Looking forward to tomorrow's game. 7 o'clock kick-off - a nice time for watching a game of football over a couple of beers. We also like playing the Basques. Some nice memories of Barça-Athletic games, and there was a time when the team was almost Basque - Goiko, Zubi, Txiki, Bakero. Dream days, to be sure.

Week long fiesta with a full timetable of events, concerts,sports etc

1. Snorkel at Cabo de Palos - or scuba dive if you can.......the fish there are just beautiful and you only need to hover around the rocky shore line to see fish of all colours - my favourites are electric blue and tiny.  Not sure who enjoys it most, us or our dog!

2. Take to the water by boat. If you don't own a boat there are plenty of places to hire every type of water transport or you could take a boat trip on the Mar Menor or the Mediterranean. If you are in the Mediterranean you may even see a dolphin like we did (well we saw a quick flash of fin!)

We had the privelege to be invited to our neighbour's grandson's wedding.

We also had the honour (and responsibility) of being the official photographers - Marcus is a very keen photographer and I'm really good at carrying heavy bags of lenses ;-)

The Joan Gamper trophy used to be a pre-season event through which we all got to check out the team just before the first league game of the season. This season is a bit different, and to be perfectly honest the game seems a bit pointless. It doesn't start until 10pm, which is late for a Wednesday. The season has already started and we drew disappointingly against Racing de Santander on Sunday.

The main "fight" ocurs on the last Wednesday of August, but there are events and fun leading upto and after the Tomatina tomato fight. The town of Bunol in Valencia is the host to this fun fiesta, possibly one of the most widely televised and broadcast around the world (though camera men need to take care!)

Click here to see some videos:

http://www.nativespain.com/node/1337/play 

The main "fight" ocurs on the last Wednesday of August, but there are events and fun leading upto and after the Tomatina tomato fight. The town of Bunol in Valencia is the host to this fun fiesta, possibly one of the most widely televised and broadcast around the world (though camera men need to take care!)

Click here to see some videos:

http://www.nativespain.com/node/1337/play 

Looks like fun...

http://www.nativespain.com/node/1337/play

Click on the link to watch a video of the fiesta of Tomatina in Valencia

Everything seemed pretty hunky dory before I went away. We´d signed Henry, Abidal, Touré and Milito. All good solid signings which would reinforce key positions in the squad. Madrid hadn´t signed anyone of any importance. Cool. Get into the groove, Barça, you´ve got to prove your love to me.

So what a stinkingly depressing surprise. Glum faces down at Frankfurt Anabel (well, Cisco wasn't saying anything but he's a merengue). Barça had drawn 0-0 with Racing. Crap game, apparently. Racing played the last 25 minutes with only ten men. Me cago en Déu!

I got back late last night after a spending delightfully cold and wet month in Britain. Wherever we we went we seemed to get rained on, but none of us cared. Time with the folks in Malvern, a week in Scotland, another in London, and the last one with my best mate, Andy and family, down on the Kent coast.

 Jaen's huge Cathedral by Vandelvira

The Cathedral and its Plaza