Mancor de la Vall, as noted here on 2 July, is not the only village or town where issues have arisen with the organisation of fairs and fiestas because of the actions of left-wing town halls. Mancor's had to do with the lack of a licence for music concerts at the rooms used by the cultural association Arrels. Before a last-minute agreement was reached, it had looked as though last November's Esclata-sang mushroom fair would not go ahead, the Més-led administration having refused to give permission for the concerts.
There are now two further cases. In Calvia village they celebrate Sant Jaume each year (25 July). The residents' association has long organised the fiestas, the agreement dating back to the days of PSOE mayor Margarita Nájera (in office from 1991 to 2003). This agreement was subsequently ratified by the two PP mayors who succeeded her: Carlos Delgado and Manu Onieva.
Responsibility for fiestas at Calvia currently lies with one of the deputy mayors, Israel Molina. He is from Si Se Puede Calvia, a version of Podemos in the municipality, which is part of the administration headed by PSOE mayor Alfonso Rodríguez. Molina has decided to break the agreement, one by which the residents' association had been receiving 28,000 euros each year to organise the Sant Jaume fiestas and others, such as the Christmas market.
Molina's argument is that there needs to be an open tender to decide who organises the fiestas. The residents' association says it won't enter the tender contest because it fears there won't be the same level of budget as previously. It notes that other associations in Calvia have said that they won't enter the contest either because they accept that the residents' association is the organiser. The consequence - unless some other solution is reached - is that the town hall will have to assume responsibility for organisation; otherwise there won't be any Sant Jaume fiestas.
In Port Soller, the cultural association has expressed its annoyance with the town hall over arrangements for Sant Pere (now finished). It says that it won't be organising the fiestas in future, citing lack of support from the town hall: the association has identified an absence of financial assistance and failure to grant permissions. The councillor in charge of fiestas, Laura Celià of Més, says that fiesta organisation has to meet with demands under law. One of these demands may well explain the fact that the fireworks were missing this year.
This is not the first time that Celià has been at the centre of a rumpus over fiesta arrangements. It was she who insisted to changes for the May Moors and Christians (Es Firó). These entailed the closing of bars in the main square during the climax to the battle - the bars had to open stalls in another square - and limits to numbers in the square (identified by wristbands).
Do these examples all point to anti-fiesta policies by some left-wing administrations? The first thing to say is that PSOE doesn't appear to have any issues. It is the further left that does. A second point to make is that, as the Arrels association in Mancor had believed, it might be thought that a grouping like Més with its Mallorcan nationalist identity would be all in favour of fiestas and their traditions.
The fact is that they may indeed be all in favour, but the four cases - Mancor, Calvia and the two in Soller - indicate a rigorous application of rules. For Més and Podemos offshoots there can't be any even hint of flouting rules, of favouritism, of not going by the book: that's the sort of thing that the PP (and PSOE) have been doing for years. These rules relate to the fastidious insistence on tenders and to health and safety, the latter being something that has rarely been diligently observed in the past.
The Calvia case has echoes of a different reason for a tender: licences to operate a business activity. It therefore is not dissimilar to the Gelats Valls ice-cream kiosk issue in Puerto Pollensa. A left-wing administration has gone by the book in saying that permission cannot just be simply rubber-stamped and extended year by year, as has been happening. The left wants to be seen to be working to the letter of the law, even if it angers the locals.
Might there be other examples of fiestas being affected? Quite probably. There are numerous local associations who essentially run fiestas, or parts of them, for town halls. There are also the health and safety and indeed animal welfare issues. If the regional government ever gets round to definitively approving its reform of the 1992 animal protection legislation, might fiestas such as Pollensa's Sant Antoni be jeopardised? The use of the cockerel at the top of the pine is currently permitted because it is a tradition that is over one hundred years old (the definition for use of live animals during fiestas under regional law). But if it is deemed to suffer under the reform, then what?
Showing posts with label Soller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soller. Show all posts
Saturday, July 09, 2016
Sunday, May 08, 2016
The Spirit Of Soller: Es Firó
It's one of Mallorca big fiesta days out tomorrow: one of the biggest in fact. Es Firó is how it's known in Soller. Many will just refer to it as the Moors and Christians, the grandest battle simulation between the two sides that Mallorca has to offer: grander than Pollensa in August because of its scope and length.
