To All the Guests I’ve Met Before ………

I ‘m glad you came along, I hope you like my song etc etc.

Ok ok I know I know that you know that I have nicked this little ditty from the mouth of Julio Iglesias. However, his version went like this “to all the girls I’ve loved before (bet old Julio has lost count) who came in and out my door (bet he had one of those revolving doors and it was busy!), I’m glad you came along (bet you were Julio) I hope you like my song (no we don’t Julio) to all the girls I‘ve loved before etc etc.

I think my version is an improvement on the original – ok ok its not that great either but give it time and it will grow on you…………….

Now the reason that I am taking about this song and the dashing Julio is because we had a visit from some real cowboys this week on La Margarita. Riding into town our high plain drifters came all the way from Houston Texas. We had Sandy, his wife Monica and daughter Betsy visiting us (that’s them with us in the heading photo). A lovely family and we had an equally lovely time with them.

Over a glass of wine one night Sandy told us about how some years ago he was doing some work for the Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias. One day Julio sent a Lear Jet to pick up Sandy and his wife to visit him (see who we are mixing with Gaynor!) - we send our 1980 Toyota pick up! (not really it’s a Range Rover.) Julio had just released the mentally challenging “to all the girls” epic which he sang with Willie Nelson. Sandy informed Monica who they were going to visit and she promptly informed him that she had never heard of him. Sandy pointed out that he was on all of the radio stations with “to all the girls’ song”. “Oh that song” said Monica “I hate that song” (as I would imagine do most women). Not wanting to upset Julio, Sandy asked Monica not to let on how much she disliked his charm less song. Course things never go to plan and the first thing Julio asked Monica after being presented to him was “and do you like my new song” (in a sexy Spanish accent no doubt! ) to which she retorted “no I hate it”. That could have spelt the end to a perfect friendship but no, luckily enough after this slightly awkward situation they all got on like a house on fire so probably safe to say that Julio didn’t care for it much either.

The lesson we can learn from this little story is that it often pays to be honest particularly if you don’t want to end up with a cupboard full of Julio Iglesias cd’s.

On a foot note this terrible song was written I am pretty sure by the wonderful Albert Hammond (just a minute I am going to Google it – yep right it was him) who should have know better. Albert penned amongst others the soul searching “It Never Rains in Southern California” and the breathless “I Don’t Wanna Lose You” by Tina Turner – both great songs so I guess that consistency wasn’t one of Albert’s characteristics.

Thanks so much for coming Sandy, Monica and Betsy and telling us your stories we had a great time in your company and I hope you enjoyed Mendoza

This is as always David Cummings alias the English Gaucho writing from Estancia La Margarita, Tapalque

PS . You can now test your Spanish cos The English Gaucho has now gone international and published this blog in Spanish thanks to Vivian my long suffering virtual assistant

The Crises in Argentina Worsens!

Excuse me for being a bit sensationalist because the crises I am talking about has nothing to do with the boring credit crunch, property price crash, stock market burn out or the like - no this crisis is much much worse. Incredibly the Argentine national football team has now gone six games without a win (don’t log off please this blog is about life and death). The last game they played on the 10th Sept 2008 was against Peru. Winning up to the last minute brave Peru promptly put a goal past Argentina to level the game 1-1. The game was a World Cup qualifier and that goal broke the heart of Argentina. I was out that night celebrating England’s spectacular win over Croatia and for two hours when the game was being played the city was empty - god forbid if you needed an ambulance or a cab. When that Peruvian goal went in you could feel the energy drain out of Buenos Aires and almost see a mist of sadness creep over the city. The next day you would have thought that the end of the world had arrived here. The only news was how the National team had failed to win against a country that last qualified for the World Cup in 1982 and whose football is in a shambles (read the following blog to get an idea how bad it is (http://journalperu.com/?p=479). In Peru you would have thought they had won the World Cup. For the following two days world events were forgotten as the game was analyzed by every news program on Argentine TV. Football here is a religion – they are fanatics. Everyone has a team they support - even the maid will talk passionately about her “team”. For Argentina to not win against Peru is truly a crises sin duda. This is truly a crisis worth blogging about.

I love football so living in Argentina suits me and I can understand the passion it arouses. People often ask me who I support now that I am an Argentine citizen but originally from England. It’s always easy for me to answer. My first team is England and if Argentina were playing against England I would be rooting for England without doubt. Other than that I support both teams and even the team of whoever is working for me if necessary which can lead to some interesting situations. When Nigel from Australia worked for me here and the Aussies had to play Uruguay in Montevideo we went to watch the kangaroos play the Uruguayan national team in what was probably one of the most important football matches they had ever played – win and they were through to the World Cup . Now most people from outside of South America think that Uruguay is in Paraguay and they have no idea where Paraguay is! Well let’s just say that Uruguay is a lovely little country just over the river from Argentina and that Paraguay is a little further but not much. That weekend myself, Nig, Brian and Gaynor (they are in the heading photo ) and about 200 Aussies went off to support the Aussie team in their bid for a World Cup place ( well Gaynor went of to the shops but she did stay a while bless her) . It was a truly great experience to be in Uruguay since they hosted the very first World Cup ever in 1930 and promptly won it and then went on to win it again in 1950 (course in the first World Cup England had refused to enter – that made it a bit easy for them!). No doubt about it was a great day out for us in that historic stadium and the Aussies even managed a draw (they won the replay on penalties and went on to qualify).

