MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 February 2014

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (6.45am): 10.5C
Forecast high: 12C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): West 4 to 6. Swells of to two metres decreasing.

Looking clear and should be clear for most of the day but also a bit chilly. The breeze down at present but picking up from the west. Warmer by the end of the week.

Evening update (20.00): A high of 14.7C. It was mostly sunny but at times windy. Not bad, though.

Politics Are Easy With Eyes Closed

Pat Metheny may just be the greatest guitarist in the world. He may even be the world's greatest musician, which would be an accolade that would be impossible to substantiate, so let's just say that as a musician he's pretty damn good and that he's been damn good for over thirty years, as it was back in the late 1970s that the German ECM label released the first album by the Pat Metheny Group. It featured the ten-minute "San Lorenzo", a track, for a jazz outfit, of quite stunning and beauteous melody.

Metheny came to the attention of the wider music public in the mid-1980s thanks to David Bowie doing the vocals for "This Is Not America", which was taken from the soundtrack of the film "The Falcon and the Snowman". At the time, this was the fifth film that Metheny had written the music for. He has since scored many other films and he has just won a Goya, the Spanish equivalent of an Oscar, for the soundtrack to "Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados" ("Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed"), the story of Antonio, a teacher, who drives to Almeria in the hope of meeting John Lennon, who was there filming "How I Won The War". The title of the film, some of you might have realised, comes from a Lennon Beatles song - "Strawberry Fields Forever".

In winning the Goya, Metheny beat off the Mallorcan composer Joan Valent, a name that may well be familiar; he is the director of the Pollensa Festival. Among his many other works and achievements, Valent also wrote - believe it or not - the official hymn (or anthem, if you prefer) of the Balearic Government. This isn't a hymn as such - it is a rather jolly instrumental/orchestral piece that features traditional instruments - and it is something of a curiosity. It is curious in that, whereas mostly all regions of Spain have official hymns, the Balearics does not, but it does have a hymn for its government. (Mallorca, by the way, has its hymn, "La Balanguera", but that's something different.)

Valent's governmental hymn was commissioned by the previous PSOE-led administration of Francesc Antich. It was a piece of music, said Antich, which reinforced messages of cohesion in the Balearics and among the islands' citizens. It cost 12,000 euros and came with an accompanying video. The hymn was to be used on official government occasions, while the video version was to be used for promotion at international travel fairs. The question is, whatever happened to it?

Politics intrude into music and culture when it suits politicians for there to be intrusion or, alternatively, avoidance. Try finding any current reference to Valent's hymn and you will probably draw as much of a blank as I have. I conclude, though I could be wrong, that it has been quietly dropped. It was far too regional for a government that at times appears indifferent to the very region it governs. It was also a work that was commissioned by the other lot.

The Goya gala at which Valent (for "Las brujas de Zugarramundi", entitled "Witching and Bitching" for the international audience) didn't win his award was the occasion for a rare old bitch-in between politicians and the film industry. It might not have been had the national minister for culture (and also education) José Ignacio Wert put in an appearance, but he didn't. It was a snub to the industry and showed a lack of respect on Wert's behalf, said members of the Spanish cinema luverati. There again, Wert, had he turned up, would probably have thought that he might have to endure some bitching in his general direction. His education bill would have been just one source. A bill for which he has no responsibility, the abortion one, would have been another. As it was, this was a source of on-stage complaint and was one reason why the former president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, reckoned that the Goyas had been turned into a gala against the Partido Popular: a witch-hunt amongst the bitching, or something like that.

Wert actually had a prior engagement. It was in London. He was meeting Vince Cable, who is Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. It hasn't escaped the attention of many commentators that Cable and Wert have portfolios which do not coincide. Why, therefore, was Wert meeting him? Something to do with reforming Spanish universities apparently. He did also meet people from the LSE and Cambridge, but the fact that the visit was organised as late as 29 January has led to suspicions that Wert was finding a reason to give the Goyas a miss and so to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the film industry. Politics, it might be said, are easy with eyes closed.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 February 2014

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (7.45am): 14C
Forecast high: 15C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southwest 5 to 6 increasing West and Northwest 6 to 7 during the morning. Possible storm.

Very mild morning, a spot of rain about, and plenty of breeze. Alert for the coasts because of the wind. Rain possible at any time during the day but also some sun. The outlook up to this weekend suggests really quite warm weather by then, with highs into the low 20s. We'll see.

Evening update (19.30): Not much by way of sun. Some rain, fair bit of wind, but mild, with a high of 17.2C.

Balnearios Back To The Future

"Balneario" can translate in different ways into English. It means a spa or health resort, thus reflecting its original meaning, i.e. baths, as in, for example, the Roman Baths in Bath (the word comes from Latin). But for most tourists, it means something which, if one's being strictly accurate, it doesn't in Spanish - a beach bar. So how is that the beach bar is called a balneario?

