News, News and Yet More News

First the Exhibition and Workshops.

From 8pm, July 29th until August the 14th there will be something rather unique going on in town. An art exhibition with a difference will take place at CIC El Pósito in Plaza Joaquin Costa, Loja.

8 International Artists have come together to present an outsiders view of life in Spain.

Offering a range of techniques and styles, the exhibition will be accompanied throughout the fortnight with live music, art workshops and

discussions on topics such as - directions for digital art - .

Look out for the attractive range of invites being left around town in bars and shops. If you have not received an invite yet, or cannot find one in town - then drop a line to lojanglo@gmail.com and a digital invite will be sent out to you.

A full program of the event, with workshop details and times can be view here.

The AAPL

Two days after the opening night, (on the 31st of July) the recently formed AAPL (Asociación de Anglo-Parlantes de Loja) will be officially launched on the steps of El Pósito, accompanied by live music from Salt of the Earth, and a small Al-andalusi market under the arches.

The new association - that will be based in the heart of Loja but reach out to members further afield - has already aroused a lot of interest from both English speakers and Spanish speakers alike. A brief synopsis of the aims of the group can be read here.

For membership details and more information, come along to the art exhibition from the 31st onwards and speak to one of the members in attendance.

Hope to see you there.

Que Calor hace.....How to survive the heat wave.

Oh - how to cope with this insufferable breezeless heat that has hit the peninsular so early this year.

With different regions on alert during this premature heat wave, what can we do to get through the day, and even more importantly, sleep at night?

Well here are six survival suggestions that should make life a little more bearable around the city of water. -

1. Eat lots of Gazpacho, Salmorejo or Porra.

This vegetable dish is the saviour of the summer for me and I have already begun my daily diet that will continue now until September? What is Salmorejo and Porra? Fundamentally they are the same thing, a thick gazpacho made with lots of bread and garlic and often topped with jamon or atun. Yummy and life-saving. Check out this recipe, but there are hundreds on the net. For authenticity, ask at your local eating place for their inevitably more satisfying version.

2. (Try to) Sleep with windows open across the house.

This will generate some small breeze and hopefully make sleep possible. Remember to have installed mosquitera on the windows if you do not want to be eaten alive.

3. Water. Drink it.

Drink it - even if you do not think you are thirsty. Your body does not always know when you begin to dehydrate until it is too late. Avoid coffee in the afternoon, now is the time of year to indulge in something more refreshing and cooler and that comes with a tapa (for those of us living still in tapalandia).

4. Water. Plunge into it.

Bathe in it. For inland dwellers a short sprint over to the beach is not on the cards, nor for many of us is the option of taking an early morning plunge in the pool. So check out the times of the local outdoor pool that should be opening this month, or find the location of your nearest embalse (Iznajar or Bermejales) for a day out with the dog and the dentist.

5. Fountains.

When strolling around town, carry a small empty plastic bottle with you. There are hundreds of drinking fountains scattered over the place, fill up as you pass by, keep to the shadows and wear a hat.

6. Close those windows.

I know, I know. You came to Spain for the sunlight, but if that sunlight is warming up your house during the day and turning it into an oven by night-fall then its time to put down the blinds, close the windows and go for the cave effect during the day. As the evening begins to cool a little - then go round and open all the windows until morning. When in Rome........

Email translations for the Incompetents Amongst Us

* Just received a message from your Asesor or Gestor in Spanish and its a tad too difficult to

read?

* Just received a spam message from your bank and would be able to spot it if it were only in English?

* Just received a message from a Spanish acquaintance but just cant fathom out the gist of the letter?

Then fear no more.

Well, actually fear on but do so with a little help

from Googles new lab tool add-on for gmail users. Now you can add a little extra to each email bar that offers you the option of translating the email into your native language.

Following up on the subject of suffering eternally the dilemmas of language acquisition, I´ve just employed a rather sneaky little tool to my email window.

Its optional so its not going to get in the way if you don´t want it. And of course its employing Googles translation engine that is not always

100% - but for many, its better than having to impose on the neighbour yet again for an off the cuff translation.

The gadget can be enabled in your Gmail account only if you have the Labs option enabled. Select this in Settings, if you have not already done so and discover a whole range of other email add-on goodies.

The Great Debate: Language and Pueblo Living

One of the 7 Fathers of the Spanish Constitution visited Loja last Friday to receive the Ibn al-Jatib prize for his cultural and social works for the country.

Gregorio Peces Barba was a legal rights lawyer and defender of many civil rights cases in Spain during the later Franco period. Arrested, or forbidden to practice law at times, he was eventually requested to be one of the 7 composing fathers of the Constitution of Spain after the death of the Tortilla Dictator.


Gregorio Peces Barba was also asked to be a minister in the Felipe Gonzalez government of the early 80´s, but he declined and instead took the role as President of the Congress of Deputies ( Leader of the House).

In 2004 he was named as the High Commissioner for the support of Terrorist Victims during which he received much criticism from the Partido Popular (inevitably) who saw him as being partial towards the Governments view ( PSOE) on the subject and not the victims. This came about after he refused to join a demonstration against the government on behalf on one of the groups who had aligned themselves with the PP.

