I mentioned
that, here in Spain, there seems to be no constraint/restraint on
what can be said in the media on a murder case, specifically one
centring on the death of an adopted Chinese girl universally thought
(it seems) to have been suffocated by her Galician parents because
she was in line to inherit her grandparents' wealth. Things have even
reached the point where one of the local newspapers ran a column on which
TV station had won the 'morbid curiosity' battle in the ratings war
on the subject. Only in Spain?
I mentioned
Rumanians the other day, in the context of break-ins into cigarette
shops. Vistas have now been expanded with the murder of a 72 year old
man in Ourense by an 18 year old Rumanian prostitute who then set
fire to his house. Is it any wonder they're gaining a reputation even
worse than that suffered by gypsies? But, anyway, it'll be
interesting to see what she pleads. One thing's for sure, the media
will keep us informed of her every putative thought and action.
It's good
news to hear that the government is planning to replace 17 regional
health cards with a single card, meaning that I won't ever again
suffer the scorn I experienced when trying to use my Galician card in
a Madrid pharmacy. The bad news is that it'll take 5 years to bring
this goal to fruition. The worse new is that they started on this
task over 10 years ago. So, which will arrive first - the national
health card or the Galician AVE high-speed train? Who knows?
I missed a
trick at yesterday's flea market in Veggie square; As I was looking
at some stuff on the ground, a woman looked up from her kneeling
position and asked me if I was the seller. Stupidly, I said No. As
opposed to "Yes. How much are you thinking of paying for that?"
Next time.
I read
yesterday that "The Guinness Book of Records" was an
instant success when it first came out in the 50s. In fact, it ranks
no. 2 in the non-fiction category after The Bible. I don't know about
you but I have some difficulty regarding The Bible as non-fiction.
But I guess it's inevitable that many others differ with me on this.
Can I
believe what happened last evening? I guess I can. Having discovered
that my mobile phone provider (Telefónica!) won't permit me to call
or send message overseas, I called the customer services number. On
the inevitable crap line you get when you speak to phone companies, I
dealt with 4 people, each of whom wanted my name and both phone
numbers. The last 2 wanted my ID number as well. The 3rd of these
told me the problem was that this restriction was placed on all new
contracts but she couldn't explain why no one had bothered to tell me
this. She said it would be lifted but couldn't say when. She handed
me over to the 4th person, who - on the worst line of all - said
something or other that I couldn't make out. When I asked her
to repeat it, the line went dead. Possibly coincidentally. At the
start of this via de cruces I was told I'd be asked to rate
the quality of this service at the end of the call. Sadly, I wasn't.
And, needless to say, the bar hasn't been lifted yet. Final word - I
could find nothing about this is the contract I signed. Though, I did
find out why I no longer receive paper bills.
Finally . .
. I'm heading down into Portugal this morning for a
mini-camino('pilgrimage'). I'll be walking the wrong way - south -
for at least some of the way and it'll be interesting to see how many
normal pilgrims or locals feel obliged to tell me this. From a
previous walk, I have the perfect answer - "I'm walking to
Fatima". Posts will appear as and when I can get an internet
connection. Hopefully each morning, but Que sera, sera.
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