Life in Spain; Torres revival; Nice quote; Hospitals; Nelson & me; & Galician humour.

Life in Spain:

• The Couldn't Make It Up Department. No comment necessary.
• Beastly developments: Ditto.
• The other day was Saint Anton’s Day. He's the patron saint of animals and, all over Spain, a wide range of pets will have been taken to the local church to be blessed. But in at least one village, it was also the day when single women went to church to throw rocks at a statue of the saint, so as to bring their dreams to fruition. Unless they involve getting married to animals, of course. Success only comes if you hit St Anton in the crotch - naturally - but you're not allowed to stay there all day playing cock-a-ball. You only have 3 tries. Talking of throws . . . 
• Following up on Tirar and Tirada, Tira means 'a strip' or 'a strap'. But, then again: 
• me gustó la tira - I really loved it
• la tira de - loads of
• hace la tira que - it's ages since 

You have to give it to the Spanish footballer, Torres. After a good career at Liverpool, his time at Chelsea wasn't exactly stellar. So off he went to Inter Milan. But now he's back with his old club, Atlético Madrid and in his first match he scored both their goals. Against Real Madrid. In the Bernabou. Since this knocked Real out of the Kings Cup, things couldn't have got much better for Atlético.

Best recent quote: Roger Moore, when asked if he kept in touch with Tony Curtis. “Not since he died, ” he replied.

Our local papers are full of the news that A&E departments in all our hospitals (Urgencias/Urxencias) are colapsados, or totally overwhelmed. Nothing to do with an increase in either accidents or emergencies, of course, but with the traditional Spanish practice of using the hsopital instead of a GP during a flu epidemic. All of which is a nice lead-in to this comment on the UK's NHS problems.

Finally . . . Did you know that Nelson suffered terrible seasickness every time he went to sea? So, that's something he and I share. Well, apart from the withered arm, the depressions and the glass eye.

Finally, finally . . . If you buy a copy of the Voz de Galicia today, you can get for a euro a mug bearing the legend: Os Galegos Somos Retranquieros. If you're in Pontevedra, please wait until I've got my 2 or 3.