They’re a pugnacious lot, these Celts. At the Championship-deciding rugby game between Ireland and Wales this evening, there was a fight within the first minute. Of course, genetic studies have now revealed that the English have just as much Celtic blood as either of these nations but we like to pretend we don’t. And blame our bellicose tendencies on the booze. Many Galicians also like to think of themselves as Celts but they seem to come from a far more peaceable strain.

So, BAA – owned by the Spanish company Ferrovial – has been ordered by the UK competition authorities to sell one of its London airports as well as others in Britain. Some have said this is shoddy treatment of a foreign investor – a view which may gain traction in Spain – but others have suggested Ferrovial brought it on itself by maximising its profit at the expense of customer service, falsely assuming that the British competition authorities would be as tolerant of this strategy as those back home in Spain. Perhaps it’s both. Or maybe it was just a case of a company flush with funds being dumb enough to listen to the now-discredited investment bankers who love to see cash churning.

The good news for Galicia’s bureaucrats is that they’ll soon be able to take Ryanair flights from Santiago airport to Brussels. Which will obviate their need to drive down to Oporto in cars whose blackened windows screen off their embarrassment. On the other hand, even in these straitened times, will the region’s politicians be willing to travel cattle class?

Telefónica has announced it will be giving discounts to the unemployed, at least for a few months. No sign, as yet, that it’ll be offering the same to British pensioners whose income has dropped by 40% because of the fall of the pound against the euro. Bastards.

Finally, I’ve read that an English lady, Margaret Gimson, who’s lived in Galicia for many years and is an expert on camellias has written about her experiences here, in a book entitled “Los nuevos vecinos de Eugenio en la Galicia de España”. More info when available.

When I turn on the TV of a morning to get the BBC’s classical music channel via my satellite, I always get a Spanish terrestrial channel first, then the Skye menu, then the right channel. There's an appreciable change in the volume as I go, despite the TV setting being the same for all of them. If you live in Spain, you won’t have much difficulty in guessing in which direction the sound volume travels. It all rather endorses the theory that the Spanish get used to high levels of noise from the time they’re in the cradle. I dread to think what a kindergarten sounds like. Or even a crèche.

One of the tropes of the economic crisis is that few, if any, of the numerous commentators saw it coming. Well, should the entire global banking system eventually implode, at least no one will be able to make this accusation again. For Britain’s Daily Telegraph has a professional Jeremiah in its financial columnist, Ambrose Evan-Pritchard. And here he is, rather frighteningly, on the problem of worthless debts in East Europe and the threat these pose not just to the EU but to the whole world. If you like your Monday mornings to be light, you might want to leave this until later in the week.

Several press reports such as this one suggest that hard times are again leading to the rise of anti-Semitism around the world. This may be predictable but it’s also profoundly depressing. In the context of Islamic attitudes towards Jews, Janet Daley comments here on the British government decision to bar a controversial Dutch politician from airing his views on Islam in the UK.

I wrote yesterday that no one should be surprised at a 13 year old British boy becoming a father. Today we learn that two other whippersnappers are challenging his right to this honour, at least in respect of the almost-as-big-as-him baby he was pictured swaddling last week. It seems his 15 year old girlfriend may have been quite a friendly lass. Or possibly just someone smart enough to cover her bets. Anyone still surprised? Incidentally, the names of some of the female performers in this media circus are interestingly different – Chantelle, Maisie and – hard-to-beat - Barbie-Jayne. As I think someone once said, if all this makes me sound rather elitist, that’s because I am.

Killing time while waiting for my daughter’s delayed flight into Santiago this afternoon, I decided to check on flight options for friends thinking of coming at the end of the month. At the Iberia desk, they reminded me there are Clickair flights into Santiago, whereas Iberia now flies into La Coruña. “But it’s not Iberia” said the guy at the desk. “Yes, but it’s a subsidiary company” said I. “Well, no but it’s part of the same group” he replied. Your guess is as good as mine as to what the real difference is. And why it’s so important for Iberia employees to draw this distinction.

Here’s more on the links between Galicia and Ireland, from The Irish Times. Interestingly, it says there’s no evidence of Celtic genes in Ireland. Can this be right?

Finally, courtesy of a BBC podcast, I learned en route to the airport that Afghans began to play cricket a mere ten years ago; that last year they won two international competitions; and that they’re now in with a shot of qualifying for the next World Cup. Which is just about the most heartening news I’ve heard in weeks. Possibly the only heartening news.

A year or two back, I cited the findings of a geneticist who said that Britain’s first settlers after the last ice age had come from the eastern Mediterranean, via northern Spain. I think I suggested this meant that the infamous English pirate and coastal raider, Francis Drake - who is decidedly unpopular in these parts – was really just one of the local lads on the take. Anyway, I’ve now read Bryan Sykes’ fascinating book on the British and Irish genetic make-up – “The Blood of the Isles” – and can confirm this is now the accepted view. Most intriguingly, it lends support to Irish and Galician myths about raiders from here invading Ireland. Though it doesn’t prove these, of course. Possibly they just felt the rain reminded them of home and decided to settle.

