Vicki McLeod and Oliver Neilson kick off the year from their “stationery cupboard studio” to recap 2025 with three standout moments each, a mix of uplifting local stories, celebrity chaos, and one beloved Mallorca project that did not quite survive.

In this episode

1. A new “studio” setup, and why January in Mallorca feels like a long, lovely exhale, thanks to puente days and slow returns to work
2. 2025 pick 1: Otillie Quince, transplant athlete and relentlessly positive force, expanding her bike shop and winning again at the Transplant Games
3. 2025 pick 1: Justin Bieber in Port d’Andratx, the reality of fame, crowds outside Nacra, and Vicki’s accidental viral “Beliebers” moment
4. 2025 pick 2: Kanye West and Pueblo Espanyol, and the scramble to help Drag Brunch find a venue after a sudden complex takeover
5. 2025 pick 2: The Disgusting Food Museum in Palma, what it was like to try the samples, why it was a great idea, and the disappointment of its closure
6. 2025 pick 3: Nick Brown, the Palma walking tour expert who refuses tips and encourages donations to local charities instead
7. 2025 pick 3: Luna Fluxà Cross, Mallorca’s rising motorsport talent, her Mercedes programme, and the step up into Spanish Formula 4
8. A quick note on 2026 intentions: consistency, community, and staying focused on what’s good about Mallorca

Names and places mentioned

Otillie Quince, OQ Service Course (Pollença), Port d’Andratx, Nacra, Cala Llamp, Gran Folies, Poble Espanyol, Disgusting Food Museum (Palma), ABTA conference (Magaluf), Simon Calder, Nick Brown (Palma walks), Luna Fluxà Cross, Spanish Formula 4

Sign up for our free newsletter here. https://majorca-mallorca.es

Please follow Majorca Mallorca on Social Media:

FACEBOOK PAGE https://www.facebook.com/MajorcaMallorca.es

FACEBOOK GROUP https://www.facebook.com/groups/MajorcaMallorca

INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/majorcamallorcapodcast/

You can email MM on majorcamallorcapodcast@gmail.com

Vicki McLeod (Vicki):

You know BBC TV, children’s TV, they used to do broadcasts from a cupboard. The Broom Cupboard with Philip Schofield and Gordon… what’s-his-name.

Welcome to… we’ve moved venue. We’ve moved about three feet.

We’re in the stationery cupboard, which we are now calling the studio. Look, we’ve got a cool black wall, which we might, if my husband gets his act together to drill a hole in the wall, we’ll have curtains and nice things behind us. New year, new job. Happy New Year, everybody.

Oliver Neilson (Ollie):

You’re selling it short. It’s primarily in audio format.

Should we do the “Happy New Bumhole” joke or have we done that too many times? Happy New Year. Happy Kings. It’s Kings Day today, but you probably wouldn’t know that if you listen to the podcast, because we probably won’t release it until tomorrow.

And if you did go to the Kings parade, I hope you got what you wanted, and I hope it didn’t get rained off, because it is a bit minging. Started off lovely, had a freezing cold blue-sky bike ride into work, and then it started raining.

Vicki:

It’s been very bad weather for Christmas. It’s the worst one I can remember. Normally Christmas is sitting on the beach having a beer, it’s a bit nippy but the skies are blue. Not this year. There’s been the odd bit of blue sky one day here or there, but mostly it’s just been drizzle.

Although it was nice enough for the Christmas Day swim and the New Year’s Day swim, just about.

We haven’t even seen a dolphin.

Ollie:

The sun cracked through, just about, not to keep it warm, but to take the edge off the freezing coldness.

Vicki:

Yes, and to explain our absence for the last couple of weeks. It was Christmas, mostly. We were busy, but at the same time I was really inclined to do very little.

Ollie:

We were busy, that’s the end of it. Nobody can criticise us and say we’re lazy. A lot happened over Christmas, and we’re very happy to be back to our regularly scheduled service.

This feels like the first work day of the year. Tomorrow’s a fiesta, but today isn’t, except nobody’s shown up today.

Vicki:

It’s Monday. Everybody’s going back to work on Wednesday, the day after.

Ollie:

This is a puente, as they say, a bridge day. In Spain, public holidays don’t move to Mondays like the UK. But if it’s a Tuesday or Thursday, everyone just goes, right, bridge day.

Vicki:

It’s why Christmas time is usually such a nice time to be in Mallorca. Everything slows down and nobody expects you to be at work or pick up the phone.

Back in the UK, you’d work until halfway through Christmas Eve and then be back in on the 27th.

Ollie:

Proper jobs are overrated, everything apart from the model.

Vicki:

An awful lot happened when you look back on it, so narrowing it down was difficult.

Ollie:

I’m going to start with the fantastic Otillie Quince. If you don’t know who she is, scroll back on this podcast feed and find the interview. I went up to Pollença where she lives and runs a bike shop, and she’s mostly seen on a bicycle.

She’s been battling kidney transplants and cancer on transplanted kidneys for a huge part of her life. She’s relentlessly positive. She moved from her little bike shop to a bigger bike shop, and she became double world champion again, for what feels like the 15th or 16th time.

They have the Transplant Games, which this year were in Germany. She did the road race and the time trial, one silver and one gold. It’s for transplant athletes, not part of the Paralympic Games, and she’s frustrated about that because funding would be different.

