THE GRANDMA ARRIVES TO VALLETTA, MALTA

The Grandma is walking across Valetta streets

The Grandma has just arrived to La Valetta after saying goodbye, only for few days, to The Jones and The Beans. 

She has an appointment with Paqui Bean and Silvia and Michelle Jones in a month and she doesn't forget this date.

Meanwhile, The Grandma has decided to travel to Malta to search Corto Maltese, his great lover, and she's waiting for the arrival of some friends who are going to help her in this searching: Claire Fontaine, Tina Picotes and Joseph de Ca'th Lon. It's better staying surrounded by friends when you're doing something special.

The Grandma loves Malta and she is taking profit of this travel to visit the island again and enjoy one of the most beautiful places around the world.

More information: Visit Malta

Valletta is the capital city of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt, The City, in Maltese. Geographically, it is located in the South Eastern Region, in the central-eastern portion of the main island of Malta having its western coast with access to the Marsamxett Harbour and its eastern coast in the Grand Harbour. 

The Grandma is walking across Valletta streets

The historical city has a population of 6,444, while the metropolitan area around it has a population of 393,938. Valletta is the southernmost capital of Europe and the second southernmost capital of the European Union after Nicosia.

Valletta contains buildings from the 16th century onwards, built during the rule of the Order of St. John also known as Knights Hospitaller. The city is essentially Baroque in character, with elements of Mannerist, Neo-Classical and Modern architecture in selected areas, though the Second World War left major scars on the city, particularly the destruction of the Royal Opera House. 

The City of Valletta was officially recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980.

More information: UNESCO

The official name given by the Order of Saint John was Humilissima Civitas Valletta—The Most Humble City of Valletta, or Città Umilissima in Italian. The city's fortifications, consisting of bastions, curtains and cavaliers, along with the beauty of its Baroque palaces, gardens and churches, led the ruling houses of Europe to give the city its nickname Superbissima—Most Proud.

The Grandma is arriving at home in Valetta

The peninsula was previously called Xaghret Mewwija. Mewwija refers to a sheltered place. The extreme end of the peninsula names Xebb ir-Ras of which name origins from the lighthouse on site. A family which surely owned land became known as Sceberras, now a Maltese surname as Sciberras. At one point the entire peninsula became known as Sceberras.

From 1566 to 1798 the Island was under The Order of Saint John. In 1798, the Order left the islands and the French occupation of Malta began. After the Maltese rebelled, French troops continued to occupy Valletta and the surrounding harbour area, until they capitulated to the British in September 1800. 

More information: The French Occupation-Visit Malta

In the early 19th century, the British Civil Commissioner, Henry Pigot, agreed to demolish the majority of the city's fortifications. The demolition was again proposed in the 1870s and 1880s, but it was never carried out and the fortifications have survived largely intact.

The Grandma in a Maltese-style balcony, Valletta

Eventually building projects in Valletta resumed under British rule. These projects included widening gates, demolishing and rebuilding structures, widening newer houses over the years, and installing civic projects. 

The Malta Railway, which linked Valletta to Mdina, was officially opened in 1883. It was closed down in 1931 after buses became a popular means of transport.

In 1939, Valletta was abandoned as the headquarters of the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet due to its proximity to Italy and the city became a flashpoint during the subsequent two-year long Siege of Malta. 

German and Italian air raids throughout the Second World War caused much destruction in Valletta and the rest of the harbour area. The Royal Opera House, constructed at the city entrance in the 19th century, was one of the buildings lost to the raids.

More information: World War II-Visit Malta

The entire city of Valletta has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980, along with Megalithic Temples of Malta and the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni.

The architecture of Valletta's streets and piazzas ranges from mid-16th century Baroque to Modernism. Buildings of historic importance include St John's Co-Cathedral, formerly the Conventual Church of the Knights of Malta. It has the only signed work and largest painting by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. 

The Grandma is walking to the harbour, Valleta

The Auberge de Castille et Leon, formerly the official seat of the Knights of Malta of the Langue of Castille, Léon and Portugal, is now the office of the Prime Minister of Malta. 

The Grandmaster's Palace, built between 1571 and 1574 and formerly the seat of the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, used to house the Maltese Parliament, now situated in a purpose-built structure at the entrance to the city, and now houses the offices of the President of Malta.

