Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Ponters Pensées: 31.8.16

Walking in Spain: The city of Talavera de la Reina is taking extreme measures to minimise the deaths of texters on their zebra crossings. Click here for details of their initiative. That reminds me . . . I'm compiling the stats but my stong impression is that ALL the drivers who've nearly hit me on Pontevedra's crossings in the last few months have been women. Maybe there's a message there somewhere . . .

Corruption in Spain: It's getting worse, it's said. Transparency International produces a regular Index of Corruption Perceptions and my Ferrol friend, Richard, has sent me a reference to their 2015 report. Spain has sunk down the international table - to 36th out of the 168 countries - and TI comments that: Some countries have improved in recent years – Greece, Senegal and the UK are among those that have seen a significant increase in scores since 2012. Others, including Australia, Brazil, Libya, Spain and Turkey, have deteriorated. . . . Also very worrying is the marked deterioration in countries like Hungary, FYR of Macedonia, Spain and Turkey where we’re seeing corruption grow, while civil society space and democracy shrink. Not a great group of countries to be lumped with. Will the newish Ciudadanos party force the PP party to do something about corruption, if their coalition gets to run the country sometime soon? Possibly. But the PP's record so far is far from encouraging.

Spanish Arrogance? Or just stupidity? I translated the menu of my watering hole into English, identifying one dish as pulled pork. Here's what one customer wrote in the questionnaire I devised for the place. I have never eated[sic] pulled pork in Spain. But your meal is wrong[sic] written. I ask you! Truly are these things are sent to try us. But at least his Spanish version was correctly written . . .

Pontevedra's Cuisine Range: Hallelujah, we just got a new international restaurant! Shame it's only a bigger version of the 5 or 6 kebab places we already have . . .


Still no sign of anything Asian or Far Eastern. Or Middle Eastern, for that matter. But there a Mexican tapas place I still have to try. Oh, and there's the 3 'Chinese' restaurants which have, naturally, hispanicised their offerings. So don't offer anything spicy, or even made with ginger. Que va!

Finally . . . Galicia's Weather: It's official  - We've had the hottest summer for 10 years and the driest for 100 years. Perhaps this is why the sucker on the bougainvillea outside my bedroom window grew more than a foot(30cm) in a week.

No comments: