MANILVA THIS WEEKEND.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY 1Oth/11^th/ DECEMBER 2011.

After our breakfast on Saturday morning we went for a long walk with Cheta and ended up down at the Football Ground but it was play-away day as the teams were just getting on the bus; the weather is still staying fine with the forecast for the rest of the weekend and all next week getting better, sun and blue skies and getting up to 21 degs by Thursday, we are now having the mildest and warmest Autumn on record! In the afternoon I watched the mornings edition of ‘Saturday Morning Kitchen’ and then went on the sports channel and caught all the Premier League games as they happened with a very good live contact; Liverpool beat QPR. 1-0 ! After dinner of Steak and Chips we settled down to watch the big game at Real Madrid against Barcelona; it does not kick off until 10-00pm and the whole country stops to watch it, right at the start Real Madrid scored after 20 seconds from the kickoff ! It was the fastest goal scored in a match between the two teams, Barcelona’s goalkeeper passed the ball out to a Madrid player and they scrambled the ball in. I ran up to Bar Rojas as the owner Manolo is a big Real supporter and blew my whistle and said no problem the score would still be 3-1 for ‘ Barca ’ On my way back down one of our neighbour’s opposite also said that it would be 3-1 ! Barcelona then equalized so I was up again shouting and whistling, they then went into the lead with a spectacular goal – another visit up the street was called for ! When they scored the third goal our neighbours where hanging out of their window screaming as once again I ended up in Bar Rojas !! It was a “ Helluva ” game and it meant that Barcelona went top of the ‘ Liga ’above Real on goal difference.

As you can see in the pictures below Father Xmas has arrived over night and is trying to get into the house-early ! Our Sunday roast this week was Chicken with Chestnut Stuffing and all the trimmings and Brenda’s famous vegetables including her special Cauliflower and Broccoli Mornay and my crispy fat roasted potatoes which are also in the pictures below ! Mano and Anna called in at lunchtime so they ended up coming back for dinner.

Later after they had left I found on TVE2 a concert/film about ‘ David Byrne ’who used to be the leading light in the New York new wave band ‘ Talking Heads ’back in the 80s/90s. Psycho Killer,Burning Down the House and Road to Nowhere being my favorites. He has never taken out US citizenship, he was actually born in Scotland, but is American in every other way, he is also known for his activism in support of increased cycling; the bike has been his main means of transport on the streets of New York, he even has a regular cycling column in the ‘New York Times ’The film called ‘ Ride,Rise,Roar. ’ is a documentary about the songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno, it contains concert footage, rehearsals and interviews; the ensemble consists of four musicians with David Byrne, three backing singers, who also dance and three dancers. The challenge is to combine popular music with modern dance, the choreography is amazing and the music is just David Byrne at his best, the backing rhythms are compelling and the voice of Byrne is even better ! All the performers wear white and the lighting is brilliant . Catch it if you can !! The pictures above give you just a little feel of the concerts.

PS; During the forthcoming week I am going to post a picture blog and talk about the David Attenborough fabulous programme on the “ Frozen Earth ” Watch this space.

Thought for the Day;

In striving to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.

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