Friday 13th July 2012 See Emily Play’,

www.vincetracy.com

“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.” – Bruce Lee

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us. Thomas Paine

When I said ‘death’ before ‘dishonor’, I meant alphabetically. Unknown

“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.”

- Oprah Winfrey

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The day’s Podcast is always waiting for you….1967, Pink Floyd made their second appearance on BBC Top Of The Pops to promote their new single ‘See Emily Play’, which was hosted by Pete Murray. The single went on to peak at No.6 on the UK chart.

Today is glorious and once again the skies are blue and the sea looks inviting. I will be busy most of the day but I fancy a trip down to the coast later for a dip in the Mediterranean. Aren’t we lucky?

I’ve just been creating a podcast with my friend and wine expert, Colin Harkness. Colin is a wine writer, wine broadcaster and wine TV presenter.He’s been working in the
wine trade for some 20 years in various capacities: importer, exporter, critic, educator, consultant, buyer and broker to name but a few. Here’s the link to Colin’s podcast.

Here’s a guy who is trying to get Spain out of the crisis. He tries so hard I’m including his letter to us today in my blog

Hi Vince

How often do you find yourself in a rut and just wish you could drop everything and head off on an exciting adventure? Unfortunately, few people have the ability to escape their busy lives so reading about the exploits of others becomes the closest they’ll ever get to such an experience. Just the other day I was reading about a young Englishman called Laurie Lee who in 1934 left his native land and headed for Vigo in Galicia. Over the course of the next year he walked through the centre of the country as far as the south coast spending nights under the stars or in very basic hostels for travellers.

He describes a dreadfully poor country where he survived on the generosity of the people he met and the few coppers he earned from playing his violin outside cafes. Eventually he made it to Almunecar on the coast of Granada where he became trapped by the Spanish Civil War before he was rescued by a British destroyer. The story of his fascinating journey is told in the book “As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning” which is available on Amazon.

Personally I’ve never walked to Spain but some years ago I did cycle part of the way there. I put my bike on a train from London to Bordeaux then spent a week cycling in the foothills of the Pyrenees as far as Le Boulou where I headed into the hills and across into Spain. Every time I enter Spain from France I’m always amazed at the change … the traffic goes crazy and when you stop at a motorway service station everyone seems to be shouting at one another. I love it! I ended my cycle in Girona then took a train to Barcelona and a ferry to Mallorca. For the next week all I seemed to do was eat as I recovered from the journey.

Finding Cheap Flights to Spain

Of course the vast majority of Spain’s 50 million annual visitors arrive on aeroplanes from destinations all over the world making Spain the 2nd most visited nation on the planet after France. We’ve revised the Flights to Spain page on our website. It now contains links to all the main destination airports in Spain as well as links to the main budget operators and useful information on how to transfer from airports to your final destination.

Many years ago we used to look in newspapers for cheap flights or browse the windows of the local travel agency in the hope of finding a bargain. Now the internet is the first place we turn to when we need to get away yet few travellers are aware of how to go about finding the best online prices. There are thousands of websites claiming to offer the cheapest flights yet in reality there are only a handful of websites that you need to bother with in making sure you get a good deal. If you already know where and (more or less) when you want to go then your first port of call should be Skyscanner.net.

This is a price comparison site where you input your destination and preferred date then allow it to find the best deals. Its search results are provided from hundreds of airlines and online travel agencies and most importantly it includes prices from the main budget airlines which some other price comparison sites don’t.

In order to try to get a special deal for booking your flight and hotel together you should refer to a flight broker website. These flight brokers are in a position to offer special deals if you book a flight + hotel or flight + hotel + car hire as they work directly with the airlines. The heavyweight website amongst the flight brokers is Expedia.co.uk which allows you to easily book any combination of flight, hotel and car hire.

Ferries to Spain

Many times in the past I’ve travelled between the UK and Bilbao on P&O’s ‘Pride of Bilbao’ but that service no longer exists. However, you can still travel between the south coast of England and the north coast of Spain onBrittany Ferries who offer the following services:

Portsmouth to Santander
Plymouth to Santander
Portsmouth to Bilbao

You can also take a number of ferries to France then drive to Spain but then you need to consider the additional cost of fuel and overnight accommodation compared with the direct ferry. Also you shouldn’t underestimate the extra time it takes to drive through France and the exertion of so many extra hours at the wheel. You can get more information on ferry options on our revised Ferries to Spain page.

Spain by Train

The European rail network provides for an exceptional standard of travel catering for all budgets. You can book on to a luxurious ‘Trenhotel’ which offers incredible services from Paris, Milan and Zurich to Barcelona and from Paris to Madrid. On the other hand you can simply book standard rail tickets to Spain from all over the continent or purchase one of the rail passes available in Europe which allow you to get discount rates on rail travel in individual countries, combinations of countries or on a grand tour of Europe. For details of all these options take a look at our Spain by Train page where you’ll find numerous links to the Rail Europe Website which allows you to book any of these rail services.

