Juventus

One of Turin's big attractions is that it is home to one of the best loved football teams in Italy, Juventus.

Although they were relegated to the second division in 2006-2007 for a match rigging scandal and started with negative points, they surged to the top of the second division and are now back where they belong.

Read more info on how to get Juventus tickets

Car Rental in Puerto Rico

The best place for car rental in Puerto Rico for tourists is at the airport when you arrive. You can rent your car on the arrivals side before clearing US immigration and within minutes be ready to be on your way. With gas prices cheap and car rental very reasonable it is the ideal means of transport while you're there.

Daniel Craig gearing up for James Bond 22

Daniel Craig has been photographed recently driving a speedboat in his rehearsals for James Bond 22. In an interview on Jonathan Ross he said that he had started rehearsing that day for some of the action scenes and with just three weeks before photography starts he is into it like crazy. For the next film he is reportedly trying not to build up so much muscle and is therefore practising yoga and pilates. All will be revealed in the fullness of time though and perhaps we'll be terated to some early footage in March, as we were with Casino Royale in 2006.

Get The Most Out of Your Cold Sore Treatment

One of the keys to effective cold sore treatment is to realize when you're about to suffer one and start applying a treatment immediately. Most people experience a tingling sensation in the infected area and by applying a cream or other treatment to that spot the chances of it progressing to its worst capability are diminished. The other key getting the most out of your cold sore treatment is to find out what works for you. Not everything works uniformly, but if you take note of what seems to be effective you can have the treatment ready for your next attack.

Barcelona FC clashes with Arctic Monkeys

We're just a couple of days away from the first Barcelona derby - RCD Espanyol against FC Barcelona - and they move it to Saturday night just when I'll be seeing the Arctic Monkeys! Oh well, we'll miss it despite it being screened to TV3.
More details about Barcelona FC tickets and other details.

Why Learn Spanish in Barcelona?

Barcelona seems to be an extremely popular destination to learn Spanish, although quite why that is I'm not sure.
The reason I say that is that Barcelona is defiantly pro-Catalan but it's even quite difficult to find Catalan classes in the city, while there are dozens of Spanish academies. People come from all over to learn Spanish but then they'll encounter Catalan on the street very often, which must be confusing.

From The Italian Job to one of the top Turin hotels

If you're like me you've probably seen the original version of The Italian Job quite a few times - that's the one with Michael Caine and set in Turin, Italy.
One of the great bits in the film is when the minis race through Turin loaded with gold, at one point doing a circuit or two on the rooftop test track of Fiat's Turin headquarters, with the Italian police in hot pursuit.
Well, that building with the test track is now one of Turin's top hotels, the Art+Tech, converted into a 5 star hotel in time for the 2006 Winter Olympics. The test track is still there, although now used as a running track for guests, so you can recreate your own Italian Job moments on your own 2 feet.
More info: Turin Hotels

Why you should head for Puerto Rico beaches

Let me ask you this: can you imagine crystal clear water full of tropical fish? And white sand beaches stretching as far as the eye can see? Great weather in the winter months? And coral reefs within swimming distance of shore?
If you can imagine all that then Puerto Rico is definitely for you. The island is US Commonwealth and located in the Caribbean, so easy to get to and no need for a passport, visa or any of that tuff, plus the currency is US dollars too! Go back to my first questions: can you imagine yourself there, on those Puerto Rico beaches? I thought so...

James Bond in 2008

The most famous undercover agent in the world, namely James Bond, is making a welcome return in the shape of Daniel Craig next year after the script was handed in - apparently unpolished - just a few days before the writers strike began earlier this month.
While we still have to wait until November 2008 until the next film in the installment is released there are a few plans for 2008, the centenary of the birth of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond.
The first of these is the release by the Royal Mail of a special series of stamps to commemorate Fleming's birth, which feature some of the book covers. Then the Imperial War Museum in London devotes an exhibition to Fleming and Bond. Finally a new book, written by Sebastian Faulks, will be released to coincide with Fleming's actual birthday on 28th May.

