English in Madrid

Source: You Tube (AFP News Agency)   Key Words: Venice purges pigeons Venice Pigeon Feeding Ban Flouted Animal rights campaigners in Venice crossed swords with the city council on Friday after distributing 30 kilos of birdseed to flocks of ravenous pigeons in St Mark's Square. The birds had gone hungry for two days after the age-old tourist tradition of feeding the pigeons in the picturesque square came to an abrupt end. Although feeding the pigeons has long been outlawed in other parts of the lagoon city , on Wednesday Mayor Massimo Cacciari won his battle to extend the ban city-wide and force the square's 19 licensed birdseed sellers to shut up shop . Animal rights campaigners said they were feeding the birds on Friday in an effort to stop ''the shameful massacre of the animals through hunger and capture''. ''Pigeons have lived in Venice for centuries and they have a close link with its history, its traditions and its re...

The EU says the 12 minute advertising per hour limit is regularly broken in Spain. The European Commission has given a final ultimatum to Spain ordering it to enforce a reduction in the amount of television advertising broadcast here. The Commission says it wants an urgent reply to their demand. The Spanish Government has been working against the clock *   to try to enforce the European laws on advertising limits here in Spain, but there has been resistance from the private broadcasters who see additional costs and the threat from the new channels that Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting represents. The European Commission has said that the main TV channels in Spain, including the public TVE, regularly go over the limit of 12 minutes of advertising in an hour. European Commissioner, Viviane Reding has threatened now to take Spain to the EU Justice Court unless there is ‘urgent’ action in the next two months. She says that any other response would be interpreted as a la...

Source: Jasmin Sessler on Unsplash   Spotlight on Vocabulary : So often I hear the expression "I had fear" to express "tenía miedo". This is wrong. You should use to be afraid ; so the above translation would be - I was afraid . "to have a fear of something" exists in English but is used to describe a physical condition or phobia: My sister has a fear of spiders. (She suffers from arachnophobia) I have a fear of heights. (I suffer from vertigo) More often we use the verb to be/feel afraid: I felt afraid when I heard a bump in the middle of the night. Are you afraid of fly ing ? Remember: preposition + verb- ing . afraid = frightened = scared frightening = scary Have a look at the video of El Caminito del Rey. Don't you feel dizzy ? Would you be able to walk along that path?  Source: You Tube (Lukasz87pl)   Key Words: Caminito Rey King's pathway What are you afraid of? I am afraid of heights - I got dizzy crossing the...

Source: Wikipedia (Harlequeen)   Do you remember the differences between -ed and -ing adjectives? In short: -ed adjectives are used to describe feelings e.g. I am confused or I feel confus ed . -ing adjectives are used to describe the cause of the "-ed feeling" e.g. This exercise is really confusing. (I am confused because of it) Choose from the following verbs to create an -ed or -ing adjective and put it into the appropriate sentence . frighten bore interest exhaust tire amaze shock move disgust disappoint embarrass I have had a really ___________ day; I'm going to have an early night . She was so _________ by the film that she burst into tears . I have never felt so ___________; I went bright red . I won't be going back to that restaurant; the meal was ___________ . I couldn't help yawn ing because his speech was so __________ . Barcelona's performance this year has been quite _________ given that they are only third in the leag...

Six protestors jumped into the ring after the killing of the first bull in the fight yesterday A group of half a dozen anti-bullfighting protesters jumped into the ring at Madrid’s famous Ventas bullring yesterday. They held up banners in Spanish and English protesting against animal ill-treatment and then sat down in the ring. Up to now such protests in Spain have been limited to gatherings outside bullrings . The protestors who want to see an end to bullfighting were * booed  by the crowd and finally removed by the bullring’s security guards. Source: typicallyspanish.com Spotlight on Vocabulary : The protestors ... were * booed by the crowd. When you strongly dislike or disapprove of something or someone, you make a noise (* boo ). It is often accompanied by whistling . Listen to the bullfighting video for an example. The fans were so angry at their team's performance that they started booing loudly . The crowd of protesters booed and whistled at the prime min...

