Dawn

Dawn

Saturday, April 21, 2012


After his massive elephant-hunting gaffe, the Spanish King has apologised but discounted an abdication. Understandably, rumour has it that a PR campaign is being planned to buff up the tarnished image of the royal house. And, interestingly, the capacity of the British Windsors to bounce back after the Princess Di mistakes is being studied as a model. Though not the 1937 abdication of the man who would be king but who, thanks to his taste in androgynous women, ended up as the Duke of Windsor.

As part of a formal campaign, the Pontevedra police have arrested fourteen people for having unlicensed 'dangerous dogs' on the street. One of these was a Staffordshire bull terrier, which isn't a dangerous breed but has the misfortune to look very like the American pit bull terrier, which is. Talking of campaigns, I wonder if the police will ever get round to having one against drivers using their mobile phones.

I've mentioned the shops in the city which have closed since I was last here. But friends have told me that several new bars have opened in the old quarter. So, no cash for dresses or shoes but plenty for drowning one's sorrows. But I do know of one café on the edge of the old quarter which appears to have closed. This place relied on custom in the form of civil servants working in nearby local government offices, which is why it was never open at the weekends. I guess it's possible it's been hit by the threatened abolition of the 'morning coffee' practice but I rather doubt it, so early in the austerity campaign.

Just going back to the headless goat found on a nearby beach . . . I liked the headline "A dead and decapitated goat appears on Portocelo beach." As opposed to "A live but decapitated goat etc."

I was also taken with the foto of huge 60 million year old dinosaurs' eggs found in some rocks in Chechyna. It struck me it'd be hard to get both your head and your hands around these.

On Spain's never-ending conveyor belt of questionable financial dealings, we now have the case of Ciudad Real airport, which recently featured here as the airport handling only a tiny fraction of that for which it was built. Coming hot on the heels of the news of its closure has come the announcement there's to be an investigation into the possible use of public funds. I'm guessing the conclusion will be that there was. Just a hunch.

Finally . . . When I arrived here last Sunday, I noticed molehills in my back garden. Forty-six of the bloody things. Or forty-seven including the one I found this morning. So, I set to work levelling them before mowing the lawn, while laying plans to capture the mole and to take it for a holiday in the forest. But I might have had a stroke of luck; glancing in the direction of Nice-but-Noisy Toni's garden today, I noticed a few hills had appeared there. So, perhaps the mole has devoured everything there is to eat under my lawn and moved on to greener (or browner) pastures. One can but hope. Firstly, that the creature never returns. And, secondly, that my lawn doesn't collapse onto a web of tunnels.

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