An aspect of both these battle re-creations is that neither of the original battles, in the overall scheme of things, was particularly special or important. Pollensa was in 1550, Soller 1561, and in the sixteenth century there were any number of attacks on Mallorca from different sources - north African saracens and eastern Mediterranean Turks among them. They can be classified as attacks by corsairs (or pirates), though such a classification can downplay any military and strategic element.
Why, given that there were repeated assaults, have the battles of Pollensa and Soller assumed such significance? In the case of Soller, and to a lesser extent Pollensa, a reason lies with the amount of documentary evidence. While there is some legend attached to the story (not least the role of the "Valents Dones" - the brave women), much of the re-creation is fairly true to what happened, even if the time of the day when the assault was launched has been altered (the landing was around four in the morning).
The events were written down. There was one report by the town hall's scribe, a second by the notary, Antoni Morell, and a third which was sent to King Felipe II. The commemoration of what took place on 11 May, 1561 was first established in 1615, but it wasn't to be until 1855 that a mock battle was staged. In the meantime, there was - in the eighteenth century - a "reinterpretation" of events by the community at Sant Bartomeu church and then, in 1833, a further embellishment by Franciscan monks. Through a process of redaction, therefore, the basis for the simulation was arrived at.
In isolation, the attack on Soller has gone down in history as a story of defiant bravery by the people of Soller, aided by units from other villages, against the invaders. And in isolation is how it tends to be considered, as is also the case with Pollensa. Missing is the back story.
Mallorca and the Balearics were of strategic importance. For the Ottomans, some control (never established) would have assisted in disrupting Spain's trade routes, while Spain was on their wider agenda of war against Christianity. Ottoman expansion and so the "Turkish menace" was to reach its limits in the later sixteenth century, but at the time of the attacks on both Pollensa and Soller, that menace remained real enough.
Some days before Soller was attacked in 1561, the Viceroy of Mallorca, Guillem de Rocafull, had sent two ships to launch attacks on the Algerian coast against pirates. This didn't achieve a great deal. By 10 May, there were 23 Turkish ships by Ibiza under the command of Uluj Ali, a one-time Italian galley slave who had converted to Islam and had risen through the ranks to join Turgut Reis (Dragut), the supreme commander of the Ottoman navy and the Moorish protagonist in the attack on Pollensa.
The viceroy knew they were coming to Mallorca but he was unsure where. The captains of the local villages were put on alert: those of Alaro and Bunyola were to come to Soller's aid. There would have obviously been great anxiety. Though Mallorca suffered its attacks, it had experienced nothing like the siege of Ciutadella in Menorca in 1558. The town was eventually sacked and well over 3,000 people were taken and sold into slavery in Istanbul.
Above the documentary evidence and the historical facts and legends of the attack, there is a further reason for the Soller battle having assumed the significance that it has, and that is the role of the people of Soller down the years. 1561 has remained a strong part of Soller identity, the Valents Dones having been described as characterising more than ever the spirit of Soller - a most authentic love for the homeland (that of the town).
Like Pollensa, the battle celebration went through its years of decline and was revived in the 1970s. In 1977, in an act of the fraternal bonding of two towns whose pasts are so associated with the heroic deeds of the sixteenth century, the Pollensa writer, Miquel Bota Totxo, closely linked with that town's cultural revival, gave the opening address for Es Firó. "It has a sense of immeasurable brotherhood ... rooted in the depths of the soul." It is more than just a fiesta.
An aspect of both these battle re-creations is that neither of the original battles, in the overall scheme of things, was particularly special or important. Pollensa was in 1550, Soller 1561, and in the sixteenth century there were any number of attacks on Mallorca from different sources - north African saracens and eastern Mediterranean Turks among them. They can be classified as attacks by corsairs (or pirates), though such a classification can downplay any military and strategic element.
Why, given that there were repeated assaults, have the battles of Pollensa and Soller assumed such significance? In the case of Soller, and to a lesser extent Pollensa, a reason lies with the amount of documentary evidence. While there is some legend attached to the story (not least the role of the "Valents Dones" - the brave women), much of the re-creation is fairly true to what happened, even if the time of the day when the assault was launched has been altered (the landing was around four in the morning).
