Sin novedad

Sin novedad/RIP Hammy
Meaning 'no news', this is a normal response to the question 'how's things?' here in Spain, particularly among the over 5o's. I'm told the full version ('no news from the front') dates back to the Civil War, when no news was definitely good news.Well it's pretty much sin novedad here. Except - Hammy the hamster died of old age. The poor thing was about 110 in hamster years, couldn't stir from his bed, eat or run happily about chewing electric cable as in his prime (Javier still mutters darkly about the cost of the new fridge). But he just would not die. In the end I took him to our local vet, a cool pony-tailed dude who had obviously never been asked to LOOK at a hamster before, let alone put one to sleep (the Spanish are not big on kindness to animals, certainly not to anything smaller than a dog).Anyway in true English sloppy anthropomorphism we buried him in a coffin (Quality Street tin) with a wooden headboard, on which Sammy wrote R.I.P Hamy.2003-2006. He will always be my favorit hamster. He and Helen want to dig him up in a month to look at the bones.So much for infant sentiment.