Well,
with my peerless ability to predict match results, I thought Italy
might just sneak tonight's Euros Final. Fat chance, against the best
football most of us have ever seen. I felt some sympathy for Italy,
as they surely didn't merit a thrashing. But, then again, Spain
deserved at least the four goals they got.
Spending,
as I am, quite a bit of time down in Veggie Square, I've
re-acquainted myself with Ponte-Wi-Fi. As you may have twigged, this
is a free WiFi service, supplied by the town hall. To get it, you
have to provide your mobile phone number, to which is sent an access
code. In my case, I've connected via three different phone numbers
and have got six different codes. This is because the service is
idiosyncratic at best, capricious at worst. It will suddenly and for
no obvious reason cut off the connection and then refuse to
re-connect you via the number you first thought of. Or perhaps via
any of them. Cue shrug of shoulders.
El
País today carried an article on the number of English words
that had made their way into Spanish. It all began, said the author,
with football. Specifically, with penálty and orsai.
Which may well be offside. If not, I haven't the faintest idea
either. The article makes the point that English is used to create an
image of modernity. As with the two re-furbished bars I mentioned
yesterday.
Talking
of English, here are the top five countries as regards fluency in
English, ignoring (of course) all the Anglo nations:-
1.
Norway 69%
2.
Holland 68%
3.
Denmark 67%
4.
Sweden 66%
5.
Finland 61%
Spain
comes in at 24th, between Italy and Taiwan.
Talking
of countries . . . Which one lays claim to grow the highest per
capita number of pineapples per year? Yes, you're right, of course -
Iceland. Something to do with the thermals, I guess. Have I already
written about this?
Finally
. . . Searching for Poio in my sat-nav - and making a typing mistake
- I've discovered there's a village called Poo in Asturias. Nothing
to add on that. Except to say that the Bienvenido a Poo sign has probably
been well snapped. Like the one for Cuntis not far from here.
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