However, the main finding of the research is that, although the Celtic language disappeared almost entirely from England, it’s not true to say the invading Angles and Saxons wiped the genetic slate clean. The English, it seems, are just as Celtic as their neighbours in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Of course, it’s a bit late now for them to jump on the bandwagon and take advantage of the highly marketable Celtic ‘brand’ but it might be one way out of the recession/depression.

Talking of myths, it’s astonishing – or perhaps not – how similar these are in different countries. So we have a 12th century English king conveniently finding the bones of the mythical King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, just as he needs to establish his royal lineage. And we have some 10th century Galician Archbishop conveniently finding the bones of St James [Santiago], just as a rallying point against the invading Moors is called for. But the most fascinating coincidence is between the city of Pontevedra and the nation of Britain. Both, it seems, were mythically founded by someone wandering west after the end of the Trojan Wars - Pontevedra by Teucro, the half-brother of Ajax; and Britain, by Brutus, the grandson of Aeneas. And, just as we still have the stone post to which the boat which brought the body of St James from the Holy Land was moored, so we still have the first stone which Brutus put his foot on as he landed on ‘British’ soil. And the altar in the centre of what would become London to which he gave thanks to the goddess Diana. Who’d have thought it.

Anyway, what I’d like to know is whether there’s been any research done on the make-up of the Spanish so that we can establish whether the Galicians – as many of them love to believe - are more Celtic than anyone else in Iberia. My view is that this is nonsense – albeit harmless – but it would be good to know whether I’m right or wrong. If we don’t have this data and it's not in sight, is it too outrageous to conclude this is because few in Spain want confirmation that nearly everyone here has Moorish genes . . . ?

Back in real life . . . If you're an electricity user here in Spain, you might like to visit this site to see how the companies routinely defraud you. Or this one, to check whether your December and January bills were accurate, using the simulator provided.

Re-visiting Santiago yesterday – to check out a new Indian restaurant – I was able to re-visit the scene of my first speeding ticket of last year, almost exactly twelve months ago to the day. And, yes, it was as I had recalled – a four lane highway with no speed restriction signs. Meaning that you’re expected to conclude the limit is 80 or even 100. Not the 50 it actually is. It should be renamed Avenida de Los Ingresos.

Finally, what to say about Wednesday’s England v. Spain football match? Well, firstly, that Spain were clearly far superior. Secondly, that you can’t hope to win if you’re guilty of what one commentator called ‘profligacy in possession’. Or, less poetically, giving the bloody ball away. And, finally, thank God there was no racial abuse.

Well, well, well . . . . After eleven years, three official enquiries and the expenditure of millions and millions of pounds, the UK Coroner yesterday advised the jury enquiring into the death of Princess Diana that there wasn’t a scintilla of an iota of evidence that she had been murdered by the British establishment, led by the Duke of Edinburgh. What a shock. I now await advice from the Portuguese police that the McCanns didn’t kill their own daughter and then get seven or eight friends to help them concoct an alibi. Not that any of this will or ever could satisfy the world’s loonies, of course.

Today is April Fools Day in Britain, when it’s the custom to play hoaxes on one’s friends. This may well lie behind the report in the Daily Telegraph that the BBC will tonight be bringing us film of flying penguins. For me, the clincher is the photo of penguins diving down into the African jungle in order to ‘take some sun’. But I might be wrong.

On the other hand, I suspect yesterday’s report of text-age forenames being registered in the UK is - sadly - all too true. These include An, Cam’ron [why not ‘Camron‘?], Flicity, Lora and Conna. Then there’s Samiul. Which is bad enough but doesn’t really approach the heights/depths of Ikea, Paprica and Tame. In case you haven’t guessed, the last one stands for The Apple of My Eye. Given the love of acronyms there, this sort of thing could well catch on in Spain. Or it might if the government didn’t restrict your scope as free citizens to call your children what you like .

I suggested yesterday that Spanish attitudes in certain areas might be a bit too lax. Commenting on the failure of Iberia’s cheapie airline [Clickair] to change its clocks on Saturday night, John Chapell of Iberian Notes makes this apposite point - Unfortunately, this kind of complete screw-up ("chapuza" in Spanish) is all too common over here. One of the best things about Spain is that it's a low-stress, laid-back country, but sometimes we can get a little too laid-back around here.

I’ve read that here in the UK, when you want to change your broadband provider, you get an MAC [migration authorisation code] from your existing company and give it to the new one so they can make the switch quickly and easily. Has anyone heard of this in Spain? Or is this too much to hope for right now?

Finally, for all Celtically-inclined Gallegos, here’s a bit of a Gaelic language I picked it up in my bank yesterday. As you can see, it bears little relation to Latin or Teutonic tongues:- Y fford gyflym a syml o dalu I mewn a thalu biliau. It’s Welsh, of course, and means The fast and simple way of paying-in and paying bills. Or that’s what it says here, at least. I would have recognised biliau. And I think I’ve worked out the Welsh plural. My grandfather would be proud of me.

