We have yet another grey day with rain during the night clearing up to give us this dull, overcast picture with clouds shrouding the mountains and grey looking sea.
Madelaine McCann is in the news again with evidence of more police bungling i9n Portugal. How these poor people have suffered since the disappearance of their daughter. It would lift world spirits if little Madelaine is found and I continue to wish them the best of luck in this eventuality.
So the pound has dropped again to practically parity against the euro. I was reading that it has been caused by the state of the political stage in Britain with the likelihood of a hung parliament. Who starts saying such things? Surely it´s because the recession is not receding and that every day there are job losses and there doesn´t seem to be a light at the end of this financial crisis. Maybe, also, people are discouraged by knowing public money has bailed out the banks then seeing headlines such as …………
LLOYDS sparked fury yesterday by vowing to reward its top bankers – despite running up losses of £6.3BILLION in 2009.
The bailed-out giant revealed it plunged into the red last year after writing off dodgy loans worth a staggering £24BILLION.
That is equivalent to the annual economic output of Lithuania. About £200million will be shared out among Lloyds staff – with directors in line for more than a million each. Read more:
How can this be jusified when these already well-paid few would have no job had it not been for public money. Moreover, I am not a champagne lover but this just gets sillier when we read…………
A BANKER ran up a £44,000 bar tab in a two-and-a-half hour champagne and vodka spree………….The mystery American and five pals ordered 40 bottles of Cristal fizz at £330 each……..When that ran out they moved on to bigger sizes – MAGNUMS, or double bottles, JEROBOAMS, double that again, and SALMANAZARS, nine-litre bottles at £5,000 each………….They finished their party at Aura in Mayfair, central London, with two magnums of vodka..A source said: “They seemed determined to celebrate. They were ordering bottle after bottle and handing them out to everyone in the bar.” Read more
I´m sorry, but commonsense is well and truly out of the window. These stories are not even at the top of the page. A football story is deemed more important than the economy in the newspaper with the largest circulation. In fact it´s not really a football story it´s a story about a whingeing player. The real story should be linking Portsmouth and the plight of other struggling clubs to the nonsensical wages being paid to the players.
It´s the same old British problem which I became weary of seeing. We´ll sort out the bankers. We´ll sort out the MPs. We´ll sort out the troublesome members in society. The Sun spends a few days with the headlines and the MPs, the Bankers and everyone else who breaks the law gets away with murder. Meanwhile those who work hard and keep out of trouble get penalised. This is not a condemnation of any one party. Both political parties have been as bad as each other in Britain. I can´t really say a lot about the Spanish situation as I am still learning. I am told, however, that ignorance is bliss……
———————————————————
The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain….I´ve often heard this said
But how far away is this Spanish plain is the thought lurking in my head
The rain seems everywhere this year and often far too much
The balancing act twixt flood and drought is definitely out of touch
So why do we waste this water when countries have none at all
We´ve known for quite some time where it´s likely gonna fall?
Can´t we trap the excess and take it to the drought
Whatever we get to Ethiopia will be better than their current nowt!
With worldwide unemployment and millions needing food
Why not think of water instead of thinking crude
Designate new tankers designate new pipes
The man who gets this going could maybe earn his stripes
We need a different Band Aid, Bob Geldof or Midge Ure
To give the people water that´s for drinking and is pure
So while the world´s in turmoil let´s use these alternative ideas
It´s time to use this water…don´t you all agree m´dears?
————————————————————————————————————–
Word of the Day
Sudar soo-darr’ (intransitive verb)
to sweat, to perspire; to work hard
EXAMPLES
Nunca dejo de sudar cuando estoy en México. – I never stop sweating when I am in Mexico.
Las mujeres no sudan sino que brillan. – Women don’t sweat; they glisten.
For more information and examples, visit the SpanishDict.com entry for Sudar.
———————————————————————————————————————–
Music Stuff March 3rd
1963, The Beatles played the last show on a UK tour supporting Helen Shapiro at The Gaumont Cinema, Hanley, Stoke.
1967, A twice-nightly tour kicked off in the UK at The ABC in Romford Essex featuring, The Small Faces, Jeff Beck, Roy Orbison and Paul and Barry Ryan.
1968, this week’s UK Top 5 singles: No.5, Don Partridge, ‘Rosie’, No.4, Manfred Mann, ‘Mighty Quinn’, No.3, The Move, ‘Fire Brigade’, No.2, ‘Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, ‘Legend Of Xanadu’, No.1, Esther and Abi Ofarim, ‘Cinderella Rockefella.’
1973, Slade’s ‘Com On Feel The Noize’, entered the UK at No.1, making Slade the first act to achieve this since The Beatles.
1973, winners at this years Grammy Awards included, Roberta Flack who won Song of the year and Record of the year with ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ and Harry Nilsson won Best pop vocal performance for ‘Without You.’
1979, The Bee Gees scored their fourth UK No.1 single with ‘Tragedy.’
1984, Nena started a three week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ’99 Red Balloons.’ Originally sung in German, ’99 Luftballons’ was re-recorded in English as ’99 Red Balloons’.
1985, Michael Jackson visited Madame Tussauds Waxworks in London to unveil his waxwork look-alike.
1990, Lindy Layton and Beats International were at No.1 in the UK with the single ‘Dub Be Good To Me.’ Formed by ex-Housemartins Norman Cook, the song was based on the SOS Band’s 1984 hit ‘Just Be Good To Me’ and The Clash’s ‘Guns of Brixton’.
1990, during a world tour Paul McCartney played the first of 6 sold-out nights at the Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan.
1999, Oasis agreed to pay their former drummer Tony McCarroll a one-off sum of £550,000 after he sued the Manchester band for millions in unpaid royalties. McCarroll had been sacked from the band in 1995.
1999, US music professor Peter Jeffrey went to court to sue The Smashing Pumpkins, their promoters and a company who make ear plugs after claiming his hearing was damaged at a concert in Connecticut.
2000, former Bay City Roller, Derek Longmuir was released on bail on charges of downloading child pornographic images from the internet and keeping indecent videos in his home.
2000, Tom Jones won the Best male artist at this year’s Brit Awards. Best single went to Robbie Williams for ‘She’s The One’ and Outstanding Contribution went to The Spice Girls.
2001, Stereophonics were forced to change the title of their new album after car manufacturer Daimler Chrysler objected to their use of the copyrighted word ‘Jeep’. The UK title became ‘Just Enough Education To Perform.’
2002, TV show ‘Pop Idol’ winner Will Young UK No.1 with ‘Anything Is Possible / Evergreen.’
2003, Ray Jackson who found fame with Lindisfarne took out legal action against Rod Stewart over his 1970s hit song ‘Maggie May.’ Jackson claimed he came up with the worldwide hit’s classic mandolin melody and claimed he may have lost at least £1m because he was not credited for the track’s distinctive “hook.” Jackson was paid just £15 for the recording session by Stewart in 1971.
2004, Elton John announced he was planning to marry his long-term partner David Furnish
2008, The Beatles’ engineer Norman Smith died at the age of 85. Smith who worked on every studio recording the band made between 1962 and 1965 was nicknamed “Normal Norman” by John Lennon.
2009, To celebrate the release of U2’s twelfth studio album and their appearance every night for a week on The Late Show with David Letterman, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg temporarily renamed part of 53rd street in Midtown Manhattan U2 Way.
Birthday Boys and Girls March 3rd:
1942, Mike Pender, The Searchers,
1944, 1947, Dave Mount, Mud,
1947, Jennifer Warnes, singer, ).
1977, Ronan Keating, vocals, Boyzone
Podcast coming later but here are the latest podcasts
