Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 28.4.20

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day

Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

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

- Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain*

Note: After an (ill-advised?) move last week to New Blogger and a few experimental changes in this blog's 'theme'(format), some readers had difficulty accessing it. I hope that a return to the status quo ante has solved this problem. Though I suspect/fear that, if it has, not all readers will know this!

Life in Spain in the Time of Something Like Cholera

• Some details here on how one of our 17 regions - Andalucia - plans/hopes to relax restrictions.
• Meanwhile, the Cabinet will today debate the relaxation of measures, including specific times for seniors and children to be allowed out.
• María's Chronicle: Day 44.
• It's an ill wind . . . The Galician village of Piñar is known as ‘coffin town’. In the past it's suffered from  competition from - of course - China. But now it can't supply enough to meet demand.
• It's odd how some deaths bring things home more quickly than others. He won't be known to all, by any means, but it's reported today that an ex Liverpool player who became a regular match commentator on/in Spanish media has been taken at only 61. Though it was cancer, not the virus that did it. Leaving me wondering whether in Spain, as in the UK, cancer (and other) patients are being denied tests and treatment because the health service is nowtotally dedicated to virus patients.

Real Life in Spain

• The city of Teruel in Aragón. seems to be our equivalent of Tucson, Arazona - the place where planes go to die. Or at least to go on retreat. The T and A coincidences are interesting. Maybe.

The USA

•  The latest impersonation - Happy Birthday, Melanoma.

The Way of the world 

• Threats to life can have profound effects on how people feel about their government. Many world leaders are enjoying an increase in popularity, though this could change as the crisis continues.  Boris Johnson’s popularity has soared . .  .  Angela Merkel has had one of the biggest spikes. . .  President Macron,  while still having a very low net approval rating of -21, is considerably more popular now than on February 1 when his rating was -44. . .  Data on the popularity of Italy’s prime minister Giuseppe Conte is scarce, but the polls do suggest it rose in March.  . . . In Spain the government has been criticised for its slow response to the pandemic and for not learning lessons from Italy and it hasn't experienced an increase in support. In the US, Donald Trump saw a small boost in the polls, which then plateaued. He started February with a net approval rating of -11 per cent and it is now at about -3.  
• The lockdown has laid bare the lie that women are better at multi-tasking. Not my words . . .

Finally . . .

• To move to the utterly mundane . .  . Can anyone explain why a stone path in my lawn that I've cleared of grass is 7-8cm below the level of the surrounding lawn? Did it sink, or did the lawn rise? Is this why medieval houses and roads are several metres above their Roman predecessors?

 *A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant