Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Attractive bacteria; Siesta deaths; Weekend rags; Language trix; Shopping; & Silly names.


At lunch with some of my young daughter's friends on Sunday, I heard one ask another: "Which is your favourite bacterium?". After which there was a 5 minute chat on the attributes of various candidates. One of them, it turned out, was a scientist and the other a doctor. Happily, I'd finished eating.

You'll forgive me for not placing any trust in the Cambridge University study which concluded that a daily siesta shortens your life. Especially as they don't know why. It's just a coincidence that Spanish longevity is the best in Europe, I suppose.

Reading The Sunday Times is a real challenge. Specifically, where to find a bin in which to dump the 9 sections you don't want to read. Spain's weekend papers have, of course, been heading in this direction for years, though the internet's impact may well have slowed down 'progress'.

Orwell would have loved this abuse of language. . . I see that the coffee my sister favours comes a third of the way along a bar labelled 'Smooth' at one end and 'Rich' at the other. What they mean, of course, is 'Weak' and 'Strong'.

I keep bumping up against the problem that shops in Britain close around 5pm, just when most of those in Spain are opening up for the evening shift of 5-8pm. Or even 5-9. Frustrating.

Finally . . . I saw recently that someone had called their child L'Wren. This is perhaps not as bad as Will.i.am and I look forward to seeing L'Wrence, L'Ora and L'Orna in due course. Inter alia.

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