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I just thought you'd like to know that I had a brief ’phone call from Angharad at lunch time today.
Her flight was good and the ’plane arrived early due to a tail wind. She is now safely ensconced in her apartment in Menorca, and has already been out looking for “Menorcan Spikes” in the local woodland. She has been unable to get on the internet yet so hadn't been able to check her emails.
She says the weather has been generally okay but there has been some rain.
I would have posted this earlier, but I had a three-hour power cut which meant I didn't get a proper lunch :(
Hugs,
Gabi
Comments
Thanks Gabi
I'm sure Ang will enjoy her break.
btw particular thanks for the apostrophe with 'plane. Planes without apostrophes are for smoothing wood not for flying. It's aeroplanes that fly (or, reluctantly, airplane, if you speak $)
Geoff (an aeroplane anorak)
Thanks, Geoff
Apostrophes are very useful when they are used in the correct places. Too many people forget (or don't realise) that ’phone should be spelled with an apostrophe, it being a contraction of telephone.
Gabi (an apostrophe nutter)
Gabi.
Missing her already
Looking forward to hearing of her adventures!
Menorca
Where is Menorca, anyway? It's a word that makes me think of some kind of anthropomorphic killer whales, like it's an old-time adventure serial "Angharad vs. the Orca Men."
Minorca
It's one of two islands in the Mediterranean that now belong to Spain but once belonged to Britain. The other is Majorca, after which Mayonaisse is indirectly named. Popular vacation spot for people from the UK and Ireland because of tradition, I suppose, and lots of the natives speak English, still. The architecture of the older parts of the place kind of looks like a Mediterranean version of a south England resort town, not typical Spanish at all. Oh, and they don't actually speak standard Spanish there except as an official language and by immigrants from the mainland, they have their own dialect related to the Catalan spoken in Barcelona.
Britain gave Majorca to the Spanish as part of an attempt to pull Spain out of Napolean's embrace. Minorca they gave up after the Napoleanic Wars as a sort of bargain to get to keep Gibraltar.
There's a similar island in the Atlantic called Madeira that Britain pretty much controlled for aboutr a hundred years even though it technically belonged to Portugal and was finally given back, I think about the time of the American Civil War.
Malta was another British-controlled island in the Med that is now an independent member of the EU. Cyprus has a real complicated history.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Three, actually.
There are three islands in the Balearic group - Mallorca (the largest, and well known as the retreat of Chopin and Georges Sands and where he wrote the so-called Raindrop Prelude), Menorca (where our beloved Angharad has gone to help Cathy research dormice) and that den of iniquity Ibiza (the smallest, where the young of Europe retreat to enjoy sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll to excess).
The Canadian guy who was the chief sailing instructor on the dinghy racing holidays I spent in Menorca told me his children spoke three languages - English, Spanish and Menorcan, which, I think, is similar to Catalan. There's a regular ferry service from Barcelona to the islands.
I've visited the two former but never the latter (I'm much too straight-laced). Lovely places, both with generally a benign climate, though as Chopin discovered, it can rain at times.
Geoff
Looking forward to Angharad's return
I am so glad that she arrived safely and hope she has been having a great time. "A certain young lady" is hoping she's had time to write something while she's been away. We are looking forward to more of her great writings when she gets home.
Hugs
Hilary