Oz in Spain

High-performance Jiménez triumphs in Dubai

Dual role as promoter of Open de Andalucía at Aloha in 2008 (Photo: Josele Sánchez)

By PEDRO BOLICHERO

IT WAS TOWARDS the end of 2003 and the Coast’s favourite golfing son, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, was mingling with guests at a presentation lunch in the La Quinta clubhouse. He stopped to chat with a group of local journalists, including yours truly, who noted that the golfer’s 40th birthday was coming up (5 January) and made some jocular remark about getting old (he himself having passed the milestone several years before). Feigning indignation, Jiménez retorted, “Old? What do you mean – not at all!”, winked and moved on to a less incriminatory group. […]

Birthday celebrations at MC Cafe

RODDY SHASHOUA jetted in from Miami to celebrate his birthday at Marbella’s MC Café, where 80 guests enjoyed a sparkling champagne reception followed by a superb three-course lunch. Entertainers Carlos and Pilar performed great hits from the ‘70s and ‘80s, as guests took to the floor to dance the afternoon away. […]

STOCKBROKER David Kiely became the latest unwitting You Tube star after being caught live on national Australian TV looking at revealing photos of supermodel Miranda Kerr. Kiely was facing meetings with executives to determine his future at the bank after he was seen to open a series of emails featuring photos of Kerr from a GQ shoot, while a Macquarie Private Wealth colleague (in the foreground) was live on air with the Seven Network discussing interest rates.

Third Oscar nomination for Penelope Cruz

SPAIN’S MOST INTERNATIONALLY renowned actress, Penelope Cruz, has received her third career Oscar nomination: best supporting actress for Nine.

Pe, as she is affectionately known in Spain, was first nominated in 2007 for best actress for Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver. She missed out that time (though current boyfriend Javier Bardem did break through as the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar, as supporting actor for No Country For Old Men) but last year triumphed for her supporting actress role in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

[…]

A temple of tattoo art and history

Angelina Jolie

WHEN LUCAS AND HIS WIFE LINDA opened El Templo Tattoos in Torremolinos in 1989, it was one of the first legal and licensed tattoo studios in Spain at the time.

Eminem

After travelling around Europe, tattooing for their living expenses, Lucas (whose uncle Pancho was a tattoo artist in Belgium from 1965 to 1978) and Linda worked in Spain for a Dutch tattooist, Gipsy and Lady, before deciding to settle down and take over the studio they had started up with Prem a year before. […]

Mulsanne unveiled in Marbella

THE NEW Bentley Mulsanne, which replaces the old Arnage and is due to go on sale in mid-2010, was previewed at the C. de Salamanca prestige cars dealership in San Pedro de Alcántara. […]

Specialist baby and child photography

NOW BASED on the Costa del Sol, Welsh photographer Ruth Jones’s versatility and creativity extends across the spectrum, including the specialist field of baby and child photography. […]

International combatants in one-to-one bouts

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS (MMA), as cage fighting is officially known, was born in Brazil. The martial art of Brazilian Ju Jitsu was at the forefront of this one-to-one combat, a style that was and still is led by the Gracie family. In the early days the fighting art was known as “Vale Tudo”, Portuguese for “anything valid”. […]

IT TOOK OVER three decades but AC/DC finally ended their Grammys drought with the 2010 award for best hard rock performance – for War Machine off the Black Ice album. Formed in Australia in 1973, the band received their first Grammy nomination in 1991 (The Razors Edge) and another four before this year’s breakthrough. Rock music – especially their heavy genre – was effectively ignored by Grammy voters during the band’s heyday in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

No such snubs for Keith Urban, however. Already a two-time winner (2002 for You’ll Think Of Me; and 2008 for Stupid Boy) the New Zealand-born Australian made it s hat-trick with the best male country vocal performance award for Sweet Thing from his Defying Gravity album.

Luxury meets nature at Hotel Hermitage

THE COSTA DEL SOL is known internationally for a variety of reasons: some memorable, others best overlooked. The memorable ones include an exceptional Mediterranean climate and lifestyle; the ones best overlooked, well… the dark side of Marbella’s glitzy and glamorous image. […]