I wrote about this a few months ago, writing up a brief post on Facebook, and I have been wanting to recycle it and expand on it, but try as I might I cannot seem to find my original text so I’ll try to rehash what it was about as best I can. Mr Pendered […]

Read more "Philip"

Another little nugget for the locals and/ or those of you planning to visit Bcn. This city is blessed with beaches close at hand but many visitors choose to amble down to the Barceloneta and burn off their hang-overs on those three or so kms of dusty sand, amidst the pigeons and the pick-pockets and […]

Read more "Premià"

“Do you know why you are here?” Mr King asked us rhetorically, no doubt after seeing our bovine gazes over the last hour or so, as he attempted to drill aspects of organic chemistry into our unreceptive minds. “You aren’t really here to learn chemistry and I’m not really here to teach you the chemistry […]

Read more "The point of the exercise"

Another nugget: At Belas Artes we were required to take a rather dense course in Aesthetics – Aesthetics 1,2 and 3 – in years two, three and four of our degree. Our professor was a very clever and lean young man who spoke very well ( although with a slight tendency to speak fast and […]

Read more "On aesthetics"

Just a little anecdote that came up last night in conversation and made me smile as I remembered it – Six years ago or so, I had been working for Roche a few months and one of my Spanish colleagues, whose command of English was rather sketchy, came to me and asked me to help […]

Read more "On grammar"