Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spanish Politics- A welcome initiative by the new socialist government coalition. Hard to imagine this happening under a PP, Ciudadanos or Vox administration.
- For lovers of Lorca.
- Every month I visit my elder daughter and my 12m old grandson in Madrid. So I find the Madrid No Frills blog to be of particular interest. Here it is on the numerous Chinese corner shops which are now such a feature of that great city.
- What you get with your coffee varies enormously around Spain and, indeed, within cities. There are even places in Madrid where you get nothing at all. Here in Galicia, there's a least a biscuit but sometimes quite a lot more - say a couple of churros and a piece of cake. In my current favourite place in Pontevedra, they appear to have decided I need to be fattened up, as the number of items has progressively increased over the last few months. Here's yesterday's offering of 4 churros, 2 biscuits and a piece of cake:-
And here's the tapa of ribs and chips I got with a glass of Rioja with which to toast my friend Peter Missler ahead of his funeral last evening:-
- Talking of food . . . Here's news of a plan to combat the problem of growing obesity in Spain. Allegedly the kids here are the second fattest in Europe, after the Maltese.
- Attending a concert by the Santiago Orchestra last Friday evening in Pontevedra, I noted that - at least for the numerous doyennes of the city - it's not only the season for showing off your fur coat but also for donning all your best jewellery and having your hair extravagantly arranged. I suspect this is done mostly to impress each other.
- Word of the Day:- Almena: Battlement.
- When I was young the French and Italians were, as I recall, regarded as (emotional) Latin folk. But I'm not sure this label of Latin applies these days. Here's an article which delves into the difference in meaning between Hispanic, Latino and Latin. I suspect that, though sounding authoritative, it's probably controversial.
- My friend Peter Missler was heavily involved in the George Borrow Society and was a prolific writer of related articles. These can be found here. And this, as Perry has reminded me, is a site from which you can download - chapter by chapter - Peter's annotated version of Borrow's wonderful The Bible in Spain.
- How I will miss his early morning advice of the worst of the typos in my posts. Always done with wit and style. Even when he wasn't pretending to be the half-Brit-half Portuguese snob Alfred B. Mittington. Whom I, in turn, pretended to hate.
- My very sincere thanks to readers who kindly sent me condolences. It was quite hard to get to know Peter initially. And even harder, at times, to love him. But seeing him go was the hardest of all. It is a huge loss to me. But all grief is self-centred.
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