In a rare fit of truthfulness on the blog, I will admit that I am visiting my elderly mother for Christmas.
Having offered to cook Christmas lunch for whichever of the very limited family choose to attend, I decided that it was about time I stopped complaining about the inadequacies of the maternal kitchen and bought some kitchen knives that suit me. 
We stopped for an aperitivo at a local bar at lunchtime and found the owner’s brother busy setting up a belén – the traditional nativity scene complete with stable, inn, and all the activity of the little town of Bethlehem.
The guy was clearly an experienced belenista.
The scene had been allocated something over two square metres of table space and although the basic layout was settled, he was still working out some structural details. The figures were sitting on another table waiting to be put in position.
Continue reading “room at the inn”
When I started to write the previous post, I was actually intending to talk about this ‘news’ story:
Judge pardons King Balthasar for ‘caramelazo’ in the Three Kings cavalcade.
‘Caramelazo.’ What a lovely word. And what a wonderful language Spanish is that it can produce such words: Continue reading “diplomatic immunity (the silly season II)”
Enjoying the luxury of a real paper-and-print newspaper this weekend, I came across an article with the headline: “Mural supports English teachers’ favourite poet”**, and was surprised to see the piece was illustrated with a picture of Carol Ann Duffy. She may be the poet laureate, but I didn’t think she was that popular. Reading on, I think it must specifically refer to the teachers at Leeds West Academy where the mural in question was unveiled this week.
Continue reading “the writing on the wall”
Well, not quite all over: a story on the BBC reports that Russian clocks stay on summertime.
What I like most about that is the fact that when President Medvedev announced his decision he said it was “in order to relieve the stress of changing clocks.”
Most of my clocks are digital and change automatically, so there’s not too much stress involved in changing them.
Continue reading “time flies”
don't confuse the narrator 