The Good News & the Very Bad.

The Bad news first. Over the last 2-3 weeks there have been regular storms causing significant problems in the immediate area and I hear up the coast into Valencia.

You may have heard that La Torre was hit by serious flooding just before hosting the Davis Cup tennis semi-final. Sadly the floods have hit again, worse than before and La Torre looks to be in a pretty poor repair. See: www.ltora.com

The clean up operation allowed the tennis to be a success and there are a lot of people working very hard to help those residents affected this time. Sadly it appears that exactly the same area is affected. 

I have not heard any news of Terrazas so if anyone has information perhaps they would post an update in the comments section.

The good news? Well its small beer compared to the devastation at La Torre but I have been advised that the Jack Nicklaus designed course is due to open for play in November at Condado de Alhama. This will be a great attraction for those at living there but also for those spending for time in Murcia at all the Polaris resorts to have the chance to play a course designed by the great man personally.

It is also encouraging that Polaris are still making progress and providing the facilities we all want, albeit a little slower than we would like.

Little by little I am regaining faith that Polaris will produce the resorts and hopefully the level of facilities that we have a right to expect. All little bits of information that help boost this feeling of optimism gratefully received - if you hear anything, please share with the rest of us.

€12000 Furniture Package for €4495

Hello

I received an email from Murcia Golf Properties today saying that they have sold a 2 bed apartment but the buyer does not want the furniture.

Seems like a bargain for anyone nearing completion. If you want details contact me or MGP directly on 0034 968 041 620. 


Hope this might help someone, I recognise some of the furniture from my travels and it was decent quality.

Dave

The Town Centre

Doubtless you will have seen Polaris World proclaiming the start of the Town Centres both at Terrazas and also at the long-suffering Hacienda Ricquelmeans.

Being honest I thought they were referring to the fact that the have cleared the area at the Town Centre site and also thought they may have been acclaiming the work of the old manor house in the regard.

Not a bit of it, as our friend El Don - the Godfather reports:

"Went to the ‘old’ hacienda near Las Islas whilst I was there and I was told by PW that it may end up being a wine cellar ??

There is a road constructed in front of it now and they have excavated a large area approx 5ft deep where the Town Centre will be. The Town Centre is to be on 2 floors, the upper being shops etc and the lower bars and restaurant and in the middle a courtyard and the anticipated completion about 18mths."

"Forgot to mention, they have poured concrete into the footings for the town centre."

Thanks to El Don, more news when we get it.

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.

---------------------------------

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..."