Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spain- This may be a great place to live but things do happen slowly here. We're still, of course, waiting for the AVE high speed train first promised for the 1990s, and a vast development in Chamartin in Madrid has been waiting 25 years for the go-ahead it's just (reportedly) got. More serious is the fact that the terrible train crash near Santiago of 6 years ago is still in the courts. Even less impressively, the safety system ordered to be installed on trains 3 year ago still hasn't been. Heads of senior executives rarely roll in Spain. Those of politicians even less frequently.
- The Guardian says we're inching towards the avoidance of yet another general election later this year. El País seems less sure.
- I've mentioned that there are at least 39 caminos that will bring you - one way or another - to Santiago de Compostela here in Galicia. In addition there's at least one Via which brings you from Portugal to Galicia. This is the newish Via Marina, which starts in Braga and ends in Mugía/Muxía, having passed through Santiago en route. Essentially, you move from one church dedicated to the Virgin Mary to another, and end up with a certificate which is the equivalent of the Compostela you can get at the end of any of the 39 'real' caminos. It's 372km long in total. Which is a lot of walking. And praying, I guess.
- I suppose it's logical that some Spanish drivers will be as oblivious to the presence of others on the road as some pedestrians are of others on the pavements. I say this having has 3 cars almost drive into me when I was on a roundabout in the last month.
- Picking up the summer Fiestas brochure in the city's Tourist Centre this morning, I recalled I'd given them my guide of the city and they'd said they'd pass it on to whomsoever. I never really expected to hear anything and, 2 months later, I haven't. So, the standard result.
- The view of El Diario: So much to learn from our ignored neighbour: In Portugal, a government of the Left has shown all of Europe that another policy is possible, that we can also create wealth from social justice. We know almost everything about Emmanuel Macron and almost nothing about António Costa. That is why we wanted to dedicate to Portugal an issue of our Column magazine - 'Portugal: the magic of the improbable'. There is a country in Europe that has reversed cuts, that has improved pensions, that has made textbooks free, where university fees and public transport prices have gone down. It is a place where unemployment has been reduced from 14% to 6.5%, and that has happened at the same time as the minimum wage was raised. It is a state that has managed to balance its public accounts and reduce the deficit, but has done so by increasing taxes on the wealthiest, instead of passing the bill on to the usual ones. It's a nation where things have been done differently, and that way has worked. More here, in Spanish.
- Millions of British citizens living in Europe will be entitled to sue the government for the loss of their rights in a no-deal Brexit, a senior Tory MP has warned Boris Johnson. Alberto Costa wrote a letter to Mr Johnson saying that unless the leadership frontrunner resolved the problem his government would face unprecedented litigation. He called for Mr Johnson to quickly enshrine the rights of EU citizens living in the UK into British primary legislation before October 31, warning that failure to do so would mean British citizens would be unfairly penalised. In the event of a no-deal Brexit each member state will be responsible for deciding what rights UK citizens living in its territory will have.
- There's an ad on British TV for a product - no idea what - which asks you to be open to the new shades. Dear dog.
- George Conway in an eminent lawyer and - more interestingly - the husband of Kellyanne Conway, the egregious woman who does such a splendid job defending whatever Fart does or says. Mr Conway has penned an article in the Washington Post that pulls no punches, entitled Trump is a Racist President. Click here for it. Incidentally, it's been claimed that in private Mrs Conway has said she detests Fart but I suspect we only have some other folks' word for that. Though it would hardly surprise anyone. That said, she has publicly disagreed with her husband's trenchant view of Fart. Dinners at home must be a joy. To watch at least.
- Word of the Day: Salvar. This is a word which basically means To save. But it gave me trouble when I first read about caminos in Spanish. Specifically when it came to obstacles such as major roads and how to deal with them. Of course, a word in English can have several meanings but, having stolen words from so many other languages, there might be less of this because a different word can be used to put across a nuance. Anyway, here are the various definitions of Salvar, from the Royal Academy:
2. To a void an inconvenience, impediment, difficulty or risk.
3. To except, leave aside, exclude something that is said or done of another or other things.
4. To exculpate, legally proving the innocence or freedom of someone or something.
5. To overcome an obstacle, passing over or through it. For example: To leap over a pit in one jump. To walk through the mountains.
6. To walk the distance between two places.
7. To exceed the height of something, rising above it. For example: The tower exceeds the tops of trees that surround it.
8. To put at the end of a page or document a note which adds something 'between the lines' that is not worth leaving out.
9. Especially said of God or Jesus Christ: To give eternal glory and bliss to someone.
10. Colloq. Uruguay. To finish a course or pass an exam.
11. To welcome guests to the food or drink of kings and great lords. Fanfare??
12. To effect an artillery salvo.
Finally . . .
- I've taken to doing the last kilometre or 2 into town on my 1984 classic Raleigh 'town bike'. People seem very interested in it. Or maybe it's me - the only cyclist in Spain not kitted out as if they're doing the Tour de France. In Panama hat and trousers tucked into socks. . . Eccentric? Moi?
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