Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

FIFA farce; Madrid madness; Spanish names; An idiom; & The Windows scam again.


After 2 years and an expenditure of €6m, FIFA has finally produced a report on corruption among its executives, with particular regard to the preposterous award to Qatar of World Cup rights. All well and good. Except that no one is going to see it. Or so says FIFA. The reaction to this has naturally been severe and there must be hope of a change of heart.

Talking of money not terribly well spent . . . . After 'investing' €500m on a large judicial complex, the Madrid government has abandoned it after only one building has been finished - The Institute of Legal Medicine. I wonder whether anyone will resign. Or pay back the commissions. Just joking.

La Crisis may finally be over in Pontevedra. I see we now have a Sushi bar. Plus a few new - or re-opened - estate agents.

Just returning to the subject of Spanish names . . . I discussed insurance this evening with a lady call Cuqui (Kookee). This turns out to be the diminutive of Concepción. Your guess is as good as mine as to why. But this is often the way with Spanish diminutives. 'Paco' for Francisco, for example. And 'Pepe' for José.

Spanish Idioms Section: Una fiesta que os habéis pegado - 'What a good time you had'. Maybe.

Finally . . . I had the Windows-scam call again today. I managed to get as far as the Indian gentleman (in 'San Francisco') asking me to read out the message on the screen after pressing the Windows key and the R key. When I told him it was Fuck off, he put the phone down at something in excess of the speed of light.

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