spanish – Page 39 – don't confuse the narrator

tall, taller, tallest

The rains have come, so we must get the windscreen wipers fixed on the car. That will probably entail a trip to the mechanic’s workshop – a trip to the taller mecánico.

Personally, I’ve always wondered who the shorter mechanic was, but perhaps you have to be over a certain height in Spain to be admitted into the secrets of the internal combustion engine.

Looking more closely at the photo, I see that this is not the competitive situation I had imagined at first: it’s not the taller mechanic and the even taller mechanic, just the same mecánico aiming his advertising at different levels. Perhaps he hopes that when Sultan Kosen does get a car that he can drive comfortably, he will take it to this workshop for repairs.

having a good time

The weather in Spain is very predictable. Not just what weather there will be, but when it will happen. Last year, on September 10th I wrote about the first torrential rains of the autumn. This year, I received an email on September 13th including the phrase, “Greetings from stormy Madrid.”

As you can infer from the photo, a lot of the rain in Spain has fallen in my back garden. Whether the rains will last long enough to do much good remains to be seen, but, for the moment at least, I don’t need to do any watering.
Continue reading

of eñes and Elvis

Some years ago there was a great fuss about whether Spain was to be allowed to keep on producing and using computer keyboards with the ‘ñ’ character. I think it was around the same time that the alphabet was reformed and, although the eñe retained its independence, the ‘ch’ and ‘ll’ ceased to be treated as separate letters in dictionaries. (I was reminded of this on my last UK visit, when I had fun trying to find things in my sister’s old Collins dictionary published decades before the reform.)
Continue reading “of eñes and Elvis”

‘tranquilo’

I went outside on Thursday morning before the sun was up, and what struck me most was how quiet it was. It felt like an autumn morning in the UK: chilly, with a slight blur to the air. In the UK, that would have been from bonfires; here, of course, it was from wildfire smoke.

The helicopters started again soon after 8am, and a walk to the village showed that all was not over: the polideportivo was ‘occupied’ by soldiers and firemen, and the fire was still the main topic of conversation everywhere.

firetrucks & military vehicles at the sports centre

veranos de la villa

Reading the list of concerts planned for Madrid’s Veranos de la Villa (Summer in the City) celebrations this year is like stepping back in time.

I’m not that surprised by names like Burt Bacharach and Jerry Lee Lewis: I sort of expect those guys to go on for ever. But George Benson, Kool and the Gang, Jeff Beck, James Taylor…

In August, I’ll be attending the Writers’ Summer School in Swanwick. There’s a ‘Retro Revival’ disco planned for the Tuesday night, and I’m pretty sure the music will overlap with what’s on in Madrid this summer.

Incidentally, for the Spanish readers among you, this ‘noticia’ about the Veranos logo might be amusing. (If your Spanish isn’t quite up to scratch, remember: don’t believe everything you read on the web.)