Something is quite definitely going on. Apart from the unprecedented [preliminary] booking of the town’s elite for parking offences a couple of nights ago, I have seen the police swarming all over town today, booking everything in sight. And, to cap it all, I have this morning received notice of a second offence. This refers to an event of three[!] months ago when I am alleged, on a spot 14km out of town, to have ‘parked in such away as to prevent the best use of the remaining space’. Given that I have railed more times than I ought to have done about this widespread, inconsiderate Spanish practice, this would be more than ironic, if it were true. But how can we possibly know? I never received any sort of ticket at the time and, anyway, the offence is so widely defined that anyone and everyone would be guilty of it at any and every time. A more blatant example of revenue gathering I have yet to see. I suppose someone has to pay for the ever-improving fiesta fireworks but I shall take myself down to the police station tomorrow and at least demand sight of the copy of the parking ticket that should have been issued to me 3 months ago. If it exists, I shall take it from there, with minimal expectation of equity. It’s at times like this that one has to remind oneself of the numerous good things about life in Spain and tell oneself that the balance is overwhelmingly positive. If only one would listen!

The town newspaper has printed the results of its survey on the quality of this year’s fiesta. 44 per cent say the events are very good and an equal percentage say they are very poor. Manoel has pointed out that, since these cancel each other out, they together reflect the notorious Galician habit of evasively declining to give a view on anything. Except on how one has parked, of course.

WordWatch
Gogó – Dancer
Ye-yé – Groovy, trendy [Think of the 60s]
Flash – In-a-glance, as in Pontevedra Flash = Pontevedra at-a-glance
Bum – Boom, as in Bum inmobiliario = Construction boom