The answer lies with the growth in popularity of the sea as a means of hydrotherapy in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Balnearios of varying kinds sprang up along the Spanish coasts. They were primarily establishments to facilitate the "taking of the waters", but many served a much wider function. Some were not dissimilar to piers at the British seaside. Others, which were reserved solely for bathing purposes, could be bizarre in the extreme. There is an example of what was like a Moorish palace that was manoeuvred along rails into the sea at San Sebastian. It had various doors out of which the discreet bather could step into the sea, take his or her waters and then return again. The bathing hut was most certainly not the preserve of the prudish Victorian Britons.

There are some magnificent examples of balnearios from the turn of the twentieth century. Alicante specialised in them, or so it would seem. They were called things like the "Diana" or the "Alhambra" and displayed, as with the contraption in San Sebastian, more than a passing acquaintance with Arabic style.

Gradually, balnearios became places that served several functions. As prudishness began to give way and people were more inclined to show off their bodies, to actually do some proper swimming and to indulge in the new fad of sunbathing, so the balnearios catered for different needs. In Miquel Ferra i Martorell's recollection in the "Majorca Daily Bulletin" of the American Bertran Galbraith (24 November last year), he explained how Galbraith became a swimming instructor at a balneario in Palma in the 1920s. The balneario had a solarium for sunbathing and a children's playground. It also staged dances and performances by jazz orchestras. It almost certainly would have also offered some forms of refreshment. The balneario, therefore, came to mean whatever you wanted it to mean, and today it means a place to get a drink or have something to eat: a beach bar whose original meaning has been all but forgotten.

In certain instances, balnearios at Mallorca's resorts have become so much a part of the resort's fabric that they are used as points of reference and as means of location or measuring distance. This is certainly true of Playa de Palma. There are fifteen balnearios in all, and a process of improving them should mean that four - numbers 4, 6, 8 and 10 - will have undergone their improvements by the start of the season. Three million euros are being invested by the company with the concession for the balnearios, Mar de Mallorca, and as part of this investment, the balnearios are to be themed. Yes, theming will no longer be confined to piratising or rocking a hotel, the balnearios of Mallorca are to be given the theming treatment as well.

Actually, this theming is not what it might sound, unless you think that there is a "back to the future" theme going on, because back to the future is pretty much what is happening with some of them in that they are reclaiming their sporting nature - that which was acquired thanks to the likes of Bertran Galbraith - and their role as places for relaxation. Four have been earmarked as "tipo relax". I'm not entirely clear what this entails, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't entail a tipo of relax that is offered by certain establishments most commonly frequented at night time. Other themes will mean that four balnearios will be franchised as, for example, ice-cream parlours or cocktail bars. Three more will be for entertainment and/or the ubiquitous chill-out. Showers, massage, towel hire and safes will all form part of this general upgrade in provision, one which Palma city council believes will lead to the attraction of tourists with greater wealth.

The council may well be right in believing this, but does this represent a move that is totally welcome? I wonder. The beach in Mallorca has become increasingly corporatised. It hasn't been privatised, but the desire to exploit the balnearios (for God's sake, do we really need any more chill-out?) is symptomatic of a somewhat soulless sanitisation of the island's seaside.

But there again, exploitation is not universal. In Playa de Muro they've demolished the most profitable of the resort's balnearios because it obscured the view of the sea. It was a bizarre decision, but, hey, at least Muro's former Balneario 1 won't be turned into a chill-out bar. We can, therefore, be thankful for some things.

* Photo of the machine at San Sebastian comes from http://www.balneariosysalud.com

MALLORCA TODAY - Mallorca fail to break down ten-men Alcorcón

Alcorcón 1 : 1 Real Mallorca
Alcorcón, in the Madrid community, were flying high when Mallorca played them early in the season at the Son Moix. They have since gone into decline and are in a possible relegation struggle. Mallorca are neither here nor there, not imposing themselves on the league, remaining in touch with the play-off positions but not so far off a relegation spot themselves. Pressure was on coach Oltra for this away game, and things didn't go well in the first half, Alcorcón's Juli proving to be a real handful, and he duly scored with a solo effort after only eight minutes. Alcorcón stayed on top for most of the first period, Mallorca taking until the thirty-third minute to create a chance (through Gerard Moreno). As so often this season, though, Mallorca sprang into life after the break and it was Alfaro doing the springing, albeit from the penalty spot. Alcorcón then tried to do what they could to ensure defeat, introducing sub Rodríguez after 62 minutes, only for him to be sent off with a straight red five minutes later. Despite the one-man superiority and despite also the liveliness of sub Asensio, Mallorca couldn't clinch victory.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 February 2014

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.00am): 11.5C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): West 3 to 4 increasing 4 to 5 during the afternoon.

