Did
you now there's an Exit Clause in the Lisbon Treaty? And that one country has actually left the EU? Bet you didn't. Anyway, it's
Greenland, which departed the then EEC in 1985 but maintains links
into the EU via Denmark.
More
disclosures from the murky world of politics in the Ourense area. The
guy who was in charge of building permits and land (re)designation in
the delightful Miño-Sil region has admitted receiving 3,500 euros a
month in brown envelopes.. From Vendex is my bet. That's a nice
42,000 a year, undeclared and untaxed. I wonder if he's one of 'more
than a thousand' people in Galicia who own more that 50 immovables.
Or 'properties' to you and me.
Down
in the old quarter there's a square that used to be called Plaza
de Abastos. But the locals now
call it Plaza de Gatos. Or 'The Square of Cats'. This
is because there's an abandoned and fenced-off archaeological dig
which is awash with cats, fed by the neighbours. The same is true of
other sites, both in the old quarter and elsewhere. The result this
year was a plague of fleas in a primary school nearby when it opened
after the summers holiday. A notice was sent out begging people to
stop feeding the felines but not all have taken heed of this. Even in
Spain, some people regard animals more highly than humans. They may
have a point with adults. But children?
Talking
of children . . . There's a particularly gruesome case proceeding
through the Spanish courts at the moment. This is of a father accused
of killing his two kids and then burning their bodies in a large
garden bonfire. The reason why we've read so much about is that the
first expert to analyse the bones declared them to be of dogs. For
which she was later sacked, a rare event in Spain. At least if you're
a banker of any sort. Or, of course, a politician.
I
think I've read that tourism did well this year along the southern
and eastern coasts. And that property purchases by foreigners have
increased over recent years. In both cases propelled by Brits, for
the most part. Up here, though, where we have few foreign tourists,
hotel occupation, nights stayed and spend per day, all reflected how
the crisis is hitting Spaniards. In a nutshell, we had the worst
August in years. Which will have hit everyone very hard, as this is
the big month of the year. Hence the phrase Hacer el agosto.
Meaning 'To coin it'.
Talking
of the crisis – An enterprising Pontevedra cobbler has decided to
improve his takings by selling off all the footwear unclaimed by
customers. I do think, though, that he could have tried selling them
at a market price, rather than the price of repair he's going for.
You can always go down but you can never go up.
But
there is good news. There's to be a Galician version of Twitter.
Using @tweet-en-galego takes you to a translation service, I
read. Not knowing how to do this, I googled it and came up with this.
Which looks like the real McCoy.
Which
reminds me . . . I came across another of those H/F examples this
morning. The Spanish for 'owl' is buha but the Galician is
bufa. This time, though, the Latin word – strig –
bears no relation to the Gallego word. Incidentally, I once found a
young owl and gave it free use of the house. It repaid me by
attacking my elder daughter whenever it saw her, trying to pull out
her curly hair. Sadly, we were unaware that you have to mix meat with
stuff from the vacuum cleaner so that it can cough up 'owl pellets'.
Otherwise, it seems, they die from their own stomach juices.
I
had an appointment with the doctor this afternoon. As with the
national habit of speciously reporting numbers to two decimal points
so as to feign accuracy, I was down to see him at 15.06. I'm not sure
why but the doctor calls out 3 names at once. Maybe we're expected to
fight to be the first through his door.
Finally
. . . A 'subsaharian' has tried to get into one of Spain's north
African enclaves (not colonies!) by covering himself with a cloth and
disguising himself as the passenger seat. With a friend sitting in
his lap.
Finally,
finally . . . I hit the road for France tomorrow morning. I'm sure
I'll be able to draft a post in my head but whether I'll be able to
commit it to my laptop depends on what sort of place I get to rest my
head in. If not, it'll be Thursday.
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