Just a brief blog to share my shame and embarrasment, suffered belatedly last night after a trip to the chemist to get Kate something to help relieve her blocked sinuses.
I´d taken a quick look in my Collins Gem to find the Spanish word for sinuses. Being a bit lazy I thought I could just use this word and a bit of mime to get my requirement across to the staff of the farmacia, rather than actually working out the complete sentance. In hindsight I´m unsure whether that was a good or a bad thing.
Anyway, Collins Gem said that sinus translates into Spanish as seno. That was good enough for me and I quite happily parked up in Llerena and walked to the nearest farmacia. The assistant was talking to two other customers but broke off to serve me.
“Here goes”, I thought, and, holding the bridge of my nose, said “¿Tierne algo para seno?” or something mumbled to that effect.
She looked confused. I repeated “seno” whilst stressing the bridge of my nose with my fingers.
She looked more confused. She called another assistant.
I tried again. “Seno” I said making my nose very apparent.
“¿Nacelles?” or something like that said the second assistant.
“¡Si, seno!” I replied.
She passed me something. I started to try to translate the packaging, but then noticed the Vicks logo. That was as much as I needed to know. “Si” I said and completed the purchase.
As I left the two assistants and customers looked bemused. Well what of it, I had what I´d come for.
Later I found myself looking though Collins Gem, trying to recall what Spanish for “speed bumps” is. There is a perfectly good reason, but I won´t go into that now.
Whilst doing this I made a discovery that suggests that there may be a typo in the English half of the dictionary. In the Spanish half, “seno” isn´t sinus, it´s a woman´s breast.
Now reconsider my exchange with the nice assistants in the farmacia.
I walked in, motioned to my nose and apparently asked the nice ladies if they had any treatment for my case of “Titnose”. No wonder they looked confused. I don´t imagine I helped the situation either by continuing to repeatedly ask for some treatment for my “Titnose”.
They must have been hugely relieved to discover that Vicks is a suitable treatment and at least there´ll be one farmacia in Spain that will always know how to help a mad ranting Englishman with such a rare complaint.
I go now to hang my head in shame.