However - and getting back to the crux of this post - the highlight of the evening for me was the contrast in dialects between the other award winner - CARLOS DERQUI DEL ROSAL (a local Loja Doctor) who told a long and anecdotal story of his life in a deep and unintelligible Granadino accent. I sat and felt rather incompetent and wondered whether It was a biological issue and that I was just missing a few language cells in my brain - when.......Gregorio stumbles to his feet and plods over to the microphone.

He begins to tell his story and I realise I´m understanding every word. Unsurprised, he tells of his Madrid background and then - me di cuenta - ( I realized) .....its just this damn local drawl that confounds the issue.

Still, what one looses in clarity of expression, is more than made up for in generosity of tapas and sociability of townsfolk.

Sorry Gregorio. I´m sticking with the drawl.

Art and Movement at the Pósito

Fellow blogger and contributor to The City of Water,

Wild Cherry has written a short and interesting review of local artist María Gallego who currently exhibits at the Pósito in Loja. For a detailed perspective of this exhibition: Contrast and Texures - and a bi-lingual slant on our local artistic life check out her site DialogVisual inEnglish here.

Or in Spanish here.

Secret Walks 4

Sometimes you just have the leave the municipality if you are really searching for something flat. And its to Huetor Tajor - our small but cute neighbouring town - that we go this time to find a hidden walk that is most definitely not hilly, slopey, climby or in any way whatsoever scalable.

There are several starting points, but my fave is the from the new Manzanil Service station as you approach Huetor from Loja along the A92.

Park at the back and clamber down to the path that appears to your left, just behind the petrol station. ( A good place I find to check your tyre pressure too with its swanky new air and water pumps). The wild first section of the walk curves and winds its way away from the motorway and along the edge of the river Genil, that flows along this short hike and offers an attractive contrast to the concrete river on your right where the traffic gently hums in the distance. As you stroll along, should you choose to focus on other sounds, you will hear a cacophony of bird song rarely experienced so close to an urban centre.
There is a lot to see on the walk. on your right you will find asparagus, spring onions, and other seasonal veg of which Huetor as justifiably renowned and about half way along, the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada will expose themselves, just after you past the surreal symmetrically planted forest. A couple of abandoned and subsiding huts appear later on your left before you arrive to the entrance to Huetor itself.
And there you can decide to stop for a refreshment ( particularly if its summer) or turn round and head back to where you left your vehicle.

Recommended times are late afternoon or early morning ( summer). Or anytime during the rest of the year. Best is a sunny and clear winters day to really appreciate the vistas of the sierras.

A Conversation with an Alien from RyanAir

Recently flying to Stansted with RyanAir I found myself having to check in using the new machines randomly scattered across the airport floor. However, when attempting to feed in my code, I was informed that I had another 20 pounds to pay. Given there was 4 of us, that amounted to an additional 80 POUNDS,
Upon asking at the desk why we were being charged extra, I was told that I had selected Web Fare and that meant I should have printed out my ticket before arriving at the airport. The conversation went something like this:

- Whats this then if this is not my ticket?
- Thats just a print out of your confirmation of booking.
- And that does not constitute a ticket then?
- No. You need to have printed out your boarding pass at home.
- Ok. Give me 3 minutes and I will go and print it out now.
- Its too late. You have to have done it weeks ago.
- Why?
- Regulations.
- Thats not an answer!
- Yes it is.
- Ok. Then why wasn´t I asked for this when I flew out of Granada Airport just 3 days ago?
- That would be the fault of Granada Airport.
- And why wasn´t I reminded of this by email, given you have sent me 300 other emails in the meantime regarding passenger information, flight times and 296 offers to fly to Prague for less than 3 cents.
- Its not our policy to send reminders to print boarding passes.
- Clearly not if you stand to earn an extra 20 pounds from each passenger. Show me where exactly on the web site it says that I must print out my own boarding pass.

Assistant then proceeds to show a small box at the bottom of the screen that says - I accept all conditions etc.

- Of course I ticked that, you can´t proceed with your booking unless you tick that box.
- Well one of those conditions is that you print out your boarding pass.
- You mean one of those hidden conditions that we are obliged to accept and that you know full well no-one will read.
- Thats not true sir, many people will be curious as to why the price is so low and read the conditions to find out why.
- OK, clearly we are speaking different languages. Let me talk to someone from my planet please. You clearly are not of my species.


Thus be warned. Read the conditions and small print and then still expect a surcharge for choosing to be seated during the flight.

If you still think RyanAir are cheap, check out the comparison chart here and think again.

Read this report from one UK newspaper on the rising costs of RyanAir, or this report on the hidden costs of air travel, or this report on charging for using the loo. And then go fly with someone else.

AD Free TV comes to Spain Next Year

Could it be true?

Zapatero´s government is working on removing all ads from the state channels by the middle of next year. This radical move will be financed by a new tax on the commercial channels, internet, cable and mobile TV providers.
The plan, worked out by Vice-President María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, says it should be in operation by next July and will affect La Primera and La 2,  the 5 TDT channels and a number of radio broadcasts.
So next time you hear the old argument about Spanish TV comprising of 50 minutes of ads and 10 mins of programs you will have an answer. : Try watching the state channels for a change.

Anyway. Since when has British TV been any better?