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
In every county where there's been a crisis, panic and and lockdowns, it's been about a fear that healthcare resources would be overwhelmed. Essentially because pandemic plans weren't followed at the outset and responses were too slow. Infections now seem to be rising in all such countries. Even the good news that the mortality rate has been reduced has its bad side. Fewer deaths means hospital beds being occupied longer, bringing a collapse ever closer.
Spain is no exception to the problem of rising infections, with the Xmas-New Year surge yet to come. Galicia and Navarra are said to be exceptions to this but for how long? Here in Pontevedra, bars are supposed to close at 5pm but at least some of them weren't at 6 last night. God knows how they can get away with it. Perhaps because the police seem to be concentrating on preventing inter-city journeys.
Living La Vida Loca in Galicia/Spain
The 6th of January used to be the time Spanish kids got their Xmas presents, not the 25th of December. But, as Spain's culture move closer and closer to that of the rest of Western Europe, things have changed. Now, of course, they get gifts on both days. And on their birthdays. And on their saint's day, I suspect..
The UK
Well, my email of complaint actually produced a result. Someone in the NHS Business Unit emailed me late morning to ask now she could help. So I emailed her the text of the letter I was just about to post and now await a reply re my current and future EHIC. Or GHIC as it'll eventually become. If you're a Brit resident here and don't know what the latter is, you'd better get googling.
Confidence in government handling of the epidemic has plummeted from a hight of 72% in late March to a dismal 36% recorded just before Christmas. Much, of course, rests on the success or otherwise of the forthcoming vaccination programme, only there are probably many who are not entirely confident in the government's ability to deliver. I’m astonished it’s as high as 36%.
The EU
There seems to be a lot of discontent re the slow approval and roll-out of the Pfizer vaccine, born of centralisation in the name of 'solidarity'. Fingers are pointing at Mrs Merkel because she drove this mid-2020, it's said . . . Angela Merkel blocked the bid to secure more coronavirus vaccine, forcing health ministers to hand over control to the European Commission last summer. For more recent developments, see here.
For whatever reason, France seems to have been particularly slow. Which is rather ironic, given the long-standing admiration of its public healthcare system. As of December 30, only 139 people had been jabbed there.
The USA
Stand by for peak madness in the Congress today.
The Way of the World/Nutters Corner
Democrat representative Emanuel Cleaver delivered the the opening prayer of the 117th US Congress on Monday, ending it with Amen and awoman. Wokism on steroids, then.
Amen is, of course, Aramaic and Hebrew for So be it. As a pastor, he should perhaps have known this.
Spanish
Ooof. Reader paideleo tells me I was wrong to change canita to cañita. The former was correct, as una cana/canita means 'a hair' and the phrase translates as 'to let your hair down' or 'to have a fling'. In other words, an affair. In contrast, una caña/cañita is a cane/rod/pole/fishing rod. And, of course, a smallish draught beer.
A bit of Spanish I noted earlier in the year in Jávea - casa piloto: the 'show house' among several new ones.
* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.
4 comments:
Bars close at six now, within closed townships. Apparently, closing at five was too much of a hardship, especially at Christmas. Oh, and schools will open on Galicia on Friday, as planned. Because one day of doing absolutely nothing just before a weekend will make kids learn better.
"Teach you!", said Granny Weatherwax. "Teach you! I don't want to teach you anything, but if you are sensible, I might let you learn". Maskerade by Terry Pratchett. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granny_Weatherwax
Kids havta wanta learn.
I attended an RC grammar school from 1953 to 1959, During the Easter 1958 term I stopped doing homework, for which I would receive 4 strokes of the cane each day. I had concluded 2 things; firstly, I knew I knew what I needed to know, because I read prodigiously for pleasure & 10 minutes of pain was an easy trade off opposite 2 hours of homework & secondly, my refusal to be cowed by the priests really pissed them off, especially when against all their predictions, I passed all the GSE "O" levels that I sat. I spent that summer term of 1959 at the open air swimming pool in Harrow, only turning up for the exams.
After working for the rest of that summer in the goods packing department of Windsor & Newton, I started at Harrow Tech, as was, that September as I needed better grades in Maths & Physics to continue as a medical student after "A" levels 2 years later.
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
The Bars were allowed open till 6.00 pm in Xmas time
Thanks. Yes, Maria had told me. But not in Vigo, I'm told. But this might not be right.
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