Dawn

Dawn

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Ponters Pensées: 18.8.16

Nudity: I can safely say the Spanish are less bothered (more adult?) about this in their media than, say the (hypocritical?) Brits. So it is that we've recently been treated to fotos of a starkers Orlando Bloom. Not that they did anything for me.

Galician Fatalities: Thanks to the absence of primogeniture, land plots here are small - mindifundios. Or 'smallholidngs'. And difficult to work because of the slopes and the ubiquitous granite. The end result is frequent deaths under overturned tractors. An astonishing total of 86 in the last 5 years alone. The latest of these was a 4 year old girl, being taken somewhere - with her friends - by her father. Who probably didn't go in for risk calculations. But might do so now.

Pontevedra Fashion: This year - here at least - white seems to be the new black. And then there's the colourful tops that several ladies have bought from the South American stallholders on the Alameda and its environs, during our Semana Grande fiesta. Which reminds me:-

  • These stalls used to be mainly those of South American indian; now, they're mostly of North African leather and (crap) carving sellers. Significance??
  • Although our Big Week is only half over, the papers are full of fotos of people preparing for our next fun happening, the Feira Franca in early September. This is a huge medieval fair tradition, which stretches to as far back as 1999. When it was confined to one small street. At the current rate of geographical growth, it will be in Madrid within 10 years. Or at least up to my house, at the top of a hill overlooking the city. That old fun thing again. As I say, never more impressive.

Pontevedra's Beggars: I routinely give to only 2 of these, for reasons I won't bore you with. One of them said to me yesterday: If everyone was as generous to me as you, I wouldn't be so poor. To which I replied: Your problem, my friend, is the copious competition. Not to mention the difficulty of knowing who is genuine. Of course, I don't even know if he is. And have never really trusted my pathetic male intuition. But I give him the BOTD.

Spanish words: Who would have thought that haltarfilia would be 'weightlifting'. From 2 Greek words, meaning the love of lead weights. It takes all sorts.

Finally . . . I watched Harold and Maude again last night. Wonderful - now cult - film which - as a bonus - features Cat Steven's early numbers as its sound track. A bit macabre at times but hilarious always. And thought-provoking. Highly recommended, for the discerning viewer. As with all cult films(?), a flop when first shown.

THE GALLERY

Growers of a bougainvillea will know that the biggest challenge is the suckers that sprout regularly and which, like this one - outside my bedroom window - can grow at over an inch(2.5cm) a day. Ok, this doesn't compare with the 6 inches(15cm) a day of the banana plant/tree in our garden in Jakarta but still pretty impressive.


Talking of views from my bedroom . . . Here's a panorama taken the other evening by my friend Dutch Peter2. My morning view. As someone said: Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. Of course, like me, you have to be facing east for this to be true. 


Perhaps I should add that Peter was here with 2 other men and 4 women for dinner and wanted a foto 
from higher up than he could get in my salón. I don't want the ladies of the city worrying about his preferences.

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