Friday, March 29, 2024

Belinda Beckett: Mistress of Sizzle

Escaping August: How to avoid the heat, the crowds and the madness

SUMMERTIME and the livin’ ain’t easy, to misquote Ella Fitzgerald. It’s that point in the year when we jaded residents mutter the expletive, ‘tourists!' and...

Head to Los Barrios for a right rural rave-up!

If you thought Los Barrios was a one-horse town, you haven’t seen their Romeria, writes Belinda Beckett, Mistress of Sizzle

How to make millions from a cat

There are felines out there earning nine figure salaries for their humans

Cooler than the mint with the hole!

That’s polo at Sotogrande, writes Belinda Beckett, aka Mistress of Sizzle

‘Tourists go home’? Maybe they have a point…

I don’t blame Palma de Mallorca residents for scrawling ‘Tourists go home, refugees welcome’ on the walls of their citadel, writes Belinda Beckett

Jingle all the way!

A merry retro Christmas from Belinda Beckett, aka Mistress of Sizzle

The Garden of the Costa del Sol packs more flower power than San Francisco writes Belinda Beckett

I KNEW there was a floral thing going on in Estepona but nothing quite prepared me for the botanical binge laid on for visiting...

The Beckett List: How NOT to ‘do’ Spain

What is it about vacationing Americans that makes them want to ‘do’ an entire country in one visit?

First coronavirus laid waste to our lifestyles, now it’s invading our language, writes Belinda Beckett

HOW’S your New Normal working out? If, like me, you don a visor over your face mask like a medieval knight of old every...

Small portions, big mistake!

The Mistress of Sizzle, Belinda Beckett, reports from GBC TV's Rock Chef semi-finals

What a difference a day makes: The rise and rise of national awareness days

If you thought Spain held the monopoly on high days and holidays you’d be wrong

Belinda Beckett raises a toast to the sherry merry month of May in Spain, with its free-flowing booze and...

With barrels of rebujito hitched to the back of the tractor-drawn wagons you can refresh yourself as you walk/dance/stagger along the route

A collection of the best Brexit memes

Brexit or not (and when), great British humour will always rule the waves

Indecent proposals

If you thought Valentine’s cards were getting fruity you haven’t been propositioned by a piropo

Wheelchair Barbie and her gender-neutral grandkids are nothing new writes Belinda Beckett

Today Barbie is the epitome of diversity with over 100 personas and counting.

WHATS THE POINT? Looking back at some of the worst inventions to go public

As the New Year begins, we look back at some of the worst inventions from Microsoft paper clips to the Segway

Hacks and lumberjacks are NOT okay!

Columnist Belinda Beckett, aka the Mistress of Sizzle, regrets her career choice

Paying homage to Spain’s ultimate Mo Bro

Dali styled it on the moustache of Velazquez, one of the artists he most admired ... and went on growing it. At its max it measured 25 centimetres and reached up to his eyebrows.

Mind your Slanguage!

Belinda Beckett, aka Mistress of Sizzle, breaks down the ‘slanguage’ barrier in part two of her series on Spanish semantics

The purgatory of language limbo

A little Spanish can be a dangerous thing, warns Belinda Beckett, ‘Mistress of Sizzle’, in the first of a two-parter

Gibraltar’s changing street names leave the common tourist scratching their head

It’s not a big place to get lost in but things can take a complicated turn in a bilingual territory where most streets have two names

Raining Renaults: Don’t be alarmed at the largest student rally in Morocco

We’re talking a pandemic of dinky French hatchbacks plastered with sponsorship stickers, travelling along the highways and byways of Spain in a contest to find the shortest route to Marrakesh.

If you can’t stand the heat you can always take inspiration from the animal kingdom … or not, writes...

Luckily we humans can cool off at the turn of a shower tap but storks and vultures have a yuckier way to stave off the August heat...

If you think Spain’s timekeeping is weird, blame it on ze Germans

WHEN it comes to getting to bed at a decent hour and waking up in the morning, Spain is still the wild child of...

The Sotogrande season

It’s two parts old money to one part nouveau riche with a dash of blue blood, shaken and stirred by the gladiatorial sport of polo. That’s Sotogrande in August, when the A-List’s in town and ready to party, writes Belinda Beckett.

Autumn leaves

Could someone please tell me why summer shuts down in Spain on September 15?

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