The National Museum of Fine Arts is a Rococo palace dating back to the late 1570s, which served as the official residence of the Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet during the British era from the 1820s onwards. The Manoel Theatre was constructed in just ten months in 1731, by order of Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena, and is one of the oldest working theatres in Europe.

The Mediterranean Conference Centre was formerly the Sacra Infermeria. Built in 1574, it was one of Europe's most renowned hospitals during the Renaissance. The fortifications of the port, built by the Knights as a magnificent series of bastions, demi-bastions, cavaliers and curtains, approximately 100 metres high, all contribute to the unique architectural quality of the city.

 

More information: Daily Mail

Min jistenna jithenna.

He who waits is rewarded. 

Maltese Proverb

SAYING GOODBYE TO THE JONES: NO SURRENDER!

The Grandma & The Broom, Sant Boi de Llobregat

After buying a new house in Zarautz for The Jones, The Grandma is thinking about her own future again. Last Saturday, when she was in Sant Boi with her families, she remembered her childhood. Sant Boi was an important place for her when she was a child, first, and a teenager, later. She spent the most unforgettable moments of her life in this city with many loved friends. 

It was when she was arriving to her appointment with her families that she crossed a beautiful little forest full of broom and, suddenly, all the memories returned like if all of them were the real life. She remembers Marianao Park, the Montbaig range, Sant Ramon Mountain, the Ateneu, the almond trees, the cherry trees, the rosemary, the carob trees, the lignum trees...

Now say: "The broom tree blooms,

everywhere the fields are red with poppies.

With new scythes we'll thresh

the ripened wheat and weeds."

The Grandma has considered these memories as a message. She must continue her searching of happiness and she has decided to search Corto Maltese, the man who stole her heart some decades ago and one day disappeared in Stonehenge. The Grandma hasn't got news since that moment and although she has never stopped the searching, she thinks that perhaps she was taking a wrong path. If Corto Maltese was born in Malta, perhaps she must start to search in this Mediterranean island. This is the reason because of The Grandma is going to travel to Malta to find her old friend.

Ah, young lips parting after dark, 

if you only knew how dawn 

delayed us, how long we had to wait 

for light to rise in the gloom!

The Jones are going to continue with their lifes. The Grandma is totally sure that they are going to be happy, find good jobs and enjoy their new families without forgetting this one, because, whatever happens, they will be always a Jones and they are predestined to write great pages in our history.

Good Luck, Dear Jones and No Surrender!

The Grandma & The Broom, Sant Boi de Llobregat

The broom is considered the national plant in Catalonia because two of its most important poets have written about it: Joan Maragall and Salvador Espriu. These poems are considered vital messages of hope about future, resistance about difficulties, faith in changes and the deep desire of surviving as a culture. To sum up, broom is a symbol of no surrender.

Genisteae is a tribe of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants in the subfamily Faboideae of the legume family Fabaceae. It includes a number of well-known plants including broom, lupine (lupin), gorse and laburnum.

The tribe's greatest diversity is in the Mediterranean, and most genera are native to Europe, Africa, the Canary Islands, India and southwest Asia. However, the largest genus, Lupinus, is most diverse in North and South America. Anarthrophytum and Sellocharis are also South American and Aryrolobium ranges into India.

But we have lived to save your words, 

to return you the name of every thing, 

so that you'd stay on the straight path 

that leads to the mastery of earth.

The Genisteae arose 32.3 ± 2.9 million years ago in the Oligocene. The members of this tribe consistently form a monophyletic clade in molecular phylogenetic analyses. The tribe does not currently have a node-based definition, but several morphological synapomorphies have been identified.

The Grandma and The Fennel, Sant Boi de Llobregat

Brooms tolerate, and often thrive best in, poor soils and growing conditions. 

In cultivation they need little care, though they need good drainage and perform poorly on wet soils. 

They are widely used as ornamental landscape plants and also for wasteland reclamation, e.g. mine tailings, and sand dune stabilising. Many of the most popular brooms in gardens are hybrids, notably Kew broom and Warminster broom.

We looked beyond the desert, 

plumbed the depth of our dreams, 

turned dry cisterns into peaks 

scaled by the long steps of time.

