I had my last lesson with the rheumatologists this morning. José brought in a pack of Twinings tea and some biscuits and they had arranged for the cafe to send up some water and coffee (just in case the tea was not to their taste). This was rather touching, as it was when Javier, the senior consultant, dug into his briefcase and handed me a book saying that it was to say thankyou for being their teacher. The book is called Hablar bien no cuesta tanto which translates as Speaking correctly isn't so difficult. It's filled with advice from a learned chap on things like how to pronounce words, how to spell them and so on. They seem to take their lead from writers in the 1600s... still, it'll be interesting.

So that was pretty nice, they've been an easy group to teach, always willing to talk and surprisingly chipper at the end of shifts or at 8am (and sometimes even after a 24 hour stint on call).

Hopefully they'll be wanting another course starting in October.  ¶ 7:51 PM 0 comments

  There appear to be two main groups of tourists wandering the streets of Oviedo; Northerners and Southerners.

Southerners appear to be Spanish, visiting the funny Asturians looking at bagpipe players, drinking cider, eating fabada and generally having a fine time while wearing a couple of extra layers of clothing and handling an umbrella with a dazed expression (rain? in May? all week?).

Northerners appear to be English, German, Dutch or American, and are easily identified by their readiness to wear spaghetti strap tops, flip-flops, shorts and other summer items while the temperature hovers around 17C and everyone else is debating whether to wear the fur coat or the leather jacket. They can also have a dazed expression (we're in Spain? But it's pissing down!).

Ne'er cast a clout 'till May is out, they say in Yorkshire. Well here the saying translates as: Don't take your coat off until the fortieth of May.

Apologies to the Wyke clan who spent a chilly weekend in Asturias while the UK had the warmest days of the year so far.
  ¶ 2:15 PM 0 comments

  There are two multiplexes in Oviedo, one within walking distance, the other needs a bus, and an awareness of the finish time of the film (or a bus and taxi). They both show pretty much the same programme, which doesn't include anything not in Spanish. They're not big on V.O. releases here, apparently there is a cinema in Gijon which does them sometimes...

We don't let that stop us though... I still like going to the cinema once a week or so. I was tempted to go and see 'Let the right one in' the other day but I reckon I'll wait and see it in an original version with subtitles... some films just need to be seen with the original performances because, despite the skill of the dubbers, something is lost when you see dubbed films.

I saw Star Trek last week, and it was fine... they included Chekov's difficulty with his w's but Scotty! By all accounts Simon Pegg's accent was geographically diverse but all I got was some slightly differently accented Spanish (I still can't really tell accents apart, some of the South American ones yes).

Yesterday I went to the cinema intending to see something worthy but there wasn't anything like that on (until 11pm... and I wasn't going to hang around) so I did Angeles y Demonios. Which, as the Kermode said (I listened to the podcast this morning) is the stupidest film for a very long time. I was waiting for the equivalent of the 'Get me to a library, now.' line from the DaVinci rubbish and sure enough... with a straight face and daft hair Tom Hanks said 'I need a map of Rome with all of the churches on, now.'

The exposition was a little hard to follow and the wayward Northern Irish by way of Tasmania accent from Ewan McGregor was utterly lost (apparently no big loss there) but the last half hour was laugh out loud utterly stupid. I had low expectations and they failed to be met by some considerable degree. The additional effort required to keep up in another language made it bearable... in English I'm pretty sure I would have been throwing things at the screen.
  ¶ 9:02 PM 2 comments

  So there we were, in the Atapuerca hotel (described accurately as 'for truck drivers') an isolated place with a couple of villages close by, but too far to walk to after a long day outside.

After dinner Ignacio said we'd be having the Queimada. Then, seeing the blank looks on our faces they proceeded to explain.

You take a litre or two of orujo (preferably home made, with a high alcohol content), chop orange peel, apples, lemon peel and add them and coffee beans, and a ton of sugar. All this goes into a ceramic cauldron.

Then you light the thing and stir it with a ladle (hopefully not made of wood). When the flames go completely blue, you put them out and serve it.

It's warm, sweet and quite strong (even after the burning off process).

While it's being burned you're meant to recite a conjuro (a spell) which is a call to the earth, wind, sea and fire to purify the drink and share it with souls of absent family and friends. So of course we did this, fifty or so people, much to the amusement of the few additional guests in the bar.

Yes, all this was done in the hotel bar. A health and safety nightmare!  ¶ 9:49 AM 0 comments

  And they were right.

For the May holiday (no wussing out and moving it to a Monday here, the first of May is the day of the workers and is traditionally accompanied by demonstrations and union leaders shaking their fists while orating... at least this year they were angry in a focussed way) we went away to Castilla y León with the walking group.

Winter has been a bit long here (I had my first snow day on the fourth of October last year and we had a snowy weekend in León... ) eight months in fact. The news shows were saying that this year's ski season has been the longest for a good while, at the same time as showing skiers in Granada.

So: we went south, to the other side of the mountains, where the nights are cold and the days are colder (until summer when the days are unbearable). We were in the Sierra de la Demanda, somewhere I'd never heard of before, but it was beautiful countryside, and on Saturday's walk we had stunning views of snow capped mountains far far to the south and way off to the west.

As we came back over the mountains into Asturias you could see the cloud spilling over from the north. We emerged from the tunnel separating León and Asturias (called el negron (the really black one)) into murky grey cloud and the bus filled with happy murmurs of glad to be home.

Later it rained.
  ¶ 9:31 AM 0 comments