From the BBC Science & environment section:
This may be an appropriate place to comment on how the Spanish have difficulty in distinguishing between the /b/ and the /v/ sounds. The two letters are pronounced the same in most parts of Spain.
Continue reading “crappy word choice”
Having suffered at the hands of the dentist yesterday – and I do suffer, with the only consolation that, as a writer, I may later find it useful to know what it feels like to have hysterics – I was glad to see that the old Especialidades Juanse tiles are still in place in Madrid’s Malasaña district.
Continue reading “tooth in advertising”
After a couple of weeks involving a lot of travelling, I returned to the pueblo late on Monday. Then I had to leave again on Wednesday and make a quick trip to Scotland for a meeting. Which entailed leaving the house on Wedesday morning and going by car, bus, metro, plane, taxi, taxi, shuttle bus, plane, taxi, taxi, taxi, plane, plane, taxi, taxi, bus and car, and getting back here at lunchtime today, fifty hours later.
For reasons which may be understandable, I was half asleep this morning on the bus back to the village. I realised just how dozy I was, though, when it lumbered over a speed bump and I woke up thinking – “goodness! Have we landed already?”
Having woken up, I started looking around and noticed this sign on the window behind the driver:
Which is all very well, but there were no seatbelts to wear.
I think perhaps the best thing about the sign, though, is the marvellous brand name: Fecalbus. I know the local bus company isn’t brilliant, but I didn’t think it was that bad.
I hate it when previously comfortable shoes get rough on the inside and start to rub blisters. But if that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be writing this blog post, so I guess there’s a silver lining. Or perhaps a latex or leather one.
ventilative, bibulous and can avoid foot stink and ache.
Personally, I much prefer “ventilative” to the more common “breathable”. After all, air is breathable, which is quite a different quality to that of the materials insoles are made of.
Continue reading “sole-destroying”
The village bus station looks quiet in the photo. Not so the journey into Madrid this morning.
En el autobús,
las viejas cotillean;
sólo los hombres casados
pueden dormir.
Roughly translated:
On the bus
old biddies gossip;
only married men
can sleep.
I swear you could tell which guys were used to nagging wives: they simply closed their eyes and nodded off as if the screeching voices were a lullaby.
Continue reading “poetry on the bus”
don't confuse the narrator 