Spain by Bus

A generally overlooked option in European travel is going by coach. The biggest operator in this market is Eurolines.co.uk which is Europe’s largest scheduled coach operator. The company is owned by National Express and is made up of 32 independent coach companies from all over the continent. You can buy a 15 or 30 day Eurolines Pass which gives you flexible, unlimited travel between 43 European cities. Routes from London to Spain include the following:

La Coruna via Santiago
Oviedo via San Sebastian, Bilbao, Santander and Llanes
Algeciras via Madrid, Almeria, Seville, Granada, Malaga & Marbella
Salamanca via Valladolid
Murcia via Barcelona, Benidorm and Alicante

For something more organised take a look at Cosmos Tours where you’ll find a great selection of fascinating tours and cruises in Europe and worldwide which depart from the UK.

Day Excursons & Private Tours

And finally, if you make your own way to Spain and are looking for any kind of tour then get in touch with our friends at Euroadventures.net. We’ve been working with Sean and his team up there in Vigo (where Laurie Lee began his walking tour of Spain) for many years and can’t recommend them highly enough. Whether you’re looking for extended tours by coach or with a private driver or simply want to do a day trip from your destination they can usually help you sort it out. Just drop them a line through the above link or contact me and I’ll send your enquiry on to Sean directly.

Anyway I think there are enough ideas there on how to get to Spain. If you’d care to comment or add any additional ideas for readers then please do by clicking on the following link:

http://www.spanish-fiestas.com/how-to-get-to-spain/

RegardsGerry

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I was sent the following

Imagine that you had won the following prize in a contest: Each morning
your bank would deposit $86,400.00 in your private account for your use.

However,this prize has rules, just as any game has certain rules. The
first set of rules would be:

Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away
from you.

You may not simply transfer money into some other account.
You may only spend it.

Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another
$86,400.00 for that day.

The second set of rules:

The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say,
Its over,the game is over! It can close the account and you will not
receive a new one.

What would you personally do?

You would buy anything and everything you wanted right? Not only for
yourself, but for all people you love, right? Even for people you don’t
know, because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, right? You
would try to spend every cent, and use it all, right?

ACTUALLY This GAME is REALITY!

Each of us is in possession of such a magical bank. We just can’t seem to
see it.

It is the bank of time!

Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life, and when
we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us.

What we haven’t lived up that day is forever lost.
Yesterday is forever gone.

Start Spending

Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your
account at any time….WITHOUT WARNING.

SO, what will YOU do with your 86,400 seconds?

The Day’s Events 13th July

1099 – The Crusaders launched their final assault on Muslims in Jerusalem. You can see it hasn’t always been the Muslims at fault

1534 – The Ottoman armies captured Tabriz in northwestern Persia. Bullies

1558 – Led by the court of Egmont, the Spanish army defeated the French at Gravelines, France. Bullies

1643 – In England, the Roundheads, led by Sir William Waller, were defeated by royalist troops under Lord Wilmot in the Battle of Roundway Down. It sounds so painless when looking back

1793 – French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday. She was executed four days later. I remember seeing this in a film

1835 – John Ruggles received patent #1 from the U.S. Patent Office for a traction wheel used in locomotive steam engines. All 9,957 previous patents were not numbered. So does this legitimise him having number one?

1863 – Opponents of the Civil War draft began three days of rioting in New York City, which resulted in more than 1,000 casualties. They’d get them either way

1931 – A major German financial institution, Danabank, failed. This led to the closing of all banks in Germany until August 5. Bad news for everyone really

1941 – Britain and the Soviet Union signed a mutual aid pact, that provided the means for Britain to send war material to the Soviet Union. We were quite good buddies

1971 – The Army of Morocco executed ten leaders accused of leading a revolt. Did they get a fair trial?

1973 – David Bedford set a new world record in the 10,000-meter race in London. His time was 27 minutes, 31 seconds. His legacy lives on in the telephone adverts. Long black hair, moustache etc.

1978 – Lee Iacocca was fired as president of Ford Motor Co. by chairman Henry Ford II. He was the man who could do the firing.

The Day’s Music Events 13th July

1963, The Rolling Stones played their first ever gig outside London when they appeared at The Alcove Club, Middlesbrough, Yorkshire supporting The Hollies. This might just have put Middlesborough on the map

1964, The Animals went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘The House Of The Rising Sun.’ Recorded in one take, this was the first UK No.1 to have a playing time of more than four minutes. This still remains one of my all-time favourite songs

1965, Paul McCartney was presented with five Ivor Novello Awards at a lunch party at The Savoy, London. John Lennon refused to attend; Paul was 40 minutes late after he had forgotten about the engagement. I suppose it could be easy to forget but these awards are very well respected and should remain so.

1967, Pink Floyd made their second appearance on BBC Top Of The Pops to promote their new single ‘See Emily Play’, which was hosted by Pete Murray. The single went on to peak at No.6 on the UK chart.This was a nice use of sound effects…

1968, Black Sabbath played their first gig at a small backstreet Blues club in Birmingham, England.I’ll bet they played loud

1969, Over 100 US radio stations banned The Beatles new single ‘The Balled Of John and Yoko’ due to the line ‘Christ, you know it ain’t easy’, calling it offensive. This shows that standards in UK were not as high as in parts of the USA

1974, Elton John started a two-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Caribou’, his third No.1 album, also No.1 in the US.He is a class act

1974, George McCrae started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Rock Your Baby’, his only US No.1, also No.1 in the UK. Regarded by some as the first Disco No.1. It was a New York City club hit first.Didn’t it first come out as a duo with Gwen MaCrae?