The Spanish media is as adept as any in Europe at portraying the UK as a reluctant, parsimonious EU member which takes more than it gives and, in doing so, steals the bread from deserving Spanish mouths. The truth is that Britain makes a large net contribution. Bigger, in fact, than that of France. Until recently this was 2.8 billion pounds a year but one of Tony Blair’s last acts in power was to virtually double it to 5.5 billion. Some feel this is not unconnected with his ambition to become the first EU President. And who’s to say they’re wrong?

Talking of beliefs . . There are some in Spain who think that possibly everyone in the world and certainly everything good in it descends from the Celto-Iberians. More specifically, from those who once inhabited their village. Closer to home, there are some in Galicia who insist this region/nation is an island of Celticness in a sea of, shall we just say, non-Celts. I might have known this latter nonsense is all the fault of the Brits. For it appears that, in the 19^th Century, the 12^th century French myth of the fisher king and the holy grail was resurrected in England and dressed in handy Celtic garb to help foster the notion of Britishness. And, indeed, the notion/nation of Britain. Which, of course, is exactly why the Galician nationalists do it today. You’d think they’d get their own bloody forbears. Like the Visigoths, for example. Though these certainly are a less colourful bunch, albeit a bit better known than the earlier Swabians. Who actually left even fewer traces than the even-earlier [pre-Roman] Celts. At least when it comes to language. Anyway, if you want a flavour of the sort of thinking I’m talking about, try here. I love the victimist sentence - Monarchical absolutism, Catholicism and official Castilian culture were to be the three driving forces that would [unify] Spain and [kill] Galician culture. Presumably like Scottish, Welsh and Irish cultures were killed by forced union with imperialist England. Couldn’t possibly just have faded away until it was re-vitalised by the Romantics of the 19^th century. Who jumped on the Celtic bandwagon.

By the way, one of the main reasons why the ancient fisher king myth fell out of currency for a few hundred years was the success of Cervantes’ Don Quijote. Time to blame those awful Castilians again

A while back, this blog went through a period when hits were over 200 a day, as against a norm now of 140-170. At the same time there was, firstly, a flurry of insults [in both English and Gallego] aimed at me and, secondly, the bizarre practice of regular commentators having their identity ‘stolen’ for the purposes of tendentious comments. So, I finally added the requirement that people register their names and I also introduced a special email address - thoughts.from.galicia@gmail.com – to which readers so inclined could send their opinions and/or insults direct to me. Strangely, not a single email has been received in several months. So, I’m left with the conclusion that many of the hits to my blog were from idiots merely checking to see whether their inane comments had been published. What a strange [cyber] world.

It’s funny how national stereotypes are so regularly endorsed. Yesterday, our local papers carried reports of a 36 year-old Brit found dead in a Vigo street, the victim of heart attack brought on by a drink-induced coma. On the other side of the coin, the Barcelona detective agency investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann can have done little for the image of Spanish integrity by loudly proclaiming in November they knew who her abductors were and insisting she’d be home for Christmas.

Which reminds me . . . the word mentir [to lie] and its derivatives are commonplace in Spanish discourse. One reason is that the meaning of mentira, for example, seems to encompass a mistake and an oddity, as well as a lie. Anyway, my real point is that, in a country where everyone seems to regard everyone outside their family as a bit of a fibber, it’s remarkable how upset individuals can get when you want to add something to a contract to protect yourself in the event they’ve been economical with the truth. In Madrid last week, I helped my daughter in negotiations for refurbishment of her flat. I’ve rarely seen anyone as aggrieved as the builder, when a clause was proposed on the issue of a licence he’d insisted she didn’t need. A builder, for God’s sake. In Spain!

And still talking of appearances – The Syrian government is said to be very unhappy about the possible extradition from Spain to the USA of a Syrian arms dealer. It’s reported to have reminded the Spanish government who protects its troops in the Lebanon and to have complained that ‘These false reports have the intention of damaging the image of Syria’. Given how that country is viewed, I wouldn’t have thought this was possible.

When it comes to the illegal downloading of films and songs, Spain heads the European blacklist. For some time now, Spanish artists have been receiving compensation from funds collected via the imposition of a special tax on CDs and DVDs. After pressure from performers, the government is about to be extend this to such things as mobile phones and printers. The logic appears to be - As we can’t police things adequately, we’re going to treat all purchasers as criminals, regardless of how innocent you might be. Personally, I find this offensive. And I guess I would even if I downloaded anything other than BBC podcasts.

One of the waitresses in my favourite café/bar is called Luz [Looth]. This means light in Spanish. But also electricity. I can’t help thinking of this whenever she asks me what I want.

Although the Spanish economy has grown exceptionally well for 10 years and will still perform well next year, the underlying problem of low productivity continues to cause concern. As does the fact that wages have not kept pace with inflation. I thought about the latter yesterday when told [again] how easy it is for Rumanians to learn Spanish. Given EU freedom of movement, this surely represents a further threat to salary levels, even for jobs demanding a high level of education.