The Plantagenet kings used common broom, known as planta genista in Latin, as an emblem and took their name from it. It was originally the emblem of Geoffrey of Anjou, father of Henry II of England. Wild broom is still common in dry habitats around Anjou, France.

Charles V and his son Charles VI of France used the pod of the broom plant, broom-cod, or cosse de geneste, as an emblem for livery collars and badges.

The flower buds and flowers of Cytisus scoparius have been used as a salad ingredient, raw or pickled, and were a popular ingredient for salmagundi or grand sallet during the 17th and 18th century. There are now concerns about the toxicity of broom, with potential effects on the heart and problems during pregnancy.

Now say: "We hear the voices 

of the wind on the high sea of crested grain." 

Now say: "We shall be ever faithful 

to the people of this land." - Salvador Espriu

We made a promise we swore we'd always remember:
No retreat, baby, no surrender.

Bruce Springsteen

MARIANAO, THE JONES & THE BEANS REACH THEIR GOALS

The Grandma is waiting her families

Today, The Jones have met The Beans. They had a common objective: a Cambridge University Exam. 

The families have been working very hard for some months and today they have done a fantastic work. The Grandma is very proud of all of them. 

It's not an easy goal but they have trusted in their work and effort and they have demosntrated themselves how much English they have learnt in these intensive months.

More information: Cambridge University

Thanks Jones. Thanks Beans. Thanks for trusting in this project and work with all your effort and illusion and thanks for sharing these wonderful and unforgettable days with The Grandma, a person who loves words and names and music and old stories and who takes profit of them to try to create connections between things, people and places. 

The Grandma in Marianao, Cuba

Places and names like Marianao, the beautiful place where two  families have met each other, and a special place for The Grandma, who has an unforgettable and special story which connects her with Sant Boi, a city very important in her life, a city that she loves eternally.

Marianao, which means the ship of Maria, it’s a place in Cuba where a Catalan family, The Samà, created a big fortune. They were Indians.

An Indian, often cited with the popular names of Indian or American, is how the adventurers and traders in Catalonia knew each other who, having emigrated to the Spanish colonies in America, returned to the metropolis after having done fortune. This is the origin of the expression made the Americas.

More information: The Catalan Indians-Evokating the American Past

Their dress was of great elegance and they gave them a gentle breath that distinguished them from the rest of the population. Typically American clothing: clear trousers, vest with gold-plated rings, a large silk scarf in the neck and the jipi, a hat from Panama.

Old pictures of Palau Marianao, Sant Boi

Some, when returning, built large mansions, houses of Indians, who, despite being daughters of ostentation of what had prospered, nowadays are an excellent example of the best architecture of the second half of the nineteenth century and first third of the twentieth century.

In fairness, it must be said that they were often generous with their people, and they became promoters of actions and works that could benefit the impoverished contemporary society of the overseas empire. Thus, lighting, railroad or schools were built in many places thanks to their patronage and will. The municipalities expressed their gratitude towards their benefactors by naming their favorite children and christening the building with the name of the Indian, or by dedicating a street to them in order to perpetuate their memory.

More information: Cuban people of Catalan descendent

The phenomenon was very important in Catalonia, which after the lifting of the monopoly of trade in the exclusive Indians of Castile could obtain some compensation for the military defeat of 1714 and the brutal subsequent cultural repression.

Palau Marianao, an Indian building in Sant Boi

Catalan community in Cuba grew very fast thanks to their habilities in commerce. They were great sellers and made great fortunes with the exportation of sugar, cacao, rom, tobacco and anise. 

They inverted in their hometowns and Catalan cities like Badalona, Arenys de Mar, Torredembarra, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Sitges, Begur, or Cambrils became Indian cities thanks to new factories dedicated to manufacture and export rom and anise. Indians expanded from Cambrils to Begur across all the coast and their presence is easy to discover nowadays because they are an important piece of our recent history.

More information: Office of the Historian

During the War of Independence of Cuba, the Catalan community helped the Cuban one against the Castilian power. Repression and prosecutions against Catalan people increased in Spain and Catalan were forced to fight against Cuban but they denied and were accuses of disloyalty and dishonour and prosecuted, even with death penalty. Castilian government wanted to take possession of these factories and enterprises and Catalan enterpreneurs decided to not return and stay in Cuba forever, mainly by two reasons: help Cuban people, who were their workers, in their reclaims and protect their businesses in the Caribbean island.

