That's a poke in the eye for me then...

Maybe the campaign to get the raisins removed from the chicken balti pies on sale at the City of Manchester Stadium, and which I wrote about so sniffily a while back has been successful? In any event, they are clearly back in favour with one person who, at this weekend's match was carrying a placard announcing, "I love you Sheikh Mansour [our owner] and your family and your mates. I want to buy you a pie." And to think that some people go to watch the football.....

Announcing....

..the arrival of:

Jude Samuel McKay
Born at 11.41 a.m. BST, 21st September, 2009

A brother for Billy (William Reuben) and Jessica Rose (Banana Cake) Trickey

His grandparents adore him already

Take a look-autumn in chiclana by Mike

Worrying, very worrying

One of the most poignant memorials I have ever seen was in downtown Buenos Aires. It was so simple we might well have missed it but for our guide, William. It consisted of a small garden with trees and a white stone bench and the markings left behind by the rooms of a building upon the wall of the adjoining building. The wall had been painted a ghostly white. We were told that it marked where the Israeli Embassy had stood before it had been blown up by Iranian terrorists, killing about 20 people (each tree in the garden commemorated one of the victims), and that shortly after this an Israeli community centre in the city had also been blown up. This was all thought to be a campaign against the then Argentinian Prime Minister, Carlos Menem, who had failed to deliver on his promise to support Iran in some anti-sanctions vote in the UN. Menem's son was later killed in an unexplained car accident. Anyway, one of the alleged suspects for the bombings, Ahmad Vahidi, is in line to become the Defence Minister in Ahmadinejad's cabinet.

Meanwhile, here in Spain unemployment continues to rise. It stands at about 19%, higher than in many parts of Eastern Europe. Worse still, the figures for youth unemployment are higher-38% of those under 25 are said to be unemployed.

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....