Last saturday we held our Companies Summer party.  All our employees brought a typical dish from their country of origin so we all enjoyed Paella, Speckknödel from Austria, Quich from Switzerland, appertizers from Denmark along with some great desserts.

All our employees came along with their partners and children and we had hours of fun dancing, singing, playing football and fun games in the swimming pool.

We all had a great time and were sorry to see the day end but as the saying goes “Time flies when your having fun”.  We will all be looking forward to the next Summer party!

More Fotos in our Flickr Album

Although I was personally denied the opportunity to participate myself this year I felt the need to write about this great event which I have been to many times over the past years.  Leonor (second from left in the picture in 2007), our office director in Puerto Rico spent the weekend there with her family and dressed up to join in the fun and our colleague Marta also went to watch together with her family and some friends visiting the island who marvelled at the experience.

More than 3000 people congregated in this small village where the locals pride themselves on the utmost attention to detail in every aspect including costumes and religious beliefs.  It is one of a few where the locals walk along offering a taste of the typical food products to the bystanders.  Many conclude that this is one of the best Romerias on the island and this year 19 Pilgrimage floats from Mogán and other areas of the island decorated the streets together with the traditionally dressed participants.  Together the village was bought alive with the sounds of music from the traditional Canarian guitars, folklore singers and dancers.  The celebrations lasted well into the early hours with many out until the sun came up.

By Lucy Evans

When I arrived to the island many years ago, I always wondered why the Spanish families came to the beach with a lot of bags, cool bags, food, newspaper, etc. Today I understand, because I and my family do the same thing. We love to take all we need for a whole day to our beautiful beach La Lajilla, where we have a safe beach for our children and beautiful views to the sea, our harbour and on clear days we even see Teide, second highest mountain of Spain. During a whole day we go swimming, diving, fishing having a nice time enjoying our unbeatable climate.

Although the storm we had this winter did leave parts of the promenade ruined, it is still very popular to a lot of people.

Written by Lonnie Lindquist Poulsen

Here is an extract of an introduction of the website http://padten.wordpress.com:

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Padel Tennis, or just ‘padel‘, is a racquet sport that is typically played in doubles on an enclosed court about half the size of a tennis court. The balls used and the scoring is the same as normal tennis, and so the biggest difference is that the court has walls and the balls can be played off them in a similar way as in the game of squash.

The sport has been around for many years and although it is currently most popular in Spain and some Latin American countries it is now beginning to spread rapidly across Europe and and other continents.

Padel is great for players of all ages and skills, as it is both quick and easy to pick up.

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And last but not least just a small article appeared in Maspalomas Ahora about the tournament in Arguineguín Costa Mogán 2010 which myself (first one from right) and my paddle partner Julián (third from left) were lucky to win

Here in the South of Gran Canaria there are courts in Arguineguín (at the swimming pool), Tennis Centre in Maspalomas, Holycan in Playa del Inglés, Gloria Palace San Agustin, Taurito in Mogán, and there will be soon some courts as well in Barranco Agua La Perra in Puerto Rico.

I am happy to inform you about where to play, take classes, …

By Ramón Sánchez

It so seldom rains in Gran Canaria that it is quite a happening for the locals and all those who live permanently here. The tourists seeking the sun will forgive us for rejoicing over every drop of rain that falls upon the thirsty ground, making the landscape greener and greener.

So on a Sunday some weeks ago after the last big rain, we did the same as many people and went in search of the water running downhill from the mountains. But we did not drive far on crowded roads. We chose the small and quite secluded valley behind Los Palmitos Park and the Tennis Hotel Helga Masthoff (presently still closed for repairs after the fire damaged part of it in July 2007).  We just walked down to and past the hotel and then up the barranco, first on a narrow path on the hillside and now and then through the reeds and jumping from one stone to another across the stream. It was fun and a real pleasure to see and to hear the clear water streaming down and forming tiny water falls and pools, where our dog Simba thoroughly enjoyed herself paddling in the water.

But hush! Do not tell anybody about it! We would not want that lovely secluded place to get over crowded during the weekends…

By Rolande Chagrin

Last Saturday night there was a schoolmates’ get-together of the Colegio Alemán de Las Palmas (German School). We were about 40 old friends from different classes who finished high school in the early 90’s; hard to believe but it will soon be 20 years since! The event had eloquently been published on Facebook as “Show me your wrinkles”.

