Which
reminds me . . . How many submarines does Spain currently have? No, I
didn't know either but I believe the answer is in two parts:- 1. None
now, but 2. Four to be built. No, I can't understand why Spain needs
any submarines either. Perhaps it was simply a typical Good Times decision. Anyway,
the first is under construction and there's a hell of a problem. As
planned, the thing is so heavy is won't be able to surface if it ever
goes under water. Perhaps it would have been a good idea to give the
contract to a firm which knew the first thing about building
submarines but maybe there were other considerations. So, to make
sure that the sub can rise as well as sink, it's being widened and
lengthened. I'm not sure how this does the trick but I'm no submarine
builder either. Perhaps it won't. Who'd be surprised? All I know, from what I read, is that this will add €208m to the
doubtless already stratospheric cost. VAT and commissions included, I
guess.
And
then you read that, over the same 10 years, Galicia's pensioners have lost 20%
of their purchasing power and 64% of them are living below the level
of the minimum wage. And you lose your faith in humanity. Or
whatever's left of it.
You'll
recall that Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón) was Galician and
that he was born here in my barrio of Poio. Or was he? Was he really
Pedro de Sotomayor, a lord from a nearby castle? For it seems that
one disappeared when the other appeared, Pedro having been
transmogrified into Cristóbal. Read more on this here (in Spanish)
and make up your own mind.
There's
a motorway which runs from Galicia all the way to the French border,
along Spain's northern coast, the A8. Or, rather, there isn't. There
are bits of it and every year there's a new bit of it. Construction
has been going on for more than 10 years now and is expected to continue until at least 2015, when I will finally have a clean run to the
ferry port of Santander. At which time I suspect the A8 will
overnight become the AP8, with the P being short for Peaje, or
Payment.
It
certainly will if the Association of Toll Companies has its
way. The've told the government this week it's missing billions of
euros in revenues by leaving some of Spain's handsome motorways as
autovias rather than as autopistas. Their increased
profits will surely be purely incidental to the change they're
altruistically recommending.
A
month or two ago, I went up to the Ortigueira Celtic Music Festival
with my almost-sane friend, Dixie. Amongst other things, he's a
professional photographer and this is where you'll find his
tremendous snaps of the proceedings. Sadly, none of them include
either me or Dixie himself. Well worth buying, whether or not you're
a Celt.
I
see that there's a new gym activity - cycling in a swimming pool.
Given that we have a lifting( a facelift), a footing(a
run), a jogging(a jog)
and a spinning(a spin) and a parking(car
park), I confidently predict this will come to Spain and will be
labelled un pooling.
Finally
. . . Outside my kitchen window, I have a large-ish spider.
Having
read this morning of the bee-killing wasp(Vespa Velutina)
which has apparently brought its predatory habits to our coast, I do
hope the web is robust enough to catch a few of these foreign
murderers.
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