Dawn

Dawn

Monday, July 06, 2009

Well, thanks to the research efforts of trusty readers and myself, we now know that, in 1719, a British raiding party descended first on Vigo and then on Pontevedra. It was under the command of Viscount Cobham, assisted by Vice-Admiral Mighells (“Micheles” in Spanish accounts). The party of 1,000 men which moved on to Pontevedra was led by General Wade but no mention is made in British sources of the elusive General Homobod. But there was a Brigadier-General Honeywood and so I’m naturally left wondering whether his name (like that of Mighells) has been transmuted over time. Incidentally, the British Army records have it that Wade et al ‘marched the 30 miles from Vigo to Pontevedra and caused the garrison there to flee in panic’. I know this to be a malicious calumny. It’s only 27km from here to Vigo. More info here, for those interested.

Briefly returning to the subject of closed shops . . . I was sad to see that one of my favouritely-named places – Don Bacalau (Mr Cod) – hadn’t survived. But I was less than surprised to see that the outlet in Vegetables Square selling nothing but soap had gone under. To be honest, I’d always been astonished it had opened in the first place.

Talking about Vegetables Square . . . At the flea market there on Sunday, I asked the price of a battered Castellano-Gallego dictionary, being prepared to go as far as a couple of euros. So when the guy asked me for 20, I could scarcely refrain from laughing before I put it back. Is the seller really unaware you can get one for nothing on line? In similar vein, my tenants told me later in the day they’d seen an old Cadillac bus at a garage near town, researched it on the net and identified the going price in the USA as around 2,000 dollars. So they called the owner and asked him what he was asking for it. “60,000 euros” was the reply. Presumably he knows something they don’t.

There continues to be talk of mergers between Spain’s troubled saving banks. Here in Galicia, there’s probably a strong case for merging our two biggies, Caixa Galicia and Caixa Nova. But, as a writer points out in today’s Voz de Galicia, standing in the way of any sensible outcome are the ‘Bonapartist’ attitudes of the respective directorates and the urban rivalries arising from their differently located HQs. Some head-knocking is surely required. If unlikely to happen, unless it’s made a serious precondition of a hand-out from Madrid.

Finally . . . I was right that the letter from the Xunta was about one of the three subjects I listed. But I was wrong to be so pessimistic, as it merely advised someone had objected to plans to clean up the forest and I could pop along to some office or other to see the details. And for this I – like all my neighbours – needed a registered letter?

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