Living The Dream….

Real Madrid’s winner in the Champions League semi-final 1st leg on Wednesday night was scored by Mallorcan born Marco Asensio. Born in Son Ferrer just up the road from where I live, he went to my boys school Jaume 1 in Palma Nova. He played junior football for Playas de Calvia and moved to Real Mallorca. At the time there were a lot of Premier League clubs looking at him but he had always wanted to play for Real Madrid and his dream came true when they signed him in 2015. He was immediately put out on loan to Espanyol where he spent one season. Since then he’s making a name for himself in the first team and has been capped by Spain 10 times. My sons never stop talking about him and have a personalised signed Real Madrid shirt which sits proudly in their bedroom.
Marco’s former club Real Mallorca need 1 more point to become Champions and go to the 1st place play-offs. They are away in Sabadell this weekend, their final home game is next weekend against Badalona and then there’s one more game away at Deportivo Aragon.
I told you in an earlier column that I’m making more of an effort to go to music concerts. In February I saw The Stereophonics in Barcelona, I’m going back in June to seen Queen and Adam Lambert and then Ed Sheeran at Wembley. One band I’d love to go and see are The Rolling Stones. This week, Liam Gallagher, Richard Ashcroft and Florence & The Machine were among the huge support acts to be announced for The Rolling Stones’ UK tour this summer.
The rock icons will head out on an eight-date stadium tour across May and June, playing huge venues such as the London Stadium, Manchester’s Old Trafford stadium, and Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium.
Now, it’s been confirmed that they’re bringing along some pretty illustrious company for the ride, with former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher warming up for the Stones before their first date of the tour on May 22.
• 22 May, London Stadium – Liam Gallagher
• 25 May, London Stadium – Florence & The Machine
• 29 May, St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton – The Vaccines
• 02 June, Ricoh Arena, Coventry – The Specials
• 05 June, Old Trafford, Manchester – Richard Ashcroft
• 09 June, BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh – Richard Ashcroft
• 15 June, Principality Stadium, Cardiff – Elbow
• 19 June, Twickenham Stadium, London – James Bay
Fans of The Stones have also reacted with a mixture of excitement and disappointment, with many wishing that they were at the one gig where Gallagher is supporting. Me too!
It never ceases to amaze me how much coffee shops particularly in the U.K. charge for a cup of coffee. They are so popular now they even have drive thrus! Coffee made from mushrooms might sound stomach-churning to many but for those with their finger on the superfood pulse, it is a sought-after brew.
Of late there has been a trend towards more ‘interesting’ coffees, last year the turmeric latte ruled, the year before it was matcha.
Just to be clear, the lattes aren’t made from ordinary mushrooms. One Sydney cafe serving the drinks makes theirs from a mix of reishi, maitake, and shiitake.
In most instances, mushroom coffee is generally a blend of regular ground coffee mixed with a powdered fungus.
The taste is said to be ‘earthy’ and coffees tend to be made with milk (or some variant) and may have a sweetener added. The earthy flavour reminds of Blackadder goes Forth where for thirteen months, Baldrick’s coffee was in fact made from mud. With dandruff as a cunning sugar substitute. Just don’t ask what he’d been using for the milk!
While the trend is yet to become mainstream, a Finnish company, Four Sigmatic, has been blazing a fungi-flavoured coffee trail since 2012.
The company’s specially formulated products are created from ‘medicinal’ mushroom species including chaga, lion’s mane, reishi, and cordyceps.
It’s claimed mushroom coffee comes with a host of health benefits as well as offering a natural energy boost.
I’m always on the lookout for slightly left field competitions so this week I found the European Stone Stacking Championships which took place in Dunbar Scotland!
This year’s competition saw competitors from as far away as Austria and Spain battle it out for the chance to become the champion of Europe.
Stone stacking is a meditative artistic skill apparently with a growing global movement which utilities materials found in nature and balances stones on top of one another using just the force of gravity.
Stones are placed one on top of the other to produce sculptures which are held together by nothing other than gravity.
Pedro Duran from Spain was this year’s winner, who also won last year’s competition.
He is set to receive financial support to go towards his flights to the World Stone Balance Championship in Llano, Texas, which is set to take place next year. Will it become an Olympic event?
Enjoy your weekend.
I present the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca, online at http://www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone, Android, The Tunein Radio App and on the Spanish TDT TV service. If you can’t hear me on the radio then you’ll find me working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again i may make an understudy appearance!
Feel free to email me at rprior@globobalear.com