International Club of Estepona The ‘ICE’ Club A Social and Cultural Club for all English Speaking People SEPTEMBER 2021 Edition 2 International Club of Estepona The ‘ICE’ Club Magazine Contents Page Page 5 President's Letter 26-27 Book Reviews 7 Notices 28 From the Dustbin of History 8 Puzzles 29 Solutions 9-13 Past Events 31 Safety Notices 13 ICE Activities 32 Committee Members 17 Future Events 32 Advertising Rates 18-19 Social Calendar 33 General Information 21 Past Events 34 Activity Organisers 22 Vaccinations 35 Essential Telephone Nos 25 Name that Face Betty Fooks - Editor Email: [email protected] Welcome back to everyone! To all of you who have braved travelling and to all of you who have coped with the heat. And good to see that activities have continued. Have you done something interesting, or different, this summer? Why not let me know. Ed. President: Sheila Fox Email: [email protected] Editor: Betty Fooks Email: [email protected] Advertising: Rachel Lucas Email: [email protected] Disclaimer: - The committee wishes to declare that ICE does not accept responsibility for the contents of articles nor the claims made by advertisers. The magazine is published on the website on or before the first day of each month. www.theiceclub.es Email: [email protected] Tel: 952 802 549 3 4 President’s Letter I returned from the UK a few weeks ago and we are still working under some restrictions, but now the Costa Del Sol has moved from level 3 to level 2 and hopefully will continue in the right direction. We are still wearing masks inside, and can now have 6 people at a table inside and 8 outside, but no dancing or live music events just yet. We have scheduled all our usual events to restart from September up to the end of the year and we hope to see many of our members return to the club soon and hopefully get the membership numbers back up to close to previous levels. The annual trip to the lakes has been moved to the end (29th) of September, in the hope that the weather will be a bit cooler by then. Tickets for this are now on sale. We will be holding our annual Open Day for New Members on Sunday 3rd October and will be posting fliers all over the area to promote it. Please, if you can, bring your friends and neighbours along on this day to meet us and see what the club has to offer them. Whatever you are doing and wherever you are, we wish you well and hope to see you at the club as soon as possible. Sheila Fox, President 5 6 NOTICES Welcome to new members- Anny Hilbink Lottery Winners— June July 1st Maggie Whittley €68 1st Brenda Taylor €64 2nd Tineka de Goot €34 2nd Rachel. Lucas €32 3rd Rachel Lucas €17 3rd Leonie Sturgess €16 Club €51 Club €48 BARBARA SALISBURY Thursday 29th July, Di Hackett, committee member responsible for welfare, presented a small floral arrangement and a bottle of cava to Barbara Salisbury, to celebrate reaching her 90th birthday. Barbara has been a club member since 1998 and served on the committee as Welfare Officer for many years. We wish her a happy birthday and many more! KEN HOLLOWAY At the awayday lunch at Thapa Thai, Diane Hackett presented Ken Holloway, on behalf of the club, with a bottle of Cava to celebrate his 80th Birthday on Sunday 15th August. 7 PUZZLES Like puzzles— There’s a new one every day on the ICE website! CODEWORDS (Answers Page 29) Codewords are like crossword puzzles - but have no clues! Instead, every letter of the alphabet has been replaced by a number, the same number representing the same letter throughout the puzzle. All you have to do is decide which letter is represented by which number! To start you off, we reveal the codes for two or three letters. With these letters filled in throughout the puzzle, you'll have enough clues to start guessing words and discovering other letters. SUDOKU (Answers Page 29) Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers from 1 to 9. 