Ablaze

Darlings! We're home...

We had an utterly marvellous week of basically doing bugger all except drink, admire the beautiful Mediterranean, drink, banter and gossip with friends we've made on the Costa over the years, drink, party, cruise the fleshpots of La Nogalera, drink, laugh, eat - and drink. Oh, and did I mention it was sunny? Very sunny indeed! Although we heard that the UK and Northern Europe were also getting a heatwave, as we said throughout the holiday: "They are in work; we're not. They are all looking at computer screens while we sup Tinto de Verano and gin cocktails in a beach bar. Ha ha!"

So apart from tabloid headlines about soaring temperatures, water shortages and dramatic thunderstorms, what did we miss while we were away?

Apparently there was some kind of a wedding between a posh ginger Brit and a Yank actress, but you'd never guess it. Nobody in the media was talking about it at all...

There may have been other things happening in the news however, such as: the height of the horticultural season, the Chelsea Flower Show took place; Mount Kilauea in Hawaii erupted; Ireland voted to lift a ban on abortion; the Trump-Kim Jong-un summit was on then off then on again (yawn); Harvey Weinstein was (finally) charged with rape; former London Mayor, ex-MP and all-round twat Ken Livingstone resigned from the Labour Party after having been suspended for years; email inboxes across the universe were clogged by bloody GDPR privacy declaration emails...

...and, in a story that sounds familiar: an Oregon man is in custody after he used an AK-47 to shoot at his upstairs neighbours; he was reportedly involved in a long-running dispute about their noisy children.

We missed marking the 90th anniversary of the birth of the lovely Rosemary Clooney, the 85th birthday of the divine Dame Joan Collins, the 75th birthday of the multi-talented Miss Leslie Uggams and what would have been the 75th of the dearly departed Cilla Black, the 70th of You Make Me Feel Like Dancing singer Leo Sayer, what would have been the 65th birthday of the very much-missed Victoria Wood, the 60th of "Modfather" Paul Weller (of The Jam and The Style Council), the 24th birthday of sex god Tom Daley, and the birthdays of our Patron Saints Peggy Lee (who would have been 98), Cher (72), Siouxsie Sioux (61) and Sir Ian "Serena" McKellen (79). We were also away when the deaths of Portnoy's Complaint author Philip Roth and the hunky actor and star of many a Western Clint Walker were announced.

We're both utterly pissed off to be back, but I do have another full week's leave in which to recover. At least we have lovely deep tans to show off, and may even (dramatic hailstorms and murky humidity aside) be able to carry on topping them up.

And, as is my wont, I have brought a little something back from Spain with which to entertain you, dear reader, on this Tacky Music (Bank Holiday) Monday!

Meet Señorita Carmen Hierbabuena - once seen, never forgotten...

Carmen Hierbabuena - Ardiendo

Is it good to be back? No.

Sigh.

[NB Ardiento means "Ablaze" in Spanish]