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 “having a good time”
coincidentally
The BBC article I quoted in my previous post started by saying, ‘Fans of The Ramones will know “Hey! Ho! Let’s go!”. This reminds me of a conversation on the plane on my last UK trip.
I was sat next to a couple of young lads (well, relatively young) and it turned out it was the first time one of them had been on a plane. The other one just went to sleep, but the guy next to me and I had a wide-ranging conversation in which we swapped edited highlights of our life histories. At least it seemed to keep his mind off the flight.
Continue reading “coincidentally”
ho hum
According to the BBC news Magazine, the phrase “hey-ho” is set to make a comeback: it is included in the new edition of the Collins English Dictionary where it is defined as “an exclamation of weariness, disappointment, surprise, or happiness.”
Duncan Black, an editor for the dictionary, is quoted as saying “It’s the verbal equivalent of a shrug; you say ‘hey-ho’ or ‘that’s the way it goes’ or ‘c’est la vie.'” (He doesn’t mention the Spanish ‘es lo que hay’ – ‘that’s what there is’ – which is one of my personal favourites.)
Continue reading “ho hum”
post scriptum
Today, almost a month after it was started, the wildfire in the Valle del Tiétar has officially been declared over.
It started at lunchtime on the 28th of July and was under control by the 3rd of August. On the 13th it was described as “técnicamente extinguido”, but there have been people deployed in the area since then, damping down and making sure that it didn’t flare up again.
Two people died and 4211 hectares were burned, including a large area of the Sierra de Gredos Regional Park.
I can’t help but wonder how the person who started it feels now.
tick if you do…
…tick if you don’t.
My mother has asked me to fill in a form for her. With options like the above, I’m not at all surprised she’s confused.
Much as I’d like to suggest the organisation investigate the Plain English Campaign, I fear that the real reason for the bad phrasing is to confuse people into unintentionally giving permission for their friends and family to be included on junk mail lists.
don't confuse the narrator 