Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 21.10.20

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'* 

 

Covid

Screams an El País headline: The Spanish government is considering a nationwide state of alarm to implement a curfew. But the text adds the rider: Sources from the central government said today that it would not go ahead with a country-wide curfew, if there is not an agreement to do so among all of Spain’s regions – some of which, like Madrid, are led by the [Opposition] PP party. So I wouldn’t bet my house on this coming to pass, whatever the case for it is.

     

Living La Vida Loca in Spain/Galicia

Well, the 4th blind company did come, and gave me an acceptable estimate. But I’ve been here before . . .

Let’s  hear it for these Spanish folk.

Err . . . Another El Pais headline: Italian mafia boss mistakenly released after his arrest in Barcelona. The 'explanation' is here.    

I  share the view that coffee is better in Portugal than in Spain. Here's an article on their superior stuff, though it doesn't mention that the Portuguese don't go in for the dreadful torrefacto stuff that the Spanish have grown to like. 

Anyway, my problem is that - as with Portuguese wines such as vinho verde - it's almost impossible to find their coffee even here, only 55km from the border. In truth, in Spain it's pot luck what you can get, even as regards Spanish wines. In Madrid, for example, it's usually possible to get Galicia's ('premium') Albariño but not our other whites (Ribeiro and Godello), nor our red Mencía. Ironically, you can get red Rioja and Ribera del Duero wines here in Galicia but I suspect asking for white Rueda or Catalan wines would produce a blank stare.  BTW . . . Portugal's vinho verde is produced just south of the border and uses the Albariño/Albarinho grape. Too competitive, I guess.

María's Fallback chronicle: Day 36  

Italy

Interesting to hear a historian say that, if Mussolini hadn't made the massive strategic error of backing the wrong late-1930s horse, he would - like Franco - have ruled his country for decades and died in his bed. And would now be a national hero. As it is . . .

Finally . . .

I don't speak much German. And, if I wanted to do so, this brilliant Mark Twain article might well  put me off. But I do know enough to find this comment - from the Irish novelist, Flann O'Brien - both amusing and accurate: Waiting for the verb in German is the ultimate thrill.

  

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