I was out on the verandah talking on the phone when I saw a tiny lizard. “Ooh, ¡qué lindo!, ¡un lagartijo pequeñísimo!” I exclaimed, or something equally inane.
The friend I was speaking to was quick to reply, “But clearly not that small, or you wouldn’t know that it was male!”
He was, of course, making fun of my Spanish and the fact that I’d got the gender wrong.
Continue reading “a lizard’s tale”
A couple of people have suggested I should write a post about wine. Well, perhaps not about wine – I’m no expert and am happy with the vino honesto and no muy peleón that I can get in the local supermarket for 0.99€ a bottle – but about the language that is used to talk about it, particularly on wine labels.
I think it might have been Miles Kington (there’s an archive of his Independent column here) who said that if you were at a loss for words at a wine tasting, just look around the room and describe one of the other people present: big nose, full-bodied, fruity…
Continue reading “a flask of wine”
This paradoxical headline comes from today’s ¡Qué!, one of Madrid’s free newspapers:
Twenty-four-hour gas stations can’t close at night: if they do, they won’t be 24-hour gas stations.
Who checks the headlines before the papers go to press? Don’t they have sub editors anymore?
Continue reading “headline news”
The Topka editor has lined up another reading for the T-Tales collection, including Bubbles.
This time we will be reading in Moralzarzal, just north of Madrid. It’s their feria del libro next weekend – following close on the heels of Thursday 23rd, Cervantes’ and Shakespeare’s birthdays, St. George’s Day and el día del libro – and there are cuentacuentos, book signings and other activities.
Sadly, there was a slight scheduling mix up, so Bubbles is to be read in the library rather than the feria precinct, but never mind.
Continue reading “weekend reading”
Half the people in the village this morning were carrying bunches of flowers and greenery, which reminds me that it must be Domingo de Ramos – Palm Sunday.
Ramo and rama are words I can never get straight. Checking today in the on-line Diccionario de la Real Academia, I see that rama is a branch emerging from the tunk or main stem of a plant. Ramo, on the other hand, is a secondary level branch that emerges from the rama madre, or, perhaps, a rama cortada del árbol. If branches change sex the further they get from the trunk or once they’ve been cut from the tree, no wonder I’m confused.
Continue reading “of branches and bunches”
don't confuse the narrator 