We Need to go Greener!

Last Year we donated some of our Radiothon money to Asociación Ondine. Brad Robertson and his team do an amazing job here on the island. Their mission is to enable the Balearic sea to recover its rich biodiversity and to thrive in harmony with a prospering, environmentally conscious and proactive local population. One of the things they do is organise beach leans once a month around Mallorca. The next one is on Sunday February 10th at 11.00 in El Peñon beach in Palma. Ondine beach cleans are not just about removing the waste they find on the beach, they are also an educational activity helping participants to become aware of the increasing plastic pollution problem. They also collect data for a global scientific survey whilst sharing ideas and solutions. The aim is to reduce the impact of plastic pollution through education, team work and making small changes in our daily routine, in time influencing companies and legislators. Last Year 1118 volunteers helped clear 59,399 objects from our beaches weighing an unbelievable 941.4kg! If that doesn’t get you out of your bed on a Sunday nothing will. I have been on a couple of these with my kids they’re actually great fun and they are exactly what they say above. 

Sir David Attenborough was talking to Prince William this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos and he said “we already know that of course the plastics problem in the seas is wreaking appalling damage on marine life – the extent of which we don’t yet fully know.”

Last year, Sir David said he was “astonished” by the response to Blue Planet II, which raised the issue of single-use plastics and the damage they were doing to the world’s oceans.

Have a look at the list below and see how many you do. I’m ashamed to say I had 13 out of the 20 I didn’t do. One of the questions I have is, the supermarket I go to has bio-degradable bags or the re-usable bags to buy, yet they ask me to put my fruit and veg into plastic bags?

Top 20 things Brits do because it’s more convenient than being green

1. Buy new batteries instead of rechargeable ones

2. Use a plastic straw

3. Pay for a 5p plastic bag instead of remembering re-usable shopping bags

4. Put fresh fruit and veg in a plastic bag at the supermarket

5. Leave lights turned on when not in the room

6. Buy a plastic bottle of water instead of carrying one to reuse

7. Leave plug sockets switched on even when they aren’t in use

8. Drive instead of walk short distances

9. Throw out plastic food packaging instead of washing it out to recycle it

10. Use a tumble dryer instead of hanging clothes on the line

11. Put something recyclable into the bin instead of sorting it into the right recycling box

12. Throw food away which could have been eaten or reused

13. Boil a full kettle for one cup of tea

14. Buy paint in plastic pots instead of metal, which can be recycled

15. Use a new coffee cup with your takeaway coffee instead of taking a reusable one

16. Still ask for paper bills rather than go paperless

17. Leave a tap running for a long time when not in use

18. Have the heating on while also having windows open

19. Leave the shower turned on when not in use

20. Wash laundry on a hot wash when it doesn’t need it

I’m interviewing Brad from Ondine next week on the radio.

Last week I told you about a clever marketing tool from Tyrells who had launched some Valentines crisps. Well I’ve found another one. Last Monday was “Blue Monday” The third Monday of January is billed as the most depressing day of the year, citing factors such as the wind down from Christmas, financial woes, the weather, broken new year’s resolutions and the length of time until the next public holiday. So in answer to that KFC has launched a gravy-scented candle, to cheer up its customers! A spokesperson said “You’re not dreaming. You really can now fill your home with the incredible aroma of KFC gravy with this limited edited candle… it’s staggeringly nose stimulating.” While The Colonel’s trusted parfumier(trusted parfumier, really?) said: “What an honour it was to create a candle with such a highly-beloved scent. Initially the different ingredients within the gravy were split into their constituent parts and fragrances matched to each.

“Then the scent was built component by component in the similar ratios as KFC’s iconic gravy. “The artisanal approach to creating the candles was crucial to ensure the familiar and evocative aroma of gravy was perfectly captured.”

KFC has gone one step further by launching a gravy mega box in resturants for just £3.99 to tie into the theme. There you go the sale at the end! 

I wonder how many will risk this at Valentines?

Another disappointing away performance from Real Mallorca last week, losing 2-0 away at Osasuna. Not quite sure why they can’t turn there home form into an away performance. They’re away again in Cadiz this weekend, on Saturday at 20.30. Those of us here can watch the game on the free to air GOL channel.

My boys had a mixed bag last weekend for their respective San Francisco teams. Jude the youngest drew an unheard of in kids football 0-0 and my eldest Jake lost 0-2. It was my Wife’s birthday on Thursday and someone asked will you be doing anything romantic? Taking the boys football training was my reply! Dad Taxi showing the love! 

Enjoy your weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at 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 him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.

It’s a Mess but what about the rest?

I don’t like to comment too much on politics as I find it all very frustrating and I like to keep my scribes as upbeat as possible. But I think it’s safe to say that my country of birth is in a bit of a mess! Whilst that maybe true as I look around the World we’re not the only ones.

Spain where I now live has a coalition government led by Pedro Sánchez who was sworn in as Spain’s new prime minister on June 2nd 2018. The day after the socialist leader overthrew his conservative predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, in a historic vote of no confidence provoked by anger over corruption in Rajoy’s party.

Sánchez, whose PSOE party relied on support from the anti-austerity Podemos party as well as Basque and Catalan nationalists to depose Rajoy, governs with just 84 MPs in Spain’s 350-seat parliament! He is also dealing with the problems of Cataluña who want their own independence. 

In America they have a total federal Government shutdown. In United States politics, a government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to pass or the President fails to sign appropriations, legislation funding federal government operations and agencies. At the time of writing the shutdown is in its 27th day and has surpassed the 21-day shutdown of 1995–1996 to become the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.

In Germany, arguably one of the most stable in Europe Angela Merkel has said she will step down as chancellor in 2021, following recent election setbacks.

She also said she would not seek re-election as leader of the centre-right CDU party in December. She has held the post since 2000.

In France there have been riots on the streets of Paris and President Macron is one of the most unpopular Presidents in recent times. His ratings from the French people are 26% who approve his work according to the latest opinion poll with 73% who are not satisfied with his job. 

I won’t go into more detail but Turkey, Greece and Italy are others who aren’t having a great time of it either so let’s hope our political leaders can stop playing party politics and get this mess sorted as soon as possible.

