Closely Related to Chester

Arrivals and departures

On New Year’s day, Paola and I got up early to go for a walk. Neither of us enjoys staying up late to see in the New Year. So we did not mind this year’s restrictions on partying. Feeling suitably self-righteous we set off into Brussels by car at half past eight, travelling into the centre of the city almost by ourselves. With few other vehicles on the wide Avenue Louise, I found it difficult to respect the new speed limit of 30 kph, even though I fully approve of it. Along the Rue Royale it was just us and the 94 tram, each vehicle overtaking or undertaking the other along the cobbled chaussee, until we reached the Parc Royal where we stopped and let the tram glide past .

Of poets and places

My first blog about Oscar ended with a nod to (or a steal from) another school teacher, the poet Michael Longley, who taught us English. One of my favourite poems is “Detour” where he imagines his own funeral possession, winding its way through the Main Street of a small town in Ireland, stopping here and there to chat to neighbours, taking its time, going in and out of shops, with himself directing proceedings, procrastinating about where the funeral may go next. I love Longley’s gallows humour, his sense of place and possibility, and his refusal to be rushed underground.

Alhambra

“This is where you will probably spend most of your time” said Inma, showing us round our Airbnb. We had wound our way up to the top floor of the Arab-style house and Inma pulled open the French window leading to the balcony. In front of us, floodlit and deep orange , the Alhambra stretched on its rocky outcrop against the evening sky. High behind the collection of moorish palaces lay the white snow caps of the Sierra Nevada, and to the West the sunset was made up of the most vivid Spanish colours – yellows and reds and all the shades in between.

Spanish lessons

Belfast 1972. In our first Spanish lesson Mr McCauley, taught us pronunciation. There was a subtle difference between the letters b and v that had something to do with blowing air between your top and bottom lips. A single ‘r’ needed two flicks of the tongue, whereas to roll double ‘rr’s like a real Spaniard required five flicks.