Dawn

Dawn

Monday, May 12, 2014

Spanglish; UKIP; Snails galore; Train travails; & Soaping up.


The Spanish have hit their hapless Eurovision points-communicator with all the vicious wit at their disposal. And that's quite a lot. As with Ana Botella and her nice-cup-of-coffee address, I'm not sure the poor woman deserves it. One commentator has suggested the abuse reflects the anger and shame felt by Spaniards at the portrayal that they're bad at English. Which may well be true.

The other country that was bad at English at Eurovision was, of course, France. But this was deliberate. I almost admire them for it. I don't think it contributed to their song getting very few points.

The UK party predicted to gain the most mosts in the EU elections is UKIP. In other words, the party whose main (only?) policy is exit from the EU is going to have the most MPs on the EU gravy train. This is naturally confusing for the Spanish, who have got it into their heads that UKIP is a racist party. At a time when the papers are full of reports - admittedly towards the rear - of bananas being thrown at black football players in Spain, this may be comforting

Maybe it's the very wet winter we had but the snails seem abundant this spring. I've found them squidging up walls and the basement window but today I found 6 inside a rat trap. Having found their way into the cage they couldn't - any more than the rats - find their way out. But perhaps the oddest location is the garage ceiling. Imagine how long it took it to get up there. For no apparent reason.

There were warnings years ago but now it's happening - Thanks to the massive costs (and over-costs!) of the AVE high-speed train, there's too little cash available to maintain the ordinary network. The fear now is of closures. Or, worse, accidents. The state operator, RENFE, admits that the track in the worst condition is the one linking Ferrol here in Galicia, with Bilbao. So, I'll be avoiding that.

Finally . . . Another public service announcement: A friend told me a couple of days ago you can stop your bathroom mirror misting up when you shower by covering it with shaving soap and then wiping it off. I can assure you it works. There are other soaps available. But I don't know whether they're as effective.

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