House prices are now falling not only in the USA and the UK but also here in Spain, specifically in Barcelona and Madrid. I certainly saw evidence of significant reductions from ‘the original price’ in agents’ windows in Madrid last week. Faced with a sharp fall in revenue as a result of reduced property sales, local councils are now taking the tax-increase measures I forecast months ago. In Salamanca this week, there’s been the third large-scale protest against these. I suspect there will be many more, as urban governments eschew cuts in expenditure and opt for increasing the woes of mortgage-burdened taxpayers.

Driving back from Madrid last Sunday, I was amused to see that the latest gantry exhortation from the people who gave us We can’t drive for you is Think of others. Fat chance. Even at Christmas.

Galicia Facts

Interestingly, the far northern bit of Galicia is considered by some to be La tercera bretaña, or The third Britain. Not quite sure why so I’d welcome insights from Galician readers. Unless, of course, it’s just another manifestation of the obsession with things Celtic.

This blog is extra long as I have a lot of notes in my wonderful new Moleskine notepad and I don’t want to let them go to waste, having simply forgotten to post anything yesterday because of visitor distraction. My thanks to all who’ve made it to the end.

Just in case anyone suffered apoplexy at yesterday’s report that the government was going to relax the much-abused abortion law, I should say the Prime Minister has corrected this perception. He’s now stressed he’s only calling for a debate and that there’ll be nothing in the party’s manifesto by way of proposals. So the current score is:-
Women in the cabinet 1 : Cabinet members afraid of Catholic backlash 2

Taking my morning coffee yesterday, I witnessed the Spanish ritual of El Baile de la Cuenta [The Dance of the Bill]. This takes place when two Spaniards approach the bar and then almost come to fisticuffs over who’ll pay for the drinks. I can’t pretend to know the rules – assuming there are any – but it’s my impression that the first person to get his money out never ends up paying. Worth knowing, perhaps.

Galicia Facts

There was a short dialogue a few weeks ago with readers on the subject of Galician cider. Well, I’m delighted to report that – after battling through boxes of the Asturian stuff - I was yesterday able to buy a bottle of Sidra Extra Manzanova. And not only is it ecologica but I also got a free thermal sleeve with it.

Here in Galicia, my life is regularly brightened by reading the thoughts of a certain type of cove who thinks everything here began and ended with the Celts. As I’ve said a few times, I’ve no problem with this harmless attempt to differentiate Galicia from the rest of Spain and to associate it with Ireland, Brittany and Cornwall. But it does occasionally reach preposterous levels. As an example, here’s a quote from the Cuisine section of the Wikipedia page on Galicia:- Galician cuisine often employs fish and shellfish. The ‘empanada’ is meat or fish pie. It has Celtic influence. I can’t tell whether this last comment applies to the whole of our food or just the empanada, which is usually said to resemble a Cornish pasty. Though it doesn’t really. Either way, how on earth does anyone know? Are there letters home from later Romans, Visigoths and/or Arabs saying how delighted the writer is to have stumbled across a Celtic cookbook? And even if there are, who’s to say the bloody recipes weren’t developed by whoever it was populated the place before the Celts? I may, of course, be entirely wrong about this and, if evidence is available to prove the contention that some or all Galician cuisine is of Celtic origin, I will happily eat a huge slice of humble pie. Which, by the way, should be called ‘umble pie’ and which very definitely is a delicacy which the Celts enjoyed. Trust me; I’m an ex lawyer.

Of course, the other type of cove who amuses me is the one who screams that absolutely nothing in Galicia can have anything to do with the Arabs, as they never came here. Except to sack the city of Santiago in 997, of course. And to leave us with a few suspicious place-names.

Well, I’ve survived another 1100km on Spain’s roads and am back in Pontevedra. The sun shone, I’m told, during the entire two weeks of my absence but rain is forecast from today. Just what I needed. Or my re-seeded lawns at least.

A UK Sunday newspaper provided this definition of “zoo radio” – ‘Everybody is competing for attention and everybody talks at once.” So, we have both zoo radio and zoo TV here in Spain. Except, in the latter case, for the heavy tertulias at 9 in the mornings, when no one is watching.

Returning to my blog after a couple of days off, I thought I’d strike the right note by quoting one or two tendentious comments from an excellent book I’ve started. This is Between Hopes and Memories: A Spanish Journey and it’s by Michael Jacobs, who knows the country and its writers extremely well. So here goes:-

Galicia is a land which encourages myths, though myths of a different kind from those found in other regions of Spain. Galician nationalists, no less than sentimental travellers, think of Galicia essentially as a Celtic land, even though the Celtic presence in this region is not significantly greater than in other parts of Spain which one does not think of as Celtic at all – Almería for instance. The physical similarities between Galicia and such Celtic extremities of Europe as Ireland and Brittany cannot be denied; and there are local traditions such as bagpipe music that are associated with the same regions. But the term ‘Celtic’, when applied to the people and character of Galicia today, is so vague and contradictory as to become almost meaningless.’

