Minolta X300

Playing with cameras I dug out my old Minolta X300 before getting married to discover it no longer worked. A search revealed the fault as a common X300,X700, X370 problem of failing capacitors with age. Fortunately on removing the bottom cover the problem was exactly as described in other posts, i.e. a leaking capacitor, evident by the corrosion around the terminals. Now post wedding, I found a near enough replacement at Maplins for 12p (code VH14Q), a miniature 7mm radial 220uf 6.3v capacitor which replaced nicely the 4v 22ouf capacitor in the camera. The camera is now firing again and loaded with film to see what happens...

Married

Were Married!!

Many thanks to all who came to the wedding, good to see you all there, will get some photos online soon, and thanks for the kind gifts.

2.5 weeks of relaxing and fun driving around Spain - now back to work............

Andy y Marta

Boda: English Spanish Wedding

The wedding, Im English my partner Spanish. If anyone has ever been through the process of sorting out all the paperwork you'll know just how fun it is! You would think that no english person has ever married a spanish person before for how the british system and the spanish system deny any knowledge of what the other side may need.

Anyhow, getting married in spain. This is what we needed, no guarantees it works for you, you read this and use this information at your own risk! Ive listed things in the order we did it. This information was collated from discussions with the local registry office, the spanish consulate in London and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office legalisation department in Milton Keynes.

British Partner:

1. A full birth certificate, recently issued. Obtained from town hall registrar in my home city. Cost £7. Though there are other options such as through the public records office in London.
2. A Certificate of no Impediment. This was obtained from the registry office where I live, which is basically determined by who you pay your council tax to. This cost £30 and has to be on public display for 3 weeks/21 days. So you need 22 days before you can collect. At the registry office you will need basic things - i.e passport to prove who you are, and your council tax bill to prove you live in the area covered by that registry office. You will also need to provide the address in Spain where you are getting married.
   
3. Proof of residence for 2 years. The easyness of this depends on where you live. As we had moved house it added a complication. Your current address can be proved by contacting your local electoral register office in the county that you live. i.e. who you pay your council tax to again. They should be able to issue a letter that states you are currently on the electoral register for the current year. They may be able to issue a letter for the previous year as well. In my case I managed to obtain two letters from the current electoral register office and one letter for the year before that from my previous electoral register office in another county, as in total I needed to prove my residence for 2 continous years.
4. After obtaining all the above paperwork, I needed to translate it all, the birth certificate, the certificate of no impediment and the letters from the electoral registers. Anyone can translate the documents, but be careful as any discrepancies between the documents and they will not be accepted. My partner did the translation by doing an exact copy of the layout of the original english documents and replacing the english words with the spanish words.
   
5. The original documents and letters in (4) also need the Hague Apostile stamped on them to prove they are legitimate documents. This process, called 'legalisation' can be done in person, while you wait, at the legalisation department of the Foreign and Commowealth Office (FCO) in Milton Keynes. They charged £27 per stamp. But they only stamp documents for which they recognise or have the signature for in their database. Thus, the birth certificate and certificate of no impediment were accepted and stamped 'as-is'. However, for the letters from the electoral registry offices, they would only legalise them after they had been counter signed by a solicitor. Fortunately, there are walk in solicitors offices within 5 minutes of the FCO that will counter sign your documents. Once counter signed, back to the FCO and get them legalised. All in all getting the documents stamped, signed and getting to Milton Keynes cost approximately £300 ! (as of 2009).
6. Copy of passport
   

Spanish Partner

• Needed to first register with the Spanish Consulate in London (or the one nearest to where you live).
• Needed copy of Birth Certificate which can be obtained from spain via the internet
• Needed proof of residence for 2 years. Had to be obtained from Spain due to not registering in UK before and so still classed as being in Spain.
• Equivalent of Certificate of No Impediment
  
• Copy of passport
  

All of the above documents, originals and translations, plus those of your spanish partner, need to be taken to the Spanish Consulate in London, who will then process the paperwork and send to the registry office/town hall in spain where you plan to get married.

Note:

1. Allow plenty of time. After initially depositing the paperwork with the Spanish Consulate you will need to go back for an apppointment (approx 1 month later) with the registrar and to take a witness with you, to sign the papers in front of the consulate.
2. We had to take approximately £9 pounds in stamps to pay for the postage of our paperwork to Spain. Apart from that the service is free.
3. To give some idea of time, we started in January and are marrying in May. We had the interview with the consulate at the end of March. And hopefully the paperwork will be there in time!

The Start

Time to start blogging.

Ive resisted blogging for a long time, never easily taken to writing diaries etc but there are just an increasing list of things to note down, for my own reference or for others that its time I start to put some stuff somewhere. Interests and blogs will relate to being a techy,hacking around with things, interested in cinema, and photography.

On the subject of photography weve just spent the weekend in Madrid arranging things for our forthcoming wedding and had the pleasure to meet our photographer Edward Olive ahead of the day. Go check him out on Flickr - Edward Oliver Neither of us want traditional stand in line photography, we want more of the atmosphere of the day and those present to be captured, unaware, natural, relaxed. Which is why we chose Edward.

My Home Page is http://www.casalorenso.com