The main problem in America is the funding of the border wall between the States and Mexico. Now I kid you not but the World Brick laying Championships are taking place in Las Vegas next week. There’s over $120,000 in cash and prizes on the line including a 2019 FORD F-250 4×4 truck and a John Deere Gator Crossover Utility Vehicle(whatever that is) on offer as prizes. 28 teams of bricklayers and their mason tenders from around the world battle for 60 minutes to become the 2019 World Champion. Each team puts their skill,speed and stamina to the test by building a 26 foot 8 inch, double wythe brick wall. Judged by over 30 highly qualified masonry industry experts who follow a 10 point system for workmanship, a team’s final brick count may be adjusted down if judges detect workmanship infractions in the construction of the wall.

In the end, the duo who puts down the most bricks in one hour with the fewest quality craftsmanship deductions wins the event and the keys to shiny new truck. Can you see where I’m going with this? Why don’t they hold the Championships on the border and the wall can be built in no time and at no cost! Thus halting the longest running Government stoppage in history. VotePrior!

Continuing on the political theme, i wrote about the unpopular Tourist Tax and comparing it to the charges I incurred whilst on holiday in the US. I have done a bit more digging on this and there are quite a few other European countries with a Tourist Tax including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland. So we are not alone but in my opinion still doesn’t make it right. I wonder if any political party will offer to take it away if elected at our elections in May?

At the time of writing its 28 sleeps to Valentines, for me one of the most hyped events of the year. With that in mind Tyrrells have announced they are launching the first ever packet of crisps containing aphrodisiac properties.

The crisp brand claim their new aphrodisiac variety will “get pulses racing” on Valentine’s Day by combining two simple ingredients – sweet honey and the firey spice of chilli.

They say these two ingredients can have a powerful effect on the body, with the honey “tinkering with hormone levels” and the chilli triggering nerve endings on the tongue, releasing endorphins and increasing heart rate. Sounds like a marketing ploy to me but as you know I love a crisp so I’ll let you know what they’re like and if a night of passion ensues! Too much information?

Real Mallorca recorded probably their best result to date this season with a 1-0 home win over Deportivo La Coruña. They’ve signed a new striker this week called Ante Budimir, a Croatian playing in the Italian Serie B where he’s scored 3 goals in 17 matches for Crotone. Not exactly deadly in front of the onion bag is he! Now I don’t want to be anti – Ante before I’ve seen him play but this is a league where goals are difficult to come by. The top scorers are in fact last Saturday’s opponents Depor who’ve scored just 31 goals in 21 games and Mallorca don’t come too far behind on 26. We actually have the leagues 3rd highest scorer with 9 goals Lago Junior. Let’s hope this guy does the business. Talking of which both my boys did exactly that last weekend. Remember the old saying, you can do it on a summers day in Palma but can you do it on a cold night in Campos? No me neither, but I was freezing my you know what’s off in a temperature of 1c there last Friday but it was all worth it as my youngest sons team won away by 1-2. Then on Sunday my eldest sons team who have struggled a bit this season managed to win 2-1 against the 5th placed team and so moved out of the relegation area. More of the same this week please!

Enjoy your weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at 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 him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.

My Guide to the Universal Orlando Resort…..

Within a week I’ve gone from lying on a sunbed in Florida to freezing my proverbials off back in Mallorca. For those of you reading this and saying what’s he on about, cold in Mallorca? Yes we’ve even had snow on the mountains! 

A lot of great feedback from last week so I thought I’d give you a rundown of the good and bad of the Universal theme parks in Orlando. Personally and due to previous visits I think they’re now better than the Disney parks and the main reason is the building of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in each park. This opinion does depend on the age of your children as there is a minimum height on most of the rides which start around 102cm and all of these can be checked beforehand online. As our kids are 13 & 9 no problem and we’ve been going since they were 9 & 5. My advice is to buy your tickets online before you arrive as you will definitely save money. It does get a bit confusing to be honest as their are 3 parks to choose from, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and the new water park Volcano Bay. Without doubt you’ll want to do both of the theme parks and the water park is optional and weather dependent. What ticket you buy will be down to how many days you are there but if you can spread it out as much as you can you’ll enjoy it more as it’s a lot of walking! If you book into a Universal hotel you are entitled to enter the parks an hour before anybody else. You can walk or there are motor boats that take you from the hotels to the centre of City Walk the parks entertainment area. It’s then a short walk to the entrances. A lot of people have asked if buying a Fast Pass for the rides is worth it. I wouldn’t buy them beforehand as it depends on how busy the parks are. The less busy times would be out of school holidays and midweeks. Also most of the rides have ways to keep you entertained in the queues which are missed sometimes with Fast Passes. These passes can be bought inside the parks if it is busy. Not all the rides open early but the Harry Potter ones do so take advantage as whatever queue you meet at that time I guarantee it will be the shortest of the whole day. If you’re not in a Universal hotel or don’t get up early enough always head for the rides furthest from the entrance. Most people will jump on the first ride they see making the queues shorter at the furthest rides. There is a Universal app that you can download to get all the up to date queueing times and there are screens inside the parks listing them too. Be prepared to be hit by photos and merchandise on every single ride and this can drain the pockets if you’re not careful. You can get a card to save all your photos and buy them at a later date. Merchandise from all the rides can be bought in the general stores as well as at the ride shops, meaning you can buy at the end of the day so you don’t have to carry them around with you. Take a rucksack that can hold purses, wallets, phones etc and these can be put into free lockers before you go onto any ride. Take a couple of drinking water bottles as you can refill them at the many water fountains dotted around. Food and drinks are not cheap, you can take your own or check out the resort map for what is being served and where. The parks open 09.00 to 19.00 in the less busiest times and 09.00 to 21.00 in the most busiest. Remembering that’s 08.00 opening if you’re staying in a Universal Hotel. So as you can see from the times they are long days, along with all the walking and queueing which is why I said spread the days out if you can to relax and recharge the batteries. Both Harry Potter parts of each park are amazing and no expense has been spared. If you can, buy your kids the interactive wands as they will be able to carry out tasks around the parks that is great fun and stops you just going from ride to ride. The rides in both are for me the outstanding ones and the Hogwarts Express between the 2 parks is a must. Remember you can only ride the train if you have a 2 park pass ticket. The Hulk is the next most popular ride in Islands of Adventure and the Rip Ride Rocket in Universal Studios. There are water rides in the Studios and contrary to what you may hear you will get wet, actually soaked as we did! You either dry in the Florida sunshine, stand in a man size dryer for $5 or put a spare t-shirt in your rucksack. 

