Shall Be Released

The arrival of early-season Germans is coincidental with the quietness of this time in winter being broken by the tippy-tappy, clicky-clacky, drippy-drippy Nordic walking poles. I stress "the arrival of Germans" because no-one else is quite insane enough to take part in Nordic walking and be as willing to make themselves look as ridiculous. From a nation whose male population of advanced years is prepared to wear check shorts and Hawaiian shirts, what else can you expect. To be fair, Nordic walking, if it is treated as a sport and the sticks are not just used as a walking aid, has some merit, but it is still best done out of general eye- and indeed earshot, i.e. in some concealed forest areas, rather than along the streets of Alcúdia and Playa de Muro. There is of course a Nordic walking zone in Alcúdia; I mentioned this a few weeks ago (7 November: Norwegian Wood). And there is also to be a Nordic walking competition - an international one, believe it or not. It's hard to imagine an international competition comprising those from just one country - Germany - but international it says, so international it must be. An announcement in "The Bulletin" describes Nordic walking as "an alpine excursionist sport", which I confess I don't understand. What is an excursionist sport? To which you might indeed say Nordic walking. But that still doesn't explains what it actually is, only that Nordic walking is an example of the genre, whatever that genre happens to be, which I don't know. Moreover, can Nordic walking be alpine? The thing with Nordic walking is that it is Nordic skiing without the skis, and Nordic skiing is not Alpine skiing in that it does not need a mountain. In fact, a mountain can be a drawback to the Nordic skier or indeed walker. So, I doubly don't understand. My suspicion is that this announcement comes from a press release which might have been better had it not been released. Anyway, be all that as it may. The point is there will be a Nordic walking competition. But - will they know where it is? I ask this as the German newspaper "Mallorca Zeitung" claims that the Nordic walking zone is difficult to find. Furthermore, it goes on to say that some of the routes are incorrectly marked whilst parts are a bit risky. To prove it, they show a photo of someone jumping over a low wall, Nordic sticks to the fore. I suppose if you insist on doing so, rather than just gently climbing over the wall, then it might be a bit risky. So, anyone planning on taking part in this competition, you've been warned, but, there again none of you will, unless you happen to be German. This press release thing says that Nordic walking is taking off "in a big way" in the Balearics. Is it? I know nobody who isn't German or a German tourist who does this (unless they are Austrian). But maybe I'm wrong and maybe I might even succumb and get myself some Nordic walking sticks and make myself look a complete idiot. Perhaps I should, therefore, also go to the following website and book myself into the competition and, whilst I'm at it, reserve my hotel accommodation courtesy of http://www.iberostar.com.


Also in the current edition of "Mallorca Zeitung" are the results of a poll to rank the top seven wonders of the world of the island. I know you can't have wonders of the world of an island, but don't complain to me, I didn't write it. Apparently, the newspaper and its Spanish sister paper, "The Diario", got together to get people to vote, and I don't want any of you going to the internet and trying to find this out before tomorrow, but the question is what are these seven wonders of the world of the island? Or what would you say were the seven wonders of the world of the island? They don't have to be the same. And I will reveal all tomorrow - if you're lucky - and I can assure you that one of these seven, which is something you eat, is anything but a wonder, as indeed I have said on this blog in the past. So, you might want to think what so-called delicacy in Mallorca would have been deemed a wonder but isn't? At least this particular wonder did not earn top spot, and the newspaper was happy that it did not: "Die (fill in the missing word) liegt Gott sei Dank nicht auf Platz eins". Absolutely.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - which wasn't a question as I had already given it, but here it is and it was bloody great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji6K7NZq7Xw. Today's title - well, if it was a press release ... .

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