After yesterday's high winds, a calm morning with clearish skies, but the calmness is due to be shortlived, an alert for the coasts in place for tomorrow, meaning wind. Showers possible tonight and tomorrow but other than winds, the general outlook isn't too bad.

Evening update (19.15): A high of 17.5C. A touch of rain at present, and the wind is due to get up overnight.

The Infanta Infatuation

If you were a rabid royalist or a rabid Republican, you would have already made your mind up about the innocence or guilt of the Infanta before she stepped from her car, having avoided the walk along the ramp of shame that the Infanta's Iñaki has had to endure on the two occasions when he has been invited to appear before Judge Castro in the Palma courthouse.

The overwhelming majority of Spaniards display a singular lack of rabidity when it comes to the royalty or to Republicanism. Most will be inclined, thanks largely to an alarming decline in the popularity of the royal family, to assume that Judge Castro - in whom the people (of Mallorca at any rate) trust - knows what he's doing and that there is substance to the reasons for Princess Cristina being called in for a chat. It doesn't make them rabid Republicans though, even if a recent poll suggested that around 40% of the population would be happy to see the monarchy go. As with political parties, Spaniards tend to be indifferent. There is a national shrug of the shoulders when the elite have their dirty washing aired and then find it folded away neatly in a drawer, having been "archived". For Spaniards, Cristina is like a politician brought to court, the only difference being a title. Their expectation, as with politicians, is that, regardless of whether Castro has strong grounds or not, nothing will happen as a result of the court appearance, and they may well be right to have such an expectation.

Being royalist or Republican should play no part in the court proceedings but in a small way it does, this small way being in the guise of the Frente Cívico Somos Mayoría, a movement formed by the ex-leader of the United Left, a Republican-favouring party. It is one of two organisations that have brought what are in effect private prosecutions against the Princess. The other is Manos Limpias, a "union" which is about as far removed politically from the Frente Cívico as you can get. Which doesn't make it royalist. Quite the contrary. Given its background, Manos Limpias is essentially a Francoist organisation, and Francoists have little time for a Bourbon king who turned his back on Francoism when he had the chance to support it not once but twice. By extension, therefore, they have little time for anyone else with a Bourbon connection.

The presence of lawyers on behalf of these two diametrically opposite bodies in the court has added to the surreal nature of events in Palma. The world's media has flown in in great number, thus lending support to the notion that Palma could be forging a new niche in tourism - celebrity trial tourism - to indulge in the Infanta infatuation. The newsworthiness of the occasion is that she's the daughter of the King and that daughters of the King or any other member of the royal family, other than those who have married into it (Iñaki), don't do court appearances. One thing is for sure. Whatever happens (and nothing will), Judge Castro has secured for himself a place in legal history: the judge who put a royal in the dock.

But of course she isn't actually in the dock. She has only been called in to answer questions from a list as long as both Judge Castro's arms. And there are other questions, those from the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Pedro Horrach, which is another surreal element. Horrach doesn't believe the Princess has a case to answer. Nevertheless, he gets his turn to ask questions, too.

Having replied to most of these questions by saying that she didn't know anything about her husband's business affairs and alleged criminality, what happens next? The chances of her being put on trial are remote in the extreme. Indeed, if the prosecutor is insufficiently moved to change his mind, it is hard to see how Judge Castro could proceed. There has to be a prosecutor, and while Manos Limpias might see itself cast in such a role, this would also be extremely unlikely. Moreover, it would be extraordinarily damaging. Just imagine, a Francoist organisation leading the interrogation of the daughter of the King.

The more likely outcome is that the whole thing will be "archived", the legal fudge which does permit the reopening of a case but typically puts an end to the whole matter. Even if he still believes there is a case against the Princess, Castro may have no alternative but to resort to archiving. And so the Spanish people will indeed shrug their shoulders because this will be what they might have expected to have happened, thus making them question what the point of the court appearance was.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 February 2014

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.15am): 12.5C
Forecast high: 17C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southwest 5 to 6 easing West 3 to 4 by the evening.

Another breezy morning. The sky a mix of cloud and some blue, as it is likely to be all day. Staying windy with the possibility of a shower this evening.

Evening update (19.00): A high of 19.9C. Not a lot of sun but some. A lot of wind, though. 

The Story Of Mallorcan Jazz

Sa Pobla in August is the venue for one of the main events in the Mallorcan jazz calendar. Its annual festival has over the years attracted some seriously big names from the world of jazz, but as a festival it had been, until last year, strung out; the five or six concerts were staged over a three-week or so period. If you are going to promote jazz as part of the tourism mix, then it is probably better if a festival takes place over a more concentrated period. And this was what happened last year.

