Galicia
is said to abound in myths, none greater, of course, than that of the
body of St. James pitching up at Padrón, all by itself in a boat
made of concrete. Coming close in the ridiculous stakes must be the
one I read about today - that the village of Noia was founded by the
grandchild of Noah. Harmless but also witless.
Talking
of stupidity and villages in Spain . . . Pioz, in Guadalajara province, boasts some 3,000 inhabitants. Each
of these is now obliged to pay 5,000 euros, in order to pay off the
town hall's debt of 16 million euros. How, I hear you ask, can a
small village run up a debt of this order? God only knows, would be my
response. But, somehow or other, it's been calculated that Pioz will need 7,058 years to clear the
debt.
Talking
of debts, Click
here for a glimpse into the murky but comfortable world of Spanish
banking.
Red
sandstone is a beautiful material and one very widely used on the
Wirral Peninsula, from which I hale. One of the best examples of its
use is Chester cathedral - the organ of which, incidentally, was used
by a certain Mr Handel to practice The Messiah, before he went
off to give this work its debut in Dublin. But why do I mention this?
Well, because two good friends recently showed me deep grooves in the
sandstone wall at the end of their street, where medieval archers
used to sharpen the points of their arrows. And it struck me today
they might be able to cash in on the archery craze stimulated by a
recent blockbuster film. Stranger things have happened.
Coincidental
spam: I mention the name Penny in correspondence and the next day I
get mail from a company with Penny in the name. I guess this is what
Google meant about linking all their services. Or whatever
obfuscating terminology they used.
The
EU: Greece: France etc.: My erudite friend Alfie Mittington has
virtually blown a gasket around the latest developments. Which makes
for very entertaining reading. Here.
You
couldn't make it up: The Olympic flame was taken from its source
in Ancient Olympia today, igniting a torch that would begin its
journey to London. Except it didn't, as the 'unextinguishable' torch was
blown out by a gust of wind before it could get going. Happily, there
was a back-up torch behind a pillar. Probably supplied by the IMF or
the ECB.
Wayne
Rooney seems to be as good at picking horses as he was in selecting
whores. His nag trailed in last in a race at Chester yesterday.
Amazing. Two
references to Chester in one post. Well three now.
Finally
. . . A plea for help. I have a Garmin 265W satnav. And it's stuck on
the Iberian Peninsula. By which I mean it won't give me any countries
other than Spain, Portugal and Andorra. Plus France above and
Gibraltar below. I've tried everything to get it to change countries
to the UK, without success. Anyone got any ideas? Please send them
here.
Finally,
finally . . For reasons unknown, some comments (Moscow and Victor)
are arriving in my email but are not appearing as Comments below the
relevant post. Very sorry about that. Nowt to do with me.
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