MORE ON INVITATION TO CONTRIBUTE PHOTOS AND COMMENTS

Hello
I have been delighted that some people have taken up the invitation to "author" items on this blog. I have sent email invitations to those who have given me their email addresses.

There were a couple of other people who indicated a willingness to contribute but have not sent an email address. I am not going to use names here in case you don't want to "go public" but if you are still willing to join the authors, please send me an email to:
davebangor@gmail.com

I am pleased to advise that those who have agreed to contribute are going out to Terrazas in October, December & February so we will have regular updates to look forward to. We can accommodate another 96 authors!! All welcome.

Thanks to the volunteers.
 

Dave

Invitation to contibute - Volunteers needed. Emailed posts. Photos.

A FEW THINGS TO COVER HERE - AN INVITATION TO "AUTHOR" ITEMS ON THE BLOG - AN INVITATION TO HAVE NEW POSTS TO THE BLOG EMAILED TO YOU (CAN ACCOMMODATE A LIMITED NUMBER) IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE IT THAT WAY - FINALLY I HAVE ADDED A SLIDESHOW AND YOU CAN ACCESS ALL THE PHOTOS THAT HAVEN'T MADE THE BLOG.

Hello,

I was taking a look at the "blogger" website today and noticed that there are a few improvements available.

Amongst these is the ability to have more than one "author" on the blog - I believe there can be up to 100 - and it started me thinking.

I have been lucky enough to get out to Murcia for around 7 weeks in all this year but, having thought of going at Christmas, I now find that I will probably not make it out again until Easter 2010.

I sincerely hope that things will be much changed by then and whilst I intend to keep my ear to the ground & post anything new, how much better would it be if some of you who are going out in the meantime could add their photos and comments.

Anybody who would be willing to keep us updated please post a comment on this posting and I will contact you.

I really hope some of you will volunteer, it was always my intention to have this blog as a record of the development of Terrazas & a source of information. I think this might be a good way of doing just that. PLEASE HELP.

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Another of the features is the ability to have new articles emailed to you. If anyone is interested again please leave me a comment to that effect and I will make the arrangements. This is available for 10 email addresses so it's first come first served.

Just one of the photographs that never made it to the blog - Hell of a cyclist, old Larce!

I have added a "slideshow" gadget to the blog and if you click on it you can see full albums of pictures taken at Terrazas. They can be viewed in fullscreen if you wish.

I have put all my Terrazas photos on "Picasa" so if you have used it before you should be able to find them if you are interested, alternatively you could sign up to Picasa and take it from there.

If you don't know it Picasa is one of the "Google family" and is an excellent tool to manage and edit your photos plus easily make them available as "web albums" to family, friends or even bloggers.

New Terrazas Website - have you seen it yet?

I have obviously been slacking recently as I have just stumbled across a new Terrazas website produced by Resortalia - the management company who administer Terrazas (& I think Hacienda Riquelme)

To me, it looks like a decent start to introducing Resortalia and worth having a look. There are some good bits of info on there and they seem very keen to distance themselves from PW.

Realistically they will want to be well regarded by the community as it will be in the community's remit to get rid of them if they do not represent/ administrate the community in as satisfactory way.

There is also a listing of Phase 1 Presidents and you have to feel sorry for poor Maria Jose Ros Bas with the awesome responsibility of representing 46 out of 59 blocks.

Check it out here: http://www.tltgr.org/2.html

New Photographs - Many Thanks to Gerry

Sunset over Phase 1 from Gerry's apartment

Gerry has a perfect view to keep an eye on the progress on the new building on
Phases 2 & 12

Gerry reports the old manor house is much changed, "The bodega roof has been removed & all the walls have been plastered to this nice new state."

This is an interesting picture for several reasons - the dark area to the left of the green is the edge of the lake. I wonder could I buy the "lake ball" rights off Polaris? Could be a fruitful business by the look of it.

The second thing of interest is that Gerry estimates, "According to Polaris layout plans, this is the position of the Club House. So with today's great news that Polaris are starting on the Town Centre, could they also being getting ready to announce the start of the Club House too."

