Father:
Antonio García Lino
Mother:
Amparo Rodríguez Begoña
Son:
Luis García Rodríguez
Daughter:
María García Rodríguez.
All
of these details – and many others – are contained in the 'Family
Book', which is essential in Spain and which Spaniards find hard to
believe isn't a legal requirement in every other country as well.
Mind you, they also think their complicated system of surnames is
universal too. All of this is a prelude to mentioning my discovery
that the husband of my lovely neighbour, Ester, has the name Jacobo
García-Durán García-Durán. This repetition arises from the fact
that his parents were first cousins and both had the same two
surnames. Or something like that. And the King is called Borbón y Borbón. To his face. And mujeriego behind his back. Inter alia.
Today
I had the pleasure of lunching with Los
Porcos
Bravos,
a group of Pontevedrans who compete twice a year for a 7-a-side
trophy called the Anglo-Galician Cup. You may recall that the last
game ended 14-1 in favour of my local friends. As you'd expect, the
meal today was of wild boar stew and there was so much of it I might
not eat again for a day or two. The venue was a bar called El
Gato Cheshire,
or The
Cheshire Cat.
I'm not sure why – as it had a different name last time I was there
- but, as it's my home county, there's no complaint from me. After
lunch, the Porcos
Bravos
got down to planning their next UK trip and it quickly became obvious
that the driving force of the organisation – Fran – had visited
more towns and cities in the UK than I either have or ever will. And
he even knows more about the pubs of my hometown than I do.
I'm
assuming these Spanish words will be as new to many readers as they
are to me:-
- Ups: 'Oops'
- Escote: 'Cleavage'
- Pagar a escote: 'To go Dutch'. [Why??]
Anyway,
here's a relevant article. I'm not sure I agree with the author that
the scandal might bring down the government but it's certainly
serious. People close to but below President Rajoy have all been
protesting their innocence today, if not their penury. But the
president himself is sticking to his normal policy of saying little.
Which obviously can't continue. As of now, all he's said is that he
thinks it unlikely that the party Treasurer was slipping envelopes of
B money to his colleagues. Which doesn't quite fit with the report
that he put an end to this in 2009. But an investigation has been
launched and so we'll know the truth soon. Maybe.
Meanwhile,
the president of a major accountancy firm in Spain has commented:- I
believe that the level of corruption we’re now uncovering is
well beyond anything that we've had, at least in living memory. This
corruption is sending the message that anything goes in this country,
which could also really hurt Spain’s image around the world.
How very true. So it can't be this which is attracting the
increasing foreign investment that was being trumpeted yesterday.
Spain
is different. Do you think Brussels understands this yet?
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