And

If Galicia can be called the cradle of anything, it should be called the ‘cradle of dictators’. Fidel Castro is of Galician descent. The [ex]right-wing president of the Galician Xunta, Manuel Fraga is said to have offered him refuge in the case of a fall from power. But the most notorious Galician was Francisco Franco, who was born in Ferrol in 1892, and whose granite-like obstinacy and phlegmatic disposition have been seen as unmistakable attributes of the people of this region.

Less controversially . . .

Galicia Facts

Ryanair will re-start its direct flights from Liverpool to Santiago in April next year, having laid them off from the end of this month.

Up in the Galician hills it rains quite a lot, especially in winter. Umbrellas are a necessity and have to be taken to work. Farmers who need both hands free deal with this challenge by hooking their umbrellas into their shirt or coat collar and letting them dangle down their backs. Down in snobby Pontevedra, no one would be seen dead doing this. So I get a few strange looks when I adopt this eminently sensible practice. I mention this as a prelude to a quintessentially British tale. . . Needing both hands to complete the newspaper crossword as I walked yesterday along the seafront, I duly thrust my brolly behind my back and set off for my brisk walk. I became aware a car had crossed the road and drawn up just behind me. As I turned round, the lady driver smiled and I feared yet another request for directions, the bane of my life in Pontevedra. Rolling down the window, she said “I know you're going to think this is a silly question but do you know you’ve got an umbrella hanging down your back?”. Laughing, I said I did and explained it was to allow me to do the crossword as I walked. Noticing she was a nurse and knowing there were several retirement communities nearby, I asked her whether she’d concluded I was an Alzheimer’s patient out for a stroll. “Oh, no” she replied. “I just thought someone might be playing a practical joke on you.”

Earlier this year, the mobile phone companies in Spain were instructed to stop overcharging customers by billing by the minute instead of the second. The consequence was that ‘set up’ charges immediately soared and all my [short] calls immediately became far more expensive. So I was both unsurprised and pleased to read yesterday that the Office for the Defence of Competition has decided to take action against the companies for illegal price fixing. But I don’t suppose I’ll ever see the cost of my calls reduce.

Talking of prices . . . Here in the UK, I’m constantly surprised at how expensive certain things are, even after taking into account salary differentials between Britain and Spain. So I wasn’t too astonished to read yesterday the average pub lunch is now 20 quid [28 euros] a head. That gastronomic delight, the steak and kidney pie, averages 10.50 [15 euros] across the country, which compares with a mere 6.50 [10 euros] for a fine full meal in Brittany. Is there some justification for this or is it merely profiteering based on the low standards of Brits who’ve only recently become a nation which eats out quite a lot?

Galicia Facts

The mayors of all of Galicia’s seven cities are meeting to set up a ‘united front’ against binge drinking in the street on Friday and Saturday nights [el botellón] and to decide on a common policy. One wonders why they can’t act alone against this modern nuisance. One of the options is to copy other cities in Spain and establish a dedicated location for the kids. This goes by the wonderful name of un botellódromo.

Talking of joint action . . . Up in the hills behind Pontevedra, ten neighbours are clubbing together to buy a 250,000 euro house to prevent it getting into the hands of a gypsy family which currently lives on the permanent encampment not far from my house. The fear is it will be a Trojan horse for a new settlement. I was reminded of Xoan-Carlos’s comment to my blog of yesterday that “Most Spanish people think they're racially tolerant simply because they listen to gypsy/Mexican music but would have a stroke if one of their children married a "moro", despite the massive contribution of Arabic culture to that of Spain.”

Any reader interested in Galician Celticness, will find the comment from reader Luis to this blog stimulating. To fury in some cases, I expect.


Finally, a real cultural difference between Britain and Spain. As in other Continental countries, fresh milk is hard to get in Spain, where it’s drunk by only 4% of the population. In the UK, it’s 92%. Must be the weather.

There was a bit of a clue when they bombed Madrid airport last December but ETA’s psychopaths have now declared their latest ‘permanent ceasefire’ to be at an end. Naturally, the fault is ascribed to the treacherous Spanish government, for declining to accept all their demands. Strangely – given things have been clear for months – the terrorist group waited until the week after the elections before going official. Can it be they wanted to avoid damage to the socialist government because they see it as a softer touch than the opposition?

Proving Steinbeck’s contention that life is a cosmic joke, on the same day we heard of this depressing development, the media was full of the news the government accepts the Spanish national anthem should be given some words. Adding to the hilarity, the far left ERC party in Barcelona insisted these mustn’t insult the Catalans. Given their thin-skinned determination to be affronted by anything said or done in Madrid, this ranks as an impossible task, of course.

Compared with fellow Europeans, the Spanish are not great users of the internet. I suspect one major factor is a widespread lack of trust. But I also believe things won’t improve much until Spanish web sites stop being showcases for the ingenuity of their designers [if that’s the word] and bow in the direction of ease of use by customers. This may take some time, I fear.

