more blogs by Robert Bovington...
"Photographs of
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"Spanish Impressions"
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"postcards from
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"you couldn't make it up!"
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"bits and bobs"
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"Spanish Expressions"
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"Spanish Art"
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"Books About
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Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Nigella
This was posted on Facebook recently...
more blogs by Robert Bovington...
more blogs by Robert Bovington...
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Some more blogs
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"Photographs of
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"Spanish Impressions"
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"postcards from
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"you couldn't make it up!"
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"bits and bobs"
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"Spanish Expressions"
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"Spanish Art"
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"Books About
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You may also like to view my WordPress blogs:-
Robert Bovington
March 2012
"Spanish Impressions"
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"postcards from
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"Books About
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"bits and bobs"
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"Spanish Expressions"
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"Photographs of
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"Spanish Art"
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"a grumpy old man in
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"you couldn't make it up!"
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Robert Bovington
March 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Television
English television gets worse and worse. Even though I can get lots of channels courtesy of my Sky digibox, I invariably find nothing on worth watching. There are very few decent comedy shows nowadays.'Not Going Out' starring Lee Mack, Tim Vine, Sally Bretton and Katy Wix is one of the few current sit-coms on British TV. I also like 'Doc Martin' and 'Outnumbered' although the latter is not as funny as it used to be in earlier series. Long gone are comedy classics like 'Only Fools and Horses'; 'Black Adder'; 'Fawlty Towers', ‘2point4 children’; ‘My Wife Next Door’; ‘Please Sir!’; ‘Three Up, Two Down’; ‘To the Manor Born’; ‘The Good Life’; ‘The Vicar of Dibley’; ‘One Foot in the Grave’; ‘Dad's Army’; ‘Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister’; ‘Porridge’; ‘Men Behaving Badly’; 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'; ‘Just Good Friends’; ‘Man About the House’ and many more!
There are still good crime series 'Law and Order UK' is currently running whilst ‘Above Suspicion’; ‘Trial & Retribution’; ‘Lewis’; ‘Foyle's War’; ‘Inspector George Gently’ and ‘Whitechapel’ appear occasionally whilst there are often repeats of ‘Agatha Christie's Poirot’ and ‘A Touch of Frost’. In the past we had ‘Waking the Dead’; ‘the Prime Suspect series’; ‘Inspector Morse’; ‘Cracker’; ‘Rebus ‘; ‘Judge John Deed’; ‘Kavanagh QC’ and ‘The Bill.
But what else is there? Some football, Eastenders, Antiques Roadshow, Country File, The Apprentice (occasionally) and Question Time.
Fortunately, I mostly only watch TV between 9pm & midnight Spanish time yet I still often end up watching Spanish TV - notably La Sexta 3. That channel shows films all day and I have seen many good films of late. Some are quite recent but they do show old films too. Last night I watched Jack Nicholson in 'The Shining' (a bit scary so my wife went to bed early) and, a couple of nights ago, I watched 'The Sting' featuring Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Robert Shaw.. A bit old but still one of my favourite films. It doesn't even matter that my Spanish is not yet good enough because I can watch the films in their original language!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Spain came second in a European quality of life survey
Extract from 'The Olive Press'... http://www.theolivepress.es/)
XPATS have every right to feel smug after Spain came second in a European quality of life index.
The uSwitch survey – which took into account living costs, spending on health and education, work/life balance and days of sunshine – left the UK firmly at the bottom of the list.
The index concluded that the Spanish" can expect to live a year longer than those in the UK, have more days off (the highest number in Europe) and enjoy cheaper booze.
However it was not all bad news for Blighty, which enjoys a higher average wage and greater investment in education than Spain.
France topped the index, with the Netherlands third."
my own thoughts...
1. I agree that Spain has a much higher quality of life than Britain.
2. The UK may invest more in education but that's because they pay school teachers too big a salary and in my experience (I was a supply teacher for 3 months before moving to Spain) many English schools are run by incompetent teaching staff.
3. France is a beautiful country but I wouldn't want to live there - too many French people.
4.Holland? it must be difficult cycling in clogs!
Monday, November 21, 2011
Tourists
by Robert Bovington
Tourists are easiest to spot in winter - especially the North European variety. Whilst we expats, who have acclimatised ourselves to warmer climes, don our cardigans and warm trousers, the tourists from northern areas of the continent wear shorts.
The Germans tend to garb themselves in matching 'his and hers' calf-length shorts with lots of pockets. The British opt for both the shorts and shirts of their local football team or, if they are really sad, Manchester United colours even if they hail from Plymouth or Newcastle! Sometimes, three generations of the family will wear the same team colours which looks really stupid on grandad who needs an XXL sized top to cover his enormous beer-gut! I've even seen a whole family, including mother and daughter, sporting replica shirts! Then there are the really fashion conscious who wear socks and sandals with their too short shorts!
The Spanish tourists in winter are usually retired folk from Northern Spain. They are easily spotted - usually in groups of four - two male and two female. They are usually about five feet tall and walk four abreast at about two hundred metres per hour. It is difficult to overtake them however unless you are brave enough to step in the road and risk being catapulted into the air (see blog post on Driving).
In summer it is more difficult to distinguish tourists from residents. However we always know when Spanish tourists are staying nearby - they are the ones who are making a racket at 4-o'clock in the morning and stopping the rest of us from sleeping!
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