Clases de árabe

Life was normalising nicely unil tonight.

My eldest daughter's been bugging me for a while to have Arabic classes. She's acquired a Spanish-Arabic phrasebook and (mentally) devoured it. She produces the odd Chinese character as well - her favourite W.I.T.C.H. heroine is Chinese.

A while ago I got chatting to the vigilante of the local car park, and discovered he's Morroccan. He's been trying to set up Arabic classes in the town, but the council says he doesn't have enough students (he had recruited eight).

Well, tonight was the first lesson. My daughter did quite well I thought, and will probably continue. My brain is still reeling. What with meem, noon, thath and Uncle Tom Cobbly and all, all written backwards with vowels that rocket skywards or crawl along the ground.

All this being taught from the book this man learnt his Arabic from in 1972. He tells me the book is now a collector's piece and worth over €20!

Thing is, I've got quite excited about it, the language is such a mental challenge, like super-difficult Sudoku, but with a purpose.

Lee las señales por favor

I loved this video from Break.com

I'm told such a feature will appear in Málaga shortly. There was some discussion on ADUK about the safety aspects. My personal variation would be to have the bollards at entrance and exit to the zone and a feature which trys to avoid hitting cars that 'run' the barriers. The car is then simply trapped in the zone and cannot escape until the fine is paid - probably involving a long walk to the police station.

Militares

This video I really like. Not your normal action stuff. Just a team having fun.

"¡Vete del aparcamiento o si no te mato!"

This is what my daughter drew this morning.

He's saying what's in the blog title which translates as "Get out of here (the car park) or I kill you!"

This cabrón is apparently not Spanish (has blond hair and speaks with a strange accent). He's showing (if not pointing) a pistol to my daughter.

She's a good storyteller? No, this happened this morning on the way to school. My daughter had the good sense to run away as fast as she could.

I'd just been reading about Jesse James' tragic case in Moss Side. We however don't live there, nor even in a big city. We live in a mountain village close to, but away from the Costa del Sol. We thought we'd left the shit that the UK's become well behind.

WE WERE WRONG.

It's almost certain the b*****d concerned was there to pick up a drug consignment to move somewhere else.

All you mu****** f*****rs who do drugs are bringing this mierda down on our kids. My nine-year-old was shaking uncontrollably when found by a neighbour.

WELL I'M NOT GOING TO KEEP QUIET. YOU F*****RS COME HERE AGAIN AND YOU'LL DISAPPEAR - MY NEIGHBOURS WILL HELP ME!

PS. The Benemérita now have a description and are on the trail - they reckon the picture and her description should be enough.

Ayudame por favor - Help me please

ETRASA have let me down badly.

I ordered 4 copies of the manual "learning to drive", but have got no result.

If you have a copy, or know someone who does, please contact me by using the comments.

ETRASA me ha fallado.

Pedí 4 ejemplos del manual "Learning to drive", pero no he conseguido nada.

Si lo tiene, o conoce alguien que lo tiene, por favor ponese en contacto conmigo por los "comments"

El 75% de los agentes de tráfico que manejan los radares no tienen la formación adecuada, según la AUGC

This one from Europa Press.

The Secretary General of the Guardia Civil Association (AUGC), Miguel Perpinya, Pointed out today that 75% of traffic officers responsible for radar enforcement "have not received adequate training" and advised that a large number of the 36,000 fines from the last DGT speed control campaign could be invalidated.

At the same time he added that traffic officers saw themselves under pressure from their superiors to issue a minimum quota of fines.

Furthermore, he commented that working conditions "with an increase in accident rates" makes the traffic section one of the least attractive parts of the Guardia Civil service. Of the potential 11,000 force, only 8,000 places are filled.

For their part, the Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT) challenged the Asociación Unificada de Guardias Civiles (AUGC) saying that there has been no pressure on officers to issue minimum numbers of reports and fines following the introduction of the new points-based licence.

Moreover, DGT sources indicated to Europa Press that the greater part of their budget comes from administrative and test fees, and not from fines which go directly to the Ministerio de Hacienda (Spain's chancellery).

The speeding and drink-driving campaigns have been carried out to "prick drivers' consciences more than fine them", indicated the same sources. They added that 'tickets' have reduced in the last few years and the fixed radars are always signed in advance.

Controls are carried out as an instrument of "setting an example" with the objective of "reducing offences and therefore casualties and accidents" explained DGT sources.

[Given that all the fixed sites are well signed, I'm surprised anyone gets ticketted. I have only ever seen one mobile radar trap in operation, and this was by the local police, not the GC.]

Para mis amigos en el oriente proximo

Asuming my friends' ISPs allow them to reach this.

The picture was taken in my local supermarket.