We met at the “Rockola Club” in Las Palmas, a live music night club recently opened by Oliver alias “el Rubio”, one of our old schoolmates and unconditional rock’n’roll fan. The club offers live music from the very best Rock and Blues bands of Gran Canaria, e.g. The Beatmaps (playing Beatles’ versions) or Red Marks (http://www.myspace.com/redmarksrock) only to name some. I truly recommend a visit to Rockola if you are fond of music of the 60’s and 70’s. The address is Olof palme 37 (next to Mesa y Lopez).

We had great fun. It was only the day after I realized I am not 18 anymore, what a shame. But I really look forward to repeating the event next year again at Rockola. So Keep on Rockin’, Rubio!

By Carolina García Chagrin

Here are some nice pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=presa+de+las+ni%C3%B1as+gran+canaria&s=int

By Cardenas News

Nine o’clock in the morning the bus starts driving from Arguineguín. After making some stops to pick up the rest of us we started heading for Valsequillo. Some of our colleagues also brought their children. We reached the village about 11 in the morning. Valsequillo is a little village high up in the mountains in the centre of the island.

In this part of the island the weather usually gets closer to the extremes – cold or really hot. This Saturday was a really warm and sunny day. We got prepared and began walking uphill surrounded by the amazing rock formations.

The two new Norwegians girls, Anne and Natalia, got soon ahead. As this had been their first week working for Cárdenas they had really been looking forward to this day to get to know everybody and for hiking in this beautiful and diverse landscape. The children were also very eager to walk and were especially entertained with the fauna of the area.

After walking for about two hours we reached the highest point on this track “Lomo de el Montañon”. Here we could enjoy the view of the capital of Gran Canaria Las Palmas.

We arrived to San Mateo around one o’clock.  We got together with the rest of our colleagues and went to see the market in San Mateo. Afterwards we found the way to the restaurant La Veguetilla.

The whole company had been planning for some time a tribute for a special and really appreciated colleague. Pilar has been working for Cárdenas for more than 15 years as part of the administration. After a fantastic meal the rest of the evening was dedicated to celebrate and honour Pilar.

See all pictures here

By Natalia Ballester @ Cardenas

We have been visiting several real estate specific courses in the last weeks among others the famous CRS Council of Residential Specialists, member of the National Association of Realtors NAR.

We think that a continuous training and courses are necessary and should be attended by all Realtors who want to keep a certain level of service to their clients. In order to be a good professional continuous training is necessary in the Real Estate Industry as well as in other fields where we are more used to it as medicine or IT among others. The Real Estate Market is changing in many of their fields as service, marketing, laws, taxation, among others and we need to be up to date in order to give our clients a high quality service today as well as tomorrow.

By Cardenas News

Some two years ago, a friend of us (over 65) told us he had been attending Pilates lessons at the Maspalomas Golf Club, and he felt that his health and physical well-being had gained much by them.  We had already heard something about the method, so Antonio and I did go and started taking lessons twice a week at the Pilates Centre. That is probably one of the best decisions we ever took.

The Pilates method, named after his German born creator Joseph H. Pilates (1880-1967), consists of hundreds of exercises, with many variants, to be done on either a mat or one of the specially designed “machines”, called Reformers.  With the exercises, combined with deep conscious pectoral respiration, you do feel all muscles and ligaments stretching and an increasing flexibility and strength of the whole body, but all happens in a gentle, progressive and pain free way. One of the main objectives of the method is to strengthen the body’s centre – the “Powerhouse” as J. Pilates called it – located in the abdominal and lumbar area, and so protect the vertebral column, improving the body’s balance, the upright posture and – last but not least – the pectoral breathing capacity, amongst other benefits like concentration, coordination and precision of your movements.

Pilates is a wonderful method for anyone, but I daresay its benefits are greater still for people of our age, since it helps to fight stiffness of the limbs, osteoporosis, arthrosis or similar undesirable but unavoidable signs of decay…

Therefore I feel it is now my turn to recommend the Pilates Centre, within the beautiful setting of the Maspalomas Golf Club. It is well equipped with the latest reformers and run by a professional Pilates instructor, Mauricio Ambiado.  He makes you feel relaxed and entertained by constantly varying the exercises and keeps a smiling – though serious – eye on your doing them properly.  For information call: +34 675 844 934, http://www.pilatesmaspalomas.webs.com/

By Rolande Chagrin Chevènement