Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts

Beware the escalator of death

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Having spent the past week in Spain I could pass on examples of silly solecisms but I won't because it's hardly fair to sneer at our multi-lingual Continental cousins when so few Brits are prepared to learn foreign languages (my droog JD is an exception to that rule).

In any case this sign, which confronts travellers arriving at Gatwick airport by train, puts Spanish menu typos in the shade. In case you can't read it through the lens of my £25 Tesco camera, it warns: "Keep safe. Use the lifts. A lift is located further along the platform."

The spelling's OK, so maybe this is outside The Engine Room's self-imposed remit, but it's such a fine example of 21st century health and safety that I wanted to share it with you. I wonder if the escalator manufacturer could claim damages from the airport operator for malicious falsehood?

A pensioner writes

Having been languishing on the Costa Brava (it's a hard life as a pensioner) I missed the Engine Room's anniversary but wanted belatedly to congratulate JD on the way it's developed. While my esteemed colleague let me join him on the blog it's always been his baby and I've really enjoyed catching up on his entries and the comments from our fellow enthusiasts of English as she is writ. Having spent so long in the engine room holding the line against manglers of the mother tongue it's nice to know we're not alone.

Enough with the valedictions already; here's a warning spotted at Gatwick Airport on the way back from Spain: "Dogs must be carried on the moving pavement". Which led Mrs Apus to wonder where we could borrow a pooch apiece because clearly we wouldn't be allowed in without one.

What a carry on...