Tuesday 28 September 2021

FROM PANDEMIC TO PANDEMONIUM

Men of Britain. Or should I say, men of England. What's with the fighting on the forecourts of the petrol stations? How am I supposed to explain to my students here in Spain what is going on back in the UK when they ask me if everyone there has lost the plot. #keepontrucking

Sunday 5 September 2021

Lots of people are surprised when they find out I have an allotment. They say they don't see me as the type. Imagining me more at home at the opera or delivering speeches in Brussels. Well, I am happy doing all these things but there is a little known story that might help in the understanding of my earthiness. When I was a kid I was pushing my toy pram up a London street and an old lady, the embodiment of Margaret Rutherford, ( look her up, you'll get the idea...) all tweed and brogues, approached me and asked if she could peer inside the pram and, ''look at my little dolly''. Apparently I nodded, stood back,  and much to her horror the pram was full of mud, packed down tightly with a few worms struggling to get out. The Beginning...
The Basajuan is a mythical creature who lives in the forests of Navarra and the Basque Country. A hairy hominid Lord of the Woods. He features in a Spanish book I am reading, El Guardian Invisible. In the book there is a character, Aunt Engrasi, who reads the Tarot cards and believes in the Basajuan. I read this book before I go to sleep and the other night it was influencing my dreams. I dreamt of my friend Marge and her Tarot cards which are the Salvador Dali version. During the dream I could hear a loud rustling noise coming from another realm. The realm of reality. I realised there was something in the bedroom and woke up from the dream and tried to find what it was. Mr van de Ven got involved and we decided it must be a mouse or worse, a rat. And there they were. Two eyes peering at us from behind a bag. "What the hell is this and how did it get here? You and that allotment. You are always bringing things home with you. First snails and now this! It must have hitched a ride with you the last time you went. Get a glass and a postcard or something!" The first postcard I could find turned out to be Salvador Dali's Temptation of Saint Anthony. So here he is the little fella'!