It seems that Vincent was able to contact his sister via the Policia Local in Arrecife, so there is a little more information. She tells us that Vincent has had his identification papers stolen and has no money. The family tried to send him money via Western Union, but having no papers or passport he was unable to collect it.

The family think that Vincent has been living on the streets of Arrecife somewhere around the Police station or El Charco de San Gines. If anyone sees him can you please let us know on 663 603 345. Obviously after several months on the streets Vincent may look somewhat different.

Also, if you have shop premises, or friends in Arrecife can you please help by circulating this missing poster throughout the city. Perhaps if Vincent sees it he will then make contact with so we can help his family get the assistance to him he needs to get home safely. Obviously the family are very concerned and they are also worried that Vincent has an ongoing medical problem that might need some attention.

Click here to download the PDF

Please feel free to pass this poster around as widely as possible!

Related posts:

1. Cheap calls to Lanzarote
2. Happy New Year!

As ever we’d give anyone the same advice as usual;

• Take off the rose tinted glasses – becoming an ex-pat in Lanzarote, as anywhere else, is not as easy as it first seems, especially if you need to make a living.
• Don’t buy immediately, make sure the move is really for you. Rent for at least the first six months, get to know the areas, get to know the property market, and spend time to find out which are the reputable estate agents before considering buying property.
• Follow personal recommendations – but also be aware that not everyone are as genuine as they seem. Earnings are not what they are in the UK, so a ‘kick back’ culture is exploited by many to generate business/supplement poor earnings.
• Try to learn at least a little of the language – it’s a basic courtesy to our Spanish speaking hosts…

We’ve been here some years now and have seen all sorts of people come through the Lanzarote Relocation site. Dreamers who will never make the move, people who try but are not fully committed, some who really want to but it’s not the right time just yet, people who try with the best of intentions yet don’t succeed – and of course some real success stories!

For us the site has been a real success for its visitors – and we think the main reasons are that we are honest and open about who and what we are, and the advice and information we offer is free. We make very little money from the site – and we have no wish to. It  pays for its costs with affiliate advertising – and certainly doesn’t even come close to paying for the large amount of time spent on it. But money was never a part of our thinking behind this site. We simply wanted to pass on what we have learned from moving to and living on the island to others.  The site has gone from strength to strength, and continues to grow. We’re very proud to be able to say we are not part of the ‘kick back’ culture that so many are as we take no financial incentive for recommending any of the companies on it.

Yes – Lanzarote has suffered from the recession – despite what some will tell you, the property market is still pretty stagnant from what we see – which on the upside means there are bargains to be had. Many ex-pats are heading back to the UK as it has become increasingly harder to make a living or find jobs in Lanzarote. Bars have closed, as have many other businesses, tourism numbers have been down – though the island has seemed relatively busy over the Christmas period… It’s probably not the best time to move out here right now unless you have money or real confidence in your ‘plan’. If you’re going to be dependant upon finding a job – it may be best to shelve your ideas until the global market changes.

We’ve been very lucky with our business – we’ve continued to grow and are still growing with website builds for clients on the island and in the UK. We’re fairly confident in saying that with over 150 active clients in Lanzarote, Gandy-Draper is most likely the largest English speaking web design business on the island – with our client base being made up of English, Spanish and German clients.

Our Canary Nightlife site continues to grow with new clients signing up in Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Tenerife over the course of 2009 and shows great potential for further growth.

Thankfully, it’s been a fairly good year all round for us – life is what you make it! Make no mistake though, we work hard for what we have – life on a holiday island isn’t necessarily a holiday…

Happy New Year to everyone on and off the island!

Related posts:

1. We practice what we preach…
2. Stop moaning about the recession and dip your hand in your pocket!
3. We answer our critic…!

We’ve recently written on this site, and our site about moving to Lanzarote. about Geoff Holt’s bid to become the first quadriplegic sailor to cross the Atlantic unassisted after we met him at the Rubicon Marina in Playa Blanca. Over dinner one evening this came up in conversation – a couple of days later Geoff and his PR company asked me to take the official leaving pictures of the crew and the boat to be distributed that day to the press.

I don’t normally do things like this, but as it was Geoff, I found it hard to refuse – he has a way with gentle persuasion! Of course I was happy to give my time to help… If I do do photography for someone else – it tends to be stuff like this I won’t charge for, either not for profit or charity work. (That doesn’t mean this is an invitation to anyone starting up a ’save the cockroach’ campaign or whatever to call me – it’s not going to happen! I’m usually far to busy and made an exception in this instance )…

I have to say – I did enjoy doing it for a change. And, once a photographer – always a photographer. I still get a kick out of seeing my work in print in the national press and around the Internet with a credit.