Marianao Gardens and its palm trees, Sant Boi

Marianao is the result of an Indian, Salvador de Samà i Torrents, Marquis of Samà, Marianao and Vilanova i la Geltrú. The name of the land evocate a Cuban one. The characteristics of Palau Marianao are Cuban ones. Marianao gardens are full of plants which have a Caribbean origin in the same way that Palau Novella, in Sitges, or Parc Samà in Cambrils.

The origin of Catalan Havaneres is also in Cuba. Havaneres comes from Havana, the name of the Cuban city, and the lyrics of these songs always talks about homesickness. This homesickness was the main cause of the architecture of Indian houses. Indian wanted to evocate the life in the island and they built houses similar to Cuban ones with gardens full of Caribbean plants, the most important of them, the tree palm.

More information: Palau Marianao-From Cuba to Sant Boi

There are some famous havaneres in Catalan like El meu avi, which talks about the Cuban Independence Wars, La barca xica or La Gavina and in Castilian, Yo te diré, which talks about the Philipines Independence Wars, La bella Lola or La paloma, a popular song created by Basque Sebastián Iradier Salaverri which was versionated in English by Elvis Presley. 

These havaneres are love metaphors because although it seems they are dedicated to a woman's love, this woman is really Cuba, and the singers are crying its absence, its memories and its lifestyle.

More information: Visit Palafrugell

Darling, I love you so, and my heart forever,
will belong to the memory of the love that we knew before.
Please, come back to my arms; we belong together.
Come to me; let's be sweethearts again and then let us part no more.

Elvis Presley

GOODBYE THE GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS, WELCOME SANT BOI

The Jones are coming back by plane

Last evening, The Jones left the Galápagos Islands and they are flying to Sant Boi de Llobregat where they're going to meet The Beans. 

Both families have an important appointment tomorrow with Cambrigde University.

The Jones have watched some films during the flight. The Grandma has preferred black and white cinema because she loves Charles Chaplin but every member of the family has been able to choose her/his favourite films.

Eli Jones watches an amazing Playmobil Film about Egypt and its history while the rest of the family is sleeping. It's a long flight and tomorrow they must be relaxed and ready to enjoy a new experience.

Watch Curse of the Pharaons, The Movie by Eli Jones

Good luck Jones! Good luck Beans!

In the end, everything is a gag.

Charles Chaplin

WELCOME TO THE JONES: RAIDERS OF THE LOST DIARY

Indiana Jones

Today, The Grandma has returned to her home in Barcelona on the top of Tibidabo mountain. Tomorrow, she is going to meet her new family, The Jones, a new group of amazing people who is going to help her to find her most appreciated object: her diary.

The Grandma doesn't know anything about her new family but it's the first time that she's going to share two families together: The Beans and The Jones. it could seem something different but it isn't. One family, The Beans, is operative abroad in Hong Kong, where they are participating in a tour with Katrina Leskanich after winning the Eurovision Song Contest and the new one, The Jones, is going to start an exciting tour with The Grandma in her searching of happiness.

Welcome to The Jones to this great experience that starts today and greeting to The Beans, who shouldn't forget to send me a postcard from Hong Kong.

3,2,1... Action!

Indiana Jones is an adventure film, a comic book, a fantasy. 

Harrison Ford

THE BEANS IN HONG KONG: THE END OF THE BEGINNING

The Tian Tan Buddha in Lantau Island, Hong Kong

The Beans have arrived to Hong Kong where they are going to start their tour with Katrina after winning the Eurovision Song Contest. The family is very happy and excited with the new project. 

After a long flight from Lisbon, where the family has been hidden from paparazzi and international press which wanted to know more things about them, The Beans have just arrived to their hotel, which name is also a secret to protect their intimacy, and they are ready to start to know this wonderful place thanks to a fantastic guide, the last present that The Grandma offered to them before returning to Barcelona where she's going to meet another new family. 

Download Hong Kong Guide by The Grandma

The Grandma knew that the flight was going to be very tired and she wanted to leave an interesting reading: an updated manual of phrasal verbs.

Download Phrasal Verbs Manual by The Grandma

Hong Kong is an autonomous territory on the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary in East Asia. Along with Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and several other major cities in Guangdong, the territory forms a core part of the Pearl River Delta metropolitan region, the most populated area in the world. With over 7.4 million Hongkongers of various nationalitiesin a territory of 1,104 square kilometres, Hong Kong is the fourth-most densely populated region in the world.

