Well, that was a farce.  Sonalee offered to be one of the Three Kings for the parade around the village  –  the dark one of the three obviously.  She was entered into a draw for the honour of doing so but her name did not get pulled out of the hat (a metaphorical one, I…

Here in Spain we have a phenominoninom, a phenorem, a phinomoninoy, a thing called El Puente, the Bridge.   It is where a bank holiday will appear on a Tuesday, for example, but many people and many companies also just take the Monday off as well because, what’s the point?  Unlike the UK, bank holidays are…

Life in the exam factory continues to be difficult with moments of happiness and I think it would be fair to say that the difficult part is slowly diminishing  and the moments of happiness or at least not being unhappy are  increasing as we adjust to life north of Madrid. In terms of the day…

The weather turned quite dramatically this last weekend – coincidentally Sonalee’s birthday.  We have, without warning, gone from Summer to Winter without any pause for an Autumn.  Seriously, one day I was out in shorts and t-shirt of an evening and the next I am in jeans and thermal jacket. It is quite bizarre for…

It’s really hard to try to describe the conflicting emotions at leaving somewhere that you loved living even as you realise that you were never going  to be financially enhanced by being  there.  It is a confusing miasma of feelings that I think you can never really reconcile. Having said that, Portuguese employment laws have…

Wow.  Just wow.  We have come back to Lisbon for a few weeks just because we think we will never get the chance to live here ever again (never say never, I know) but also because we wanted an escape from the unbelievable heat of Spain.  It is, as Sonalee observed, like living on a…

Well, that’s that then.  Another job, another school year completed.  Some tears – there were some from students and from me as well.  Some of those kids were genuinely lovely and it was a pleasure to teach them – and coach them of course.  Some of my best memories of my time in Lisbon involve…

We have an issue.  There is a creature at the back of our oven.  Or maybe inside.  It is of the rodent variety and is causing us anxiety.  We had one a few weeks ago and the dogs went berserk each night it ventured out, smashing about in the kitchen in frustration at all hours. …

The masks have come off!  Finally, after two years, I can teach without my voice being muffled and being able to see the facial reactions of my students.  Then, naturally, everyone gets colds, flu and covid.  I have the former.  My immune system is just so unused to having to deal with the mucus of…

Well, the prediction that life would be a bit shit for a while turned out to be accurate.  Dropping Sonalee off at Cordoba train station is one of those times when you do what you have to and not what you want to do.  To top that day off the cat complained loudly for pretty…