Dawn

Dawn

Friday, July 02, 2004

Here’s a bit of information for those considering coming to live in the parish of Poio, on the fringes of Pontevedra – Will they fine me for driving insanely? Probably not. Will they fine me for not wearing a crash helmet and/or ignoring the noise regulations on a motor bike? Certainly not. Will they fine me for not wearing a safety belt in a car? Good gracious, no. Will they fine me for putting my car wheels on the pavement? They certainly will! And not just a few Euros either. How about 160 Euros, or 110 quid? Bitter? Moi!

Talking of traffic offences, the government has just announced new measures aimed at reducing Spain’s appalling fatality count. Each driver will have a credit of 12 points and progressively lose these for specific offences. One of these will be ‘Going backwards on a motorway [freeway]’. Even in Spain it is rare to see a car coming towards you at 120kph in reverse so I assume this is the offence of backing down the hard shoulder to get to the exit road you missed as you sailed by at 180. In contrast, this is not at all rare.

In Tarragona, a young man has been arrested for dressing as a policeman and stripping off at a hen party. Unfortunately, he is a policeman and his uniform was the real thing. Stripping off is only allowed at the station, apparently. So, for his dressing down he has received… well, a dressing down. Which should nicely confuse my Spanish reader. Keep studying those infamous phrasal verbs!

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