Hong Kong was formerly a colony of the British Empire, after the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island from Qing China at the conclusion of the First Opium War in 1842. With the exception of the Second World War, during which the territory was occupied by the Empire of Japan, Hong Kong remained under British control until 1997, when it was returned to China.As a special administrative region, Hong Kong maintains a separate political and economic system apart from mainland China.

More information: BBC

The Beans and Bruce Lee together again

Hong Kong is one of the most significant global financial centres, holding the highest Financial Development Index score and consistently ranking as the most competitive and freest economic area in the world. As the world's seventh-largest trading entity, its legal tender, the Hong Kong dollar, is the 13th-most traded currency. Hong Kong's tertiary sector dominated economy is characterised by competitive simple taxation and supported by its common law judiciary system. Although the city boasts one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, it suffers from severe income inequality. 

The territory features the most skyscrapers in the world, surrounding Victoria Harbour, which lies in the centre of the city's dense urban region. It has a very high Human Development Index ranking and the world's longest life expectancy. Over 90% of its population makes use of well-developed public transportation. Seasonal air pollution originating from neighbouring industrial areas of mainland China, which adopts loose emissions standards, has resulted in a high level of atmospheric particulates in winter.

More information: Discover Hong Kong

The name Hong Kong originally referred to a small inlet between Aberdeen Island and the southern coast of Hong Kong Island. The town of Aberdeen was an initial point of contact between British sailors and local fishermen. The source of the romanised name is not known, but it is generally believed to be an early imprecise phonetic rendering of the spoken Cantonese pronunciation of 香港,which means fragrant harbour or incense harbour.

The beautiful flag of Hong Kong

Fragrance may refer to the sweet taste of the harbour's fresh water influx from the Pearl River estuary or to the incense from factories lining the coast of northern Kowloon. The incense was stored near Aberdeen Harbour for export before Victoria Harbour was developed. Another theory is that the name originates from the Tanka, early inhabitants of the region; it is equally probable that a romanisation of the name in their dialect was used. Regardless of origin, the name was recorded in the Treaty of Nanking to encompass all of Hong Kong Island, and has been used to refer to the territory in its entirety ever since.

The name had often been written as the single word Hongkong until the government adopted the current form in 1926. Nevertheless, a number of institutions founded during the early colonial era still retain the single-word form, such as the Hongkong Post, Hongkong Electric, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

More information: Lonely Planet

Hong Kong has created one of the most successful societies on Earth. 

Prince Charles

THE BEANS IN ASIA: IMPROVING TO FIND NEW CHANCES

Work Seekers

The Beans are preparing their new tour around Hong Kong with Katrina. The family has been working a lot to find this chance and they're now very excited with it. 

The family is leaving Lisbon and flying to the Asian country. During the flight, they are reading some important information about labour insertion, something very necessary in economies with high unemployed rates.

On average, recruiters spend just 8.8 seconds reading your CV. This means you have less than a sixth of a minute to sell yourself and your strengths to the reader. This is easier said than done: three quarters of CVs are rejected due to bad grammar, spelling and poor visual layout.

More information: The Balance (I)

So what makes a successful job application? We asked career experts for their tips. Here is a step-by-step Guardian Jobs guide on how to create the perfect CV.

It's vital your CV is as tailored and concise as possible. One of the simplest mistakes job hunters make is not matching their experience to the new job role. It's essential to look down the list of requirements and show against each points how you can do each one, says Jon Gregory, a job search, application and interview coach.

It's also important to drop the clichés. Words like passionate and phrases like 'I'm excellent at' are overused, says Gregory. Show your passion rather than say it. Don't use subjective statements like 'I can hit the ground running' instead use objective proof that you have demonstrated those skills – such as a list of numbers and achievements.

Lis McGuire, founder of Giraffe CVS, agrees you should avoid clichés: The most important thing to leave off a CV is white noise – essentially anything that isn't directly relevant to the job role you're applying. For non-relevant work simply give the bare bones and instead focus on explaining relevant experience that will win you the role.

In summary, your writing style should be professional, concise and specific to the job you're applying to. Make it as easy as possible for them to scan your CV and tick boxes, advice the experts.

