Tyson's in Town!
'People's Champion' Tyson Fury is soaking up the Marbella sunshine this weekend.
The boxer, who lost a controversial points decision to Deontay Wilder last year, was spotted relaxing in La Sala Banus earlier today, as well as getting in a little light training with a morning run.
And as the photo shows, the Gypsy King was in a playful mood with some of the La Sala staff!
Photo. Facebook/La Sala Banus
Hoffy New Year!
Baywatch star David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff was in Marbella over the Festive Season.
The 66- year-old took time out and saw in the New Year with wife Haley at the Puente Romano Hotel, as well posting on Social Media and being snapped with Puente Romano PR and girl-about-town Kenza.
"The Hoff" has a busy 2019 lined up, with a tour of Germany and Austria and a new album coming out.
It's not known of the Hoff did a little casual life guarding on the Marbella beaches. We'll keep you posted...
Photo: Facebook/Kenza E. Carlson
Brexit Briefing for Marbella
With less than 100 days to go until the UK leaves the EU, the British Consulate in Andalucía is running a series of events for UK nationals on Living in Spain and Brexit.
The events are being organised in conjunction with Brexpats and local town halls.
British Consul Charmaine Arbouin and her team will update residents with the latest information on Brexit and what this means for UK nationals living in Spain. The Consular team will be joined by experts on a range of issues, including residency, registration, healthcare and pensions – so whether you have a specific question about living in Spain or simply want to know more about how Brexit might affect you, this is an excellent opportunity to voice your concerns.
British Consul Charmaine Arbouin said: "As we move closer to March 29, the consulate will continue with the outreach events that we have planned across Andalucía, updating citizens as and when we have more information.
"In the meantime, I continue to urge all UK nationals living in Spain to ensure you are correctly registered and stay up to date with the latest news, by signing up for email alerts and visiting the Living in Spain guide on gov.uk and continuing to follow our Brits in Spain social media channels, including on Facebook.”
Advice for UK nationals living in Spain can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/living-in-spain
The Marbella event takes place at 6pm on January 10 at Marbella Town Hall
Dangerous Dining
Last month saw me in Gibraltar for a Fawlty Towers dining experience.
No, that’s not me using the classic 70s British comedy series as a metaphor-that by the way, which contained one of my favourite characters of all time, ranking just below Uncle Monty, the Major – sample line “I must have liked her, Fawlty, because I took her to see India.” “India, Major”, “Yes! At the Oval!”
The lunchtime theatre performance on the Sunborn Gibraltar saw Basil, Sybil and, of course, Manuel, interacting with the guests in a show that included classic scenes including Manuel’s pet rat getting loose as well as Basil discovering that there were, indeed, a party of Germans in the audience. He may have mentioned the war, but we think he got away with it…
There was also some brilliant improvisation, with the cast picking out members of the audience and, returning from powdering my nose at one point, I was lambasted by Sybil for my striped shirt. “Wearing your pyjama top are you, Sir?” she commented as I tried to sneak past unnoticed.
It was, of course, all an act, but it made me reflect on some of the less than savory dining experiences that I have not so much enjoyed as endured over the years. I frequently write restaurant reviews that have brought me into culinary contact with the good, the bad and the frankly foul. There was the restaurant that was so bad that we seriously contemplated ordering a take away pizza to be delivered to our table. The chef who walked out halfway through our review leaving what I can only assume was the blind kitchen porter who had lost his taste buds in a tragic accident to prepare the rest of the meal.
And then there was Venice. I imagine that if you have limitless cash to spend or know the places to go, then the floating city must be a heady combination for the senses. When I visited for Carnivale on a ‘memorable’ Press trip, however, it became an exercise in avoiding being expensively ripped off every time we ordered food and drink. Most famously we were warned by one fabulously disheveled waiter that the €5 pizza advertised outside his establishment was ‘very small and not very good’, and when the beer coaster sized slice of gloop on a dough base duly arrived I was forced to agree. I spent the rest of the three days ensconced in an Irish pub pausing only to dash out to wolf down McDonalds as, much as I detest patronising the fast food megalith, unless I was viciously hungover, it was the only place that I knew exactly what I was ordering.
Basil Fawlty would not have approved…
Please, please stop the Muzak!
Let’s face it; Spain is a noisy country.
I may live in serene solitude next to my lake, but once I clamber into my 4x4 (latest car karma update is that I now have a huge blue Landcruiser, purchased from a French friend and therefore christened Chabal after the famed and fearsome Neanderthal French rugby player) I am bombarded by noise. Not just the revving of engines, the honking of car horns, the curses of cyclists on the Istan road and the over enthusiastic and indiscriminate use of leaf blowers – yes it’s that time of year again – but also background music, or ‘muzak’.