Whether the promotion was any better, however, is open to question. Jazz, and the same can be said for all forms of music on the island, does not tend to get a look-in on those lists of the usual-suspect, alternatives-to-sun-and-beach tourism activities. Gastronomy, culture, nature, cycling. You know these lists only too well. Music? Well no, not really. Be the music, say, Sa Pobla Jazz or the Pollensa Festival, it tends to be treated if not as an afterthought then as an add-on, an optional extra for the tourist who might stumble across an event rather than be drawn by a direct appeal to his or her musical tastes.

For an island which has an enormous amount of music of all varieties, an apparently official indifference to this music's existence is difficult to comprehend. The endless saga as to the survival of the Balearics Symphony Orchestra has done this officialdom little credit. Yes, it costs money to run an excellent orchestra, but there are times when benefits, both tangible because of audience revenue and intangible because of cultural enrichment, should be given greater prominence when a bean-counting cost-benefit analysis is being made.

Jazz in winter, of which there is a good amount, is the preserve for the most part of the clubs which offer it. Though Jazz Voyeur closes for two months from the middle of January, there are other venues. Sala Dante, the Blue Jazz Club at the Hotel Saratoga, the Garito Café.

The story of jazz in Mallorca started, to all intents and purposes, with a pioneer in the early 1950s. That pioneer was Vicenç Montoliu i Massana, better known as Tete Montoliu. He wasn't a native of Mallorca (he was from Barcelona), but Montoliu became intimately associated with the development of jazz music on the island from the '50s. Montoliu, who died in 1997, was arguably the most important jazz pianist Spain had produced. Like George Shearing and Ray Charles, Montoliu was blind, but his incapacity didn't hinder him. In 1952, at the age of nineteen, he played in Mallorca for the first time. During that decade he appeared at venues such as Tito's club in Palma and at the Hotel Formentor. But this wasn't necessarily an entirely satisfying time for him. His jazz, which then was mainly bebop and Latin, had to be moderated for the burgeoning tourism industry. He was jazz-lite.

In truth, jazz was very much a minority musical genre in Mallorca until the 1980s. This was largely due to the fact that the Franco regime hadn't been that keen on it. The regime had enough problems trying to keep youth exposed to British and American pop music in check than to go adding to them by permitting other forms of music at variance with the patriotic styles it preferred. Nevertheless, both Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton appeared at Tagomago in the 1960s. Big international star names apart, however, jazz was largely ignored in Mallorca, except by Montoliu and collaborators he teamed up with. This all changed from 1980 onwards. Montoliu began to appear very much more regularly in Mallorca, and a concert of 7 May, 1981, which also featured the American pianist Keith Jarrett, was to prove to be a breakthrough occasion and helped to bring about the Palma International Jazz Festival, an event which, for the first time, brought jazz to a wider audience and away from exclusive or elite clubs. Montoliu went on to also perform in less likely settings than clubs or auditoriums. In 1982 he played with a gospel choir in Palma Cathedral and in 1984 in the church in Alaró.

The 1980s represented a decade that was a high point for jazz in Mallorca. In 1991, something happened which reduced its popularity. That was the local election. Palma town hall, which had been controlled by the PSOE socialists since 1979, came under the control of the Partido Popular. The jazz festival was scrapped. The reason? Good question. But there was more than just a hint of it having been because jazz was seen as being "socialist". Indeed, it was if jazz became proscribed. Montoliu played at a hotel in Cala Ratjada. The audience was tiny. There was no press coverage. His final appearance, six months before his death, was in Palma's Gran Hotel.

It was the festival in Sa Pobla which revived jazz, and the Jazz Voyeur summer festival season is, in a way, the offspring of the one-time Palma festival. These summer traditions have spilled over into the winter. There is jazz on a winter's day in many places across Mallorca, not just in Palma. But those days owe a great deal of debt to one man - Tete Montoliu.

* I acknowledge an article by Francesc Vicens for information about Montoliu.

Photo from Wikipedia: Tete Montoliu in 1984 with Bobby Hutcherson.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 February 2014

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.15am): 15.5C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): West and Southwest 4 to 5. Swells to one metre.

Breezy and mostly clear. Mild, the breezes a mix of west and south, remaining strong into tomorrow. Not a particular pattern to the next few days. Maybe getting a bit colder and maybe giving rain, but the winds are temperamental at present; hard to forecast with any accuracy.

Evening update (18.45): Well, the sudden, rather violent but shortlived hailstorm this afternoon came as a bit of a surprise. From a high of 17.5C down by five degrees in areas as a result.

