Road deaths; Greece; Words; Building; & Post offices.

Sad to report, Spain's road death statistics have risen for the first time in several years. This is attributed to 2 aspects of La Crisis - inadequately maintained roads and ageing cars. I'm reminded of the response of a cynical Spanish friend when I waxed lyrical about the new highways back in 2001 - "Just wait and see what happens when they need to be maintained!".

So, a deal (an 'agreekment'!) has been struck around Greece, after an all-night session. At which everyone will surely have been at their best. In the glare of spotlights and in the absence of a Grexit, the party now moves on to negotiation of another bail-out for prostate Greece. And presumably the resignation of the Tsipras administration. What a way to run a supranational government. P. S. I've just heard Mr Juncker say there are no losers under this 'typical EU' deal. Is he on the same planet?

But, anyway . . . A new-to-me Spanish word: Un perezoso: 'A sloth'. Lit. 'A lazy'. From: La pereza: 'Laziness'.

Talking of words . . . You'd think that people who are perfectly fluent in English would know that the B in 'debt' is completely silent. We say 'det', not deb-t'. Or even 'dep-t'.

Down at the bottom of the hill, there's a small industrial 'park' through which I drive every day. It would be larger but for the fact the developers have been trying, for 13 years now, to get permission to expand it. The latest proposal has been rejected because of insufficient 'integration with the countryside'. I'd find this more convincing if the countryside at one end of the park weren't a not-terribly-attractive gypsy settlement, bits of which are occasionally knocked down for being illegal. I wonder what the real reason is.

Talking of building . . . Construction on a new house below mine began in spring 2013. And it's yet to be finished. Needless to say, work has been sporadic.

Finally . . . I don't know what it's like in other Spanish cities, but here in Pontevedra there's only one Post Office. So, no sub-post offices. Everyone has to go to the centre of town for everything, which is rather inconvenient, of course. But I hear rumours of a second office, in the far north of the city, on the road to Ourense. Sadly, this is even further for me to walk to.