Talking of the Spanish - Ben Curtis over at Notes from Spain admitted recently a few people had accused him of going easy on them on the subject of manners. But I’m sympathetic to Ben’s dilemma. For the Spanish can be somewhat inconsistent. Generally ‘individualistic’ and inconsiderate towards others, at times they’re astonishingly polite and even noble. The latest example of the latter came yesterday when a shopkeeper who’s normally pretty offhand insisted on spending at least five minutes wrapping in cardboard a large knife she’d seen I was taking to be sharpened. And all done with far more humour and pleasantness than she normally bothers with. As regular readers will know, my explanation of this is that, when stimulated by something appearing on their personal radar, the Spanish will go to greater lengths to be helpful than any other people on earth. Like the guy the other day who wouldn’t think of putting the newspaper back on the central rack but who, as he passed, bent down to pick up a pen I’d dropped below my table. And this despite the fact he was old enough to suffer for his kindness. Moral – If you want consideration here, don’t be a self-effacing Brit. You will just fade into the wallpaper.

I wasn’t entirely serious when I said yesterday the palleiro was a Celtic breed but, of course, there’s a site which claims it is. Or, as they put it – They would have been bred by the Galician Celts as an all-purpose farm dog. They were used for herding, watching livestock, and hunting. They are intelligent, calm and reserved towards strangers. Gentle and loyal, they get along well with children and sometimes with other animals. I love that ‘sometimes’ bit. Anyway, as I’ve said more than once, I’ve no problem with the obsession some Galicians have with proving everything here is Celtic in origin but, really, it’s quite preposterous to imagine this breed can’t have been developed before the Celts reached Spain or by the Romans or Visigoths who came after them. Or, most likely, by ‘Galicians’ of more recent times. Thus does selectivity stretch credulity to breaking point.

That’s enough insults for today.

I’m being deluged with glossy elections material. The nationalist [BNG] party has published a 24 page booklet extolling its successes of the past 4 years. And the PP party has provided me with 1. a denunciation of all the BNG’s unfilled promises, and 2. a brochure containing a mere 30 commitments of their own for the next 4 years. The BNG, of course, writes only in Gallego but the PP sticks to the old-fashioned mix of Spanish and Gallego. With only 4 days to go, the socialist PSOE party has yet to show its hand on this sensitive subject. To me, at least.

I was intrigued to read yesterday that the Deputy Mayor of a small Spanish town of 3,000 souls had been gifted property by 13 of these good people. Although he’d then sold all the plots and realised significant gains, none of the deals had gone through the local notary or been inscribed in the land registry. I wonder if this is connected with the fact this avoids any reports to the tax authorities. Relatedly, El Pais reviewed the current political campaigns a couple of days ago and noted that a debate on the issue of an all-party strategy to deal with town hall corruption had been conspicuous by its absence.

The Spanish [Galician, even] clothing company, Zara, has had to apologise in Israel for mixing linen and cotton in one of its suits. This, apparently, is a sin to Orthodox Jews. Oy ve! This is even crazier than the ban on using the same pans and crockery for milk and meat. Decidedly more un-orthodox than orthodox to me.

Still on a religious note – As part of a long-standing aim to reduce state financing of the Catholic Church, Spanish tax payers can elect to send it a small percentage of their money by ticking a box on their annual declarations. This choice is taken most in Navarra [51%] and least in Barcelona [24%]. Who are, strangely, close neighbours. Well, pretty close.

After more than 2 years, I’ve finally reached the 940^th and final page of Cervantes’ magnificent novel, Don Quixote. And this was the English version. Unimpressive but rather better than the 5 years I forecast back in January 2005. I don’t think I’d go quite so far as Samuel Johnson, who said it was the only book he’d read which he’d liked to have been even longer, but I can certainly recommend it, especially in the new Edith Grossman translation. However, I’d counsel against my initial strategy of trying to knock off a few chapters in bed. For me, at least, this was a great sleep inducer. But, sadly, this would now be true of even the Kama Sutra. Whatever that is.

Prompted by a recent comment from my friendly correspondent, Xoan-Carlos, I’ve decided to devote my latest 3-year compilation to a subject which much exercises some minds here in Galicia – CELTICNESS. I should stress I have no problem with Galicians striving to prove they're more Celtic than anyone else in Spain, even though I don't accept this. It harms no one and adds to the gaiety of life here. As one used to be able to say:-

2004

You may have missed the media reports but the Celtic Nautical Games are being held along our coast this week. Participants include Wales, Ireland, Galicia, Brittany, North Portugal and those international maritime giants, Cornwall and the Isle of Man. In addition, invitations have been extended to honorary Celts from Cantabria, the Basque country and the Canary Islands. The big event, apparently, is Painting Your Face Red And Swimming Away from Italians Pretending to be Murderous Invading Romans.

2005

I’ve recently mentioned some of the local beliefs. Another is that Pontevedra [like the nearby city of Tui] was founded by Greeks. A book I’m reading about early civilisations suggests the latter got to the north east of Spain but says nothing about them reaching the north west. But I don’t suppose this will kill the belief. Not that this would make much difference; the emphasis here is on continuity with the [earlier] Celts than with those effete Johnny-come-latelies from the Eastern Med.

