Category: notes

Nicholas Mead points to a particularly amusing bit of English Translation from the toursit office on the island of La Gomera:

IT IS OUR DESIRE THAT TRAVES OF THESE PAGINAS CAN KNOW THE ISLAND THE GOMERA, ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, ARTESANIA, GASTRONOMIA BETTER AND LIKE NO, OUR SUPPLY TURISTICA AND OF COMPLEMENTARY LEISURE

Meanwhile the Guardian comments on the usual Franco celebration nonsense in Madrid this weekend:

Hundreds of right-wing supporters, many making stiff-armed fascist salutes and chanting insults against gays and immigrants, gathered Sunday to mark the 31st anniversary of the death of Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.

Puerta del Sol mentions an essential new dictionary we Spanishofiles might want to get our hands on.

And finally, you probably have to be Spanish to understand all the humour in this one, but this take on Franco’s death is particularly fine, just before the minute mark, in the announcement for the BBC 🙂

(video direct link)

Want to sharpen your Spanish fluency and speaking skills? For the next three weeks Marina will be offering exclusive one-to-one conversation classes over the telephone/internet. Read more here…

A quick P.S. on the Madrid weekend: you don’t have to be a forum member to come along, or a long-time NFS listener, but the forum will be the best place to discuss the weekend as time goes on. We really hope this will be a collaborative effort, a great weekend discussed, planned and decided upon by all those that want to come along. You’re all very welcome to join us in April. See you there 😉

It’s really going to happen! A long time ago the idea was put forward that when we reached 1,000 forum members we should organise a big pary in Madrid for Easter 2007. Well we are nearly there, so we have picked a date so you can all start booking your flights! (And you certainly don’t have to be a forum member to come along!)

So here’s the plan: As many of you as can make it (the more the better!) will come to Madrid from Friday April 20th until Sunday 22nd, 2007. On the Friday night we’ll organise an informal get together (tapas til late? 😉 ). On the Saturday we’ll organise a trip around Madrid or a trip out to one of the beautiful nearby towns, it’s up to you. And on Saturday night we’ll have a big celebration meal. Then maybe a trip to the Rastro on Sunday.

The point is that anyone who listens to the podcasts, or drops by the websites, is very welcome. It’s a chance to meet Marina and I, and all of you, and to see some of the best bits of one of the most exciting cities in the world!

Everybody will be responsible for sorting out their own flights and accommodation (though we may be able to sort out a discount somewhere if enough of you are interested in coming!) We will obviously help with ideas on where to stay, and sort out the place for the meal on the Saturday night. The idea though is to plan this all together in a special part of the forum, where you will also find a list of who has signed up already.

Come and join us for a great weekend in Madrid! Just e-mail me (Ben) if you are interested in coming along!

UPDATE: Please read the important post about accommodation in the forum.

By popular demand the Notes from Spain and Notes in Spanish T-Shirts are here at last! NFS has teamed up with the web’s favourite T-Shirt maker, Cafepress, to bring you t-shirts, aprons, mugs, notebooks – with many of the designs based on suggestions made by you in the forum.

Click here to see the full range!

If you can’t beat ’em…

The recipe details for last week’s Cuisine from Spain podcast have been added to the post.