La canción de la semana #29

Canción del Minero interpretada por Víctor Jara (1932—1973).

Voy, vengo, subo, bajo,
todo para qué
nada para mí.

Minero soy,
a la mina voy,
a la muerte voy,
minero soy.

Kirill

Salif Keita en Barbican

El viernes pasado fui al Barbican a ver el concierto de Salif Keita 'la voz dorada del África'.

Madan de CD Moffou

Kirill

Spanish Diary (Part 4)

As we had a spare weekend, there being no sign of any builders…again, we went to Cordoba. It’s a wonderful city to visit for a couple of days. Cordoba has the cathedral [Mesquite] with hundreds of supporting columns, almost as far as you can see. Beautiful. The city has a very rich history with lots of magnificent buildings to visit. Anyway, we booked into a 3* hotel for the night; lovely setting with the promise of dinner from 20:30 onwards. So we made ourselves ready and went down:

“Is the restaurant open?”

“Er…it opens at 20:30.”

“That’s OK then, it’s a quarter to nine.”

Yeeees, I’ll just check……. OK, please take a table.”

The waiter arrives: “There’s no salmon, no steak…oh, and there isn’t any cheese either.”

Pam then said as a joke: - “We’ll have some rabbit then.” The waiter looked a bit sheepish and more than a little confused and said “Actually I do have a rabbit in my car, I’ve just shot it.” He’s still trying to figure out how Pam knew. He then went away for about half an hour; we were getting a bit restive.

“…Er, we don’t actually have a chef either… We can do you a sandwich.”

You would have thought they’d have noticed they didn’t have a chef a bit sooner wouldn’t you. We found out later that they hadn’t actually had a chef for several days; apparently she left in a huff! Basil Fawlty, eat your heart out. We went out for dinner.

After me demonstrating my expertise by destroying the barbecue, Pam decided to get in on the act. She chose the microwave for her demonstration. She put a small piece of bread in to defrost. Not for her the defrost button for a few seconds, oh no, full power for 5 minutes! Then she went out into the street for a chat with the neighbours. You would not believe the amount of smoke one small piece of charred bread generates! The whole house stank for days and we had to totally spring-clean the kitchen!

The pool was finally finished today when they fitted the canvas winter cover. I mentioned before that Jesús, was working for us, today we had a demonstration of walking on water! The pool was full and the cover fitted in place: - to demonstrate that it was safe if you fell in, he walked across the cover just to prove it wouldn’t tear! A very impressive demonstration if I may say so.

Seven weeks ago we persuaded a local factory to make our reinforced concrete patio beams and pergolas really quickly, as Rafael said he would help take them off the lorry and start work immediately. ..They were ready 3 weeks ago – unfortunately the beams are still at the factory ‘cos Rafael is currently working in Granada and doesn’t have time to fetch them!! He rang us yesterday to say that we should place the order for the patio tiles…mind you he still won’t actually give us a date for when he is going to start work. We live in hope!
Rod - Retired

La canción de la semana #28

From Cuba, Aquellos ojos verdes, sung by the late Ibrahim Ferrer.

Aquellos ojos verdes de mirada serena, dejaron en mi alma eterna sed de amar. Anhelos y caricias, de besos y ternuras. De todas las dulzuras que sabían brindar. Aquellos ojos verdes serenos como un lago en cuyas quietas aguas un día me miré, no saben las tristezas que a mi alma le dejaron aquellos ojos verdes que ya nunca olvidaré

Kirill

La canción de la semana #27

Did I ask already if you want more tango? Here's one anyway, most appropriately titled Más de lo Mismo ("More of the same"), performed by Tanghetto (from the album Hybrid Tango).

Kirill

La canción de la semana #26

...es La negra Tomasa interpretada por Trío Matamoros.

estoy tan enamorao de la negra Tomasa que cuando se va de casa qué triste me pongo Ay! Ay! Ay! esa negra linda que me dio bilongo esa negra linda que me dio bilongo na más que me gusta la comida que ella cocina na más que me gusta el café que ella me cuela quiquiribú mandinga quiquiribú mandinga

Kirill

Ojalá que llueva café

I am not trying to compete with Kirill in posting wonderful songs. He does it better than anyone. This song by Juan Luis Guerra is a good exercise to practice the subjunctive. Listen to the song, with lovely pictures and explanations to understand the lyrics, and do the exercises. Clic here.

Have fun.

Elena