Our summer Vibe Box is by European Vibe’s own Helen Macrae.
She brings us her top ten songs to listen to while enjoying the summer/lazing by the pool.
These are the final four:
Toots and The Maytals - 54-46 Was My Number
Energy 52 - Cafe Del Mar ‘98 (Three ‘N One Remix)
Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome - Dance Wiv Me
Groove Armada - Edge Hill
Our summer Vibe Box is by European Vibe’s own Helen Macrae.
She brings us her top ten songs to listen to while enjoying the summer/lazing by the pool.
These are the second three:
Manu Chao - Me Gustas Tu
Planet Funk - Chase The Sun (Club Mix)
Skee-Lo - I Wish
Our summer Vibe Box is by European Vibe’s own Helen Macrae.
She brings us her top ten songs to listen to while enjoying the summer/lazing by the pool.
These are the first three:
Terrorvision - Tequila
Cassius - The Sound of Violence (Club Mix)
The Beach Boys - I Get Around
by Helen Macrae
Summer is most definitely, sweatily, meltingly here, and no doubt you’re trying to make the most of the hot weather. Here’s another handy hint to save you money, so you can spend your funds on more important summer essentials like ice lollies, cold beer and deoderant.
Get your parents over
Well, you’ve been in debt to the Bank of Mum & Dad since you were born so you might as well borrow a little bit more now. Invite them over to Madrid for a relaxing holiday, and while they’re out seeing the sites they can pay for you too. And treat you to dinner afterwards at one of those fancy-looking restaurants you’ve never been able to afford. And then maybe a few expensive cocktails after that.
Some of you might feel bad sponging off the wonderful beings who brought you into this world, but really, you can’t ignore those fantastic interest rates and indefinite repayment periods. Plus they get to see their beloved son/daughter and you get to see the city for free. Everyone’s a winner!
by Helen Macrae
This week’s fun money-saving activity involves a visit to one of Spain’s most important institutions.
El Corte Inglés
There are literally hundreds of these horribly confusing department stores dotted around Madrid, so just take your pick of which one you fancy getting lost in for an afternoon. On the plus side, their size means you can find pretty much anything and everything you might need in there, just be sure you go to the right store in the first place (unlike yours truly who went up a whole eight floors looking for a pair of speakers, only be told that the electronic goods were in the shop next door. Obviously).
Since you’re broke and shoplifting is naughty, you’ll have to content yourself with freebie activities, such as trying on all the make-up, testing out the perfumes and stuffing yourself with any free food samples. If you want a challenge, try and crack a smile from one of the po-faced shop assistants. If you want a bigger challenge, try and find the way out afterwards.
Ok kids, this week it’s time to get a bit daft in our quest to save money!
Bus, Bin, Pigeon
Incredibly silly but strangely compelling game patented by myself and my good friend Laura, inspired by the beautiful cityscape of Birmingham but ideal for playing in any city in the world. The rules are simple: when you see a bus, shout “bus!”, when you see a bin, shout “bin!”…and you can probably guess what you have to shout when you see a pigeon. Of course, you can adapt the game to suit your local flora and fauna, for example in Lavapies “tramp, poo, fight”.
The first person to spot the object gets a point, winner is the person with most points (told you it was simple). Bonus points for combining all three things, such as a pigeon driving a bus into a bin. Whilst this scenario is quite unlikely, I did actually see two tramps throwing horse manure at each other a few days ago in my barrio. Score!
by Helen Macrae
Greetings penny-pinchers! Here are this week’s tips to keep you in the black…
Hunt down the wealthy
Perhaps for masochists only. When you’re broker than broke, what could be more fun than mingling with the rich and famous to remind yourself of all the money you don’t have and things you’ll never be able to afford. Take a stroll round the affluent barrios of Salamanca, Retiro and Opera and you can almost smell the money wafting off the residents. Get followed round the designer boutiques by suspicious shop assistants, laugh at all the pijos with their Lacoste shirts and slicked-back hair, and try not to trip over any small yappy rat-dogs kitted out in diamante-encrusted collars and fluffy coats.
Become a kept man/woman
Everyone knows that there’s nothing more fun than enjoying yourself when someone else is paying. Use your time in Salamanca productively by staking out the pijo hotspots and practising your Spanish chat-up lines and, sooner or later, a wealthy boy/girlfriend will be yours! Once you’ve bagged yourself a filthy rich other half then your work is done, so just sit back, relax and proceed to rinse them for every penny they’ve got. Happy hunting!
by Helen Macrae
As city, Madrid has got it all. With theatres and tapas, bars and bullfighting, shopping and sunshine, it’s cosmopolitan, frenetic, bold, brash and…smelly.
When I first touched down in Spain I was overwhelmed by the host of aromas to hit my nose (starting with that all-too familiar smell of smoke mere seconds after I had walked into arrivals), but after a while I became accustomed to it all as I busied myself with daily life, trotting around the city teaching executives useful words like chav, monkfish and Tesco clubcard. It took a visit from my parents and their non-initiated noses to remind me that Madrid has an amazing array of aromas, some of them nice and some of them nasty, but all combining to create that unique “Esencia de Madrid”.
My sensory journey begins each morning at Metro Sol, when I change from Line 3 to Line 1 and my nostrils are hit with the delicious smell of freshly-baked waffles coming from the cafe in the station. Luckily I’m always in too much of a rush to stop and buy any, otherwise I’d currently be the size of a small country. Unfortunately though, even this divine smell is sometimes not enough to mask the stink of drains which seems to permanently hang in the air round Sol. Other unpleasant odours I experience on the Metro to work are B.O., bad breath and, my personal favourite, the smell of someone sweating out alcohol they drank the night before. Yuk.
More agreeable aromas you might encounter as you journey round Madrid include cut grass when the gardeners have been out in force in one of the city’s numerous parks, along with the delightful scent of flowers as you walk by the Botanical Gardens next to the Retiro. The smell of cigarette smoke is pretty much unavoidable anywhere you go, as is that of frying food, both of which may or may not to be your taste. As you wander round Lavapies you’re hit with the pungent smell of curry, laced with a whiff of hash and perhaps a dash of urine. Walk round the more well-heeled barrios of the city such as Salamanca, Retiro and Opera, and you can smell money.
But my favourite smell in Madrid is one that it’s difficult to put my finger on, and which at times can be quite elusive. As my mate H puts it, it’s that smell you sometimes catch a waft of on a summer’s evening, just as dusk is drawing in, a smell full of promise and anticipation of the night’s adventures. The smell of fun!
Madrid Metro - Smells delightful?