Top 10 facts you might not know about Universal.

The best secret of them all is Universal’s second entrance, a great tip for those who want to get into the parks as quickly as possible. This entrance can be found near the Blue Man Group, between the Despicable Me ride and the Studios Store. Compared to the regular entrance this one rarely has a queue. However, it does open slightly later (10am) than the usual park opening time, so if you want to be the first on the rides go to the main entrance. We discovered this on our way to visit friends at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Universal Orlando opened in July 1990 with a raft of original rides. Since then many of those rides have evolved into new ones. ET’s Adventure is actually the only original ride that still remains at the park. You can find this ride at Universal Studios park in the Woody Woodpecker Kid Zone. The one ride of old I would bring back is Back to the Future. 

The Harry Potter-inspired attraction, Diagon Alley, is designed to look exactly how it’s played out in the movies. Located at Universal Studios, it features the film’s famous secret alleyways and quirky buildings including Gringotts Bank and Olivanders – plus many more elements to make it super authentic. In Diagon Alley all the buildings are at least 3 stories tall and the sky is part of the set. This means that when you look around you can’t see any part of the real world. I told you no expense was spared. 

For Harry Potter enthusiasts, there’s something very special about getting your mail branded by the famous franchise. At the Wizarding World of Harry Potter you can post your letters at the mailboxes in Hogsmeade and they’ll be delivered to your recipient with a special stamp. It will probably be faster than the Royal Mail and definitely quicker than out correos here!

If you head down to the Fast Food Blvd at ‘Springfield: Home of the Simpsons’ you can buy a pint of original Duff Beer from Moe’s Tavern. Taste-tested by writers of the Simpsons television show, the beer can only be purchased at Universal parks. Although I’m sure I saw a can of it in Lidl once!

When you buy a refillable souvenir mug at any of the gift stores at Universal Orlando, you’ll be able to refill it with a soft drink for just 0.99 cents. Whether it’s a Transformer mug, a Butter Beer beaker or any other refillable, just take it to one of the many drink stations at the park and get it filled up with your favorite soft drink. This deal is valid all year round, plus you can refill your mug as many times as you want. Beer is not included unfortunately.

For all Harry Potter fans this is one of Universal’s must-see experiences. If you’re taking the Hogwarts Express train from Universal Studios’ Kings Cross Station, you can actually walk through a solid brick ‘wall’ to Platform 9 3/4 to catch the train. 

If you love both roller-coasters and music, the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit is for you. Once you’re on board you can choose your very own personalised sountrack and mix it up as you ride. Thirty songs are available from five different genres including rap, hip hop, rock, country and pop. The trick is to hold down the touchscreen on your safety bar and your special music show will start. I’ll be honest I didn’t go on this as I hate rollercoasters but my Wife and kids told me!

At Diagon Alley in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, can you actually speak to the Ministry of Magic. Dial 62442 in the red phone booth outside King’s Cross Station and it will directly connect you with the Ministry. What people don’t know is that 62442 on an old phone translates to ‘MAGIC’ on a new one.

Most ride queues in Universal are located indoors as a way of helping visitors stay cool. As such, there are plenty of extra attractions in the queue lines as I said before. These include special attractions and themed video clips packed with fun facts and entertainment. At the begining of the queue at ‘Revenge of the Mummy’ look out the gold King Kong statue which commemorates the old King Kong ride once located there. Over at the The Simpsons ride, you’ll see animated appearances of Doc Brown while you’re queuing; it may sound random but it’s a throwback to the Back to the Future Ride originally located there.

As I said last week we love Orlando and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anybody. Hopefully all the above is useful if you’re thinking of going or you know somebody that is.

Back to freezing my wotsits off back here in Mallorca as my youngest has a kick-off in Campos at 20.00 Friday evening, madness! Real Mallorca play Deportivo La Coruña on Saturday evening at 20.30, daft! And just when I thought I could have a relaxing Sunday my eldest kicks off at 17.00 Sunday afternoon, it rhymes with rollocks and it was said in Parliament this week so I might just get away with it!

Dad taxi working overtime this weekend with the heater on full blast.

Enjoy your weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at 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 him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com

I like to be in America!

We’re lucky enough to be away in Florida over the New Year and the Three Kings Celebration’s. We’ve headed out to Miami, Key West, Islamorada and Orlando. At the time of writing we’re leaving Islamorada and heading to Orlando. 

I noticed that the Hotels I stayed in had their own version of the Tourist Tax. 

In Miami it was disguised as Valet parking, we were charged $45 a night at our hotel, the alternative was 4 blocks away and quite a long walk back and that’s if you actually could get parked. 

In Key West it was called a resort charge of $33.75 a night which included free parking, daily bottles of water in the room and free WiFi. 

In Islamorada it was $31.50 which includes free parking and free WiFi. 

In Orlando it was $25.00 parking fee which includes free WiFi, a free water taxi to the Universal Park entrances and the park opens its doors 1 hour before the general public can enter. 

After a bit of research these resort charges are very common here but are not without problems as some hotels resort charge is higher than what they originally charged for the room. Complaints are that these charges are hidden until you get deep into the booking process. It seems that the hotels are going down the route of charging as little as they can for the rooms and all the things you thought were included are added into the resort charge. Does this remind you of anything? Well you don’t have to look too far as this is exactly what the airlines do now. Book your flight and add on choose your seat, meal, baggage, insurance etc after you’ve been hooked by the cheap flight price.

How long is it before we see this hotel practice in Mallorca? 