As a side note – Perhaps my original education might explain to people why I have a tendency to be so vehement about defending the copyright and intellectual property of Gandy-Draper when our work and photographs are stolen off ours, and our clients sites…

Anyway – if you want to follow Geoff Holt’s progress you can do so on his website through his regular blogs about the trip.

Related posts:

1. Geoff Holt’s Atlantic crossing
2. Plagiarism in Lanzarote
3. Happy New Year!

One of the biggest problems as a web designer can be finding suitable photographs to fit with our clients websites. Having waded through many an on-line stock library in the past I always seem to end up back at Fotolia which must have one of the biggest collections of them all – approaching 7 million photographs.

Prices for images suitable sizes for use on the web start from 2 or 3 Euro.

What is surprising is that a quick search on Lanzarote will throw up over 1.100 images – which makes it particularly useful for businesses on the island. And most are of very good quality due to a human based acceptance system – you won’t find many holiday snaps on this site!

So – no need to steal any of my photographs from our sites, or from other popular sites on the island as happens all to often.

It only costs a couple of Euro to avoid breaching copyright laws!

Related posts:

1. New computer shop in Playa Blanca
2. Photography
3. Telefonica

Things to look out for are:

Your own name or email address not being in the “To” section
Hovering your cursor over the link (don’t click it) bringing up a suspicious looking address that doesn’t match the site it is supposed to – the thing to look out for is the last description before the domain extension – e.g .com)

If you receive anything like this, just delete and forward it as spam to your Internet Service Provider, and also consider forwarding it to the company who the thieves are masquerading as. If you are concerned that perhaps you are missing something from your bank, then phone your own branch.

NEVER log in using your bank details, email or password to a website from a direct link in an email. Reputable companies who you know will only ask you to log in through their main website and not via an email such as this.

Click on the screen grab to see the email content.

Related posts:

1. Missing person – Vincent Bosq
2. TVI Express, is it a scam?
3. Ash compensation email is a scam

It’s a small island – so plagiarism isn’t that hard to stumble on here…

This one completely takes the biscuit for bare faced cheek – it’s lazy, it’s unprofessional and frankly – pathetic. (I’ve twice contacted the site owner without a response…)

Text from our Gandy-Draper home page (I’m very familiar with it as I wrote it when we set up the site soon after arriving on the island):

“Our working methods and systems make it possible for us to work with clients anywhere in the world.”

“Our aim is to provide an unrivalled standard of service to our clients, going that extra mile to make the experience of working with us something special.”

Text from www.aaronsananes.com/services a ‘competitor’ (whose site has had various incarnations, this being the most recent)

“My working methods and systems make it possible for me to work with clients anywhere in the world.”

“My aim is to provide an unrivalled standard of service to all of my clients, going that extra mile to make the experience of working with us something special.”

Spot the difference…? Yep – simply the change of  ‘our’ to ‘my’. (His command of grammar doesn’t run to the distinction between ‘us and ‘me’). It’s laughable really…

Since being on the island approaching three years ago here’s some other examples;

• Our Canary Nightlife site has spawned a number of imitators – a minor annoyance because these sites die when whoever sets them up actually realises we have got as far as we have only through hard work (Internet novices don’t realise that running a website takes as much work as any other business)
• It’s very frequent that text turns up from Canary Nightlife – click here to see how we dealt with one particular incident (if you are having such problems there are a few tips on dealing copyright infringement and  an email template you can feel free to adapt to your own purposes)
• A site built by one of our clients was completely copied with only minor changes – click here to see that story
• Occasionally during the course of building a site, we provide some photographs for our clients provide some photography – these have then turned up in magazines and on websites. The thing about photography in particular is that the photographer – me in this case – always owns the copyright unless there is something in writing to say otherwise.
• We have noticed someone employ a strap line we have used for a long time on their website “Superior web design in Lanzarote” – Google the phrase if you are interested…
• We’ve had more than one of our site concepts copied and then our clients approached – either using our names in a derogatory manner, or even implying some kind of approval or connection with us…
• We’ve had feedback from various clients and friends of a number of people trying to cast aspersions on us – for instance giving false information on our pricing or levels of service for their own ends, be they competitors or other business with their own agenda. One example being a person who did some work for us and blatantly lying in attempting to take some work for herself which she then promptly screwed up. Unbelievably she then phoned us for help – not knowing what she had done we actually mistakenly spent time fixing it for her – won’t fall for that one again!
• Simon Harris (a Google search will soon show that this man has been accused many times of being a serial fraudster and con man) and his Lanzarote Society site appear to have deceptively tried to imply our involvement and ride our reputation – WE WOULD NEVER GET INVOLVED WITH THIS SITE OR THESE PEOPLE!
• And of course there is always my old friend Cyprus Bob who had a phase of abusing us on here and my personal blog under a fake ID. We know exactly who it was…

I could go on… No doubt if you are reading this you are getting the picture…

What is it with people that they feel the need to mimic, to copy, to ride our damage our reputation – one we have worked hard to achieve. Are they really dumb enough to not realize that we will defend it!

