The Boy and The Coconut Tree

I teach English to a range of students, children and adults, lawyers and psychologists, engineers and nurses so the vocabulary I teach and the phrases that arise can be varied but sometimes they are bizarre and although I recognize them and use them, sometimes they are hard to explain.  The first one that springs to mind is sheep-worrying it came to mind yesterday when I was reading a story in a newspaper. Here is a list of the weird ones that have been used in the past few weeks in my classes and are hard to explain. Phrases and their definitions: Sheep-worrying :   ( agriculture )  the act (of a dog, sheepdog, wolf, etc) of chasing a flock of sheep and biting or injuring the sheep. Crying over spilt milk:  to lament something that cannot be altered Raining Cats and Dogs:    to rain very heavily It's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass-monkey:  used to say that the weather is freezing cold Six of one and half a dozen of anothe r:  a situation i

I had been looking forward to seeing Dallas Buyers Club this movie for months, it was released in Spain on March 14th, 2014, 4 months after the US release date so the coverage and the awards helped build my expectation.  I finally watched it on March 16th here in Spain. So this is my review and comments so if you are yet to see it don't read this, it contains spoilers etc. When I first heard of the movie I had no idea of its contents and the image of  Matthew McConaughey  in modern cowboy clothes didn't bode well. I'm not a fan of  Matthew McConaughey  nor of Jared Leto. Of the 3 leads,  Jennifer Garner was the only one I had some respect for as I've liked a few of her movies, 13 Going on 30 being one of my favourites.  I read an interview with Jared Leto about his role as a pre-op transsexual and how he prepared for it etc and I felt more intrigued. All I can say is, he would be a pretty woman, he is a pretty man so the physical change would be plausible.

 It has been so long since I wrote in my blog. I was trying to find the specific reason/ or reasons for not writing and I have none. Life is what happened. Barcelona life has swept me up in her arms and I am living it. I rarely had time to write a blog when I lived in London and the same goes for Barcelona. It has been 9 months today since I arrived and I've now got into a stride which I didn't expect and I am no longer looking for the exit sign. That has to be good. What is also happening is I am learning a lot about myself, even at 44 there is a lot to learn. I gave my life a mini audit over Christmas. I realized what was important and what wasn't. I've learned to worry about the people who worry about me and nothing more. I've learned to enjoy the things that life throws my way and not worry about the things I am missing. We are masters of our own destiny and I feel I am more of a master than most. Early evening looking to Mount Tibidabo, March 7