Source:  Tim Mossholder en Unsplash May 1st wasn't a public holiday in the UK. It is a holiday this Monday (5th May) instead. How did you spend this long weekend? Were you lucky enough to get away ? Or like me, couldn't afford to ? A bank holiday is a public holiday in the United Kingdom and also in the Republic of Ireland. Although there is no legal right to time off on these days, the majority of the population not employed in essential services (e.g. utilities, fire, ambulance, police, health-care workers) receive them as holidays; those employed in essential services usually receive extra pay for working on these days. Bank holidays are so called because they are days upon which banks are shut and therefore (traditionally) no other businesses could operate. Legislation allows certain payments to be deferred to the next working day. Exactly a century after the 1871 Act, the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, which currently regulates bank holidays in the UK,...

Source:  The Good Funeral Guide on Unsplash Stickers on coffins There's nothing cheerful about a coffin - until you cover it with colourful pictures. The idea of decorating caskets is helping some people come to terms with that only sombre certainty we all have in life. When Mary Tomes dies, she doesn't want a plain wooden box. "I want a bright yellow coffin, one that says something about me. One brown box doesn't fit all. It doesn't show your personality or your sense of humour. My husband told me not to be so daft ." That was four years ago. Now Mary, a 62-year-old grandmother, not only has a sunshine-yellow coffin for when she meets her maker , but runs Colourful Coffins in Oxford, which prints customised paper wraps to stick onto caskets. Her initially reluctant   husband Kevin, 58, is chief designer, and the pair use their skills as printers to turn 3,000 caskets into visual representations of those inside. "We've had...

Source:  Marten Bjork en Unsplash What if we all walked to work? It's Walk to Work Day, but what would Britain be like if we all passed up road and rail for the humble pavement? Steve Tomkins ponders the potential consequences of letting our legs do all the work. Planes, trains and automobiles. Most people's commute to work features at least one of these forms of transport - possibly all three for some. But it doesn't have to be this way, according to the pedestrian campaign group Living Streets - organisers of Walk to Work Day. Our belief in motorised transport is somewhat dented when you consider that, in central London, for example, there are 109 journeys between Tube stations that are quicker to walk (taking into account time spent waiting for trains). Campaigners say if you'd walked to work today it would have helped (1) improve congestion, parking, air quality, health, noise and the local economy - apparently pedestrians are "more likely to...

Source: You Tube Associated Press   Priest Missing On Helium Balloon Flight A daredevil priest who used hundreds of helium balloons to try to smash a flying record has gone missing off the coast of Brazil Rescuers in helicopters and fishing boats are searching off the southern coast of Santa Catarina state, where pieces of balloons were found. Rev Adelir Antonio de Carli, 41, took off from the city of Paranagua on Sunday afternoon, wearing a helmet , thermal suit and a parachute. He was reported missing about eight hours later after losing contact with port officials. Carli had a GPS device, a satellite phone, and is said to be an experienced skydiver. The Roman Catholic cleric wanted to break a 19-hour balloon flying record to raise money for a spiritual rest stop for truckers in Paranagua. A video showed the priest soaring into the air to cheers from a crowd below. He soared to 20,000ft and then descended to about 8,200ft for his planned flight to ...

Source:   Biel Morro en Unsplash Spanish language row over Allen film Woody Allen 's latest film, starring Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem, will not be shown in Spanish in the strongly nationalist region of Catalonia. Audiences can see Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which is * due out  in Spain in September, in the original English-language version with Catalan subtitles or dubbed into Catalan. Jaume Roures, co-producer and head of the powerful media company Mediapro, told Spanish radio station RAC-1 the film will not be shown in Spanish, despite the fact that Spanish is the mother tongue of two of its stars, Penélope Cruz and Bardem. Elsewhere in Spain, it will be shown in English with Spanish subtitles. The move is sure to anger some who will see it as politically motivated in a region which sees itself as apart from Spain. A linguistic law fines companies who do not show signs in Catalan. The regional government recently announced a €7.4m (£5.9m) film...