The events were written down. There was one report by the town hall's scribe, a second by the notary, Antoni Morell, and a third which was sent to King Felipe II. The commemoration of what took place on 11 May, 1561 was first established in 1615, but it wasn't to be until 1855 that a mock battle was staged. In the meantime, there was - in the eighteenth century - a "reinterpretation" of events by the community at Sant Bartomeu church and then, in 1833, a further embellishment by Franciscan monks. Through a process of redaction, therefore, the basis for the simulation was arrived at.
In isolation, the attack on Soller has gone down in history as a story of defiant bravery by the people of Soller, aided by units from other villages, against the invaders. And in isolation is how it tends to be considered, as is also the case with Pollensa. Missing is the back story.
Mallorca and the Balearics were of strategic importance. For the Ottomans, some control (never established) would have assisted in disrupting Spain's trade routes, while Spain was on their wider agenda of war against Christianity. Ottoman expansion and so the "Turkish menace" was to reach its limits in the later sixteenth century, but at the time of the attacks on both Pollensa and Soller, that menace remained real enough.
Some days before Soller was attacked in 1561, the Viceroy of Mallorca, Guillem de Rocafull, had sent two ships to launch attacks on the Algerian coast against pirates. This didn't achieve a great deal. By 10 May, there were 23 Turkish ships by Ibiza under the command of Uluj Ali, a one-time Italian galley slave who had converted to Islam and had risen through the ranks to join Turgut Reis (Dragut), the supreme commander of the Ottoman navy and the Moorish protagonist in the attack on Pollensa.
The viceroy knew they were coming to Mallorca but he was unsure where. The captains of the local villages were put on alert: those of Alaro and Bunyola were to come to Soller's aid. There would have obviously been great anxiety. Though Mallorca suffered its attacks, it had experienced nothing like the siege of Ciutadella in Menorca in 1558. The town was eventually sacked and well over 3,000 people were taken and sold into slavery in Istanbul.
Above the documentary evidence and the historical facts and legends of the attack, there is a further reason for the Soller battle having assumed the significance that it has, and that is the role of the people of Soller down the years. 1561 has remained a strong part of Soller identity, the Valents Dones having been described as characterising more than ever the spirit of Soller - a most authentic love for the homeland (that of the town).
Like Pollensa, the battle celebration went through its years of decline and was revived in the 1970s. In 1977, in an act of the fraternal bonding of two towns whose pasts are so associated with the heroic deeds of the sixteenth century, the Pollensa writer, Miquel Bota Totxo, closely linked with that town's cultural revival, gave the opening address for Es Firó. "It has a sense of immeasurable brotherhood ... rooted in the depths of the soul." It is more than just a fiesta.
Monday, February 08, 2016
Soller And Barcelona: Where Basketball Started
There shouldn't be anything curious, though, with being both tall and a basketball player. One of Spain's best known is the Palma-born Rudy Fernández. There shouldn't also be anything curious about basketball in Mallorca. It is, as with the rest of Spain, immensely popular. And yet, I'm guessing that it is a sport which does fly somewhat below the radar of many, especially the foreign communities with greater interests in other sports.
Mallorca's leading basketball team is Palma Air Europa. It competes in the Liga Española de Baloncesto (LEB) Oro, the second division behind La Liga ACB, Spain's premier basketball league. This is the name that the team has for purposes of sponsorship, i.e. that of Air Europa. Its real name is CB Bahía San Agustín, which has its own curious past. In 1972, Father Manuel Carreño founded the Club de Básquet San Agustín, which was a school team. Some ten years later, another team was founded by the Bahía printing company. Both grew and eventually, in 2007, they merged to become CB Bahía San Agustín.
The history of basketball on the island goes back to much earlier times than Father Manuel's school team. The generally accepted version of events is that it all had to do with two brothers - Pere and Joan Reynés - sons of a couple from Soller who had moved to France. When they all returned, in 1931, basketball came with them. A year later - on 8 May, 1932 - the first ever basketball game in Mallorca took place: it was on the Camp d'en Maiol in Soller, which by then had been a football ground for almost ten years.
In 1942, again in Soller, the Congregation of Marian Fathers at the school of the Sacred Hearts (Sagrats Cors) introduced basketball to the school's sports curriculum, and ultimately Joventut Mariana was to become the leading basketball team in the Balearics, even including American military personnel stationed on the island who were employed at the Puig Maria base.