I realize this blog had nothing to do with La Margarita but I just wanted to talk about the passion that football can arouse and try to show how important it is to a country especially Argentina. This weekend Joe and Nicole from Orlando came to stay and they both said they were going to a game – well not any game it’s a River game they were heading to – hats off to you both and I am sure you had fun (well let’s hope River won).

If you are coming to Buenos Aires try to get to a game – even if are not a fan of football you will feel a passion at the game that sometimes seems to be missing in life and you will also understand why a simple goal can break a nations heart – even the maids.

Hasta la Vista

David Cummings
Alias the English Gaucho writing on a wonderfully sunny day on
Estancia La Margarita

Farming for Idiots

Sept 08

My good friend Guillermo Jude from Uruguay who owns loads and loads of land and more cows than the number of times I have sworn at politicians once said to me “ David if you want to get into farming its easy, buy some land that has grass on it, buy some cows not forgetting the bull then go down the pub and let nature take its course” ( he didn’t say the last bit but he may as well have). At the time we were going to pick up money he had earnt from cows he had just sent to market. I was impressed so I took him at his word. Since I already owned land on Estancia La Margarita I purchased some cows not forgetting the bull and I went down the pub – that was a year ago. This weekend I was on La Margarita and guess what Guillermo was right.

I haven’t been so amazed since that awful Terry Wogan had a hit with the equally awful Floral Dance (if you are not English you wont understand this but think of one the naffest songs ever sung by the unsexiest singer ever and you will understand why I was amazed). Suddenly there are now baby cows all over the place (calves I think they are called). It’s funny really because for the past 6 months we have been trying to guess if the cows were pregnant - (see that’s why I have to buy a copy of Farming for Idiots) - we just couldn’t tell – then all of a sudden it was raining cows. Not only cows but there are now lambs leaping all over the place and the chickens are even getting into the act with baby chicks running amok. Now we have enough milk coming from the cows to open a cheese factory. I never thought that I would get so excited at my cows having babies but I am – it’s great it really is great. I was so excited I took photos of them – see the newly born Estancia La Margarita cows on http://www.estancialamargarita.com/ under “outside”

Hasta la Vista

David Cummings alias The English Gaucho
writing from Estancia La Margarita. Tapalque Argentina

God Only Knows

I just came back from Estancia La Margarita after having a truly great 4 days there. It was 26degs (even though we are still in winter) and the sun shone the whole time. I walked the dogs, strummed my guitar, played some botches, rode my horse and went to inspect the fencing we are putting up to enable us to buy more cattle. On Sunday I played a round of golf on the Tapalque course with some guests we had on the estancia and I thankfully managed not to injure anyone. Now I am not a golfer, far from it, but one a wonderfully sunny day the exercise is great. Later it was back to La Margarita for one of Raquel’s delicious lunches. Sunday afternoon was spent reading the Sunday Papers. Sometimes as the saying goes “life is a beach” which by coincidence is probably not how Brian Wilson would describe his life on reading an article about him in one of Sunday papers even though no doubt he has had a privileged one

Being a former musician who now strums his guitar to the long suffering cows on La Margarita (as you can see from the photo!) I always take particular interest in what is happening in the lives of old rockers – how some of them survived is a miracle and how some are still producing great music even more so . The article I read about Brian Wilson the ex leader and song writer extraordinaire of The Beach Boys fame really interested me having seen him live once. I remember when I was a strip of a school boy in London well before I became the English Gaucho I saw The Beach Boys play live in of all places Hounslow in London with my mod girlfriend Stevie ( who I am still in contact with) . We turned up on the 90b bus all “moded” up to see this new group everyone was talking about. It was doggy little club (exotically called The Zambezi Club - unexotically on the London Road!) and so were I am sad to say The Beach Boys. It was their first tour of the UK and there they were in rainy Hounslow wearing their Hawaiian beach shirts on stage ruining Surfing USA. It really was dreadful, maybe it was a combination of the rare Hounslow air and the mute audience who were really waiting for Georgie Game and his Blue Flames who were on the same bill ( still going and still sounding good) to play - I didn’t make it to the second set it was that bad. I by that stage had written The Beach Boys off and paid no more attention to them – that was until Brian Wilson released the exquisite Pet Sounds album.

No doubt about it Pet Sounds was probably one of the best album of the 60s – it was a giant of an album and even now when I hear the first chords of “God Only Knows” and the opening words “I may not always love you “I get a tingle down my spine. Course all was revealed later that Brian Wilson did the lot – he wrote the songs, sang them (including all the harmonies) and to cap it all played all the instruments - probably did the remixing to.

Brian Wilson has had a tough life (probably brought on by having to do gigs in places like Hounslow which is frankly a dump). Drugs, nervous breakdowns and the loss of two of his brothers (who were in the Beach Boys with him) tell a sad story but there he is just about to go on tour again at 66 years of age and I for one applaud him – he is a legend and if you have the luck to go and see him do so. I didn’t realize in that doggy Hounslow club that I was watching a legend in the making – I wish I had paid more attention.

We don’t get the opportunity to see many great acts here in Argentina ( I am a bit jealous you may get the chance to see him) because I suppose it is just too far so if you catch him let me know how it was – I have no doubt it will be nothing like that Hounslow gig – at least I hope not!

David Cummings alias The English Gaucho
writing on Estancia La Margarita Tapalque