Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 11.9.19

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

                  Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain

Spain

• This development certainly shoves into the shade both the one I cited recently and the one behind my house.
• Life in Spain: : I went to see my GP yesterday. The procedure is that you get an appointment for a very specific time - in this case 16.33(sic) - and you poll up and wait with several people who've been given the same time. Possibly a long while if you're last on the list. After such a wait yesterday, I had this conversation with the receptionist:-

- I've been waiting an hour and no one else is going in. Am I on the list?
- No. How did you make the appointment?
- On the internet.
- Ah, this happens a lot. You have to confirm acceptance twice, otherwise it's not made. First when you're asked to and again on the left of the page that then appears. Then you get an email. I'll make you another appointment now. For next week.

• Fortunately - being used to waiting in Spain -  I'd taken stuff to read and write and so the hour wasn't completely wasted. But I wondered again if anyone in Spain could make an internet page that's truly simple and user-friendly, as opposed to technically clever. Like - would you believe? - the UK government's page on getting probate. And the Irish government's page on acquiring Irish nationality.
• The (very) good news is that Movistar delivered on their promise to mend my broken wifi fibre cable within 24 hours.
• Driving to the medical practice, I found myself behind a car of the Traffic Department of the Guardia Civil. The passenger had his arm out of the window but I don't suppose this is an offence. More relevantly - and in the face of the official advice now given out by said El Tráfico - the driver did the usual manoeuvre of using the outside lane while turning left. I now wonder if this is just a Galician thing, as I frequently see learner drivers being taught to do this. Often without any signal at all.
• Someone must have told the tapas bar with 2 rows of table in the narrow street they were pushing their luck. Yesterday, they were back to just one. But still illegal.
• The tale of a rescued camino 'pilgrim' has alerted me to this app, which connects you with the Spanish emergency services with the click on the relevant icon.  

The UK

• Richard North today:-

1. If I ever had any marginal reservations about the wisdom of proroguing parliament, they were entirely dispelled by the loutish behaviour of the MPs yesterday. And even if it was a minority of the MPs misbehaving, the House of Commons these days has the remarkable ability to embrace the lowest common denominator, living down to our worst expectations. That we are rid of it for 5 weeks is no loss – the only regret is that it could not be longer. 
2. After weeks of the most intensive media coverage on any one political issue in living memory, we are none the wiser, either as to where we are going, or what the intentions are of the two main political parties.  

• But there is a political party which knows what it wants - the ('resurgent') Liberals. They've come out in favour of a withdrawal of the Brexit application. Meaning, of course, that the UK would stay in the EU. There's nil chance they'll be voted into power to effect this solution but, meanwhile, their announcement has made life even more difficult for the Labour Party, which has long given the impression that it doesn't know what it really wants. Thus proving the contention that you can displease all the people all the time.

The Way of the World

• A BBC film to be shown in schools to pupils aged 9 to 12 claims there are “more than 100 gender identities”. And that this is 'exciting'. Even Facebook only gives you around 60 options.

The USA

• There goes another very senior officer. Dismissed by tweet, of course.

Spanish 

1. Word of the Day: Desganado
2. I'm still researching the phrases of yesterday. Spanish friends have suggested some are wrong but it's not clear they agree which ones. . .

English 

• 'Blown out': It’s what happens when the ink diffuses into the skin and a tattoo goes fuzzy.

Finally . . .

• Each time I visit a part of Pontevedra I haven't been in for years, I come across at least one new roundabout. Guaranteed to increase my level of irritation. Or at least the frequency of it.