8 PAST EVENTS GARDENING GROUP After taking on the Gardening Group leadership from Sandy, it was always our intention to invite the group members, restrictions permitting, to our house down near the Manilva Beach chiringuito to view our efforts in getting to grips with growing and gardening in this somewhat new climate for us. (Guernsey’s tourism would boom again if the weather there ever becomes like it is here, and with climate change you never know!) In May we had done the leisurely Estepona Floral Stroll which had been open to all members and then in June the first club coach trip for a while had seen 20 plus club members visit the Palermo Park in Benalma dena followed by lunch down at the fabulous Art Deco marina. So for this ‘at home’ a really good turnout of the members occurred and about 14 of us managed to sit in the shade of our front garden. Amazing how many chairs were found! Rachel had prepared some very nice buffet food and I opened a few bottles of Cava, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Wine and beers were also served as was water, cokes and juices for those driving. Plants, cuttings and bottles were gratefully received (thank you) but were definitely NOT a prerequisite to attending! Some gardening advice and tips were exchanged and of course conversations were varied and covered not just the gardening topics. About 3 hours disappeared in a flash. Thank you Gardening Group members! Submitted by Alan and Rachel Lucas 9 PAST EVENTS COACH TRIP TO PALOMA PARK BENALMÁDENA - FRIDAY 18TH JUNE So this was to be the first coach trip the club had done for quite a while because of that nasty ‘C’ thingy! Well it almost didn’t happen! There were five of us of waiting at the Eroski pickup point and we waited and waited. No sign of a coach. Phones start ringing and it transpired that the coach firm did NOT have a booking for us. (Memo to self - check the booking exists the day before!) In the end a coach was found and about an hour late we were on our way with collecting people from the usual pickup points. There were 23 of us in the end. After a very enjoyable drive (when not driving yourself there is so much to see) of about an hour and a half, we were dropped off right outside the front entrance of the Paloma Park. People split into various groups and made off into the park. My particular passion is cacti and succulents, and there is a fantastic area for these in this park. Some of the plants are massive. Previous visitors had enthused about the variety of animals to be seen but whether due to COVID, this aspect was a bit disappointing to say the least! Two chickens, two rabbits, one goat and numerous terrapins were seen but the donkey area and the bird aviary were decidedly empty! Anyway strolling around the park with its trees and lake (although slightly green) was very enjoyable and relaxing. 10 The coach then ferried us down to the beautiful Art Deco marina where people strolled off in their groups looking for a suitable restaurant for some lunch. An Italian restaurant proved quite popular. Back on the coach at 5 o’clock (with a different driver this time) and a slight delay when a couple of people (no names!) were a bit late. Then a pleasant drive back to Estepona / Sabinillas etc. Anybody nod off? Hey, this was a really pleasant coach trip away. A big thank you goes to Di Hackett who did the organisation and to Dave Hackett who helped with the ‘attendance’ sheet so no one was forgotten! Submitted by Alan Lucas Óptica Machin Janet, Michael and Chris Poole English Optician Poole rent-a-car Óptica Machin has established itself over Fair fuel policy. Good rates. NO queues. the years as a highly recommended We will meet you at Málaga or Gibraltar practice where eye care and exceptional Airport. service are the priorities. No Upper Age Limit We welcome all patients, whatever your visual requirements for fashion, sports, INDOOR parking at Málaga Airport style, UV protection and budget may be. 6€ a day / 4 weeks 110€ / The practice is very easy to find, located 8 weeks 210€ / Full year 1,000€ on the Avenida Litoral approach road (minimum charge 40€) into Estepona and has ample free parking. Tel/Fax: 952 88 55 89 Mobile: 619 44 66 88 www.opticamachin.com Email: [email protected] [email protected] www.poolerentacar.com WhatsApp 639 40 77 80 Tel 952 80 68 13 11 12 ICE ACTIVITIES RACHEL’S ‘ BUMS AND TUMS’ CLASS This exercise class takes place on Monday mornings at 10.00am in the Club and is aimed at toning core abdominal and bottom muscles with gentle floor exercises. Men and women are all welcome, we start with a low- burn, low- impact aerobic session for 5- 10 minutes to warm up and increase our heart rates a little, then graduate to floor work on our mats, using your choice of weights for resistance if desired. We then do a standing cool down and gentle stretch session to finish off (approx. 50 minutes in total) Rachel is a YMCA –qualified aerobics instructor and will conduct a short health screening for the safety of any new class members.