In the following interview extract Sven reflects on how little contact he had with English people: Well, on the one hand it would be nice [to know some English people], just to get an insight into their culture and the life here, because I don't know at all what English people do all day long, what they do in the evenings… apart from going to the pub and getting drunk.
Evenings like this (apart from the sport bit) sound rather relaxing.
In the evenings, the only noises apart from human voices were the hiss of the Tilley lamps that provided our light no electricity then and the calls of the hyenas that sometimes ate the Lewanikas' chickens and often came right up to the house that Alfred and I shared.
Vasilis Stolis, 27, has a master's in political science and – apart from odd evenings playing the bouzouki in restaurants until the work dried up – has been unemployed since 2010.
Apart from spending evenings out with a couple of the Academy boys, Ravi Bopara and Owais Shah, I've been trying to find a laundry that doesn't shrink my clothes.
I doubt that very many people in England seriously want to bring back bearbaiting, or to spend their evenings watching two roosters rip each other apart.
Apart from wine tastings and explanations of the techniques and daily life behind biodynamic cultivation, a stay here can include trekking or biking through the vineyards, culinary workshops, and even poetry and musical evenings.
Ashamed by my seeming insanity, I withdrew until our life together became long car rides without conversations or laughter, silent evenings watching TV in the same room but feeling worlds apart, months without any real connection.
There is a silver lining, though, quite apart from the fact that Marjorie will no longer have to spend her evenings embroidering hankies with a wobbly "CL".
All are air-conditioned apart from the restaurant car, which can become a bit of a drinking den in the evenings.