The Strange Month Of February

It isn't of course meant to be 20 degrees in February. Yet it was yesterday. February is meant to be the month when we suffer for all our Mallorcan sins. The month when the gods of the good times either go on strike or take themselves off on their own jollies to Dubai (or somewhere like that) and abandon us to cold, rain and probably snow and to a period of numbing non-activity.

There is an absence of anything to do in February. If Carnival, dictated to by Easter, is shoved out of February and into March, which is the case this year, then, apart from a desperate case being made for Saint Valentine and his day of love, there's nothing. It is the month of the fiesta downtime, a recovery month following the Anthonys and Sebastians of January. It is the month when eyes are turned skyward, though they are not actually looking at the sky and figuring out if there is indeed rain about to descend; they are looking at pine trees and at the growing coconut shy cocoons of the caterpillars and figuring out when they are about to descend, either by plunging to terra firma or by crawling in procession along the branches and down the trunks of their accommodating pines.

It is a month of pretend tourism, one brought about by the cycling teams, about to race around the island in their own peloton procession, all but attached to each other like the caterpillars but moving at considerably greater speed before some detach themselves and hurtle towards a finishing line with a controlled winner (or loser) wobble.

It is the month of drill, saw, grinder, crane and the entire toolkit of renovation and even some new building. The sounds are those of palm fonds (those that have been left since the beetle did its worst) being lashed by the winds, of dry leaves scurrying across neglected terraces and of the constructor's work. Activity there is - for the brickie. The coal heap of builder slag by the Sol Alcudia has gradually reduced and been transformed into the shell of all-inclusive expansion. The struts of the Waikiki have been infused for its reformation. Restaurants, like the Don Vito and Sa Gavina, have evacuated tables and chairs and temporarily introduced cement mixers. What was the amusement arcade opposite the Big Banana has become yet another supermarket. How many supermarkets can be needed in one small area of a resort? Several, it would appear. But all this activity suggests that someone must be doing ok. The economy is not the slag heap it is alleged to be. There seems to be a lot of work. Seems but maybe it is an illusion.

This is February. A strange month that might typically be one of despair. The mild weather - surely we'll suffer, for if we don't, the reservoirs and wells might run dry - suggests otherwise for once, and perhaps it is mild weather that brings with it a renewed optimism. A new spring is about to come.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 February 2014

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.00am): 10C
Forecast high: 18C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): South 2 to 3 increasing 4 to 5 during the morning.

Calm and clear this morning. None of the wind of yesterday for the moment, but likely to be some later and coming from the south, hence the warm air.

Evening update (19.30): Quite windy again today and uncommonly warm. A high of 20.3C.

In Memory Of The Son Servera Plague

Each year, to coincide with the feast of Sant Ignasi (of Antioch), the town hall in Son Servera makes an award of 1,000 euros. It is named the Premi Metge Joan Lliteras, after a doctor who was active some 200 years ago. In 2006 the prize was given to Dr. Alfonso Ballesteros, the president of the Royal Academy of Medicine in the Balearic Islands. Dr. Ballesteros, in turn, gave the mayor of Son Servera a facsimile of a document held by the academy. It was the copy of a document from what is an archive which contains all the documentation related to the last great outbreak of the plague in Europe and in Mallorca.

In the document in question, dated 4 August 1820, Dr. Lliteras, who had the unenviable task of trying to treat the plague and stop its spreading, noted the number of people who had not by then been affected by the plague. 1,040 out of a total population of 1,808 inhabitants of the village eventually fell victim. In neighbouring Artà 1,267 people died, while Capdepera got off more lightly; there were a mere 112 deaths.

The reason for making the award on Sant Ignasi's day is that it was 1 February (the feast) in 1821 when a military cordon that had been put in place around Son Servera in June was finally lifted. The cordon did help to limit the spread of the disease. By the time that Dr. Lliteras wrote out his inventory of the still healthy (and alive) the worst of the plague was over, though it was still to be six months before the all-clear could be given and the cordon lifted.

The history of Mallorca's plagues is replete with stories and tall tales as to how the plagues took hold and how they were remedied. The most outlandish is the Sant Sebastià bone remedy that brought an end to the great plague of Palma in 1523. Less outlandish, probably because it was true, was the story of another Sebastià, the abbott of the hermitage in Betlem, who, on learning that the people of Artà were struck down by the 1820 plague, headed off to Artà in order to help (quite how he planned on helping isn't entirely clear), but succeeded only in being affected by the plague himself, returning to the hermitage, dying and managing to spread it a tad more in the process.

