Well, another week has passed and I hope you were able to join my show today.The TV theme I played around 9.40 today was Thank Goodness it´s Friday presented by Chris Evans. Only Darren D managed to get that one and the other theme I featured was Simon Bates ´Óur Song’.

The sun is shining and my friends and family are over visiting us. This means we will be fluctuating between showing the places of interest and spending time socialising. Let´s see what the weather has in store for the Costa Banca´s Province of Alicante.

Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
20° C | 10° C	17° C | 9° C	13° C | 10° C	16° C | 14° C	19° C | 15° C

Here´s a really distressing story I have just been reading at SpanishVida. I need to direct you to the story as it might well affect people who live here in Spain…Basically, the story graphically explains how Spanish bureaucracy can make people believe the Spanish people are difficult to live with. Generally speaking the Spanish are very nice but they become very reminiscent of England as it used to be when they get a little bit of power or authority.   I encountered exactly the same  in Cornwall when we moved in the 1980s. The bank manager at HSBC in Truro was an absolute nightmare and his attitude was horrific. I can also recall the attitude of Martin´s Bank in Bebington when I was a very young man putting in a very meagre sum of money each time I visited his branch. I think we need to remember that it is always down to the individual. If you have a nasty person with authority and power you have a bigger problem than if you have a nice person with this power. The moral of the story is that it´s not necessarily the Spanish with these problems. I think they exist everywhere. I think it´s easy to0 think it´s just a Spanish problem. Nasty people are nasty wherever they exist.

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Bullrings and fake Eiffel Towers may not be enough to hold back the tide of surging unemployment in Spain, Europe’s one-time engine of job growth. These are worrying times and I´ll refer you to the rest of the article showing how Spain is lagging behind in its recovery from the recession. This probably indicates that you can disguise underlying problems by throwing money at the present problems……………………..

As an 8 billion-euro ($12 billion) stimulus program runs out, that will help destroy 250,000 jobs at the start of next year, according to the AGETT association of employment agencies, and push the jobless rate above 20 percent.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s package, designed to fight Spain’s worst recession in 60 years, has kept people in work by funding a wave of building projects from a theme park of European monuments to sports complexes and bullrings. The risk is that a further jump in joblessness will delay the return to growth, boosting the budget deficit and borrowing costs.

“What they’ve done is just put the unemployed on ice,” said Fernando Fernandez, a professor at IE business school in Madrid and former International Monetary Fund economist. “There’s been a series of transitory measures based on the idea the crisis would be short, and now we have to deal with the consequences.”

Under the Plan E program, which created 422,298 jobs, builders in Torrejon de Ardoz, near Madrid, are erecting the collection of monuments among 5,000 trees. On the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, 3 million euros is being spent to build a swimming pool, while a bullring near the capital has a new roof.

Click this link to read the FULL article: Bullrings, Theme Park Can’t Stop 20% Spanish Jobless (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.

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The rebel doctor is astounded. Words almost fail him. Well, almost…….

Here’s one from the Department of Useless Research:

People who eat fast, eat more. No kidding. I don’t think I needed a study to prove that a glutton is, well, gluttonous… but researchers in Greece are acting as if they’ve stumbled upon some state secret with this one.

I didn’t pay for this research, but I feel like I want a refund anyway.

The researchers gave each of their subjects a bowl of ice cream – an odd choice, when you consider that ice cream encourages you to eat it quickly before it melts. In any case, the subjects were asked to eat at different paces as researchers measured hormone levels.  The study found that those who ate slowest felt fuller and had higher concentrations of the two hormones associated with being full, PYY and GLP-1.

The researchers concluded that when you eat fast, your stomach doesn’t have a chance to release those hormones to let your brain know you’ve had enough. As a result, you eat more. OK, I’ll buy that. But so what? We’ve known this for years, and I didn’t need this study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism to confirm it.

But the biggest crime here isn’t the wasted research money… it’s the wave of bad advice that inevitably follows studies like this one. “Eat slowly,” they’ll tell you. “Eat slowly, and you’ll lose weight.”

Fat chance.  Remember, eating fast food is far, far worse for you than eating food fast. No one’s going to really lose weight by chewing more slowly – you lose weight by eating better.

That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of other good reasons to eat slowly. First and foremost, eating slowly lets you enjoy and savor your food. This doesn’t mean you have to count seconds between bites, but at least take a moment to taste the stuff.  And eating quickly increases your risk for indigestion, gas and choking.

So take some time to smell the dishes – just remember that it’s what’s on the plate that counts most… not how long you keep it there.

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Here´s Iris´challenge from this morning’s show …..who do you think this might be. Send me an e-mail if you didn´t hear my show but want to guess

(1)She was born in Northern Ireland on 29 March 1935 – 17 December 1996 and was one of the most popular singers in the United Kingdom in the 1950s. In the year of 1955 alone, she secured seven Top 10 UK hit singles.

(2) She toured as a child singer, and first appeared on television at the age of 12, having been spotted by producer Richard Afton. Due to laws governing children performing, she had to delay her start in the entertainment industry. She returned to Belfast and full time education until she was 14.

(3) She was still in her teens when she replaced Joan Regan on the BBC TV programme ‘Quite Contrary’.

(4) During the 1950’s  she had her own television show, starred at the London Palladium with Norman Wisdom, appeared in a Royal Command Performance (1955), and toured the world. In a period of 52 weeks, starting in 1955, she constantly had at least one single in the UK charts.

(5)She starred with Frankie Howard and Dennis Price in her only film  the 1956 farce, A Touch of the Sun.

(6) During the summer of 1957, while working in Blackpool, Murray met Bernie Burgess, whom she later married, Burgess became her manager and the couple became a double act during the 1960s.

(7) She was one of the most successful stars in the history of British popular music. She set a pop-chart record in 1955 by having five hits in the Top Twenty at one time. Equaled only by Michael Jackson posthumously this year

(8) Initially signed by Columbia, an EMI label, and her first single “Heartbeat” reached No.3 in the charts. However, it was her famous No.1 hit “Softly, Softly ” that was to become her ‘signature tune’.

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This is rather nice to send to a friend and anyone who knows my personal situation might think, as I certainly have been thinking, that this is particularly relevant to a very recent experience I have been having.

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person..

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, To aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be.

Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done.

The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done.

They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real. But only for a season. LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.

Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.

It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant. Thank you for being a part of my life, whether you were a reason, a season or a lifetime.

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Word of the Day

Coger koh-herr’  (transitive verb)

to take, to pick up, to catch, to get

EXAMPLES

¿Me lo puedes coger el bolígrafo? – Could you pick up my pencil?

Lo cogió del brazo. – She took him by the arm.

IDIOMS

No hay por donde cogerlo. – awful, third-rate

¡Dios me coja confesado! – Lord help us!

Notes

Coger can have a vulgar meaning in several places in Latin and South America. It would be better to use a substitute like tomar, alcanzar, or agarrar.

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DCSF funding for dyslexia training

The DCSF is funding the course fees for eligible teachers wishing to study in January 2010 for an Approved Teacher Status (ATS), or the Associate Membership of the British Dyslexia Association (AMBDA) qualification in dyslexia, accredited by the British Dyslexia Association. To be eligible, teachers must hold QTS, have completed their induction and be living in England.

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Today´s show