FC Barcelona football tickets - it's going to get worse before it gets better

There are two very good reasons for redeveloping FC Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium, although it'll take some time to get used to the new facade.

• The first is that a roof for everyone is long overdue as it's not much fun being there when it really pours - and in Barcelona it knows how to rain sometimes

• The availability of Barcelona football tickets should get better because at the moment it can be difficult to get good seats, especially if you want to be seated together.

The problem is that the the number of seats will surely go down while they are working on the project, so it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Chicken curry recipes and Indian Restaurants in Barcelona

Usually the chicken curry recipes offered by Indian restaurants in Barcelona aren't spicy enough for me, but last week I was talking the the owner of one and he told me why.

The reason is simply that they don't use chillis in the cooking because Spaniards, on the whole, don't like it. He did also tell me that if I asked for chilli to be put in any dish I asked for they would do it.

I'll try it sometime soon, but it sounds like it could be ass-searingly hot.

Numbers in Spanish on Ezine Articles

Just to let you know that Ezine Articles has published the first of a series on numbers in Spanish. Part II should appear some time next week.

The Normandie Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico

The Normandie Hotel in Puerto Rico's San Juan is ideally situated between the historical old town and the business district of Condado. Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the art deco style of the hotel dates the hotel clearly to the 1930s and a few steps down to the beach mean it is ideal for pleasure, even if your trip to San Juan is business. Just off the beach are some reefs that are worth a look at and you can arrange to dive from the beach with a local diving guide. The visibity can be poor, but the dive is very shallow and ideal for beginners.

Read more about Normandie Hotel, Puerto Rico

Piazza San Carlo, Turin

Piazza San Carlo in Turin is one of the biggest squares in the city and home to the Caval 'd Brons, a bronze statue of Emanuele Filiberto right in the centre. Round the edge the square is lined with arcades and one of the most famous cafes in Turin can be found there, the Caffé Ristorante Torino.

Learning numbers in Spanish

Many people find that learning numbers in Spanish is relatively straightforward, perhaps because of the patterns repeated throughout, or perhaps just because they have more of an opportunity to practice both listening to them and speaking them.

If you travel to Spain or Latin America you're bound to go to a supermarket at some point, even if you don't shop anywhere else. And when you're asked for the total amount listen carefully - repeat it back if necessary and count your money out.

It's really that simple to learn the Spanish numbers and you'll probably find you can memorize them, speak them and understand them in no time at all.

Puerto Rico Accommodation doesn't start and end with resort hotels

One of the things that really struck me when I visited Puerto Rico a couple of years ago were the number of resort hotels where people were able to completely isolate themselves from the island and the islanders.

Staying for 6 weeks in San Juan and traveling around the island at weekends, we found Puerto Rican's to be unfailingly polite, courteous and friendly, and to have missed that experience would have made the trip much less enjoyable.

Sure, Puerto Rico does have social problems and you do need to be careful. But staying in a big hotel resort where everything is provided and everything is safe is far too sterile an environment for me.

Read more about Puerto Rico accommodation

Levante v FC Barcelona

Barcelona play away tonight against Levante, a team which is new to the first division for this season. Given that they lack experience in the top division and Barcelona's gradual return to form (they beat Zaragoza 4-1 on Wednesday) this should be pretty much a walk over; but we'll see.

Next match is at home against Atletico de Madrid and some tickets are still available from the link below:

FC Barcelona Tickets

Improved quality of Turin Hotels ready for increase in tourism

Turin really is under developed as a tourist destination, but I'm sure that after the improvements in infrastructure, increase in the number of hotel rooms and better access from budget airlines, that situation won't last too long.

Although the city has a reputation for being industrial - it is true that it led Italy's post war renaissance with Fiat at its head - the centre of Turin is just as you imagine any Italian city, with squares, statues, trams and cobbles; the streets are arcaded and the people dressed like only Italians can.