It had taken some years, though, for the basketball bug, courtesy of the Reynés brothers, to catch on in Mallorca. More than twenty years before, Barcelona had been introduced to the sport. The founder of basketball in Spain (though this is disputed) was one Eladi Homs i Oller (pictured here). A teacher and thinker about education, in 1907 he was given a grant by the town hall in Barcelona to go to the United States in order to research new systems of teaching.
While he was in the US, and in Chicago in particular, he came across basketball, a sport which at the time was unknown in Spain. Homs returned to Barcelona in 1910 and at the Escuela Vallparadís in Terrassa in the Barcelona province, some twenty kilometres from the centre of the city, baskets were put up in the school courtyard. It is reckoned that it was 1912 when the first actual game was played, albeit that it was confined to the school itself: there weren't any other schools to play against.
The school was to close in 1915, there being no evidence to suggest that basketball had caught on. And so one comes to Father Eusebio Millán. He had been a missionary in Cuba, where he would have encountered not only American soldiers but also basketball. It is now debated whether there was any link between Homs and Father Eusebio, with the weight of argument tending towards there not having been and Father Eusebio giving his first lessons on basketball in the courtyard of the Pías de San Anton school in Barcelona in 1921.
There is a further version of events that "basket-ball" was originally played by women. Indeed, there is a newspaper report from 1912 which spoke of a "new sport" played by "good-looking sportswomen" at the Instituto Kinesiterápico in Barcelona. This was in fact the first real gym in Spain. Whether Homs had been instrumental in this game is also not known.
Anyway, whoever it actually was who should be honoured with having introduced basketball to Spain, it was to take its time coming over to Mallorca. And by the time that the brothers Reynés returned to Soller - in fact in the very year that they returned - a basketball team was founded on the mainland. Not in Barcelona but in Madrid. Real Madrid's basketball team remains the dominant force in Spanish basketball, and one of its star players is Mallorca's own Rudy Fernández.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Just A Perfect Day
AN ALCUDIAPOLLENSA.BLOGSPOT.COM SPECIAL
From the first encounter you know it will be good. A welcoming smile, a handshake, a sir, a madam; not a simple and often disinterested “hi there” or worse still a “hello, mate”, but a greeting that smacks of client care and professionalism. That client care and professionalism last the whole of the trip, and it is a long trip, a day tour of the island with No Frills Excursions.
What is it that makes for a good excursion? For a tour into the Tramuntana mountains, a catamaran to Port de Soller, the tram to the old town of Soller and then the train to Palma, it is easy to identify the essential components - a comfortable ride, terrific scenery, a stop here and there, a walk here and there. These are the basics. But one asks again - what makes for a good excursion?
Some visitors prefer the freedom of touring the island independently, but many want the organisation of an excursion. They pay for that scenery of course, but they also pay - or rather have the right to expect that they are paying - for something a bit extra. It’s that old management and marketing motto of “added value”. It’s also attention to detail and the notion of putting the customer (sorry, client) first. And client it is. Not customers, not “people”, not “some folk”, but clients.
That question again - what makes for a good excursion? In terms of the island tour, the scenery from the coach, the catamaran, the train is vital, as are the tranquility and sheer awe of the mountains. They all make for a magical experience, a day quite like no other. As does coming across a horse and trap on the hairy mountain road, seeing the mountain goats on their pinnacles of rock, taking in the sheer-faced sleepiness of the cove at Sa Calobra, seeing the new chic of Port de Soller, hearing the rattle of the tram to the town of Soller. All of these things.
But there is far more to it. An excursion, much like a bar or restaurant, is highly intangible. There are the physical elements - the view, the drink, the meal - but it is the rest that makes the difference. That difference lies with a history of the road that runs from Alcúdia to Puerto Pollensa; lies with giving a geological explanation for the different colours of sand in response to a client question; lies with stating and then re-stating important information (times of meeting for instance); lies with the called-ahead orders for a restaurant; lies with the organisation of clients within good time for the tram journey; lies with the touches of humour and all the additional information; lies with being available all the time. It was Toni on this occasion, but it could have been someone else at No Frills. And all this carried off with patience and courtesy; all carried off in October during a long day trip at the end of a long season.
Just in case you are wondering. A friend went on the No Frills island tour. This is an interpretation of his day and his impressions. This is no article in exchange for. The trip was paid for. This is an independent opinion. “Brilliant” was the word; that summed up a perfect day.
QUIZ
Yesterday - Jan and Dean. The Carpenters only as a last resort. Today’s title? Way too easy, so on the BBC version who played the sax solo?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
From the first encounter you know it will be good. A welcoming smile, a handshake, a sir, a madam; not a simple and often disinterested “hi there” or worse still a “hello, mate”, but a greeting that smacks of client care and professionalism. That client care and professionalism last the whole of the trip, and it is a long trip, a day tour of the island with No Frills Excursions.
What is it that makes for a good excursion? For a tour into the Tramuntana mountains, a catamaran to Port de Soller, the tram to the old town of Soller and then the train to Palma, it is easy to identify the essential components - a comfortable ride, terrific scenery, a stop here and there, a walk here and there. These are the basics. But one asks again - what makes for a good excursion?
Some visitors prefer the freedom of touring the island independently, but many want the organisation of an excursion. They pay for that scenery of course, but they also pay - or rather have the right to expect that they are paying - for something a bit extra. It’s that old management and marketing motto of “added value”. It’s also attention to detail and the notion of putting the customer (sorry, client) first. And client it is. Not customers, not “people”, not “some folk”, but clients.
That question again - what makes for a good excursion? In terms of the island tour, the scenery from the coach, the catamaran, the train is vital, as are the tranquility and sheer awe of the mountains. They all make for a magical experience, a day quite like no other. As does coming across a horse and trap on the hairy mountain road, seeing the mountain goats on their pinnacles of rock, taking in the sheer-faced sleepiness of the cove at Sa Calobra, seeing the new chic of Port de Soller, hearing the rattle of the tram to the town of Soller. All of these things.
But there is far more to it. An excursion, much like a bar or restaurant, is highly intangible. There are the physical elements - the view, the drink, the meal - but it is the rest that makes the difference. That difference lies with a history of the road that runs from Alcúdia to Puerto Pollensa; lies with giving a geological explanation for the different colours of sand in response to a client question; lies with stating and then re-stating important information (times of meeting for instance); lies with the called-ahead orders for a restaurant; lies with the organisation of clients within good time for the tram journey; lies with the touches of humour and all the additional information; lies with being available all the time. It was Toni on this occasion, but it could have been someone else at No Frills. And all this carried off with patience and courtesy; all carried off in October during a long day trip at the end of a long season.
Just in case you are wondering. A friend went on the No Frills island tour. This is an interpretation of his day and his impressions. This is no article in exchange for. The trip was paid for. This is an independent opinion. “Brilliant” was the word; that summed up a perfect day.
QUIZ
Yesterday - Jan and Dean. The Carpenters only as a last resort. Today’s title? Way too easy, so on the BBC version who played the sax solo?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Piccadilly Collection
Weather panic over. After the early arrival of November last week, summer is back, so much so that the summer’s high was recorded in Sa Pobla yesterday - 36.4, or around 98 in old money. The sky has assumed the grey-blue that is indicative of late summer Mallorca heat. Haze. There’s another storm on the way, I’d wager.
Seasoned readers among you may recall a piece about “English” products at the Eroski Syp supermarket (17 April 2007, “I’m Jake (Or José) The Peg). There was a special promotional day, about which I had to say (amongst other things): “On the display are – amongst other items worthy of avoiding – … Hula-Hoops. Yes, Hula-Hoops. The crème de la crème of English products, the Hula-Hoop.” Well, the Hula-Hoop is clearly in great demand, as Eroski is now saying that sale of British (the union seems now to have been made) products is up by 10% this July and August. Can’t say I can be counted among that 10%. These British products. They tend to put them on separate displays with strings of Union Jacks, the “them” predominantly being bottles of Sharwood’s curry sauces. Very British. If they want to do something really useful, they could get some decent bacon or mince. Meantime, get yourselves down to Steve and Urbano at Little Britain in Puerto Alcúdia. Now they really do have British products.
Is Mallorca about to become the new Dubai? Soller, which has been undergoing something of a boutique-isation, is set to be the site for the most luxurious hotel in Spain. The company behind the 7-star Burj-al-Arab hotel in Dubai is due to manage the converted Sa Talaia complex. Well, great. But will they be having Elvis acts, karaoke and Supergirl? Bet they don’t. So the guests will have to get themselves over to Alcúdia. Get themselves down the Greasy Mile. Here’s where they should go - BAR OF THE WEEK - PICCADILLY:
Where: Avda. Pedro Más y Reus, opposite Bellevue.
