Coming
back from Vigo yesterday on the superb 'middle-distance' trains on
this route, I noticed a couple of things. First, work appears to be
proceeding on our bit of the high-speed AVE train tracks. But it
would be hard to exceed the quality of the current train and the
question remains whether money wouldn't have been better spent on
remedying the century-old problem that there's only one track.
Meaning that one train must get out of the way on another one coming
in the opposite direction. In other words, Galicia didn't need the
AVE: it just needed a decent modern train track.
The
other thing was a man in his 50s or 60s, dressed in a sort of
three-piece suit and with tidy, slicked-back hair. With a very short
pony tail sticking out of the back of it. A far as I know, this is a
privilege bestowed only on bullfighters. Or, in this case, an
ex-bullfighter. As is often the way with sightings like this
(especially of pretty women), I clocked him again later getting into a car
in Pontevedra.
In
London, those phone boxes that remain are plastered with cards for
prostitutes. These are taken out every night and are back in place
the next morning. It keeps someone in work. Anyway, this doesn't
happen in Pontevedra and when I walked past the phone outside the
health clinic this morning, I noticed there was but a single card pasted to the outside of it -
from a humble painter. And no one had yet torn off one of his
carefully prepared little strips with his number on. Who can afford
paint when you've got food and drink to buy down in the old quarter?
All
of which reminds me that today I walked into the town centre using a
different route from usual. And was shocked - but not surprised - to
see the number and range of shops whose windows were displaying
nothing but air. It contrasts with last night when I saw two male
students walking out of the shopping centre and getting into two
newish cars on which the insurance alone has to be between one and
two thousand euros a year. Sons of funcionarios?
Successful
entrepreneurs?
My bet is on the former.
And now I have to go and see my lovely neighbour, Ester, in her Happy Party shop. If it's still in business. So . . .
Finally
. . . Dr Osler's word of wisdom for today:-
In
seeking absolute truth we aim at the unattainable and must be content
with broken portions.
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