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'
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Cosas de España/Galiza
The government is said to be considering making the Covid-driven ban on smoking on café and restaurant terraces permanent. While naturally happy to support this initiative in principle, I fear this will lead to even greater gatherings of smokers standing not far from the tables. Leading to even larger clouds of smoke blowing down the narrow streets of our tapas quarter. Why not ban smoking altogether? Or just allow the shooting of all smokers on sight? Or smell.
Mark Stücklin report on burglary trends here, possibly with a personal interest in seeing the sale of certain alarm systems.
This is an article on the 'top-rated attractions in every Spanish province'. Actually, I think they mean region, as only 1 of Galicia's 4 provinces rates a (justifiable) mention.
Here's Lenox of Spanish Shilling on his early driving experiences. And here's my comment to his amusing post:- The 'permanent' UK driving licence I got c. 1966 didn't have a foto. When I came to Spain in 2000, I lacked an ID card and didn't want to carry my passport around with me, to present to supermarket cashiers when using a bank card. So, I pasted a foto into my flimsy pink-paper UK licence, before swapping it a few months for a Spanish one. At which time, Tráfico minions mis-read my old UK licence and gave me permission to drive a huge truck and trailer. Albeit for only 5 years.
María's (new) Not So Fast: Days 6, 7 & 8 Where's the beef?
María has confirmed my belief that, while the UK is talking about a 3rd Covid wave, Spain is well into its 5th. Actually, it's arguable it's a 6th wave:-
The EU: The Euros Final
The consensus is that the Italian team which (justifiably) beat England on Sunday wasn't the Italy team of old but a newer, more positive and creative one, not dependent on stellar defence and rapid breakouts. These stats suggest it really was 'old Italy' in one respect:-
Possession: Italy 65% England 35%
Fouls committed: Italy 21 England 13
Yellow cards: Italy 5 England 1
Red cards: Italy: None but should have had 1 England: None
So, despite have the vast majority of possession, Italy was, shall we say, more robust than England when they didn't have the ball and wanted to get it back.
France
The government has long had a problem - in part created by itself - of large scale vaccine resistance among the (bolshy) French. As a first step in a campaign against this, the president has said vaccination will be compulsory for health workers, and that folk will be banned from trains, shopping centres and restaurants if they don't have a Covid passport. Stand by for fireworks. Especially as M Macron has warned that the country might have to move towards mandatory vaccinations for all, if resistance to inoculations continues.
Spanish
Topical words from the root barro, ‘mud’:-
Embarrar: To make dirty
Embarrado: A dirty player
Embarraron el partido. They played dirty
English
It seems I maligned the folk who did the translations at the Museum of the History of Madrid, when early this month I questioned their translation of Jornadas Reales as 'Royal Progresses'. I've since come across references to Royal Progresses such as this one and have seen them defined as ‘Tours of their kingdom by a monarch and his or her retinue and entourage.'
Finally . . .
Maria has advised that what I termed 'baseball boots' are not called this in the USA, where they're 'Converse hi-tops', or just 'hi-tops.' I'm sure, of course, that this is true but, if you put 'baseball boots' in Google Images, you aren't denied pictures such as this one. For completion, these are the Converse boots I saw on the street, which looked very much like the ones I saw/had as a kid, quite a few years ago.
This woman is quite a catch
Note: If you’ve arrived here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try this.
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