As I mentioned before the number of hotel rooms has increased, with a number of big hotels opening over the last few years. Not only have new hotels opened though - older establishments have upgraded their facilities and many of the city centre hotels in particular really have come a long way. So my advice; spend a weekend in Turin by flying easyJet or Ryanair; stay in one of the central hotels like Hotel Amadeus; walk the streets, drink the espresso, indulge yourself.

Find out more about Turin Hotels.

Where to eat in London

I was recently over in London for a few days and as usual found myself in an Indian restaurant on Saturday night. Loads of people here in Barcelona ask me where they can eat well and cheaply in London, and my answer is always the same; Indian food.

Now many people assume that the food is always hot, and sometimes that certainly is true. But on the other hand dishes like tandoori, or mild chicken curry recipes lack the heat of chili but have plenty of flavour provided by the aromatic spices that are used in cooking them.

I went for a standard; chicken Madras with pilau rice which is (or can be) quite hot, and I wouldn't advise someone who doesn' t like heat to go for that. If you don't know what the mesnu is about, simply ask the waiters. They're usually very polite and will be able to advise on the strength of perticular items on the menu. And remember, water is the worst thing to cool your mouth down with!

Learn Spanish - Like Crazy

Learning Spanish Like Crazy is the name of an impressive home study course that helps get you speaking Spanish fluently in 3 months. The focus is using language like it is used in real life, rather than the overly correct - and overly complicated - official grammar.

Museo Egizio Turin

Turin's Egyption Museum, the Museo Egizio Turin, is one of the top Egyption Museums in the world with a comprehensive collection that is second only to Cairo's museum. Housed on 3 floors, the museum displays many different artifacts, including mummies and other antiquities recovered from the pyramids.
Read more about the Turin Egyption Museum

Turin's car museum

The Turin car museum, or Museo dell' Automobile, is one of the biggest displays of cars in the world with 170 models on display. It charts the city's progress as the centre of Italy's motor industry, responsible for much of the post-war economic development for Italy. The museum has some real beauties, including vintage Fiats and as well as long dead manufacturers and also includes some F1 Grand Prix cars.

All in all well worth a visit.

Business Spanish

Learning Spanish for business can have big advantages for you if you are dealing with Spanish speaking countries, such as Mexico, Argentina or the Spanish Caribbean.Even if you learn enough to great people you'll oil the wheels of commerce; and if you can negotiate in Spanish then you give yourself and your company a big advantage.

Read more: Spanish language downloads for business.

Spanish downloads

Yesterday I was talking a bit about how downloadable Spanish courses are beginning to make an impression on the market. In fact I think it's inevitable that the end of the CD audio course is nigh, with downloads being much more cost effective and easier to distribute while having all the advantages of CD too.

Read more: Spanish downloads

Learn Spanish - downloads

Spanish audio courses have been available for years, most recently on CD, before that on cassette tape and prior to that I imagine they were available on vinyl disks. The latest trend is towards MP3 and downloadable courses the big advantage of course that you can upload the course to your iPods and listen whenever you like.

Find out more: Learn Spanish downloads

Why read and write in Spanish?

While you may think you'll never be fluent in Spanish, maybe you don't even need to go that far. Deal with companies in Spanish speaking countries for work? Maybe you just need to read and write emails in Spanish to be able to get a big benefit.

Read more: Learn Spanish audio CD courses

Spanish language CD

Learning Spanish at how from an audio CD isn't ideal, but if it's the only choice that suits your lifestyle then it'll have to do. Be warned; you'll need to be very disciplined to practice every day. And you'll need to be hard on yourself when you seem to have stopped making any progress.

read more: Spanish language CD

Learn Spanish fast, learn Spanish slow

Want to learn Spanish fast? Why not go for an immersion course in a Spanish speaking country. OK, not all of us can afford the time or it doesn't fit into our life. But I'll tell you one thing; no matter what, you can find a course that will suit you. It may take longer but you can do it.

More about learning Spanish.

