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.
Continue reading “naming names”
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.
Continue reading “mixed marriages”
No, I’m not about to write a technical post about visual basic script or vanishing bee syndrome, so, sorry, if you’ve ended up here by a mistaken Google link-through.
I just though that if visible panty-lines can have their own abbreviation, why shouldn’t visible bra straps?
Continue reading “vbs”
I don’t usually stop and talk to anyone on my daily walk to the village. It’s just a quick visit to correos to check for mail (9 times out of 10 there isn’t any) and straight back, working up a sweat.
There are maybe half a dozen old guys I see regularly, but we simply mumble un saludo and keep going. And there’s one vieja who does a short walk, all on the flat, as far as the polideportivo, and I might exchange a few words with her.
Today, however, I spoke to two old men.
Continue reading “two old men”
It’s nearly Christmas, so it must be time to dust off the decorations. Not for me the tree and the tinsel, the baubles and ornaments that figured so importantly in my childhood. 
As most people do, I started off with the central stable scene – referred to here as the pesebre (manger), nacimiento (birth) or Misterio (mystery) – but as the years go by I’ve added figures and scenes and now I feel the display really does warrant the term “belén” which is the Spanish name for Bethlehem.
Continue reading “oh little town of Bethlehem”
don't confuse the narrator 