Thoughts from Galicia, Spain: 6.4.18

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.

Spain

• Lenox Napier asks Why in Spain would most politicians rather die than resign? Click here for his answer.
• I do so hope that Terry Gilliam finally realises his dream of seeing his film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote shown on cinemas screens. And that it's a great success. But . . . Has the curse finally lifted on director Terry Gilliam’s long-awaited opus?” Yes and no. The bad news is it’s in a legal dispute and won’t debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May as originally expected. The good news is that it’s apparently done and the first trailer is here out of nowhere. Click here to see this.

Life in Spain

• I took my damaged car to the shop on the evening of Monday 19th March and the insurance company assessor approved repairs to it the next day. So, what's been done to it in the 16 days since then? In a word – zilch. But they told me last night that the parts will arrive from Honda today (or, as they put it, mañana). If so, I should get my car back a week today, fully 25 days after I left it for repair. Walking home, I wondered if this was the Spanish version of JIT. And then I had the nightmare vision of a poor Honda manager charged with educating his Spanish counterparts in a concept that conflicts in so many ways with Spain's cultural norms.
• I have to come clean here . . . One of the main reasons I came to Spain was to live where the pace of life was slower. Something I was familiar with from several years in the Middle and Far East. And, by and large, I'm happy to live with Spanish norms - mainly because I always have reading matter with me and regard waiting as an opportunity to delve into this. That said, at times likes this, the frustration can be high. Especially when one of the factors is one or more of Spain's seemingly innumerable national holidays and their puente add-ons.
• I've mentioned more than once that it's an odd coincidence here that the person normally (and eventually) held responsible for a major accident is one of those who died in it. Reader María yesterday cited a recent local example and pointed out that this means that The family doesn't get paid by the insurance nor by the city. And that the city doesn't have to spend money addressing the real cause. Sometimes I wonder if María is even more cynical than me . . .

The EU

• I clocked this box at last Sunday's flea-market in Pontevedra:-

I assume it contained only dead-straight bananas . . .

The UK

• Last Sunday night, the BBC showed the last of 3 programs on a group of British semi-celebrities walking part of the French Way on the Camino de Santiago. It would have been nice if the guy doing the voice-over could have pronounced just one of the place names correctly. But, anyway, it will be good if the program increases the number of 'pilgrims' passing through Pontevedra and buying the book I'm writing about the city's attractions. Which now, of course, will include the ladies standing at the corner mentioned just below.

Galicia/Pontevedra

• A friend yesterday pointed out to me that a place I walk past every day en route out of town is the pitch for several prostitutes. I had wondered why so many women there smiled at me as I passed.
• I mentioned recently that the number of students at Galicia's 4 or 5 universities had plummeted from 90,000 in 2001 to 58,000 in 2017. The funny thing is that the number of professors has stayed virtually the same, at 5,200. No doubt that makes sense to someone.

Finally

• Some time ago I wondered out loud what the gig economy was. Yesterday I saw it defined as A new term for 'serfdom'. Where employees have low income and few, if any, rights. Uber being the prime example.

© David Colin Davies, Pontevedra: 6.4.18