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
The AZ vaccine: We await the critical views of the EMA on Thursday. Meanwhile, medical opinions differ widely on the significance of the (very low) number of cerebral blood clot cases. One does wonder how much is down to science and how much is down to politics.
A couple of pertinent comments:-
- There's an irony here. The evidence suggests it's unlikely clots are a side effect of the vaccine, and that even if they are, it will be through very rare conditions. But they are a known side effect of the disease the vaccine seeks to prevent: Covid.
- The 'precautionary principle' is meant to denote an abundance of caution - an excess of safety, even at cost of inconvenience. But that presumes that doing nothing is safe. In a pandemic, it is anything but.
For me, the main facts are:-
1. Cases and deaths are reducing in the UK, while they're rising in Germany, Italy and, especially, France.
2. The delay my first jab has now been extended. It'll be several months before I can get the second jab and then travel to the UK to see my about-to-be-born 4th grandchild.
France: Politics again, ahead of presidential elections?? Leading doctors accused President Macron of costing lives by ignoring their calls for a new national lockdown. Epidemiologists said delaying a 3rd lockdown would result in “catastrophe” and poured scorn on claims that Macron has become a self-taught specialist in infectious disease.The leader of the Paris regional council has said the capital and its suburbs are in the middle of a “violent 3rd wave that is going to take lives”.
It's not a great time to be a political leader but, in contrast, bureaucrats and police forces are having a high old time.
Cosas de España
Lenox Napier is convinced we're seeing a decline in the fortunes of the ‘centrist’ Ciudadanos party almost as rapid as that of its growth a few years ago. Maybe it should be re-named the Montaña Rusa party. It's been suggested by the party's leader that the PP is using its infamous black-money piggybank to bribe Ciudadanos MPs to turn their coats. Which everyone will naturally regard as plausible.
Wikipedia has pages in many languages, of course, but I must confess to surprise in finding it has not only Galician but also Asturian versions, eg on rollercoasters. Asturiano. Galego. I'm not sure there's a lot of difference.
Cousas de Galiza
We wait to see whether there'll be new relaxations announced today, specifically as regards the hours bars and restaurants can open. And whether an inter-barrio travel ban will return for Semana Santa at least.
Last Sunday, I sat with friends under a hot sun in my garden, tomando unas copas. When they commented on the unseasonal warmth, I joked that next week we could be there freezing our proverbials off. Sadly, I was right. For this was yesterday's warning: El anticiclón que congelará Galicia: Las temperaturas mínimas irán descendiendo de manera progresiva hasta alcanzar valores negativos a finales de semana. So, from above 20 to below zero. I blame AGW.
Maria's Tsunami: Day 43
The EU
Will the precautionary principle - enshrined in French and EU law - doom the EU over time? No risks equals no advances, it might be said. Effectively, sclerosis. Of course, some would argue this is already happening. Hence the 'sluggishness' of the EU in various fields. AI and electric vehicles, for example.
The UK and Brexit
Well, at least one committed and right-wing Brexiteer - Richard North - would wholeheartedly agree with the comment of the left-wing columnist, Polly Toynbee, that the Brexit deal was 'astonishingly bad'.
Spanish/English
A Spanish friend sent me a message containing the word agusto. I finally figured out this wasn't a typo for agosto but for a gusto. But this was not before Google had translated it as 'satisfaced'. I can't find this in any dictionary. But Google's own Ngram has it as very much a 19th century word.
English
A Guardian columnist wrote yesterday of suicidal 'ideations'. Another rather uncommon word, I think. Or until rather recently, it seems. A fashionable alternative for 'thoughts'?
Finally . . .
A funnier-than-usual spam email: African priest helps white man gain 6 inches[15cm]. In height?
10 comments:
Asturianos I met called their language Bable, which is amusingly close to the English word babbel.
Indeed it is. On both counts . .
The UK is in danger of going down the Spanish route of displaying those dangerous black and white signs objecting to male violence.
Those terrible signs in Shops, bars, schools, hospitals EVERYWHERE
When you tell your 6 year old daughter that she has to go to bed and she replies 'Machista' things have gone wrong.
I have never in my life Cat-called. Never witnessed a friend do it. Never heard a stranger do it.
It happened in the past not anymore.
You comment on the Woke's. In the last 2 years I have noticed a considerable increase, day by day, in greater verbal sexism and racism in male only company.
