Category: spain | 西班牙 |스페인 | スペイン

  • October 2023 newsletter – 3rd time’s the charm

    October 2023 newsletter introduction As I write the October 2023 newsletter. it’s getting noticeably darker outside earlier, but the sunrises reward us with a wider variation of colours. And we all have Halloween to look forward to. This is the third issue and I am still finding my way writing these things. I hope that…

  • Ford Fiesta

    My Ford Fiesta driving experience The Ford Fiesta will be forever linked to my early driving experience. I started learning to drive in the 1990s. Back then leasing agreements and car finance weren’t really a thing due to high interest rates. (There is a whole other blog post that I should write at some point…

  • Mamasan & things this week

    AI Mamasan A Mamasan is the owner of a neighbourhood bar who listens with empathy and occasionally doles out advice to their patrons. Kind of like the proprietor in the Midnight Diner anime by Yaro Abe. This was then adapted into a Japanese TV series and movie. When suit company Yofuku no Aoyama decided to…

  • John Shaft & things that made last week

    Samuel L Jackson has a second go at playing re-conned blaxploitation private investigator John Shaft. This time it seems to be a bit more self conscious and ironic in tonality. Think Jackson’s first outing as John Shaft mixed with Snakes on a Plane Gillette Spain comes up with an advert that looks at masculinity without…

  • GDPR resources

    Partly due to Cambridge Analytica, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is going to have a more profound impact on data usage globally. GDPR would have been seen as an extra-legal reach, but Facebook is making it look like a good idea. I thought I would pull together a few resources that I thought would be…

  • Great Scud Hunt + other news

    Great Scud Hunt What the Great Scud Hunt Says About War With North Korea | War Is Boring – pretty grime reading. The Great Scud Hunt was a key aspect of the Gulf War. The Great Scud Hunt pitted allied special forces units against the Iraqi army which had scattered its Scud launchers across the…

  • Paula’s Loewe collar + more

    Loewe x Paula’s Spanish luxury brand Loewe x Paula’s rolled out its collaboration with Ibiza boutique Paula’s. Paula’s reflects a move of Ibiza away from sweaty EDM fans to a more elite stylish visitor more used to Pykes and Hunters. In many respects Loewe x Paula’s is about taking Ibiza back the original Balearic vibes…

  • Blood and Faith – the purging of muslim Spain (1492 – 1614) by Matthew Carr

    I picked up Blood and Faith on a trip to Madrid. I have a habit of picking up English language history books if I can when visiting a place. It gives you a sense of how a country wants itself to be seen. These usually vary from clumsy propaganda to insightful works. Coming across Carr’s…

  • Madrid + more things

    Madrid The order on things being written and posted on this blog has been scrambled up a bit and I ended up spent some time in Madrid with nothing to show for it as my SD card from my camera disappeared, I have no ideas where I mislaid it. In Madrid, the Prado museum is…