Thoughts fron Galicia: 5.7.17

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.

- Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain. 

If you've arrived here because of an interest in Galicia or Pontevedra, see my web page here.

Life in Spain:-

• Here's some good news about the Spaniards who've gone to the UK in search of decent employment.
• And more good news . . . Thanks to the charity of the owner of Inditex/Zara, Santander has a flashy new arts centre. Right where the ferries arrive and depart from.
• I see the octopus fishing season began yesterday here in Galicia. So . . . Where has all the stuff come from that we've been eating for months? Well, not me, as it happens. On this . . . Can anyone understand this official announcement: The capture season will continue until the beginning date of the closure of the year 2018, which will be set by the corresponding plan that will be published before the next ban.
• Ladino is the variant of Spanish which was spoken by the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492. It's been kept alive but, as you can see from this article, it's under threat:-

• My daughter has just advised me that, on top of all the bloody visits I had to make to tax offices here in Pontevedra, she is on her 3rd visit to the Madrid Hacienda. All of this just to ensure she isn't hugely taxed on money I've given her.  Not to mention the time wasted and the vast cost of involving an effing notary. !Que va!
• By the way, Spaniards have great difficulty - and one can understand why - in getting their heads round the fact that notaries are not a feature of Anglo Saxon life.
• So, Spain is - as the old ad tag had it - 'different'. And here's a recent (Spanish) take on this:-

On the political front, the Catalan president has fired the latest salvo in what is probably a phony war over secession. If the October referendum goes the way he wants, he'll declare immediate independence from Spain. I suspect he knows this is an empty threat, as polls suggest the sensible Catalans will reject his vision of their future. But, then, who believes polls these days?

I see that that plonker Herr Juncker has once again demonstrated his unfitness for office by exploding in the European Parliament because few people came to a session he was chairing. More interesting is the the comment that: The empty chamber in the parliament’s Strasbourg seat, which cost over €500 million, is used just three months a year. The EU assembly’s monthly 220-mile journey to the French city costs over €100m a year. Roll on the EU superstate. It certainly knows how to spend taxpayers' money. On itself.

Talking of unfitness for office . . . Here's how someone reacted to the meaningless tweet from Donald Trump on the fate of a dying child in the UK: If this is not virtue signalling on an intercontinental scale, how else are we to understand this weird man's exploitation of a child's illness? It is cruel; it is revolting; it is off the scale hypocrisy; and it is embarrassing to witness. Quite. Do the Americans really deserve him?

Here in Pontevedra, there used to be a street of what I regard as 'old men's' or 'spittoon' bars. They've been disappearing one by one over the last 15 years and this is now the only survivor:-

I imagine it won't be long before it's gentrified and becomes just another set of flats, like this, next door:-

Or this, 2 doors away:-

Finally . . . I promised to post my list of utterly banal tag lines(?) from UK TV ads. The norm is 3 words that defy belief but occasionally there are as many as 4 or even 5 meaningless words. As in:-

Cat food – Feed their curiosity

Cider – Lets own it

Spectacles – Vision taken seriously

Chocolate  - Free the joy

Razor - Free your skin

Furniture : Created with you

The Coop Bank – It's good to be different (They used to stress their different ethics).

An airline - Widen your field

Easter egg - Pass the love on. 

Vitamins: Be completely you.

Train company - Be bound for glory

And then there's an ad for a 'medicated' pain-relief gel which is Up to 3 times more effective than a non-medicated gel. Well, given that the latter wouldn't give any relief at all . . except via the placebo effect, I guess. And the ad for a hair-dyer with a 'digital motor'. See the reaction to this one here. As someone else has written: The motor itself is not digital. But the power regulator to it is.

Today's cartoon:-

As if you need another reason to laugh . . .

The Age of Trump