Dawn

Dawn

Friday, August 19, 2011

I wrote another Midday EU Special today. Scroll down if interested. By the way, it's not true that I'm writing these just to annoy reader Moscow . . .

Which reminds me . . . A couple of years or so ago or, I predicted the Spanish would turn against the euro. And so it's come to pass. How dare they threaten to turn off the cash tap(faucet) just because we don't obey fiscal rules? Didn't both France and Germany ignore these in 2001 with impunity? It's one rule for you and another for us. And, besides, we are poor and have 20% employment! Yea,well, maybe. Who checks the Andalucia numbers, for a start?

You've got to laugh at Mourinho. The man who came to fame with an Oporto side whose players fell over if you looked at them and had only two attempts at goal (both, sadly, successful) in a Champions' League final has said "“I was taught that football was a game for men, not a game where you fall over at the slightest touch.” Someone should give him an Oscar. Especially as he isn't going to lift much silver again this year.

Although it was forecast to be over 30 today - 40 if you're unlucky enough to be up in Ourense's humid bowl - this hasn't been a hot summer. Rainless, yes. But not too hot. What it's really been remarkable for is what the young women have been prepared to (not) wear when walking around town. Or maybe I'm just getting old and can't even recall as far back as last summer. Which, when you come to think of it is a good thing. Every summer is a pleasant surprise.

Reading Orwell is always a joy - on several levels - but I've been intrigued to learn some new words in his novel Coming up for Air:-
Squailer – Loaded stick, for chucking at small animals or apple trees.
Gentles – Maggots
Sainfoin - Some sort of forage for, I guess, horses.

I had to laugh at the fact that in the UK in 1908, kids were afraid of being copped for riding a bike at night without a light. In Spain in 2011, observation suggests that, if this is actually an offence here, the law isn't remotely enforced. Especially in the case of gypsies. The same applies to the many nocturnal cars whose drivers don't seem to realise it's dark.

I mentioned yesterday that I'd finally found a (useless) USB cable for my phone. Prior to this though, I'd had this Conversation of the Day at The Phone Shop:-
Hola. Do you sell the USB cable for this phone?
Well, we did. But we're out of stock and I don't know when we'll be getting any more. [Spanish for “No. We don't and won't ever sell them].
Well, do you know where I might get one?
No, not really. Perhaps Corte Inglés in Vigo. Or Carrefour here in Pontevedra
[Wearily] Thanks.

I saw this stunning BBC documentary earlier this week, about a couple who were involved in the Stauffenburg plot to kill Hitler but miraculously survived. I say "BBC" but I'm sure they bought it from the American director, John Keith Wasson. Whatever, it's a Must See.

I had a special interest in the sad shark story from the Seychelles. I went to the islands at 18 to teach for a year and I'd visited the very beach on Praslin where the incident took place. I remember it most for the sand flies which plagued it back then. No one was afraid of sharks, as attacks were unheard of. Though I did once come face to face with a barracuda. And enjoyed swimming among manta rays. Memories. Shame all my fotos were destroyed in a repository fire when I was living in Iran a few years later. Not to mention the Seychelloise Grammar and Dictionary I'd written.

Finally . . . This is fun, even for us Mac users.

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