More information: The Balance (II)

The personal profile is often tricky. How can you strike the perfect professional yet enthusiastic voice? Without a profile your CV is just a list without context, points out McGuire. Use it to show the reader who you are and the value you can bring.

But how exactly can this be done? Your CV profile should strive to provide abalanced complement of skills, achievements, and softer attributes that will engage the reader, advises Debra Wheatman, founder and owner of Careers Done Write. I generally recommend that the summary comprises 4-5 lines with a relevant example to quickly engage the reader.

Your profile should sum up exactly who you are and whether you're a good fit for the role, says Gregory. Likewise, Sarah Archer, career coach and co-founder of CareerTree, says: Make it specific, interesting and relevant to the job. Highlight the key skills and experiences you have and the kinds of environments you have worked in.

More information: CVMRK

We cannot afford to spend millions and millions over nuclear arms 
when there is poverty and unemployment all around us. 

Lal Bahadur Shastri

THE BEANS, FADOS & BRITISH LEGENDS IN LISBON

I must ride with my Beans to defend what was, 

and the dream of what could be.

Excalibur, Thomas Malory

The Beans, King Arthur & The Round Table Knights

Today, The Beans have enjoyed another wonderful day together. It's very difficult for The Grandma to write a post today because although she knows that it's the end of a season, it's also the beginning of another one full of hope, effort and common help in the distance.

The Grandma has tried  to share her knowledge with The Beans during some months and she's very happy with the effort and commitment demonstrated by all of them. Listening to old stories, remembering personal memories, talking about literature, history or music, she has tried to cheer them to start again in the wonderful adventure of learning. 

Download King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

Without temporal goals and without pressure only with the idea of enjoying every moment and giving the best of everyone; without the obligation of demonstrating anything, only with the intention of having an open mind to discover new cultures, countries and stories, The Beans have demonstrated that they are ready to confront whatever they want if they have the strong idea of doing it and the most important, that they are not alone in this difficult and long way to find a success route that determinates the closer future. 

It's very important to trust in yourself to be ready to get over the difficulties but it's also very important to know and reaffirm that you are doing this travel rounded by your special family, fourteen different people with different characters, points of views and origins  but with the same objective: learning new things every day and enjoying every moment, because it's not important where they come from but where they are going to arrive. 

One day, a Bean will come, and the sword will rise... again.

Excalibur, Thomas Malory

Every member of the family has offered her/his colour to a multicultural family that has been able to work very hard every day. Every one of them is important and necessary because The Beans are a sum of all of them and they have left his/her footstep in this wonderful family that is called to do something fantastic in the closer future. Teamwork is the secret of their success, feeling important as a part of a totality and being missed when you're not with them, this family has shined a light in every colour of our hearts.
 

That's no way to say goodbye

The Grandma is sad and staying in Lisbon is a good way to try to change this sadness to joy. She loves fado and admires Mísia, one of her favourite female singers. They have a lot of things in common: both of them are adult, both of them have a life full of incredible stories, both of them have common Catalan origins and both of them like poetry and literature. The most importance difference between them is that Mísia has one of the most incredible voices around the world, and The Grandma has big ears to listen to her fados.

More information: Ancient

Some people say that The Beans don't exist and all is a legend although all the legends have a true base. These same people explain that this legend has been transmitted from generation to generation in an oral way across the Via Rubricatus towns with different versions talking about different families with different surnames: The Collins, The Addams, The Holmes, The Poppins, The Bonds or recently, The Beans.

Princess Leia and R2D2

All the versions of this legend have points in common, a reduced number of people who worked very strong to find something they thought they have lost: trust in themselves and force to continue fighting; an old woman with an undetermined age over the 90's, very rich, who loved explaining old-fashioned stories and was a fan of the Middle-Age, -especially Ramon Llull and King Arthur novels- and contemporany fiction like Star Wars films and The X Files Series; and who tries to follow their teachings. 

From Ramon Llull, she learnt to think and question things without believing in official versions; from King Arthur, the value of the Round Table: honour, courage, loyalty, teamwork and enough imagination to create their own universe to protect themselves from the enemy; from Star Wars, she learnt to fight against the dark forces; and from The X Files to not give up searching the truth.

