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”
Category: topical
location, location, location…
And we are fortunate about our location: the wind has carried the fire north, away from us. Not only that, but we are within spitting distance of a natural swimming pool where the fire trucks can come and refill with water, and not much farther from a pantano where the ‘watercopters’ can top up. 
Continue reading “location, location, location…”
another sunny day in paradise
Well, that’s the impression you’d get from looking out of my study window. A bit breezy, but unbroken blue skies.
That’s because the window faces southeast.
To the north, the fires are still uncontrolled. And although I can’t see any of it, I can’t forget it’s happening as there are helicopters and aeroplanes going directly overhead every few minutes.
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is it a cloud…?
No, it’s smoke from the fire on the land just above my house.
Continue reading “is it a cloud…?”
veranos de la villa
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.)
don't confuse the narrator 