Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, March 07, 2017

Pontevedra Pensées: 7.3.17

Not only in Spain: The UK police stopped a 92 year old chap who was driving down a motorway in his mobility scooter. This happened here in Galicia a few years ago. The difference being that the Spanish guy was going the wrong way on the autovia. And was on the way to a brothel.

My about-to-be-ex bank, Banco Popular/Pastor, is about to be gobbled up by one of the other major Spanish banks, according to Don Quijones here - only a year or so from acquiring Citibank's Spanish operation. I guess it makes sense to someone. Though not to DQ. Nor to me, as a matter of fact.

The Spanish language – Castellano – is phonetic. Which should make spelling rather easier than it is for, say, English or Dutch. But apparently not. There is confusion, inevitably, over the B and the
V, the C(when TH) and the Z, and the J and the G, which can be pronounced the same, respectively. And then there are the accents. But I didn't realise things were quite as bad as revealed in this article.

Reader Sierra suggests I'd need one of the new smart meters to avail myself of cheap electricity. Reader Eamon, though, advises that the cheap rate period for everyone is 10/11pm to 12/13 midday, depending on the time of year. As it happens, I have a newish meter but it doesn't look like those in this article cited by Sierra on the rollout of smart meters her in Spain.

Right on cue, a report from the UK that Smart meters are giving readings up to seven times higher than the energy consumed when connected to energy-saving light bulbs. A study conducted in the Netherlands, has found that five different types of smart meters produced readings up to 583% higher than the actual energy used. It is the first ever proof that smart meters are producing readings which are too high. No wonder they're being installed throughout Spain.

Readers Lenox and Anthea have advised that they, too, were hit by the Amazon Premium charge from Amazon Spain. Reader Eamon advises it's because they – and possibly I – opted for a free day trial back in November and didn't realise the automatic annual charge would start at the end of this period. So, a truco. This article reveals that Amazon also did this in the UK but were then stopped by the Advertising Standards Authority there. Any chance of that happening here in Spain? By the way, Amazon UK claim customers received an email advising them what would happen – see here – but, strange to relate – I can't find evidence of such an email from Amazon Spain. You can get a refund, I understand, if you haven't used the service. And maybe a partial refund even if you have. Eamon??

For a good laugh, check out this video from John Oliver on Trump's allegations against Obama.

Finally . . . Today's cartoon:




No comments: