Malaga lights

Christmas is coming even in Spain.
Malaga City turned on the Christmas lights tonight, with the snow machine creating a very festive scene.

In my apartment if I put on a few lights and the microwave I blow the fuse, I hope the same fate doesnt befall Malaga City.

A weekend in Sevilla

Had a great weekend in Sevilla a couple of weeks ago. My first visit to this beautiful city, but I am sure it will not be my last.

Spent Saturday doing the tourist thing, sightseeing and window shopping and of course most importantly sitting in the pavement cafe's having a coffee and tapas, watching the world go by.

Met up with a friend early evening down by the River and had a couple of hours fishing, 'til the sun went down.

Back to the hotel to shower and clean up and then back out on the town for dinner and a few drinks.

Sunday was spent fishing again, this time out in the countryside just north of Sevilla. A beautiful, quiet spot, where we stayed all afternoon. I am not a great fisherman, but it is an incredible form of relaxation and enjoyment.

The weekend has gone before you know it, so will plan to stay a bit longer next time.

Zidane and Ronaldo match against poverty

Around 30,000 turned out to see the match against poverty, charity football game at the Roselada Malaga on Monday night.

More an exhibition of footballing skills than a competitive match, the teams ended with a draw at 2-2. Zidane received a standing ovation before the game had kicked off, while support for Ronaldo seemed quite muted. In fact second biggest cheer of the night, went to Michael Schumacher who came on as a sub for Ronaldo's team.

It was great entertainment from all involved, and an excellent last chance for me to see the player that has been the best footballer in the world for many of the past seasons, Zinedine Zidane.
A privilege!

Malaga stay on top

On a cold evening at the Roselada, Malaga and Racing Ferrol managed to raise the temperature in the stadium, with a thrilling game. Both teams created chances throughout the first half and Malaga were unfortunate to trail by 2-0 at half time.

The second half was equally exciting with Malaga getting a goal back from the penalty spot, and the Hidalgo heading the equaliser just two minutes later. Malaga's third goal looked to be well offside, but the fourth was a lovely goal from substitute Peragon, wrapping up an excellent 4-2 victory.

Schumi still the one to beat

Over 3000 Formula 1 fans turned up at Barcelona's Catalunya circuit onTuesday, to watch ex world champion, Michael Schumacher put the new Ferrari through its paces.
Schumacher managed the fastest time of the day, forcing Britain's David Coulthard to quip, "It looks as though he's got talent. He will make his way to F1."

"It's good to see I'm still able to do it. It was great fun and I really like it a lot," said the German.
Schumacher has no intentions of returning to racing however, and is enjoying his position with Ferrari as technical advisor.

Malaga go top

Malaga beat third placed Sporting Gijon away from home 1-0, on Sunday. With top place Numancia losing to Sevilla Atletico by the same score, Malaga moved back on top of the league.

Malaga are playing tonight in the Copa del Rey 4th round, first leg tie against la Liga premier team, Racing Santander.

I wont be at the game, but will be back for the league game on Saturday, against Racing Ferrol. I will be returning to La Roseleda on Monday night for the charity game Zidane and friends vs Ronaldo and friends.

"Live" Buckaroo

A Picture from the recent "live" Buckaroo competition in Malaga.

The Jam in Spain

Just saw this advert on a local gig guide, The Jam will be playing in Granada, on Saturday 10th November, minus Paul Weller!

It appears that former Jam bass player Bruce Foxton and drummer Rick Buckler have hired help from Russell Hastings and Dave Moore to recreate the sounds of the Jam.

After testing the water in the UK, the band sold out 20 dates in May in just 2 weeks. The gig in Granada will be followed by another 20+ over the next few weeks, ending at the Brighton Centre, on 21 December, coinciding with the original bands last show at that same arena some 25 years ago.

If I was in Granada I might be tempted, but really Jam without Paul Weller, what can I say?