1974, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played the first of a three night, six show residency at the newly-opened Bottom Line in New York City. The shows received rave reviews and created a buzz .

1976, The first issue of UK punk fanzine Sniffin’ Glue was published, with features on The Stranglers, Ramones and Blue Oyster Cult. Former bank clerk Mark Perry edited the fanzine.I didn’t even see this

1978, The BBC announced a ban on The Sex Pistols’ latest single ‘No One Is Innocent’, which featured vocals by Ronnie Biggs, the British criminal notorious for his part in the Great Train Robbery of 1963. At the time of the recording, Biggs was living in Brazil, and was still wanted by the British authorities, but immune from extradition.I had switched off to the likes of the Sex Pistols and don’t even remember this

1980, Advertised in this weeks UK music weekly NME, Levi jeans with free braces, sizes 27-33 priced at £16.95. 1985, At 12.01 Status Quo started the ‘Live Aid’ extravaganza, held between Wembley Stadium, London and The JFK Stadium, Philadelphia. The cream of the world’s biggest rock stars took part in the worldwide event, raising over £40million. TV pictures beamed to over 1.5bn people in 160 countries made it the biggest live broadcast ever known. Artists who appeared included Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, The Who, U2, David Bowie and Mick Jagger, Queen, Tina Turner, The Cars, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Bryan Adams, Hall and Oates, Lionel Richie and Led Zeppelin. What a fabulous effort

1985, Duran Duran became the first artists to have a No.1 on the US singles chart with a James Bond theme when ‘A View To A Kill’, went to the top of the charts. They were shaken but not stirred

1985, Elton John re-signed with MCA Records in America, his five-album deal being worth $8 million, the biggest advance in history at the time.Big bucks

1985, Tears For Fears went to No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Songs From The Big Chair’. Good band

1987, Representatives of fifty of America’s largest record retailers were guests at Michael Jackson’s home in Encino, California to preview his new album, ‘Bad’. The LP would go on to sell over 30 million copies worldwide.His music was fantastic

1990, Curtis Mayfield was badly injured after a strong gust of wind blew a lighting rig on him during an outside concert in Brooklyn, New York.I hadn’t remembered this

1991, Bryan Adams went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Everything I Do I Do It For You’ which featured on the soundtrack for the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It stayed at No.1 for a record-breaking 16 weeks, (breaking a record held since 1955), also a No.1 in the US (for 7 weeks) and a hit in 16 other countries. Won a Grammy Award for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture in 1992.Good quality song but the film helped

1991, The Everly Brothers foundation bought 80 acres of land in the brother’s hometown, planning to build a theme park and museum in honour of the duo.Good idea

1996, Over 2,000 guitar players, including Chet Atkins and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, set a new world record for the largest jam session ever when they played ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ for 75 minutes at Nashville’s Riverfront Park. The previous record was set in Vancouver, Canada on May 7th, 1994, when Randy Bachman led 1,322 amateur guitarists in a performance that lasted 68 minutes.I bet people got a bit sick of hearing the song….

1997, A trial against John Denver for drunken driving ended in a hung jury, deadlocked 3-3. Denver’s defence attorney argued that the singer suffered from a thyroid condition that had distorted blood alcohol tests. This was a strange case

1999, Paul McCartney displayed 73 paintings at the Kunstforum Lyz gallery in the German town of Siegen. McCartney had been painting for the past 16 years (since he turned 40).Paul is a dab hand with the brush

2000, Irish act The Corrs scored their only UK No.1 hit with ‘Breathless’, taken from their third studio album In Blue. Lovely family music

2002, Fatboy Slim brought the Brighton area to a standstill when he threw a free beach party. Organisers had expected 60,000 fans to attend but over 250,000 turned up causing chaos on the roads with traffic jams over ten miles long. Fatboy Slim spent £100,000 of his own money supporting the event after a sponsor pulled out. Good call

2004, Manager, agent and producer Hal Carter died. Wrote ‘Come On And Twist’, worked with The Kinks, Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent.Another name overlooked

2007, Rod Stewart collected his CBE from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace. The singer who was honoured for his services to music wore a skull and crossbones tie, white trousers and a stripy shirt instead of the conventional morning suit.He always looks snappy

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Born on this day

1942, Roger McGuinn, guitar, vocals, The Byrds, (1965 US & UK No.1 single ‘Mr Tambourine Man’). He was the only member of The Byrds to play on the hit, the others being session players.

1942, Stephen Jo Bladd, drums, The J Geils Band, (1982 US No.1 & UK No.3 single ‘Centerfold’).

1961, Lawrence Donegan, bass, Lloyd Cole And The Commotions, (1985 UK No.19 single ‘Brand New Friend’).

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