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March 24, 2006

Googles Italian Clothing

I had a day off on Monday and went to the Costa del Sol for a daytrip - to Fuengirola to be precise - to see some friends who live there.

It was OK for a day trip but I wouldn't want a week there.

I found it disconcerting every time a shop assistant told me the price of what I was buying in English after we had spoken only Spanish up until then.

Where I live hardly anybody speaks English - but being in Fuengirola was a little like being in London if I shut my eyes for a moment - so I was glad to get home from my day trip to the seaside.

Anyway - while I was in Fuengirola I was browsing the market and found clothing for sale under the "Googles" logo - see the scan below.

googles.jpg

Does this mean that Google are going to use some of their cash pile to branch out into fashion?

I think it's more likely that some chancer is (ab)using their name and logo to make a quick buck - and the clothing was worse quality and 50% more expensive than where I live.


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February 5, 2006

Operation Bahia Nets Illegal Treasure Hunters

I've been following this story in Diario De Cadiz for the last few days.

I find it very interesting - this is happening on my own doorstep after all - any mistakes in translation are mine - this comes from a Spanish newspaper.



In a crackdown against illegal treasure hunters in the "Gibraltar Straits" Spanish police and Guardia Civil have detained the boat "Louisa" on suspicion of illegal treasure hunting along the Atlantic coast of Spain.

According to a spokesman for the Spanish authorities today:

"The plunderers we have detained were very professional and very dangerous"

The investigators found portable computers, fragments of vases, 17th Century cannonballs and bags of musket shot that could have been used in the "Battle of Trafalgar"

The boarding party also found maps of archaeological sites and photocopies of documents from the "Archivo de Indias de Sevilla".

Worse - they also found five M16 rifles and a pistol - plus plenty of ammunition - I counted 15 clips in the picture published in the paper.

There's also a picture of what looks like a missile - I guess it's an underwater submersible of some kind - but it looks evil to anyone who doesn't know what it is.

As yet the Spanish authorities have only arrested 3 people - 2 Hungarians "SW" &: "HS' and a "North American" called "AJA" - I love the way Spanish media reports the names of suspects in initials - and are still looking for the owner of the boat - "MRA".

The reports continued:

These 21st Century pirates have their own tricks ... like double sleeved oxygen cylinders to hide the archaeological treasures they have plundered.

All for a haul that comprises of: 17th Century cannonballs, Roman anchors, the neck of a Phoenician amphora, a bag of bullets that could date from the Battle of Trafalgar - and a piece of old wood.

Right now the "Centre for Underwater Archaeology" is evaluating the finds to determine their valuation - but it's not just the valuation that matters.

Unfortunately for the illegal treasure hunters, this is not the best place in the world to try and look for treasure without being noticed.

The combination of illegal immigration and hashish smuggling from Morocco means that the Gibraltar Straits are one of the most heavily policed stretches of water in the world.

It's no surprise that the Spanish authorities have cracked down on these illegal treasure hunters - their heavily armed presence in the Straits of Gibraltar inevitably gives rise to accusations of drug and people smuggling - or worse.

The discovery of large amounts of arms and ammunition on board the "Louisa" will have done nothing to calm the fears of the Spanish authorities either.

I'm going to track this - I'd like to see how it's reported in the English speaking media as opposed to the Spanish media - there's a lot of differences between them.

Expect an update soon.



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October 25, 2005

Spanish (1)

One of the things that has been driving me crazy while learning Spanish is the inflected nature of the verbs. If your first language is English it makes no sense at first, and your normal patterns of speech are totally disrupted.

Consider the following exchange:

"I don't know"
"You don't know?"
"No, I don't know"

In Spanish this becomes more complicated because all the verb forms change with who is being spoken about, so in Spanish this becomes:

"No se"
"No sabes?"
"No, no se"

The final sentence is the evil one, because in English, in an agreeing statement I would normally repeat the statement I am agreeing with - "No, I don't know" - BUT if I follow the same strategy in Spanish I end up saying "no, no sabes" - which means "no, YOU don't know" - totally incorrect.

It applies to all the other verbs as well, so a whole conversational gambit that took me years to learn as a child has had to be chucked out of the window

BUT I still fall into the same trap time and time again.

"No tengo"
"No tienes?"
"No, no tienes" .... aaaarrrrgh done it again!!!!