Free Soul Band

A couple of times during the summer, I was fortunate enough to visit La Tortuga Rock Bar in La Vinuela. The bar is tucked away in the old village next to the Vinuela hotel.
This is an excellent music bar, with videos showing outside on a huge whitewashed wall. Live music is available inside the bar and if no live acts are on, a good selection of mainly English music is played through the sound system.

The first time I went to the bar to see the Free Soul Band, who were due on stage at midnight. The band eventually arrived at about 2 am and played through til about 4am! They were so good that i returned to see them again.

The band play a lot of old r&b and soul stuff, in the style of James Brown and the Blues Brothers and create a real party atmosphere. I'm not really sure how many there are in the band as the stage is too small to accommodate them all, the sax and trombone players were in amongst the crowd!

Here is a sample of what to expect, and needless to say, if you get a chance to see them take it!

Schumi in Barcelona Ferrari test

Ferrari legend, Michael Schumacher is set to dust down his overalls, to test the latest Ferrari at Barcelona next week. Ferrari want to tap into the 38-year-old's experience of F1 cars without electronic driver aids ahead of the ban on such systems for next year.

Schumacher who retired from Formula 1 at the end of 2006, has no intentions of making a comeback and is testing as part of his contractual obligations as Ferrari technical adviser.

Schumacher will test on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Circuit de Catalunya. He has been in Spain already this last weekend at the Valencia circuit for the Moto GP, where he demonstrated his skills on two wheels, by riding Casey Stoner's title winning Ducati, after the end of the Moto GP season.

Malaga Blue's

Malaga's excellent run of home wins came to a dramatic end today, at the Rosaleda stadium.
New league leaders, Numancia earned the three points beating Malaga 1-0.

Malaga paid the price for not scoring whilst dominating the first half, in the best game I have seen here all season. Two bicycle kicks and another acrobatic effort, were all gloriously mis kicked, when a more direct approach may have achieved a goal.

The second half saw Numancia get into the game and soon took the lead with a good old fashioned header, and looked the slightly better of the two teams by the end of the game.

The refereeing was pretty awful, but otherwise an excellent game, if not result.

Football Fixtures

The football fixture's in Spain, work a bit differently to the English league. While the fixtures are allocated at the start of the season, each game is given a weekend for each game. The exact date and day is not confirmed until normally five or six days before the game.

Even then its a safe bet to check on the day, before leaving home, as i found two weeks ago. The Malaga game had been scheduled for Sunday at 18.00 kick off. On the Saturday that was the information on both Malaga CF and the liga websites. When I checked on Sunday, the game had been move back an hour to 17.00!

Needless to say, that while we arrived knowing the revised timing, there were many latecomers throughout the first half. The game was allegedly re scheduled to avoid coverage of the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix, although finishing half hour after the race started didn't really help out much. Neither did showing the start of the grand prix on the screens in the ground, for fifteen minutes of the second half.

Starstruck in Barcelona

Woody Allen recently began shooting his new film in Barcelona. The film as yet untitled will be shot over seven weeks in Barcelona, Asturias and New York.

The New York directors presence in the city has however provoked a real confrontation in the Barcelona City council's commission of Culture, Education and Social Health.

PP representative Angels Esteller has stated that the municipal government team, has made a spectacle of the shooting and they are elbowing each other to photograph themselves with the American Director.

Hope the film is as amusing.

Dead Day

Today is a bank holiday in Spain. It is All Saints Day, a day for remembering loved one's that have passed on. An English acquaintance refers to it as "Dead Day".

All this last week, trestle table's full of flowers have appeared on the roadsides of, villages and towns, along with droves of little old ladies ready to purchase.
Then later in the day the little old ladies can be seen heading for the cemeteries, beautiful flowers in one hand and a step ladder under the other arm.

Here, the coffins are put into a wall and are stacked, one on top of the other and can be 2 metres high, so that's why the step ladders.

Soren