Dawn

Dawn

Friday, December 28, 2018

Thoughts from Heald Green, England: 28.12.18

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. Garish but informative.

England
  • I thought that this sort of shop – that of a seamstress – had disappeared from England, but obviously not.

  • Another thing I'd mistakenly thought had gone for ever was the early-morning milk delivery. But, no, my daughter has several bottles of fresh milk put outside her front door each morning.
  • I ordered a coffee in café yesterday and - for a capuccino costing 1.70 - was given 6.60 in change from 10 pounds. When I queried this, the teenage girl behind the counter found it impossible to calculate how much she still owed me and eventually resorted to the calculator on her phone. When I was a primary school - admittedly a few years ago - we used to have regular verbal mental arithmetic tests but I'm betting this is one of the things that really have  disappeared. [Yes, the coffee was cheap by modern standards but that might be because there was little evidence of anything related to coffee below the foam. Not the best barista I've been served by.]
Spain
  • I thought the percentage of smokers in Spain had fallen, with the rise in female smokers not fully compensating for the fall in male smokers – but this article suggests there are more people than ever indulging in this harmful habit. Not what was hoped for or expected, I guess.
  • News of an enterprising (non)priest. I checked with my ultra-pious Catholic sister and she endorsed my view that God – assuming he exists – would be likely to condemn to Hell a sinner who's mortal offence(s) had been forgiven by someone with no right to give absolution. But I fancy this is a 21st century view. Needless to say, my sister didn't find the news item as amusing as I did.
  • Sorry to get this to you too late for Xmas but you might still find it useful for La Nochevieja. 
  • Here's more specific advice for next Monday night. 
  • And here's news of Spain's preparations for a hard Brexit. Which might yet happen. But, then, anything could.
  • Meanwhile, down in Andalucia, the right-wing parties have formed themselves into a coalition and ousted the socialists who've ruled the region as a fiefdom since the dawn of Spanish democracy, 40 years ago. Making lots of folk very rich in the process.
Spanish
The USA
English
  • Here in this bit of South Manchester/North Cheshire, some of the local residents have nil familiarity with the correct past tenses of their mother tongue, resulting in usages such as: 'Have you ate your dinner', “When I seen him”, and “As soon as he come into the room”. The thought struck me this morning that this must have being going on for hundreds of years and, more impressively, is impervious to the correct usage heard frequently on the TV or radio. And it's clearly uncorrelated with education, or the lack of it. Weird.
© [David] Colin Davies


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