Learn to speak Spanish

The internet has brought a revolution in our ability to access information. One of the big topics of the last few years has been music and movie piracy, but the same technology that has allowed this to happen has legitimate uses too. Several Spanish courses now exist utilizing the this mass distribution to delivery content almost instantly and at lower cost than courses supplied on CD or tape.

Learn to speak Spanish online at Simply Learn Spanish.

Turin Accommodation

Turin city centre is a great location to stay, with a good selection of small and picturesque hotels. It turns out some of them are in former palaces; at least one was formerly used as a brothel!

While hotels are often the obvious choice for anyone visiting Turin, it pays to bear in mind that they are not the only option. For budget travellers there are hostels; and for longer stay visitors there are apartments available too.

See more information about Turin accommodation.

Learn how to speak Spanish

If you want to learn how to speak Spanish you can do it in one of 2 ways; the easy way; or the hard way.
The easy way is to go and live in a Spanish speaking country and speak nothing but Spanish, make a fool of yourself and learn, learn, learn. That's the best way. The hard way is everything else.
However, you really can learn to speak Spanish if you put your mind to it. Choose a method that fits in with your lifestyle and just get down and do it.
There, it wasn't really so hard was it?

Learn to speak Spanish

There are a multitude of ways in which you can learn Spanish and no one of them is right for everyone. While the absolutely best way is to go and live in Spain or a latin American country, it's difficult for most people to arrange that. So what of the other options?
See my website for more info on how to learn to speak Spanish.

Turin Airport

Turin Airport is officially called Torino Caselle and was built for the 2006 Winter Olympics. It has all the usual modern facilities including food and snacks as well as bookshops and music. On arrival car rental facilities are available and you can also access facilities such as a VIP lounge, toddlers play area and banking facilities. You can get to Turin city centre by bus, taxi or train.

Find out more about Turin Airport.

Tickets for FC Barcelona

The draw has been made and tickets will soon be available for the greatest of European football teams, FC Barcelona. With their great new lineup as well as old faces like Ronaldinho and Messi it promises to be an exciting year. Find out more about buying FC Barcelona tickets online and save yourself the disappointment of missing a match.

Spanish Immersion

Absolutely the best way to learn to speak Spanish by living in a Spanish speaking country for a few months. There are schemes that allow you to do that, where you spend your days in class while staying with a local host family. The advantage of this is that you are constantly surrounded by the language and the culture - it's almost impossible to escape it in fact.

Aiming to speak Spanish

The reason that many people study Spanish is to acquire a good level of conversational Spanish. Since that's the case it's a pity that so many courses concentrate on grammar, grammar and grammar above anything else. While grammar does have it's part in learning Spanish it is not the most important thing by far - practicing talking is.

Spanish lessons and FC Barcelona

Yesterday I was talking about how learning Spanish is good when you travel. While all that was going on (me writing I mean) the Spanish La Liga was being drawn and so today we know when and against who they'll be playing, although not the Barcelona FC ticket prices yet.

Anyway, the two things merged into a stroke of genius - why not visit Barcelona and study Spanish on an intensive course. And while you're here, go and watch FC Barcelona play?

The advantage of a second language on your travels

Do you love traveling as much as me? Well, once you realize that so much of the world either speaks no English, or the quality they speak is so bad you can't understand it anyway you should think of learning another language.

As the third most common language in the world and a neighboring language to the United States, Spanish is the obvious choice. OK, it's no good if you're visiting Rome for instance, but much of the Caribbean, Mexico and South America speaks Spanish.

Flights to Turin

These days you can flights to Turin from cities all over Europe. The budget airlines fly there too, making Turin more accessible than ever. Also, you may like to travel by a combination of flight and train - both Bergamo and Milan are serviced by low budget airlines and you can travel from Milan central station to Train by train. Read my article for more info about flights to Turin.

Why speak Spanish?

