This is an unashamed love letter to Spain's Copa del Rey which picks up speed with the round of 32 this week and which, if not for you and I sending it some amor, will be subconsciously tainted in the media with stock phrases like "gruelling," "squad rotation," "cold, inhospitable stadium" and "embarrassing elimination."
The truth is that the Copa is a shimmering, tantalising, beautiful shock-fest of a competition which, like delicate flowers and buds on trees, determinedly rouses itself around this time each year to haul us through brutal winter and into spring.
Real Madrid and Barcelona play this week -- each tremulously venturing away from home against miniscule, impoverished, third division opposition who the big boys are praying don't have sharp teeth to go with the snarl.