Word Watch
I have to be careful of exercise-creep here. The temptation is to include everything that is even a little strange, such as líder, which, of course, is leader. Or yate - yacht. But I will restrict myself to words which don’t have anything like the same meaning in English. Or even exist. So:-
Un travelling: This is a camera on tracks. Or a dolly, to give it its proper name
Un mister: This is what soccer coaches are usually called
Un sir: And this is what they are accorded when they are as famous as Alex Ferguson of Manchester United.

It’s not just malevolent and violent partners that Spanish women are up against; a magistrate in the south west threw out a case yesterday on the grounds that, since the petitioner had come to court fashionably dressed each day [‘in a different outfit’] and adorned with jewellery and a nose stud, she didn’t seem to him to have the demeanour of a woman who had been battered. So the supportive medical evidence was ignored.

Refining my findings on seat belts today, I concluded – without surprise – that the biggest offenders were drivers of delivery vans and taxis. But it was a tad shocking to see an ambulance go past me with neither of the front seat passengers belted up. Perhaps they have a dispensation that they are stupid enough to take up.