I started noticing it when the powers that be that control the sound system in the car park next to the studio decided to stop playing their previous eclectic selection for something more, ahem, ‘easy listening’. I was more than a little miffed about this, as it often gave me a few ideas for songs to play on my show. Now, however, the sounds of what I presume to be a 21century reincarnation of the James Last Orchestra playing show tunes drift across the car park on an endless, infernal loop. Presumably the management thinks that an instrumental version of Fly me to the Moon’or some such adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the retail experience.
Not that you are safe when you actually get into your intended store. Most Spanish supermarkets now pipe ‘muzak’ at you while you shop, and one of the best-known British ones has what seems to be a dedicated DJ playing chart hits and informing you of special offers in the frozen food section. I only hope that the inane chatter and sound is pre-recorded. Otherwise it proves that there is a special level of Hell reserved for DJs condemned to broadcast live from a back storeroom.
As we are now well and truly in the Festive season, we are, of course, subjected to Christmas Carols. Once again Spanish supermarkets and shopping centres are huge fans of what sound like a particularly raucous and over refreshed bunch belting out songs about Navidad.
Count yourself lucky though. When I worked in a Cockney Theme Restaurant in London’s West End in the 80s, we started the Christmas Lunch menu and accompanying ‘muzak’ on a continuous loop from the end of October. Even now I can’t hear anything seasonal by Wizard or Slade without breaking into a cold sweat.
Deck the halls with boughs of holly and pass me the bloody festive ear defenders pleas!
Charity calendar shines a light on abandonment
Marbella animal charity Triple A's 2019 calendar has set out to highlight the plight of abandoned animals
Combining the talents of photographers Talia Giraudo (www.thoroughlygorgeous.com) and Kevin Horn (khphotography.com), as well as designer Carolina Cuesta (info@canprint.es) and printed by PRGrafis, this year's cover star is Maya, who was rescued, malnourished and abandoned, along with her sister and mother. Unfortunately the father was found dead alongside them
"This year we wanted to shine a light on animal abandonment", the charity said "Although we don't see them, they are there. We want to light them up so they can be seen, so that we do not forget that they need our help, so that you know the causes of abandonment are many and different. We have turned on the light and we are going to leave it on".
You can buy your 2019 calendar from
The Bookshop, SanSan Pedro Alcántara,
PRIMOR, La Cañada, Marbella.
Vet clinic Amazonas, Marbella
Vet clinic ZARPAS Y BIGOTES, Marbella
Vet clinic POINTER, Nueva Andalucía
Vet clinic LA FAVORITA, Puerto Banús
Saturday market in Puerto Banús
Shoe shop PERAL, Marqués del Duero, San Pedro Alcántara.
For more information /www.tripleamarbella.org/en/
Bob Dylan to play the Coast next summer!
Bod Dylan will play Fuengirola's Mare Nostrum venue on May 4.
The concert is part of Dylan's Neverending Tour, which started in 1988 and has not stopped since. With nearly 100 performances per year, Dylan lives on and for the road, varying his performances according to his artistic interests. In the last quarter of a century, his influences have included Blues, Folk, Ballads, Swing, as well as the Great American Songbook (Great American Songbook), featuring the songs of Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Glen Miller, Sarah Vaughan, Judy Garland or Dinah Washington.
The Nobel Prize for Literature winner will be playing eight dates in Spain, including one in Seville. The Fuengirola concert will see Dylan will go through his extensive discography without forgetting some of his greatest hits
Tickets got on sale on December 28 from 11am exclusively fromhttp://www.riffmusic.es
Plastic cleanup a staggering success
The scale of the pollution problem facing the Coast was brought home last Saturday when a staggering 400 kgs of rubbish was collected in a single hour.
The clean up was organised by environmental charity Plastic Free Seas Worldwide, which brought together 75 volunteers to clean up the beach in Fuengirola
Plastic Free Seas Worldwide was created by Craig Webb to increase awareness about the amount of plastic being dumped in to our seas every year. Approximately one truckload of plastic is dumped into the sea every minute, equating to 8 million tonnes a year. “Our mission is to bring communities together, educate our youth and start making a difference to the carnage that we are subjecting our natural world to. This is a man-made problem and innocent mammals, fish and sea birds are paying the ultimate price”, explained co-founder of the charity Natasha Wegloop. “This year we have organised 12 beach clean ups, collecting over 5 tonnes of rubbish from beaches on the Costa del Sol and visited schools to educate the younger generation on the importance of minimising plastic use and disposing of it carefully. Thanks to everyone who has supported all our activities in 2018, we look forward to many more events in 2019”.
