http://www.barriemahoney.com/index.htmlTwitters from the Atlanticeninfo@barriemahoney.comCopyright 2010 Barrie Mahoney2012-01-22T10:24:33+00:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Sun, 27 Jun 2010 18:35:42 +0100info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2012-01-22T10:24:33+00:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/cb5b4ff9c355afc11d4258d71628c25e-82.html#unique-entry-id-82http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/cb5b4ff9c355afc11d4258d71628c25e-82.html#unique-entry-id-82

As soon as the initial euphoria and exhaustion of a move to another country has evaporated, many expats quickly discover that they also need to have an address in the UK. Even if, at first sight, with a new home and address in a newly adopted country it no longer seems necessary, most expats quickly find that a UK address is almost essential...

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2012-01-07T11:35:03+00:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/6cf62bd4edfe3a0aecdc5cc41d37a999-81.html#unique-entry-id-81http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/6cf62bd4edfe3a0aecdc5cc41d37a999-81.html#unique-entry-id-81

One thing that amuses, intrigues and sometimes irritates me as an expat in the Canary Islands and Spain is a small, but vocal, group of expats who have been fortunate enough to escape to the sunshine, yet spend their time complaining about life back in the UK. ..

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-12-18T07:16:53+00:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/25af2357633d61eb6702d93e1cd72209-80.html#unique-entry-id-80http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/25af2357633d61eb6702d93e1cd72209-80.html#unique-entry-id-80

It is strange how expats suddenly develop a craving for something that reminds them of life in their countries of origin. I guess it is not that surprising really, as Christmas is a time of the year when our memories, particularly as we get older, recall times gone by, both happy and sad. ..

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-12-11T11:29:02+00:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/8575b6a0deda7dbaa51608b91d3a490b-79.html#unique-entry-id-79http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/8575b6a0deda7dbaa51608b91d3a490b-79.html#unique-entry-id-79

It was a hot, sunny day and the boys and girls in the village school were enjoying their lunchtime games as usual in the schoolyard. However, today, tempers seemed a little more frayed than usual during this particular ball game. ..

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-12-04T10:01:32+00:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/3124ab0ed1e8d7392cb3a4fb49cc0d64-78.html#unique-entry-id-78http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/3124ab0ed1e8d7392cb3a4fb49cc0d64-78.html#unique-entry-id-78

It is rowing across the Atlantic time again! Why anyone would choose to row across the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat is beyond me, and particularly when there are some very pleasant liners that follow the same route, and with at least three decent meals a day thrown in...

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-11-20T09:52:12+00:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/98ed9f462222fbe7196c55e7b9f50313-77.html#unique-entry-id-77http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/98ed9f462222fbe7196c55e7b9f50313-77.html#unique-entry-id-77


The Canary Islands have a history that is, quite literally, littered with explosions. Each of the seven main islands was created by hot volcanic lava pushing through the cold Atlantic Ocean in the last million years or so. It therefore does not seem surprising that an occasional ‘belch’ can be heard, and seen, every few hundred years or so. One of our islands has been in a bit of trouble over recent weeks, but first, a little background…

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-11-06T10:23:37+00:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/eac19d7e134eb1a076e4e7c2c744b6d8-76.html#unique-entry-id-76http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/eac19d7e134eb1a076e4e7c2c744b6d8-76.html#unique-entry-id-76

One of the worst things that the newly arrived expat quickly faces is the sudden inability to complain if things go wrong. Spain may well be a member of the EU family, but when it comes to complaining, the expat would be wise to remember that it is a very different culture and pace of life. ..

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-10-30T11:34:10+00:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/cf3d59d50cf7c5452806e3f25bea8bb4-75.html#unique-entry-id-75http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/cf3d59d50cf7c5452806e3f25bea8bb4-75.html#unique-entry-id-75


You may remember Horatio Nelson from school history lessons as the jolly little man with the big hat and equally inflated ego; his costume goes down a treat at fancy dress parties. ..

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-10-23T11:27:02+01:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/c6bcdc12d475b540843c0a440a81f68c-74.html#unique-entry-id-74http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/c6bcdc12d475b540843c0a440a81f68c-74.html#unique-entry-id-74

Listening to the UK Prime Minister and the Energy Minister’s attempts to help consumers with their fuel bills this year brought a mixture of indignation, amusement and cynicism from many UK consumers. Some would say that the issue cannot truly be resolved simply by endlessly switching energy companies and tariffs, together with the odd roll of loft insulation. ..

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-10-16T10:06:09+01:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/c3447240360af165408a03bf1ea2ff7e-73.html#unique-entry-id-73http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/c3447240360af165408a03bf1ea2ff7e-73.html#unique-entry-id-73

I am very fond of pizza; that is if I can find one that is vegetarian. Being vegetarian, I have sometimes found it very difficult to get across the message that a ‘pizza vegetal’ is pizza without the inclusion of flesh of any kind. I have been presented with supposedly vegetarian pizzas laced with generous dollops of tuna, a fried egg and even a generous sprinkling of ham, which I thought was red pepper, before my stomach started heaving and I headed like a bullet for the door...

