Volver...

I know I've been away for ages.... apart from anything else. my monitor, which had been getting darker and darker by the day, eventually collapsed, plunging everything into blackness! But now I have another monitor, small, ancient, cheap but it works... rather like me.

So what, Spanishwise, have I been up to... well, reading books as usual at criminally slow speeds... and I've also got going again with Welsh... though that is one hell of a task because it is, grammatically, the opposite of Spanish to some extent... i.e. complex, irrational, awkward ... and with a totally alien vocabulary, unlike Spanish which , being Latin/Romance-based, is a doddle.

I have been dipping into a book I picked up in a charity shop.... Arrancame la Vida by Angeles Mastretta. I couldn't find a picture of the cover but i did find a few reviews of it...

Review 1…
Arracancame la Vida' shows Angeles Mastretta at her best, growing as one of the more talented writers in Latin-America. Only someone like her -a strange mix of a provincial burgeois background and a passion for literature- can take us so vividly to the humid corridors of Teziutlán, the intricacies of passion and the Puebla of the 40's. For those reading Spanish, check her beautiful stories in NEXOS, a monthly magazine available on the Internet. Fine book.

Review 2…
Very good book. Although some other people that have reviewed this book might not have noticed it, this is actually the story of part of the life of Maximino Avila Camacho, governor of the state of Puebla during the forties and called Andrés Ascencio in the story. Other important people mantioned are: Mexican tycoon Emilio Azcárraga Milmo (Milito), owner of Televisa (Mexico's biggest TV company), and Manuel Avila Camacho, Maximino's brother who was president of Mexico during the mid/late 40's. I know all this because I come from Puebla, just like the author of the book. I even know some of her relatives!

Review 3….This book gives the reader an insight into what it's like to be a woman from the heart, the mind and the belly. Just as it makes you laugh on one page and cry on another, it will also make you so angry you'll stay up at night... angry at her, angry at her husband and angry at yourself because you find something likeable in the horrible husband of this likeable woman. I loved it!

oh... I've found a picture of the cover after all...




and... I didn't know this till just now... there is a film of it too... here is a clip...this sort of thing doesn't happen much in the UK I can tell you...!!



One feature... my copy has beautiful, almost Art-Deco illustrations which enhance it a lot.

The other book I've been reading a bit is the 3rd Harry Potter book.. Harry Potter y el prisonero de Azkaban. I've found the Harry Potter books to be very good for beginners... the French versions are pleasant, easy reading for "improvers" like me, the Latin versions are a welcome change from Pliny and Livy I can assure you...and the Spanish versions are fine. Good, undemanding bedtime reading, or to keep in the car for when you have to wait 20 mins for the Librarian to come out of Sainsbury's.

One of the real pleasures of Spanish is the excellent and varied music. Here again is the excellent but perhaps not too varied but always inventive Facto Delafeand El Indio... a rather puzzling video this!!



and here's the words....

Del alba, el rosa
De dracula, lo rojo
Domingo la bici,
domingo reposo
Del viento la brisa,
tu cara tu sonrisa
Despierto tras la siesta,
tenederé la ropa

La ropa se seca,
regare las plantas
Cortare las hojas,
o las dejaré largas
Legañas en los ojos,
lentejas en remojo
Me miras el trasero (mmmm),
y lo meneo

Julio en la onda, cinco de la tarde
leche con galletas y yo dentro del pijama
empieza la jornada ¿que tal el partido?
Mi equipo ya a marcado, casi siempre gana

Bajo la manta mi niña acurrucada,
el sofa es como una balsa,
el salon en la penumbra,
alquilamos una peli y acabamos en la cama

Jugando a vaqueros y haciendo un poco el indio
pito pito gorgorito, que me voy, que ya me he ido
que ya he vuelto, que si que si que si,
que a tu lado como un crio

Que a tu lado lo rizo, a tu lado la crema,
a tu lado lo subo, lo elevo, lo asciendo,
lo vuelo y lo planeo
peinando las nubes (si) pintando el cielo

Hecho lo hecho y dicho lo dicho,
preparare la cena, porque estaba escrito
porque estaba escrito, porque estaba escrito
verdurita buena, si!!

En un dos por tres o en un tres por cuatro,
tu cara tu retrato, en mi corazon.
guardado entre sedas, como las estrellas,
brillo! A tu son

Dale gas es natural, es bueno
y si es bueno, es natural que si
es natural y es bueno
y si es bueno, yo juego, dale gas (bis)

Dale gas, dale gas, dale gas...