.
By email f you want.

The UK isn't a technology leader...is it? ( dont tell the japanese gurus )
Have you considered Canada if you dont like Florida?

Canada was never really my cup of tea spent a year there with the army on batus near medicine hat bloody cold and wet. Plus these days with most countries doing medicals i would probably not get in seeing as ive had the next best thing to a lobotomy. Ooh and the phone lines are longer pain in the ass to fault find on them. I would love to go back to being a telephone engineer in a van i installed a number of exchanges in france whilst working for bt and the same tech is used in spain but as here they are slower to upgrade.

Remarkably, in many emerging technologies yes, the U.K. is a leader in the innovation and R&D aspects.

Where the U.K. fails is in a lack of early-stage venture-capital or private-equity and attitude that failure is bad.

We sell most of our best ideas to investors in other countries.

As the U.S. models shows, most successful entrepreneurs have had serial failures and learned from them.

That said, the U.K. mostly seems to be ahead of most of the rest of the E.U., with the notably exception of the Scandinavian countries.

Is that a T.V. programme? I don't have a T.V. so it seems I've missed out on that cultural pleasure

There is more entertainment in the thread on here about it than what is in the tv show.

thats a fact and the boring bits get cut out

Am I the only PC owner that knows you don't need a TV to watch TV programmes?

The operator coverage maps as well as user reports for 3G for the Costal del Sol indicate that UMTS (3G) coverage is very good.

I noted also that Nortel and Vodafone began upgrading UMTS to deliver 3.6Mbps data rate as standard, and additionally is using the spare spectrum in Vodafone Spain's 900MHz band to provide mobile broadband.

Possibly not, but some of us can play dumb more convincingly

Yes the map may say its good it will be when they finish upgrading the cells/Masts.

But this takes time and is done on a demand basis. why upgrade a cell if there are no umts 3g customers in it. and ft and telefonica are currently looking at whole town wifi which in bandwidth race makes 3g somewhat out dated. more and more people want there free phone calls on the move.

Hair-stylists and Barbers

I noticed a comment on another web site where a holiday maker asked for "dos millimetros sobre todo" and I thought that sounds a bit short to me!

It got me to thinking though. Many of us are pretty wary of meeting a Sweeny-Todd type when all we wanted was a short back and sides, even where we have a command of the language.

So, what is the standard of barbers/hair stylists, where do you find them, do they have 'standard' signs, and can we have some examples of what you ask for (en español) and what you get ?