One of the perks of the Spanish supermercados is that they have an overwhelming amount of fresh fish. The fish in the picture is Dorada. It has soft white meat with a soft fishy taste. All fresh fish in the supermercado is kept on ice during the day. You can pick the fish you want and … Read more
This is a ground beetle, from the family of the carabidae. This is a family of beetles with worldwide over 40.000 different species. Why is it on his or her back? Because it’s a ground beetle. It’s supposed to stay on the ground. But for some unspecified reason, they climb straight up the wall of … Read more
The Dutch news website nos.nl referred to a critical message posted by The Verge. The message concerned the amount of water that is required to produce one liter of regular Coca-Cola. The Verge found that Coca-Cola lied: it wasn’t two liters, but seventy. The majority of the water is used to produce the abundant amount … Read more
This is a sailing vessel. The rectangular hole you see at the waterline, almost at the rear of the ship, can contain a big-sized lorry from left to right, or vice versa. The boat belongs to the Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko. It was built on the shipyard Nobiskrug in Germany and designed by Philippe Starck. … Read more
When I was a child in the sixties of the 20th century I loved to watch the TV series Pipo de Clown. Together with his wife Mamaloe and daughter Petra they traveled through the world and experienced all kinds of adventures. A donkey called Nononono pulled their gypsy cart. Although Pipo was a clown, he … Read more
What is a better way to get to know a specific area – and pick up a few words in Spanish and socialize with the locals – but through a gifted guide. This is Jose Maria, a historian who studied at the University of Murcia. Today, during a two-hour excursion, he explained (in Spanish) the … Read more
For the last couple of years, I used to organize colleges for city council clerks at the university in Amsterdam. During one of the colleges, the ‘age of speciation’ of humans came up: ‘roughly 300.000 years ago.’ One of the clerks countered this. According to his belief, it could only have been between 5.000 to … Read more
This is Sebastian Cuny. A Frenchman who has lived already for 14 years in Spain. Together with his family, he runs two tiendas (shops) of ecological and regional products: Natural Verdiana. One in Alhama de Murcia and the other in the Plaza de Abastos in Puerto de Mazarrón. The one where we now buy fresh … Read more
Men at Work are always an interesting topic of popular debate. Not only in Spain but everywhere in the world. To explain this I coined the phrase ‘sense of work’. This ‘sense’ is made up of ideas people have about their meaningfulness, work routines, the working environment, the work process, and their self-image as a … Read more
Friends came over all the way from the Netherlands. In a campervan. They are on a long-delayed holiday in Spain. Both don’t know the country very well. He wants to see a lot of rare birds. She enjoys the ever-changing landscapes. It’s nice to have friends over. Also, if they stay a couple of days, … Read more