There's
nothing like the sun for highlighting dirty windows and spiders'
webs. Now that light has returned after a few days of rain, my house
appears to be full of the creations of spindly money-spiders(?). This
creature doesn't spin the traditional and beautifully symmetric web.
Rather, it just spews out ultra-lightweight skeins of sticky silk in
a jumbled mess that can spread over a foot(30cm) or more. I'm not
anxious to kill them but they are a bloody nuisance. At least when
the sun shines.
For
several decades now – as evidenced by official government papers no
longer secret – both the Spanish and the British governments have
wanted to transfer the sovereignty of Gibraltar to Spain. The problem
is these days we all worship on the altar of self-determination. And
then there's the scabrous British tabloid press, always
more-than-ready to over-react to any Spanish measure calculated to
upset the people of The Rock. Despite all this, under the last
left-of-centre government of Sr Zapatero steps were taken to turn
down the heat and, indeed, to move the issue to where it belongs, on
the back-back burner. Even more impressively, the Gib government was
brought into the process as a member of regular tri-partite
discussions. But then came along the right-of-centre government of Sr
Rajoy and everything went quickly into reverse. See here for the
details. Most, if not all, sensible people would think Sr Rajoy has
far bigger problems than the sovereignty of Gibraltar to deal with –
both inside and outside Spain – but he seems to believe that
pleasing his right wing extremists will garner him some advantages
somewhere. Who knows, perhaps in the context of party leadership
loyalties. He must know, though, that his Gibraltarian efforts are
futile. And irritating for everyone trying to get there from La
Línea.
I've
confessed to being regularly surprised by examples of specious or
hard-to-understand accuracy in Spanish life. The most frequent of
these is the use of figures to two – or even three – decimal
places when no one believes them in the first place. For example, the
unemployment rate and the fall in property prices since the peak year
of 2006/7. I was reminded of this when I got a text message from my
lovely neighbour Ester this afternoon, telling me that a group of us
were going to eat in town tonight. And that we'd be leaving home
at 10 to 9. I can't begin to understand what form of reasoning would
bring one to this time. Especially as Ester and Jacobo are always
late. Perhaps a dart in the clock.
Watching
a BBC video on the Galicia elections this evening, I was intrigued by
the name of a young Spanish commentator – Msnica Seoane Dmaz. Now,
you might think that this was a series of misprints and that the
young lady's name really is Monica Simone Diaz, or something similar.
But the surprising thing is that each of these three odd names can be
found separately on the net but, as yet, not in this combination.
Anyone got any thoughts/guesses?
Finally
. . . Given all the extreme swearing I hear in comedy programs on
British TV, I continue to be bemused that all cursing is bleeped out
of Family Guy, shown at 11pm or even midnight. Last night, for
God's sake, they even pixellated out the breasts of two women who
briefly raised their tops. In a bloody cartoon! Who on earth is
expected to be shocked by this?
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