I did a double take on one of the Mirror’s online headlines today. ‘Kerry Katona, Look Stoned!’, I read. But no, actually it said Kerry Katona Looks TONED. That’s all right then.

And so she did, bless. Gallivanting about in all her glory at Siam Park. Happy as a … well as a very happy person, I suppose. And all those lovely pictures of her looking healthy beautifully captured in glorious technicolour – that’ll do her career a word of good.

In other sort-of-celebrity news it seems a Manchester City footballer has spat the dummy and run away from his team’s winter training camp in Tenerife. I wonder if they’ve thought of trying to talk him back him via his website which clearly invites, ‘Contact Robinho,

View of Teide from La Gomera

Unless you’ve had the misfortune to land on Tenerife on a cloudy day you can usually see a shadowy shape that seems to hang in the sky across the water as you drive down the hill into Los Cristianos. That’s the island of La Gomera.

Tenerife and La Gomera seem to gaze across the water at each other like starstruck lovers. Perhaps the ancient Guanches thought so too for they have a suitably tragic legend that romanticises the relationship between the two islands.

Gara was a beautiful Gomeran princess and Jonay a young prince from Tenerife. Like all girls of her people, Gara looked into a still pool where tradition had it that should the water be murky she would not find her true love. She saw herself clearly but gazed so long at her reflection that she was temporariy struck blind.

An old man told her that this omen meant she should avoid all fire or she would be destroyed by it.

Prince Jonay, son of the Mency of Adeje was visiting La Gomera to participate in the games and competitions of the Beñesmén festival, Jonay saw and fell in love with Gara.

Just as the young couple met, Teide erupted, a dramatic sign which thier parents took as a bad omen and immediately forbid the two to see each other. Jonay was forced to return to Tenerife but he later snuck away and crossed the sea between the islands to be with Gara again.

Outraged the parents and islanders chased the young couple to the top of the highest mountain in La Gomera where they killed themselves rather than be forced apart.

Garajonay is now the name of the National Park in La Gomera and also of its highest peak.

Imagine honey dripping down a cheese grater and you get a visual impression of the voice of Franco de Vita. The man can cause goosebumps in a hot bath.

See him in person on Saturday 7th February at the Pabellon Ins. Tenerife “Santiago Martin”. Tickets are €22.

The man who didn’t inhale made a brief pitstop in Tenerife on Wednesday apparently. It seems there was some technical problem with his private jet. I wonder if it was smoking?

To make up for Giacomo Leopardi’s dark outlook on life, here is a link to someone who obviously finds a lot of beauty in her life here in Tenerife. In Tenerife Journal, ‘Canarybird’, recounts her visits rounds the island and illustrates the blog with her own striking photographs.

Canarybird’s Nest, is another blog by the same writer. This time the focus is on the past – the journey that brought her from Canada to Spain in the first place.

Perhaps his general ill health was to blame but there is no doubt that Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi had a rather bleak outlook on life.

Described by Schopenhauer as being entirely imbued and penetrated with misery, the Italian poet’s pessimistic frame of mind can be seen in quotation after quotation. A few examples in English would be:

In all climates, under all skies, man’s happiness is always somewhere else.

And…

You can be happy indeed if you have breathing space from pain.

His contribution to the Sugar Sachet Spanish series is in the same vein…

El odio a nuestros semejantes es mayor con los más allegados.

But Leopardi was more than just an old misery guts. He came out with one of the most positive and true statements ever made:

Enjoy every minute. There’s plenty of time to be dead.

A quotation from one who should know this morning:

Los politicos son iguales en todas partes: prometan construir un puente incluso donde no hay rio

Thank you, Nikita Kruschev.