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
Good News: A new drug has reduced Covid-19 hospital admissions and deaths among high-risk patients by 85%, claims the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. It’s a monoclonal antibody treatment for people with mild to moderate illness. It was developed in partnership with Vir Biotechnology, in California. The 2 companies say they’ll now seek an ‘emergency use’ authorisation in the United States
Cosas de España
There's said to be a ‘political earthquake’ taking place in Spain, around the governments of several regions - in particular in the PP fiefdom(?) of Madrid, where the right-of-centre party faces series opposition to its long-standing grip on power from both the Left and the Right. So, the Presidenta aims to head them off at the pass via a hastily-called election in early May. Which might not be legal.
The threat from the (far)right comes from the new-ish Vox party, which has seen astonishing growth in the last few difficult years. One poll puts them at 17% of the electorate, against 22% for the PP and 27% for the ruling PSOE left-of-centre party. The question on everyone's lips is . . . Will the (moribund) 'centrist' Ciudadanos party now merge with the PP? I, of course, don't care, so long as fotos of the lovely Ciudadanos leader keep appearing in the media.
Talking of the far-right and pretty women. . . This is a rather shocking video featuring a young fascist and jew-baiter who's recently come to prominence. One wonders about her educación.
At 67%, more Spaniards live in apartments than in any other European state. In contrast, in the more-densely-populated UK it's only 14%. El Mundo analyses the reasons here. My recollection is that Spaniards also have the highest 2nd and 3rd flat ownership in Europe. Sort of ironic for a mountainous country. Or perhaps that's the reason. Not enough flat space for single storey dwellings.
Cousas de Galiza
In the video of 1929 Galicia I posted yesterday, you have to wait until minute 53 before Pontevedra is featured. I rather doubt many did.
Maria's Tsunami: Days 38&39: Royal brides from America.
The USA
A right-of-centre columnist takes issue here with Liberal America's view off modern Britain and its utterly un-modern but modernised monarchy. The headline: Progressives who are rushing to side with Meghan against the outdated British elite should check their own privilege. And the final para: An ultimate irony . . . The progressive elites, in control of the cultural institutions of their age, flaunting their privilege and power, imperiously insisting on fealty to their ideology while demanding they be immune to challenge, carry clear echoes of a very royalist self-regard from a couple of centuries back. How perfectly fitting that they have imported a prince and princess back to America to help promote the cause. Sounds about right to me. Nothing is worse than insufferable folk going on about how insufferable the people they disdain are. Cue Mrs ¨Clinton and her rather unwise comment about the country's 'deplorables'.
Spanish
I didn't know that the word 'siesta' - first used in 1655 - came from the Latin sexta hora, or 'sixth hour'. Which, originally, was noon. And sextus/a goes back to the Proto-Indo-European swek, also meaning 'six'.
Quote of the Week
The problem with Piers Morgan is that his balls are bigger than his brain. On reflection, the question arising is - Which of the 2 brains most men have?
Quote of the Centuries
The comment made by the leader of the invading Moors after the Spanish Reconquista had begun, it's said, with a victory at Covadonga in mountainous Asturias around 720: Who worries about 30 barbarians perched on a rock who must eventually die? Mind you, it did take more than750 years for the barbarians to achieve their goal.
Incidentally, you can buy The Spanish Reconquista by Derek Lomax on Amazon. For reasons unclear to me, it'll cost you between 25 and 338 euros for a used copy in good condition,
Finally
As is the norm in Spanish supermarkets, I put some previously purchased products in one of the lockers at the entrance, so as not to be accused of stealing them. My box was no. 86 and I realised that, upside down, this would be 98. So, I needed to take stock of exactly where my box was. In doing so, I noticed an unhelpful coincidence:-
Or is it a practical joke?
3 comments:
"At 67%, more Spaniards live in apartments than in any other European state. In contrast, in the more-densely-populated UK it's only 14%"
One important difference (not many people know it) is that many, perhaps, most flats or apartments in England (apparently not so in Wales&Scottland) are leasehold. This is a legal construct which, to my knowledge, exists no where else in Europe, where all housing tends to be freehold. Perhaps, because of that, flats in England tend to be grotty and shabby, whereas flats in Spain are usually well kept. It reminds me of something I read about a Chinese migrant to Spain, who, when he first time saw the sort of housing spaniards lived in, thought to himself he had emigrated to the wrong country. It was only when he had the opportunity of visiting the interior of those flats, that he realised the difference (with China).
Nice point. Though not all UK flats are crap, of course. I've known many nice ones. But, yes, Spanish flats can be deceptive on the outside, with very nice ones being inside a drab block.
Coincidentally, my first house in the UK was on a 999(sic) year 'lease' which allowed the developers to charge a (small) annual 'ground rent'. There's been some sort of scandal in the UK in recent years about new owners jacking up ground rents and obliging the 'tenants' to pay af fortune to buy themselves out of the long leasehold.
But people in Spain do rent flats, of course, from the freehold owners. Some of whom are not good at doing the repairs and maintenance the rental contract obliges them to. I've no idea what percentage these are of people living in flats but almost certainly they are in the minority,
And, of course, the abvove explains, at least in part, why Britons buy houses (which are mostly freehold) and not flats, as leasehold has quite a few disadvantages.
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