My Spanish students have a lot of trouble with the English words jam and ham. Which is the one that comes from pigs and which is the fruit preserve? Just in case you’re not sure ham is the pig product. Britons and Spaniards also have a different idea of a ham. Mention ham and Spanish people … [Read more...]
From Monóvar to Casablanca
March 7, 2011 By
I’m a bit of a sucker for links between ideas. Victor Laszlo in front of the band, “Play the Marseillaise, Play it!”, German officers singing – “Die Wacht am Rhein “, Rick nods, the band strikes up and everyone but everyone sings their lungs out. The Germans give up, defeated by a song, … [Read more...]
Real Culture
September 30, 2010 By
I paraphrase, with the excuse of failing memory, a story that Spike Milligan told about the late night mercy dash he was making across town in his Standard 10. His wife was in the passenger seat just about to give birth. He was pulled over by a traffic policeman on a motorbike. “What’s the big … [Read more...]
A stop in Castilla La Mancha
August 15, 2010 By
It’s 4am. The bus is parked up in a service station. Just outside Albacete. A group of weary travellers cluster around the door, talking to the driver, their fags like glow worms in the night. The cafeteria area smells faintly of sick and bleach. It’s almost deserted, dozing – a woman … [Read more...]
Parador Hotels
July 8, 2010 By
Fancy staying in an old castle or monastery? Then one of the state chain of hotels, a Parador, may well be for you. Paradores are a product of a dictatorship in Spain, probably not the last one but the one before. The dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera that lasted from 1923 till 1930. Primo … [Read more...]