As far as the cause of the outbreak of the 1820 plague is concerned, there are two versions of events. One has it that the body of a plague victim on a boat from Tangiers was buried on the Port Vell beach in Son Servera and that a cloak belonging to the victim was picked up by a passing shepherd who became the first carrier of the disease. This is the legend version. The more scientific one, on account of scientists at the time having said so, was that there had been a small rodent among bags of grain that had been on board a vessel of the type which occasionally anchored in the bay off Son Servera and that it had been this rodent which had started the plague off. The legend version is, though, a rather more dramatic version, and helps to explain why there is a sculpture of a shepherd in the town's Plaça Abeurador, one that was done by one-time mayor, Eduardo Servera (appropriately enough).

By the time of the last plague in 1820, medical science hadn't advanced enormously. Dr. Lliteras, and it is remarkable that he seemingly survived, had potions and lotions involving quinine and vinegar to dispense. When these failed, and they probably did, the dead were buried in quicklime and their bodies were cremated. But measures to prevent the spread of disease were taken seriously across Spain. There was, for example, an order of 16 June 1820 by the authorities in Extremadura, about as far from Mallorca as it is possible to get in Spain, which dealt with the scare.

Though the plague did not return to Mallorca or Spain, there were other health scares. Yellow fever affected Mallorca in 1821 and again in 1870. But one of the the biggest health problems became cholera; there were three epidemics between 1832 and 1865. It was poor sanitary conditions in general, along with regular wars, which contributed to the fact that in Mallorca, in keeping with the rest of Spain, life expectancy, even as late as 1887, was only 29. It was vastly lower than mostly anywhere else in Europe.

How times do of course change. Though Chopin had in the first half of the nineteenth century come to Mallorca in the misguided belief that this would help his tuberculosis, the island wouldn't have typically been high on the list of destinations for the health tourist. Now, though, health tourism is looked upon as a growth sector by the regional government.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 February 2014

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.30am): 13C
Forecast high: 19C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southwest 5 to 6 easing West 3 to 4 by the afternoon.

Mild but rather damp and breezy morning. Due to be quite warm today with sun later.

Evening update (19.15): Very windy at times today, but calm now. A high of 19C as had been predicted.

A Tale Of Two Sirs: Team Sky

The first time I ever interviewed (I use the word in the loosest sense) a leading sports figure was when I was nine years old. "Will you play for England?" was my question. My interlocutor was non-committal. He was ever so humble. He was Basil D'Oliviera. I wanted his autograph. But I was, even at nine years of age, intrigued by him. Who was he? Why was he?

D'Oliveira had a back story that was unique. It was one from a different time and he was someone from a different era. Had his story been one from today, it would be analysed and discussed in a constant flurry of internet dissection. He himself would be scrutinised, followed, watched by an insatiable media. The scandal of his initial non-selection for South Africa would have been headlines for weeks, not just the day or two that it was in 1968. There would have been many more John Arlotts indignant at his treatment and dismissive of the cricketing establishment.

Keven Pietersen is, in a way, the current-day D'Oliveira, but only because of his South African connection. And as is the way of the current day, there is nothing we don't know of his story or believe that we don't know. Pietersen's uneasy relationship with the media stems from what the media believes him to be, even if he isn't, but it also stems from his own contrariness. His treatment is a product of his own complexities.

Pietersen, even before he was thrust under the Ashes-winning spotlight in 2005, was known about and discussed and analysed. The rights and wrongs of his qualification for England were as important as what we already thought we knew about him as a person; there were those stories of course of difficulties in the Nottinghamshire dressing-room. He has lived under that spotlight ever since. He didn't simply go from being an unknown to a highly known. He was always known.

Contrast him with Bradley Wiggins. Here is a sporting character with his own complexities, ones that were not exposed until he was suddenly under the spotlight. They were ones that caused him to suffer. I met him yesterday. He as much as admitted that he couldn't handle all that came along in 2012.

I had expected someone who might be stand-offish. One forms impressions, even if they are wrong ones. An at-times uneasy relationship with the media stems not just from his personality but also from all the baggage that his sport drags around with itself: the constant weight of doping insinuations that pull the bike back. Getting inside the head of Bradley Wiggins is a task for someone more intimately engaged with his sport and with him than for me, but in his media session in Alcúdia yesterday, one was able to get an inkling of what there is in that head.

Articulate and self-analytical, he veers between the humble and the boastful, but the boastful comes with a rider - "fuck it", why shouldn't I blow my own trumpet? Indeed, why shouldn't he? There was much that struck a chord and which I shall relate in an article for the "Majorca Daily Bulletin", but for now, there was one thing in particular that stood out. It was an epiphany moment that came from watching the film "Gladiator". I had to win to gain my freedom. I shall try and explain in that article.

Sir Dave Brailsford is the team principal of Team Sky. Again, impressions formed beforehand can be misleading. Brailsford, one might imagine, is a rather joyless egg-head, guided by data and management/sports science. Initially, I thought he might be a tough egg to crack. Was he interested in talking or not? Perhaps he thought he would be asked about the merely trivial. So I didn't. I wanted to know about how new riders were processed into the team. It was a good question, he said, and a difficult one. You find something that is important, and once you find it then an interview becomes that much easier. The interviewee is on your side. And then you ask about the most important subject of all. The interviewee himself.

