lifestyle – Page 13 – don't confuse the narrator

abridged

I knew that la crisis had forced lifestyle changes on everyone in Spain, but I’m shocked to find it has apparently made inroads into a tradition that lies at the very heart of the Spanish psyche: el puente.

No, not that kind of puente. I’m talking about the puente that connects a public holiday to the weekend with an additional – official or unofficial – day off.

Tomorrow is San José, which is a fiesta for some comunidades. Usually, such holidays are celebrated on the actual day on which they fall, which means that when there’s a Tuesday or a Thursday fiesta lots of workers take the intervening day and make a four-day weekend of it.
Continue reading “abridged”

kennels & cottages

Well, they are clearly cottages not kennels, but they are in Kenilworth – in the heart of England – and I thought they were worth taking pictures of.
Continue reading

socket it to me

EDIT: Of course the title should say socket to me. Having posted it with the typo in, though, I shall be honest and leave it “as is.”

When I travel, I still try and keep working, so am pleased that many trains now provide electrical sockets where I can plug in my computer.

The labelling of this one intrigued me, though:

power socket in train: "laptops and mobile phones only"

Can someone please enlighten me as to what other appliances people carry with them that they might be tempted to use while travelling by train?
Continue reading

christmas post II

A couple more fragments from the poem I posted parts of yesterday:

Christmas Morning

Santa hasn’t let us down: look how
he’s stuffed the stockings
full of trinkets and tangerines,
games and gifts and puzzles –
enough to keep the kids
from worrying Mum who’s busy
in the kitchen; enough, we hope,
till everyone is ready
for their presents after lunch.

Continue reading “christmas post II”

christmas post

A few fragments from a long and rather rambling seasonal poem:

Planning ahead

Mindful since the summer sales
of nieces & nephews, great aunts
& ageing uncles, I have squirrelled away
a score or more of little packages;
nondescript bundles and boring
plastic carriers are tucked
on the top shelf of my wardrobe, stuffed
under woollens and jumpers, hidden,
made invisible by dullness.