Archives for: September 2007
PAOLA FORNARI C.V.
Writer, EFL teacher, trainer, and translator, I was born in Tanzania, have lived in a dozen countries over three continents, and describe myself as an ‘expatriate sin patria’. Wherever I go I make it my business to learn the language, get to know the local people and customs, and discover the country’s remotest corners. I became interested in writing in mid-2006, did a short Open University creative writing course and a Writers’ Bureau course, and began getting articles published in 2007.
Mujeres de Montevideo (Women of Montevideo): Ester
Ester has been coming to my house on Monday mornings, off and on - more off than on - for almost three years. A minuscule, elegant lady, well into her seventies, she wears her silky grey hair in a tight bun.
Swotting Spanish
A couple of months ago I decided I wanted to sit a Spanish exam this November. Why? I haven't a clue.
Carrasco Norte - how the other half live
First published in 'The Oldie', March 2008
Carrasco, a suburb twelve miles east of Montevideo, is sandwiched between the Rio de la Plata to the south and Avenida d’Italia to the north. Leafy avenues lead down to the river, where the broad sidewalk of La Rambla welcomes joggers and walkers. Couples in elegant tracksuits drive their BMWs to the Carrasco Lawn Tennis Club, and in the Pilates class at the Cottage Hotel, ladies discuss the latest Botox clinics.
But there are signs that this opulence is not all that there is to life in Montevideo.
Spring is Here!
Today is the third day of spring. Yes, the days are getting longer, the clocks will change to give us an extra hour of evening light at the end of this week, the screeching southern lapwings have built their nests and are fiercely guarding them, and my bulbs are just about to burst into bloom.
And this is my gap year.
Moby-Click
(First Published in Ireland's Own, August 2008)
I love my mobile phone. It's a Nokia, faded cobalt and pale grey, and feels comfortable and warm in my hand. Designed immediately after the demise of those early brick-sized, brick-weighted and brick-brained models, my Moby-click has no radio, no camera, no diary, no link to my e-mails, and no quick way to check whether the train from Milan Cadorna to Como will arrive on time. But it has a torch.
Guinness, Oysters and the Tra-la-la (photos)
Planning my Gap Year
As I flew in to Montevideo this morning, I was taken back twenty years, when we arrived in Barbados for a four-year posting. The youngest of my three, then aged just over two, said, as we got to the hotel where we would spend five weeks until we found a house, 'I want to go home.' I asked: 'Where's home?' and she answered 'I don't know, but it's far, far away.' (Hey, why isn't the !M button working? I'd better be brief.)