You can gain only a small insight over the course of a total of half an hour into the minds of leading sportspeople. But some insight there was. More of it, therefore, to come.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 February 2014

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.30am): 11.5C
Forecast high: 14C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): West and Northwest 3 to 4 backing and increasing Southwest 5 by the evening.

A fine, bright morning with a good deal of sun today. Tomorrow due to be windy with the possibility of rain.

Evening update (20.30): Not bad. A high of 17C.

A Weekend In Valladolid: Partido Popular

Valladolid is a famous old city in the Castile and León region. As is the case with many a Mallorcan town, the origins of its name are disputed. One perfectly reasonable theory is countered by less reasonable ones. Did it come from the Arabic "Balad al-Walid" (almost certainly) or did it come from Valle de Olivos or from Valle del Sol? Whatever the origins of its name, it is a city which is at the heart of the Castilian narrative of Spain. It was in Valladolid that Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon married in 1469, thus forming the union of the Catholic Kings and of the nascent Spanish state and paving the way for the years of the "rivers of gold" and of imperial expansion, one of the most famous of those early imperialists having been Columbus, who died in Valladolid in 1506.

You can make a case for pretty much any city in Spain carrying some symbolism in one way or another, but if you were looking for a city with greater Castilian symbolism, then you would be hard pressed to find a better candidate than Valladolid. Over the weekend, the Partido Popular held its national conference in the city. Symbolic? Maybe, maybe not.

At the end of the conference various apparatchiks and acolytes of the party gathered on stage to send Mariano off with a rousing round of applause. You will know the type of scene I mean even without seeing any visual evidence. Sycophantic smiles and laughs and all-round shows of for he's a jolly good fellow, even if he isn't. Mariano needed as much support as could be mustered by the spin-doctoring PP whips, having lurched into the conference like a drunk sliding off a bar stool, muttering, in vain, to whoever was in earshot that he was his best mate. Just one best mate, who in truth never has been, who discovered that he had better things to do, like dying his hair, than hack along to Valladolid was former premier José María Aznar. Tony's little friend - tough on terrorism, tough on the causes of terrorism - reckons that Mariano has gone soft on terrorism by backtracking on an insistence that ETA hangs up its balaclavas once and for all, an implied criticism that is as bad as if Aznar were to rename Mariano after that old PSOE softie on terrorism Zapatero.

Among the brown nosers - sorry, supporters showing unconditional love and loyalty - was Balearic regional president about Spain José Ramón Bauzá, who has recently been spending considerably more time in Madrid and Castile corridors of former empire than he has been in the Catalanist strongholds of his native island. The president eschewed the opportunity to have abuse hurled at him during Sa Pobla's annual celebration of an hermitic Egyptian ancient by seeking safe haven in Menorca. Otherwise, a relaxed, sitting-on-stools educational love-in with national education minister, José Ignacio For What He's Wert, capped a series of appearances which have included José Ramón, the interview, on La Sexta, José Ramón, man of tourism technology, goggle-eyed next to the Asturiases as Letizia tried on a Google Glass at Madrid's Fitur fair, and José Ramón, champion of the private sector in tourism (to the exclusion of any other sector), in discussion with giants of the tourism industry at the pre-Fitur excellence talking-shop.  

Of course the Big Thing where J.R. is concerned in PP circles is his invention of a whole new system of education. This was why he and J.I. were cosying up next to each other on their stools in Valladolid. Were they going to sing a duet - "And then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid ..."? No, but they were living in perfect harmony, side by side on an anti-pianissimo (accepted abbreviation for pianissimo being "pp"), belting out a tune in English. When all else has failed - and it has - and when the Balearics have the highest school dropout and failure rates in Spain, why is there such opposition to trilingual teaching, enquired the president who, having stumbled across such a mode of teaching, appears to have convinced himself that it is the panacea for turning around years of sub-standard levels of education.

The continuing José Ramón roadshow in Valladolid could not, though, upstage the star attraction. Yes, he'd picked himself up from the floor of the bar and went out fighting: Super Mariano in Supermarionation. Mariano is go! He let fly, kerpow, against Rubalcaba, the leader of the opposition. "Shut up!" he said with a vicious verbal zapping. And then he promised, kerching, that taxes would come down in 2015. Wow, who would have thought that this might happen, what with there being an election at the end of next year?

And with that, Mariano might have hoped to have put a Valladolid lid on further tensions in the party. Might have hoped. But has he?

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 February 2014

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.15am): 8C
Forecast high: 14C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): West 3 to 4 backing Southwest 4 at intervals 5 during the morning.

