SPAIN WELCOMES THE EURO

On the 1st January 2001 Spain along with eleven other member states of the European Union adopted the Euro.

In Spain the peseta ran along side the euro until the end of February as legal tender, and from then until the end of June we are able to exchange these at any bank. After June they have to be handed in to any Bank of Spain for conversion.

any of us experienced having our bank accounts quoted in Euros as early as October 2001, and great confusion occurred. During the first two months we were actually asked if we would like to pay in pesetas or euros and if you decided on pesetas a conversion had to be made. Everybody has been very patient with each other during their various transactions and life is now certainly easier than the first initial days.

On the 25th January 2001 Fuengirola became the first town in Spain to unveil a statue in commemoration of the old peseta so that it should not be forgotten. The statue is almost ten metres tall and nearly two metres wide and is a bronze reproduction of the last peseta minted in Spain in 1980.

One of the guests present at the ceremony was a man from Salamanca whose nickname is 'El Peseto' and who was wearing a suit covered in peseta coins and weighed around 22 kilos. This nickname has been in his family for five

generations and he pointed out at the ceremony that the name will die out from the 1st March 2001 as the peseta will no longer be legal currency.

The designs for the euro notes were actually chosen by the European Monetary Institute, the forerunner of the European Central Bank in December 1996. They were inspired by the theme 'Ages and Styles of Europe'. The winning design depicts the prevailing architecture during seven ages in Europe's cultural history, Classical, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo, the age of iron and glass and modern 20th Century architecture. It also emphasizes three main architectural elements, windows, gateways and bridges.

Windows and gateways form the principal element of the front face of each banknote and symbolise the spirit of openness and cooperation in the European Union. The twelve stars of the EU are also featured. The reverse of the banknote shows a bridge typical of the respective age of European development.

The euro coins have a common face and a national face and the designs for the common face were approved in June 1997. The first three coins (1,2, and 50 cent) show Europe situated in the world, the 10, 20 and 50 cent show Europe as a collection of nations and the 1 and 2 euro coins show the European Union without borders

CHRISTEL HOUSE EVENTS 2001

As you will recall Miraflores decided that in the year 2001 fund raising events would be held in aid of Christel House. This charity is dedicated to improving the lives of impoverished children around the world.

The charity last year opened new centres in Venezuela, India and South Africa.

For our first event at the Club Miraflores we presented the 'Britney Spears Show'. This was a music and dance show performed by a teenager from England, who looks very similar to the famous star and sings like her too.

The evening was one of those fantastic summer evenings on the Costa del Sol and the audience were absolutely captivated by the show. For many of our younger guests it was their first experience of seeing a spectacular 'live' performance.
The delight on their faces was amazing as they danced and sang along. The young lady certainly made our charity evening a great success.

Our second 'spectacular' was the 'Bell and Spurling Unplugged' Show. These two gentlemen from England were only here on the coast for a few limited appearances, and Miraflores were very pleased to be able to arrange a show here at the Club. The duo are, once seen never forgotten. Not only because of their statures, one is very large and the other small, but for their high quality of singing and all round entertainment. This is was another successful evening for Christel House.

To raise funds on theses evenings Miraflores provides a 'Grand Raffle' and everyone works very hard to sell the tickets and we also donate the show ticket sales to Christel House.

As we all know the peseta has been replaced by the Euro. Back in December, Mr. Ole Sigurdsson had the idea to create collection boxes for all the 'old' coins and to donate the value to Christel House. Boxes were made by the staff and placed in our reception areas and restaurants. In total €391.76 (65,183 pesetas ) was raised.

In total after the generosity of our members and guests we have raised
€4,197.23 (698,361 pesetas).

	BACK TO PAGE ONE		PAGE FOUR