Dawn

Dawn

Monday, July 09, 2012


Noticing there were at least two drivers on the roundabout talking on their mobile phones this morning, I took to wondering about why this offence is so common here. It it because, unlike in the UK, no stigma attaches to those committing it? They aren't seen as reckless fools either by their passengers or by their fellow drivers. If so, is Spain less 'developed' in its attitudes? Or is the UK over developed?

You'll all know of the internet dating site which only allows people it considers beautiful to become members. (Query: Can its criteria be all that demanding when they have five million members?) Anyway, they've provided some top and bottom data. Turns out that Northern Irish men are the ugliest and Brazilians the most handsome. As for women, Scandinavians dominate, with Norwegian ladies being the prettiest, followed by Swedish women. The ugliest ladies are said to be German, followed by British lasses. All highly subjective I guess.

Spain is said to be experiencing a resurgence in the sport of wild-boar hunting on horseback. Although those idiots who lambasted Jamie Oliver for simply making a reference to bullfighting may see this an endorsement-by-mere-mention, it decidedly isn't.

I had an email this morning from a lady offering to write something for my blog. She suggests "An article that looks at how the Internet has changed the way English is used today; not only has its syntax changed as a result of the Internet Revolution, but the amount of job opportunities has also shifted as a result of this shift." You'll appreciate that anyone who wants to write about English but uses 'amount of' instead of 'number of' - never mind shifted and shift within seven words - is never going to get my vote.

It's not only the Spanish who go in for 'spontaneous' performances in public places. Here's the Greeks at it too.

I've said that not every shop in town that closes is immediately boarded up. A few new ones have opened up. Among these is one large delicatessen and another place which the owner described to me as 'half delicatessen, half gifts'. I don't expect either of them to survive.

My neighbour, the lovely Ester, has taken a couple of weeks holiday and has apparently decided to spend a good part of them tarting up my garden. Having suggested that I get a ladder to take down the passion flour tendrils that had snaked up the branches of my copper beech tree, she then proceeded to do this herself. Saying she had less concern about climbing the ladder herself than about watching me do it. That done, she moved on to pulling all the passion flowers out of my hedge. Noticing she was still in her pyjamas, I told her I'd decided to Christen her La Señora de las Pijamas.

Some advice, mostly for men: If your shaving stick and your roll-on deodorant are very much the same size and shape, it's best not to have them next to each other on the shelf. For you are likely to rub soap into your armpit at least twice.

Finally . . . Although the jays are possibly still around, there's been very little bird activity on the 'feeding station'. Some compensation came today with the arrival of a blackbird through the back door of the house and its departure through the front door, after a few circles of the premises. We live in hope.

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