Prompted by my reference to the Galician beliefs that they’re Celts and that Ireland was settled by Galician colonists, an Irish reader has sent me a fascinating treatise which suggests that even the Irish are not Celts. Instead, they’re descendents of various Near East peoples who, around 3,000 years ago, sailed out of the Med and up the west coast of Africa. The theory goes that they used the Iberian peninsula as a stopping off point, long before any land-bound Celts got there. On reading this, my first thought was I’d write to the local papers exploding the Celtic myths. My second thought was that my residence permit comes up for renewal quite soon. Anyway, it so happened I was today finishing A Brief History of the Human Race by Michael Cook. Looking up ‘Ireland’, I did find a reference to Ogham, a ‘folk script that the early Irish somehow derived from the writing systems of the Mediterranean world’. But a Google search suggests this really is a Celtic relic, from around 1500BC.

A group of people along the coast are trying to de-Americanise Halloween and return it to its Celtic, pagan roots. They claim its proper name is Samaín and it was an end-of-summer festival appropriated by the Christians. If this keeps the TrickorTreaters away from my front door, I’m all for it.

2006

I had thought the Cornish language was dead but I now read there are 4-500 people who speak it fluently. Cornish is a Celtic language and a close relation of both Welsh and Breton, with links into Gaelic [both varieties] and Manx. Welsh, Breton and Cornish form the sub-group of Byrothnic languages. So I guess the language purists would see a case for restoring the nation of Byrothnia[?].

Researching the word ‘Castrapo’ yesterday, I came across a site which goes into some depth on the Galician language. This is www.umoncton.ca/soeler/galiza_pol.htm and it’s an interesting read, so long as you can get past the sort of accusation we’ve become familiar with in the last few weeks - Spain is still an imperial power; the nation of has been repressed and colonised for 400 years; Spain is still a dictatorship and the PP party is a fascist organisation; the Galicians are held hostage by the Spanish; assisted by useful idiots who speak bastardised Gallego [Castrapo], Spain is bent on destroying the ancient culture and language of Galicia; etc., etc. Two of the most noteworthy claims are that, set against the restoration of the independence of Galiza, ‘Economics are not important,’; and ‘Galiza has had a rich Celtic tradition for over 2,000 years’. I suspect the electorate would find the first contention hard to stomach and I really wonder about the accuracy of the latter. A little later in my research I came across a Celtic site which contained the following snippet - In the 1960s Galicia’s bid to join the Celtic League was rejected on the grounds it lacked a Celtic language. Today the most visible assertion of Celtic culture in Galicia is in the field of music, notably through the Galician Bagpipe, or Gaita Galega. There are some, I have to say, who suggest the whole Celtic thing was re-invented in the 19 century to give more weight to the incipient Galician nationalist movement. There certainly was, of course, a Celtic culture in Spain but it wasn’t confined to Galicia and there appears to be little trace of Celtic-origin words in any of the Iberian languages. Just as in English there are only twelve, I believe. No staying power, obviously.

In the Basque Country a baker’s dozen of ETA members has been arrested in connection with extortion of a ‘Revolution Tax’ from local businesspeople. ETA may be involved in a peace process and ‘committed’ to seeing it through to a permanent ceasefire but, as with the IRA, their criminal activities haven’t ceased. And, showing just how much he’s learned from the guide book given to him by Gerry Adams, the leader of the political arm of the terrorist organisation condemned the arrests as an ‘attack upon the peace process’ and demanded all ‘acts of aggression’ must cease. Needless to say, he is also seeking the internationalisation of the process, in the hope this will foster the image of the Basque Country as Spain’s Ireland. This, of course, is also the objective of the Galician ‘nationalists’. Hence the stress on Galicia’s Celticness.

Having probably upset quite a few Galicians already today, I think I’ll stay away from the subject of the region’s Celtic origins and culture. And, anyway, what does it matter if people want to believe they’re more Celtic than, say, the Asturians and the Cantabrians? Not to mention the northern Portuguese, who used to be part of the Kingdom of Galicia. Back when they spoke the same language.

In its latest flight of fancy, the Galician nationalist party [the BNG] has demanded the Preamble to the region’s new constitution contains 5 or 6 references to Galicia as a nation. Its senior partner in local government – the socialist party – seems content to refer to the region as ‘The nation of Breogan’. He was a mythical Celtic king and so all this is even worse than the English wanting a constitution defining England as ‘The nation of Boudicca’. At least she actually lived in the place. And I suppose the Scots would want a reference to Robert the Bruce. And the Welsh to Llewellyn. . . Laughable. Or it would be if the politicians didn’t have things far more serious to deal with. Such as the fact Galicia is ageing far more quickly [and expensively] than anywhere else in Spain while her relative economic position is deteriorating. Fiddling while Rome burns.

Galicians are probably not real Celts. But they would like to be. Many, thanks to some self-interested tinkering with history by 19^th century Galician romantics, are fully convinced they are. Whatever the truth of the Celtic origins – and they don’t shout out at you in the physical aspects of Galicians or in their language – people like them.

