Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly
loveable.
- Christopher Howse:
A Pilgrim in Spain.
Spain
Serious stuff today . .
. .
- El País tells us – in English – that attitudes here to sexual attacks are changing. Good to hear.
- The same newspaper carries an intriguing dialogue – also in English - on what it means to be Spanish. There's apparently a Spanish inferiority complex. Which might explain the knee-jerk defensiveness one occasionally sees.
- Spain is doing its post-Brexit contingency planning. Which rather surprises me, as I thought planning was illegal here. Spontaneity being everything . . .
- But the really serious problem on the horizon is a rise in the price of jamón, because rich Chinese now have it as their latest food fad.
The Spanish Language
When you see Empuje on
a Spanish door, it means Push. When you see Empurre on a Portuguese
door it means the same thing and - to my ear – it's pronounced in
much the same way - very differently from the Spanish double R. Contrast Empuxe in Gallego, where the X is Sh.
That's what I thought but Google says it's Empurrar in both Portuguese and Gallego. Stop Press: My (nationalist)
Gallego friend now tells me both are correct . . .
Galicia
It cost me around €20
in tolls to get from Coimbra in Portugal to Pontevedra yesterday,
mostly in Portugal it has to be said. Fittingly, the headline in our local papers was that the company which manages the autopista in
Galicia – Audasa – is the most unpopular in Spain and also the
most profitable per employee. There might be a connection. After the announced price increases on January 1, it
will also be among the most expensive. It seems only right that, if we
have the costliest petrol in the country, we should also have
the highest tolls. Why not kick the - also heavily fined - motorists when they are down?
Pontevedra
The new radar traps
will be in place this week. Yesterday I practised keeping to 30kph(19mph) for
2km along the river, where the limit used to be 40kph.
Quite a challenge. And would be even if our car-hating mayor hadn't
put speed bumps every few hundred metres as well. Anyone visiting Pontevedra should think thrice about coming by car. The trains are nice.
Finally
Booking.com bombarded
me last week - in both English and Spanish - with an offer of cash repayments if a friend booked a
hotel using a reference unique to me. So, we did this, only to be
told today that the booking didn't qualify, for reasons I can't begin
to understand. Annoying. Really annoying. Almost as annoying as the
constant messages about lower prices in hotels in places I've already
left. I used to like the company.
Today's Cartoon
Possibly a repeat . . .
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