Tonight´s the night and Barcelona and Manchester United fans are in Rome awaiting a great football match. Brits have been travelling in a variety of ways and one camper van with five fans decided to put their geography skills to the test. I suppose it´s entirely your own choice but, as the BBC presenter noted, getting to Rome from Dover via Belgium is not the most appropriate route!

The weather still looks good for the week ahead although it is always wise to make that check. That chance of rain shows it´s good to check.

Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
25° C | 14° C	12° C | 13° C	23° C | 13° C	23° C | 14° C
Clear	Clear	Clear	Chance of Rain 20% chance of precipitation

Let´s have a look at the exchange rates. The euro is worth 87 pence against the pound sterling which is worth 1 euro 14. This is its highest against the euro for a while.

I always look in amazement at the birthdays to see who has been born on the same day and achieved greatness in the same field. Today is that special feeling when Christopher Lee and Vincent Price share the same birthday. That´s a bit spooky!  Spare a thought for Christopher Reeve, aka Superman, who was injured on this day in 1995 and other memorable snippets from history are included later in the blog.

Here´s a Spanish word for today.

Serio

(seh’-ryo) (adjective) – serious, important, grave; reliable, responsible; reputable

• Tengo una herida muy grave en el mano. – I have a serious wound on my hand.
• Eres una persona poco seria. – You are an unreliable person.

• En serio… – Seriously…

For more information and examples, visit the SpanishDict.com entry for Serio.

Please visit the links as we look at the news here in Spain. I only add my comments.
Spain Press Review – Wednesday May 27 2009
The European election campaign, corruption and football dominate the Spanish front pages today…..El Mundo leads for the second day with its allegations against Manuel Chaves, the Minister for Territorial Policy and ex President of the Junta de Andalucía. Yesterday it claimed that he granted a grant of 10 million to his daughter Paula’s mining company.
Today the paper claims that Chaves changed the regulations so the company could benefit. Previous regulations said that grants could not be given if a project is already underway. El Mundo says that on November 12 last year Matsa appointed Paula Chaves as its administrator, and on January 20 the company received 10 million €. The paper shows a picture of Manuel Chaves in the Senate yesterday, and quotes his response as saying that the information has been elaborated with ‘rancour and resentment’. The paper says a haughty Chaves said that a grant had been granted to a multinational company which ‘had created 450 jobs, one of which was for my daughter’.

Spain Culture News
British cinema to be showcased in Sevilla Film Festival
2006 saw Kenneth Branagh visit the festival to present his film on Mozart’s Magic Flute……The sixth edition of the Sevilla film festival, which will be held in the city between November 6 and 14 is to be dedicated to British cinema. It comes after agreement has been reached with both the British Council and the British Film Institute.

Costa del Sol
Dramatic jewellery robbery in Mijas
The Mijas Diamond and Jewellery Centre was assaulted by three hooded individuals carrying hammers ……Three jewellery thieves have made off with a haul estimated to be between 8,000 € and 20,000 € from a shop in Mijas pueblo, the Mijas Diamond and Jewellery Centre. The owner of the store was inside when the hooded thieves attacked carrying hammers.
Costa del Sol
New trains arrive on Málaga’s local lines
RENFE has this week started to introduce the new ‘Civia’ model on the line to Fuengirola……….The new trains have a top speed of 120 kms/hour, and have a larger capacity at 600, of which 227 are seated.
There are no intermediate doors between the carriages.

Spanish Oddities
Prince and Princess of Asturias arrive in Bogotá
Don Felipe and Doña Letizia are in Colombia for a four day official visit……The new trains have a top speed of 120 kms/hour, and have a larger capacity at 600, of which 227 are seated.
There are no intermediate doors between the carriages.

National
More rows as the European election campaign continues in Spain
The latest Socialist video has once again proved controversial…..The Partido Popular has complained that Monday night’s live TV debate between the two leading candidates in the European elections, was immediately followed by a Socialist campaign video.

Once again the latest Socialist video has proved controversial in some quarters. It shows José María Aznar, the previous PP Prime Minister with his feet up on the table with President George W Bush. It blames the two for financial havens, stock options, made to measure suits, and for sending us into recession. PP spokesman, González Pons, who made the complaint to TVE Spanish television, and said that the Socialists did not know how to lose.

Spain Sports News
Clash of the Titans – Barcelona and Manchester United meet in Rome today
The kick-off in the Champions League final is 2045 CET

National
Sixth anniversary of the Yak-42 tragedy
The families of those who died plan to appeal the sentence of those found guilty of wrongly identifying the bodies of the Spanish soldiers……This Tuesday was the sixth anniversary of the tragic day in Turkey when 62 Spanish soldiers lost their lives when a military transport plane crashed in Trebisonda as they were flying back home to Spain from Afghanistan. The victims’ families paid homage to those who died at a ceremony held at a monument to their memory in Zaragoza, and another took place in Turkey, near the site of the crash. Others were held in Burgos and Madrid………It´s easy for us to overlook the enormity of this tragedy when 62 service personnel lost their lives

Andalucía
Marta del Castillo suspects to give assets as security for compensation to her family
Four of the suspects must jointly meet an amount of 240,000 Euro…………………..The judge instructing the Marta del Castillo case in Seville has set a guarantee deposit of 240,000 € to be met jointly by four of the suspects in order to guarantee any future compensation to be paid to the teenager’s family.

It’s understood the four in question will offer up assets as security for their portion of the amount, and the judge will then decide if the value is sufficient. It affects Marta’s self-confessed murderer and ex boyfriend, Miguel Carcaño, his elder brother, Francisco Javier Delgado, Delgado’s girlfriend, María García, and Carcaño’s friend, Samuel. The case against a 15 year old known as El Cuco is being instructed by a juvenile court………………………………It is another case where those of us not directly involved can overlook the tragedy involved. This must be awful for Marta´s family and friends

Costa del Sol
New 3D Internet Map Facility for Málaga
The provincial government’s Visor 3D allows users to view the facilities and hidden corners of Málaga province

Costa del Sol
Suspected paedophile arrested in Málaga
The pensioner is alleged to have lured his victims with sweets……A suspected paedophile has been remanded to prison after his arrest last week for an incident near a Málaga city football ground. His arrest came after the family of a young boy told local police officers that the 77 year old had masturbated in front of the youngster on a building site near the football ground in the 25 Años de Paz district of the city……you´d think that he´d have have made an improvement in his behaviour by the age of 77. This must confirm that it is an incurable illness…….

Costa Tropical
Doubts over completion date of A-7 motorway in Granada
An Izquierda Unida politician says a route amendment on one section means the autovía cannot open in this legislature

Costa de Almería
Almost two tons of cannabis found hidden on a Níjar beach
The Civil Guard found 1,800 kilos of the drug after a routine inspection of the coast…….A routine check by a Civil Guard maritime unit has discovered almost two tons of cannabis hidden on scrub land on the Punta La Polacra in Níjar. Ideal newspaper reports that a team from the Almería Civil Guard were inspecting the coastline from offshore last Friday, and decided a closer inspection from land was needed of the area of Carnaje Beach………..this is an impossible task for the authorities. They need a little luck now and then….

Costa Blanca
35 Valencia government officials give court evidence in Gürtel case
The Valencia Socialists have lodged a criminal complaint against the Partido Popular suspects implicated in the case…….The court declarations in the Valencia side of the case began last week and include the Valencia President, Francisco Camps, who is accused of receiving gifts of suits from Orange Market. A tailor who was called as a witness told the court that the suits were paid for by Francisco Correa’s number two, Pablo Crespo. Others implicated in the investigation include the PP’s General Secretary in Valencia, Ricardo Costa, and Víctor Campos, ex Vice President of the Valencia Generalitat………………………I think this problem exists everywhere…….

National
UNESCO chooses two new Biosphere Reserves in Spain
The island of Fuerteventura and an area covering 11 municipalities in Portugal and Spain……………..UNESCO’s international conservation programme, Man and the Biosphere, has added two sites in Spain to its World Network of Biosphere Reserves. They are amongst 22 sites from 17 countries which the programme’s International Coordinating Council decided to add to the list at a meeting in Korea this week. The decision brings the number of Biosphere Reserves up to 553 across 107 countries. It also means there are now 40 in Spain………………………….I´m all in favour of this and it´s good news for Spain.

Let´s see who we could have been wishing Happy Birthday today.
Cornelius Vanderbilt 1794
Amelia Jenks Bloomer 1818
Wild Bill Hickock 1837
Vincent Price 1911
Hubert H. Humphrey 1911
Christopher Lee 1922
Henry Kissinger 1923
Ramsey Lewis 1935
Don Williams 1939
Cilla Black 1943

Now we´ll look at how history panned out on this day over then years.
1907 – The Bubonic Plague broke out in San Francisco.

1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge was opened to pedestrian traffic. The bridge connected San Francisco and Marin County.

1941 – The German battleship Bismarck was sunk by British naval and air forces. 2,300 people were killed.

1964 – Indian Prime Minister Jawaharla Nehru died.

1969 – Construction of Walt Disney World began in Florida.

1985 – In Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification on the pact returning Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997.

1994 – Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia. He had been in exile for two decades.

1995 – In Charlottesville, VA, Christopher Reeve was paralyzed after being thrown from his horse during a jumping event.

1999 – In The Hague, Netherlands, a war crimes tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic and four others for atrocities in Kosovo. It was the first time that a sitting head of state had been charged with such a crime.

and finally, a little bit of pop music trivia on this day…..

1964, Eleven boys were suspended from a school in Coventry, England for having Mick Jagger haircuts……..I should think so too…give them short back and sides!
1964, pirate radio station ‘Sutch’ was started by Screaming Lord Sutch, broadcasting from former army fort ‘Shivering Sands’ in The Thames Estuary.

Podcast should be ready about 12.30 today. Fab FM meeting the presenters today and preparing the launch. Things are getting hectic!