Specsavers Opticas Fuengirola sponsored the event, as part of their commitment to reducing plastic and minimising their impact on the environment, after stopping using plastic bags in all eight stores earlier this year. They joined the charity, the volunteers, the Mayor of Fuengirola Ana María Mula Redruello, the Councillor for Beaches José Sanchez and the Councillor for the Environment María Jesús Pascual from the Fuengirola Town Hall for the largest beach clean up of the year.
“We have become more and more conscious of the impact that plastic can have on the environment and wanted to make a change”, explained Amrik Sappal, Director of Specsavers Opticas Fuengirola. “So we stopped using plastic bags in September and have committed to sponsor Plastic Free Seas Worldwide with their Beach Cleaning activities and educational work to both stop plastics at source and deal with them before they cause harm to the environment.”
Find out more on Facebook @plasticfreeseas or visit http://www.specsavers.es
Anti Bullfighting protest planned for January
The proposed plans by Marbella Town Hall to refurbish the town's derelict bullring, which also includes the provision for bullfighting, has met with public fury.
As reported earlier this month Bullfights back in Marbella? , the €1million plan included replacing the barriers and floor of the bullring so that it could once again be used for bullfighting, which was banned three years ago under the previous administration.
Anti bullfighting campaigners have opposed the plan and will be holding a protest rally on January 12 at the Bullring. In a statement on Social Media, the organisers stated
"After three years with no animal abuse, Marbella Town Hall wants to spend 1 million Euros reforming the Marbella Bullring in order to reinstate the torture and killing of animals for the enjoyment of a minority.
After animal advocates spent many years fighting for animal rights, and sparse public attendance at these cruel events, everything ended with the good news that no more animals were going to die so tragically in this same Bullring, and we want it to continue like this. We don’t want more death and suffering in Marbella. Modern day Marbella has to be a city free of animal abuse and for that same reason on January 12 we will shout loudly that torture will not return. Abolish Bullfighting!
If Marbella Town Hall really believe that re-introducing bullfighting projects a modern image for a luxury tourist destination, January 12 is the date to let them know what you think!
For more information https://www.facebook.com/events/1979720782104931/
Monday Motivation: Exercise. Punishment or Pleasure?
In her regular column, Ali Silver explains why we don't have to be slaves to the gym routine!
I don’t know about you, but I have a history of finding something I enjoy and then totally overdoing it.
Example: As a kid, I loved chicken satay. I ate it all the time. One day, I ate two portions (no that doesn’t seem too extreme, but the satay sauce was served in a bowl.) So I basically had a litre of creamy, greasy peanut sauce. I was violently sick everywhere, and haven’t eaten it since. Shock.
Fast forward to being a teenager and discovering the fitness world. I went through a dark patch, like we all do, and exercise really pulled me through it. It gave me structure, made me feel good and actually was my life line. So what did I do? I overdid it. I exercised too much, I let it rule my life, I allowed it to take over, until along the way, I stopped enjoying it and it became another stick to beat myself with.
Can you relate??
Maybe your story is with alcohol, food, relationships – trust me, I’ve been through them all.
Now life is different, and I teach my clients the same message.
I do not need to tell you the benefits of exercise. You know that its great for your muscles, your bones, your heart, mental health… the list goes on.
Understandably, not everyone likes to exercise. Gyms are unforgiving places, there are mirrors everywhere, and judgemental and unkind eyes on you, and let’s be honest it can be pretty boring too. When I stopped going to a gym environment, and stopped listening to what everyone else thought I should do for my body, THAT was when I started to enjoy moving.
As soon as there is mention of ‘calorie burn’ or ‘getting beach body ready’, instantly what you’re doing changes from pleasure to punishment.
For many people, exercise is just that. New rules, manipulating your body, pushing harder, going faster. What really is your intention to move?
How would you feel if maybe you didn’t move? Would you feel out of control? Relieved? Maybe just the thought of it makes you feel instantly uncomfortable.
That’s okay. No one is judging you. But if that is the case, just know that you are not the only one! And it’s okay if you don’t want to change anything right now, just as it’s okay to want to change right now.
Help is here and ready when you need it.
Much love
Ali
For more information http://www.alisilver.co.uk