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-10-09T10:04:09+01:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/c94694254436eaefd3d79a480d958e38-72.html#unique-entry-id-72http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/c94694254436eaefd3d79a480d958e38-72.html#unique-entry-id-72

Regular readers of my ‘Twitters’ will recognise that I am a great fan of Marmite, which I understand is very similar to Vegemite in Australia. Yes, I readily accept that Marmite is rather like Blackpool or Benidorm - you either love it or hate it; in my case, I like all three. This ‘Twitter’ concerns my recent discovery about the thwarting of these miserable little beasts, mosquitoes, with a healthy dose of Marmite. ..

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-10-02T09:55:13+01:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/5dd385bb196664d8a9266466bc70cf6b-71.html#unique-entry-id-71http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/5dd385bb196664d8a9266466bc70cf6b-71.html#unique-entry-id-71

I have to confess that I am not a great lover of gnomes. No, I don’t mean the real ones that appear in fairytales, but the depraved garden variety. Toadstools, seagulls, fairies and wishing wells I can take quite happily, but the grinning garden gnome, wearing that totally impractical, ostentatious and irritating red hat really makes me see red (if you excuse the pun)…

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-08-28T10:26:24+01:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/bbcd340eb25f5674cedbbf2e6346841b-70.html#unique-entry-id-70http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/bbcd340eb25f5674cedbbf2e6346841b-70.html#unique-entry-id-70

Regular readers of ‘Twitters’ may recall that an emaciated, flea ridden and sickly kitten burst into my life last year, and a number of readers have been asking about what happened to him...

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-08-21T11:17:30+01:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/7c91cac06ff1fcc428c9c7d0c32dde05-69.html#unique-entry-id-69http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/7c91cac06ff1fcc428c9c7d0c32dde05-69.html#unique-entry-id-69

Teachers have a responsibility to ensure that their pupils can read and write, and are numerate. It is a stated aim that they should do well in their SATS and achieve good grades in their GCSEs and beyond. However, education is much more than this and wise teachers place learning about life, learning to being happy and fulfilled human beings, as well as daring to dream the unthinkable at the very top of their priorities. ..

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-08-15T12:02:28+01:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/e294c04d683644149c9b29d151ad65de-68.html#unique-entry-id-68http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/e294c04d683644149c9b29d151ad65de-68.html#unique-entry-id-68

It was not that many years ago that Dot and Bert from Wigan, and others like them, managed to achieve their life-long dreams of opening a bar or a small business in the Spanish Costas and the Portuguese Algarve. They, and many like them, discovered that a pound went a long way in the countries where the peseta and the escudo were king. It was also a time when the equity locked in many British homes was substantial, and could be released to fund a new lifestyle and a new home in the sun. ..

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-08-07T09:47:41+01:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/99ba861020ae7d8cc704a38107fe29d7-67.html#unique-entry-id-67http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/99ba861020ae7d8cc704a38107fe29d7-67.html#unique-entry-id-67

Shortly after moving to the Costa Blanca, we discovered that a small town close to the urbanisation where we had made our home had been destroyed by an earthquake in the nineteenth century. Nowadays, we live on a volcanic island in an archipelago where there are still several active volcanoes...

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-07-31T10:12:02+01:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/dbf11a40c3a716566d687b20d5db437e-66.html#unique-entry-id-66http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/dbf11a40c3a716566d687b20d5db437e-66.html#unique-entry-id-66

‘The Seven Year Itch’ is often a term applied to relationships between people that have begun to fail. The early excitement and romance of the first few years of a new relationship have soured, and been replaced by mistrust, disappointment and betrayal. New responsibilities, work pressures, children and financial difficulties are often the root cause of many problems within a relationship…

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-07-25T10:28:56+01:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/147b477af4adb7f772991f21e9f3af0e-65.html#unique-entry-id-65http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/147b477af4adb7f772991f21e9f3af0e-65.html#unique-entry-id-65

Sometimes, if I am in the right mood, I get a rather warped pleasure from reading recent research studies. I know that researchers will have worked long and hard over many months, if not years, to complete their work, and many of these research papers are extremely valuable. However, some are just plain silly, are totally irrelevant and, in my opinion, do not justify a research grant. Some of the worst offenders are published and often misinterpreted in the tabloids as space-fillers and can be highly amusing, particularly if they will make good headline grabbers such as “Eating fried cockroaches adds ten years to your life...

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]]>info@barriemahoney.comTwitters from the Atlantic2011-07-17T10:05:40+01:00http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/446fcd024aa5637259ae5aef547f17c5-64.html#unique-entry-id-64http://www.barriemahoney.com/Twitters/files/446fcd024aa5637259ae5aef547f17c5-64.html#unique-entry-id-64

I had a ‘significant birthday’ a few days ago. Birthdays are strange things, and I guess I now take the view that if we are lucky enough to celebrate one, it means that we are still alive which, I guess, is something of a plus. However, what to do and where to go was initially something of a problem...

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