A
couple of days ago, Nice-but-Noisy Toni next door asked me if he
could borrow my garden shears, my hedge-trimmer and my extension
cable. Yesterday he brought them back and today I connected the cable
to my lawnmower for what I hoped was the last mowing of the winter.
Nothing happened. Likewise when I tested the hedge-trimmer. So I took
the plug apart and found a loose wire. Something tells me it's
unlikely the wire came loose between Toni giving me back the cable
and me trying to use it. Which is a tad irritating. Especially as he
then came round tonight to avail himself of my printer.
The
'bad bank' which has a ton of Spanish properties to sell has
announced that this will be done at a significant discount from the
market rate. They insist this won't lower prices generally. Which
shows how much they know about markets. Or that, more likely, they're
simply lying.
Which
reminds me . . . Sr Rajoy has said that a bail-out for Spain isn't
essential. Maybe not objectively but, as the markets think it is, it
is.
Near
Madrid yesterday, a woman chased two thieves on a scooter who'd
stolen her bag at traffic lights. When the scooter fell over, she ran
over the pillion driver and killed him. She claimed this hadn't been
deliberate but her protestation was undermined by the fact she'd had
to mount the kerb to reach the scooter. Anyway, she hasn't yet been
charged with anything. But this could change.
The
good news is that the accordionists have all disappeared from
Pontevedra – do they fly south for the winter? - but the bad news
is we're now having our ears assaulted by a bagpipe player. Who
doesn't do us the honour of playing just one tune and then going
round with the begging bowl. Rather, he stands in one spot and plays
for 15 minutes or more, before seeking payment.
On
Saturday last, I was taking a lady friend to the house of a mutual
friend for lunch. We'd agreed to meet at 1.15, before driving to a
place north of Pontevedra. She arrived at 1.20, with the comment -
“I'm sorry I'm late. I'm just going to the cake shop to get some
pastries. Won't be long.”
If
you're thinking of becoming a tour guide in Spain, you need to know
that every region in Spain has its own laws about who can and can't
do this. Except for the Basque country, every region demands that
would-be guides pass an exam before granting them a licence. Absent
this, you can guide people outside buildings but not inside. In theory
at least.
I
posted some tablets to my daughter in the UK today, in one of those
cushioned envelopes. I told the woman in the Post Office that I
didn't want it to go registered mail. Which was probably a mistake as
she looked at me and raised her eyebrows, as if to say “Then
there's no chance of it arriving”. Which I suspect is very likely
to be true, when I reflect on just how many things have gone missing
in the last 12 years. It's the perfect crime, of course, as no one
knows whether it's committed in Spain or the UK.
Finally
. . . There's a Dutch couple who are obsessed – in the nicest
possible way – with a particular road in the UK. The A272, to be
exact. In fact, they've written a book about it - An Ode to a Road
- which became a cult item a few years back and has now been
revised. Strange folk, the Dutch.
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