Not in a position to professionally comment, but I do have a strongly felt opinion that we're all getting a little pissed off with having it rammed down our throats daily, perpetually.
Life is about balance, which right now is not evident.
Man Bashing and ridiculing has to stop.
BREAKING NEWS
The State of Alaska has passed pioneering new legislation by 51 votes to 49.
42 500 000 USD will be invested annually in new Sperm banks and freezers and all male new born will be castrated at birth as of 1st of April.
Democrat senator Hilary Markle is optimistic that by late fall 2089 the male problem will be eradicated from Alaska.
Not all are in favour. Inuit village elder Joanna Aariak said, 'My grandmother will be turning in her grave, she used to like a roll in the snow on a Saturday night!'
A gusto.
"Estar a gusto" used very often to express something like doing fine or having a good and fun time or feeling comfortable i.e. cozy......and so on.
Precautionary Principle, PP.
Towards the end of 2019, my GP requested our local plastic surgery unit to remove a tiny, slow growing, least worrying Basal Cell Carcinoma BCC from the tip of my left ear. Very simple, but even after 3 more requests, no appointment.
On 2nd January 2021, I mentioned a lump in my neck, close to my left collar bone, during a routine GP appointment. Next day, I was given an ENT appointment for 6th January at Wycombe General. The biopsy result from 18th January was BCC, which surprised the medics at Wycombe as a BCC rarely metastasises. On 21st, I attended the Oncology unit at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. They wanted another biopsy, which happened at the Horton in Banbury on 1st February, followed by an MRI next day at Wycombe.
On 16th February, I had a full body PET scan at the Churchill & returned 2 days later to learn the results. Apparently, the BCC passed through a number of lymph glands without incident, so only one is affected. However, the PP dictates opening the neck to remove all the glands in a 5-hours operation rather than remove just the culprit.
On 3rd March, I had a CT Angiogram at Wycombe for my Aortic Root Aneurysm & went back to Oxford the next day to meet the Anaesthetist, who has decided that because of the genetic emphysema I have, I'm too much of a risk. A few moments ago, I was given an appointment for 3-40 pm on Thursday in Oxford, to discover the next moves. I'm betting they will elect to remove only the singleton, as well as clipping off the tip of my left ear. I'm hoping to be around to comment here for a goodly time yet.
If you want to live to be 100, choose your parents very carefully.
You get this muddled up many times. A Barrio is a neighborhood https://www.linguee.com/spanish-english/translation/barrio.html. You have never been confined to one of those. You are confined to the municipality/council area.
https://www.linguee.com/english-spanish/search?source=auto&query=Municipio
If Covid cases in Germany are rising then why are the Germans allowed to enter Spain over Easter? Why are the Spanish confided to autonomous communities? Seems a bit unequal to me.
Stopping AZ vaccines is a bit of an odd ball. What will happen to the million or so Spanish who have already received one dose of it? Start all over again? Go to the back of the queue for the new dosages? How will this show up on any health passport?
Talking of which have you read there is another strain of Covid and tests have proven this is undetectable. How they know that is not clear. It has appeared in Brittany, France.
Thanks. Well, when I say 'barrio', I usually mean A Caeira or its sub-zone Boa Vista, where I actually live within Poio. But I will try to avoid confusion in future by being clearer.
One problem is that 'municipality' isn't used much in British English. Mayors don't have powers there . . But the local councils do, to some extent.
The town of Wallasey was called Wallasey County Borough but was incorporated into the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in 1974. No one ever calls it a municipality.
You are confusing. You use the Spanish word Barrio but refuse to use the word municipality.
You are writing about Spain to an English speaking readers. Maybe use town council.
Now the Eu is wanted to issue "health certificates". This is based upon pressure brought by governments of Spain and Greece. But it would seem that the Spanish Comité de Bioética does not support the idea. If you do not know who the CdeB is look them up.
Do you mean 'confusing' or 'confused'.
I have used both barrio and municipality in the last year but am sure I wasn't right all the time.
Township is best for Brits, as this is suggests there's a town council. Municipality is, as I said, exists but is not used a lot.
It's all rather artificial as Pontevedra and Poio are contiguous across a river. like Salford and Manchester. But, of course, being Spanish, they have to have some different feastdays/holidays. Which I don't think happens in the case of Salfor and M/chester.
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