Every time I think about Otillie or talk to her, I feel better. Scroll back, have a listen, and if you’re ever up in Pollença, even if you don’t need anything for your bike, drop in and say hello.

Vicki:

Really nicely designed stuff.

Ollie:

Your first one.

Vicki:

My first one is Justin Bieber, which was a mind-blowing experience. Justin Bieber was visiting Port d’Andratx with his wife, Hailey Bieber. She was doing a product launch at Gran Folies in Cala Llamp, and they were staying in a very beautiful villa.

They went down for dinner at one of my client’s restaurants, Nacra in Port d’Andratx, and the owners called me and said, “Vicki, you have to come now because Justin Bieber’s just walked into the restaurant. He told us we can’t take pictures, but you can.”

So Gigi and I went down. Nacra has open sides, it’s open to the road, so you can walk past and look in. Not normally a problem, but it’s an odd choice for someone hugely famous who wants privacy.

When I arrived, there were maybe 40 or 50 people standing and staring. It was awful. I felt uncomfortable and I told the owners I wasn’t taking photos.

As soon as he realised his presence was attracting attention, he went and sat on the rocks overlooking the sea, on the phone, and his wife sat beside him. I felt sorry for them, that they can’t just have dinner on their own.

There was a big group of kids, young women mostly, the Beliebers, standing there staring at the back of his head, waiting for him to turn around. I took a video of them looking at him and that went viral.

I had mixed feelings. Without his fans he wouldn’t be rich, but he also needs to have a holiday.

And the week after that I got called by a Saudi family to photograph a birthday, and it was in the same house Justin and Hailey had been staying in. They told me, “I’m sleeping in the bedroom Justin Bieber slept in last week.”

Ollie:

I’ve had one megastar being uncomfortable with fame, and here’s another megastar swanking it about town. My next one.

I made friends with a lovely couple who run a business called Drag Brunch. They do a monthly show at a restaurant in Poble Espanyol. One Monday morning, I got a call from one of them in pieces because they didn’t have a venue for that weekend’s show.

Kanye West had basically booked out the entire complex of Poble Espanyol for the next month, and nobody was allowed to open their business. Kanye was hurling money at people, and that was that. I didn’t meet him. I was ringing around trying to help them find an alternative venue.

It’s bad to be given no warning and told to shut down, but money talks.

Vicki:

My second one is a sad story. Around March or April, we started getting messages from something called the Disgusting Food Museum. We get a lot of stuff that looks like spam, but I clicked it and it was actually fun.

The Disgusting Food Museum has been successful in Malmö, Sweden, and they decided to open one in Mallorca, in Palma. They renovated a beautiful building on Carrer del Sindicat, hired staff, and we got to go and “sample the menu”, if that’s the right word.

It’s cleverly curated, foods like rotten eggs, cheese with maggots, ants, cheeses made in unusual ways, all sorts. I avoided anything with legs. Ollie did not. Crickets legs stuck in his teeth.

We did it for marketing, interviewed the founder, and encouraged people to visit. Many of you did, but possibly not enough, because it looks like they’ve closed permanently. It’s an example of how businesses don’t always succeed. It’s a shame because they were a nice bunch and I think it was a great idea, but maybe it needed more time to land.

If you want pickled shark, you’ll have to fly to Malmö, you can’t just take the bus into Palma.

Ollie:

My third one is Nick Brown, who many of you will know from our Facebook group. He gives a lot of time for free, he’s got loads of knowledge about Mallorca, and he runs a walking tour around Palma.

He refuses money, he won’t accept tips. He says, “I’m not registered, so don’t pay me.” But he encourages you to donate to local homeless shelters and charities in Palma instead. He’s a total detail nerd in the best possible way, exactly the person you want if you have questions about getting around the old town.

Simon Calder featured him, Britain’s most prolific travel journalist, when he came to Mallorca for the ABTA conference in Magaluf.

Scroll back and listen to Nick’s interview, and if you’re in Palma, look him up and take a tour.

Vicki:

My third one happened almost exactly a year ago. We interviewed Luna Fluxà Cross and it gave me goosebumps talking about it, because she’s such a big deal. She’s a local girl from Mallorca and she is very, very good at driving cars fast.

She was world champion for her age range. Not boys’ and girls’, just world champion, she was it. Gigi got to meet her too, and she adores Formula One and motorsport, so it was a massive moment.

Luna is part of the Mercedes Formula One programme as a talent for the future, with coaching and support. She’s about to go into Spanish Formula 4, the first proper step into racing cars you’d recognise, wings and slick tyres. It’s great to watch, so keep an eye on Luna. Good luck, Luna, I hope you have a great season.

Ollie:

Vicki:

Thank you so much for listening, it really helps to know people are listening. We actually got recognised recently by our voices.

Ollie:

I think the doorbell’s going. Why don’t you go and let Mia in, and I’ll sign off. Our next podcast guest, Mia, is coming in. Subscribe and you’ll hear Mia, our food expert, telling us what’s coming up gastronomy-wise next.

Vicki:

Happy New Year, everybody. Thank you so much.

Ollie:

We’ve got a big Facebook group, a newsletter you can sign up for, and all our social media is linked below. Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, all that. If you wouldn’t mind leaving a five-star review, it really helps us find listeners. Thank you very much, and we’ll see you very soon.