So these charges do exist in other resorts, it’s just that here in the States the hotels benefit from it and not the Government. Which is probably why in Mallorca they are so opposed to it. The name doesn’t really help as the word Tax immediately puts people’s backs up. Income Tax, Value Added Tax(VAT), Capital Gains Tax are all names we hate to hear. Maybe they should look to divide the tax 50/50 with the hotels with a law that says the income gained must be used for hotel improvements? The current spend of the Tourist Tax is questionable as it’s supposed to be distributed into various environmental projects throughout Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. A Commission on Sustainable Tourism was set up to decide together with existing organisations how the money is to be spent each year. The main issues are environmental restoration, improving the quality of tourism offering, improving infrastuctures for future tourism, promotional projects, cultural heritage projects, research, development and the improvement of job quality (including educational aspects) within the Balearic Islands. Firstly some of the projects could be deemed outside of the Tourist market and secondly, I think we all know it’s to prop up money that’s not received from Central Government. 

After our nightmare journey to the Uk our Christmas celebrations with family and friends were great. Must give a shoutout to Malcolm Wyse who looked after us at the Bedford Swan Hotel. Some of you may remember him from Reads Hotel in Santa Maria and he’s the General Manager in Bedford now. We also had a football reunion of my old Team Ware FC. Is it me or have nicknames disappeared? We had Lemon, Cheeky & Skin amongst others but you don’t hear them much these days. Beer, football & laughs brought us together and still keeps us together! Miami was great, we lived there for 3 months when Pirates took the show there. We met up with our old PR guy from the show José Boza who I’ve kept in touch with. We met at an Irish bar that was home to the Miami Arsenal supporters club and the watched our team get gubbed 5-1 by Liverpool! We had great New Year celebrations in Key West and we managed to make it to Midnight. It’s steeped in great history and to be honest our 2 days there wasn’t enough. Islamorada is a lovely relaxing area and the weathers been great. We’re just leaving on a 5 hour road trip to Orlando. We’re looking forward to spending time in the Universal Studios theme parks and shopping in the outlet malls.

10 things that I don’t like about America.

  1.   Security at the airport is a nightmare.

  1. Valet parking is a total rip.
  2. The resort charge.

  4.  How can they call their bacon, bacon?

  1. The Tv is rubbish and too many commercial breaks.
  2. Some restaurant or bar bills add a service charge and then ask for a tip!
  3. They also give you examples of what you should tip starting at 18%!
  4. Why does it take 3 hours for a 1 hour game of American football?
  5. Their coffee is rubbish.
  6. You can’t get to or find anything without Sat Nav.

10 things that I love about America.

  1. The theme parks are amazing.
  2. The majority of people are very friendly. 
  3. The chicken wings.
  4. Hooters(gave it a miss this time!)
  5. The weather has been great.
  6. The WiFi is good.
  7. Service is on the whole very good.
  8. Outlet shopping is amazing.
  9. Football or soccer as they call it is a lot more popular. 
  10. As a family holiday destination I would thoroughly recommend it.

Real Mallorca return to action this weekend with an away game in Almería. They are at home the week after against relegated Deportivo La Coruña. Currently in 8th place they certainly can make the play-offs. My boys have another week before they restart their football.

Enjoy your weekend and wishing you all a Happy 3 Kings Day on Sunday!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at 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 him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com

Our Christmas Charities say thank you!

We got caught in the Gatwick Dronegate debacle last week. As we were flying on the Friday and Easyjet had cancelled all its flights on Thursday we felt we couldn’t take the risk. So we booked flights from Palma to Barcelona and the changed our Easyjet Palma to Gatwick flights to Barcelona to Luton instead. To be honest apart from the added expense the trip passed off without any other dramas. In fact we even had time to visit our favourite tapas bar Cervecería Catalana in the centre of the City. This meant we arrived back in time to go and see the Arsenal play and beat Burnley by 3-1. The cost of my ticket for that game was nearly as much as I pay for my season ticket at Real Mallorca. I won’t divulge the cost of food, drink and the merchandise but let’s just say I got fleeced. Good job we only go once or twice a year. We had a wonderful family Christmas between Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire and as I write this we are travelling to Heathrow for our holiday in Florida. So expect a full report next week. 

Before we left the island we finished off our Charity campaigns. 

Radio is all about community so a massive thanks to everyone who helped us this year with our Help a Mallorca Child & Age Concern Campaigns. With all your donations we were able to provide toys for the under privileged children with the Salvation Army, toys for the Son Espases intensive care unit, a voucher for Decathlon for all the children at Fundacio Nazaret and food and Christmas goodies for Age Concern. Thank you for putting a smile on a lot of people’s faces this Christmas! All the charities sent me a thank you note which I have posted below.

I would like to thank Radio One Mallorca and all its listeners, supporters and readers of your column in the Daily Bulletin for being so wonderfully generous supporting the Christmas Hamper Appeal.

The response has been absolutely fantastic and exceeded all our expectations. Well done.

Our recipients will certainly be extremely happy with their goodies this Christmas, it makes all the difference to receive a little Christmas cheer to brighten one’s often dull monotonous life.

So a huge thank you for those that helped to make this Christmas that little bit more extra special.

You’re a gem Ritchie, keep up the good work you do supporting so many worthy causes, you don’t know who much it is appreciated.

May I take this opportunity in wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Best wishes

Jackie Codd Moore

President

On behalf of all the health team of the pediatric ICU in Son Espases which covers the whole of the Balearic Islands and of all the children that enter our unit. I would like to sincerely thank all the Radio One Mallorca listeners for the donations made, without which we could not carry out our projects. The goal is to optimise the care of seriously ill children and improve the comfort and care for their parents too. 

Thank you very much everyone, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Jorge Vallejo de la Cueva

UCIP Baleares

To the wonderful team and listeners of Radio One Mallorca.

Our words can’t express how thankful we are for your amazing support! 

Thanks to you, around 120 children will have a present this Christmas. Thanks to you, these parents won’t have to worry that their children will be giftless.

Please believe that our hearts are full of gratitude and joy.

We wish you all a very, very, very happy Christmas. May God bless you and your loved ones.

Marta Salvation Army

We would like to say a big thank you to all of the people at Radio One Mallorca and all their listeners for the very generous gift cards you bought all the children at Fundacion Nazaret this Christmas. 

