I’ve been a bit too busy for comfort lately (nothing new!), so Iasked my son how much he wanted me to carve a pumpkin, on a scale of 1to 10. He said, “Three”. So I carved a green pepper instead, which was quick and therefore a lot more fun.
Tomorrow is All Saints’ Day, when people remember their loved ones who’ve died. Most of the graves will be decorated, and there will be a special mass held in most graveyards. (If you go, please be sensitive, as some of the congregation will be feeling fragile.) And there will be the monthly flea market in Santa Cruz in the morning.
My friends in Franceses thought they’d done all the paperwork necessary to register their house purchase when we dropped the papers off at the Land Registry months ago. But on Thursday they got a letter in Spanish legalese, saying something about missing documents and “a fine of between 60 and 6000 Euros”. This was not good for their blood pressure. So they scanned it and emailed it to me. And…
John T Unger makes gorgeous firebowls. Since each one is hand made, they’re not cheap, but I can well understand why people lash out on one. I first came across John and his work via this article (which I heartily recommend for anyone facing any kind of crisis, and especially for any kind of artist. But now John has another serious problem to overcome. Someone else is making remarkably similar…
For anyone who’s managed not to hear, the British National Party) got two seats in the European parliament. This means, under pre-existing BBC rules, that their leader got to be on the popular political debate programme, “Question Time.” This has caused quite a row. The BNP are extremely unpopular with most people because they’re as near as dammit, the Nazi party. They don’t allow non-white members, and they want to…
Panchita, my friend’s neighbour My trip to El Hierro was great. I didn’t feel a bit sick on the way there. Lugging my stuff around Gomera coming and going was hard work, but San Sebastian is a nice little town, and I got quite a bit of work done on my laptop. More importantly, once I got to El Hierro, I had a great time with my friend. It was…