Back in the office....
07-February-2005
permalink email thisNice to be back with some connectivity. In Portugal had nothing (or next to nothing). faro airport did advertise a wireless network but it was broken.Then in Bristol at the Joint information services Committee (JISC) of the UK universities. You would think I might get a connection. But no. Firewalled by the University of Bristol. And then back here - fighting against 147 emails - just finished and back to the blog.
I wrote this on a plane. It is for my monthly column in the excellent Seren newspaper for Wales. Not anything to do with educational technology but I bit of variety never goes amiss in a blog - or so I think.
Had a terrible job sending it. Just one computer on line in the hotel (more about that place in a future entry) - and that one did not allow for attachments and had to keep sticking one Euro coins in the slot to make it work. To hit the deadline for the article. I had to copy it form my laptop onto a nasty email client.
Extended text for this entry:
Hi – belated happy new year to you all. Missed the last edition - forgot the deadline - and I’ tight on time for this one - writing it on an airplane and will try to mail form Palma de Mallorca (and before anyone says lucky devil – I’m working).
As far as I can remember I promised to tell you something about Brits abroad or rather about my visit to the English club. It was about a year ago - and a friend from work pestered me to take her there. I had vaguely heard there was such a place – but the name was hardly inviting and anyway I generally avoid ex-pats like the plague. You can always tell the English abroad – they talk very loudly to drown out the strange sounding words the natives around are talking and always – but always – assume because they do not understand or speak any German then the Germans will be totally incapable of understanding them! Always good for a laugh on the tram from the airport to the city. But I digress. Back to the English Club.
Its down what might be seen in Bremen as a slightly sleezy backstreet in the city centre (but somewhat upmarket compared to Taff street in Ponty). Not much to look at from the outside and a bell to ring to get in. But inside it is amazing. They seem to have taken the stereotype image of what a English living room looked like in the 1950s and reproduced it (anyone remember the Beeb’s Wednesday night play - you feel like you are on a play set). Nostalgia for good old blighty is not enough - this lot are nostalgic for the old ways. And the beer - Spitfire of course old chap (and jolly cheap too).
The people are a mix. About half English and the other half German anglophiles - proud to practice their English to get that accent right. I have to say the people were nice - if you know what I mean. They all drifted across to greet the strangers - their were three of us by now, me, my German friend and another friend who is Spanish - to know who we were and make sure we felt welcome, to invite us to come regularly, to tell us about the quiz night, the film night, the bowls night – all that sort of stuff. Big problem I had was with the large Union jack behind the bar. Normally I’d complain loudly - but my friends were keeping me quiet. In the end met a man from Cardiff who said he had complained but got nowhere. And that’s the story of a winters evening out at the English club. Strange place. Don’t think I’ll go again.
OK – that’s all for now. Next month I will tell you about the dreaded AuslanderAmpt.
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