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year. 

Regards 

Antonia Maria Massip Coll 

Fundacion Nazaret 

Thanks again to everyone and we are already making plans for our Radiothon 2019.

Enjoy Your Weekend and can I take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and prosperous new year! 

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at 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 him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com

A feast of Top 10’s

Slightly late this week as I was tied up trying to sort out our flights home after the drone problem at Gatwick. I’ll give you a full report next week as I’m still travelling while writing this. Suffice to say it’s turned ours and thousands of others Christmas plans into a complete nightmare.

I’ve searched around this week for a whole load of top 10 things that have happened over the year and some things that we’ll do over Christmas. 

The top 10 trending queries on search engine Google were.

  1. World Cup
  2. Meghan Markle
  3. Royal Wedding
  4. Black Panther
  5. Roxanne Pallett
  6. Fortnite
  7. Demi Lovato
  8. Ant McPartlin
  9. A Star Is Born
  10. Khloe Kardashian

The top 10 sporting events of the year were.

  1. The World Cup
  2. Wilder vs Fury
  3. Grand National
  4. Wimbledon
  5. Winter Olympics
  6. Ryder Cup
  7. Commonwealth Games
  8. Super Bowl
  9. Joshua vs. Parker
  10. Cheltenham

The top 10 grossing films of the year were. 

1. Avengers : Infinity War

Production Budget: $300 million Global Box Office: $2.04 billion

2. Black Panther

Production budget: $210 million Global box office: $1.3 billion

3. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Production Budget:

Global Box Office: $1.3 billion

4. Incredibles 2

Production budget: $200 million Global box office: $1.24 billion

5. Venom

Production Budget: $100 million Global Box Office: $853 million

6. Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Production Budget: $178 million Global Box Office: $787.49 million

7. Deadpool 2

Production budget: $110 million Global box office: $737.7 million

8. Ant-Man and the Wasp

Production budget: $162 million Global box office: $621.9 million

9. Bohemian Rhapsody

Production budget: $52 million Global box office: $602.2 million

10. Ready Player One

Production budget: $175 million Global box office: $578.6 million

Ed Sheeran‘s ‘Divide’ tour has ended 2018 as the highest-grossing tour of the last 30 years. I went to see him in June at Wembley Stadium and you have to say whatever he did earn he thoroughly deserved it. Here are those top 10 grossing tours. 

1) Ed Sheeran. Gross = $432 million (£341.7 million). Tickets sold = 4,860,482

2) Taylor Swift. Gross = $345 million (£272.9 million). Tickets sold = 2,888,892

3) Jay-Z & Beyonce. Gross = $254 million (£200.9 million). Tickets sold = 2,169,050 

4) Pink. Gross = $169.2 million (£133.6 million). Tickets sold= 1,285,411

5) Bruno Mars. Gross = $167.6 million. (£132 million) Tickets sold = 1,290,438

6) Eagles. Gross= $166.0 million. (£131 million) Tickets sold = 1,290,438

7) Justin Timberlake. Gross = $151 million (£119 million) Tickets sold = 1,193,365 

8) Roger Waters. Gross = $131.3 million. (£103 million) Tickets sold = 1,448,771

9) U2. Gross= $126.2 million. (£996 million) Tickets sold = 927,034

10) The Rolling Stones. Gross= $116.6 million (£917 million) Tickets sold = 750,000.

The top 10 selling songs of the year were.

  1. Gods Plan by Drake
  2. One Kiss by Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa
  3. Shotgun by George Ezra
  4. These Days by Rudimental, Jess Glynne & Macklemore
  5. This is Me by Keala Settle
  6. Perfect by Ed Sheeran
  7. Nice for what by Drake
  8. Paradise by George Ezra
  9. Feel it Still by Portugal the Man
  10. IDGAF by Dua Lipa

The top 10 of the most shazamed songs of 2018 has been released. For those of you not au fait with the app it will tell you the name of the artist and song if you point your phone at the Radio. 

1. “Solo”, Clean Bandit Feat. Demi Lovato

2. “X”, Nicky Jam & J Balvin

3. “One Kiss”, Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa 

4. “In My Mind”, Dynoro & Gigi D’Agostino

5. “Perfect”, Ed Sheeran

6. “Leave A Light On”, Tom Walker

7. “Girls Like You”, Maroon 5 Feat. Cardi B

8. “Friends”, Marshmello & Anne-Marie 

9. “Flames”, David Guetta & Sia

10. “I Like It”, Cardi B & Bad Bunny & J Balvin  

Online retail giant Amazon has unveiled all the best selling items we have bought over the last 12 months.

1. All-new Echo Dot (3rd Gen)

2. Aveeno Daily Moisturising Lotion

3. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

4. FIFA 19 (PS4)

5. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo 6. Hozelock Seasons Multi Spray Gun

7. instax mini Film, 20 shot pack

8. Philips Hue White Dimmable LED Smart Bulb

9. Portable Luggage Digital Scale

10. The Greatest Showman [DVD]

We will spend on average an hour and a half playing games on Christmas Day and these are the top 10.

1. Monopoly 

2. Trivial Pursuit 

3. Scrabble

4. Cluedo

5. Pictionary

6. Pie Face 

7. Frustration 

8. Operation 

9. Kerplunk 

10. Buckeroo

These are the top 10 things we’ll argue about on Christmas Day.

  1. What to watch on TV

2. The Christmas dinner

3. Someone having too much to drink 

4. People constantly on their gadgets/ social media

5. Who is doing the washing up

6. The mess after the presents have opened

7. Trying to get new toys/ gadgets to work

8. Board games

9. The children moaning about their presents or not getting something they wanted

10. The children moaning about being bored

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and I wish you a happy and prosperous new year! 

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at 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 him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com

It’s Beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

The build up to Christmas remains unabated and the closer it gets the more Christmas songs we’re playing on the radio. These are songs that we’ve all grown up with but now because of the changes in our culture mainly due to our obsession with social media some people are saying the following songs are offensive. 

