And now for a little merienda

Mike has joined a photography group and is also doing a photography course. Last week his group went to Medina Sidonia, just down the road from us, which in the time of Al-Andalus, roughly between the 10th and 13th centuries, when various kinds of Arabs ruled large tracts of Spain, was the cake making capital of the peninsula.
It still is and Mike took this photograph as a souvenir.

You realise that he had to climb into the cake to photograph it? Well, that's his story anyway....

Well I never no.2

I was a little surprised to read in the online Guardian today the headline, "Labour fightback dashed as Tories extend poll lead" if only because-in fact only because-I was unaware of any Labour fightback. And meanwhile Cameron's sanctimonious Tories present themselves as born again social democrats. Ah well, they say we get the government we deserve and after year's of whinging from those who like to think of themselves as the radical left aided and abetted by the "we are all going to hell in a handcart" journalists of the Daily Mail (it is sometimes hard to tell the difference)it's looking more than likely that the Guardian headline augurs the future.

Meanwhile, here in La B, we are not hanging around. El Presidente has been deposed. Viva Senora Presidente!Yes, a woman! She is a lawyer and, according to my next door neighbour, "una Maravilla". We have been promised speed bumps! We have been promised that the street cleaning man will not wake us up at 8.00 in the morning with his amazing blowing machine! We have been promised that he will not blow dust under our gates so that we have to sweep it out again! We have been promised that the community accounts will be transparent and sent to all owners,not just pushed under the gate, irrespective of whether there is a force 8 gale wind blowing! Oh happy, happy days!

We shall see....

Hola

One of the things I like to do on Wednesdays when we finish our second and final Pilates class of the week is to buy a copy of Hola to read with my coffee. Hola is the original celebrity gossip magazine and now appears in various versions across the world, each one with its local twist. For instance the Spanish version takes a deep interest in the love life of bullfighters as well as the doings of minor starlets, key members of the Spansh aristocracy (including Franco's grandaughter) and the Royal Family. One of the things I like about it is that despite its obsession with tittle-tattle, none of it is malicious, with the possible exception that they allowed Ana Obregon who claimed to have had an affair with David Beckham to poke fun at Victoria who never became popular in Spain because, it is said, she claimed not to like the food.

Anyway, Victoria Beckham apart, it is all generally good humoured. Last week, for instance, there were photos of the Danish King frolicking on a Spanish beach. Since the said monarch has obviously been at the pies he is, how shall we say, a little corpulent, or, in Hola speak, he has una curva de felicidad-a curve of happiness. How nice is that?

But this week beats it all. A story about Carmen Martinez-Bordiu on holiday with her daughter began by telling us that Carmen is an intrepid traveller and adventurer. Apparently her "espiritu inquieto" or restless soul, recalls those Victorian women who, two hundred years ago, roamed across the most remote and undiscovered areas of the globe (I am quoting here). What follows are 11 pages of photos of Carmen and Cyntha enjoying the 6 star delights of Dubai....

Well I never

One of the reasons that I like reading the Manchester City forums is that they keep you in touch with...mmm, well, with something.

At the moment, apart from the ongoing saga of whether Everton, or, probably more accurately, David Moyes will sell us Joleon Lescott, to shore up our creaking defence, the big thread(16 pages and rising) concerns the discovery by one fan at the recent friendly against Celtic that the Chicken Balti pies on sale in the Eastlands stadium contained...sultanas. It's an outrage. A campaign has been launched. The name and address of the marketing manager of the pie makers concerned has been obtained and published. Letters and emails have been sent. We will not rest until our chicken balti pies return to their original recipe as passed down, father to son, on saturday afternoons at three o'clock from time immemorial....