This is not the end, this is the beginning of a new season because the best is always ready to arrive.

Ask ev'ry person if he's heard the story;

And tell it strong and clear if he has not:
That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory
Called The Beans Family.
The Beans! The Beans!

Camelot, Alan Jay Lerne

Fado is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best. But even that information was frequently modified within the generational transmission process that made it reach us today.

Although the origins are difficult to trace, today fado is commonly regarded as simply a form of song which can be about anything, but must follow a certain traditional structure. In popular belief, fado is a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor, and infused with a sentiment of resignation, fatefulness and melancholia. This is loosely captured by the Portuguese word saudade, or longing, symbolizing a feeling of loss, a permanent, irreparable loss and its consequent lifelong damage. 

More information: Mísia Official Website

This connection to the music of a historic Portuguese urban and maritime proletariat: sailors, dock workers, port traders and other working-class people in general, can also be found in Brazilian modinha and Indonesian kroncong, although all these music genres subsequently developed their own independent traditions.

On 27 November 2011, fado was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. It is one of two Portuguese music traditions part of the lists, the other being Cante Alentejano.

More information: UNESCO

Try not to become a man of success, 

but rather try to become a man of value. 

Albert Einstein

THE BEANS ARE IN LISBON: SAUDADE AND VICTORY

Paqui Bean, the soloist, and The Beans chorus

The Beans are in Lisbon, where they have arrived to participate in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.. 

They have been working very hard in the creation of the song and they are ready to introduce it to the audience. To avoid nerves and prepare a good diction, they have revised Reported Speech and Third Conditional. 

They have also played bingo in Navajo style, with beans and Manolo Bean as the main voice.

 

More information: Reported Speech

The family has also finished the reading of Christmas Carol, the masterpiece of Charles Dickens that talks about redemption and second chances. One of the best characteristics of Dickens's literature is the chance that he offers to his characters to improve and repair the past mistakes to try to become better people.

More information: Third Conditional

Finally, The Beans have performanced their song named The Beans and they have won the contest without problems. Deep and elaborated lyrics, rhytmic music and a visual interpretation have been enough to astonish all the juries and the whole public who voted from their homes across Europe.

The Beans have arrived
to sing your song
for all who have loved
sing with us very strong.

(Chorus)

We are The Beans.
We like all drinks.
We are The Beans.
We love all sweets.
We're travelling.

We are The Beans.
We are strong.
We continue travelling
despite have left some on the road.

(Chorus)

The luckiest of the world,
Grandma joined us altogether.
We have found gold, 
we wish last forever.

(Chorus)

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.
 

Charles Dickens

The Eurovision Song Contest, sometimes popularly called Eurovision. It is the longest-running annual international TV song competition. It has been held, primarily, among the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1956. The competition was based upon the existing Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy since 1951.

The Beans in Lisbon, Portugal

Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the competition's winning entry. 

The contest has been broadcast every year for sixty-two years, since its inauguration in 1956, and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures in recent years quoted as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally.

More information: Eurovision Song Contest Lisbon 2018

Sandie Shaw, February 1947, is an English singer. One of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s, in 1967 the song Puppet on a String performed by her became the first British entry to win the Eurovision Song Contest. After a long and successful career, Shaw announced her retirement from the music industry in 2013.

We are The Beans, we love all sweets

Sandra Ann Goodrich was born and brought up in Dagenham, Essex, England. On leaving school, she worked at the nearby Ford Dagenham factory, and did some part-time modelling before coming second as a singer in a local talent contest. 

As a prize, she appeared at a charity concert in London, where her potential was spotted by singer Adam Faith. 

He introduced her to his manager, Eve Taylor, who won her a contract with Pye Records in 1964 and gave her the stage name of Sandie Shaw.

By 1967 Shaw's record sales were declining and her manager decided on more of a cabaret appeal. She was invited by the BBC to represent the UK in that year's Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. She had reservations as she felt it would destroy her credibility, but performed five songs on The Rolf Harris Show, with the public voting that the one that should represent the country was the Bill Martin/Phil Coulter composition Puppet on a String. 

I feel like Eurovision is a parallel dimension. It reminds me of 'Dance Fever' and 'Solid Gold' when I was a kid. Then when you hear these songs sung in English by someone who may or may not understand the words, the unique awesomeness hits you.
 

Seamus Dever