Baby it’s Cold Outside 

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

Do they Know it’s Christmas 

Grandma Got run over by a Reindeer 

Santa Baby

Fairytale of New York

Now I won’t go into detail as to why because to be honest I think it’s total B……s, but as I know ‘Fairytale of New York’ is one of the most popular Christmas songs I will let Shane McGowan of The Pogues explain. 

He insisted the lyrics don’t intend to offend and said: “I don’t want to get in an argument.”

There have been calls for the word “faggot” to be ‘bleeped’ from the song. However, most broadcasters have played the song uncensored.

The singer defended the lyrics by saying they were to be spoken by an “authentic” character who is meant to be “down on her luck”.

He said: “The word was used by the character because it fitted with the way she would speak and with her character. She is not supposed to be a nice person, or even a wholesome person.

“She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history and she is down on her luck and desperate. Her dialogue is as accurate as I could make it but she is not intended to offend.

“She is just supposed to be an authentic character and not all characters in songs and stories are angels or even decent and respectable, sometimes characters in songs and stories have to be evil or nasty in order to tell the story effectively.”

He added: “If people don’t understand that I was trying to accurately portray the character as authentically as possible then I am absolutely fine with them bleeping the word but I don’t want to get into an argument.”

Does anybody seriously find these songs offensive?

The price of the tinned Christmas chocolates remain the same at £5 but the amount within them has reduced again, it has been revealed.

The standard size tub of Quality Street has been reduced from 750g to 720g and Celebrations tins have shrunk from 680g to 650g.

The company said the equivalent was three sweets but images of the shrinking tubs show handfuls have been removed in previous years.

Last year the largest drop was Cadbury Roses from 729g to 660g.

Chocolate lovers have said they are being hit by shrinkflation, the phenomenon of pack sizes falling while prices remain the same.

Customers this year joked by the time we reach 2025 the tins will fit in the palm of their hand and cost £8.

One of our UK listeners to the radio called Stuart Wood has just been to Mallorca on a few days holiday. Mainly to deliver to me the Walkers Christmas crisps collection. They include the following flavours, Brussels Sprouts, Turkey & Stuffing, Pigs in Blankets, Glazed Ham, Turkey & Stuffing and Cheese & Cranberry. Very nice they are too although the Cheese & Cranberry weren’t that great. 

I’m not sure why food producers have this obsession of trying to find a way of us eating Christmas dinner in other forms like the crisps above. I’ve found Christmas dinner sandwiches, Christmas dinner Pizzas, Christmas dinner pasties, deep fried Christmas dinners, Christmas dinner Yorkshire pudding wraps to name just a few. 

Back to Stuart Wood and his Wife Tasha who stayed at the new Melia hotel in the centre of Magaluf and he couldn’t praise it enough. The weather has been glorious, they ate and drank in the local bars and restaurants and saw the beautiful lights in Palma. He said the price he paid per day was cheaper than when he books a Travel Lodge on his travels to see his beloved Liverpool play.

Now talking of football fans saving money, did you hear about the Wolves fan who wasn’t too happy about the sky-high cost of a train fare to Newcastle a couple of Sundays ago so found an ingenious alternative.

Steve Horton was hailed a hero after he revealed on social media that he had travelled to the match at St James’ Park via Benidorm, as it was far cheaper than getting the train. A return ticket from Wolverhampton to Newcastle ahead of the Premier League clash would have cost around £114.

But a flight from Birmingham to Alicante was in the region £30, while a direct flight from the Spanish city to Newcastle he found for £15, making a saving of around £70.

The fan’s journey earned him lots of praise from fans on social media. It turned out to a great weekend for all Wolves fans, as they triumphed 2-1 against the Geordies in the very last minute.

Real Mallorca were unlucky to lose 1-2 at home to Malaga but it probably showed that the play-offs are going to be what they’re aiming for this season. They’re away at Sporting this Saturday evening at 20.00 and they’re next home game is next Friday the 21st at 21.00 against Gimnástic. The former team of the coach Vincente Moreno. There’s then a break until the 6th of January when they play Almería away and their next home game is the 13th of January against Deportivo La Coruña. My youngest Jude got a 2-2 draw away in Soller against a beautiful mountain backdrop but my eldest Jake lost 0-1 at home against Madre Alberta. Jude plays his final game before the new year on Saturday against Ferriolense, Jake has a difficult away game against Atlético Baleares on Sunday and a final home game against Viva Sports on Wednesday. Three much needed wins would be the perfect Christmas send off. 

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at 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 him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com

The Christmas Number 1….

I talked last week about the huge royalties made by writing a good Christmas song. There’s also the coveted position of the Christmas Number 1 that will be announced this year on Friday December 21st. The announcement of the UK Christmas number one has been a staple event in the festive calendar for over 60 years and is usually a milestone in a singer or bands career.

The XFactor winner used to dominate the Christmas number 1, in fact the first eleven winners of the show, Steve Brookstein, Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson, Alexandra Burke, Joe McElderry, Matt Cardle, Little Mix, James Arthur, Sam Bailey and Ben Haenow all reached the top spot with their winner’s singles. However that changed in 2015 when winner Louisa Johnson only reached number 9. In 2016 winner Matt Terry reached number 3 with a song written by Ed Sheeran. 2017 champions Rak Su released their song ‘Dimelo’ which for the first time featured other established artists, Naughty Boy and Wyclef Jean but could only make number 2.

This year’s X Factor winner, Dalton Harris. Since being crowned champion of the TV talent show last weekend has released his debut single, a cover of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Power Of Love’ but is only 4th favourite with the bookies.

The favourite for this year’s Christmas No. 1 has been revealed as Ariana Grande who is currently top of the chart, so she has another 2 weeks to survive. 

US singer Ava Max has been given odds of 7/2 to make a surprise ascent to the number one spot with her single ‘Sweet But Psycho’, while Lancashire’s Flakefleet Primary School are at 4/1 with their original charity song ‘Light Up’, which aids the Alzheimers Society.

Ariana Grande – 6/5

Ava Max – 7/2

Flakefleet Primary School – 4/1 

Dalton Harris – 5/1

Elton John – 15/2

Ed Sheeran – 9/1

Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson – 9/1 

Clean Bandit – 10/1

Ed Sheeran bagged the prize in 2017 for the first time with ‘Perfect’ beating Eminem’s ‘River’, Wham!’s ‘Last Christmas’ and Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas is You.’

