And
now a HT to Lenox (of Business over Tapas) for info on another -
startlingly simple - way of washing your black money:- You ask for a
loan and return it in cash.
As
I type this, I'm sitting next to a table of 4 senior Spaniards who
are comparing themselves with the ingleses, by whom they mean
Brits. Sadly, thanks to a mixture of concentration on writing and
distance, I can't quite make out what it's all about. But it reminds
me that I took a friend to a dentist for a bit of emergency attention
last night. With impeccable manners and a lovely smile, she told me
all British dentists were useless and that Spanish dentists were the
best in the world. I had expected the latter but not the former. I
explained, to her obvious astonishment, that this might be because,
unlike here, basic dentistry in the UK was free and that dentists
made little money on it. Economies were essential, fripperies not.
I
gained this appointment at less than an hour's notice. The reason?
The dentist is the mother of the two young ladies to whom I give a
conversation class when they're home from university. In other words,
an enchufe, or plug-in. My impression was the clinic had
ground to a halt while she attended to my friend, causing the waiting
room to overflow. But I suspect Spanish patients are used to this queue-jumping.
And to waiting.
I
was momentarily non-plussed this morning at the number of people
walking around with bouquets of flowers in their arms. And then I recalled
that Nov. 1 is the day when Spanish families visit and bedeck the
graves of their loved ones. Having first cleaned them yesterday or the
day before.
I
had another unusual experience in Veggie Square yesterday. As I
sat at a table outside my regular bar, I noticed a young woman who
looked astonishingly like an actress in a UK comedy series. Wouldn't
it be a good idea, I thought, to take a foto and and send
it
to the actress, telling her she had a Spanish doppelgänger. So,
trying not to be too obvious, I took a few snaps, hindered by the
fact my camera was acting up. As they got up to go, one of the young
men in the party very politely asked me if I was planning to put the
fotos on the internet. A bit taken aback, I blushed, said not and explained my reasons for taking the fotos. In a word, the young lady
was flattered and delighted at being snapped and at the idea she
resembled a pretty actress. Smiles all rounds. Especially when I gave
her the details from which she could see who and what I was talking
about. In truth, I can't see this happening in the UK, where I'd be
at risk of being threatened by the males and sued by the female.
Spain is different. Thank God.
It's
a truism that - apart from the closed shops and the beggars - there
are few easily identified signs of La Crisis on the streets of Spanish
cities. So it's good to see The Local giving us a list of ten reasons
why this is so. En passant, I wonder what The Local does when they
can only think of 9 good entries for a new list.
Here's
an article on one of our Albariño wines and here's one on Galicia's
best red wine, from the Mencia grape.
Talking
of wine . . . Here's a little dissertation on the ethnicity of the
world's most famous wine-maker, Jesus of Nazareth. Courtesy of my
Jewish sister. Not the very Catholic one. I imagine they were equally
amused But that's Jesus for you - an equal opportunities Saviour. Even Muslims quite like him.
THE ETHNICITY
OF JESUS
There are three
good arguments that Jesus was Black:
1.He called
everyone "brother"
2.He liked
Gospel
3.He didn't get
a fair trial
But there are
three equally good arguments that Jesus was Jewish:
1.He went into
His Father's business
2.He lived at
home until he was 33
3.He was sure
his Mother was a virgin and she was sure He was God
There are three
equally good arguments that Jesus was Italian:
1. He talked with his hands
2.
He had wine with his meals
3. He used
olive oil
There are three
equally good arguments that Jesus was a Californian:
1. He never cut
His hair
2.
He walked around barefoot all the time
3.
He started a new religion
There are three
equally good arguments that Jesus was an American Indian:
1.
He was at peace with nature
2. He ate a lot
of fish
3.
He talked about the Great Spirit
There are
three equally good arguments that Jesus was Irish:
1. He never got
married..
2. He
was always telling stories.
3. He
loved green pastures.
But the most
compelling evidence of all is the three proofs that Jesus was a
Woman:
1. He fed a
crowd at a moment's notice when there was virtually no food
2. He kept trying to get a
message across to a bunch of men who just didn't get it
3. And even when he was dead, he
had to get up because there was still work to do
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