Chilly and clear. A mostly sunny day in prospect but not that warm.

Evening update (18.15): A high of 16.3C. Warmer than had been forecast therefore.

The Prussians Are Coming: Mallorcan indie

A couple of nights before this year's most traditional of all Mallorcan fiesta events - the La Beata procession in Santa Margalida - there was a night of wholly untraditional indie rock music in the town's Es Colomer pub, a venue which has gained something of a reputation for showcasing young local musical talent. On the bill that night was a Mallorcan group called The Prussians. A five-piece whose ages range from 18 to 26, they have just won the first prize for the Art Jove 2013 competition to find the best in contemporary youth music.

In a play-off against four other finalists at the Palma Arena, The Prussians were voted as the best act for an award that comes under the auspices of the regional government's youth institute. It is a notable achievement for a group that was formed in 2009 by two school friends - Dominic Massó (22, the group's singer, rhythm guitarist and principal writer) and Tino Lucena (21, the drummer) - but which didn't become a fully-fledged five-piece until the end of 2012.

Three days after appearing in Santa Margalida, the group released a new single. Called "Cold Trees", whether it has pulled up many trees is probably debatable. It's a good enough track, but life for the Mallorcan (indeed Spanish) indie act isn't that easy. There are plenty of such acts, but they struggle in a music scene dominated by the international dance and club colossi and the various derivatives of what might be styled as an undemanding and disposable Iglesias Junior/Operación Triunfo Spanish pop, while of leading Spanish indie groups, the better-known names tend to be acts that originated in the '90s, such as Los Planetas and La Habitación Roja. Of others, Vetsuta Morla have managed a mere two albums over a 15-year existence, the first of which was considered to have been the finest Spanish rock album ever made, while there are lesser-known but critically acclaimed bands like Nudozurdo, Triángulo de Amor Bizarro and the Basque group McEnroe.

But maybe, and thanks to a beer, the best known of all Spanish indie acts is now Love of Lesbian. They had a number one last year with "Fantastic Shine". It was the theme song for what has become a tradition in Spain to mark the start of summer - the Estrella Damm beer advert and, moreover, it wasn't sung in Spanish or in Catalan (the group come from Barcelona). It was in English.

It is this, singing in English, which might just prove to be a strong point for The Prussians, though one wonders if there wasn't some additional motive behind their being given the award by a governmental body at a time when English, for a totally different reason, is very much in vogue in Mallorca. As a group they are definitely bucking a trend for more and more indie in Mallorca to be in Catalan and to receive a certain amount of quasi-official support. A number of local groups were sponsored by the Ramon Llull Institute to perform in the US in 2012; a way of spreading the Catalan word as well as the indie-music culture of both Mallorca and Catalonia. Whether there was or wasn't a political motivation behind their receiving first prize, the fact that The Prussians perform in English can only assist in their hope to one day break into a wider European market.

But to break into any market and to enjoy real success and so rip up some trees requires music that has some broad appeal. Love of Lesbian have copped some flak for selling out. It has always been thus for groups whose origins are not those of the mainstream. However, accusations of being too commercial miss the point that much indie music, that from Britain, has not necessarily been that far removed from the pop mainstream. In The Prussians' music, there are definite echoes of current British groups which are dubbed indie but which sell by the bucket loads. Foals was one of the names which came to my mind on listening to them for the first time, and Foals are indeed cited by the group as an influence.

What The Prussians lack, at present, are real killer riffs or hooks, of the sort that have given other influences, e.g. The Arctic Monkeys, commercial success. But there's something there to work on. They deserve their award. As for breaking into foreign markets, though, they have a potential problem. Their name. There is already a French rock group called Les Prussians. There is an Australian indie outfit called Lars and the Prussians and a German one, Nadine and the Prussians (who are rather wonderful). So confusion might just be an issue, though for their sake, one can but hope they are never confused with Prussian Blue, the American twins Lynx and Lamb Gaede, who, before they were old enough to truly understand what they were singing about, were churning out moppet, white-supremacist nonsense that their mother wrote for them.

MALLORCA TODAY - Third home defeat of the season for Mallorca

Real Mallorca 1 : 3 Sporting Gijón
A minute's silence was held for the former Mallorca and national team coach Luis Aragonés. Perhaps the emotion got to Mallorca. Goals either side of the half-time break gave the visitors a two-nil lead, but Sporting had been the better team for most of the first period before Cases scored two minutes before the pause. Canella added the second on 53 minutes, and this more or less settled the match, Geijo pulling one back for Mallorca with a minute left, only for Carmona to restore Gijón's two-goal advantage. A bad result for Mallorca against second-placed Sporting. Mallorca are in ninth position, subject to later results.