Olympics I

I suppose there are a number of blogs out there which have been extra busy during the Olympics as the writers have been keen to share their opinions about the Games. And other blogs where there’s been little activity as the writer has been too busy watching to write. For this blog, though, the lack of recent posts is unassociated with events in Beijing.

I’m not a great fan of any sport, though I suppose I used to enjoy watching the football – supporting whichever team the boyfriend of the time supported. But, unlike the colleague from years ago who listed her hobbies on her cv as “Rugby, football, cricket, rowing – spectator only”, I have never really understood the pleasure of watching other people play sports.
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naming names

From Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest:

CECILY […] This is no time for wearing the shallow mask of manners. When I see a spade I call it a spade.

GWENDOLYN [Satirically.] I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different.

I wonder how different the average Spaniard’s social sphere is from that of the average angloparlante.
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mornington crescent

I get the impression that Google searches work in much the same way as the Mornington Crescent game: there you are, following links, jumping all over the place and never quite sure where you’ll end up next, and then, suddenly, you find you’ve landed up where you intended.

Well, ok, with Google you’re as likely to end up somewhere quite unintended but equally interesting, so perhaps the analogy breaks down a bit.
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the power of prayer

I didn’t know the Baptists were so self-condfident, but it looks as if this church is sure its congregation is safe from Hell fire – click and see the full-size image to read the text on the wall alongside.

Attending church insures you against (Hell) fire?
Attending church insures you against (Hell) fire?

Photo taken in central Madrid, July 2008.

mixed marriages

From the print edition of today’s Público newspaper, a double page spread on mixed nationality marriage; an assortment of news and commentary.

The left hand page is dedicated to the story that eight European states have agreed to make divorce easier with a new law that gives parejas mixtas the right to choose which law should be applied when they split up. It seems that there are 170,000 divorces between these so-called mixed couples in the EU each year, which is around 20% of the total number of divorces.
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