Among
my friends in Pontevedra number Fran and his colleagues of Los
Porcos Bravos, a group which plays two
football matches a year against the Sheffield
Stags. In true Brit fashion, training
for these games consists of visiting as many pubs as possible. The
first match this year is next Sunday and my friends leave here in a
couple of days' time. Catching up with some of them today, I was
given by Fran an example of the Galician sense of humour called
retranca.
Before I relate it I'll just give this definition, even though I'm
not sure it helps: Hacer
algo con retranca - 'To have an ulterior motive in doing
something':-
First
guy (to his cat-loving friend): Hi. Where are you off to with that
box?
Second
guy: I'm taking my cat up to A Lama[40km away] to bury it on
family land.
First
guy: Make sure you erect a cross.
Unfortunately,
I didn't really have time to discuss with Fran how this was funny and
why he thought is was a classic example of retranca but I will
do so when he gets back from the UK. Meanwhile,
if anybody Galician – or even Spanish – reader wants to enlighten
me, I'd be grateful.
I
again counted the boarded-up shops as I walked into and out of
Pontevedra today, albeit by different routes. Without checking any of the
covered galerias, the total was 44. But what really brought
home the extent of the crisis was the announcement that the
super-duper cinema complex next to the station is to close. Which
will almost certainly mean the death of all the shops in the complex,
in one of which I've never seen a customer. This total of 44 excludes those which have re-opened as another kind of outlet –
such as a sweet shop, a frozen yoghurt place, a gold exchange, a
games 'saloon' and (unbelievably) yet another bookshop. Tellingly, the
closure of cafés in no longer rare and yesterday I passed something
I'd begun to believe I'd never see – a Chinese bazar that had gone
out of business. It will be a long, long time before Pontevedra looks
like it used to. But some good news – The old Savoy café which was
a dreadful eyesore in the main square for 5 or 6 years and which was
refurbished, reopened and then closed again, has now been
re-refurbished and opened again, in time for summer. And it looks
like this, albeit a bit more level:-
Finally
. . . A little saga that began midday yesterday and ended midday
today . . .
There's a little ironmongers(ferretería) down in
the old quarter, where many products are kept in little wooden boxes
along the walls behind the counter. I went there yesterday for a
couple of ferrules for my walking pole, ahead of a camino
'pilgrimage' next week. Thus spake the two of us:-
Have
you got a couple of these?
Yes,
here you go.
How
much?
Call
it seven.
OK.
I've only got 5. I'll go to the nearest bank and get more. Where is
it?
It's
just down there but it doesn't matter. Bring it in when you can.
No,
I'll go and get it.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[Later]
The bank was closed and the ATM was out of order.
Don't
worry. As I said, bring it in when you can.
OK. I'll come back midday tomorrow.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[Today]
OK. I don't have anything smaller than a 50 but here's 2 euros as
well.
[The
guy leaves the 50 note, goes to the till, comes back and gives me a lot of change]
I
don't understand. I thought it was 7 euros.
No,
7 centimos. That's why I told you not to worry about it. It's only a
couple of small things. They couldn't possibly be 7 euros!
[Thinking]
They bloodywell could be in the UK, amigo. Where you could probably only get 20 in a plastic box!
No comments:
Post a Comment