spanish – Page 22 – don't confuse the narrator

mod comms

I guess most readers know I’m based in Spain and although I try and keep this blog politically neutral, I suspect some might be wondering why I haven’t commented on the “No les votes” protests, which have been going on since last Sunday.

Or perhaps not.

I’ve had a look at the Guardian website and the news page for Spain seems to be stuck several days ago and make no mention whatsoever of the protests.

I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad. But it’s got me wondering again about the world of modern communications.
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vivir de las rentas II

The real reason I started writing about tax returns earlier is because I saw an advert for the por tantos campaign on one of the web sites I visited this morning.

That’s this year’s campaign to get people to tick the box on their declaración de la renta to give a contribution to the Catholic church.
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vivir de las rentas

It’s that time of year again. Time to do the annual declaración de la renta, the Spanish tax return.

This is somewhat easier now the tax office issue a borrador of what they think your status is, which you can simply agree to rather than going through the process of filling out a lengthy tax form. Mind you, I’m pretty sure that if they then decide they got it wrong it’s going to be the individual who will be responsible.

Many people will therefore still complete the return from first principles, and although it’s a lot more automated than in the past, I still expect to see people queuing in the bank clutching their envelopes bearing the primary-coloured logo of the Agencia Tributaria and the PADRE logo.

Which raises the question of what fathers have to do with tax returns.
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for the birds

Visiting the Google page this morning, I discovered it was the anniverary of the birth of John James Audubon. Why Google had chosen to commemorate the 226th anniversary, I don’t know, but they had one of their doodles depicting a number of the birds drawn by Audubon.

(Incidentally, that link to the Google doodles page is worth a click – it appears to lead to an archive of the different logos they’ve used in all the different language and geographic versions of the Google page.)
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religious education?

On a recent visit to Madrid I spotted the Colegio Arzobispal in the photo:

I think it’s fairly obvious that not all the children who study there grow up to be archbishops, but do you have to have studied there to be considered a candidate for such a post?

It clearly is a school, not a theological college, as the yellow traffic sign in the wider view shows:
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