Wulf's Web-Den

It was a Swedish programme I was watching last night rather than a Spanish one — the Swedish Wallander I mention last week — but the observation remains: there is a flaw with watching a subtitle movie. It was all good until I wanted to pop into the kitchen to grab a snack at which point I realised that I could not follow the plot by merely listening in! That serves as a positive comment on the quality of the subtitles though, as they were so well done that, for a while, I forgot I was listening to Swedish.

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I have been thinking about my travels along the Camino de Santiago again over the last few days. Tonight our housegroup is leading the service at St Clements on the theme of journeys and one of my contributions will be a short reflection on the 100 mile foot journey that I have made twice.

Rewalking it mentally isn't quite as rich an experience as walking it physically but it is a good time to look back on... and perhaps one day to revisit again!

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This post does not have much to do with Spain but I thought it was a neglected category on my blog and so managed to work out (without recourse to a dictionary, except to check my work) how to entitle this one A Tale of Two Washing Machines.

We have been without a washing machine for several months. Our previous one was repaired earlier this year, which cost about as much as buying a brand new machine, but then something else broke and we decided not to attempt to eke it out any more. Since then, Jane's trips to help her Mum with shopping have also been our chance to catch up on our washing.

This week we were kindly given a replacement machine by a friend from church. Initially it seemed that it didn't work but we now have it running and have done a couple of washes. The only problem is that it is loud - it sounds like a coffee machine on acid, running at stadium rock levels. Still, at least it is easier to keep up with the washing for the time being.

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In early March, Jane and I spent a week in Galicia in Northern Spain. We stayed in an apartment in Santiago de Compostela (which we know a little from our trips on the Camino de Santiago) and also ventured out on trips to Lugo (where the city centre is still encircled by a complete Roman wall) and A Coruña (a port city to the north of the region).

Our trip included music and food, some practise for our Spanish and lots and lots of photographs. In fact, I took so many pictures that I have only just finished sorting through them, keeping enough to remind us of our trip but discarding many of the near misses and close duplicates.

What has slowed me down is that, on many of the pictures, I have seen opportunities for applying some development in the digital darkroom (mainly using The Gimp); however, that means that I am now sharing a set that I am largely very happy with.

Don't forget that, because the pictures are hosted on Flickr, you can also jump straight to viewing details (showing larger preview images along with titles and descriptions), a slideshow or even view all the images posted on a map.

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I am working on some fireworks pictures that I took last night but it might be a few days before I have finished sorting through them. In the meanwhile, I wanted to note my visit to Grant and Cutler on Great Marlborough Street in London.

I was wending my way through Soho, heading back to Charing Cross and trying to avoid the crowds on the bigger streets when I looked up and spotted the shop; I had heard of it before but never got round to visiting.

Since I was in no hurry, I took a few minutes to browse and can confirm that it is a fabulous repository of all things related to languages; definitely one I will visit again.

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I have had a picture published by Schmap in their online guide to Sevilla, where Jane and I spent a few days in March 2006. We stayed in Hotel Zaida and the image is of the lobby of that establishment.

They found the picture via my Flickr account. However, they did the whole process properly - contacting me to ask if I would allow my photo to be considered for inclusion. There is no story of photo-stealing here and, truth be told, I may well check their guide next time I am looking for a hotel in a foreign city as it seems to be a good source of information.

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Commenting on my previous post on learning Spanish, Mike reminded me of the Coffee Break Spanish podcasts.

I do subscribe to those (see my blogroll) but have to confess that I have been tending to mark them off as read without listening. However, they are an excellent resource, as I reminded myself this morning by listening to the latest one.

Jane starts her GCSE Spanish course today so maybe I should support her by taking more coffee breaks...

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