Here is our fifth Readers Question from Mary:

You seem to get a lot of comments overall, but posts that I thought would get a lot of comments don’t and vice versa. Can you explain that?

Here is our fourth Readers Question from Paul:

I liked your post on what the Foro should be doing next and your post on the need for businesses to change in Almerimar and it is obvious that a few businesses have been working with you on some great initiatives. In the current climate what would your advice be?

Excellent question and great timing after the latest post regards the Foro!!!!

Updated 2nd December 2008 with a picture of Mac’s bag

Kenneth Cole ‘manbag’ bought in Dubai

I have been using the above manbag for 6 months or so now. Before that I had ‘dabbled’ with a number of similar bags, but never on a ‘full time’ basis. I sort of like the idea of the convenience of the bag i.e. everything in one place, no bulky pockets, no wondering where I left the keys etc. but on the other hand it can be inconvenient carrying it around all the time ……. bit of a Catch 22 that one!!!

Here is our third Readers Question from Adrian:

I have noticed more and more video content over the last year on the blog. Is that intentional and can we expect to see more?

In a word, yes. It is however a bit of a double edge sword though. Capturing the video content is naturally easier than capturing a written post ….. just point the video camera and press the record button.

5-0 Man Utd is the headline result this week, even though Stoke are my 3rd team in the Premiership this year, but to me the real winner this season has been the long awaited effect of the three points for a win!!

Here is our first Readers Question from Andy:

Love the blog, but have you ever thought of adding a Forum?

Thought about it for all of 20 seconds! I have a number of’ ‘issues’ with forums in general:

1. They can give a distorted view. Best analogy is if you landed from Mars and went straight into a hospital. Your first impression would be that everybody on earth was sick. Well that is sort of the way I feel about forums ………. they tend to attract negativity for the sake of negativity.

Although I have studied, worked and lived in the US I can honestly say that I have zero interest in who becomes President!!! It is like offering a vegetarian beef or pork!!! To be fair I have held the same view about the UK for years as well.

It seems thought that across Europe Obama is the favourite:

• 78% of French want Obama
• 72% of Germans want Obama
• 68% of Spanish want Obama

It was always going to be a mixed week with two of my teams playing each other, but Hull shouldn’t be disheartened by a 4-3 loss to Man Utd. It could easily have been a thrashing, but the reality is that they would have expected to loose to the likes of Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal … talking of which what a great result for Stoke. That is now Hull and Stoke who have beaten the Gunners!!!!! A win for Man Utd will make a perfect hat trick.

Just watched an amazing 4-4 draw between Arsenal & Spurs!!! Not surprised or disappointed that Hull lost to Chelsea, and they shouldn’t let it get to them. Liverpool are doing well and the late winner is a sign of a winning team.

Man Utd are gaining momentum, and I have to say that the Boro are showing some guts and playing some better football.

West Brom are sliding down the league but Stoke got a good result.

Not surprising that the Hull City online store has sold out of replica shirts the way that they are playing!!! The amazing journey continues, and they are playing good football as well!!

Elsewhere ….. Man Utd shouldn’t have given away their lead against Everton, and Ronaldo looks a long way from fitness. I would be thinking of playing Tevas more personally.

Chelsea hammered the Boro in the most convincing performance of the week. I have a strong feeling that this could be the season that Boro go down having been so uninspiring for so long now? They could (maybe should) be joined by Newcastle, who I fully expect to lose at Man City tomorrow.

We went to lunch last week at Nautico (again), and while we had an excellent time our view of Nautico hasn’t changed ……. great setting, nice people, but over priced and over rated food.

That isn’t the reason for this post though, other than I met Brian one of the regular golfers here and apart from having a good drink with him (although the red wine at Stumble Inn was like vinegar according to Brian and Sands), and a couple of games of pool, we had a good chat about golf here in Almerimar.

ALthough I have been ill all weekend and pretty much bed bound I didn’t watch any of the football until this afternoon’s excellent Wigan v Man City.

I wished that I had seen Hull beat Arsenal. Saw the highlights and Hull looked very impressive, certainly enjoying their time with the big boys, not sure the big boys are enjoying having them though! Stoke played well against Chelsea from what I saw, but just weren’t good enough.

A regular question from friends and family is “How do you cope with the weather in the summer?” which is a pretty good question. If only there was an equally as good answer!!!!

It is totally different being on holiday to living here it has to be said. When we used to visit for holidays we noticed that in many ways it was a lot easier …… primarily because we didn’t have any of the ‘day to day’ chores to fit in. Being on holiday is easy, well it is meant to be ……. if you are hungry, eat; if you fancy a swim, swim; if you want to sleep, sleep.

Back from my 18 Hours in the UK and if ever you wanted proof that travel was no longer ‘romantic’ this trip provided it.

Basically I felt like I was being sold to all the time.

1. At Almeria airport EasyJet check in they wanted to sell me Speedy Boarding. No thanks. I had read the web site when I booked and made my decision.

We have written about bullfighting before, and have come to the conclusion that isn’t something that we would want to support or indeed go to. I was however intrigued to read about the 66 year old UK Matador who has just made a return to the ring:

The Salford grandfather of four performed his comeback fight on the eve of his 66th birthday to stunned aficionados gathered at a bullring in Villanueva de la Concepcion, a pueblo perched on the Andalusian hillside above Malaga.

The photograph, which appeared in sports daily Marca, saw the smiling players standing on a court pulling down the skin at the sides of their eyes to make them appear slanted.

It caused international condemnation and followed a string of racially-charged incidents that have marred the reputation of Spanish sport.

Just about to sit down to watch Liverpool in the Champions League!! Seem mad to me, that they are starting a competition that is worth so much money to the teams before the season has actually started. That is what it is all about now though ………… money!!!

I am not a big fan of the Olympics (although I like the fact that I played Hockey in the same team as an Olympic gold medal winner) and very rarely watch it. I am certainly not a particularly ‘political’ guy either, but I do tend to feel that giving the 2008 Olympics to China was a huge error. I was however intrigued by the above picture, as I (naively it now seems) thought there was actually just ‘a’ Olympic Torch that got used every four years!! Shows how much attention I pay to the Olympics then!! You can see a bigger image here

We have just finished watching the last series of Torchwood, and it made me realise what a great ‘invention’ Sky+ is!!! I know that Torchwood finished ages ago, but we use Sky+ to record the whole series of things like Torchwood, Dr Who, 24, Rescue Me, New Tricks etc and then we tend to have a ‘binge’ on viewing them.