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It's all over the news here in Spain, Rafa Nadal is now ranked world number one for mens tennis. His performances lately have been nearly faultless and winning gold in the Beijing Olympics means he has pushed Roger Federer out of the number one spot.

After the Olympics he goes on to the US Open, Federer is defending but Nadal seems ufazed, on TV here he's been saying he's looking forward to meeting Federer again since he still sees Federer as the best player in the world who could easily dethrone him.

Every time we see Nadal play he seems to be a great sport, sure he enjoys his victories but he also praises the other players and he seems so humble accepting his visctory.

I hope he continues to play like a gentleman and that his winning streak doesn't end.

Wow, the cult classic movie 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' is to be remade and they're talking about Marilyn Manson as the kind of actor they want to audition, the idea being they want to bring Rocky into the 21st century and make the film a bit edgier and more contemporary than the 1970's original.

I have to say I'm not really in favour of a new version, I kinda like the cheesy kitschy original, although if I had my choice I'd ditch Meatloaf from the original, I've never been a Meatloaf fan so he'd be no loss, but the rest of the cast made that film and I can't see a remake replacing it.

Of course they probably don't intend to replace the original, maybe the success of the DVD version of Rocky, and the Star Wars franchise is making the Rocky franchise greedy. Either way, I don't think the original will ever be threatened in my heart by a new version, actually a new version would have to be VERY good to get my loyalty.

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Offsetting carbon emissions is becoming so wide-spread these days even developing countries in Africa are starting to sit up and take notice. Barclays Bank in Kenya have made a policy decision to buy carbon credits to demonstrate to their corporate and personal clients in Kenya that this is something we all need to take seriously.

Major Kenyan and South Africa munufacturers are also looking into ways that they can reduce their emissions and become more carbon friendly. And recently Costa Rica announced that the entire country will be carbon neutral by 2021.

Now if people in the developing world who know the meaning of poverty, war, disease etc are starting to do so much, why do we in the western developed countries still feel the need to have expensive cars that use too much fuel. It's all a mystery to me but I'm going to be doing my part.

We've decided to get serious about calculating our carbon footprint, and if possible to reduce our footprint. We want to see the planet recover and our small efforts all count towards the global goal.

Since moving to Europe I've discovered a new hobby, collecting coins from all states that use the Euro. It's really hard work since a lot of the coins don't travel very far and some of the smaller states don't have enough in circulation to expect that I'd find them here in Spain without buying them from a dedicated coin shop.

Anyway, Reuters this morning have a story about a shopkeeper in Northern Spain who found a one Euro coin which had been preofessionally defaced and the image of King Juan Carlos removed and in it's place is an etching of Homer Simpson.

Now that is a coin I'd love to have in my collection, not because I approve of defacing coins but becuase I know it's going to be worth something in the future, and also, wouldn't it be cool to show friends your coin collection and just as their eyes are glazing over from looking at the 100th coin that looks identical to the last one they would notice that one was different.

Of course I'm not a big fan of the Simpsons, I actually think the show is boring and not very funny, but Homer would be cool on the back of a coin.

In my kitchen there is one appliance that I absolutely could not do without, my mini oven. Most of the time I only ever need to cook a single meal, or use the toaster to brown chicken wraps. Full sized ovens are great, but something small and portable that uses less power is always a bonus. Check out reviews of microwave and toaster oven combos.

Here in Andalucia, most Spaniards look evenly tanned all over and having seen them in their bikinis which sometimes move around, I think it's safe to say most of them are in fact evenly tanned all over.

In fact, it is usually only the people from Andalucia who are evenly tanned. Other Spaniards often look tanned until they take the t-shirt off and then you notice colour differences.

But what I find really amusing is the holiday makers who come to Spain from the UK, Netherlands, Germany etc, who are mostly pale ghosts and even worse when they put their bikinis on, and then they sit in the sun for hours and wonder why they look like a lobster.

It's been amazing to watch some of the kids just turn brown like the Andalucians, but the parents don't usually spend so much time outdoors I think, so they really suffer.

One of our neighbors was here for a week and on the first day they were all red and sore, by the second day they were blistered, on the third day they started peeling, and when I asked why they do this their answer was "Because when we go back home we'll have a nice tan".

All that pain just for a tan, no thanks, give me a natural tan after months of just doing regular outdoor things and taking care not to get burnt, none of this lobster look for me.