This green is in Gerry's eye-line towards the new building, "The picture of the 4th green (my apartment faces this green so I watch whats happening when I'm over).
While I was there, they removed the plastic sheeting that has covered the green on all my previous visits. I was surprised to see that there was no grass under the plastic cover, but as you can see just hard crusted sand. This little guy spent ages raking the green & in 4th green again picture you can see him checking the green levels. I can tell you there are no flat greens on this course. At the side of this picture you can see other working on the bunker nearest. Later in the week, the digger was moved to the bunker over the other side of the green, Lo betide anyone going in that bunker, the whole machine went into & was not visible from my apartment. The bunker must be 15 feet deep...."

Work continues on the green.I am pretty sure that this is a fair indication that no golf will be played at Terrazas this year. I did a spot of investigation and see that Nicklaus Design are now estimating that the course will open in May 2010. I assume that will be 9 holes but even so there is no denying that the course is progressing very well and looking like it will be a treat to play.

Thanks Gerry and to anyone else who will be over - all updates welcome.

EDIT:

I am adding some comment and information received from Tim:

" good to see others sending you photos. On the subject of the golf greens, when I was last over I spoke with one of the English workers, he said that they need better water to do the greens, the stuff used on fairways is too salty, PW promised this by end June, mid August it had not arrived. Also on a more positive note, they were working all around the course repairing the patchy sections, mowing in the cut lines for the fairways / 1st cut of rough etc..."

Storm over La Torre

From the website that last year brought you the "Great Fire of La Torre" this year's near death experience came courtesy of an 8 or 9 hour thunder & lightning show.

Of course the real fun came after darkness had fallen but the air had been banging and crashing for a few hours before that.

I had been in Murcia City and started to drive back to La Torre at around 10pm. All the way home there where constant flashes of the storm but it wasn't until I was within a few kilometres of home that the rain grew very heavy and the flashing lightning became almost constant, often with multiple flashes across the sky.

I started taking pics at 1.30 when it was really going at it full blast. If you have ever tried to capture the moment you will understand that around a dozen good photos from around 200 taken wasn't a bad return.








If you have been paying attention you will wonder where the near death experience came into it. That was the threatened heart attack from the 200 photos that produced nothing of note.

;¬) keep smiling.

Another Photographic Look at Terrazas

I mainly intend to let the pictures do the talking with a few comments added.


This is one of 4 blocks on phase 2 and is closest to the roundabout which heads in toward the Town Centre location.

You can see that window frames have been fitted

Electric cabling is being added

A swimming pool in it's early stages!

The phase 12 blocks - progressing well

Again plenty of guys working

Back to the golf course

This is from the "Mar Menor" end of the course -not long ago it wasn't landscaped

Again looking at an area which a few months ago was full of weeds

Very encouraging progress being made. Still a long haul until there is a completed resort but if the progress is maintained or improved upon Terrazas will be a great resort in a few years time.

For those on Phase 1 it must be great to see that hopefully they will have neighbours to share both the joy & the costs of the growing resort before too long.

For the "Islanders" - well the wait goes on. Keep your chin up Howard, at least we both have somewhere to lay our heads in the meantime!

Davis Cup Semi-Final to be held at La Torre

I am sure that by now most of you will have heard that La Torre is to host the Spanish home semi-final in September.

Polaris are clearly delighted that they have pulled off this coup and the residents appear very happy, some rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of a high rental week given there is an expected crowd of 12000 people per day.

PW have started work on a few different levels - at present they are replacing many cobbles on the roundabouts to make the place look well and there is also work at the rear entrance to the resort.

A tunnel that has been dug underneath the rear exit road is to give access to parking near the end of the practice ground and an entrance made in the perimeter wall. See the plan below.

The main work has been the total destruction of the practice ground - see below.



I enquired in the "pro-shop" and am assured that the practice ground will be reinstated after the tennis finishes. However given the amount of earth moved I suspect that we will end up with a flat practice ground rather than the undulating form as heretofore.

If you expand the pic above you will see the court area in the centre and it is more detailed below.

The event is from 18th to 20th September and for anyone interested I understand that tickets will be available on Ticketmaster.

There seems to be a general feeling that this will be good for La Torre & Polaris World in particular. If so it may give Terrazas building programme a boost with potential new buyers attracted.