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Oh, Airports What excitement when the day before your long-awaited holiday arrives! You’ll only be gone for ten days, but you’re going to switch off, you’re going to relax, you’re not going to think about anything in your daily life, or the problems, the stress, the small frustrations that accumulate and leave you tired, anxious Continue reading

A few observations about the joys and traps of language. I only speak two languages, and a smidgeon of two others. More than some people, way less than many. And yet it has given me an insight into linguistics which fascinates me. As Eddie Izzard once commented, and I paraphrase, at school it used to Continue reading

Motorist Madness. An article from some years ago. The sentiment is the same though the circumstances have changed. I’m so glad I don’t have a car. The responsibility, the cost, the parking. More trouble than they’re worth. Plus, I don’t need one. There was a time when I toyed with the idea of investing in Continue reading

To coincide with this week’s podcast. The scene is familiar to you, right? Confusion and impatience, accompanied by eighties music and loose children getting in your way. Yes, you are at the supermarket. And it is one of the few places where, for no reason, we become beasts. Of course, the managers of these places Continue reading

Hey everyone! Firstly, I’d like to direct you to a new page in this blog: Bookstore   There are links to books for English teachers and also literature. Secondly, I’d like to say thank you to all of you who are listening, reading and spreading the word. Your support and feedback are hugely appreciated. Also a Continue reading

Spain, 1998 Arriving in the country, it appears you have entered a parallel universe. Chaos reigns, not only at the airport but on the roads around and out of Madrid and people are constantly shouting. They’re not angry, simply communicating and the only way to make your undoubtedly important opinion heard is to be louder Continue reading

You enter the bar. You perform a reconnaissance of the place, just like the Terminator. (Yes, it’s an old reference.) You approach a table next to the window. The only one that still has five chairs around it. You sit. Your friends sit down. At the same time, you and the person opposite you place Continue reading

The winter solstice is upon us. The nights are drawing out. Why do I still, in spite of everything, love Christmas?Because the bad tempers of people who hate Christmas, far from bringing me down, only serve to strengthen my festive feeling?Maybe it’s a nod to home and the traditions, religious and otherwise, started before I Continue reading

A micro-story Blank I’m blank The cistern is refilling and it won’t stop. I don’t know how to fix it. The doorbell sounds like an annoying fly buzzing inside my head. I’ve just realised I can’t get out of the bathroom. The door isn’t locked but I can’t get out. I don’t know why. Maybe Continue reading

Musings on kidding ourselves… Addiction is a problem our society has not managed to truly address. Addictions have often been seen as the outcome for people who have no self-control when clearly it goes far deeper than that. There has always been a stigma attached to addiction while there are far too many real, debilitating, Continue reading