Holidays.

Joni Mitchell sings about the hissing of summer lawns. I could sing about the swishing of car tyres on wet roads. It's an odd phenomenon of Vigo in August that the day begins with low cloud, mist and drizzly rain, all of which disappears when the sun breaks through and the day turns blue and clear. Today, just to be different, the low cloud and mist was still hanging around in the rather muggy late morning. And hanging in the air was religious-sounding singing coming from one of the nearby churches. No doubt it has something to do with the A Guía festivities: religious music in the morning, honky-tonk in the evening!

In one of the UK papers the other day someone was expressing amazement at the number of people who go away in August. Why August? the writer pondered. Why not July? After all, the universities have finished by mid/end of June. Doh! And schools? Most schools in the UK continue until late July. That is why prices go up in late July and August. That is why people try to cheat the system by taking their kids away in term time. These journalists! Do they know nothing!

His other point was that people should take their holidays at home: no reason to complain about the airport queues then! Of course, there is always the weather to contend with!

Theresa May has headed off to Lombardy, where she is reported to have sung the national anthem. I deed she is supposed to have led a "singalong". The pianist at the hotel included God Save the Queen in his medley and Theresa and Philip stood up and started to sing. I could almost feel sorry for her. Mocked, by me as well as others for standing up and singing, she would no doubt have been accused of lack of patriotism if she had just ignored it and carried on with he glass of wine. That is assuming that people who go on walking holidays in Lombardy indulge in glasses of wine!

Meanwhile, those who holiday in more Eastern European countries are indulging in a bit of Corbyn-spotting. Like train-spotting or birdwatching but you get to tweet about it. Jeremy Corbyn in on a cycling holiday in Croatia, or so the papers say. One holiday maker expressed her delight at seeing him enter her hotel. This had "made her holiday", she tweeted. As for me, if I were in Croatia or wherever I would be more interested in seeing things Croatian. It's all very well getting excited about seeing famous people but in the end they are only people!

The funniest thing I found was that the news report included a description of what Jeremy Corbyn was wearing, including his rucksack. The article went on to tell you where you could purchase an identical outfit, including rucksack. They did not do the same with Theresa May's outfit. Nor her husbands, for that matter.

Finally here is a bit of Spanglish vocabulary. In the supermarket you can buy packets of crispbread, ideal to "dipear" in the humous they sell there. And my Spanglish niece posted a link on Facebook to info about holiday accommodation, including "bungalós". I appreciate the change of spelling in that English word of Indian origin, or so I have heard. The accent is useful to tell the Spanish how to pronounce it. Now they need to do the same with "penalty". I wince every time a football commentator talks about "penAlties".

It's all very well borrowing vocabulary but you have to say it properly!