I
went to see Pontevedra FC again this evening. It was another
disappointing result – a 1-1 draw(tie), despite Pontevedra being
the better team. But I was impressed to see that the ground is
child-friendly. Baby-friendly, in fact. The young woman to my left
had a pram in the aisle. Astonishingly, its occupant slept
throughout the match, despite being subjected to all the traditional
sounds of a football match, including the chants of burro(donkey)
at every visiting player who came near us. I put the child's
equanimity down to the NAP(Noise Assimilation Program) which every
Spanish child is exposed to from birth. Especially if they live next
door to me.
El
País has a cartoonist – El Roto - whom I've never
understood. Perhaps 'cartoon' is the wrong word as his offerings seem
to be political commentaries in graphic form, and designed to make us think rather than laugh. The latest, for
example, has a guy holding a wordless placard, with the following
above his head:- “No to the principle of authority without
principles”. Thinking about it, I probably can understand
this one.
Talking
of El País, the newspaper – like all others – is going
through tough times and is laying off a third of its staff. Where, one wonders, will these unfortunate folk be able
to get a job. Will they all end up writing unpaid articles for the
Spanish version of The Huffington Post? Is there one?
My
friendly robin hasn't been around for a while. Has it been the
victim, I wonder, of the bloody cat I've seen prowling my garden? If
so, can I prosecute it for murder? Or just shoot it?
The
Carrefour hypermarket on the other side of town now has, I'm told, an
English section. If so, this would be the first innovation in more
than a decade. Progress!
There
seems to be something of an obsession here in Spain with adorning
things with the British flag – the union jack. After jackets,
T-shirts and bags, today saw its appearance on a couple of umbrellas
being sported at the Sunday flea-market in Veggie Square. Why, for
God's sake? The bigger question is – Since I aspire to being seen as an English eccentric, should I join in?
Am
I alone in thinking this headline is decidedly ambiguous? - Spain
is reclaiming 136 children taken out of the country by one of their
parents. If so, how should we re-phrase it?
Another
question I have is – If I were young and fell in love with a
Spanish girl with a voice like a buzz saw – or like Janice in
Friends - how would I go about solving the problem? Of course,
this rather begs the question of whether I could fall in love
with a woman whose voice - like smoking - was a real turn-off. But
anyway.
The
city of Jaen has a wonderful (and expensive) new tram system. But
only one tram has travelled across its lines – the test vehicle
which provided free services for a short while, during local
elections. In other words, it's another of those vanity projects, or
white elephants, which populate Spain. And which doubtless generated
massive 'commissions' during the good times of the phoney boom. Other
examples are those splendid stations for the AVE high-speed train which are lucky to get three passengers a day/week/month.
Finally
. . . Here's Our Ambrose with a scathing commentary on the EU's debt
strategy.
No comments:
Post a Comment