Dawn

Dawn

Monday, September 24, 2012


Today they celebrated the feast of the Our Lady of Mercy on this side of the river. Meaning the supermarket and petrol station down by the bridge were closed. Which I discovered after parking and going up in the lift. The local paper talked of a day of festivities. If so, they must have got drenched. In the nearby town of Porriño yesterday, Jesus of the Agony never even got out of his starting blocks because of the gusty wind and heavy rain.

Which reminds me . . . You'll recall we had a Festival of Tripe in our barrio not so long ago. And, just in case you don't know what this looks like, here it is as served to me as a tapa on Sunday.



And here's what it looks like hidden behind a handy Tapas menu.


I went with the patatas alternative. Meaning crisps/potato chips.

The worst consequence of the rain would be the destruction of the wine crop, as harvesting is now under way. Last year a number of bodega owners were fined for over-producing (not a concept well-known in a free market) but this looks rather unlikely this year.

The Spanish word Joder means 'To fuck'. Or just 'Fuck!' But, Like coño, it seems to have a great deal less taboo value here than in Anglo-Saxon societies. My lovely neighbour, Ester, sent a text message to her 17 year-old daughter yesterday and got in response the one-word message Joder! Which she found amusing. As I did too, of course.

I tend to go on about noise. Especially that from Toni next door. So I was delighted to have this support from a recent leader in El País:- "We are Noise: The law is not enough to tackle a problem rooted in our culture and exacerbated by the prohibition of smoking in bars.” On the same subject, The Xenophobe's Guide to the Spanish puts it this way:- Shouting indoors as well as out in the open must be endured [tell me about it!] as the Spanish voice box was originally built along the lines of a quadrophonic sound system.”

The company implicated in bribing the Mayor of Ourense is called Vendex. It's been supplying services to 28 cities throughout Spain and the police say they're currently dealing only with the tip of an iceberg. I would't mind betting there are 28 icebergs for them to investigate. There must be some worried mayors around the country.

Which reminds me . . . A word which crops up a lot in reports of arrests and charges is prevaricación. This usually means 'corrupt practice' but, in the case of a judge, would mean 'perversion of the course of justice'.

Are there any other countries in the world where the school kids stop for breakfast? This has only come to my attention because parents are reported to be sending their offspring off in the morning with 'packed breakfasts', rather than pay the increased prices charged by the schools for feeding them. I'm guessing they all go home for (lunch), which will, in fact, be the main meal of the day.

Finally . . . I was fascinated to see that one of Argentina's football club is called Newell's Old Boys. Shame, though, that the players have N.O.B across their breast badges.

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