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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