What: 08:00-09:00 - face painting and kids’ colouring-in; 09:00-10:00 - children’s games and prizes with Supergirl; 10:00-11:00 - music quiz for the adults and drawing competition for the kids; 11:00 - karaoke , and on ...with dressing-up of kids and adults.
When: Every evening/night 20:00-03:00.
Who: Ben and Sara are the entertainers.
Why: Good old family fun and entertainment courtesy of two of Alcúdia’s best-known, popular and hard-working entertainers.
Is there a website? Yes, there is Ben’s own site linked here (check the links list).
(Thanks to Ben for permission to use the photo.)
Last night I was at the Piccadilly. It wasn’t that late but Ben was sweating his cobs off already. It’s hard work this entertaining caper, you know. Anyway, what’s all this with a music quiz? Whoever heard of such a thing? I really screwed up on the skittles, having been keen to win my glow-band, but now I realise the best technique is to just welly the ball. Forget back-spin or doosras or such things.
Just one other point. The Piccadilly’s right at the end of the Greasy Mile. I hadn’t appreciated until last night, wandering between the bar and The Red Lion at the Siestas, just how dark it is down there. The wilderness that was once Tropical Minigolf has made it so. It’s a great shame that such a large site should have been closed for two years, but that’s probably the nub of it. It is a large site and it is also “green” - can’t be built on.
QUIZ
Yesterday - no, not The Beautiful South but The Housemartins “Build”. Today’s title is the name of an album by ...?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Seasoned readers among you may recall a piece about “English” products at the Eroski Syp supermarket (17 April 2007, “I’m Jake (Or José) The Peg). There was a special promotional day, about which I had to say (amongst other things): “On the display are – amongst other items worthy of avoiding – … Hula-Hoops. Yes, Hula-Hoops. The crème de la crème of English products, the Hula-Hoop.” Well, the Hula-Hoop is clearly in great demand, as Eroski is now saying that sale of British (the union seems now to have been made) products is up by 10% this July and August. Can’t say I can be counted among that 10%. These British products. They tend to put them on separate displays with strings of Union Jacks, the “them” predominantly being bottles of Sharwood’s curry sauces. Very British. If they want to do something really useful, they could get some decent bacon or mince. Meantime, get yourselves down to Steve and Urbano at Little Britain in Puerto Alcúdia. Now they really do have British products.
Is Mallorca about to become the new Dubai? Soller, which has been undergoing something of a boutique-isation, is set to be the site for the most luxurious hotel in Spain. The company behind the 7-star Burj-al-Arab hotel in Dubai is due to manage the converted Sa Talaia complex. Well, great. But will they be having Elvis acts, karaoke and Supergirl? Bet they don’t. So the guests will have to get themselves over to Alcúdia. Get themselves down the Greasy Mile. Here’s where they should go - BAR OF THE WEEK - PICCADILLY:
Where: Avda. Pedro Más y Reus, opposite Bellevue.
What: 08:00-09:00 - face painting and kids’ colouring-in; 09:00-10:00 - children’s games and prizes with Supergirl; 10:00-11:00 - music quiz for the adults and drawing competition for the kids; 11:00 - karaoke , and on ...with dressing-up of kids and adults.
When: Every evening/night 20:00-03:00.
Who: Ben and Sara are the entertainers.
Why: Good old family fun and entertainment courtesy of two of Alcúdia’s best-known, popular and hard-working entertainers.
Is there a website? Yes, there is Ben’s own site linked here (check the links list).
(Thanks to Ben for permission to use the photo.)
Last night I was at the Piccadilly. It wasn’t that late but Ben was sweating his cobs off already. It’s hard work this entertaining caper, you know. Anyway, what’s all this with a music quiz? Whoever heard of such a thing? I really screwed up on the skittles, having been keen to win my glow-band, but now I realise the best technique is to just welly the ball. Forget back-spin or doosras or such things.
Just one other point. The Piccadilly’s right at the end of the Greasy Mile. I hadn’t appreciated until last night, wandering between the bar and The Red Lion at the Siestas, just how dark it is down there. The wilderness that was once Tropical Minigolf has made it so. It’s a great shame that such a large site should have been closed for two years, but that’s probably the nub of it. It is a large site and it is also “green” - can’t be built on.
QUIZ
Yesterday - no, not The Beautiful South but The Housemartins “Build”. Today’s title is the name of an album by ...?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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