Dawn

Dawn

Friday, September 11, 2015

The Sp. economy; Catalan Independence; Sp. names; France again; Charmless Britain; & A sartorial query.

The Spanish Economy: Another good article from Don Quijoñes. The opening sentence:  After a summer of missed opportunities, poisoned rhetoric and bitter recrimination, Spain faces what promises to be a very tumultuous autumn.

Cataluña Independence: HT to Lucy for this BBC interview with the impressive local politician Raul Romeva, who ducks and weaves to great effect but fails to convince anyone of anything. The Spanish media has pointed out that this interview could never have taken place in Spain.

Spanish names: One of my lovely BlaBlaCar passengers to Bordeaux was called Manuel Jesús, the male equivalent of Maria Jesús. I'm not sure he wasn't joshing me but he insisted the diminutive for both of these is Chus.

France: 2 belated comments: 1. Not as bad as Costa, of course, but a simple black coffee there cost me double what it would in Spain; 2. I had a meal in a restaurant called Lunchy. On the way back, I'll be on the lookout for Le Breakfasty and Le Dinnery.

Life in the modern Britain: A young female barrister has blisteringly - and publicly - attacked an older man who privately complimented her on her foto on the business network, Linkedin. Accused by her of, inter alia, mysogyny, 'disgusting sexism' and of 'objectifying women'', the man naturally apologised to her. But this wasn't enough for this particular young lady; she felt compelled to publicly shame him on Twitter. Here in Spain, it's still possible for men to compliment women - even if they're many, many years younger - without being accused of anything worse than (in my case, wasted) charm. As someone has written this morning:- Other nations would be baffled by this debacle, on the grounds that flirtation and wit – whether ascetic or coquettish – are the social lubricants that keep society’s cogs in motion. Hear, hear.

Back in Pontevedra, the weekend's Feira Franca was described as a fiesta multitudinaria. Sometimes the Spanish word is so much more evocative than its English equivalent. On a sadder note, having warned my visiting friends about pickpockets, I wasn't surprised to hear that one of my overnight guests had had her phone stolen in the wee hours of the morning. Easy pickings, I fear.

Finally . . . Here's a foto of a group of Catalan politicians. What I want to know is whether the guy with the red tie is wearing trousers which are the latest in fashion? Or his brother's? Or perhaps he's got a pair of small accordians hidden at the bottom of his trousers.


Answers on a postcard, please, to the usual address.

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