Away from the Christmas number 1, Spotify has revealed its top 10 road trip songs. These are songs that have been downloaded the most in 2018 to put on Spotify playlists that have been created to listen to when driving.

1. Mr. Brightside, The Killers

2. Sweet Home Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd 

3. Don’t Stop Believin’, Journey

4. All Star, Smash Mouth

5. Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen

6. Hotel California, Eagles

7. Seven Nation Army, The White Stripes 

8. Highway To Hell, AC/DC

9. Africa, Toto

10. Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana

If I had to choose one it would be Michael Jackson’s ‘Don’t Stop til you get enough’ which was off his best album in my opinion ‘Off the Wall’ released in 1979.

I don’t watch many reality TV shows but I do like the Jungle. I talked about Harry Redknapp the other week and I still think he’ll win it. But what about Noel Edmonds? Came in after all the others, was Emperor so did nothing for a few days, ate reasonably well and slept on a proper bed. Left after 9 days to stay in the 5* Versace Palazzo Hotel and apparently is the highest paid star ever in the show at £600k. 

Deal or no Deal?

A movie based on the music of Prince is reportedly in the works, after the rights to use the singer’s legendary catalogue of songs was secured.

Universal Pictures has confirmed a deal with the music icon’s estate, although it won’t be a biopic of his life in the vein of recent releases such as Bohemian Rhapsody.

Instead, the film will focus on an original story that uses Prince’s songs to drive forward to the plot. The original idea was reportedly formulated by Prince’s estate and Universal after they agreed that a biopic had largely been covered by Prince’s 1984 movie Purple Rain.

Although specific details of the plot are yet to emerge, negotiations are believed to be underway with potential writers and producers who hope that the film can follow in the vein of successes such as Mamma Mia, which featured the music of ABBA alongside an original plot line.

The name Cata Coll may not mean a lot to you and up to last weekend, me neither. She is a female goalkeeper born here in Mallorca who has just won the U-17 World Cup for Spain beating Mexico 2-1. She has only been a goalkeeper since the age of 12 and currently plays for UD Collerense. She trains with Pablo Roca and his goalkeeping school where my youngest Son trains. And when I mentioned it to him earlier this week he casually remarked yes I’ve trained with her! An amazing achievement for her and local football, hopefully this leads to bigger and better things. 

A good away win for Real Mallorca last weekend, 0-2 in Reus. Means they are in 6th place, currently unbeaten in 7 and today they play 5th placed Malaga. One of the favourites to go back up they’ve stuttered of late only winning one of their last 5 games. Still a difficult match for Mallorca and should give us an idea of whether we can seriously consider them as promotion contenders. They lost in midweek to Valladolid in the Copa Del Rey by 4-2 on aggregate which wasn’t a surprise and to quote an old football saying, they can now concentrate on the league. Both my boys got gubbed this week, my youngest 4-0 and my eldest 8-0! The Manacor side my eldest played were very good with one of the boys on the books of Real Madrid. I joked about being in Manacor on a Sunday evening but it’s ridiculous for a team of his age to be playing at that time. We got home at 10.45! Hopefully better results to come this weekend with a trip to Soller for my youngest. At least the tunnel is free now! 

I must mention the North London Derby that my team Arsenal won by 4-2. A feisty game that was a great advert for the Premier League. As you can imagine I was very happy and I’ve been struggling to get hold of my friends from the other team from North London ever since. The ones I did get hold of though I’ve discovered have no sense of humour! In fact, we have a night out with two of them this evening so it should be lively. 

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at 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 him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com

Things that make you go hmmm…!

Nothing too much winds me up, but this week was full of them! I was told that you can’t say Merry Christmas anymore as it offends anybody that is not a Christian. Season Greetings is the PC way of wishing everybody a Merry Christmas now which is beyond me. Rest assured I know what I’ll be saying.

Pictures of David Beckham kissing his daughter on the lips this week hit the headlines and social media. Once again some people said they were offended by it, Piers Morgan came out on Twitter and said it was “creepy”. Really? I kiss both my boys on the lips and will continue to do so. What I want to do in my life I’ll do and if offends you don’t follow me on social media. That’s where the problem is, social media has opened our lives up to everybody seeing everything we do. We managed to live our lives before social media but I’m sure people would find it difficult now to do without it. 

I’m not a fan of Coronation Street and don’t watch it but apparently Sally one of the characters has been jailed. There are people coming out on Social Media saying they won’t watch it until again she’s released. Even one of the papers has come out with a campaign SOS, Save Our Sally! Forgive me to point out the bleeding obvious but it’s a soap! 

Palma City Council have said they’re pushing the owners of Palma airport AENA to close the airport at night to reduce noise and contamination. I am definitely of the opinion that our powers that be are anti-tourism. The Tourist Tax, the banning of all inclusive, the limiting of rental properties, the limiting of cruise ships and now this? Come on! I commented last week that Gatwick does it but although they’re an island like us they don’t rely on tourism like us. How many more blocks do this government want to put out there before we suddenly realise there’s no one coming on holiday?

There ends my moan. Now let’s get on as it’s the 1st of December and the countdown to Christmas has begun. 

We started to play Christmas songs on the radio yesterday and it’s the time of year that if you’ve written a successful Chrimbo tune then the royalties are going to roll in and it’s Port and cigar by the fire for you or if you’re more sensible on a beach in the Caribbean. Here’s the yearly royalties these guys earn.

  1. Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade £500,000
  2. Fairy Tale of New York by The Pogues £400,000
  3. All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey £376,000
  4. White Christmas by Bing Crosby £328,000
  5. Last Christmas by Wham! £300,000
  6. Wonderful Christmastime by Paul McCartney £260,000
  7. Mistletoe And Wine by Cliff Richard £100,000
  8. Stop The Cavalry by Jona Lewie £120,000
  9. 2000 Miles by The Pretenders £102,000
  10. Stay Another Day by Tony Mortimer, East 17 £97,000   

Now another way to make good money over the festive period is to appear in a Pantomime. Dawn French is the biggest winner in panto land this year.

