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
Back to my comment re Easter road deaths in the UK and the need to check stats and/or put them in context . . . When the government tells you that ICU beds in hospitals are running at 90% capacity, it might add the contextually useful statistic that they usually run at about 90% capacity (and that, by and large, this is a good thing,).
France has taken over from Spain as the country hardest hit by the long-forecasted second wave.
Living La Vida Loca in Galicia/Spain
Here's advice on what the latest restrictions mean for us here in Galicia.
Local news that's more positive . . . It’s been announced - again - that we’re going to have an AVE high speed train between Oporto and Vigo. If so, let's hope it doesn't involve the 28 years of delays we've endured waiting for the Madrid-Vigo AVE. So far.
Good to see that a Galician company which made super-fast speedboats for drug dealers has been closed down by the Guardia Civil. But I imagine it’ll spring up again somewhere else. Quite possibly in Galicia.
Really local news . . . The old San Francisco convent in Pontevedra city used to be the Tax Office (La Hacienda). It's been empty for 11 years, the rumour long being it was going to be converted into luxury flats. Today's news is that it’ll house the city's archive and library. The former is currently to be found in the old Jesuit convent next to our ugly newish museum and art gallery. Vamos a ver.
Here's María's Days 41&42. Shining a bit of light on those new restrictions. Someone has asked me this morning if the max of 5 people meeting includes their kids. Does it depend on their age? María??
The UK/The EU/France/Spain
Richard North today: Very few people have any idea of where the talks stand at the moment, and even those directly involved in the talks probably could not predict their outcome. It seems a pretty safe bet, though, that there will be a deal of sorts, even if it is a "bare bones" tariffs and quotas deal, with the UK giving away the family silver and part shares in the kitchen sink in order to get something which will largely favour EU-based traders. In brief , pretty thin gruel, giving something that Boris Johnson can big-up as a "victory". There again, even now there is the outside possibility of a no-deal outcome, especially if Macron, at the very last minute, refuses to give way on fish. But even if he does, there is Spain looming in the background, which also has strong fishing interests. t is often the case in EU politics that one country will make the running – in this case France – while other Member States keep quiet as long, as their interests are being served. Overcoming the French resistance, therefore, may simply expose a new level of intransigence, from Spain.
The USA
The outcome of next week’s US election could be decided by a few million fervent folk who support Donald Trump because, astonishingly, they see him as a moral crusader, especially for gun-owning, aggressively heterosexual white people obsessed with the cause of a Greater Israel. Put on the earth by (the Christina) god, obviously.
Quote of the (Last) Century
When told the Wright brothers were going to attempt flight - in 1903 - a bishop angrily protested. “Heresy! Flight is reserved for the angels! If God had intended for man to fly, He would have given him wings." This was Bishop Wright and, yes - believe it or not - he was the father of Wilbur and Orville Wright. He eventually took to the air in his 80s.
Finally . . .
My recommended Tom Lehrer song.
* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.
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