I could give you a dozen reasons about why I think you should speak Spanish, but if none of them really clicks with you then what's the point. My first attempt at learning was because I was visiting Spain a lot and wanted to speak with the locals, but what really got me interested was when I started dating a Spanish girl. I've looked at the reasons to speak Spanish in an article on my website.

Listening to Spanish

Listening to someone speaking Spanish is a 2 part skill, broken down into decoding the sounds into words and then decoding the words into meanings. You can focus on each part, trying to hear the sounds better without attempting to understand, which come from having a larger number of phrases stored in your memory from which to synthesize new phrases.

read more about how to learn Spanish from my website.

Getting out of a rut

If you find you're stuck with your language course and making no progress then it's time to pause and find out why.

All you need to do is identify what us holding you back - usually it'll be just one area that is doing so - and formulate a learning strategy to get you past it.

Basically your problem will fall into one of 4 areas - listening, understanding, formulating or performing - and so you need to find out which area is the problem and decide what you need to do to effectively learn.

Find out more about learning Spanish from my website.

Spanish for beginners - the basics

Everyone has to start somewhere and when you learn Spanish you start with the basics. Take a look at the phrases below for some real rudimentary Spanish that will prove an excellent foundation for what you study afterwards.

Hello	Hola
Goodbye	Adiós
Yes	Sí
No	No
Thanks	Gracias
Many thanks	Muchas Gracias
You're welcome	De nada
Please	Por favor
Good morning	Buenos días
Good afternoon	Buenas tardes
Good evening	Buenas noches
Goodnight	Buenas noches
How are you?	¿Como estás?
Very well	Muy bien

See my website for more details on Spanish for beginners.

A morning at the beach

The sun is shining and the sky is blue. It must be summer, so being a Friday I spent a couple of hours on the beach (la playa). The sea (el mar) was slightly rough due to a slight breeze and so sand (la arena) got blown everywhere, but I did swim before falling asleep under the warn sun (el sol). After getting back home I had lunch and had a nap (siesta) and so now its time to work.


Want to learn Spanish? See my website for details.

Spanish fluency - an excercise to improve

If you have Puerto del Sol audio magazine or something similar I have a great little exercise to help you improve your Spanish fluency, understanding of spoken Spanish, pronunciation and vocabulary all in one. Here's what to do;

1. Listen to the audio all the way through. Try and understand as much as possible. Don't stop and don't peek at the text! Note down what you DO understand.

2. Listen to the audio again, this time pausing when necessary.

3. Take the text and read it while listening to the audio. Mimic the speaker as best you can and keep up no matter what.

FC Barcelona matches in August

Although they stay away from the August heat in Barcelona, FC Barcelona return at the end of August to play host to Inter Milan in the Gamper Trophy.

Although it is a competition in name the reality is that the match is actually a friendly match played against an invited team - always one of the top teams in Europe.

After a summer tour to the far east and a match against Bayern Munich in Germany, this will be the first opportunity to see the newly strengthened squad play at home. Miss it at your peril.

See FC Barcelona Tickets for more info.

More on reading Spanish

Yesterday I wrote how you can choose to increase your Spanish vocabulary, or use your reading to develop coping mechanisms that help you understand when you are missing information or your brain just isn't up to speed :-)

After that I decided to add a new page about reading Spanish to the website as I think it's great info that can help you improve your language skills.

Let me know what you think.

Reading Spanish

One thing to bear in mind when you read Spanish is your learning aim. Are you trying to increase your vocabulary or are you trying to improve your ability to understand Spanish?

At first sight they may appear to be similar; in fact they are two very different skills.

If you stop each time you can't understand a word and look it up in the dictionary then your Spanish vocabulary is sure to improve, bit by bit.

But if you just carry on reading you are training yourself to fill in the knowledge gaps by looking at the bigger picture, just like happens when someone speaks rapid Spanish to you.

You can read more about learning Spanish from my website.

Study Spanish

Study Spanish - yeah right, but how?

There are dozens of courses, different methods, and immersion courses in Spanish speaking countries - which is best for YOU?

OK, good question; can you sepnd 3 months in a Spanish speaking country? No, because you can't afford the time, can't move your family, or some other reason.

No problem, that option isn't going to work for you.

So, choose something that will. Learn more about how to study Spanish.

Reasons to learn Spanish

Can't think of a reason to learn Spanish?

How about it's the most popular language in the world after English and Chinese for example? Or that it is spoken by many people in the United States, as well as Mexico, many Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico, and all of South America with the exception of Brazil?

What more do you need? It's one of the best things you could do with your time.

Rocket Spanish review

If you’re following my advice to find a method of learning Spanish that immerses you in the language and forces you to speak it, but if you can’t go and live in a Spanish speaking country then what are your options. I’ve just reviewed Rocket Spanish, which aims to get you speaking Spanish in 3 months by simulating the immersion experience and so requires a lot of spoken practice. Take a look at the review.

Study Spanish

So what's the best way to study Spanish? Easy; go and live in a Spanish speaking country and speak nothing but Spanish, no matter what.

By forcing yourself to make mistakes you'll quickly learn and with selective grammar study your Spanish will improve no end.

Of course moving to a new country is easier said than done for most people. You therefore have to simulate the immersion expereince as best you can. With that in mind you can look for Spanish schools in your city, or find a course that will help you achieve this goal.

See http://www.SimplyLearnSpanish.com for details about how to learn Spanish.

Learning Spanish Like Crazy

Do you want to learn Spanish the way the Real Acadamia wants you to speak it? Or do you want to speak it like it spoken by native Spanish speakers?

For most people the answer is the second, but most Spanish courses focus on teaching the very formal Spanish that you won't actually encounter.

Learning Spanish Like Crazy concentrates on the second approach and you can read my review of it on my website at www.SimplyLearnSpanish.com.

FC Barcelona tickets

We'll, we do know who they are playing, but just not when. The draw for La Liga takes place at the end of July, at which point we'll know the season's fixture list and able to reserve FC Barcelona Tickets online.

Personally I can't wait - although I can't wait for them to cover the whole stadium either. In October (maybe even September) we got drenched at one match, it was terrible. What is that they say about the rain in Spain?

And more on learning languages; I've taken a look at Rocket Spanish today, which looks good although it's currently untested. If anyone has experience of this packages then let me know.

Spanish Grammar

I hate to say it, but at some point you're going to have to face the facts - you have to sit down in a class or with a book and learn some Spanish grammar. Ugh!

The best way to improve your spoken Spanish is by speaking Spanish with native speakers. However, you'll find that you still make mistakes, even if people are trying to correct you. However, if you can zoom in on those areas that you are weakest and focus on learning the grammar, you will soon fin that your spoken Spanish improves as a result.#

Don't spend too long at it and focus on doing what you need to. Apart from that forget it.

Spannish Grammar

I hate Spanish Grammar with a vengeance and now I know why.

OK, it's boring and I'd rather spend too much time in class or poring over text books. The real thing is that we ultimately know that it's a waste of time. And it's a waste of time for a very good reason - the grammar that is taught by language schools and in text books is based on completely formal grammar, but native Spanish speakers don't actually speak like that.

Think about this for just a minute - do you stick to ALL rules of English grammar? I'm sure you don't as it's just too constrictive. I'm not talking about semi-literate English either.

Anyway, you can read more about Spanish grammar and what you really need to learn at my new website www.simplylearnspanish.com.

Why speak Spanish?

Why Speak Spanish? The easy answer for me is that I live in Barcelona. The more complicated answer is that I live in Barcelona, where the language is... Catalan.

But I digress.

Did you know that Spanish is the 3rd most commonly spoken language on the planet? No?
English is first and Chinese second.

Think of Latin America, Spain, the Caribbean, Mexico, the Phillipines - there is Spanish everywhere. So why speak Spanish? What a great opportunity to speak and really get underneath the skin of other cultures. Enjoy!