These are confusing times for us Brits. Alerted by Arturo up in La Coruña, I read a newspaper article this morning which suggested the English are not really Anglo-Saxon but as Celtic as the Irish, Welsh and Scottish and that we’re all descended from roving fishermen from the northern Spanish coast. This, of course, would make Francis Drake – hated by the Spanish as a pirate – one of their own. Then, this afternoon, I read a rather more scholarly article in the October edition of Prospect magazine which said our Iberian ancestors came very much earlier than the Celts and were, in fact, from the Basque Country. The writer of the article - Stephen Oppenheimer – sums up his gene-based research thus – “Everything you know about British and Irish ancestry is wrong. Our ancestors were Basques, not Celts. The [later] Celts were not wiped out by the Anglo-Saxons. In fact, neither had much influence on the genetic stock of these islands.” And he ends his article with the following earth-shattering paragraph – “So, based on the overall genetic perspective of the British, it seems that Celts, Belgians, Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Vikings and Normans were all immigrant minorities compared with the Basques pioneers who first ventured into the empty, chilly lands so recently vacated by the great ice sheets.” What he doesn’t do, though, is explain why on earth they would want to stay in the God-forsaken place.

Referring back to the article on the British genetic make up, another major point made by the writer was that the Celts who reached the British Isles came not from central Europe but from France. This was after migration from Anatolia along the north coast of the Mediterranean and into Spain and France. He also refutes the view there was a strong Celtic culture in England when the Romans arrived. It’s much more likely, he says, the country had already been colonised by various Germanic tribes from northern Europe, particularly the Belgae. Bloody ‘ell. Now we’re not just Basque but Belgian as well!

Our several local political parties are currently spending time and energy which could perhaps be better devoted elsewhere to negotiating an acceptable-to-all description of the region for the final draft of our new Constitution. The front-runner is said to be ‘The nation of Breogán’. This is a reference to a mythical Celtic king who, rumour has it, sailed West and conquered Ireland in a couple of days or so. Showing that we are not as backward here as the rest of Spain thinks, a gentleman has written to a local paper to dismiss this as unacceptably sexist. Much better, he says, to add the name of a mythical heroine as well. And who could disagree; if you’re going to be daft, you might as well go the whole hog.

Spain’s mobile phone operators will shortly have to stop rounding up their charges and so will be billing us in seconds, not minutes. Ahead of this, they’ve all simultaneously announced they’re increasing the call start-up cost by a mere 25%. Hardly suspicious is it? They must be really worried about the demands they be investigated for price rigging.

I love the Spanish language but there’s one rather irritating aspect of it – the fact that you have to use, ‘fathers’, ‘sons’ and ‘grandsons’ when you mean parents, children and grandchildren. So the question I posed yesterday – How many parents could disagree? Well, mothers anyway – would read in Spanish:- How many fathers could disagree? Well mothers, anyway. Isn’t it about time the Royal Academy did something about this? And the Galician one too.

There’s a new Spanish newspaper on the net, called Reportero Digital. It already has several local editions and uses contributions from [would-be] writers from around Spain. Like all new enterprises, it’s likely to have to struggle for revenue. In fact, they’re so desperate they’ve asked me to contribute a blog in English.

Galicia Facts

Tourist numbers to Galicia were 5% up in 2006. Tourism now represents 12% of the region’s GDP and 13% of those in employment. The city of Vigo sees its future in developing improved yachting facilities, which has to be right.

Here in Pontevedra, shop-fitting skills seem to be of a very high order. This may be a reflection of how often premises change their character. For example, along my kilometre walk from the bridge into the centre of town, at least 5 new bank branches have opened in the last few years. Along with a similar number of estate agents [realtors]. These are not unconnected events, of course.

Galicia is built on granite. So it comes as a bit of surprise to read this is now being imported from India. Another consequence of the property bum?

Galician-ness

Carlos has initiated [30.1] a dialogue on the Celtic-ness [or otherwise] of the Galicians. This is a bit much as I’m still wrestling with his previous question as to where the line should lie between ‘promoting’ Gallego and forcing it down everyone’s throat. But, anyway, I was reminded of a comment in a recent edition of Prospect to the effect that some experts now believe the entire Celtic story is a myth, not just Galicia’s bit of it. And as for Carlos’s points about the genetic make-up of Galicians, I read them on the same day as a letter in the current edition of Prospect which says the idea that the first Brits came from the Basque country is a nonsense. The writer used chromosomal evidence to refute this. Who am I to step into these troubled waters? If the experts can’t agree, what chance have Carlos and I got? Perhaps we should concentrate on the future. Which reminds me, I read this comment early this morning - From being a moody country, resentful about its past and fond of poets who dwelt on that past, forced to emigrate to find work, it has become a land of high promise, a land "changed utterly". It’s about Ireland, of course, but let’s hope it can be said of Galicia within my lifetime. I‘m trying to do my bit.

Meanwhile, one of the problems with promoting/enforcing Gallego is Which Gallego? As a case in point, someone has posted a brief Gallego comment to my blog which I take to be an insult directed at me. But, so far, none of my Galician friends have been able to translate it for me. If and when we arrive at a consensus, I will post the comment, however unflattering it is.