The little jaunt to the next town I referred to in the post below turned into an unexpected treat.
I went to track down the local German-speaking congregation. They were meeting, appropriately enough, in a Saxon church which was built, it is thought, 1300 years ago around AD709. It has a fascinating history and was used [...]
Filed under: Culture on May 5th, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Whilst Christians are focusing on Holy Week this week, Jews are celebrating Passover. The BBC’s nod to the festival is a 30-minute programme remembering the Kindertransport of 70 years ago. Gentle readers will be familiar with the story of 10,000 German and Austrian Jewish children who were sent to the UK to escape the ever-increasing [...]
Filed under: Austria, Culture, Germany on April 7th, 2009 | Comments Off
Gentle Wibloggers with access to iPlayer may be interested to listen to last Tuesday’s Afternoon Play on Radio 4 – Witness: The Lake. It is the first of five plays in the run-up to Easter. This particular one is only available until the end of tomorrow but if you have a spare 45 minutes it [...]
Filed under: Culture on March 30th, 2009 | Comments Off
Just over a week ago, I attended an event (actually two – more below) at the local Literature Festival. A colleague and I thought it would be interesting to hear a conversation between an Angolan author and his translator.
The author was award-winning José Eduardo Agualusa. He is the first African writer to win the Independent [...]
Filed under: Culture, Translation on March 16th, 2009 | Comments Off
The Ancient Roman City hosts a German Christmas Market for two weeks at the end of November/beginning of December. If you visit in the evening, it is particularly atmospheric with the little white lights on the chalets sparkling and twinkling in the darkness; the smell of Glühwein, Lebkuchen and Wurst drift on the air and [...]
Filed under: Culture, Germany, Seasons on December 4th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
My gentle readers may or may not be aware that I am not one for going to gigs. But last week I broke with curmudgeonly tradition and went to one performed by Urusen. Who? I hear you ask. Well, don’t ask me…just google them and find their “myspace” site and listen to them on line. [...]
Filed under: Culture, Music on December 2nd, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Well, that’s that done! Pheeeeeeeewww. It was a bit of a slog at times but now that it’s over I feel as free as a bird! Wheeeeeee!!
Having mailed my offering off to Amsterdam, I went in search of fresh air, companionship and a cuppa. I dropped in on Marie-France who supplied the requisite cuppa [...]
Filed under: Culture, Translation on October 20th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I have just read an article which informs me that the German police are keeping abreast of protective clothing for their officers. Female police officers are to be issued with bullet-proof bras. The problem, apparently, is that if a bullet impacted a bullet-proof vest, the internal scaffolding in a standard bra could cause injury [...]
Filed under: Culture, Germany, Words on August 6th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Dear Readers, I think it is high time that the writer of this blog stopped shilly-shallying and got down to providing some serious posts.
So without further ado, I am going to discuss tealights. Yes, you heard me correctly at the back, so sit still and start reading.
Residents of the UK will be familiar with [...]
Filed under: Culture, Germany, Translation, Triumphs, Words on April 20th, 2008 | 4 Comments »
You can always depend on your roving reporter to have her finger on the pulse of cultural matters.
I learned a few days ago that the film “Die Fälscher” (The Counterfeiters) had won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film. I enjoyed it but did not think it fell into the “all-time great” category. However, [...]
Filed under: Culture, Germany, Translation on March 11th, 2008 | 3 Comments »