The thing about this island is that this is what happens once people percieve you as ‘doing well’.  I just wish people would actually go out and use their imagination and do something original instead – but lets face it – it’s not going to happen is it!

It’s a fact of life in Lanzarote – as everywhere else… And as times get harder – if people have this perception of us,  it is probably going to happen more and more…

Related posts:

1. Plagiarism and Copyright on the Internet
2. The Lanzarote Society

Before I go any further with the results of that digging, let me state categorically we have not, will not, and will not ever have any dealings with the site or those behind it.

Apart from being a really shabbily designed website, it;

• gives no indication of its owners
• is selling membership to unwitting tourists who might want to ‘feel part of the island’
• it claims to be non-profit making (sic!)
• offers people the opportunity to work for them for the investment of £2000
• the whole thing stinks…

The whole site and its related domains are written in a style of language many reading this will be familiar with… It includes the phrase “Simon says” throughout…

Yes, you guessed it. It’s an old favourite – it’s the inimitable Simon Harris again. Simon and Jenny Harris and Quills Wills may be down and unable to trade here (his words on the Gazette forum as I recall), but it seems they are not out.

The evidence?

The name of the domain owner – Melanie Ross (click on her name for the Google search which demonstrates clear link)

Companies House information…

LANZAROTE SOCIETY MANAGEMENT LIMITED
HARBRO HOUSE
CROWN LANE
DENBIGH
LL16 3SY
Company No. 06661107

and…..

THE QUILL GROUP (1986) LLP
HARBRO HOUSE
CROWN LANE
DENBIGH
DENBIGHSHIRE
LL16 3SY
Company No. OC328567

The same address is also the Registered Office of… THE QUILL GROUP COMPANY SECRETARY LLP
and THE QUILL GROUP TREASURER LLP

There’s plenty more where that came from – but I think you’ll agree it’s pretty clear as to who is pulling the strings on this baby! Of course, I have emailed and asked that any links they have included on there to our sites be removed – we have absolutely NO association with this venture.

The really worrying thing is that on the site it says that one of their aims is to represent the island and it businesses… Think about that one!

A note to tourists who may be reading this at this point – there are many good sites in addition to our own Lanzarote Nightlife if you are looking for information on the island – just Google, you’ll find plenty. And you certainly don’t have to pay to feel a part of the community – you are always welcome on sites like our own forum at Canary Nightlife, the forums on Discover Lanzarote and at the Gazette.

Now, of course, I’m not saying Simon Harris is a conman – I do however have an opinion based on all I’ve seen and read about him. What I would strongly urge anyone who is reading this – if you are thinking about doing business with him, or any of his companies, make sure you do thorough research – hopefully there’s enough in this post to get you started. That research may end up saving you thousands…

Caveat Emptor….

Related posts:

1. Plagiarism in Lanzarote
2. Cheap calls to Lanzarote
3. Lanzarote Virtual Tour

We can now help using numbers diverted from the UK and obtaining your number is FREE!

The number provides call rates for as little as 3 pence to your friends and family, or if you still do business with the UK, your business associates. Or, if you are a UK caller regularly calling the island, you can request numbers to divert to you most used numbers in Lanzarote.

It’s incredibly simple – click here to find out more and request your FREE UK number.

Related posts:

1. Using Skype
2. Missing person – Vincent Bosq

We were looking for a joystick, when I asked  – there were none in stock. However, the girl at the desk was extremely helpful and  showed us the available range on her screen and said it could be ordered in fairly quickly. I was impressed.

Though not really looking like much – the range available on the Beep website is excellent. It might look a little unassuming as you pass by – but to all intents and purpose we now have access to the kind of range of products you’d expect from the likes of PC World in the UK.

The shop is on the back road between the German supermarket and Correos.

Related posts:

1. Does my company really need a website?
2. Fotolia photo library
3. Are you a shopkeeper?

The following relates to searches on Google through the month of November 2008.

Playa Blanca Lanzarote – 27,100
Costa Teguise Lanzarote – 14,800
Puerto del Carmen Lanzarote 12,100

Related posts:

1. Lanzarote Virtual Tour
2. What is Google Page Rank
3. The Lanzarote Society