She is set to earn £220,000 for a five-week run in Snow White at the London Palladium. Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas is hot on her heels with a £160,000 pay cheque for her three-week stint as Mother Nature in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Liverpool Empire.

While Kim Woodburn is cleaning up as Snow White’s Wicked Queen at Liverpool’s Epstein Theatre. She’ll get £30,000 for just over three weeks’ work.

Joe McElderry is getting £48k at Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre.

Jimmy Osmond will take home £110k for Peter Pan at Birmingham Hippodrome

Les Dennis stars alongside Connor McIntyre as they play the Ugly Sisters at Manchester Opera House for £65k. Craig Revel Horwood will be an Ugly Sister in Cinderella at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking for £135k. They’ll tell you it’s tough but it’s a great gig.

A steady 1-0 home win for Real Mallorca against Numancia meant they are in the play-off places coming into this weekends fixture away against Reus. They have another away fixture against Valladolid in the last 32 of the Copa Del Rey next Wednesday the 5th. They lost the home leg 1-2 way back on Halloween night so it’s an uphill task to get through to the last 16. Differing results for my boys this week. Jude my youngest won 0-4 away so he was happy with the clean sheet but my eldest Jake lost 0-1 at home in a frustrating game that they should have won. A home game for my youngest this week against the team he nearly joined so he’s desperate for a win. My eldest plays at 7.15pm on Sunday night away in Manacor. Yes you read that right, Sunday 7.15 in Manacor, it’s nuts. Dads Taxi will be on double time this week.

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at 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 him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com

Call me Harry the S..t Shoveler!

In case you’re wondering how me and the 2 boys coped with my Wife being away for 3 days, well it was a breeze. But good to have her back!

I have hired cars at various different airports around the World for years but I found out something this week that I couldn’t believe. You can’t get a car at Gatwick after 11pm at night! Are we living in the dark ages? My flight lands at 22.35 in the North terminal and I have to get off the plane, through passport control get my luggage and then get to the South terminal in 25 minutes. Impossible right? I rang Hertz and the fella said “oh don’t worry they’ll be someone there till at least 11.30 you’ve plenty of time.” And what if I don’t make it in time? I enquired. Well you’ll have to wait until 6am when they come back he said. I checked all the other companies and they are the same. I know there’s a no fly rule over London from 23.00 to 06.00 but there is also a ‘shoulder period’ at either end of the night, with slightly less strict rules – that is 23:00-23:30 and 06:00-07:00. On average, Gatwick has 45-50 flights a night in the summer, and 18-20 a night in the winter. So there are flights coming in, so surely the car hire people can employ someone? 

The Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is having such a good time at the box office. In its third weekend in theatres the Queen film brought in another $15 million stateside, making it the second biggest music biopic in U.S. history.

The latest box office returns find Bohemian Rhapsody holding strong at No. 3 for the week, and it’s now brought in a supersonic total of more than $127 million in America since its debut. That places the film right behind 2015’s Straight Outta Compton, depicting the rise and fall of the gangsta rap group N.W.A and its members Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre, which took in more than $161 million. Walk the Line, the 2005 Johnny Cash biopic, now falls to third place. Being a Queen fan, you may remember I went to see them in Barcelona with Adam Lambert earlier in the year, I still haven’t seen it! 

I know I’m so far behind in fact writing this I’m only on episode three of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! But mark my words put your money on Harry Redknapp to win. Or Harry the s..t shoveler as he called himself the other night.

Biggest sporting story of the week apart from England beating Croatia? It has to be fartgate! Two professional dart players accused each other of farting on stage during a match in England this week, casting a cloud(sorry)of controversy over the tournament they were playing in. 

“It’ll take me two nights to lose this smell from my nose,” Dutch player Wesley Harms fumed after getting blown away(sorry) 10-2 by Scotland’s Gary Anderson at the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.

Harms chalked up his foul play to a “fragrant smell”, which he deduced came from the Scotsman.

But Anderson, who has admitted to trumping during matches in the past , insisted he was innocent of this offence. 

A study of 2000 Brits has found that some of our previously popular things to do at Christmas are in fact not popular any more.

The Christmas traditions that are dying out in the UK

1. Go carol singing- (only 6% still do this)

2. Hide a silver coin in your Christmas pudding- 6%

3. Giving gifts to people who have helped you during the year (eg postman / milkman) – 8%

4. Roast chestnuts- 9%

5. Go to a carol service on Christmas Eve- 11%

6. Light a brandy-soaked homemade Christmas pudding- 12%

7. Have chestnut stuffing with your Christmas lunch- 13%

8. Hang mistletoe in your home- 14%

9. Hang holly and ivy in your home- 15%

10. Kiss/ or get kissed under mistletoe- 16%

11. Watch a pantomime- 16%

12. Make decorations by hand (eg paperchains, handmade baubles)- 16% 

13. Make a Christmas cake- 19%

14. Cook a gammon for Boxing Day- 21%

15. Have a real Christmas tree in your home- 22%

16. Leave a mince pie out for Father Christmas- 23%

17. Hang stockings over the fireplace- 24%

18. Go on a Boxing Day walk- 28%

19. Light candles for your Christmas table- 32%

20. Wear a Christmas jumper- 41%

21. Have a Boxing Day buffet- 41%

22. Place a fairy/star/other on top of your Christmas tree- 52%

23. Wear a paper hat to eat Christmas lunch- 53%

24. Have pigs in blankets with your Christmas lunch- 55%

25. Have sprouts with your Christmas lunch- 56%

I’ll be honest I love a traditional Christmas with the family and we do most of the things above.

A disappointing 2-2 away draw for Real Mallorca last weekend as they were winning 0-2. But at least they didn’t lose and are in 8th place right now. This weekend they play Numancia at home, kick-off at 12 midday on Sunday. My boys lost 1-0 and 2-0 respectively last weekend so we’re hoping for better things this Saturday and Sunday. In fact it’s definitely a Super Sunday this weekend. My eldest plays at 10.00, Real Mallorca v Numancia at 12.00 and Bournemouth v Arsenal at 2.30. The Wife wishes she was away this weekend too!

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at 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 him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com