Spanglish: I've certainly seen un
footing and I'm pretty sure I've seen un jogging. But un
running is new to me. It featured in an ad yesterday for
different trainers for different activities. A classic example of
market segmentation, aimed at persuading you of the need for at least
3 different types of sporty footwear. For which a new word was needed in
Spanish. So, where else to turn but to that old friend - the English
gerund.
Talking of footwear . . . This relentlessly wet
winter (yes, it's also rained every day in March so far) has afforded the
ladies of Pontevedra the chance to sport designer wellies. These look
exactly like un-designer wellies but have a small Hunter label highly
visible at the front of them. I say 'exactly like un-designer
wellies' but this is not quite true. The Hunter wellies are green and
no one wore anything but black wellies when I was a kid. Sometimes
with the tops turned over, to demonstrate individuality. And that you
weren't planning to walk in water deeper than 20cm(8 inches).
Actually, this rain must be even more frustrating
for the doyennes of Pontevedra than for the rest of us. For this is
the time they normally strut the streets in their furs. And this
can't be done unless the weather is dry. Poor things. I really feel
for them. But not as much as I do for all the people who worked on
their costumes and the floats for last Saturday's Carnaval procession.
Inevitably, this was rained off and re-scheduled for next Saturday. When, they say, the rain will have finally stopped.
For the past 10 years most Spanish regions have been
tacking 1 to 4 centimos onto our petrol(gas) prices as an allegedly
hypothecated 'health tax'. The EU has just declared this illegal -
presumably because the money raised didn't go to healthcare - and has
ordered the Spanish government to pay €12bn back to us. Transport
companies say they'll certainly reclaim, whatever the tortuous
process invented by Madrid to make this as difficult as possible. As
for us private individuals (particulares), the very minimum
you'll need is all your petrol receipts going back 10 years. As it
happens . . . .
Talking of money going in the wrong direction . .
. One of the latest corruption cases to come to our attention is that
of the Madrid company which received €15m of government money for
non-existent students on courses that were also a phantom. 15
million. Hardly chickenfeed and I doubt much of it will be recovered.
Is it just me or does it seem rather easy to be a highly profitable
crook in Spain? At least until the law catches up with you and gives
you a sentence the length of which depends on who your friends are.
And how you've demonstrated your affection for them over the years.
In another blow for the abortion Bill which would
take the law back 30 or 49 years, 2,000 Spanish health professionals
have demonstrated against a measure which they believe would put
women at risk. More here. As they say, the existing law is far more
in tune with Spanish society.
Finally . . . One crook who's impressed me this
week is the chap who approached a driver who'd double parked, told
him he was a cop, that the fine for the offence was €100 but that
he'd accept 60 in cash and forget about processing it. No idea how much he
got before he was rumbled. Perhaps the first time he tried it, if he
spoke in a Rumanian accent.
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