I’m trying to avoid adding too much geeky stuff to this blog, but I have a feeling it’s going to start creeping in every now and again… the podcasting obsession is what has really got me going… I find myself browsing rss feeds at strange times of night, and getting excited by ideas like instant outliners… worrying.

Anyway, watch Epic 2015, a bit of technological futurism that we should all look at, a great take on the www. past and present. Maybe it’s the commentators voice, but there’s something creepily ‘1984‘ about the whole thing. Watch out for Googlezon… you have been warned.

My book, ‘Errant in Iberia’, is a kind of travel auto-biography covering my first three years in Spain.

Click here for details of how to get hold of ‘Errant in Iberia’

Part of the synopsis I sent publishers reads:

“In 1998 I left London with vague plans of spending a short time in Spain and taking some photographs. I arrived in Madrid, with barely a word of Spanish, and ended up staying for good. The story follows my first three years in the country, and includes: journeys through Spain, wild fiestas, bewildering confrontations with Spanish culture and family life, the renovation of a decrepit flat in Madrid’s old quarter, and an intimate portrait of a traditional inner city neighbourhood.”

Well, Lonely Planet nearly published it – they even got as far as writing editorial notes all over it – but they returned it to me in the end. So I thought I might as well publish it myself, ‘on-line’. I think it’s a pretty good take on what it means to leave your country and make a new start somewhere else. It covers a lot of aspects of living and working in Spain, and is full of journeys you might want to make one day. Feel free to download and read it – and if you get that far, then do let me know what you think!

…never fails to suprise me. Yesterday we were invited to dinner with some Spanish friends.We arrived at 10.30 p.m., pretty late for a Friday night meal I thought, even by Spanish standards… but we were the first to arrive! The last were the couple with the 5-month-old twins. We sat down to eat an enormous plate of pasta at about 11.30 p.m., and got home at 4.30 a.m. Thank God for that early evening siesta, the only break in a typical 21 hour Friday.

Meanwhile, two more websites. Blogspain.com is my attempt to create a blogosphere in Spain – people living here or just passing through and blogging all the way. And Podspain.com – a collaborative venture with Rafe Jaffrey, bringing you podcast interviews and travel from Spain. Check out the last interview, with Clark Boyd from the BBC.

Sometimes it’s easy to shake your head at the way things work in Spain, to sit back and think, ‘If I were Prime Minister for a day I’d set this place right!’ -especially so when you grew up in a nanny state like the UK.

There are two things I would work on straight away. Firstly, I would make sure all women got paid the same amount as their male counterparts for doing the same job. I have never really counted myself amongst the feminists of this world, but there are some things which are just plain good manners, simple good sense. And in Spain women are still getting lower wages in the work place.

Secondly:

I would pour money into road safety and the persecution of crazy, law-breaking motorists. Today’s bus crash on the A4 outside Madrid could have been a lot worse, only one death, two ‘muy grave’, and eleven more injuries. But the fact is that last year over 4,000 people were killed on the roads in Spain. The main causes for these deaths were drink driving, lack of seat belt, driving too close to the car in front, and speeding. Why does this happen? Lack of enforcement by the police. The reason there are far fewer deaths in the UK is that people drive more carefully, and tend not to drink and drive – why? Because they know that if they disobey the laws of the road they are likely to be caught, and that the penalties will be stiff. That just isn’t the case in Spain.

That is where I would start if I were in charge for a day. O.K. end of rant.

Amazing! If you listened to Podcast no. 5 you’ll know I bought a lottery ticket in the Pacifico Market and, incredibly, I’ve just found out that I’ve won 15 Euros!!! I got the last 3 numbers on the ticket! Wow! My first lottery win in Spain! It certainly isn’t a big prize, but I’m sure it bodes well for future adventures in the podcasting world!

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It’s another Notes from Spain podcast! A sound seeing tour from the centre of Madrid…

Show notes:

• Including special guest – Marina.
• The ‘Mercado de Pacifico’ experience…

Plastic greenhouses in Almeria. For more shocking environmental comparison pics, check out this piece from elmundo.es.

It feels like Madrid is under an enormous greenhouse at the moment – up to 36º today according to a bus stop thermometer… I think I’m getting obsessed with the weather…

A warning to anyone considering translation as a career. There will be sunny Saturday mornings when you are stuck inside translating sentences like this:

“Es un método en el que el avance de la excavación se ajusta con gran versatilidad a las condiciones del terreno y en el que se utiliza entibación cuajada con tablones de madera como sostenimiento provisional, dejando en las sucesivas fases de la excavación de la sección de avance una porción muy limitada de la misma, cuya amplitud se ajusta a las condiciones existentes, sin entibación hasta que se coloca ésta.”

Aaahhh! Help!!!

This man certainly has something to say about the European constitution.. though I’m still not sure quite what he was implying… He was wandering around the book fair in the Retiro park. It seems he’s not the only one to have been unsettled by the recent results from Holland and France. Italy’s Labour Minister wants to ditch the Euro and return to the Lira!

Meanwhile, it really was a pretty nice evening for a walk…

Rowing in the Retiro

…and later, we somehow ended up at the terraza around the corner where I also ate yesterday, though it was a lot quiter this evening. I have a feeling we will be spending quite a bit of time there this summer.

Well, it was a quiet drink until a Romanian lady with a portable amp. came along and started singing. There was no food in the house so I went and sat at a table at a bar around the corner for a cool bottle of mahou and some pan tomaca. It’s Hotting up now, 28 degrees at 22.30…

I feel like I should have intelligent things to say about the French and the Dutch saying ‘no’ to the European constitution, but I don’t, so I’m going to point you to these comments on Adam Curry’s weblog instead.