One
of Spain's favourite sports is Kar Kissing, which takes place
on any and every street in the country every day. So it was never
going to be long before a corner of my new car got scratched. Just
seven days, in fact. Bastards.
My
elder daughter is leaving Madrid for a year and is renting out her
flat. I've just taken delivery of the stuff she doesn't want to leave
in it. Which was valuable, as it answered two long-standing
questions:- Where the Hell are my walking shoes? and How come I've got
DVDs 2 and 3 of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but not the
first? Now I just need to find out who lent me all three
of them.
I
first heard the heart-warming tale of war-torn Afghans trying to form
a cricket team a year or so before the last World Cup. I then had the
pleasure of watching a documentary of their progress – including a
victory! - in that tournament. Now they're playing in the Twenty20
competition in Sri Lanka. There's hope for that benighted country
yet!
Incidentally,
there's a nice comparison between prices being charged in Colombo –
14 pence a day – and those being charged during the last Test match
in England. A mere 25 pounds a day. Which is a factor of 179:1, of
course.
News
arrives from Portugal that – in search of easy revenue – the
police have been ordered to fleece foreigners for offences which
range from serious to beyond trivial. Mis-parking in a supermarket
car-park, for example. This didn't matter when it was confined to the
Algarve but things have moved north and this means that those of us
travelling with Spanish plates are now going to be targeted.
Which makes an upcoming trip to Lisbon rather less enticing. More
here for those affected.
We've
been told by several people now that our electricity bills are going
to rise this autumn.Possibly in two or three ways. One thing's for
sure, there won't be any explanatory note in our envelopes and the
bills themselves will remain indecipherable. That's
the way of things here, even if (theoretically at least) there's more
competition than there was ten years ago.
So,
the Anglo Saxons took their name from Saxony, yes? Well, no. The
Saxon bit relates to the invaders' killing knife – the Seax/Sax. It
was only much later that these were melted down and turned, first,
into ploughshares and then, later, into musical instruments.
Talking
of words . . . Another not-so-new bit of Spanglish – Un tuit.
If this means nothing to you, think about it. In the context of
messages.
Here's
a review of the film about Sherlock Holme's time in Madrid.
Finally
. . . I go on about Galicia's excellent but unknown wines but here's
another favourable article, this time on the region's best reds.
Enjoy.
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