Spanish
(non)Government: The writer of this article suspects the current
uncertainty is here to stay for some time. Probably with due cause.
Spanish Government:
There are 4 administrative layers here - national, regional,
provincial and municipal. This naturally increases complexity, costs,
inefficiency and - above all corruption. In comparison, the UK has 3
– national, county and municipal. But above all these is, of
course, the EU and its overarching bureaucracy and parliament of
unknown gravey-trainers. It's said to be felt in Brussels that the UK will need to lose one of its 3, the obvious candidate being the national
government at Westminster. So . . . Does Spain have 2 superfluous
layers? If so, which is the second one? For me, it would have to be the provincial one and its millionaire presidents.
Spanish Politicians: Is
there an analogy between their (nil to short) prison sentences and
the Catholic institution of Confession, which only ever involves the
mere parrot-like repetition of short prayers? I'd say Yes, if the
former involved any sort of admission of guilt plus a sincere 'Act of Contrition'. I smile just thinking of that (im)possibility.
Francoism: It's taking
a while but Spain is gradually getting shot of the vestiges of this.
That said, there are at least 2 escudos on Pontevedra walls with
Francoist elements. This is possibly one of them:
But, anyway, the Catalan town of Tortosa has decided - forty years after the dictator’s death - to strip Franco of his honorary
mayorship. He must be
revolving in his grave. Unless he's been burnt to a crisp.
Pontevedra Cyclists: So
few of these actually use the road that I regularly feel like
stepping off the pavement/sidewalk to give them a medal.
Except for the gypsies who ride home from the city at night without
so much as a reflector. Members of the 3 or 4 police forces do nothing about any of this, of course. They prefer to pursue easy-to-fine
motorists who are 'distracting themselves' from driving properly.
Possibly by blinking from time to time.
Poio Wifi: After 15
years of 0.5megas('Up to 6megas') and 1 year of 0.5-2.0megas ('Up to
3megas'), I now have cable-supplied capacity of 'Up to 30megas. Or, in practice,
a pathetic 2.5megas at 7 this morning. By 8, this had risen to a magnificent 2.8 megas. Is every one of my neighbours
(illegally) downloading a film overnight? Or does nothing improve until someone at Telefónica gets to the office? Around 10am. I'll let you know.
Pontevedra Customer
Service: Changing back to Telefónica for both my fixed line and
mobile phone naturally took 4 trips to the (franchise) shop. The last centred on
my question: Why has my fixed line number been changed? The answer
was that this was necessary and unavoidable. To which I replied that it obviously
wasn't for the neighbours on both sides of me. Cue the first
(laughable) lie that came into the young woman's head. Which is when I
realised it wasn't worth pursuing further, especially as I get very
few calls.
Finally . . . Spain's
Queen. The lovely Letizia is widely felt to be a sufferer from
anorexia. But she looks positively fat against recent fotos of the
once-very-beautiful Angelina Jolie. Sad. For all sufferers, of
course.
Technical Note: Google
Stats tells me there where was a record number of page views
yesterday – at 1,525. But Google Analytics offers me an analysis of
a much smaller number. Can anyone account for this difference,
assuming it's not just a reflection of hundreds of bots 'viewing' my
page? Incidentally, most of the Google Stats readers come from
Russia(43%), followed by the USA(28%). Odd. Perhaps the Kremlin
regard me as important enough to track. Perhaps I'll appear on RT News one of these days . . . .
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