By the time you read this, we'll hopefully be in the skies on our way to our annual winter break to Benalmadena!
There is a traditional song I always play on such an auspicious occasion, and so - here it is:
It's traditional.
"Normal" service will resume sometime next weekend, dear reader...
¡Olé! indeed. Just one more day of tedious slog to go, and it'll be time to slam that laptop shut for the next seventeen days!
As you are no doubt aware, dear reader - we're off to Spain for a week tomorrow (followed by - for me, at least - another week off to mong about, pottering in the garden, no doubt).
To mark the very welcome end of the week, how about a little bit of Spanish campery..?
Gracias Disco ¡Es viernes!
Have a great one, dear reader!
With only a couple of days left before we bugger off in pursuit of some sunshine, one might have expected to be able to wind-down a bit - but no, the tasks have just been ramping up instead. Bastards!
I don't care. One-and-a-bit days... then at 4pm tomorrow, sod 'em all!
Meanwhile, here's one of our fave Spanish combos, without whom no countdown to a (hopefully) stress-free holiday on the Costa would really be complete...
Ah, that's better.
Among another assortment of celebrants, including Alan Alda (who blows out 90 candles on his cake), Colette, Acker Bilk, King Henry VII (Henry Tudor), Jackson Pollock, Sir John Tavener, Harry Corbett (creator of "Sooty"), Ronnie Scott, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Olympic champion Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, Sir Roy Clarke (the genius behind Keeping Up Appearances, Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours - thankfully still with us, aged 96), Nick Carter, Frank Skinner and Elijah Wood, it is the 70th birthday today of a true "one-hit wonder", only really known outside his native Germany for this Bowie tribute way back in 1983...
An inspiration for (the far more successful) A-Ha, perhaps..?
Viele glückliche Rückkehrer, Peter Schilling (born Pierre Michael Schilling, 28th January 1956)!
The bus station of every town and city is a wild, lawless place where society has broken down entirely and madness reigns, studies have confirmed.
Researchers found that any terminal where buses begin and end journeys inevitably, for reasons unknown, devolved into a post-apocalyptic Mad Max environment where the weak are prey for the strong and the 87 to Eyres Monsell never comes.
Professor Henry Brubaker, of the Institute for Studies, said: “Our findings won’t come as a surprise to any unfortunate souls who’ve found themselves in these shanties of the damned. McDonald’s after 11pm comes a notable second.
“All of the signs are wrong, there’s bird shit everywhere, every horizontal surface is covered in spikes and the reek of piss is ever-present. They’re not so much vital parts of the public transport infrastructure as a preview of the nightmare to come.
“Pity anyone forced to use them on a daily basis. Herds of depressed commuters, all who know they’re only one wrong glance away from a riot kicking off? Protected only by their earbuds and their indifference? A grimy, vaping hell.
“The only way to escape these ghettos is to make a cursed deal with the sullen-faced wardens who despise them the most: bus drivers.”
Regular bus traveller Martin Bishop said: “Bus stations aren’t that bad. If you know a better place to buy 15 kilos of dog hair for two teeth, I’d like to hear it.”
Of course.
Yep. Monday again. Work again. It's still miserable, grey and dank out there, with more rain on the horizon (particularly tomorrow).
However, the countdown has begun - just five days to go, and we're off to Spain on Saturday! Can't wait...
Meanwhile, on this Tacky Music Monday, here's an old fave - our Patron Saint of Histrionics Señorita Rocío Jurado!
As I said last time I posted it:
With a plethora of safety gays and girls who look like drag queens [I'm sure I spotted a youthful Dame Hilda Bracket in there somewhere], bizarre costume changes, piss-poor miming and a duettist who looks like Ron Burgundy sans moustache - this is just perfect!
It remains so:
Have a good week, dear reader.
Back in 2013, the V&A staged one of the most comprehensive and mind-boggling exhibitions dedicated to the life of one person, ever - the wonderful David Bowie Is..., the most visited exhibit in the museum’s history. I went along, and was blown away by it!
Then in 2023, thanks to a donation from the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group, and in collaboration with the great man's estate, the entire archive around which that exhibition was based was acquired by the V&A for the nation - and for a permanent [albeit with items on rotation] display at the new David Bowie Centre in Stratford, which officially opened in September 2025, with tickets strictly limited, and members a priority.
So it was that Madam Arcati and I (V&A members) were able to snaffle tickets - for us and for John-John [Hils, for whom we also booked a ticket, couldn't make it] - for a viewing yesterday!
The V&A takes great pains to emphasise that this is not solely an "exhibition" - and indeed, in comparison to their usual dazzling multi-room, multitudinous-exhibit events (dozens of which we have been to, and thoroughly enjoyed), it is quite tiny; just one room, with ten visual display cases, a big screen and floor-to-ceiling shelves around a table.
It's the latter part that makes clear the true purpose of the centre - for anyone, by request in advance, can take a closer look at any of the 90,000 items in the collection! If you want to handle Bowie's platform boots, his fedora from The Man Who Fell to Earth, or his personal diaries, you can do so!
Of the items currently on display [as I mentioned above, many of these will periodically be refreshed and changed], I was enthralled by the variety and range, from all eras of his career. Highlights: That suit [pictured at the top of the post] from Life On Mars (and the cream suit from the Serious Moonlight tour I went to see in 1983, and his "Ziggy Stardust" costume), a pair of letters - one a "reference" written by David's dad, the other a very curt rejection letter from Apple Records - his high-drama metal "wings" from the Glass Spider tour in 1987, the handwritten lyrics to Heroes (and the synths played in those "Berlin sessions"), the Stylophone he played on Space Oddity, and, and, and... everything!
It was a brilliant day!
[Click any pic to embiggen]
[PS We also took a wander around the V&A East Storehouse itself, which is a stunning (and bewildering) warehouse-scale display of objects of all types and from all eras, that are a mere part of the museum's gargantuan collection, which visitors walk around, under and above - worthy of another visit, and another blog post all of its own - read the review from the ever-wonderful The Londonist instead.]
Meanwhile...
...happy Burns Night!
Bringing the two things together nicely, here's Scotland's uncrowned Queen, Lulu singing the song Bowie wrote for her (together with the great man on backing vocals):
